[Propertalk] 5 Easter b

[robertpmorrison at charter.net]

A late night finish to this week's draft. Lots of activities today 
through Sunday 8 - )

I hope you all have fun!

Bob

THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF ST. ALBAN, ALBANY  		             THE FIFTH 
SUNDAY OF EASTER - B
ACTS 8:26-40	                          		    	    	 
6th MAY, 2012
1 JOHN 4:7-21		                                                	 
PSALM 22:24-30
JOHN 15:1-8

	Sometimes you work your fingers to the bone, trying to accomplish 
something. You set your mind on getting to a certain goal. Your heart 
seems to long for a specific, possibly undefined aspiration, but you 
think that, reading, talking, thinking, being open to hard work to bring 
about some sort of comfort or assurance – you think that maybe that will 
help. And there are times when any or all of these DO help to draw you 
and me close to whatever you and I are attempting to do.

	Then there are those absolutely out-of-the-blue, unsought experiences 
which present themselves, and our lives are turned around, completely 
beyond our wildest dreams.

	God is in both moments.

	There are mixed understandings about deserts. Certainly in biblical 
times the desert was where some people went to sort out their religious 
thoughts, or to seek spiritual guidance. Being away from a normal 
routine, perhaps even undergoing some change in diet or exercise, people 
were able to focus on what’s happening in their lives, and find reward 
from being there.

	But deserts can be places of the unknown also; places through which one 
may be tempted to hurry in order to put ourselves out of danger, or 
stress.

	Sometimes, deserts are unavoidable, however. That Ethiopian government 
official had to go through the desert to get home. He was travelling in 
the luxury to which his station in life had, no doubt, accustomed him. 
Yet even a man who felt he could get whatever he needed or wanted was 
dissatisfied. He was wrestling with trying to understand the meaning of 
life, especially how it impacted him. So God arranged for a personal 
representative to enlighten him, to offer suggestions that would allow 
him to find how his life fitted in with everyone else’s and with the 
rest of creation.

	It must have been somewhat frustrating for the Ethiopian. He was, 
apparently, well-educated. He must have been comfortably off. It sounds 
as if he was open to considering local customs and practices, especially 
if they might impact trade agreements between his own government and 
that of another country. It even sounds as if he was becoming really 
involved in what the prophet’s message was. He’d worshipped at the 
Temple in Jerusalem, so chances are he may have heard at least some of 
Isaiah’s message discussed. But try as hard as he could, even putting 
all his mental and physical energy into it, he was at a loss to know how 
to engage the text to help him live out his life.

	It’s possible that a lesser person might have given up. Frustration can 
make you do strange things. Some people, having made the journey from 
Ethiopia all the way to Jerusalem and still being left confused and 
spiritually hungry, might have found any number of ways of venting their 
frustration.

	I stared at a sports report this past week, not able to contain some 
astonished laughter. It said, “Amar'e Stoudemire of the Knicks is the 
latest in a long line of professional athletes to fight an inanimate 
object - a fire extinguisher - and lose. (Apparently t)he fire 
extinguisher remains undefeated. The dugout trash can has never lost a 
fight. The clubhouse wall has a better winning percentage than any team 
in the history of sports.” 1

	I’m sure we can all remember other signs of frustration, even anger, in 
which people, adults and children, have picked up their figurative 
marbles and stomped out of the room, thinking that their feelings were 
so hurt, their chances for reaching some agreement or understanding were 
lost.

	But the news from God is that no one is lost, no opportunity missed, no 
possibility for enlightenment and redemption beyond achieving – nothing 
like that happens permanently. The good news is that there is ALWAYS 
hope that God will be able to reach into any situation to bring not only 
renewal, but also an understanding of what that renewal is all about.

	We don’t know whether or not that Ethiopian was alone in his chariot. I 
suspect he wasn’t. Nothing much has changed and I’d guess that he had 
his own Secret Service agents with him. I assume they were somewhat 
well-behaved also, but that isn‘t mentioned either! Whoever was with him 
didn’t seem to be much help. However, God hadn’t given up. No matter 
where human beings are, no matter how much they may be unable to get a 
handle on what’s going on, no matter how many things they may appear to 
do that would seem to stifle creativity; no matter what, God continues 
to work with us and to offer ways in which our passions can be 
fulfilled.

	Long ago, I stopped believing in coincidences. I suppose you can put 
that label to some event if you can’t understand it, at the time, at any 
rate. I DO believe that God, somehow, is able to reach through the noise 
around me, and my own idea of what my daily schedule is supposed to be 
like, and to draw my attention to something happening, or to get me to a 
certain place where something needed to be done.

	There are times when I hardly give this a second t5hought. Everything 
seems so natural. I talk to someone whom I don’t know; I hold a door 
open for the person coming after me; I comment on something someone said 
or is holding, and so on. And sometimes out of these moments in which I 
feel I’m just taking an interest in the other person, out of these 
meetings amazing things have happened. Of course, I may never know about 
them. Sometimes what I hear about are all the times when someone else 
has paid attention to that individual. Of course, I’m greatly encouraged 
– as well as surprised – when I hear directly from a person that I made 
a difference, that lives were turned around. But that’s not always 
necessary.

	Somehow Philip felt that he should be on that wilderness road. He met 
the Ethiopian. And he passed on the knowledge with which he’d been 
blessed. It was as simple as that, and yet he had a tremendous effect on 
the traveller – so much so that the government official asked to be 
baptized. He felt an urgency there and then, to seize that moment when 
he and Philip were together and water came into sight. There’s another 
non-coincidence. Just when it was needed, and where it may have been 
least expected, the wilderness participated in the renewal of that man’s 
life by providing the means for water to collect and be available.

