Meaning and Joy

Dawn

 

Rev. Molly F. James, PhD

DFMS Noonday Prayer via Zoom

Martyrs of Uganda, October 29, 2020

Psalm 124; 1 Peter 3:14-22; Matthew 10:37-42

May God’s Word be spoken. May God’s Word be heard. May that point us to the living Word who is Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

On occasion I teach Christian Ethics classes and in the course of that look at a variety of Christian perspectives on life and death. One of the passages that has stayed me with me from that work is from the writing of scholar and ethicist Stanley Hauerwas. He writes:

“As a matter of fact, Christians do not believe life is sacred. I often remind my right-to-life friends that Christians took their children with them to martyrdom rather than have them raised as pagans. Christians believe there is much worth dying for.”

I could not help but think of that passage today as we remember Bishop James Hannington and the Martyrs of Uganda. Hannington and so many others are in a long line of forbearers in the faith who have been willing to give their lives. Those who have believed that faith is something worth dying for. 

I don’t know about you, but that thought and the stories of the martyrs give me pause. At first, of course, I want to push back on those stories. I want to say did they really have to die? I want to find a happier ending to the story. Or I want to flag the story with a cautionary note. I want to say there is a really problematic strand in the Christian tradition that has glorified suffering and martyrdom at the expense of those on the margins. A tradition that has told women, people of color, LGBTQ people, the poor, anyone who is different from those in power that they should be grateful for their suffering because it brings them closer to God. No. That is not a message we want to reinforce. That kind of systemic injustice is what we are supposed to change and transform as Christians, not passively accept. 

Okay, now that I have gotten my resistance and my caveats out of the way. I am still left with the all important question of these stories of martyrdom - “What do I believe is worth dying for?”

That is a hard question. Of course it is. None of us wants to think that we would ever be asked to die for our faith. I certainly hope it does not come to that for any of us. 

There is something compelling about the stories of the martyrs. They seem to have such a clear sense of priorities, such a clear sense of what really matters. Their depth of faith and clarity of mind and heart are inspirational. Even if we are not likely to have to follow in their footsteps, perhaps we can still draw on that inspiration. 

Perhaps, rather than asking ourselves what is worth dying for, we should be asking ourselves what is worth living for? What is it that gives our life meaning? 

As you all know, I am fond of quoting Jeremy Taylor, the 17th century Bishop best known for his book Holy Living, Holy Dying. In a funeral sermon for Lady Carberry, he told the congregation, “Go home and think to die, and what you would choose to be doing when you die, that do daily.” He wanted them to remember that life is precious and short. We never know how long we have. So, we should be thoughtful about where we spend our time, our energy, and our resources. 

If we do not have some time each day, even if it is a small window, a tiny glimpse, where we feel connected to God, where we experience joy, where we have a sense that we matter and what we do matters, then perhaps it is time to reassess our calendars and our practices? 

We probably cannot get rid of all the things in the calendar that do not bring us joy - bills need to be paid, garbage needs to be taken out, difficult conversations will need to be had - but we can be attentive to the balance. We can be attentive to always allowing the mundane or menial tasks to crowd out the meaningful and the life giving. 

In these days, when there is so much stress and anxiety and the To Do list seems never ending, may we have the grace to remember that it is okay - actually it is more than okay - it is essential - to set aside time in our day for joy and meaning. We need it. It is what is going to get us through today and whatever lies ahead. Amen. 

Remembering we are loved

Garden at Harkness Memorial Park in CT

Rev. Molly F. James, PhD

DFMS Noonday Prayer via Zoom

October 27, 2020

Eph. 5:21-33; Psalm 128;Luke 13:18-21

May God’s Word be spoken. May God’s Word be heard. May that point us to the living Word who is Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

“Wives, be subject to your husbands, as you are to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife just as Christ is the head of the church, the body of which he is the Savior. Just as the church is subject to Christ, so also wives ought to be, in everything, to their husbands.” So, it may not come as much of a surprise to you that I find this to be a challenging reading.  It seems to go against my own values, my own understanding of what marriage is supposed to be in today's world.  I want to start arguing with the text. I want to argue that it was written for another time and another place. Its author was trying to promote the social mores of his day. I want to argue that his vision of marriage does not fit my own ideas, those of our current world, or the modern Church. I want to point out to the author that the woman's marriage vow in the Book of Common Prayer has not contained the word “obey” since the 1892 Prayer Book. 

So, I could make these points. Yet where does this arguing get me? The author is not here to argue back. Nor I do not have the right to go editing or changing this text, nor is it likely the 5th chapter of Ephesians is going to be removed from the Christian Canon, just because I find it problematic! This arguing only gets ME upset. If it accomplishes anything, it keeps me from really reading the text, from really listening to what they text is trying to tell me. It keeps me from seeing the breadth and depth of this text. 

