My first Major League Baseball game was courtesy of a friend’s dad who had season tickets to the California Angels way back when they shared a stadium with the Rams. They were awesome seats, 20 rows behind home plate. When the 7th inning came, he said, “Well, it’s time for us to go.” My friend got up so I followed, very confused. I had been to many sporting events but never once left early. Starting in grade school, I went to the high school where my dad worked to watch the Cardinals’ basketball games. They went past my bedtime but we didn’t leave early. Likewise, we went to Spanaway Speedway to watch junker cars drive an 1/8th mile figure-8 track trying not to hit each other. Despite how crowded the parking lot was, I don’t ever remember leaving early. Thus, I found it strange leaving a Major League game before it ended.
The Episcopal Church believes in a God of order; therefore our worship service emphasizes order. To some it may appear to be rote; I find comfort and peace in it. The Russian Orthodox Church has an ordered service which is very long, usually over three hours. Most worshippers take prolonged smoke breaks – even if they don’t smoke. A new church by my house has a coffee stand in the narthex. During the worship service, worshippers sit there and watch the service. There are many varied ways of worshipping God through Christ. I would never say ours is the best but it is a part of the great tapestry that wraps all believers together into one Spirit. Being a service of order, there is a clear beginning and end. The beginning starts with, “Blessed be God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.” The service ends with one of a variety of dismissals; my favorite is, “Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.” Rev. Cathey dismisses with words to this effect: “The worship service has ended. Service to the Lord begins. Go in peace.” At the 8 am service, we wait to dismiss until the candles on the altar are extinguished. Saint John’s lore has it that back in the old church there were many candles behind the altar and folks would wait until all were extinguished. At the 10 am service, there are more moving parts – a recessional hymn and a recessing choir with altar servers and clergy. We like to have the altar candles extinguished around the end of the hymn as the dismissal is taking place. It’s quite a feat and I wonder how many people notice how much syncing it takes. The church I served while in seminary had a plaque that read “ENTRANCE” next to the green exit sign above the doors leading outside. The church lore there is that before exit signs were mandatory, a larger sign over the exit doors read, “ENTER the Mission Field where the harvest is Great and the Laborers few.” Because they could not legally have an “entrance” sign where there should be an exit sign, the large sign was removed. The Sunday after the illuminated exit signs were installed, someone took the “entrance” plaque above one of the doors leading into the church kitchen and installed it above the exit doors to the church. It is still there. No matter how many ways the universal Church worships our Savior, each service has a beginning and an end, and the service we do in Christ’s name, as Reverend Cathey reminds us, continues out into the world. -Fr. Dave Believe it or not, we’re only about a month away from Lent. Ash Wednesday falls on Valentine’s Day this year. Eeeeck! That means we are in the Advent of (waiting and preparing for) Lent.
Today we will discuss two conflicting ideas in the Bible. The first is followers of God are supposed to be in the world, be part of the world, but transform the world through the societies that we participate in. Passages supporting this idea may be familiar: “You are the light of the world,” “You are a city on a hill that shines for all the world to see,” “Do not hide your light, rather, let your light shine,” (Mt 5) “You will command nations you do not know, and peoples unknown to you will come running to obey, because I, the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, have made you glorious." (Isaiah 55:5) Simultaneously, there is the idea that followers of God are set aside. We are to be apart from, unstained, unaffected by the world and the societies in which we live. From Deuteronomy, “You are a holy people, who belong to the LORD your God. Of all the people on earth, the LORD your God has chosen you to be his own special treasure.” (7.6) Psalm 4:3, “The LORD set apart the godly for himself. The LORD will answer when I call to him.” From Exodus 23:2, “Stand apart from a crowd in wrong doing, do not participate with them who pervert justice.” From St. Peter’s first letter, “You are a chosen people; you are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. … Your friends from your old life will be surprised when you no longer do what they do, so they will slander you.” (2.9, 4.4) From the Letter to the Hebrews, “For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest [Jesus], holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens” (7:26) In addition, St. Paul writes