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nduras hanged himself in his jail cell border agents reported that they d had to use physical force to remove his three year old son from his arms on thursday attorney general jeff sessions father of three children used scripture to justify separating families illegal entry into the us is a crime sessions said he went on to cite the apostle paul and his clear and wise command in romans 13 to obey the laws of the government because god has ordained the government for his purposes people don t leave home unless home has become unlivable all of us have fathers some of us are fathers how would we feel if those terrified refugee children and their parents were our families let me be clear that s a rhetorical question our faith tells us that the families at the border are our family because all of us are god s family the bible is a multilayered multifaceted document it often contradicts itself our understanding of it is complicated by translation problems and the very different times and places in which it was transcribed but one theme sounds clearly throughout scripture we are to welcome strangers because we were strangers in the land of egypt we are to extend hospitality especially to refugees and orphans we are to seek and serve christ in all people ripping children from their parents arms is not what jesus commands us to do wholesale destruction of families is the hallmark of other biblical leaders pharoah and herod for instance in a book full of colorful complicated characters those two aren t the good guys i promised i was going to get to the good news and this is where it starts pharoah and herod didn t ultimately win in the long run love wins even if too many people suffer in the process quoting romans 13 in support of destroying families jeff sessions conveniently omitted a later verse in that same chapter love your neighbor as yourself paul tells us love does no harm to a neighbor therefore love is the fulfillment of the law our task as christians is to live in love work for love and believe in love today s readings offer ideas about how to do that and how to recognize love when we see it they tell us that the government ordained by god what jesus calls the kingdom of god springs from the last and the least in 1 samuel god has ordained saul as king but becomes unhappy with his choice because saul doesn t obey his commandments god ordains a new government god explains to his messenger samuel that human ideas of merit don t apply here the lord does not see as mortals see they look on the outward appearance but the lord looks on the heart god has chosen jesse s youngest son david outside tending the flocks to become the king of israel the new king is a shepherd someone who guides the vulnerable creatures under his charge to richer pastures and protects them from predators in today s gospel jesus uses two metaphors to describe the kingdom of god the first is that the kingdom is like someone scattering tiny seeds which in turn create harvests abundant enough to sustain entire communities the second example involves even tinier seeds mustard seeds which sprout into the greatest of all shrubs so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade the kingdom feeds its inhabitants however many miles they have traveled to get there it shelters them it offers them safe places to build homes where they can nurture their families welcome and sanctuary are intrinsic features of the government ordained by god if you re looking for the kingdom of god look for inauspicious beginnings the youngest son the smallest seed the refugee child lying in a manger because there s no room in the inn watch such beginnings to see how they grow this is the part we re likely to be comfortable with because we live in a society that idolizes the large we drive huge suvs to big box stores and fast food outlets selling supersized meals we watch modest older homes being razed to make way for mcmansions our economy relies often dangerously on perpetual growth mass markets and gigafactories we re fascinated by fame wealth and celebrity but not all large things deserve our reverence and today s readings give us specific instructions about the godly uses of growth do the massive institutions we re being asked to trust guide and protect us are they committed to abundance to feeding and including everyone or do they keep us paralyzed with threats of scarcity do they offer welcome and shelter in other words do they behave like loving fathers if they don t they aren t ordained by god these readings remind us first and foremost of the promise of little things many of my friends have told me that they re feeling helpless and hopeless right now the world s problems seem so huge and each of us seems so small every time we turn on the news or log onto facebook we re buried under an avalanche of fear and suffering no matter how many cheerful memes and cat pictures we also see the weight of sorrow can become absolutely overwhelming but whenever i m tempted to use my insignificance as a reason to give up i remember one of my favorite slogans it was written by greek poet dinos christianopoulus and later borrowed by mexican activists it reminds us powerfully of mustard plants refugee children and a certain first century political prisoner executed and placed in a tomb they tried to bury us the slogan says they didn t know we were seeds here is how to be a seed allow yourself to rest in darkness for a while that s how you ll gain the strength to grow send out roots to anchor yourself to community embrace the gifts nutrients water shelter your surroundings offer you know where you re going upwards toward the light remember what you ll do when you get there expand embrace those who seek sanctuary in your branches flower produce good fruit make more seeds there are many different kinds of seeds in this current crisis and every other we can pray vote contact our representatives protest unjust policies volunteer at schools and homeless shelters and refugee resettlement agencies love our children love other people s children we can donate time and money and canned soup everything counts no matter how tiny enough small seeds can and will create gardens meadows forests every act of love is one more step towards the best big thing the loving kingdom ordained by god amen posted by susan palwick at 7 00 am no comments labels church current events faith stigma issues sunday may 06 2018 as i have loved you here s today s homily the readings are acts 10 44 48 and john 15 9 17 christianity has a pr problem and today s readings throw it into stark relief in the gospel jesus commands us to love one another as he has loved us in acts peter says can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the holy spirit just as we have these scriptures tell us that god loves everyone even or especially the other and the outcast in that spirit st paul s bills itself as a place of belonging for all people i probably don t need to tell any of you that historically christianity has not always practiced such radical welcome too many christian churches still don t some of the groups that define themselves by whom they lock out are very loud and have made themselves very visible is it any wonder that many of our neighbors fear and avoid christianity as some of you know i converted in my late thirties most of my family and friends are secular rationalists who consider religion the realm of credulous