The broader message at the heart of this text that is valuable for all of us is about our relationship with God and our relationships with each other. Note that the text actually starts with the line, “Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ.” 

The language about human marriage, about human partnership is an analogy. The language of the intimacy of partnership is the best way we have of describing our relationship with God. And the values that underlie this passage, that underlie a marriage at its best, are, in fact, applicable to all deep and strong relationships. 

A marriage at its best is a relationship that is grounded in love, respect, and care.   Founded on trust. Where each is faithful. Where we put the needs of the other above our own. Where we value the good of the whole over any solitary gain for ourselves. Where forgiveness and grace abound. It is a relationship that brings out the best in the other.  A relationship of mutual joy. A partnership where each brings strengths and gifts that enable mutual flourishing. 

This is to be our relationship with God and our deep and meaningful, relationships with each other. This also means it is God’s relationship with us. I think that is the part we might need reminding of these days. It can be easy to talk about our love for God and the obligations that come with that. We can be measuring ourselves up, striving to do more. I think sometimes we forget that relationships are a two way street. We forget to acknowledge and really let into our hearts the truth of God’s love for us.  God loves us with a profound, deep, and unending love. Ultimately Ephesians acknowledges that this love, this partnership is a mystery- it is beyond words. A love deeper and more beautiful than we can describe or fully comprehend. This love can only be lived. 

Lived with joy and passion. Lived with gratitude. Lived without fear. We are loved by God, utterly and completely.  It is an unending love. No matter what; we are loved.  

We are called to live out the truth of God's love in our lives. We are called to “walk in love as Christ loved us.” We are called to love ourselves, to love our neighbors. We are called to show God's love to the world. To be an example of grace and forgiveness. To be an example of light and love. Even in the face of hate, even in the face of darkness. We are called to live out the truth that God loves us.

Yet so often we do not live as though this is true. We often live in fear. We live in fear of our mistakes, afraid of our shortcomings, afraid we are not worthy of this love. We live afraid of the future, afraid of the “What ifs?” And in our fears we seem to forget the truth, the foundation of our faith. We are loved. Our sins are only scary if forgiveness is not possible. The future is only scary if God is not in it. Yet Christ tells us over and forgiveness is possible. Grace abounds. And God does not abandon us. The future will contain challenges- there are no guarantees that the road will be easy - yet we are promised that God will always be with us. ALWAYS. The truth of God's presence, and God's love in our lives is an enduring, eternal truth. 

So let us live into this truth in our lives. May it give us quiet confidence. May it give us strength to move forward in spite of our fears, in spite of the challenges we face. May we be open to God's daily reminders of how much we are loved. Each and every day may we live into and proclaim with our lives the deep and profound assurance that each of us is loved by God.  AMEN. 

  

Peace in the midst of chaos

                                 

Rev. Molly F. James, PhD

DFMS Noonday Prayer via Zoom

October 21, 2020

Eph. 3:4-12; Psalm 122; Luke 12:39-48

May God’s Word be spoken. May God’s Word be heard. May that point us to the living Word who is Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Verse 7 of our Psalm for today says, “Peace be within your walls * and quietness within your towers.” Ha! I thought when I read this. Peace? God, you are funny. Home life is slightly organized chaos while we all try to work from home and educate children in the midst of a pandemic. Life in our wider communities seems unstable and worrisome as cases are rising again in so many places, including my own state. Our national life seems to be in turmoil as there is bitter division and deep fears as we approach Election Day. And the whole world is still in the grips of a pandemic.


And that list did not include any of the challenges and difficulties that were around before we went into quarantine, like systemic racism or climate change or the ever widening gap between rich and poor. Peace? Really God, I want to say, You have got to be kidding me. How can we possibly find peace at a time like this.


But blessedly I have some wise people in my life whose voices intervene in moments like these. “Molly,” they say, “Take a deep breath. Pause. Reflect. You are getting yourself in a frantic state that is not actually going to help anything. Remember that story about Mary and Martha? You are doing your Martha thing. Time to find your Mary. Sit. Rest. Trust.” Ah. Right.


And I think of that oft quoted wisdom pictured above.




Oh, I think, maybe that is what God means. “Peace be within our walls” is not about some magical other world where nothing bad happens. It is not about all our present difficulties just disappearing at the snap of a finger. It is about us finding peace in our souls in the midst of it all. It is about us holding on to that peace, that strength, that resilience to get us through this time.




C.S. Lewis writes of this same kind of experience in A Grief Observed. He writes, “When I lay these questions [of why his wife died or why he is suffering] before God I get no answer. But a rather special sort of ‘No answer.’ It is not the locked door. It is more like a silent, certainly not uncompassionate, gaze. As though He shook His head not in refusal but waiving the question. Like, ‘Peace, child; you don’t understand.’”


