St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church

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Homily Highlights for April 5 – Easter Sunday

THE LORD IS RISEN, INDEED!

Were you ever kept awake through an entire night by fear or worry? Did the night seem longest, coldest, darkest just before the first rays of the rising sun? So it is with the Easter faith. It rises in the heart, sometimes slowly, and it may be weariness and tears that are first faintly warmed by the rising of a new sun that begins to tell us that Easter keeps happening and God wants it to happen in all of our lives.

“Since you have been raised with Christ seek the things that are above.” (Col. 3:1) “Alleluia, Christ is risen, the Lord is risen indeed” - Greeting of the early church, the new family of Jesus Christ. They rejoiced in the risen Christ because their lives depended on it. Our lives do too. A from-the-heart Easter is not just the remembrance of an event two thousand years ago, it is a feast of hope for every age – especially those times when hope is challenged.

Easter (Resurrection of Jesus) confronts two of the greatest issues all human beings must face:

1)The problem of evil and our struggle with suffering.

2)The possibility of healing and renewal in our lives, the personal transformation we are called to in Jesus Christ.

THE PROBLEM OF EVIL

On the day of the Crucifixion, the followers of Jesus must have pondered some disturbing questions: Was Jesus wrong about everything? Had he failed? Had God failed? Is there a God at all? Can the power of death so recklessly wielded by blind and violent people bring an end to all that is good? Can evil silence the truth with violence? (“What is truth?” said Pilate.) They are important questions for us all, for if death is the ultimate power, the ultimate reality, the silencer, then death is God and we are all in deep trouble. Where is justice, where is hope, if the power of evil that uses violence to crush the innocent is triumphant? (If the murderer triumphs over his innocent victim.) If death is God what reason is there for all of us not to grab all we can for ourselves in our brief moment in time, making selfishness our standard and disregarding the needs of others. Unselfish love which holds together families and societies would be only for fools.

This is a picture of the world under the dominion of sin and death and this is what Jesus Christ has saved us from. (Alleluia, Christ is risen!) The message of Easter takes us even further, “not only has Christ been raised but we have been raised with Him.” (Hebrews 2:15) By His death and resurrection, Christ “frees” those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. The slavery of being bent inward upon ourselves, afraid to give ourselves up to God’s call of love and service, the slavery of sin — the chains of the soul — that brings death to the living. “Do not seek the living among the dead...” says God’s messenger. Who are the dead? Are we among them? Alleluia Christ is risen! Life itself is transformed. Ask Him anew to enter your life.

LIVES TRANSFORMED BY THE RISEN CHRIST

There has at times been an obsession with finding “proof” of the resurrection. But the truth is that from the first dawn of Easter faith, when terrified men who had deserted Jesus were suddenly proclaiming that he still lives, and through the centuries, it has been the witness of transformed lives more than anything that has been the sign of the presence of the Risen Christ alive and at work in the world. And now God bids us to be a part of that resurrected Body of Christ. In the words of the prophet Ezekiel, “God has given us a new heart and a new spirit...” a spirit that can rise above all those discouragements and deaths, great and small, that life can deal to us. A spirit that is not intimidated by the earthly shadows of defeat and death into living a totally self-centered existence. The Holy Spirit released through Jesus Christ is God’s gift to a broken world, filling us with a vision of God’s Kingdom and an enduring sense that we are part of something bigger and greater than ourselves. It is a vision often hidden in simple things, but we can see it with eyes of faith when we look beyond all the glittering hype and illusions of our time to the redemptive possibilities of common things, small but important victories for God’s Kingdom every time we can reach out and lift each other up. In this is resurrection.

In that reaching, in that lifting, in that caring, we will be wounded by life’s pain and wearied by life’s routines but Christ has uplifted especially the wounded and the weary. In His rising we too are raised and can say from the heart: “Alleluia, Christ is risen” and because of that my life is changed and God’s gift of new beginnings which brought creation from chaos, freedom from slavery and resurrection from crucifixion can bring renewal and hope to each of our lives. Today is not the end of the story, it is the beginning, a new season to embrace with joy and hope God’s gift of life renewed.

Father Hagerman

Homily Highlights for March 22 – The 5thSunday of Lent

SIR, WE WISH TO SEE JESUS

“Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” (John 12:21)

In today’s Gospel, a group of seekers ask to “see Jesus” and the question is raised for all of us: Where will we find Jesus?

