On June 27 Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori preached at Holy Trinity Cathedral, Auckland, in the morning, and at evensong at St. Michael and All Angels in Christchurch.
The readings for the day were: 2 Kings 2: 1-2, 6-14; Psalm 77: 1-2, 11-20; Galatians 5:1, 13-25 and Luke 9: 51-62.
From Bishop Katharine's sermon:
All the hoopla around the World Cup brings to mind another athletic celebration. In 1968 two American athletes stood on the podium in Mexico City and raised their fists. They wanted to make a statement about freedom and their lack of it, for they were black.
Even though the law insists that all people are equal, people of color continue to suffer injustice, in my homeland and, I think, in yours. Their salute got them thrown out of the summer Olympic Games, but it raised the consciousness of a lot of people, and helped the cause of freedom for many, many others.
In one of the biblical languages, the word for prayer means opening a clenched fist. That black power salute began another petition in a continuing prayer across the world, that all people might be free. The crucifixion is a cosmic version of that same prayer – Jesus’ arms and hands open so wide they take in the whole world, indeed, the whole creation.
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‘For freedom Christ has set us free. So stand up and stop being a slave,’ Paul says (Gal 5:1). But freedom isn’t only freedom from ; it’s freedom for – for loving self and others. We have been set free in order that we might become that same sort of liberating love in the world, setting others free.
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The freedom we have received in Christ is meant to give us larger hearts and wider-seeing eyes that don’t focus so much on our own fears. That sort of freedom gives us the ability to look for the larger good, rather than only our own.
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Will we see those self-centered responses that Paul calls works of the flesh: “strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy” – or together can we encourage works of the spirit: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control”? Even the simple act of attending, paying attention to the suffering of others, begins to unclench the fist.
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There’s something about the freedom we know in Jesus that cures our paralyzing fear of those on the margins. You know how that sort of clenching goes: “there but for the grace of God go I. Don’t let that happen to me – keep me far away from any hint of the possibility of homelessness or disability or disaster. Thank God I wasn’t born to that culture.” May the unclenching prayer in us be more like, “dear God, I see this suffering. Help me see you in my neighbor.”
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The freedom we have is to choose for those on the margins, to be in solidarity with the friendless and forgotten, the despised and the demonized. Exercising that freedom is almost always challenging – it annoys people who don’t see any need to change the status quo, it offends those in power, it challenges the ways of the world that say, “me first.”
Crossing those boundaries sent God into human flesh. Crossing those boundaries is the heart of God’s mission. It’s not for the faint of heart, but we find courage from our elder brother who has already opened his hands and arms wide enough for the whole world. We find strength in his body gathered here, and through all time and space. May we claim the freedom that is ours. May our fists open for all!
Read the entire sermon. It's all good. Sadly, there are those within our own Episcopal Church who label Bishop Katharine a heretic - those who will not even allow that she is a Christian. I think, "How can this be?" Her sermon gets to the heart of Jesus' message and Paul's message that we are set free, not to turn inward, but to look outward to serve our neighbors and build the Kingdom of God here on earth.
And who is my neighbor?
I really liked this.
ReplyDeleteFran, I loved your Fr Pat's take on El Shaddai - the nurturing mother. I read your post this morning before church, but I did not have time to leave a comment.
ReplyDeleteIf she's a heretic, then I'd rather be her kind of heretic than certain other people's kind of orthodox.
ReplyDeleteSadly, there are those within our own Episcopal Church ... who will not even allow that she is a Christian.
ReplyDeleteEh?
Me too, Counterlight.
ReplyDeleteCathy, the right-wing blogs and comments have been and are vicious about Bishop Katharine, even to the point of saying she's not Christian. That she's a heretic is a routine assumption.
I registered to comment at one of the right-wing blogs at the time my present bishop was elected and was banned in a matter of weeks for quoting the Gospel about judging others. As soon as Bishop Thompson was elected, he was labeled a revisionist and a heretic. I asked them nicely to give him a chance and pray for him. That's when Sarah Hey banned me as a "known raving revisionist". I promptly and proudly put the quote on my sidebar, where it still remains. I'm in excellent company.
Actually, some are still in TEC, but some have left. And there's Bishop Mark Lawrence of South Carolina. Don't get me started.
oh, right-wing blogs, say no more.
ReplyDeleteIt's like those old jokes about how you wouldn't want to go to heaven because all the best people are in the Other Place, though, isn't it - you know how the Phelps clan reckon they're the only people who are going to get to heaven ultimately - even those right-wing bloggers don't cut it, apparently - but what would you do if you got through the pearly gates and there was just the Phelpses sitting there, and they said, 'Oh yeah, that's right, it's just us, and you, but how did you get in?' I mean, what would you do?
It's the same idea as the birther phenonema. Obama may have made an adult profession of faith and received adult baptism, but he's still a secret Muslim, no matter what he says.
ReplyDeleteHard right Anglican schismatics, and their allies, the cynically all-but-schismatic faux-Episcopalians [EINO's Episcopalians-in-name-only] parse PB Katharine's quotes ... twisting or giving the worst possible connotations to what she's said. Her later statements which "sound" more orthodox are dismissed as insincere, to put it nicely. The name calling of the PB in the comment boxes is shameless.
But never forget that their conservative cadre of bishops cynically swung their votes to her in the last rounds of voting for Presiding Bishop, hoping to *accelerate* the ecclesiastical train wreck that is the AC. They still brag about it to each other.
This is not remotely about Jesus Christ, more likely the Anglican version of 'Christianism'.
Noni mouse
The name calling of the PB in the comment boxes is shameless.
ReplyDeleteNoni mouse, exactly. The scheming and machinations from within and without to destroy the Episcopal Church and Bishop Katharine continue without end.
Here's a random quote from the comments of the right-wing blog, one of many from which I could have chosen:
Well, if this Presiding Bishop gig doesn’t work out for KJS, I hear they’re working on a remake of “The Wizard of Oz.” She’d be perfect as the Wicked Witch of the West. I can just hear her now: “I’ll get you, my pretty, and your little dog, too!”
Noni Mouse, I had a friend who was at the convention when +Katharine was elected. He said he had never felt the Spirit move through a place more strongly than it did the day of her election.
ReplyDeleteHe told me, "Boo, many of those Bishops went into that church with what they thought was a personal agenda. Some at one end of the spectrum thought they were voting for her to be in the face of the conservatives. Those at the other end thought they would bring about the total collapse of the church. Most believed that the Spirit was leading them toward her as the best leader for our church in its troubled time. That is how the Spirit works. It doesn't matter what our personal agenda may be. The Spirit uses it for the Spirit's will not our own."
I have had a great deal of time to observe the wisdom of his words in the years since her election. I believe he is absolutely right.
"...That is how the Spirit works. It doesn't matter what our personal agenda may be. The Spirit uses it for the Spirit's will not our own."
ReplyDeleteHow true, Boocat. A wonderful reminder from your friend.
When I read the resumés of the candidates for PB, several impressed me. Then, when I watched the videos of each candidate, I was most impressed by Bp. Katharine's, but I thought she had no chance of being elected. Imagine my surprise.
"... but I thought she had no chance of being elected. Imagine my surprise."
ReplyDeleteExactly my experience.
Ellie, we were wrong in our prognostications, but we were right about the best person for the job.
ReplyDelete