Our nation will observe Memorial Day on a different day than we traditionally observed it (May 30) until 1971. Thankfully our family did not lose anybody to war, although my grandfathers and dad fought in World War I and II respectively. So in addition to remembering those brave men and women who fought and died to preserve our country’s freedom, I have made the weekend a time for both remembering those in my family who have died and honoring them.
Since they are no longer living, I have decided that on my watch their graves will be well kept and in good repair. So my beloved wife and I go out and trim around the tombstones, rake the graves, clean them up, and put flowers on them for the summer. Doing so is a way for me to continue to honor them, both for being such a good family and for their service to our country.
It also reminds me of how fleeting and transient this mortal life is. When I was a kid, we’d spend Memorial Day at the lake at my grandparents Shaffer’s cottage with my extended family. It was a grand time and I have great memories of those halcyon days. Now I only have their graves to visit and I confess I liked it a whole lot better when I was able to be with them at the lake.
So Memorial Day is a bittersweet time for me. But as long as I am able, I will continue to honor my family on this holiday, in part, by caring for their grave sites. It is the least I can do considering all they did and sacrificed for me.
May you too find ways to honor and love your loved ones, especially if you are blessed enough to have them still be living.
A very good piece on how the Christian Faith defines mercy and how that definition has become terribly muddled in our day. For those with ears to hear, listen and understand.
Our secular culture mixes mercy and kindness in a way that makes it harder to see how shocking mercy is and how uneasily it lies alongside justice. Lifting burdens from the innocent may be an act of misericordiain the sense of “pity” but it is not the shocking mercy of the Cross. For mercy to be mercy, there needs to be a genuinely merited punishment that is being remitted for the good of the person struggling under its weight. Mercy does not make sense in a world that can’t imagine how sin can be forgiven or how forgiveness could be different from forgetting.
The standout, startling moment that summed up the papacy for many people around the world was Pope Francis’s “Who am I to judge?” In 2013, Pope Francis was answering questions on the papal plane, and, when a reporter asked about the possibility of a gay man serving as a priest, Pope Francis answered, “If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?”
It doesn’t quite sit correctly as an expression of mercy, however often it was framed that way. Mercy is for the guilty. Nothing in Pope Francis’s remarks suggested he was thinking of a man engaged in sexual sin. When the poor and fearful are welcomed in from the peripheries, it is not mercy but justice. The Church is emphatic that we are finally ceasing to sin against the poor when we restore to the weak what they are owed. It is not an act of magnanimity. For many of the advocates who most hoped Pope Francis would change the Church’s teaching on sexual morality, welcoming LGBTQ people could not coherently be seen as an expression of mercy. In their view, refusing to “judge” a gay man is an act of justice. Advocates believed there was nothing to forgive.
I read the following in a a recent email and can attest to all of it (unfortunately) from first-hand experience. As the letter states, sometimes divorce is unavoidable, but it should always be the measure of last resort. For those with ears to hear, listen and understand.
Many of our supporters know first-hand that some marriages break down despite everyone’s best efforts. Yet the overall picture remains clear and sobering. Adult children of divorce often describe the lasting tug-of-war of living between two homes and the emotional fall-out that follows them into their own relationships. Large-scale studies reach the same conclusion: Dr Jane Anderson’s review of almost thirty years of data found that, on average, children of divorced parents fare worse in physical health, emotional wellbeing and school performance than those whose parents stay married – even when the marriage is imperfect.
Tony Rucinski Director of Supporter Strategy Coalition for Marriage (C4M)
Today marks the 80th anniversary of V-E Day (Victory in Europe Day), May 8, 1945, in which the Allies celebrated the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany the day before. Take a moment today and thank God for bringing us victory over evil. Remember the brave men and women who fought against Nazism. If you know a veteran who is still alive, take time today and thank him (or her) for his service to our country. Ask that person to tell you his story and remember it so that you can pass it on to your children and others. Nazi Germany may be a thing of the past, but unspeakable evil certainly is not.
