We Can, With God's Help

This week, we heard a great deal of teaching from Jesus.  

What is the Kingdom of Heaven like?  Who are we and what are we to do as people of God?  What is our role in the world around us?  How are we to spread the word?  

These are all questions that were dealt with in our readings this week.  Jesus says to them - you are the salt of the earth and you are the light of the world.  YOU, not someone else, but YOU are God's people and you can't hide that, so go show others what this Kingdom means.

Matthew uses the phrase "Kingdom of Heaven" throughout his gospel.  One reason for this is that he is writing to the Jewish people and therefore he is avoiding using God's name.  So when he says Kingdom of Heaven, his followers and his readers would have understood that this was not about something in the afterlife or something that we have to work toward, but it is about bringing God's Kingdom here on earth.

So how do we do that?  Matthew tells us that we do that by showing our light, by praying and giving to God, by forgiving others and allowing others to forgive us.  We do that by not storing up treasures for ourselves here on earth, but by focusing on our treasures in heaven - or our treasures that we already have with God.  We are to strive first for God (6:33) and all will be given to us.

This seems like a really tall order, and quite frankly pretty overwhelming to me.  I am human.  I am fallible.  I need help.  YES!  We do need help and that help comes not only from God (think of our Baptismal Covenant, "I will, with God's help") but it also comes from those around us.  By people coming together to work for the Kingdom here on earth - not doing it all at once, but doing it one step at a time, one encounter at a time.

We also heard about miracles this week and miracles can seem like a very far off, ancient thing that doesn't happen to us, but I beg to differ. Yes, miracles can me huge things like regaining sight or being able to walk or being healed from illness, but miracles can also be the small things in our lives that change us, that change our course for the better and help redirect us toward our calling and our walk with God.  

Just this week, when I was struggling, when I was feeling down, I received an email from a friend which lifted my spirits and made me see the light of God in an otherwise dismal time.  The next day, I got a phone call from a friend, who listened and encouraged me and understood me.  Both of these were healing for my soul.  

We never know how our actions, how our words, how our lives will touch others lives.  By living in the light of Christ, by not hiding our light, we are able to effect one another in ways that we may not even understand and comprehend.  Miracles are all around us. 

As we say in youth ministry, it's all about relationships.  God did not come and say to the twelve disciples - go and do this alone.  No, he said go together and spread the word.  Do not let others drag you down if they are not willing to listen to the word.  Go into the world and proclaim, teach, heal, show the Kingdom of Heaven/God here so others will see God's work.  

Can we do this?  Can we, as fallible human beings spread the good news?

We can, with God's help.

The Rev. Shannon Kelly

Bishop's Assistant for Christian Formation

The Diocese of Milwaukee

Following God

Collect for Friday in the Second Week of Lent

Grant, O Lord, that as your Son Jesus Christ prayed for His enemies on the cross, so we may have grace to forgive those who wrongfully or scornfully use us, that we ourselves may be able to receive your forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Following God (Matthew 9:35-11:1)

The commissioning of the twelve disciples is one reading that I feel is scary to many people who read it. Jesus starts by saying “The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few” to rouse the twelve to action. The harvest (the people of the world) is bountiful and it is the labor’s job to help the harvest find God. Jesus then tells of all the troubles that the disciples will face when they go out into the world. “See, I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves…” is just one terrifying statement made by Jesus in this reading. And yet, when we look closer, I feel Jesus had a different intent than to scare the disciples or us.

“The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few” is one of my favorite quotes from Jesus. When I read it, I feel empowered to be one of those laborers; to devote my life to God and to live my life in a way I feel he would see fit. This quote almost makes me feel overzealous with ambition and  makes me want to stop everything I am doing, leave all the friends I know, all my possessions, and run to help the Lord because I am going to bring in that harvest with no trouble. While this is an amazing feeling, it is not the truth. There will be trouble. The harvest, while plentiful, is not easy to bring in many times. When Jesus tells of the troubles the disciples will face, I think he is trying to calm them from this overwhelming feeling that the twelve can do everything with ease. People will rebel against what you believe and life will not be a walk in the park.