In the midst of everything that is going in our world, we, like Lewis, are given a gift of peace that we may not fully understand, but here is the important thing for us to remember - it is God's peace. It is bigger than all of us, bigger than the things of the world, bigger than our fear.


It is not a peace of easy answers or simple solutions. It is the peace that comes from letting go. The peace that comes when we stop trying to figure everything out. It is the peace that comes when we choose trust over fear. When we chose love over indifference. When we chose possibility over certainty.


That is what God offers us. A gift of peace. It is not a gift that will always come easily to us. It is far too easy for us to be sucked into the 24 hour news cycle or find ourselves catastrophizing all the what ifs of tomorrow or next week or next year.


And so we need to keep up the practices that help us slow down. That center us. That remind us we are beloved of God and that we can indeed find peace amidst the chaos. We need time for prayer. Time to nourish our bodies. Time for rest. Time for laughter. Time for that which brings us joy. Time for that which restores our souls and connects us to the grace that is the “foundation of everything.”


The world may seem frantic and harried. There are times when it can seem like the fear is going to get the best of us. But it need not. We have a choice. We have an invitation, an opportunity to experience the beautiful gift of knowing the peace of God in our hearts. It is my prayer that in the midst of all the challenges and the struggles of these days we remember that the peace is not contingent on what happens out there. It can always be found in our hearts, when we are connected to God and each other. Amen.

Healing, Wholeness, and Faith

Rev. Molly F. James, PhD

DFMS Noonday Prayer

October 13, 2020 

Psalm 10; Jonah 1:1-17a; Luke 8:40-56

 

Hearing this Gospel story today is a powerful reminder for me that the stories of Scripture continue to speak to us, no matter how many times we have read them.  As you might imagine, these stories of healing have always had particular significance for me. In my own spiritual journey as a cancer survivor, I have struggled with what it means to be healed.  So often the healing stories in the Gospels are miraculous ones that seem to provide a complete restoration to health.  Yet that is so often not our own experience.  

Alongside the healing of Jarius’ daughter, there is another story of healing that happens while Jesus is on the way to the house.  He heals a woman who has been bleeding for 12 years.  Jesus says to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well, go in peace and be healed of your disease.”  This is another miracle story, but there is something very profound for me in that statement, “your faith has made you well.”  For me that statement shows me that healing is about more than the absence of disease.  It is through faith that we can be restored to wholeness.  It is not about whether our scars disappear or our physical challenges go away completely.  The gift of faith enables us to be whole people no matter our physical limitations.  Our identity as children of God has much more to do with the strength of our faith than with the strength of our bodies.

For me these Gospel stories of healing ask us to reimagine our understanding of what it means to be “cured” or made well or whole. If a cure is just about the absence of disease and we do not have to walk the often challenging road of healing, then we may also miss out on the lessons that can be learned along the way.  It has been my experience that some profound moments of perspective, of deep connection to God, and even moments of joy, are found when we have experienced deep pain. 

A friend once asked me, if I had to do it all over again would I choose to have cancer?  Well this may sound strange to you, but actually the answer is yes.  Now,  of course, part of the reason I say that is because I am healthy today. And yet truly the benefits and gifts of my experience outweigh the pain and challenges. I met so many wonderful people and had opportunities I otherwise would not have had. Most of all I was given another perspective. I had to face my own mortality as a teenager, when most of my peers were convinced they were invincible. I learned firsthand how precious and fragile human life is. This perspective helps me live each day a little more fully and to be more aware of all the blessings I have. It helps me not to take things for granted, for we never know how long we have.

I also believe that in a subtle way the Gospel lesson is hinting at this broader idea of healing, when Jesus heals Jarius' daughter, he does not let the focus be on his miraculous efforts, rather he focuses on the needs of the daughter so that she may be brought back into the family life and may live life fully.  A reminder that the real object of healing is to bring us more fully into a place of living faithfully. Healing may or may not be physical, but if we can live in faith, find peace, and live fully into each day, then maybe, we all shall be healed. Although the reality of that healing may not be what we had initially hoped or desired. This story tells us that Jesus is there in our places of pain and suffering, amidst all the challenges. We are all too aware in these days and times of the realities of human suffering. 

        There is an invitation today to find peace and joy even amidst our suffering and our pain.  To remember that God is there walking the road with us.  God knows our suffering all too well. God weeps with us in our pain. God embraces us and offers us hope.  We have hope in Love, in forgiveness, and redemption. Hope in the all important truth that no matter what we are not alone in our suffering.

