Loving Conflict

Loving Conflict

Sermon preached by the Rev. Lowell E. Grisham, Rector

St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Fayetteville, Arkansas

January 31, 2016; 4 Epiphany, Year C

Episcopal Revised Common Lectionary

(Jeremiah 1:4-10)  The word of the Lord came to me saying,

                "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,

                and before you were born I consecrated you;

                I appointed you a prophet to the nations."

Then I said, "Ah, Lord God! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy." But the Lord said to me,

                "Do not say, 'I am only a boy';

                for you shall go to all to whom I send you,

                and you shall speak whatever I command you,

                Do not be afraid of them,

                for I am with you to deliver you,

says the LORD."

Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth; and the LORD said to me,

                "Now I have put my words in your mouth.

                See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms,

                to pluck up and to pull down,

                to destroy and to overthrow,

                to build and to plant."

(1 Corinthians 13:1-13)  If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

(Luke 4:21-30)  In the synagogue at Nazareth, Jesus read from the book of the prophet Isaiah, and began to say, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, "Is not this Joseph's son?" He said to them, "Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, 'Doctor, cure yourself!' And you will say, 'Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.'" And he said, "Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet's hometown. But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian." When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.

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(It was a busy, challenging week for all of us. We ran out of time to write. I'm recycling this sermon from a previous year. I hope it was unmemorable enough that is sounds fresh.)

There is a lot of conflict and turbulence in these readings today. 

The first reading from Jeremiah is sometimes titled "The Calling of the Prophet Jeremiah." It has a personal connection for me. I used this reading at my ordination some 35 years ago. I could relate to Jeremiah's protest, "Ah, Lord God! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy." When I was ordained, I was only a boy. God tells the boy, "Speak whatever I command you." At the time of my ordination, I knew that's what I wanted to do – to speak God's word. But I was a bit uncomfortable with the last verse in this reading. In the last verse of Jeremiah's call, God told Jeremiah that his work would be more conflictive than I hoped my work would be. God called Jeremiah "to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant." We'll, I liked those last two. I'd really like to build and to plant. But it made me anxious to imagine myself involved in plucking up and pulling down, in destroying and in overthrowing. I hoped I wouldn't have as volatile a career as Jeremiah. But those other words are also part of the call – words of turbulence and conflict. As I've aged, I've become much more comfortable with turbulence and conflict. It's all part of the creative and re-creative process. Turbulence and conflict: it's necessary for growth.

Turbulence and conflict is part of today's second reading too: the "Love Chapter." Most of us have heard 1 Corinthians 13 at many of the weddings we've attended. But the original context of Paul's words is not a wedding. It's church politics. The church in Corinth has been troublesome for Paul. They've been acting elitist, proud, and self-satisfied. From Paul's perspective they've been "abusing their freedom, refusing to share, scorning their neighbors' spiritual gifts, boasting in their own gifts, seeking recognition for themselves, and jockeying for position in the church." [i] Paul is angry with them. It doesn't matter how big your outreach program is or how pretty your worship may be or how smart your preachers think they are or how fine your choir is. Without love, it's nothing. Paul points toward every single thing that their congregation is proud of and asks them, "Are these things done with love? How might they be done with greater love?" It's not a complement. It's a challenge.

And if you think Jeremiah or Paul might have ticked off some people, Jesus really infuriated folks in his own hometown. We heard the first part of this story last week. Jesus is visiting the synagogue at his home in Nazareth, and he reads from Isaiah. "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." And we pick up with today's Gospel: Jesus continues, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." 

Sounds like people reacted positively. "All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth." How about Joseph's little boy. Hasn't he grown up?

But Jesus won't let it lie there. Maybe he knows something about his hometown. Maybe he knows that the only way they will relate to him is for him to perform for them, to do some entertaining healings so the hometown folks can revel in his celebrity status. Hometown boy makes good. Just goes to show. Nazareth is Number 1. 

Whatever the underlying reasons, Jesus provokes them—intentionally. I'm not going to do any miracles here, like you've heard about from Capernaum. My work, God's work, is not about "homies." You remember in Elijah's days. There was a famine throughout Israel. But Elijah didn't help any of his own people. He went over the border to Sidon, to a pagan widow over there, and he fed her during the entire famine.  You remember Elisha. There were lots of lepers in Israel, but he didn't heal any of them. Instead, he healed Naaman, a general in the Syrian army, the same Syrian army that has fought against Israel over and over in our history. 