At the end of this reading, the disciples, after hearing what lies ahead of them, go out into the world to spread the word of God. They did not fight what Jesus was saying but accepted their trials knowing they were doing the right thing. They may have been scared but they went out to do what was right, just as Jesus did when he died on the cross. Life isn’t always easy when following God, but hard work also yields the best rewards.

Kate McKey

Youth Minster

St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church Madison, WI

and

Christian Formation Assistant

Diocese of Milwaukee

Mighty Miracles

Collect for Thursday in the Second Week of Lent

O Lord, strong and mighty, Lord of Hosts and King of glory: Cleanse our hearts from sin, keep our hand pure, and turn our minds from what is passing away; so that at the last we may stand in your holy place and receive your blessing; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Mighty Miracles (Matthew 8:1-9:34)

This powerful passage brims with mighty miracles performed by our Lord Jesus Christ. In these two chapters alone, Jesus heals a leper, a centurion’s servant, a woman with a fever, two demoniacs, a woman suffering from hemorrhages, a paralytic, two blind men, and a mute person. If that weren’t enough, he restores a girl to life, calms a raging sea, and heals many more people at Peter’s house. That’s quite a series of accomplishments by any standard.

As followers and believers of Jesus, it’s tempting for us to say, “There’s no way we can perform such mighty miracles.” And on the surface that is true. In the entire history of the human race, there has been only one Jesus, only on person capable of performing such deeds, only one person able to cure “all who were sick,” as verse 16 in chapter 8 notes.

A key to this Gospel passage is the willingness of Jesus to heal. Notice how he responds by word or touch to all whom he encountered – and it is a call for us to do likewise. We are called to be Jesus to our friends, co-workers, relatives, and even outright strangers. There is no greater need in the world today than to bring the love, mercy, care, concern, compassion and peace of Christ to those we encounter.

Our actions, however small they may seem, can often provide much-needed healing and comfort. Just as Jesus “stretched out his hand and touched” the leper, so too can we hold someone’s hand in ours or wrap an arm around their shoulder as we speak gentle words of comfort and encouragement that can help dispel dark clouds of despair or loneliness. Our words, spoken with the love of the Christ we serve, can help calm a raging storm of angry emotions. They can provide soothing comfort during a time of heart-wrenching grief.

Through our words and actions, miracles can be performed. We can guide people down paths of restoration, provide them with hope and comfort, and help them experience the peace of God that passes all understanding. That is our call and that is our commission.

John Koski

Candidate for ordination to the vocational diaconate

Currently interning at St. Thomas of Canterbury Episcopal Church, Greendale

Sermon on the Mount

Collect for Wednesday in the Second Week of Lent

O God, you so loved the world that you gave your only begotten Son to reconcile earth with heaven; Grant that we, loving you above all things, may love our friends in you, and our enemies for your sake; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

 

The Sermon on the Mount  (Matthew 5-7)

So often we hear these great teachings in snippets - one at a time, a reference here and another there, and then it’s not so hard to be told that we should not let our anger fester, that we should give without recognition, that worry will serve no purpose, that money will distract us from God.  But today, when these passages are read together, when we take in the whole of this wisdom from our great Rabbi, the demands that Jesus makes upon us begin to seem overwhelming...

Jesus does not waste time beating around the bush. In a fleeting moment The Sermon on the Mount gives us the standards we are to grasp: those of the Ten Commandments laid out and sifted through until the very heart of their meaning is revealed.  It’s a tall order.  I don’t know about you, but I find it frustrating to know I’m going to fail before I even begin a task.  Scarlett O’Hara had the right idea.  These things are just too much to deal with today... maybe tomorrow.

But there’s no getting around it.  In these teachings, Jesus is quite clear that he means business:  we are to be perfect, as our heavenly Father is perfect.  Not that crazy sort of perfection that turns mere mortals into obsessive/compulsive/rigid/miserable beings.  But perfect as in healthy and whole and consistent.  We are to make sense. 