I also think it is important for us to see another invitation to hope and possibility in this Gospel story. It is about our interactions with others.  I am struck by how many people in the crowd around Jesus were discouraging. The crowd believed Jarius’ daughter was dead.  They did not think it was worth Jesus time or effort.  Some laughed at him when he told them not to mourn and not be discouraged, because the child was only sleeping.  Jesus did not only offer the gift of healing to the daughter or the woman who was bleeding.  He offered  it to all who are witnesses.  As I am sure you all have experienced, those of us who have been witnesses to moments of healing and transformation do not remain unchanged.  Witnessing God's transforming love at work in the world changes us.  Jesus offered the gift of wholeness to all those present with him on that day.  Yet so many there were so sure of themselves, so sure of their own ideas that they missed out on that invitation.

May we avoid that pitfall.  May we always be open to the ways that God is leading our lives and our relationships on paths of healing.  May we be open to following the journey to wholeness.  May we be open to the unexpected possibilities.  May our own need for certainty not blind us to the surprises God has in store for us.  May we continue to be transformed and healed as we witness the myriad of ways that God is at work in the world. AMEN.

Transforming Wealth

Rev. Molly F. James, PhD

DFMS Noonday Prayer, October 8, 2020

Commemoration of William Bliss and Richard Ely

May God’s Word be spoken. May God’s Word be heard. May that point us to the living Word who is Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

My college friend Amelia is well-off by any standard. Her parents hired a circus for her fifth birthday party and her mother had china and place settings for one hundred people. Her father was a doctor who made a breakthrough discovery that helped millions and made a fortune for his family. There are libraries named after him on multiple college campuses. 

On the surface, she might seem to be just like the Rich Man in today’s parable. One of the 1% who has been aloof to the needs and concerns of the other 99%. 

In our Gospel today, we hear the parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man which shows us the perils of ignoring those around us who are in need. And we know what Jesus thinks of the rich. He so often speaks critically or disparagingly of them. Remember how he chides the rich man who does not wish to give up his possessions to inherit eternal life? Or how quickly Zaccheus is rewarded for his willingness to give up his wealth? 

 

But anything to do with money is complicated. My friend Amelia is not what she might seem on the surface. While she was born into wealth, there were times when she had to go without. Her parents divorced when she was a teenager, and sadly it was a long and bitter divorce. For a time all her mother's assets were frozen, and she and her mother were locked out of their house. Amelia and her mother spent months living in a Howard Johnson's living as cheaply as they could, for they had no idea how long it would be before they could go home again. Thankfully things were resolved, and Amelia was given a wonderful education and has personal financial security. 

The gift that Amelia has given me is an example of what it means to live faithfully with the resources we have been given. While Amelia has again been blessed with an abundance of financial resources, she has never forgotten what it was like to be without. Unlike the Rich Man in today’s parable, Amelia has long understood that wealth is a gift to be shared. She has always been generous with her money and used it to help others. What has inspired me in Amelia's attitude is that she sees her money as a means and not an end. She knows it is a gift and a fragile one. As she well knows that in an instant it can all be gone. She does not worship her money or try to hoard it. She sees it as a means to a full life - the means for education and travel for herself and her family - the means to enrichment in her own life and for her community. I think this is what Jesus was really getting at in the Gospel today. 

Amelia learned long ago - possessions do not last; they are not eternal.  God is. We need to put our faith in God. We need to live a life that first and foremost is focused on love of God and love of neighbor. Whatever assets we may have, however much money is in our bank accounts is, secondary. Financial wealth is a gift, and one that may not last. 

Just because we don't make money our first priority doesn't mean money doesn't matter. It matters a great deal. It enables us to have food and shelter, to get an education, to travel, to have fun experiences with our family. All of these things matter, for they enrich our lives and provide enjoyment. God desires us to have life and have it abundantly. I do believe that God definitely is in favor of us having fun! 

The parable today is one that can call us up short. It invites us to examine our own privilege, our own relationship to money, especially in this time when the pandemics facing our nation have brought to the fore the disparities that exist along lines of race and class. For those of us who have multiple categories of privilege, this parable ought to give us pause about our own finances and what ways we might be following in the Rich Man’s footsteps and ignoring needs or problems that are right in front of us. How might we have been too self-centered or internally focused? What might we need to be doing differently? How might we be a part of the transformation to which Jesus invites us through this parable? How might we be a part of dismantling unjust structures and helping to realize God’s kingdom, God’s beloved community? 

Jesus calls us to see our wealth as a means, as my friend Amelia does, as a means to make a difference in the world. What would it look like for us to see money only as a means? How can we let go of the hold money can have in our lives? How can we use whatever assets we have to enrich our life and the lives of others? Money may not be permanent, but we can use it to make a lasting difference in the lives of others. May we have the grace and the courage to use whatever resources have to be a part of transformation of the world. 

AMEN.