That's provocative language. It's a little like President Obama saying "No more increased federal funding for college scholarships, except for undocumented aliens." Or, "No more extension of Medicaid health insurance to uninsured Americans, we're underwriting the rebuilding of the health care system in Iran." 

People in Nazareth were enraged. They wanted to kill him. Then we hear that mysterious verse: "But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way." Jesus stood his ground. Willing to alienate them; willing to let them reject him; willing to give up those relationships. He took a position and held it, even in the face of resistance, conflict and anger. Thus, self-defined, he passed through them, and went on his way.

I think Jesus' issues with Nazareth and Paul's issues with Corinth were similar. They are issues about love. For Jesus and Paul, love is how they define themselves. For Paul, love is more important than performance or talent or gifts or success. If you can't do your work with love, it's garbage. For Jesus, love goes universal. Love extends outward to the foreigner, the outsider, ...even the enemy. And if you can't handle that, if you can't love the alien, the immigrant, the enemy, Jesus is willing to walk right through you and go on his way.

Jesus looks at the pride of his hometown, expressed as bias and prejudice, and he outs them. Paul looks at a self-satisfied, elitist church, and he shames them with love. In Jeremiah's words, there is some plucking up and pulling down going on, there's some destroying and overthrowing going on, in order to build and plant a kind of love that is primary and universal. 

I'll bet some things changed. Whenever one person stands boldly, on principle, willing to let others reject and alienate – whenever one person takes a position and holds it, even in the face of resistance, conflict and anger – the whole system will be affected. I hope Paul's insistence on love deflated some of the spiritual pride in the congregation at Corinth. Yet we know, especially from Second Corinthians, that he had to continue to reassert his message about love-centered leadership. We also know that eventually the church did indeed respond generously, helping Paul with his collection for the Jerusalem church. 

I'll bet some things were shaken up in Nazareth. Despite their violent reaction toward Jesus, they knew they could no longer treat outsiders with prejudice without knowing they were known. Jesus did to Nazareth what Martin Luther King did to the segregated South. Jesus' stance of love forced their prejudice into the cold light of day. 

We are invited to follow their example. Each of us is called. Often to build and to plant. Sometimes to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow. Whenever we see structures of pride and greed, elitism and prejudice – we are called to make a stand. We are to take a position of love, and to stand boldly on the principles of love, regardless of any resistance, conflict or anger it might provoke. That's the only way things change for good.

Love boldly. Beyond the boundaries of self-interest and bias. For, as Paul tells us, "Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. ...And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love."

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[i] Lewis F. Galloway, Pastoral Perspective, for 4 Epiphany in Feasting on the Word, Year C, Volume 1, Bartlett and Taylor, eds., Westminster John Knox Press. p. 302

The Conversion of Saul

The Conversion of Saul

Sermon preached by the Rev. Lowell E. Grisham, Rector

St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Fayetteville, Arkansas

January 24, 2016; Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul

Episcopal Revised Common Lectionary

(Acts 26:9-21)  Paul said to King Agrippa, "Indeed, I myself was convinced that I ought to do many things against the name of Jesus of Nazareth. And that is what I did in Jerusalem; with authority received from the chief priests, I not only locked up many of the saints in prison, but I also cast my vote against them when they were being condemned to death. By punishing them often in all the synagogues I tried to force them to blaspheme; and since I was so furiously enraged at them, I pursued them even to foreign cities.

"With this in mind, I was traveling to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests, when at midday along the road, your Excellency, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining around me and my companions. When we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, `Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It hurts you to kick against the goads.' I asked, `Who are you, Lord?' The Lord answered, `I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. But get up and stand on your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you to serve and testify to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you. I will rescue you from your people and from the Gentiles-- to whom I am sending you to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.'

"After that, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, but declared first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem and throughout the countryside of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God and do deeds consistent with repentance. For this reason the Jews seized me in the temple and tried to kill me."