Today would have been my mama’s 103rd birthday, something I simply cannot fathom (and something she would have undoubtedly hated!); where has the time gone?? My mother was an exquisite role-model of motherhood. She loved me, spent time with me, loved me enough to instill what it meant to be a Maney, and disciplined me when I did not live up to that standard. I hated it at the time, but am grateful for it today. She allowed me to have a childhood that was second to none because she insisted that I be a kid and worked sacrificially to make that happen. In that regard, I have very much missed her presence these past 17 years and my life has been so much poorer because she is dead. But I cannot be sad because I would rather her be where she is than to be here with me and struggling with illness and infirmity like she did in her last years (check out this reflection on grief and consolation over parents who have died). I must grieve her death as one who has hope, real hope, in the Resurrection of Christ.
Thank you mama, for being the mother you were. Thank you for all your sacrifice for me and for our family. Thank you for allowing me to grow up in a timely manner and not before it was my time to do so. Thank you for personifying sacrificial love for me. And thank you, dear God, for blessing me with the best parents a person could ever want or dream of having.
Happy birthday, mama. I love you. Enjoy your rest with the Lord who loves you and has claimed you from all eternity.
Rest eternal grant unto Margaret, O Lord, and let light perpetual shine upon her. May she, with the rest of God’s saints, through the mercy and grace of God, rest in peace and RISE IN GLORY. Amen.
And for those of you whose mother is still living, make sure you remember your mama on Mothers’ Day this Sunday. Better yet, treat her like every day is Mothers’ Day. I know my mama would surely approve.
Editor’s Note: Edward Kennedy, AP’s chief of bureau in Paris, was the first to file a story announcing the end of the war in Europe. Kennedy and other reporters had witnessed the German surrender at Reims, France, and had been told by military officials that they could not report the event until it had been announced by the Allied governments in Washington, London and Moscow. The military later said it would be the following day before the surrender news could be transmitted because a second surrender ceremony was being planned for Berlin. Kennedy decided to break the embargo when the surrender was announced – at the request of the Allies – on German radio. Military censors retaliated by suspending the AP’s filing privileges from Europe. (The ban was lifted after six hours.)
Here is the first word that moved over the AP wire at 9:35 a.m. New York time on May 7, 1945:
FLASH
REIMS FRANCE–ALLIES OFFICIALLY ANNOUNCED GERMANY SURRENDERED UNCONDITIONALLY.
That transmission was followed one minute later by:
BULLETIN
BY EDWARD KENNEDY
REIMS, FRANCE, MAY 7-(AP)-GERMANY SURRENDERED UNCONDITIONALLY TO THE WESTERN ALLIES AND RUSSIA AT 2:41 A.M. FRENCH TIME TODAY.
Here is the rest of Kennedy’s story:
The surrender took place at a little red schoolhouse that is the headquarters of Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower.
The surrender was signed for the Supreme Allied Command by Lt. Gen. Walter Bedell Smith, chief of staff for Gen. Eisenhower.
It was also signed by Gen. Ivan Susloparov of the Soviet Union and by Gen. Francois Sevez for France.
Gen. Eisenhower was not present at the signing, but immediately afterward Gen. Jodl and his fellow delegate, Gen. Admiral Hans Georg Friedeburg, were received by the Supreme Commander.
They were asked sternly if they understood the surrender terms imposed upon Germany and if they would be carried out by Germany.
They answered yes.
Germany, which began the war with a ruthless attack upon Poland, followed by successive aggressions and brutality in concentration camps, surrendered with an appeal to the victors for mercy toward the German people and armed forces.
After having signed the full surrender, Gen. Jodl said he wanted to speak and received leave to do so.
“With this signature,” he said in soft-spoken German, “the German people and armed forces are for better or worse delivered into the victor’s hands.
“In this war, which has lasted more than five years, both have achieved and suffered more than perhaps any other people in the world.”
