This is a sermon I delivered a couple weeks ago (7/26) in Spanish.  No longer July but I think (especially with my current financial situation!) it is still quite timely.  I’m excited about the GC energy toward Hispanic/Latino ministry and am looking forward to what the National Strategic Vision Plan holds for Oregon!

Potluck Faith

Proper 12, Year B

Readings:

2 Samuel 11:1-15
Psalm 14

Ephesians 3:14-21

John 6:1-21

The other day I was talking to a friend of mine. She is a very spiritual woman and dedicates much of her life to her faith. Her husband has been out of work for several months. They have two young boys, and this family of four has been living on her meager single income. She looked at me with a smile. “But you know what?” she said, “In our 15 years together, we have never been happier than we are right now. We have always spent our lives thinking about money, and our family was falling apart. Then last year we decided to forget about the money and start concentrating on the things that matter: our faith and our kids. Now the money situation is worse than ever but we are the happiest that we have ever been.”

When we have less, we have more.

“Six months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little,” laments Phillip in today’s Gospel. With the current economic recession and high unemployment, I think many of us can agree that now more than ever 6 months wages are a lot. It is also often the case that the more money we earn, the less we seem to have. Now more than ever families are lining up to apply for food stamps and cash assistance because there is simply not enough. Food pantries are being squeezed because the supply is tight and the demand is great.

From where, then, could we possible receive nourishment? When have absolutely nothing left, what is it that we couldn’t possibly lose?

With God, we shall not go hungry. In Matthew 6:28-34, Jesus tells the people:

“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

In times like these, our natural instinct tells us isolate and hoard, pulling away into our own selves. It is easy under these circumstances to feel quite anxious and deprived! Jesus, however, invites us to just the opposite. “Sit down,” He says. He invites all of us to partake in a huge picnic; a potluck feast. Just as it is in our own Episcopal tradition and the 8^th sacrament of Coffee Hour, there is always enough to eat. When we have picnics and celebrations, everyone prepares a dish to share. One dish on its own would scarcely feed a family, but if each of us (or at least many of us) brings a dish, we find ourselves swimming in leftovers.

That’s the miracle of faith. Jesus never leaves us hungry.

And what if – just as a thought – the terrifying storm in today’s Gospel is actually the dark, raging storm that we feel deep inside our souls in these times of angst? When the sky is black and we see Christ walking calmly over our violent, crashing waves, it’s easy to pull back in shock and anger. But Jesus tells us, “Do not be afriad.” Once we invite Christ to climb into our rocky boat, we will find ourselves safely banked on the calm seashore.

Remember, then, that today as we break bread together, we share in the faith and in the hope of Christ, and he will not allow us to go hungry. As St. Paul reminds us, may “we may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that we may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever.”

Amen

Going for a ride,

remembered EFP yap,

bikes recall good things.

 

Here’s a picture I drew for a poster

 

Posters and handbills, Free Market3

or here:

 

http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B3OzLPrvtgCWYzFkNmU5NGItMmY0My00MGFjLTk3MjctMWJmMWM2ZjBkNmIw&hl=en

Went to the Lansing Jazz festival and was swing dancing in the humidity with friends yesterday. Missed the Erykah Badu concert in Chene Park. Working on getting myself into to the MI diocesan conference in October @Lansing. Hoping the “really really free market” is a popular success to begin sustaining itself. Recently I’ve been elected to national coordinating committee of the Young Democratic Socialists, hopefully I’ll have awesome stories to post about fun happenings with them.

 

I always welcome sporadic emails, let me know if you’re reading this blog and we can always reconnect!

vogleson@msu.edu

To take another cue from Michelle, here are a few of the best lines I collected during our whirlwind ten days in Anaheim:

Heart transplants are at least possible in this era. [pause] Brain transplants aren’t yet.

– The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, on changing one’s mind vs. changing one’s heart

The heart of this church will slowly turn to stone if we think that our primary mission is to the people who already sit in our pews.

– The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori

The economy is a wholly owned subsidiary of the environment.

– Gaylord Nelson, quoted by the Most Rev. Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury

Every one of our activities, every one of our decisions, involves risk. We cannot have profit without cost.