in Second Corinthians, “Do not be mismatched with unbelievers. What partnership is there between righteousness and lawlessness? What fellowship is there between light and dark? What agreement is there between the Temple of God and idols?” Then quoting Isaiah and Ezekiel, Paul writes, “Come out from them, separate from them, touch nothing unclean; then I will welcome you, and I will be your Father and you will be my daughters and my sons.” (6:17-18) What are we to do? Over the millennia, followers of God have tried different ways to be set-aside. The Essenes sequestered themselves in the desert. Monastics created enclaves to separate themselves. Today some people participate in Hasidic Judaism who, starting in the 18thcentury, have lived separately. Are we supposed to separate ourselves? Should we convert Saint John’s property to living spaces for the congregation so we can live holy and separate from the world? The answer is yes and no. It is impossible to remain unstained by society and the only way to live in this world is to keep our hearts pure of material and selfish desires and judgmental thoughts. During Lent we can experience a set-aside-ness while living in the world. When I worked for the insurance company, I gave up alcohol and unhealthy food for Lent. My department went out Fridays for happy hour. I went but sat with a glass of water and celery sticks. As St. Peter predicted, I was ridiculed, though softly, nicely, in a Fortune 100 corporate sort of way; I chose to go with my department but to be separate. That’s what Lent is about and perhaps that is a way of living our entire spiritual lives. -Fr. Dave Over the Christmas holiday, while I was lying in bed with a fever, I had several great theological epiphanies. One had to do with this very tricky saying from Jesus, “Be perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect.” At face value, there are two major problems: first, it would appear we can be perfect; second, if we fail to be perfect, we fail God. There must be a better reading.
Normally this passage comes up in our Sunday lectionary at the end of February and I would preach about it but it comes up only once every three years. Since Easter is early this year we will not hear “be perfect as God is perfect.” And the next time we will is February 24, 2030! Thus, I wanted to write to you about it now. In 12 years, when I do preach on it, I hope you won’t remember this Reflection, or, if you do, you won’t call me out on it. The revelation I received is this command from Jesus, “Be creative as your Father in Heaven is always-creating.” I like this reading because as long as I am creative, like my Father in Heaven is always creating, I will fulfill Jesus’ command. The problem is that on the surface, the translation is not Biblical. The Greek word translated as “perfect” is not translatable as “to create.” The Greek word Teleios (pronounced “telly-ohs”) is an adjective that means brought to its end, finished, needs nothing to be complete, mature, perfect in integrity and virtue, or an unblemished item to be given/sacrificed. Likewise, the root telos (pronounced “tell-us”) is a noun that means end, the end, termination, that-by-which-a-thing-is finished, closed. As you can see, Teleios has nothing to do with creating. Teleios is used 19 times in the New Testament, only twice in Matthew’s Gospel – the aforementioned phrase and this one, (Jesus said) “If you want to be teleois, sell everything you own, give the money to the poor, then follow me.” (19:21) In the first letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul writes, “stop thinking like children; think like teleios (“mature”) people and as innocent as babies.” (14:20) Similarly, in the letter to the Ephesians, “Then we will be teleios (mature), just as Christ is, and we will be completely like him.” (4:13) St. James, in his letter, writes “All of us do many wrong things. But, if you can control your tongue, you are teleios (mature) and able to control your whole body.” (3:2) This small sampling shows there is a lot more to teleios than perfect. But “to create” is not a recognized translation. What words can you think of that start with “tele”? Television, telephone, telegram, telescope telepathy, telemetry. Like the old phone commercial, “Reach out and touch someone,” tele has a sense of going outside of oneself. Teleios is a way of reaching out of oneself to better oneself. The passage, “Be perfect…” is the cap of the Sermon on the Mount, a series of commands from Jesus that involve not judging others but instead praying for one’s enemies, carrying someone’s backpack longer than expected, greeting strangers, loving others not just family members and friends. For me, I can’t judge others if I am being creative. I am a more teleios person if I create and not judge. Being creative, like my Father in Heaven is creative, helps me be more Christ-like because I can’t judge and create at the same time. Christ, who can judge, instead reaches outside of Himself to love others in interesting and creative ways. Like Him, who creates, so must I. -Fr. Dave |