There is something awesome, fitting, and right about aligning our corporate worship with those who have gone before us in the Faith. Here, Saint Justin Martyr reminds us of the importance of corporate worship and why the Eucharist isn’t open to everyone. He also describes how second-century Christians worshiped following instructions from the Lord Jesus himself. Why would anyone try to worship differently today? For those with ears to hear, listen and understand.
A reading from the First Apology of Justin, Martyr at Rome [died c. 167]
No one may share the eucharist with us unless they believe that what we teach is true, unless they are washed in the regenerating waters of baptism for the remission of sins, and unless they live in accordance with the principles given us by Christ.
We do not consume the eucharistic bread and wine as if it were ordinary food and drink, for we have been taught that as Jesus Christ our Savior became a human being of flesh and blood by the power of the Word of God, so also the food that our flesh and blood assimilate for their nourishment becomes the flesh and blood of the incarnate Jesus by the power of his own words contained in the prayer of thanksgiving.
The apostles, in their recollections, which are called gospels, handed down to us what Jesus commanded them to do. They tell us that he took bread, gave thanks and said: ‘‘Do this in memory of me. This is my body.” In the same way he took the cup, he gave thanks and said: ‘‘This is my blood.” The Lord gave this command to them alone. Ever since then we have constantly reminded one another of these things. The rich among us help the poor and we are always united. For all that we receive we praise the Creator of the universe through his Son Jesus Christ and through the Holy Spirit.
On Sunday we have a common assembly of all our members, whether they live in the city or in the outlying districts. The recollections of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as there is time. When the reader has finished, the president of the assembly speaks to us urging everyone to imitate the examples of virtue we have heard in the readings. Then we all stand up together and pray.
On the conclusion of our prayer, bread and wine and water are brought forward. The president offers prayers and gives thanks as well as possible, and the people give their assent by saying: “Amen.’’ The eucharist is distributed, everyone present communicates, and the deacons take it to those who are absent.
The wealthy, if they wish, may make a contribution, and they themselves decide the amount. The collection is placed in the custody of the president, who uses it to help the orphans and widows and all who for any reason are in distress, whether because they are sick, in prison, or away from home. In a word, the president takes care of all who are in need.
We hold our common assembly on Sunday because it is the first day of the week, the day on which God put darkness and chaos to flight and created the world, and because on that same day our savior Jesus Christ rose from the dead. For he was crucified on Friday and on Sunday he appeared to his apostles and disciples and taught them the things that we have passed on for your consideration.
Today marks the 55th anniversary of the confrontation between the Ohio National Guard and students at KSU. When it was all over, four students lay dead and others seriously wounded. I was a junior in high school when this happened (on a Monday) and I remember wondering if our country was not coming apart at the seams. It was simply unbelievable. Take a moment today to remember this tragedy and ask God to heal his broken and hurting world, a world gone increasingly mad.
Sermon originally preached on Easter 3C, Sunday, April 10, 2016.
Lectionary texts: Acts 9.1-20; Psalm 30; Revelation 5.11-15; John 21.1-19.
In the name of God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The past two weeks we have looked carefully at the resurrection of our Lord Jesus. We have seen that when God raised Jesus from the dead it signaled the turning point in history. No longer is sin and death our inevitable fate, at least for those of us who are God’s people in Jesus. We have seen that God’s good but sin-corrupted creation and its creatures matter to God and that they had better matter to us as well. We know this because in Jesus’ resurrection we are given a glimpse of God’s promised new world, where life reigns, not death, a world devoid of all suffering and evil, thanks be to God. Then last week we saw that we as God’s people have work to do, work empowered by the Holy Spirit himself. The resurrection never was meant to be about a private religious experience, designed to make us feel all warm and fuzzy about ourselves and our relationship with God. It has always been about God the Father healing and transforming the world by breaking the power of evil in and through the death and resurrection of his Son. Today, we are given a third look at Jesus’ resurrection, this time with an invitation to see what desired effect it should have on us, and this is what I want us to look at this morning.