+    +    +

(Galatians 1:11-24) I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel that was proclaimed by me is not of human origin; for I did not receive it from a human source, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

You have heard, no doubt, of my earlier life in Judaism. I was violently persecuting the church of God and was trying to destroy it. I advanced in Judaism beyond many among my people of the same age, for I was far more zealous for the traditions of my ancestors. But when God, who had set me apart before I was born and called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, so that I might proclaim him among the Gentiles, I did not confer with any human being, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were already apostles before me, but I went away at once into Arabia, and afterwards I returned to Damascus.

Then after three years I did go up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and stayed with him fifteen days; but I did not see any other apostle except James the Lord's brother. In what I am writing to you, before God, I do not lie! Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia, and I was still unknown by sight to the churches of Judea that are in Christ; they only heard it said, "The one who formerly was persecuting us is now proclaiming the faith he once tried to destroy." And they glorified God because of me.

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Do you care about what other people think about you? Are there certain people in your life whose approval is critical to you? People you want to impress or maybe please? You want them to think well of you, so it is important for you to earn their respect or maybe even their love.

Who are some of those people? You can think about the present, but think also about the past. My father, for instance, had high expectations of me, and I wanted so badly to earn his acceptance. There were times it seemed pretty impossible. That left me pretty anxious a lot of the time. At other times, it made me angry. Maybe you've had parents or teachers or bosses that you just couldn't satisfy, even when you gave it your best.

Or maybe you've had a some public challenges—something you had to do in front of others, and it was important for you to do it well; it was important not to mess up or to make a fool of yourself. Those kinds of situations can leave you pretty anxious.  

Or, how about this? Have you ever been part of a group where measuring up to the group norms was critical? Where you were expected to be a certain way, think a certain way, hold up the group standards, and if you didn't, you would bring shame on the group, shame on yourself, and maybe even risk get kicked out as unworthy. With that group, you'd better fit in, you'd better prove yourself. Or else.

The good young man Saul was living with all of these things. And he was managing it all. He was successful. He was the best. Practically perfect. He says of himself, "I advanced in Judaism beyond many among my people of the same age, for I was far more zealous for the traditions of my ancestors," than the rest of them. Saul was a member of the strict party of the Pharisees. A political party, a social movement, and a religious school of thought. His was a high calling, an inspiring, moral calling, to be a good Pharisee. The Pharisees stood for what was good and right. Pharisees believed that all Jews in their ordinary lives could live holy lives, as the priesthood of all believers. They practiced and taught the mindful observation of the ancient laws of God, and promoted the careful observance the Mitzvot, the 613 commandments of the scripture.

Saul was accomplished in this great movement. He wrote of his heritage, that he was "circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrews born of Hebrews; as to the law, blameless." He was successful. Practically perfect.

And it made him miserable. He says he was continually anxious, trying to live up to that perfect standard. And it made him feel threatened and insecure, because he was constantly under the unwavering eye of God, who not only saw his actions but could know the thoughts of his heart. Saul found himself growing resentful and angry toward God, being always under the glare of that unyielding light of judgment. He found he was self absorbed. Am I doing all right? Am I being the perfect Pharisee? What if I fail? I dare not fail. I've got to earn my standing before God and before my associates.

So he doubled down on the system. If he ever felt bad about himself, he found he could repress his doubts by focusing outside himself, putting his attention on the ones whom he knew were wrong, those others. They were threats to the truths he had committed himself to. Purge the heretics. Fight the evil ones.

So often it is people who are uncomfortable with their own shadow who experience relief when they project their shadow upon others.

So Saul participated in the persecution of the Christians. He was there when Stephen was martyred. Saul heard Stephen's ecstatic cry of glory, "I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!" And Saul covered his ears to protect himself from the blasphemy as he joined the crowed to rush to kill Stephen. Saul heard Stephen's last peaceful words, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit," and "do not hold this sin against them." (Acts 7) I think Saul saw in Stephen a peace that had escaped Saul.

But Saul was too invested in the whole system to let any nagging doubts see the light of day. He headed toward Damascus determined, with warrants from the high priest. He traveled down that road full of the internal pressures of the expectations of righteousness, bursting with anger toward those others, fueling the projections that held the lid down on his own internal angers and anxieties. He was ready to kill in the name of God, when he was blinded by the light.

"Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?" "Who are you?!" "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting." In a flash he realized: he's been going the wrong way. He has been wrong the whole time. But the voice doesn't kill him for being wrong. Instead the voice anoints him; calls him; empowers him. Spread the good news to the whole world!, the voice says. It's too big to be just a Jewish movement. You will become Paul, and you will take the good news to the Gentiles, the rest of the world.

Paul went away to the desert to work through all of that for a while. And here's what he came up with:

First, he knew how wrong he had been. He did not earn God's love and acceptance. But that's what he got – absolute love, acceptance, forgiveness, calling and empowerment. A sheer gift. Unearned. The man who had been trying in vain all his life to earn his status before God was given absolute divine acceptance as a gift, even at the moment he was most egregiously in error, intent on killing God's people. It's grace. It's all grace. A gift from God. Unearned. No strings attached. He knew: I was God's enemy, and God loved and saved me anyway. Justification by grace.

All Paul did was to accept the gift. To trust God's generosity. To accept the fact that he was accepted. Justification by grace through faith. Trust the gift and the giver.

He also realized, the gift is for everybody. Not just Jews. Not just the Christians who may get it. God's grace and God's triumph is universal, for all humanity. "As in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive." (1 Cor. 15:22)

God's triumph is total. It is also a gift. So we can relax. We don't have to earn God's acceptance of us. We are already accepted even while we are unacceptable. We don't have to fix the rest of the world; God loves them as much as God loves us.

That realization made Paul bulletproof. He no longer worried about himself, how am I doing? There was no self to worry about, because now he lived in Christ and Christ lived in him. And if he forgot or messed up, he only needed to remember and to trust the grace again.

Paul had been loved so completely, that he was free to love others completely. He didn't have to earn their love or their respect. He had infinite love and status forever as a gift. There's nothing to risk because there's nothing to lose. So he could give away his life; he was absolutely secure.

That's a great way to live, isn't it? No pressure. No one to perform for; no one to satisfy. It doesn't matter what they think about you; God loves you perfectly. All those groups claiming to have the truth, claiming your allegiance? They don't matter. You don't have to straighten them out, or, God forbid, kill them for being wrong. God is perfect truth, and eventually God's light will prevail. Just love your neighbor as yourself. Love is the great corrective. Love is the most powerful force in the universe.

Freedom. Total freedom. That's what Paul experienced. When you've known yourself to be loved and accepted as Paul had, you are free to accept life as it comes and to respond only in love. That's the good news. That's really good news.

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 The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church is to explore and celebrate

God's infinite grace, acceptance and love.

For information about St. Paul's Episcopal Church and its life and mission, please contact us at

P.O. Box 1190, Fayetteville, AR 72702, or call 479/442-7373

More sermon texts are posted on our web site: www.stpaulsfay.org

Click the “Video Online” button to watch full services and sermons live-streamed or archived.

Happiness and the Good Life

Happiness and the Good Life

Sermon preached by the Rev. Lowell E. Grisham, Rector

St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Fayetteville, Arkansas

January 17, 2016; 2 Epiphany, Year C

Episcopal Revised Common Lectionary

(John 2:1-11)  On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, "They have no wine." And Jesus said to her, "Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come." His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you." Now standing there were six stone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to them, "Fill the jars with water." And they filled them up to the brim. He said to them, "Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward." So they took it. When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward called the bridegroom and said to him, "Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now." Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.

______________________________

There's a group of friends I meet with regularly in something like a mutual self-help format. One of the guys is just about the hardest working person I know. Last week he told us about his December trip to Hawaii. He never takes a vacation, at least not an extended one that is just about being on vacation. He visits family; does recreational things. But this year he took a three-week family vacation to Hawaii. I think he said it was his first real vacation since his honeymoon, and he has grown children. He looked so delighted. He grinned at us and said, "I'm gonna buy a condo in Hawaii." He loves the place.

But then someone in the group started to tell him about how much trouble and expense it will be.  No problem. He's going to hire a management group to handle all of that. After all, he's successful; he's got plenty of money. He's not looking at this as an investment. Just pure fun.

Then someone started telling him about the human brain. How the human brain adapts and gets used to nearly anything that can make us happy until it becomes just ordinary. The newness wears off. We get accustomed to it. After the initial exhilaration, the brain wants something novel and different. It's called the hedonic treadmill or hedonic adaption. Hawaii will get old, they told him. "No, I don't think so, he said."