– The Most Rev. Rowan Williams

In Jewish tradition, when law and story collide, story often prevails.

– The Rt. Rev. Alan Scarfe, Bishop of Iowa, testifying in favor of Resolution B012

We want to be incredibly attentive to the movement of Christ in the world outside the church.

– The Rt. Rev. Marc Andrus, Bishop of California, testifying in favor of Resolution C019

We’re not good enough to marry – why are they baptizing us?

– Tom Jackson, President of Oasis California, testifying in favor of Resolution C019

The words we use shape the framing of our possibilities.

– The Rev. Gail Davis Morris, Diocese of Massachusetts, testifying in favor of Resolution C041

Who we are is a gift from God … Creation, in all its variety, is good.

– The Rev. Heather Wiseman, Diocese of Southern Ohio, testifying in favor of Resolution C004

We are afraid that if we go forward, we will damage our relations with the [global] church … [but] our way forward does not have to be through unanimity.

– Paul Brockman, Diocese of Virginia, testifying in favor of Resolution C004

Writing liturgy is really hard!

– The Rev. Phyllis Spiegel, testifying in favor of Resolution C009

Using the liturgical resources of my church, I can teach my students how to bless the candlestick that sits on the altar, but not the couple that sits in the pew.

– The Rev. Dr. Katherine Ragsdale, Dean & President of Episcopal Divinity School, testifying in favor of Resolution C017

We have turned our profiteering into an idol, but it turns out that Mammon is a pretty severe god.

– Ched Myers, “Social Investing as a Response to the Theological Problem of Affluenza: Moving Capital From Wall Street to Main Street”

The word manna, in Hebrew man-hu, means: “What the hell is this?”

– Ched Myers, ibid.

Capital is not morally neutral, nor are its uses.

– Ched Myers, ibid.

We are not just investing capital for mission; rather, where and how we invest our capital is the mission.

– Ched Myers, ibid.

Behind every political agenda is a concrete human reality.

– Ched Myers, ibid.

If we could move 10% of Christian capital in this country into community development, we could have a huge impact on structural poverty.

– Ched Myers, ibid.

There’s something about living your life in your imagination which is safe, but deeply unsatisfying.

– Donna Cartwright, TransEpiscopal

The more comfortable I became with my identity, the less comfortable the church was with me.

– The Rev. Gari Green, TransEpiscopal

[The church also needs] people who are not called to revolutionary action, who prize structure and order, and who are ready to create structures that will last for the long haul.

– Pamela Darling, speaking to the Episcopal Women’s Caucus

Disclaimer: I am not on my usual computer and for some reason my family’s computer browser only lets me see half the text i’m typing. I apologize for any blatant spelling or grammar mistakes.

So this morning my rector gave me the opportunity to speak to the 8am and 10am services. I like to fly by the seat of mypants (although when I used that term during my speech no one seemed too humored…) so I really just touched on the ideas that came to mind first as being the most powerful lessons learned from GC. Let’s all keep in mind that the 8 am service had about 7 people in attendance total, needless to say I didn’t serve up the hottest speech in town. I asked them to select what aspects of GC they’d like to hear about, and got to describe to them the whole process of following the bottle bill from start to finish (which was so cool since the HOD adopted iton the last day, and I happened to be around to witness the vote and everything!).

When it came to the 10 am service, there were a lot more familiar faces and the floodgates opened! All my GC memories came together with this happy whooshh! and all its highlights and themes, lessons and missteps, composted after a day of R&R, filtered through my seive-like mind and here’s what trickled out:

Umbuntu (Joseph and Anson must be cringing… we all agree it was overused) and it’s “I in you and you in I” got me thinking about identity and definition. The church was, and is every 3 years, staring at itself in the mirror. Except, being detached from our respective organic communities, the national church was a body of loosely connected individuals seeking to find themselves in one another.  Most of the time when I sought to put that mirror to myself, or see what others see in themselves, I always came up with an abstraction whose likeness reminded me of home, of someone frm my parish, from someone who has helped raise me, and in this circular way, of myself. The identity crisis of the national church is the identity crisis of every parish.

