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You are here: Home / Archives for Open Table

Pentecost 19A Sermon with Worship

October 11, 2020 by Cam Miller

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Filed Under: Sermons Tagged With: Abundance, inclusion, Open Table

4 Pentecost A, 2020: Whoever

June 28, 2020 by Cam Miller

VIDEO VERSION

TEXT VERSION

TEXT for Today: The Gospel of Matthew 10:40-42

“Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous; and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple–truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.”

This is a sermon of run-on sentences
just to make the simple complicated,
which is what we love to do in religion.

When the dream
that God has for us
becomes part of us –
as in second nature,
as if an appendage we use
to eat or drink with –
then there is no ambivalence
about right and wrong,
no query about punishment and reward,
no appeal to greater authority.

Instead, when we are in sync with God’s
best dream for us,
we are held with a kind of
peace,
patience,
fortitude
and determination even, to complete
what we were born to do.

Another way to say this,
somewhat more secular I suppose,
is that when we are on our game –
in the groove,
deep in the zone,
or when we’ve got our chops –
then it is just clear as crystal
who and what
we are all about.

SO, whoever welcomes you –
meaning us but including whoever –
welcomes you and welcomes me,
which also means
you, they, or us, welcome Jesus.
And whoever
welcomes Jesus
welcomes God.

Let me re-cap just to be clear:
whoever
welcomes
whoever
welcomes God.

You see where we are going with this, don’t you?

Whoever welcomes a prophet –
who is not literally a prophet
but a metaphor;
a whoever-metaphor
for whoever speaks for God;
who are often people
who are not very welcome at a great many places –
like Jeremiah who was a prophet of doom
in a seemingly prosperous time.
He was one of the whoevers who wasn’t very welcome –
and in fact, they got so exasperated with Jeremiah
that they abused him
and threw him in a hole to die.
They treated him like a whatever
instead of the whoever
he really was.

Again, here is just re-cap
because this is a complicated guest list:
Whoever
welcomes you
meaning us
but including whoever,
welcomes you
and welcomes me – meaning Jesus.
And whoever
welcomes Jesus
welcomes God.

So whoever
welcomes whoever
welcomes God.
And…whoever welcomes a prophet,
meaning whoever speaks for God,
is welcoming one of the whoevers.

That brings us to the righteous whoevers.

Righteousness is not righteous
as we know righteous,
but instead is metaphoric –
and sometimes even a legal term.

Righteous means either:
faithfulness or justice.
The righteous whoevers
are those who are in a covenant relationship
with God or one another, and
who have been faithful
to the terms of the covenant.

OR, they are also those
in a covenant relationship with God
who have been wronged by others –
by other whoevers;
they have been wronged and hurt,
and by the very act of being wronged or hurt
they are made righteous.

The poor are righteous.
The marginalized are righteous.
The neglected are righteous.
Even if their behavior is not so righteous
THEY are righteous
by virtue of having been wronged
by other whoevers.

That’s not my opinion, it is a Biblical idea.

SO, here is where we have gotten
on our guest list:
Whoever
welcomes you,
welcomes me –
meaning also Jesus.
And whoever
welcomes Jesus
welcomes God.
AND…whoever welcomes a prophet –
meaning whoever speaks for God –
welcomes one of the whoevers.
Since the righteous are a whoever
that are supposed to be welcomed,
whoever welcomes one of the righteous
is welcoming whoever.

That brings us finally,
to “one of these little ones”
which is another whoever-metaphor
for whoever is vulnerable,
and whoever sits at the bottom
of the pile of the most vulnerable,
underneath the pecking order
in a dog-eat-dog world
where whoevers
are eaten more than they welcomed.

Whoever not only welcomes but actually SERVES
one of the little ones at the bottom of the pile,
where they are likely to get their hand bitten
even while trying to offer a cup of cold water.
Whoever does THAT
is welcoming the prime whoever –
who is God.

Now, all of that
boils down to something so
simple
and so
uncomplicated
that you might rightly ask why
I made this so darn complex.
To your question,
that you didn’t really ask,
I would respond:
because that is what we do.
We take the simple and
uncomplicated
insistence by God, through Jesus,
that we welcome whoever,
and we turn it into
creeds
doctrines
membership
denominations
religions
ethnocentric and racially segregated,
socio-economically stratified
societies
called church,
temple,
mosque,
or shrine.

All those things
have a place in human society
because we are who we are,
and we can celebrate our differences
as well as enjoy our similarities,
but when they become an obstruction
to the over-riding dream –
a dream we don’t even have to dream
because we just know it
as part of the air we breathe –
then our religions
cause us to be inhospitable
to whoever,
which is an affront to God
and an embarrassment to Jesus,
and stupid.
When our religion becomes inhospitable
to any of the whoevers,
then those religions are an endangerment to righteousness
and to righteous people everywhere.