In one way or another, all our lessons today point to the fact that everything is different as a result of Easter. We begin with John the Elder’s vision of the heavenly throne room in our epistle lesson. It is important for us to understand that this isn’t some vision of the future, but of the current reality in heaven. And what can we learn from John’s vision? First, that there is a reason for the joyful worship we are witnessing. Jesus, the Lion of Judah, has overcome the dark powers and destroyed their dominion over God’s creation and us. Not yet fully to be sure. That will have to wait until Jesus’ return. But the message is clear: Countless multitudes worship Jesus and celebrate his victory over the forces of evil won on the cross. And of course, Jesus’ resurrection announced that death, the ultimate evil, has been destroyed. That is why they worship Jesus the Lamb. And here is where we are confronted with a startling paradox. Jesus, the Lion of Judah, the strength of Judah, accomplished his victory over evil by his obedience to God’s will in and through his suffering and death (cf. Philippians 2.5-11). Jesus’ victory over evil was accomplished ostensibly through weakness, not conventional power as we all expected God to act. Jesus is the Passover Lamb sacrificed for us. This is Exodus language, folks, reminding us that in Jesus’ death we are delivered from our slavery to sin and death, thanks be to God! That is why Jesus is worshiped as God. That is why there is celebration in heaven right now. The victory, while not yet consummated, is won by the blood of the Lamb shed for us (and this is why it is so important to know God’s story contained in the Bible, our story, so that we recognize and learn the lessons its symbolic language wants to teach us).
This is the God the multitudes are worshiping in heaven. Is this the God you worship? Do you share the unequivocal belief of the multitudes that Jesus has conquered the dark powers and reigns over God’s vast creation? If you do, it must change you, and for the better. You realize that even in your own weakness, in your own insignificance, at least as the world defines both, Jesus is using you to help advance his kingdom on earth as in heaven. It means, for example, the next time you pray for that person you despise or pray for a seemingly hopeless situation, you can have confidence that Jesus is using your faithfulness in ways you can’t possibly see or understand to advance his kingdom. When you really believe that, I mean really believe that, you will discover a great power unleashed in your life, the power of God made known in suffering love. But it is a power made possible only in and through the death and resurrection of Jesus. And if you do not believe this, you can count on limping along through life, trying to use the conventional means of power to get what you want. Good luck with that; you’re gonna need it. This is the first Easter Effect we see in our lessons. We discover we have an indefatigable hope and joy as we follow the ways of Jesus to bring healing to his broken and sad world.
We turn next to the powerful story in our gospel lesson to see another dimension of the Easter Effect—prerequisite forgiveness. As we listen to John’s story we are somewhat perplexed by the setting because we remember that last week Jesus imparted the Spirit to his disciples and commissioned them for new work. So why are they back in Galilee and out fishing? Were they discouraged and lost? Were they waiting for further marching orders? We aren’t told. John simply tells us that Jesus appeared to his disciples again. As with Mary at the tomb, the disciples do not initially recognize their risen Lord. This reminds us again that the resurrection will change us, this time physically. To be sure, there was continuity. The disciples knew it was Jesus, but no one dared ask him for sure. In telling us this, John reminds us again (and did you catch that this happens yet again at the dawn of a new day?) that there are things about the resurrection body we simply don’t understand. So don’t let their inability to initially recognize their risen Lord confuse or discourage you. Instead, rejoice that God’s got something in store for us in the New Creation that will simply blow our minds because it is so fantastic!
After feeding the apostles (how did Jesus get this food?), John turns our attention to some unfinished business between Peter and his Lord. Peter had brashly shot off his mouth, proclaiming his undying loyalty to his Lord, only to end up denying Jesus three times by a charcoal fire and weeping bitterly afterwards over doing so (John 13.36-38, 18.15-18, 25-27; Matthew 26.75). Each of us understands this background better than we’d like to admit because we have all been there and done that, each in our own way. But now here is the risen Jesus, again by a charcoal fire. Perfect. He asks Peter three times if Peter loves him. Three, the number for completeness, and the exact number of times Peter had denied his Lord.