But the stuff about the brain is true. Some of you were in our series of classes that I lead on Sunday mornings back in 2011 when we studied the happiness research coming out of the positive psychology movement. There has been a lot of study, especially at the University of Pennsylvania and at Yale, focusing on what's right with people who seem to flourish. Why are some people happy and satisfied?

One of their findings is that if you work harder and become more successful, you won't necessarily become happier. The brain doesn't work that way. Once you achieve and enjoy a success – you earn the title Dr. in front of your name; you buy that sports car you’ve wanted since you were a kid; you create a successful new business or buy that dream house – once you reach those cherished goals, the goal posts move. The shiny, new success just becomes the new normal, and you need something better to make you feel special. Hedonic adaptation is one of the terms the researchers use. And it works both ways, for good and for bad.

I didn't win the Powerball jackpot last week; neither did you. I didn't have much of a chance since I didn't buy a ticket. But I'll bet you've heard about the research. Winning the lottery won't make you happy. The initial study that I heard about was in 1978, when Northwestern University and the University of Massachusetts asked the same questions from two very different groups: recent winners of the Illinois State Lottery and recent victims of catastrophic accidents, people who were now paraplegic or quadriplegic. They asked individuals from both groups to rate the amount of pleasure they got from everyday activities, small but enjoyable things like chatting with a friend, watching TV, eating breakfast. When the researchers analyzed the results, they found that the recent accident victims reported gaining slightly more happiness from these everyday pleasures than the lottery winners. They found the baseline measure of happiness for survivors of catastrophic accidents was higher than the baseline happiness for lottery winners.[i]

So, if Hawaii or winning the lottery doesn't make us happy, what does? The positive psychology research has uncovered some encouraging things, and what they've discovered is consistent with our own Christian teaching and experience as well.

The basic discovery is that when we live in the present moment with a positive attitude, we perform better. The brain at positive performs better than when it is negative, neutral, or stressed. Every measure improves; intelligence and creativity; energy rises.

And there are practices that can help rewire the brain to move us toward the positive. Five practices in particular have shown remarkable results in various double-blind studies.

The first practice is called the Three Gratitudes. It's deceptively simple. Before you go to bed, spend two minutes listing three new things that you are grateful for. In the studies, subjects who practice the Three Gratitudes for twenty-one days find that their brain rewires in such a way that it automatically scans for the positive and notices more things to be grateful for. Pretty simple. List three gratitudes each evening, and your brain rewires.

The second practice is Journaling. Remember one positive experience in each 24 hour period and write it down. The journaling allows the brain to re-live it and grounds the happy memory in a deep way.

The third practice is Exercise. And the significance of exercise in happiness research is that exercise teaches your brain that your behavior matters. That's interesting.

Meditation is the fourth practice. The scientists say that meditation allows your brain to get over the cultural ADHD that we have been creating with our muti-tasking environment. Meditation allows us to unplug from that chaos; it strengthens our focus.

And the fifth practice is creating a discipline of making Random Acts of Kindness or Conscious Acts of Kindness. The researchers told people to write an email each day to thank someone in your social network. Write one positive email, and it changes your orientation.[ii]

Three Daily Gratitudes, Journaling each day about a positive experience, Exercise, Meditation, and Conscious Acts of Kindness. It's certainly all consistent with the Christian life. Fundamentally we declare that we are a Eucharistic people—Eucharist is the Greek word meaning Thanksgiving/Gratitude. In a minute you will hear the priest say, "Lift up your hearts." And you will answer, "We lift them to the Lord." "Let us give thanks to the Lord our God." "It is right to give our thanks and praise." "It is right, and a good and joyful thing, always and everywhere to give thanks…" Always and everywhere. We are a Eucharistic people—a people of thanksgiving. We are a compassionate and kind people, following the model of Jesus. Whenever we orient our attention toward God's abundant grace and God's love for us, we naturally become grateful and thankful, kinder and compassionate. And it's a little like turning water into wine.

I recently watched a romantic comedy called "About Time." It's about a young man, Tim. When he turns 21, Tim's father tells him that the men in his family have a gift: they can travel through time. Tim has that gift, his father tells him. He can't change history, but he can change what happens in his own life. It's a fun movie, and I won't spoil any of it by telling how Tim uses his powers going back in time over and over to try to fix things.