	Last week I quoted Kathleen Norris’ most recent book. Here’s another 
quote from her.

	“The Bible is full of evidence that God's attention is indeed fixed on 
the little things. But this is not because God is a great cosmic cop, 
eager to catch us in minor transgressions, but simply because God loves 
us – loves us so much that … the divine presence is revealed even in the 
meaningless workings of daily life. It is in the ordinary, the 
here-and-now, that God asks us to recognize that the creation is indeed 
refreshed like dew-laden grass that is ‘renewed in the morning’ or to 
put it in more personal and also theological terms, ‘our inner nature is 
being renewed everyday’. Seen in this light, what strikes many modern 
readers as the ludicrous details in Leviticus involving God in the 
minutiae of daily life might be revisioned as the very love of God. ” 2

	That’s what we’re talking about in the Bible passages this morning – 
about the ability to find refreshment for our lives in the midst of the 
most, unexpected, even barren-looking places. Not just that, but most 
often coming through the most mundane of situations and comments.

	We began this morning by offering thanks to the former congregation 
members from the Episcopal Church in Sweet Home. They asked if there was 
anything of theirs which we felt we could use, which would make our 
ministry easier, which might make our witness to God’s love more 
visible. And one of the gifts they gave us was this altar. It’s not just 
pieces of wood made to fit neatly together, and to accept carving of 
symbols on it, although it is that. This is an altar which had been used 
in Albany for many years, by the old St. Peter’s congregation when they 
met where the Democrat Herald offices now stand. On this altar, bread 
and wine were consecrated and the Body and Blood of Jesus were offered 
to countless hundreds – probably thousands – of people who came seeking 
affirmation that they were forgive; that they were loved; that Jesus 
knew them, accepted them, and wanted to encourage them.

Then the altar was given to the congregation at Sweet Home who were 
likewise blessed. Now it has been given back to us, entrusted to use to 
be a symbol of love and of connectedness to Jesus.

“I am the vine, you are the branches,” He said. Across and around this 
altar people have been introduced to Jesus, and become reacquainted with 
Jesus. From the water of baptism they’ve been led to this altar that 
through water, bread and wine. These people have discovered what it 
means to be in such a close relationship with Jesus that their lives 
have been transformed.

	Dean Stephen Carlsen of Christ Church Cathedral in Indianapolis has 
written, 	“To proclaim that ‘God is love’ is counter-intuitive. To 
believe that God is love is to commit ourselves to a counter-cultural, 
even a radical confession, or it is escapist fantasy of the highest 
order, sentimentalist claptrap, the opiate of the masses. It is one or 
the other. There is no middle ground here. Either we are bearers of a 
new truth about God and the world, or we are above all to be pitied as 
the greatest of fools.

	“That is the way of the Gospel. We are bearers of the message that God 
is for you, God is with you, God cares for you, and, yes, God loves you. 
This message should strike us – and does strike pagans both ancient and 
modern – as a message so good as to border on folly.” 3

	Philip, obviously, helped to see that God is love is the truest 
statement imaginable. But, at the same time, he’s left an indelible 
example for us to copy. Yes, there are times when we need to receive 
God’s blessing and have our lives nourished. We ALL need to stay 
connected to Jesus.

	But there are many, many times when we are to be bold, because of our 
connection with Jesus, and to talk, to act, to share, to assist, to LOVE 
in the Name of Jesus in order to help bring light and enlightenment to 
this world. This is nothing which we need fear, this call to evangelism, 
though. Because if God is concerned about making sure that all may come 
within Jesus’ saving embrace, God will also make sure that we have the 
means to explain this, just as Philip did.

	This altar, as all altars, serves as a place to which we can come to be 
given solace and pardon for ourselves. But this altar serves also a 
place from which we can go in strength to bring the good news of 
renewal, of hope, or love to and for the world. 4

	And that’s the Good News for this week.

NOTES:

1 	“Anger Mismanagement: Volcanic Athletes and Impetuous Acts” By MIKE 
TANIER Published: May 1, 2012 
http://p.nytimes.com/email/re?location=4z5Q7LhI+KVBjmEgFdYACPLKh239P3pgHmb4UeyngWs9VJZlrQ7XIAbWKO1Xzpi2OTFDVMC4nN1BfIumUr2TPFyRj/N++eQPnOV3jBihXWGES0gmnd3/+iIqibweM+Es3wm7roWWKsLmnCRytRJzU2zXi1VU9xZiO96ws4e2FQpCc4UxMKraD8B2+iBqbRgzS/D+yD1K1oM=&campaign_id=61&instance_id=14932&segment_id=33003&user_id=13776d46e58cd1c84bbfacad680c03b7

2	Kathleen Norris, The Quotidian Mysteries: Laundry, Liturgy and Woman's 
"Work"  http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/104730

3	“A Message So Good as to Border on Folly” The Very Rev. Stephen E. 
Carlsen, dean and rector of Christ Church Cathedral in Indianapolis, IN. 
1 John 4:7-21 5th Sunday of Easter - Year B May 06, 2012
 
http://day1.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=a22435f9d4a26d16f2776cd60&id=e753786eda&e=07fe8bf832


4	c.f. Eucharistic Prayer C, BCP page 371

Robert P Morrison
Interim Vicar
The Episcopal Church of St Alban
PO Box 1556
Albany OR  97321   541-921-1076 (cell)