Do you recognize the beauty in this story? Jesus is doing the hard but necessary work to restore Peter so that Peter can get on with the work Jesus calls him to do. Notice carefully that Jesus does not say to Peter, “There, there. It’s all right. Let’s sing Kumbaya together.” No, Jesus tells him to get to work! Here is a love and forgiveness that is bound to choke up even the hardest person if we grasp what Jesus is doing. He is healing a memory of Peter that absolutely had to be healed. Imagine the guilt and failure Peter felt. He’d run his mouth and then stuck his foot squarely in it by his failure of character. He had denied the man he loved, the most wonderful man he had ever known, and there was no chance to reboot. But now unbelievably there was! Jesus doesn’t browbeat his chastened disciple. He gently restores him. Once again, there’s no glitz or excitement or outright show of power. Instead, Jesus cuts right to the chase and in doing so, equips Peter to be his shepherd on his behalf. Imagine that. Imagine the release Peter must have felt. His Lord, the man he had denied, was now entrusting him for some critically important work on his behalf and for the sake of his fledgling church. On one level Peter was eminently unqualified to do the work. But Peter had found the power of forgiveness and a healed memory that transcended whatever was in him that would disqualify him to do the work.
One of the things that must occur in the New Creation is that our memories must be healed of all their hurt and rancor and whatever else that weighs us down. Otherwise, there would still be evil in the New Creation, and we are promised there will be none of that at all. Here we see another preview of coming attractions in the healing of our memories and the forgiveness of our sins, again made possible because of the blood of the Lamb shed for us and because Jesus is now Lord. This is another reason why everything is different as a result of Easter!
Have you found the healing love and forgiveness that our Lord offers to each of us? It is offered freely to everyone! If not, there is no way you can possibly do the work Jesus calls you to do, whatever that is, because your guilt will cripple you and prevent you from offering and embodying Jesus’ healing love and forgiveness to others. You will not be able to forgive your enemies as Jesus has forgiven you if you have not embraced his tender love and mercy for you and let him heal your memories. Again this is all made possible because of the blood of the Lamb shed for us and because Jesus is alive and reigns over all God’s creation, making his healing love and forgiveness available to you right now and on a continuous basis. And he calls each of us to do something about it in response, to embody and share that love and forgiveness to others. As we have seen, every time we do so, we have confidence that Jesus is using our efforts, messy and broken as they (and we) can be at times, to advance his kingdom on earth as in heaven. But we cannot possibly forgive and retain sins without first repenting and accepting the love and forgiveness of God made known to us in Jesus Christ our Lord.
This is the essential story of Paul in our NT lesson. Here is Paul, who breathed threats and murder against God’s people, forgiven and healed by our Lord Jesus in his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus. At first it doesn’t look that way, but that is what’s going on. It was such a landmark event that Luke reports it three separate times in Acts! And in Paul we see the Easter Effect in spades. He is forgiven and healed so that he can suffer much for Jesus’ people, the Church. We are not called to do the scope of Paul’s work, but we are called to imitate Paul in our own work on behalf of God’s people and the world.
So where are you in these stories? Wherever you are, remember why we are being told these stories. Jesus is Lord and because of his death and resurrection we are a people with a future and a hope, a people who are empowered to do the work our Lord calls us to do. We won’t always see results that we hope for or desire. But it’s not our job to bring in the kingdom. That’s Jesus’ job. Our job, thanks be to God, is to continue Jesus’ work, despite being the messy and broken creatures we are. So let’s get busy, my beloved, and continue the work Jesus calls us to do. Let’s also find time to celebrate the fact that Jesus is risen and we are his new creations, despite who we can sometimes be. Remember, all work and no play makes Jesus’ people dull because we forget why we do what we do when we deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow him. So let us always remember and celebrate the fact that we have Good News, now and for all eternity, precisely because we worship and adore our crucified and risen Lord. To him be honor, praise, and glory forever and ever. Alleluia! Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!