But late in the film, Tim says that his dad told him his secret formula for happiness. "Part one of the two part plan was that I should just get on with ordinary life, living it day by day, like anyone else. But then came part two of Dad's plan. He told me to live every day again almost exactly the same. The first time with all the tensions and worries that stop us noticing how sweet the world can be, but the second time noticing."

So Tim did that. He relived each day, noticing the second time through how sweet the world can be. Then he found that with practice, he could notice the sweetness the first time through. And he pretty much quit time traveling.

"The steward called the bridegroom and said to him, 'Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become [hedonically adapted]. (My translation.) But you have kept the good wine until now.'"

The good wine. The good life. It's not about success or wealth or even luck. It seems it mostly comes down to being in the present moment with a positive, grateful attention. We can influence that: Practices like the Three Gratitudes, Journaling, Exercise, Meditation, and Kindness. It is the stuff that puts the sparkle and taste and depth back into life. It's pretty inexpensive wine too. But how delicious!

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[i] http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2016/01/classic-study-on-happiness-and-the-lottery.html

[ii] See the popular TED talk by Shawn Achor, The happy secret to better work. https://www.ted.com/talks/shawn_achor_the_happy_secret_to_better_work?language=en. Similar findings are in Martin Seligman's books like Authentic Happiness, Atria Books, 2004. Website: authentichappinness.sas.upenn.edu

 __________________________________________

The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church is to explore and celebrate

God's infinite grace, acceptance and love.

For information about St. Paul's Episcopal Church and its life and mission, please contact us at

P.O. Box 1190, Fayetteville, AR 72702, or call 479/442-7373

More sermon texts are posted on our web site: www.stpaulsfay.org

Click the “Video Online” button to watch full services and sermons live-streamed or archived.

Three Stories for 2 Christmas

Three Stories for 2 Christmas

Sermon preached by the Rev. Lowell E. Grisham, Rector

St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Fayetteville, Arkansas

January 3, 2015; Second Sunday after Christmas, Year C

Episcopal Revised Common Lectionary

(Luke 2:41-52) The parents of Jesus went to Jerusalem every year for the festival of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up as usual for the festival. When the festival was ended and they started to return, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it. Assuming that he was in the group of travelers, they went a day's journey. Then they started to look for him among their relatives and friends. When they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem to search for him. After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him they were astonished; and his mother said to him, "Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety." He said to them, "Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?" But they did not understand what he said to them. Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them. His mother treasured all these things in her heart.

And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favor.

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We don't always get to celebrate two Sundays after Christmas. We only have eleven days after Christmas to work in two Sundays. Whenever we do get to this second Sunday, we have a choice of three gospel lessons. We have this wonderful story we've just heard of Jesus in the Temple with the teachers, the only story in our Gospels about Jesus in the time between his infancy and his baptism.

Another choice for this Sunday is the story of Joseph's heeding a dream and fleeing by night to Egypt with Mary and the infant Jesus to escape King Herod's massacre of the children of Bethlehem. The family remained in a foreign land as refugees until the danger was over and they could return to Nazareth where Jesus was raised.

The third optional reading is the story of the visit of the Magi, which we will hear this Wednesday on Epiphany. Wise Men from the east, scientists of the stars, and probably priests of the ancient religion of Iran, Zoroastrianism, follow a rising star that they believe signals the birth of the new King of the Jews. They find their way to the manger, where they are welcomed in a beautiful scene of mutual regard across cultural, racial and religious boundaries. But their protocol visit to reigning King Herod produced the unintended consequences that led to the family's emigration to Egypt and the subsequent infanticide.

So let's go through these three stories in that same backward chronology, starting with the twelve year old Jesus. It is the Passover, and the family of Joseph and Mary have traveled from Nazareth in the northern province of Galilee to Jerusalem to observe the great Passover celebration. They probably traveled with a large contingent from their own village and neighboring villages to join the huge event.

Luke says that Jesus was twelve years old. That's an important detail. Jesus is at that point of life where he was expected to take responsibility for his own receiving and understanding of the law. Much of that formation takes place in a format of questions and answers with the teachers of the law. The young person would be questioned on his competency, and it was expected that the student would form questions for the teachers, both to demonstrate proficiency and to deepen understanding. In later years this process became formalized into today's bar mitzvah and bat mitzvah. It is a rite of full-fledged adult membership into the Jewish community.