That little paragraph we read in Matthew today
is the end of Chapter 10,
and the conclusion of a speech
Jesus makes as he sends his followers off
on their own
to preach and model
the kingdom on earth.

He describes to them their mission:
he tells them what they are likely to run into,
and he tells them what to look for,
and he tells them they are servants not royalty.
Then he concludes
by telling them who to welcome:
welcome whoever.

He tells them that the Gospel he preaches
will divide families,
upset loyalties,
over-ride class affinity,
and tear open nationalism.

Then he says that what makes us family –
what unites us and what makes us, us –
is God’s best dream for us.
That dream includes sharing a table with whoever.

God’s best dream for us includes our becoming people
who welcome whoever –
not for the reward
or because it is noteworthy
or because it is a cause-celeb.
But because it is what we do –
because it is the only thing we know how to do.
It is not a dream,
although it is God’s best dream for us.
Instead we know how to do it
in the grittiness of life as we live.
It is really this simple:

Whoever welcomes whoever
welcomes God.
Whoever doesn’t, doesn’t.

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Proper 17, Year C, 2016

August 28, 2016 by Cam Miller

The Liturgical Reading: From “Listening to your Life,” by Frederick Buechner

If the world is sane, then Jesus is mad as a hatter and the Last Supper is the Mad Tea Party. The world says, Mind your own business, and Jesus says, There is no such thing as your own business. The world say, Follow the wisest course and be a success, and Jesus says, Follow me and be crucified. The world says, Drive carefully—the life you save may be your own—and Jesus says, Whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. The world says, Law and order, and Jesus says, Love. The world says, Get and Jesus says, Give. In terms of the world’s sanity, Jesus is crazy as a coot, and anybody who thinks he can follow him without being a little crazy too is laboring less under a cross than under a delusion.

The Gospel: Luke 14:1, 7-14

On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the sabbath, they were watching him closely. When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told them a parable. “When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host; and the host who invited both of you may come and say to you, ‘Give this person your place,’ and then in disgrace you would start to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher’; then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” He said also to the one who had invited him, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

Anticipating that it would reach 91 degrees again today,
I aimed for a sermon under ten minutes (but don’t time me).

Let’s be honest,
there are some people we like better than others.
In fact, there are some ‘kinds’ of people
we like better than other ‘kinds.’
And as a matter of fact,
churches are mostly congregations of the like-minded –
they are self-selected havens of
class
ethnicity
and race.
As Martin Luther King, Jr. observed so long ago,
Sunday morning is one of the most
segregated hours in America.
The segregation does stop with race
it forms around socio-economic status as well.

But churches aren’t alone.

There are social clubs
and bowling clubs
and poker groups
and quilting circles
and golf clubs
and same-sex interest groups
and Gay bars and biker bars and college bars.

We congregate with other people
who are similar to us because, well,
because that is what makes us comfortable.
But even more particularly,
and apropos of today’s Gospel,
we especially self-select as we congregate around food.

A meal
is the most pervasive element of our social structure,
thoroughly commonplace
but taken for granted.
Eating together is the way we express
the kind of relationship we have with one another
as well as the way we build and nurture
relationships with one another.
We hardly give a thought to who we eat with
and who we don’t –
but seldom consider who we would never
share a meal with.

A breakfast meeting,
mid-morning coffee,
power lunch,
romantic dinner,
late night pizza date…
these are all ways of being in relationship
and they are even metaphors for the kind of relationship
we have with a business associate,
friend,
or lover.
We normally do not analyze these occasions and instead,
we just do them.
But they are deeply significant and meaningful.

So with our own behavior in mind
it is interesting to note who Jesus was
most comfortable with.
It wasn’t religious leaders –
definitely not clergy.
It wasn’t the power brokers.
It wasn’t even the gaggle of students and groupies
who followed him everywhere
and who we call his disciples.

Luke gives the people Jesus seemed to be most comfortable with a special moniker:
“The poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.”

He actually uses that descriptor
over and over and over again
as a metaphor for a whole class of people
we might call “the marginalized.”

In fact, there seems to have been something about
people who lived out on the margins of society
that Jesus felt particularly comfortable with;
more comfortable with, in fact,
than he would have been with you and me.

That doesn’t mean Jesus wouldn’t have liked us –
what’s not to like?
It just means that we are not necessarily
his kind of people.

If that were true
it would be kind of ironic, wouldn’t it?

So much of Christianity
as it is described and defined
by all flavors and pedigrees of churches,
would have us think that Jesus was our homeboy –
that he would like us in particular precisely because we are Christian –
and therefore his kind of people.
But if we think about it,
that notion is pretty ridiculous
given that Jesus was not a Christian,
never knew a Christian,
and lived three hundred and fifty years
before there was anything that would even remotely
resemble something we call a church.

So when we hear a story like this one from Luke,
we have to think about all of the ironic,
swept under the carpet,
and hidden between the lines
kind of stuff going on.

