Theology
Encountering Love – Br. Lain Wilson
Br. Lain Wilson
Preached at The Church of the Redeemer, Lexington, MA
The Sixth Sunday of Easter
On behalf of my Brothers of the Society of Saint John the Evangelist in Cambridge, I’m delighted to be with you all this morning. And happy Mother’s Day to everyone here, and to those watching online (including my mom!).
I’m especially delighted to be with you all on this Music Appreciation Sunday. I grew up surrounded by music. My earliest memories are filled with it. As a teenager, I sang in the cathedral choir. There, I learned what it was to be an Episcopalian. I learned the treasures of the Anglican musical tradition. Hymns and anthems continue to be one of my primary encounters with scripture and theology – including today’s gospel, which I still can’t help but hear in Thomas Tallis’s lush setting, “If ye love me.”
Music has also, in an important way, saved my life. Read More
Children of a Prodigal God – Br. Jamie Nelson
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Br. Jamie Nelson
In their original manuscript form, the gospels did not assign titles to Jesus’ parables. But over the centuries, today’s gospel passage has acquired a well-known title you’ll find in many Bibles today: The Parable of the Prodigal Son.
There are several noticeable weaknesses with this title, as Biblical scholars have pointed out.[1] For instance, there are three characters in the story, but only one, the younger son, the Prodigal, is referenced. The father and the older son get no press despite their essential roles in this family melodrama.
And here’s another weakness: there are actually two prodigals in the story, not one. The word prodigal means wasteful or extravagant. Yes, the younger son spends his inheritance in recklessly wasteful and extravagant ways. No one can dispute his prodigal habits. Read More
On Messengers Seen and Unseen – Br. Keith Nelson
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Br. Keith Nelson
Saint Michael and All Angels
Revelation 12:7-12
John 1:47-51
“We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen.”
In the Nicene Creed, we affirm our faith and trust in God our Creator in these terms. As the earth all around us proceeds from a divine source, so too does heaven: the nearer presence of God to which we are invited for eternity. As the beings and things around us manifest to our senses constitute the “material expression of God’s love,” so too do those unseen beings of the same created order share a mysterious role in God’s unfolding plan for us, albeit one hidden from our natural senses.
This, in a nutshell, is the theological ground of our celebration today: The feast of St. Michael and All Angels. We prayed in today’s collect, “Grant that, as your holy angels always serve and worship you in heaven, so by your appointment may they help and defend us here on earth.” Angels – and angel simply means “messenger” – act as mediators between earth and heaven, the seen and the unseen. The angels point us to the perennial question: “How is God present in the world? And what is our response to that presence?”
The ministries of angels may seem too fanciful or abstract a place for the modern mind to begin, so we can turn first to the ministrations of everyday creatures. Read More
God’s Beloved, God’s Delight – Br. Lain Wilson
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Trinity Sunday
Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31
Psalm 8
Romans 5:1-5
Several years ago, I enrolled in a drawing class. I am not a creative person, but I thought it would be good to exercise that part of my brain. In my first class, the instructor gave us a stick of charcoal, put us in front of a piece of blank newsprint, and told us to draw anything.
Did I mention I’m not a creative person?
Honestly, I just froze. Absolutely nothing came to mind. I stared at the blank sheet, mildly panicking, and feeling very powerless and very alone.
The class got better, and I did learn to draw. I don’t think I became any more creative, but what I did gain was a fresh perspective, a way of looking through what seemed to be a new set of eyes. I learned to see shadow as well as line, the spaces in between as well as familiar forms.
My soul doth magnify the Lord – Br. Geoffrey Tristram
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Br. Geoffrey Tristram
‘My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely from now on, all generations will call me blessed.’ The great song of praise which Mary poured forth to God, which we know as the Magnificat. Mary says all generations will call me blessed, and so today, on this last Sunday before Christmas, we too honor the Virgin Mary, and we call her blessed.
Four miles outside the city of Jerusalem, there is a small village called Ein Karem. Those of you who have made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land may know it. In the village, set high up above a lovely, wooded valley stands the ancient church which was built over the traditional site of the home of Zechariah and Elizabeth. And that is where Mary went as fast as she could, as our gospel reading tells us today, right after that extraordinary encounter she had with the Angel Gabriel. Gabriel came to with a message of good news; ‘Mary, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son and you will name him Jesus. He will be holy and will be called of God’. She must have been terrified and amazed. Can this be true? She needed to tell her older cousin about the angel’s message, the utterly stupendous news that she had been chosen to be the mother of God’s Son. So ‘She arose, and went with haste’, Luke tells us, and then we have one of the most beautiful and poignant passages in all of Scripture. After a long journey Mary arrives at Elizabeth’s house, and she greets Elizabeth. ‘And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary,’ Luke tells us, ‘the babe leapt in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb”.’ Read More
God Is Always More – Br. Curtis Almquist
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Br. Curtis Almquist
Judges 13:2-7, 24-25
Luke 1:5-25
Our lesson from the Book of Judges and our Gospel lesson according to Luke speak of angelic revelations to childless women who will miraculously bear children: the mother of Sampson and the mother of John the Baptist. The angelic revelation to the Virgin Mary is soon to follow.[i] We will hear a stream of supernatural revelations during the remaining days of Advent, then Christmastide, then into the season of Epiphany: dreams and visions coming to Zechariah[ii], Elizabeth’s husband, and the same for Joseph.[iii] The wisemen in the east will follow a star to the Messiah, then follow a dream that will lead them safely home.[iv] The shepherds in their fields are visited by singing angels who invite the shepherds to the visit the infant Messiah.[v]
Many of us have heard these stories so many times. We may take these supernatural revelations for granted, though they are very revealing of God’s ways. These revelations do not make rational sense. There’s nothing to figure out or to understand. Rather, these revelations are to “behold.” This is simply what is. Behold God’s revelation, embrace it, and follow it.
