Fr. Sean Kim
August 25, 2019
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An audio recording of this sermon can be found here. 
 
In today’s Gospel reading from Luke, Jesus heals a woman who has been crippled for eighteen years. She has spent those long years bent over and unable to stand up straight. When Jesus sees her in the synagogue, he interrupts his teaching to call her over to him. He lays his hands on her, and she is healed. The woman stands up straight and begins to praise God for the miracle.

The healing of the crippled woman is one of many healing stories in the Gospels. Part of the reason why Jesus attracts such large crowds wherever he goes is because of his reputation as a divine healer, a miracle-worker. I don’t know about you, but I personally struggle with the healing stories. Every time I hear a healing story, I ask myself: Why don’t these healings occur today? Why aren’t the people that I pray for cured miraculously?

If I were a Presbyterian, I could provide a clear answer to this problem, but as an Episcopalian, as is usually the case with theological issues, I’m not so sure. As many of you know, I come from a Presbyterian background, and I know that my lingering Calvinist attachments have been of some concern to Fr. Charles. But I actually think there may be some other closet Calvinists in our midst. The official Calvinist theological position on miraculous healing is that such acts stopped or ceased with the age of the apostles. The technical term for this is cessationism – from the word cease. According to this doctrine, all miracles, including divine healings, are believed to have ceased with the age of the apostles two thousand years ago. In other words, Jesus and the apostles had the power of divine healing. We do not. The story goes that some people came up to John Calvin with a challenge. They told Calvin that the Roman Catholic priests were performing great miracles among the people And they dared Calvin to perform even greater miracles as proof that he was right and that the Roman Catholics were wrong. Calvin’s response: “I will not perform any miracles for you. The age of miracles ceased with the apostles. The miracles were necessary only to establish the foundations of the church. But since that time, the power to perform miracles no longer exists.” Many Presbyterians, as well as many other Protestants today, are cessationists. They believe that miracles existed back in Jesus’ day, but not now.

At the other end of the spectrum, however, we have Pentecostals and other charismatics who firmly believe in divine healing and other gifts of the Spirit. Some of you may have seen such claims of healings, what we used to call “faith healings,” on television or in person. The Pentecostals and charismatics reject the idea that miracles are limited to the apostolic age, and they believe that we, too, have the power to perform the same miracles.

When we turn to the Roman Catholics, we also find a spectrum of views on divine or miraculous healing. On the one hand, we have such phenomena as Our Lady of Lourdes. Countless pilgrims travel to Lourdes, France, to be miraculously cured by the healing waters, and there are many testimonies of healing. Yet, at the same time, the Roman Catholics also have a tradition of seeing illness and suffering as a virtue. Many of the saints who are venerated contracted devastating, debilitating diseases, and many died young, but their suffering is seen as part of their imitation of Christ.

Confused? So what should we believe about divine healing? What do we make of the healing stories in the Gospels? What is it that we pray for when we pray for healing? There is no clear answer to these questions in Scripture or tradition. But I would like to share with you some personal reflections on these questions. Going back to my Calvinist, cessationist background, I’ve come across some awkward situations in my ministry when it comes to pastoral care. Our Postulant for Holy Orders, Lynda Hurt, has just completed her training for Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) at Saint Luke’s Hospital, where she served as a hospital chaplain. I did my CPE training a couple of summers ago. One day, I was called to the bedside of a dying man. His family had just decided to take him off life support, and he had just minutes to live. The man was surrounded by his wife and three adult children. One of the children, his youngest son, was very distraught, and seeing me in my clerical collar, he cried out: “Do something! Heal him!” I was caught off guard, to say the least, and before I realized what was coming out of my mouth, I blurted out: “But I’m not a Pentecostal.” Fortunately, the family did not kick me out of the room, and I was able to minister to them without any more embarrassing incidents.

As you can tell from this story, divine, miraculous healing has not been a part of my personal experience. My father died of ALS, and my maternal grandfather and mother both died of Alzheimer’s. In spite of all the fervent prayers that we offered up, they suffered terribly and died. Actually, in the case of my grandfather, my grandmother tried to cure him by calling in a Pentecostal healer to our house, but the only thing the healer managed to do was frighten my grandfather with her loud prayers and yelling.