To accomplish this, there are two things which matter.  The first is the transformation of our inner selves - what we think, what we care about, the state of our hearts.  The second flows outward as that new self takes on outward expressions - what we do, how we behave.

Both matter very much, indeed, each proving the other.  How we think and feel determine the actions which flow forth from us and, just so, what we do gives the world a window into each of our souls.  Do we walk the walk, not just talk the talk?  Is there an ever-increasing consistency between our inner self and our outward behavior?  Are we becoming more and more healthy and whole, in body, mind, and spirit?  Because health and wholeness are the just the sort of perfection Jesus calls us to right in the middle of this sermon.

It is a lifelong process, this discipleship.  It means paying attention, every day.  Examining our hearts, evaluating our responses.  We, like the Apostle Paul, so often do the very thing we want not to do.  Jesus knows it is tough - he calls it “entering through the narrow gate.”   It is anything but easy, and frankly impossible if we do not begin our work on the foundation of God’s love and grace.
 
And so, today, knowing how fully loved we are, we choose the narrow gate.  We seek to love the one we think is an enemy and to humble ourselves to the one we esteem lower.  We seek to give anonymously, to pray without being noticed, to release the worry which distracts us from God’s abundance.  We will not judge our sister or belittle our brother.  Today, however briefly, we will offer our innermost selves and the works of our hands to God.  And catch a just a glimpse of perfection...

The Rev. Martha Berger

Learning the Beatitudes

Collect for Tuesday in the Second Week of Lent

O God, you willed to redeem us from all iniquity by your Son: Deliver us when we are tempted to regard sin without abhorrence, and let the virtue of his passion come between us and our mortal enemy; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Learning the Beatitudes

Matthew 4:23-48

As a child, okay, who am I kidding, even as a new priest, I wasn’t very fond of the Beatitudes. I think I managed to spend the first four years of my ordained life avoiding preaching and teaching anything related to the Beatitudes.

Looking back, I saw the Beatitudes as yet another set of expectations of how I must live my life. You know, like the Ten Commandments: another list of thou shall’s and thou shall not’s! I have this understanding that we are children of God who are loved by God not for what we didn’t do wrong, but for who we are in our created being...the last thing I needed was another list of expectations.

It was sometime about 2 or 3 years ago, long after I found the Episcopal church, even after I had been ordained, that I began to see the Beatitudes not as a to-do (or not-to-do) list, but as a set of “sign-posts”, as John Purdy calls them in his Blessed are You Kerygma study (p. 3). The Beatitudes are, for example, sign-posts to remind us that when we are going through life and we feel as if someone has done an injustice to us and we should seek justice, we must remember “blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.”

This portion of Matthew’s Gospel we are to read today, the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, calls to our attention that we need to focus on our intentions as we continue along our spiritual journeys. If we focus only on our actions, then we are already lost on our journey. However, if we can control our intentions, then our actions will surprise even ourselves. As you go along your journey, let your yes be yes and your no be no and when you see the uprising start, “remember that blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God.”

Oh, and one final thing, this year, for the first time, I am teaching, and learning even more, about the Beatitudes. What an awe-filled experience! God’s truth was unchanging, but my understanding of God’s truth was transformed by the sign-posts along my journey. This Lent, how will you be transformed by God’s signs posted along your journey?

The Rev. Kenny Miller

Rector

St. Boniface Episcopal Church, Mequon

The Calling of the First Disciples

Collect for Monday in the Second Week of Lent

Let your Spirit, O Lord, come into the midst of us to wash us with the pure water of repentance, and prepare us to be always a living sacrifice to you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

The Calling of the First Disciples

Matthew 4:18-22

Jesus’ ministry is beginning and he needs to put his team together and to build a community able to carry on his message – ‘Repent the Kingdom of God is near’ (Matt 4:17). How would you put such a team together? How would I? I would need to know what their role is and what are their expectations – what skills are needed? Let’s go back and look at what discipleship meant in Jesus’ time.