It’s the crisis of people (as individuals and/or as communities)seeking to define themselves based on decisions made for the right reasons. Have I come to be what I am because I have made decisions for the right reasons? Did the national church repeal B033 for the right reasons? Do we define ourselves to others for the right reasons?

From my brain droppings delivered at 10am service, the pulp of my GC experience strained out my itty bitty revelation, if you will. My parish, my home community, the very thing that defines for me what being Episcopalian means (and, even after GC, still does), that is what I contributed to the national Ubuntu, what I was able to give to the national identity. My parish, with its commitment to local poverty alleviation, to caring for its own families in time of economic and medical crisis, for being so committed to inclusive love, that’s what I see in MY mirror. It’s a gift from my parish that we share an Ubuntu relationship where those values have become my values. So as I had my GC experience with YAP, I was able to bring my parish to the national level through my Ubuntu relationship with the national church, through the awesome peace and justice work EPF does, through giving away my “novel” voice and opinion in exchange for meaningful change.

I hope I was able to bring my best face to the national church as it looked itself in the mirror to define what its become and will continue to progress towards. Also, if the Episcopal Church wants to be a part of me, its already so through my parish. GC has given me hope to extend my own inclusive love, and make the national image of the church a part of what I see in myself.

I hope I never again have to make Ubuntu metaphors. Seriously.

For those who are confused, that’s Universal Young Adult, and I couldn’t find any of them last night at Genesis night.  Now, before I really get going on my feelings, I want to say that I really hope I don’t come across as a pretentious ass.  The service last night had some good parts to it.  I really liked that a lot, if not all, of the music was local to the people bringing it to us.  I greatly affirm writing music within congregations that embody where the community comes from.

However, this was a great snapshot to me of The Episcopal Church, somewhat in light of what others have said about the UYA on this blog.  Sitting in the back of the House of Deputies like I am is well and good because I can’t see the people very well; we’re all on the same level so our heads are the same height, and there are diocesan poles in the way.  However, last night when Scott Gunn and I walked in (late.  We made an appearance), there were people with glowsticks and it was kind of rock-type music.  Our seating was ABOVE everyone else, so I could see out over the crowd, even if I couldn’t see everything on stage close up.

I really liked that there was a poet at one point.  I liked the artist going the whole time.  But I was overstimulated, personally.  The poet talked about ADD generation and our inability to slow down/unplug, but last night didn’t encourage that.  During the songs there was music (very performance oriented), video going, an artist being inspired and creating really neat things, and lights changing colors.  I didn’t know what to focus on.  I really wouldn’t have mind if someone had sounded a gong once or thrice and smoked the place up with incense (which is NOT the same as a smoke machine blowing onto the band) and let there be some still, calm, silence.

I liked the themes of the worship service, but really thought the Doctrine of Concomitance was missing from one part of the sermon, which is really my only comment on the sermon.  However, in looking over the CROWD I had a few thoughts.  First, I was transported back to the Chicago with Earth, Wind, and Fire concert I attended in early June.  At that concert we were at the very top of the stadium similarly to the way I was at the top of the arena’s seating last night.  Now, given my experience with worship at a mega church in early high school, I thought, “I think this worship is intended to draw in the Universal Young Adult.”  But looking over the crowd, I couldn’t find any.  What I saw were a lot of people in the same general demographic that attended the EWF concert.

What REALLY hit me was that I didn’t see (m)any people like me ageise, and I’m in the young adult crowd.  And that’s The Episcopal Church.  I felt like Katrina Browne talks about when she read about the slavery in her family’s history and how it’d been there right in front of her the whole time.  The aging of The Episcopal Church has been right in front of me at St. Mark’s, at Diocesan Convention, at St. Paul’s On-the-Hill, and even at General Convention.  But it hit me in seeing the boomers LOVING something that’s new to them (playing with their glow sticks) that doesn’t speak that much to me.  I’ve DONE that.  I came into the Episcopal Church (and this is me personally), in part to get away from that.