If we were to tabulate the Bible, the amount of the scriptural text given over to the report of dreams, visions, prophecies, angelic visitations, miraculous events, and other references and allusions to God’s mysterious ways of meeting and leading people, we would find these non-rational revelations comprise approximately one-third of the Bible. Dreams, visions, prophecies, angelic visitations, miraculous events, the gift of knowledge and language, along with other indirect references to God’s mysterious and yet undeniable manifestations: one-third of the Bible. This supernatural way of knowing is quite countercultural for most of us who live in the western world. Yet the scriptures are replete with God’s ways being more than our mind can tell.
We know that the adult Jesus asked a seemingly-obvious question to the infirm: “Do you want to be healed?” I can imagine, in that same spirit, Jesus’ asking us: “Do you want to know more?” “Do you want to know more of God: the mind and heart and ways of God?” If so, make that your prayer, which would be a tremendous spiritual gift to unwrap this season. Open your hands, open your heart, open your mind to God’s supernatural revelation. God is always More. Ask for More.
[i] Luke 1:26-38.
[ii] Zechariah’s dreams: Luke 1:5-25, 39-80.
[iii] Joseph’s four dreams: Matthew 1:19-25; 2:13; 2:19-20; 2:22-23.
[iv] Luke 2:1-19.
[v] Luke 2:8-20.
What sort of man is this? – Br. Lucas Hall
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Br. Lucas Hall
Matthew 8:23-27
Amos 3:1-8, 4:11-12
“What sort of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him?” That question, I believe, strikes at the heart of Matthew’s gospel. Matthew’s intent in all his gospel is to focus on Jesus as the fulfillment of the prophets. He deliberately emphasizes the ways Jesus inverts expectations of the looked-for messianic figure, and seems to quite delight in tying these inversions together. When we compare this with our first reading from the prophet Amos, we see the lines of comparison Matthew draws; he does not view Jesus as simply another prophet. In Amos, God acts, and speaks, and the prophets listen, and prophesy to these acts. Here, Matthew depicts Jesus as the one who speaks and acts. And this message, this action, this intent is not simply to Israel, nor is it simply to humanity; the winds and sea obey, or more literally from the Greek, they hearken, they listen and follow.
It should be no surprise that Matthew views Jesus in this way; the idea that he has command over all Creation puts us in the mind of even the Genesis creation stories, where all is brought into being by the proclamation of God. It should be noted that these creation stories have a highly theological purpose; they closely line up with other similar stories among various contemporary religions, but they affirm the creation comes from a singular God. The various aspects of creation are not treated as individual beings to pay homage to, but equally created, and so equally under the sway, of the one God. And so Matthew depicts Christ in this way. Read More
Whosoever Will Be Saved – Br. James Koester
Growing up in the Church, as I did, I often found myself, in those moments waiting for the service to begin, exploring the Prayer Book that I held in my hands. I would flip thought it, as perhaps you have done, and read the interesting bits. I liked to look at the The Calendar, and wonder who some of these people were: Bede, Dunstan, Dominic, Stephen. Over the years I have stopped wondering who they were, or even their place and role in history. I have come to know them as friends. As our Rule of Life says, in a somewhat different context: we remember that they are not dead figures from the past. Risen in Christ, they belong to the great cloud of witnesses who spur us on by their prayers to change and mature in response to the Holy Spirit who makes all things new.[1]
Or I would make my with through the Table of Kindred and Affinity, where I would read: A Man may not marry his Mother, his Sister, his Grandmother, his Aunt.[2] As I worked my way through the list, and picture the people I was not allowed to marry, I would wonder, not so much as why I may not marry them, but why on earth I would want to marry my mother, my sister, my grandmother, or my aunt, in the first place! Read More
Closer than Our Own Selves – Br. Lain Wilson
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What do you do when all options in front of you are bad ones?
This is the situation that Jeremiah finds himself in this morning. God has called him to his vocation as a prophet, to proclaim God’s word. In doing so, Jeremiah is mocked and plotted against, even by those close to him. In not proclaiming God’s word, though, he experiences pain, “something like a burning fire” (Jer 20:9).
All this because of who God has called him to be.
Is it any surprise, then, that Jeremiah hurls against God one of the bitterest invectives in Scripture? Different translations have different force—“O Lord, you have enticed me,” “you have seduced me,” “you have deceived me” (Jer 20:7)—but the basic accusation is that God has broken trust, that God has forced the prophet into submission.[1]
This is an accusation you can only hurl against someone you deeply love.
And it is, perhaps, something that we can relate to.
God calls each of us in ways that we may not understand, that we struggle to accept, that we may rail against. Our vocations, our experiences, our very lives may be excruciating mysteries to us. For reasons beyond our understanding, we may, like Jeremiah, end up in places and at times asking ourselves, “how did this come to be,” able only to cry to God, “Is this what you intend for me?” Read More
Hidden Presence – Br. Lain Wilson
Mark 12:28-34
Psalm 81:8-14
Hosea 14:1-9
“Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.” Jesus identifies who—and what—God is. He also offers up an indictment of all the alluring temptations in sight that lead us astray from a God who all too often remains hidden from us.
“O Israel, if you would but listen to me! There shall be no strange god among you; you shall not worship a foreign god” (Ps 81:8-9). This command is repeated throughout Scripture, and yet the pages of Scripture are filled with rebuke and lament for the failure to keep to this basic commandment.
This turning away, though, isn’t surprising, because our God is often hidden. In times of anxiety and uncertainty, we crave what is visible, tangible, assured. What people, institutions, processes, products do you turn to for assurance, for certainty? What are your idols today? Read More