1. IN THE MANY CALLS TO DYING AND RISING WE RECEIVE IN THIS LIFE

Jesus uses a compelling illustration from farming to teach of the power of sacrificial love. “Unless a grain of wheat fall into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” (John 12:24) This is what Jesus will do in his dying and rising for us. (The Paschal Mystery) This is what God will do for us in following Jesus in the ministry of service. In those times when the price of sacrificial love seems more than we can bear, Jesus offers us words of comfort and strength: “Come to me all who labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Matthew 11:28-30) In this we can find the strength to begin again and know Christ’s resurrection power as a renewing power in our own life.

2. WE FIND JESUS WHEN WE ARE BURDENED BY GUILT AND TURN TO HIM

God’s Word tells us that “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8) There is a God given value in our life and a power to begin again because of what Christ has done for us.

3. WE FIND JESUS IN RESPONDING TO THE NEEDS OF OTHERS

The hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the sick, the prisoner...and when we serve them, we serve Jesus himself. (Matthew 25:40)

4. WE FIND JESUS WHEN WE ARE IN DOUBT

and find that he can come to us in the midst of the storm (Matthew 8:24) and say “if you have faith even as small as a mustard seed” you will move mountains of fear, mountains of doubt and see clearly a new road of hope. (Matthew 17:20)

5. WHEN WOUNDS OF ANGER MAKE FORGIVENESS SEEM IMPOSSIBLE

We find Jesus in the prayer he taught us: “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.”

6. WE FIND JESUS WHEN IN OUR DAILY WALK WE CAN BEGIN TO SEE THE SACRED IN ORDINARY THINGS AND THANK GOD FOR HIS PROVIDENCE

that clothes the lilies of the field and brings forth bread from the earth. (Matthew 6:30-33)

“Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” Open your eyes of faith. You will find Jesus everywhere.

Father Hagerman

Homily Highlights for March 15 – The 4thSunday of Lent

FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD

KEYNOTE SCRIPTURES

“Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, and his mercy endures forever.” (Psalm 107:1)

“God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life.”

(John 3:16)

WHAT IS THIS ETERNAL LIFE? WHEN DOES IT BEGIN?

John’s gospel maintains that a decision for or against faith in Jesus Christ is a life and death decision for this world and the next. The two merge into one in John’s vision of the life of faith. Eternal life refers not only to resurrection life (note John 11:26 in which Jesus says “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me even though they die, will live”) but also to having intimate communion with God in Christ in this life. (John 15:9) “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Abide in my love.” ETERNAL LIFE CAN BEGIN NOW WHEN WE ABIDE IN THE LOVE OF JESUS CHRIST and God’s love in Christ does not let go when we cross the frontier of death into God’s presence. All of this is possible because “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son” and continues to give life in Jesus Christ.

A LOOK BACK AT ST. PATRICK: THE MYSTIC’S VISION - A MERGING OF WORLDS

This week, many around the world will celebrate the feast of St. Patrick (March 17). His profound spirituality probably gets lost in most of the celebrations, but I believe it can be a key to understanding the Gospel of John’s vision of eternal life. Patrick, in his autobiographical Confessions, says that he really didn’t pray much or very deeply growing up in northwest Britain, but after he was sold into slavery in Ireland he spent long hours in the work of a shepherd. In these many hours, often in isolation, he developed a life of prayer that embraced the entire day. As each day was increasingly consecrated to God, he developed what is sometimes called the “mystic’s vision” in which the life of this world and the next become one. Though profound, it is as simple as the prayer Jesus taught us: “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Eternal life begins now, living in communion with the will of God.

This communion with God will not detach us from the concerns of this world—indeed the passion for God’s love and justice will grow stronger and engage us even more deeply in the struggles of all God’s children. Yet there is a new perspective that sees beyond the pain and struggles into the embrace of God’s light. Our compassion and faithfulness deepen in faith for we are connected to a power of love that cannot be defeated because Jesus is the resurrection and the life. And so we give praise and thanks that “God so loved the world that he gave his only son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”

Father Hagerman

Homily Highlights for March 1 – The 2ndSunday of Lent

THE FOUR COVENANTS OF THE BIBLE – PART 2

Last Sunday we noted that there are four major covenants between God and God’s people in the Bible.

1) God’s Covenant with Noah in the sign of the rainbow. A covenant with all creation promising the gift of continuing life. “As long as the earth endures, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.” (Genesis 8:22)

2) The Covenant with Abraham that we read about today in the Old Testament lesson. Abraham will be the father of many nations. Today, Jews, Muslims, and Christians are a part of the spiritual family of Abraham.

3) The Covenant with Moses that becomes our own as we promise to follow the 10 Commandments at the beginning of every Sunday service in Lent.