What last night was for me wasn’t about liturgy.  It wasn’t how I worship, but greatly can appreciate that there are plenty of people who do worship that way.  For me it was a call to action for evangelism, particularly to young adults.  If anything last night could’ve been really overwhelming; stats about the number of clergy people under the age of 35 are shocking for someone who HOPES to be ordained by 27.  General Convention has been daunting looking and seeing few youngish people.  I don’t want to sound agist, either.  There is a lot of wisdom from people who’ve been in the church a long time….but a lot of times young adults get shafted.

We’re not just cute, inspiring, or sweet for being here.  One of the things that I’ve loved about the Young Adult Presence with EPF is that I think they’re really recognizing us for our gifts.  While the booth was mostly personned by people who are older, we were given guidelines and told what EPF was supporting and told to “GO!”  We didn’t have people waking us up, we didn’t have people checking-up on our testimony to make it say what they wanted it to.  The Official Youth Presence has seat and voice, but not a vote!  EPF, however, has asked us to do our research and speak to what’s important to us.  We’ve been tracking legislation and reporting to our coordinators daily, but that’s been just as much of a time for me to process than anything else.  Definitely not a task-mastering thing.  They got us here to participate.

And we’ve participated.  We came and have been doing what we came to do.  And I’m thankful.  I don’t know that I have much to add to Cat’s great post about recruiting young people, other than really take us seriously.  Don’t use us as tokens, but really recognize our gifts and talents.  Give us special representation, if you think that’s important, but let us be us in that context and let us fully participate.  Step 1: don’t invite us somewhere giving us seat and voice and then not actually let us vote.  And please give us grace.  Remember that we’re young and not always “established.”  I’m 22 and just graduated from college.  I have no idea what I’m going to do in seminary; for undergrad I didn’t have to pay for much other than gas and car insurance (scholarship).  Others I knew had to buy things.  We don’t often make much money and give when we can.

My next step is going to be proposing people pledge $1/wk to “be known to the treasturer” and then start subtly taking over.

I didn’t get up to go to committee yesterday.  I did get up and listen to the House of Bishops take up C056, which has to take up blessings.  I liveblogged the debate, which was really good.  You can follow all my General Convention updates at twitter.com/JosephPMathews.  I had a piece of cheesecake for breakfast before that.  The bishop gave it to me on Sunday after the diocesan luncheon.  You can also follow ALL of  what’s going on about convention via twitter at search.twitter.com and searching for “#ecgc”.  When someone moved to postpone the discussion on C056 yesterday I left and went downstairs, but I didn’t!  Some of my legislation (new entry in a few minutes) came up so I stayed through it.

Before debate I was verbally assaulted by someone in charge of running the room, though.  One person came up and told me and the guy from Center Aisle that we couldn’t plug in.  As soon as it was out of her mouth another woman came over, said it again, and then unceremoniously unplugged our computers.  And then the chaplain prayed.  And then she said, “You need to move your cords so that people don’t trip!”  When we asked why the answer was, “We’re paying for power!”  After my tweets someone posted this blog entry, which when I got it made me laugh.  As the house session started the PB apologized to the bishops for the ENS headline about C025, and she said it would be fixed.

I was also wearing my Harry Potter costume all day yesterday.  Throughout the day I got a lot of questions about it, but they were all positive.  I explained and people laughed and enjoyed it.  Since it’s purple I was going to take it off for the House of Bishops, but Bishop Jacobus told me to go for it and have a good time.  So I did.  I took it off for Eucharist so as to not be a distraction or draw undue attention to myself.  As I went down the escalator to go to the EPF booth to drop my robe off before Eucharist a beautiful young clergywoman said, “Honey, what’re you wearing?” so I told her.

After session I went to eucharist and wound up sitting wiht a lot of EPF Yappers.  We weren’t big fans of the music yesterday. I got a veggie wrap (#3) from the exhibit all vendors and listened to EDS’s new dean speak.  I liked what she said.  After it I went and spoke to the deacons and then campus ministry, where I was recruited to try to deliver a message to the House of Bishops, from which someone had borrowed campus ministry’s pace banner.  After that failed I sat on the floor  and waited for them to get out of closed door session.  I got in and they said that they’d take C056 back up today, so I left.  It was about time for our EPF meeting by that point, too.  We’d postponed from the day before (that was D025 discussion time).  Someone from Episcopal Life, who posted the story online at that link.