In our story, it takes a day for the travelers to realize that Jesus is not with the crowd returning home. That's probably not too unusual. The adults visiting together while the young people free range among their relatives and friends. A group returns to Jerusalem to find him. Luke says it took them three days. My guess is that this is a bit of writer's license, connecting this disappearance in Jerusalem with Jesus' three days in the tomb.

And I hear Jesus' response as a respectful one. "Beloved parents, you know you have prepared and formed me for my responsibilities and role as an adult in the community. I must take my place in my Father's house." It was common for Jews to speak of the Temple as the house our Father. "And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favor."

His parents have done their job well. Jesus can fulfill his potential. The story reminds us of our responsibilities toward all of our children. It is our job as adults to make sure every child grows into their full potential. It is work not just for parents alone, but for the community. As a society, we have a responsibility to insure that every mother is healthy as she nurtures her child, that every child has nutritious food and nurturing shelter and access to health care. That every child has educational and spiritual opportunities to get off to a good start in order to live into their full potential. It takes a village and a society to raise a child. We work hard to be part of that here at St. Paul's. We love our children. Our corporate prayer and resolution should be that every one of God's children upon earth has the opportunity to increase "in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favor."

But that is not easy to accomplish. It is a dangerous and risky world. Jesus nearly did not get to this day in the Temple. Jesus was one of those "at-risk" children. Like so many others, he was vulnerable to the whims of the powerful and the threat of violence. Listening to his deepest intuition, his father Joseph acted decisively to lead his family to safety. They became refugees. Thank God for Egypt. How many countries today would have turned them back at the border?

I'm struck by Joseph. It takes a lot to persuade any family to leave its home—to abandon the language, culture, history and sense of place that has been its grounding, maybe for generations. Joseph did so on the strength of a dream, following his intuition before he had any external, concrete evidence. It was a life-saving decision. But I wonder, are there many countries today that would honor such an immigrant's request for legal entry. Herod's violence against the children in Bethlehem was low-key enough that no evidence about it remains except this story from Luke. I think about the Holy Family whenever I hear about families fleeing their homes seeking welcome in a safer, more promising place.

And I'm also struck by the unintended consequences of the well-meaning actions of the wise men. Privileged and resourced, they follow their reasoning into a foreign place where they don't really know the lay of the land. They make use of their access to the seat of power to have their audience with Herod. They think they are helping; they think they are doing what is right and good. But they wreak a tragic violence upon the poor and vulnerable in Bethlehem.

It is a story of such ambiguity. The gentle scene at the manger, symbolizing the peace and respect that can exist across cultures and classes and races. The fascinating picture of obvious power and hidden power finding synergy in the humble place. The recognition that the truth of the sages and scientists from any realm or discipline will ultimately guide any truth-seeker toward the revelation of God, who is Truth itself. And, the good intentions which turn tragic.

We have rich fare on this Second Sunday of Christmas. The joyful wise men from the east offering their gifts to the child in the humble place. The threat to that child and the escape into Egypt, thanks to an intuitive, protective father. The child's nurture into adulthood, with all of his potential and possibility intact.

The story of Jesus is essentially the story of God's most intimate entry into our humanity. It makes us want to treasure each of our children, to honor them and to give them gifts. It makes us want to protect all of our children, to keep them safe and secure from all violence and threat. It makes us want to rejoice in their growth, and to give them opportunities to live into their fullest potential. It makes us glad for the young adults in our midst, increasing "in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favor."

We are Mary and Joseph in our generation. It is our duty to see the Christ child in every child, and to do our part to love, protect, and form them to their fullest potential.

During communion (at 8:45 & 11:00) we'll sing a lovely Christmas carol. Its first and last verse seem a fitting ending:

Love came down at Christmas,

love all lovely, love divine;

love was born at Christmas:

star and angels gave the sign.

Love shall be our token;

love be yours and love be mine,

love to God and neighbor,

love for plea and gift and sign. [i]

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[i] Hymn 84, Hymnal 1940. Words by Christina Rossetti

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