In the name of God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Here is a little test for you. Do you find Chrysostom’s ideas about sin and punishment offensive? Do you exclude yourself from his musings on sin and sinners, confident that you are “better than that”? If so, you have failed the test of humility and are living in a fantasy world of your own making, a fantasy that will not turn out well for you. The glory and joy of Easter is based on the two-fold truth that Christ died for our sins (1 Corinthians 15.3; Hebrews 9.15; 1 Peter 3.18), yours and mine, to destroy the power of Sin over us and that in his Resurrection, God has destroyed the power of Death over us, precisely because he has destroyed Sin’s power over us (cf. Romans 6.23). The first truth is not always very obvious to us, but we have to have the humility to realize we do not see reality (or the human heart, ours included) as God sees it and submit ourselves to the truth of his Word by believing what we read in Scripture. The second truth will be made known in full when Christ returns to consummate his saving work in his Death and Resurrection. Contemplating the immense beauty of God’s sheer grace is worth our time and best efforts because God’s sheer grace represents to us his indescribable and undeserved love for us. For those with ears to hear, listen and understand.
“God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.”
Many rather careless persons who are inclined to abuse God’s loving kindness to increase the magnitude of their sins and indulge in excessive negligence mouth such words as these: ‘‘There is no hell; there is no future judgment; God forgives all our sins.” To reduce them to silence a wise man states: ‘‘Say not: ‘Great is his mercy; my many sins he will forgive.’ For mercy and anger alike are with him; upon the wicked alights his wrath.” And again: ‘‘Great as his mercy is his punishment.”
“Where then,’’ you ask, ‘‘are the proofs of his lovingkindness, if we receive the punishment deserved by our sins?” In testimony that we shall receive the punishment “deserved by our sins,” pay heed to the words of both the Prophet and Paul. The former declares: ‘‘You render to all according to their deeds,’’ and the latter states: ‘‘He will repay all for what they have done.”
Yet it is also clear from this fact that God’s lovingkindness is nonetheless great. In dividing our existence into two periods—the present life and that which is to come—and making the first a succession of trials and the second a place of crowning, God has shown great lovingkindness. How, and in what way? Because, although we have committed many and grievous sins, and have not ceased from youth to extreme old age to defile our souls with ten thousand evil deeds, he has not demanded from us a reckoning for any one of these sins but has granted us pardon for them by the bath of regeneration [baptism] and has freely bestowed on us justice and holiness.
“What then,” you ask, “if one who from earliest years has been deemed worthy of the mysteries should commit ten thousand sins afterward?” Such a one certainly deserves greater punishment. For we do not pay the same penalties for the same sins; the penalties are much more severe when we offend after partaking of the mysteries. This is what Paul means when he says: “Anyone who rejects the law of Moses is put to death without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Do you not suppose that a much worse punishment is due the one who disdains the Son of God, thinks the covenant-blood by which the soul was sanctified to be ordinary, and insults the Spirit of grace?” Such a one therefore is deserving of severer punishment.
Yet even for this person God has opened the doors of repentance and has granted even this sinner many means to wash away offenses, if the sinner desires. Consider then what great proofs of lovingkindness these constitute: to remit sin by grace, and to refrain from punishing the one who after grace has sinned and deserves punishment but rather to give the sinner the opportunity and the time to make amends!
Why is it a big day, you ask? Well, let me tell you! On this day in 2008, I was ordained to the priesthood in the Anglican Tradition (this was before the formation of the Anglican Church in North America). And on this day in 2011, a group of 16 people met in our living room in Westerville, OH for Bible study and Eucharist. This group of folks would eventually form the excellent leadership team of Saint Augustine’s Anglican Church in Westerville, the name of the parish that grew out of our original group. God has indeed blessed my wife and me with great friends and godly people! I am retired now and I miss my peeps, but I am thankful God blessed us with them for all those years! Christos Anesti!