We didn’t really do legislative check in because we were all kind of tired and anxious about what was going to be happening, but we had a great conversation (I think) about D025.  Most of us had been in the house of Bishops when they’d debated and voted, and we needed some time to just do group therapy and decompress (I think).  It was really good to talk.  We talked about Anglican polity, fear, the bishop who felt that others were hiding behind the smokescreen of the Communion, etc.  When we broke I went back to the room to drop my bag and robe….

And then went to my first march.  There will be pictures on Facebook.  The neatest part was when we all took our signs down and were at our destination and people talked.  I had to leave early because I was working Traces of the Trade.  On the way back I was chatting with someone from Integrity who said that power strips had been put in the media area and when she went back the door keepers made a point of directing her to more power.  That’s amusing, too.  When I got to the Marriott I checked in with Dain and Constance and then went to the diocesan hospitality room, where I got some grapes and enjoyed sitting with people from the Central Gulf Coast.

Traces of the Trade was great, and it’s inspired a blog entry for later today sometime  After it I went to the room, got changed and was off to the theater.  I have some interesting thoughts about Harry Potter and spiritual formation (that may be specific to me) that I’ll blog later, too.  Be looking for more content from me in the next few days!  I have to write today’s collect, as well.

Be well, do good works, and keep in touch.

Pictures from yesterday’s protest against Disney, for their failure to settle with contracts with with their employees including health care benefits.

EPF-YAP outside convention center waiting for Disney workers to arrive

It does show my inexperience with General Convention and TEC’s leadership, that I was surprised when I first entered the house of Bishops to see so many old white men.  What did I expect?  Well, I suppose I have relied on headlines featuring our PB’s pic too often to understand our church’s empowerment of women to roles of leadership.  It was naive of me to fall into the trap of believing in a progressive equality present in our church based on the election of a female PB.  This would be as silly as using the election of Barak Obama to speak to the lack of racism in the United States.

Where are the women if they are not in the House of Bishops?  They are in the room next to us, in the Episcopal Churh Women meeting.  I can hear their applause, laughter and singing penetrate the dividing wall between us and break up the monotone discussion and proceedings in the House of Bishops.   This reality began to hit me  just as the House of Bishops introduced the ECW’s new president.  She was given a special opportunity to speak to the house (just as she was given several days ago to speak to te House of Deputies).   Why was this opportunity given?   Have we not moved beyond the need to have the president of the ECW  represent the women of TEC?  I understand there is a recent history of women being denied leadership, ordination and a voice in the church.  As noted by some during this convention, this history is more recent than most of us like to remember, talk about and own.

We need to exaime our current use of a token women speaking to Bishops or Deputies, especiallly one that makes blatently sexist remarks that perpetuate the stereotype that women are emotional and irrational and that it is just easier to work with men in places of leadership!  This leaves me wondering, what is the place of ECW in a church that supposedly offers a level playing field for all people of any gender?

I headed into convention late this morning (we’re all getting pretty tired) and before I left the room I sat down to check my email. I received one from an unknown address, and curious, opened it to see what it read. It was from a fellow Episcopalian, whom I have never met:

“This morning in Ohio, we executed a man, with another man to be executed next week, and one more every month through February. I have found that in my state, our churches are so divided on capital punishment that it is as hot button an issue as homosexuality–Trinity Cathedral is a wonderful exception. It’s hard to live in a state which kills people in a premeditated way, and has me partaking in it by doing in in my name. In my experience, I have found that EPF says very little about this issue. Is it that people feel that few are affected and there are larger issues? Is it that within EPF there are those who do not object to the death penalty? The mindset of revenge is very powerful, and quite operative in capital punishment. I am curious what you think about this.