4) The New Covenant in Jesus Christ that we celebrate with every service of Holy Communion.A Covenant that calls us to follow Jesus in the Way of the Cross and Resurrection as our way of life.

A CROSS WITH A DOVE AND A RAINBOW

Many years ago my wife Berney made for my office a cross with a needle point rainbow and dove at its center. It is a reminder of both the covenant with Noah and all creation and the New Covenant (or New Testament) with its sign of the cross of Jesus Christ. (There is something unique about the dove that indicates that it is a sign of both covenants.)

In God’s unfolding purpose in salvation history more and more people are brought into the relationship/covenant with God starting with individuals such as Adam and Eve growing into families and tribes and the nation of Israel. Finally the covenant community is not limited by any of these and becomes an ALL INCLUSIVE COMMUNITY.

The three fundamental questions in each Covenant are:

Who is God?

Who am I?

Who are we together?

(Rueben Job, THREE SIMPLE QUESTIONS)

Father Hagerman

Homily Highlights for February 22 – The 1st Sunday of Lent

THE FOUR COVENANTS OF THE BIBLE – PART 1

There are four covenants between God and his people in the Bible. They are highlighted in various ways during in our readings and liturgy for the first three Sundays in Lent.

1) God’s covenant with Noah in the sign of the rainbow. This is, in a sense, a covenant with all the earth: God’s promise not to cleanse the earth again with a flood that destroys. There will still be a need for cleansing, but God has other plans for how to accomplish it.

2) God’s covenant with Abraham to make of his lineage a people who will be God’s people. This comes to pass when Abraham’s grandson, Jacob, has sons whose descendants become the 12 tribes of Israel.

3) God’s covenant with Moses after the Exodus from slavery in Egypt. God’s people are called to serve him through observing the Torah, the Law of Moses. The Torah includes the first five books of the Bible. The part of the law we know best is the Ten Commandments. The prophet Jeremiah looks ahead to a new covenant of the heart which we will call The New Testament or The New Covenant. (Jer. 31:31-34) A messianic hope begins because of God’s promise to King David to establish the throne of his kingdom forever. (2 Samuel 7)

4) In Jesus Christ “The time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God is at hand.” (Mk. 1:15) We hear the words of Jesus each Sunday proclaiming the New Covenant: “This is my blood of the new Covenant which is shed for you and many for the forgiveness of sins.”

One Covenant builds upon another in an unfolding drama of Redemption in the Covenant Story of the Bible. We hear the story over and over again even as we live it, often in the storms that come before the rainbow, looking to Jesus to lead us through the storms. In today’s Gospel, Jesus comes up out of the waters of Baptism anointed by God.

Jesus enters a wilderness world inhabited by Satan, wild beasts and the angels, for God’s Word has no illusions but always leads us to bread in the wilderness and ministering angels among us. We cannot always see that in the first steps. Jesus enters the wilderness, bids us to follow him in faith and the journey of Lent begins.

The three fundamental questions in each Covenant are:

Who is God?

Who am I?

Who are we together?

(Rueben Job, THREE SIMPLE QUESTIONS)

Father Hagerman

Homily Highlights for February 18 – Ash Wednesday

HUMANITY-DUST AND SPIRIT IN THE IMAGE OF GOD

KEYNOTE SCRIPTURES

Genesis 1:27 “So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”

Genesis 2:7 “Then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.”

Genesis 3:19 “You are dust and to dust you shall return.”

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life.”

BELOVED DUST

The Book of Genesis in the Bible tells us that we are created from the dust of the earth and the breath of God. (The Hebrew and Greek words for breath can also mean spirit.) Together they are defining of what it means to be a human being in the image and likeness of God. God declared the earth at creation to be good. (Gen. 1:31) So to be made from its elements and to be united to all life is not demeaning, it is ennobling, and should lead us to a respect for God’s earth and good Creation care. (Gen. 2:15) We are also to be ever mindful of the Creator, and God’s spirit within us makes us long for this. Life without God becomes empty now and unto God’s eternity. Dust we are and unto dust we return. That part of us which is of the earth is mortal and destructible; that part of us which is of the breath and spirit of God can live in communion with God in eternal life. We live in the midst of things that are passing away, but God’s love is eternal—love we may experience in the blessings of this life but not bound to the dust. Adam is told by God “you are dust and to dust you shall return” when communion with God is broken. (Gen. 3) In the communion of faith in Christ our spirit remains bound to God’s spirit beyond the passing of “dust to dust.” (Jn. 3:16)