The role of the disciple (student, apprentice or follower) was to learn as much as they could from the rabbi to be able to carry on the rabbi’s work just as he did. They were the best of the best and expected to have memorized the Torah, the laws of Moses and be able to respect and honor the rabbi and his work. It was an honor to be chosen. If you were not chosen, believed not to have the knowledge and skills to be a disciple, you went back to your family and learned the family trade.

I see now why the disciples act as they do upon the invitation to follow Jesus. They are back learning their trade and have been passed by other rabbis and now to have Jesus come to them and say ‘Follow me and I will make you fishers of men’. Jesus has faith in them and he believes they can carry on his work – wow that is a powerful statement.

Jesus takes them where they are and builds on who they are. We see Simon and Andrew working on their own while James and John are still working with their father - and all of them leave their homes. They have hope and the desire for more. They know as a disciple they will learn, will be supported in community and moreover they will obey their rabbi by doing and living into his teachings and commandments. They are called into action and they are ready to go because of the belief and faith Jesus has in them simply by saying the words ‘Come follow me’.

Is discipleship different for us? If it means that we are learning, spending time with Jesus, living in and support of a community of followers, AND obeying the teachings and commandments of Christ then no it is the same. The question for us is do we understand discipleship to be the honor Simon, Andrew, James and John did?

Does Jesus have the same expectations of us as he had for the first disciples? Does he have faith in us that we can carry on his message and live into full discipleship (Matt.28:18-20)? I believe he does and I believe he takes us as we are and builds up our gifts and skills so that we can go and engage the world just as he did with Simon, Peter, James and John. To be on ‘the team’ and part of the community of followers is more than understanding about Jesus it is taking our whole self into action. It is trusting in the faith that Jesus has for us, that he has called each one of us – just as we are – to follow him. We know what the role of discipleship is and we know the expectations. I hope we also know Jesus has faith in us, hope in us and belief in us as he calls us into his community. He invites us to know him and to carry on his work as he continues to guide us, strengthen us and be with us.

Where are you on answering his call – “Come, follow me”?

Mrs. Peggy Bean

Bishop’s Assistant for Congregational Development

Diocese of Milwaukee

Repentance and Re-arranging Ourselves

Collect for the Second Sunday in Lent

O God, whose glory it is always to have mercy: Be gracious to all who have gone astray from your ways, and bring them again with penitent hearts and steadfast faith to embrace and hold fast the unchangeable truth of your Word, Jesus Christ your Son; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Repentance and Re-arranging Ourselves

Matthew 4:12-17

“Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested… ‘Jesus’ left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum… and began to proclaim, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’”

“Repent for the kingdom of heaven is near!” How easy it is to say it, but how difficult it is to do. Sometimes, there are moments in life when we are reminded of our human nature, a nature that is not perfect, but a nature that helps us face and re-evaluate actions that cause pain to others or to ourselves. Most of the time, after we have re-evaluated these circumstances we are invited to repent and ask for forgiveness, but it is difficult to do so. Many of us do not like to accept our own mistakes and try to run from this responsibility.

A few weeks ago, while walking around Virginia Theological Seminary’s campus, I noticed a group of trees that grew from the ground, pointing in every direction but the sky. These trees were beautiful for their unique structures, but it was precisely because of their structures that they all met a similar end. Because their main trunk was anything but strait, these trees grew pointing in all different directions and at some point, when to much weight was added to their structures, each tree would fall down and die. Because these trees do not have the possibility to re-arrange the direction in which they grow, they share a common end.

If we were trees that grew without the possibility of re-arranging our trunks, we would fall down and die, but because we are able to repent, to re-arrange our structures, we are invited to accept our mistakes and ask for forgiveness. God loves us so much that we have the opportunity to repent and to re-arrange ourselves.

In this time of lent, lets re-evaluate our own structures and come to recognize our mistakes. Let us repent. Repentance is difficult only until we take the first step...

Almighty God, help us to recognize our mistakes, but more importantly, help us repent so that we might share with you in your heavenly kingdom.

Mr. Oscar Rozo

Seminarian studying at Virginia Theological Seminary

Grace Church, Madison