“For the past two years I have written a man on death row in Ohio and have visited him a couple of times. He was a child of rape. Many, if not nearly all, on death row, are poor with horrendous upbringings. I am so grateful for your work with home visits for families at high risk of child abuse and neglect. That is where it can all start. I feel we have let so many children down, and then when they become “damaged goods” as adults and do horrific crimes, we execute them. Many of these adults are not easy to defend. I don’t want them on the street, just to live out their lives in prison in a humane situation (which prison often is not). And I would like us to work on the reasons why these people are there to begin with, as you have done.”

My stomach lurched and time froze. I was transported for a moment from the “happy, exciting Episcopal fellowship” and hurdled back into the dank alleys where justice’s flickering flame does NOT shine. I was dizzy.

Even now I am praying between paragraphs, because these crimes against humanity weigh heavily on my heart. The short answer (although there really is no such thing, is there?) is that I am ABSOLUTELY against the Death Penalty. I cannot speak for all on the Young Adult Presence but I am sure many, if not all, are of like mind. My workplace is right across the street from a Planned Parenthood. Quite regularly I drive by small handfuls of protesters standing outside with rosaries and enlarged photos of unborn fetuses. I have two questions that I am dying to ask them: 1) how many unwanted children have you personally adopted (although MOST women will choose to keep their “unwanted’ children; that’s where child abuse prevention agencies like mine come in) and 2) who among you is out picketing the prisons? Is the life of an unborn child worth more than a man (usually) who has committed sin? Is his sin any greater than your own?  If it is still too difficult, I recall an exercise that I read a few years ago.  First you imagine yourself as a child, about 6 years old, and what you were like; what frightened you.  Then you imagine your parents as children, also 6 years old.  It’s funny because it works.  Any frustration that be held is suddenly released.  Inside each of us there is a small child, giggling, playing, timid, afraid.

Many questions come to mind. “Who IS my neighbor?” Anyone can preach on that. What we do NOT preach on, however, is the Christianity of dank alleys.   A whole bunch of Episcopalians marched today with Disney workers for justice and health care (see Disney Is Unfaithful).  With Bishops and priests in their collars in front, we eagerly took up picket signs and chanted “Si Se Puede” and “Know (No) Justice, Know (No) Peace!”  It struck me today that we can do that, but when it comes to the unglamorous dirty work, we figure “The Good Samaritan” tooth fairy will do it.

…Which is why I go to my church.  I mentioned before that I drive an hour each way on a Sunday to attend service.  My church, see, has a ministry that I’ve never encountered in another: Rahab Sisters, a women-only ministry to other women working in the sex industry.  While I am unable to participate due to the commute and my own schedule, that, to me, is radical theology.  That is splashing in the gutters, looking for Christ (and there, in his wholeness, is he found).  It is dirty.  It is unglamorous.  It won’t get you on camera.  It is Mary’s work, humbly washing the soiled, calloused feet of Christ.

I wish that each of us were blessed with people in our lives like the woman who wrote her beautiful letter.  I want to say that she is Mary, but she expresses her gentle strength a different way (and I’m tired of the Church referring to “Marys” and “Marthas”).  This woman holds a very special place as Veronica, wiping the very face of Christ as He is led to his own death penalty.

This afternoon we listened to Rev. Dr. Katherine Ragsdale, the new dean of Episcopal Divinity School.  She enlightened us that she learned in school that the original Hebrew text in Genesis uses a gender-neutral pronoun “it” in referring to the first human, saying that “God created it in God’s own image.”  This “God Likeness” called “it” was then divided of itself into male and female, because one “it” of God was lonely and could not have a relationship with itself.  God made “it” into two – Adam and Eve, each with different aspects of God’s likeness.  Each of us, said Dr. Ragsdale, retains part of that larger image of God.  Each one of us might have a “different” piece of that great big puzzle, so it is only in relationship with one another that humanity is able to reflect together the entirety of God’s image.

I take Dr. Ragsdale’s analogy one step further.  In executing one of our own, we are executing a small piece of our puzzle; chipping away at the image of God.  Amid all our justice talk and Episcopal conventions and “Family Gatherings,” we continue still to nail God, in Christ, to the cross.

Father, forgive us, for we know not what we do.

Please pray for John Fautenberry, excuted today, and for those who are following Christ through His Stations of the Cross.