superstition if not outright bigotry when i started going to church many of the people who loved me were horrified a close friend called from europe to ask if i needed to be kidnapped and deprogrammed my father had left the catholic church when he was thirteen he spent the rest of his life as a fundamentalist atheist to borrow my sister s memorable phrase he was so distraught at my conversion that a family friend tried to comfort him by saying alan it could be worse she could be selling drugs i got it a lot of churches make me squirm too i knew it would take a long time to convince my loved ones that i hadn t been brainwashed by televangelists that i hadn t suddenly become a fan of the crusades or the salem witch trials or the westboro baptist church and that i don t leave my critical thinking skills in the offering plate every sunday because i was a professor when i started going to church i was especially aware of the popular misconception that faith and intellect don t mix for a long time i had a bumper sticker on my car that read christian not closed minded one day i returned to my car parked in a unr garage to find that someone had used a black marker to blot out the not the sticker now read christian closed minded that hurt but again i knew exactly where it came from all of us have heard of closed minded churches some of us and many of our relatives and friends carry the scars of having been closed out of them in my role as a hospital volunteer offering spiritual care to er patients i once visited a cheerful friendly couple who assured me that they were devout followers of jesus they asked for a prayer and thanked me graciously for offering it and then as i left the room they said wait we want to give you this and handed me a pamphlet it was a comic book about how gay people were an abomination against god and were going to hell i felt like i d been kicked in the teeth and i grieved for the couple who had handed me that piece of hatred i kept thinking of a story from episcopal preacher barbara brown taylor during a martin luther king day march in atlanta she and other clergy walked past a group of demonstrators from the ku klux klan carrying signs that proclaimed christ is our king meditating on the body of christ taylor wrote i had just walked past some members of my own body who were as hard for me to accept as a cancer or a blocked artery and yet if i did not accept them if i let them remain separate from me the way they wanted to then i became one of them one of the people who insist that there are some people who cannot belong to the body taylor s words confirm one of my deepest beliefs when we shut out other people any people we shut out god but how do we love the unloving how do we tolerate the intolerant is it possible to live without any fences or walls what do we do when our emotional or physical survival demands that we shut out a destructive friend or an abusive relative even if we re lucky enough to be spared those challenges how do we show our neighbors that it s possible to be christian without being either a bigot or a saint i am not a patient person i have a temper i can be sarcastic and i often rub people the wrong way some of those people have called me a hypocrite one of my deepest fears is that in the heat of some moment i ll offend someone who ll nod and say uh huh that s what you christians are really like i knew it learning to embody god s love can take years and we can destroy all our hard work in a moment preach the gospel without ceasing st francis said use words when necessary in a world where too many churches preach judgment and exclusion it s easy to fear that our small quiet efforts to be l oving will go unnoticed but i do the best i can like most of us and over the years i ve seen my family s attitudes towards my faith soften my parents never believed in god or prayer but they approved of the work i did at st stephen s with family promise helping homeless parents and children they approved of my volunteer work at the hospital a few weeks before he died my father was in the va hospital here in reno in a shared room he had the bed next to the window i was visiting one day when a doctor came to talk to dad s roommate who had stomach cancer the doctor drew the flimsy cotton curtain between the beds for privacy but it provided none for half an hour dad and i listened to her telling the other patient very very gently that he was going to die very very soon maybe tomorrow by lunch the patient and his wife couldn t hear this they kept changing the subject the doctor kept circling back to it after at least three attempts she left when she was gone dad tapped my arm and whispered you go talk to those people what you re a chaplain you go talk to those people dad this isn t my hospital i m not authorized to talk to patients here my fundamentalist atheist father glared at me you go talk to those people i desperately had to use the bathroom which was next to the dying patient s bed on my way back i stopped and introduced myself to him and his wife my father and i couldn t help but overhear what your doctor said we re so sorry they laughed and waved their hands we re fine we chatted a bit and i learned that they had a daughter in california i asked if they d spoken to her recently the dying patient shrugged oh we ll probably call her next week i swallowed if i were your daughter i think i d want to hear from you tonight that family needed more than their doctor and certainly more than i could give them no words of sorrow or comfort would reach them until they could hear and accept what was happening sometimes our efforts to help fall on stony ground just as jesus did but to me this is still a story about a small quiet miracle after decades of railing against religion criticizing the church and mocking my faith my father learned to trust that i was one of the people who tried to be loving even when there was nothing i could do love one another as i have loved you this isn t easy it s the work of a lifetime and none of us is perfect at it but it s the work we ve been given and we owe our loving god nothing less amen posted by susan palwick at 1 31 pm no comments labels church faith preaching stigma issues sunday august 13 2017 necessary but not sufficient here s today s homily the readings are genesis 37 1 4 12 28 and matthew 14 22 33 i hate suspense stories because i don t like being scared bad luck for me then that today s readings are suspense stories joseph s been sold into slavery by his own brothers the disciples are in a small boat in a bad storm these stories aren t suspenseful for us we know they have happy endings the people inside them though can t know that everything will be all right we aren t told anything about joseph s emotional state but his circumstances are horrible his own kin have conspired against him they decided not to murder him only because they raelized they could make money by selling him he has no way of knowing that wonderful things will come of these hideous events he has to feel betrayed abandoned and terrified for his life in the gospel story meanwhile we re told outright several times that the disciples are terrified for one thing jesus sent them away he made them get into the boat so he could be alone to pray and then the weather got bad if you ve ever been in a small boat in a storm you know how dangerous it is people die in storms like this which may be why the disciples seeing a figure strolling towards them over the...