At a first century dinner party,
as I have mentioned before,
guests reclined on pillows in groups of three.
No chairs.
We need to disabuse ourselves
of Last Supper scenes we have seared into our brains
by Renaissance images of a long narrow table
with Jesus and the twelve
all sitting on one side of the table
while posing for the camera.

In reality, they would have been reclining in groups
on pillows
and scattered around the room.
Furniture, like tables and chairs,
was hard to come by in the first century
even for the few relatively privileged folks,
or the business and religious classes.

The guest of honor
sat with the host at a central location in the room.
Eminent guests often came late,
so if you took a seat closer to the center
than your position in the pecking order allowed,
when someone more important came along –
like a Hollywood star, NFL quarterback,
or the biggest pledger in the congregation –
you would have to pick up and move.

That’s all in the background of this story, and
when we hear Jesus giving advice
to the guests at a nice dinner party,
we need to ask ourselves:
would Jesus really care
if someone lost face
because of a social faux pas related to a caste system
he was trying to subvert anyway?

In fact, I think we should be suspicious
when we hear this story from Luke.
It seems unlikely that Jesus would have told this story
to the Pharisee
in order to save him from embarrassment
from some future faux pas –
as if Jesus were a rabbinical Cotillion coach.

Rather, what this parable does
is to call into question
the very values that under-gird that social system.

Jesus’ point was this:
wealth, fame, power,
degree and pedigree,
are not supposed to matter
in the community of faith.

This thing we do here,
around this table,
and around this symbolic meal,
is supposed to be absolutely egalitarian.
What that means is that at this meal
and for this little bit of time,
there are not supposed to be any margins
among us.
None.

We are supposed to host, at this table,
and at this meal,
a community
where we do not congregate
by class
ethnicity
race
sexuality
or around any kind of status
that otherwise creates margins.

Instead, we are supposed to host a table
and a meal
in a community with people
that may make us terribly uncomfortable
as well as with those we actually like a lot.

That is probably not big news to anyone here.
We know we are not Jesus’ kind of people,
and we know we are supposed to host
a community without margins.
The hard part
is acknowledging how we really feel about that.

Anyone who has been going to Trinity Church Geneva
all of their life
is going to expect to be treated differently
than someone who just walked in the door.
That is perfectly natural.
But it is not what Jesus was talking about.
Anyone who gives sacrificially
to support Trinity Church Geneva,
or even just gives a big number
even it if is not a big stretch,
is going to expect to be treated differently
than someone who throws a buck in the plate
now and again.
That is perfectly natural.
But it is not what Jesus was talking about.

Rank has its privileges after all,
and pride of place ought to be given
to those who have given most
and given best
and given most often.
That is how it should be –
it is only natural.
But it is not what Jesus was talking about.

I do not expect any special deference
because I am the priest
and I would ask you not to expect any special deference
because you have been coming to Trinity Church Geneva
since Bossy was a calf –
by which I mean, a really long time.
Instead, I would ask
that we work really hard
to have a community without margins.

I would ask that when you see me or someone else
doing something
or saying something
that creates a margin for others
that you tell us.
And by margin,
I do not mean that our feelings are hurt
or we got angry because someone said something
we did not like or disagreed with –
in fact, I expect that to happen
if we are being open and authentic with one another.

By creating margins,
I mean taking power or decisions away from one another,
or only giving influence and authority
to certain people but not others,
or granting special status to some people
so that their opinions matter more than everyone else’s.

By creating margins,
I mean practicing worship and programs
that only embrace and utilize
what WE happen to like
and throwing everything else out.

By creating margins,
I mean closing our minds
and folding our arms against
efforts to welcome in
and attract
those who are not here yet.

By creating margins,
I mean refusing to think about
who we do not want to eat with
and who we would rather not have to worship with
and who we are uncomfortable around.

As Frederick Buechner wrote,
“In terms of the world’s sanity,
Jesus is crazy as a coot,
and anybody who thinks he or she can follow Jesus without being a little crazy too
is laboring less under a cross than under a delusion.”

Let’s try really hard to be crazy like Jesus
and build a community with fewer and fewer margins.

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    Geneva, NY 14456

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Trinity Place

 Trinity Place, An Open Space for Growth, Wellness, Healing, & the Arts

“Open Space” means open and inclusive, welcoming the Geneva and FLX community to use our space, and to partner with us in building an inclusive community for spiritual inquiry and wellness. 

“Growth, Wellness, Healing, & the Arts” means we are pointed toward a particular dimension of life, specifically that which strengthens the relationship of body, mind, and spirit. 

Trinity is a Christian community of worship and spiritual practice welcoming all, and an Episcopal Church in particular. However, we welcome all spiritual traditions and those who have no particular spiritual background but are engaged in a mission consistent with ours. We are looking for partners in mission not members (although we love to welcome new members too).

 

 

 

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The Rev. R. Cameron Miller is our rector, which means the resident clergy leader. In addition … Read more

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