So both my theological and personal background predispose me against believing in divine healing. I know of many Episcopal clergy who have had extraordinary miraculous experiences. I am not one of them. Yet, at the same time, I cannot subscribe anymore to the doctrine of cessationism, at least in its strict form. Medical science has changed dramatically over the years. We no longer believe, as we used to, that the body and mind are separate, and that healing involves only fixing the body. Today we have alternative medicines as well as music therapy, pet therapy, and a host of other ways to address illness. The logic behind all this is that the mind – and spirit – have a profound impact on the body. Healing is no longer just a clinical process treating the body; healing is holistic – it involves the whole person. You have probably heard of studies that show that people of faith live longer lives. So there’s an element of the unknown – mystery – behind healing and health. Then, who am I to deny that miracles can happen? Who am I to deny the countless testimonies of those who have been healed through the power of prayer? Divine healing may not be a part of my personal experience, but it is an integral part of the faith for many of our fellow Christians, perhaps some of you here this morning. We believe in an Almighty God, who can do anything God wills, and the very act of prayer is a request for divine, supernatural intervention. God can heal through natural or supernatural means. It is not for us to limit what God can do. When we pray to God for healing, we open ourselves up to the possibility of divine action.

 In our prayer to the Virgin Mary, the Salve Regina, we speak of life as a vale or valley of tears – a beautiful, poetic expression of the trials and tribulations of life. Who is immune from sickness, accidents, and ultimately death? Life is filled with brokenness. But we need not despair. We have the promise of hope and healing in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Divine Physician. As the crippled woman came to him two thousand years ago, let us also come to Jesus and pray for the healing of our whole selves – body, mind, and spirit.
  

St. Mary the Virgin
August 18, 2019
1 Corinthians 15:20-27, Luke 1:39-56
The Rev’d Charles W. Everson
St. Mary’s Episcopal Church

The audio recording of this sermon can be found here.
 
On Wednesday evenings, we have Evening Prayer here in the church, and inevitably, a group goes out to have a bite to eat and perhaps a drink or two.  Depending on who goes, we occasionally end up talking about the liturgy in ways that 99% of the planet think are…well…a bit much.  I always invite my husband Jay to come eat with us, and while he comes from time to time, I don’t blame him for yawning internally when we start debating whether we’re supposed to turn to the left or the right at the altar and how to properly hold our funny hats.

Likewise, I’m sure that most people (including most of you holy and pious men and women) would yawn and perhaps take a nap were the preacher to get into the nitty gritty’s of the theological implications of the Blessed Virgin Mary’s death.  I mean, the details surrounding Mary’s death have been debated from time immemorial, especially since the Protestant Reformation.  The name of today’s feast itself is controversial: the Eastern Church calls it “The Dormition [or falling asleep] of Mary” while the Roman Catholic Church calls it the Assumption of Mary.  We Episcopalians, as we so often do, have chosen to be vague and simply call it “The Feast of St. Mary the Virgin.”  The commonality across all of these is that today, we are commemorating her death.       

What do we know of Mary’s death?  Nothing from Scripture.  But there’s plenty of pious legend surrounding her death from the earliest days of the Church.  One account has to do with Mary’s girdle, and by girdle, I don’t mean the modern elasticized garment, I mean a cloth braided belt with a knot at the end, similar to this one.  In this account, Mary’s body was assumed into heaven in the presence of all of the apostles except for Thomas who was off in India.  Later, when the others told him what happened, he doubted and didn’t believe them, just as he hadn’t believed them earlier when they told him they’d seen Jesus after his resurrection.  So Mary appeared to Thomas individually and dropped the girdle she wore at her Assumption down onto him to give him physical proof, just as Jesus had done when he invited Thomas to touch his wounds.  Thomas saw and touched the girdle and believed.  This apocryphal story presents Mary’s assumption into heaven as a mirroring of Jesus’s resurrection, which leads us to our epistle lesson from St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians.[1]

The Church at Corinth was comprised mainly of Greek Christians, and the Greeks tended to think that the spirit was more important than the body.  Some of this way of thinking had come into the Corinthian church, leading some to deny Jesus’s bodily resurrection.  St. Paul didn’t mince words earlier in chapter 15 when he said, “Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead?  If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain.”[2] 

Paul says, “No.”  Christ’s bodily resurrection not only happened, it’s essential to our faith.  Death came from the Adam, the first human being who chose to be disobedient to God, and so the resurrection of the dead also comes from a human being, but this time, from one who committed no sin, Jesus Christ.   Not only did was Christ raised from the dead, he will come again to hand over the kingdom to his Father, and to finally destroy evil and death.  The destruction of evil and death by Christ at the last day will finally establish the Kingdom of God in its entirety, whereas now, we only experience it imperfectly.  Just as Jesus has already entered into his kingdom through his resurrection, so too will we who follow him and enter the kingdom through a resurrection like his.  Paul calls Jesus the first fruits of the dead, and links our resurrection to his.  He was the first to be raised up, and we will follow.

And that, my friends, is the foundation of today’s feast.  The Blessed Mother was not divine, she was a human being like you and me.  And like us, her entry into God’s kingdom depends on Jesus’ resurrection.  You and I have to wait until the Second Coming of Christ for our bodies to be raised, but Tradition says that Mary didn’t need to wait until the last day.  As she was the first disciple of her Son – the first person to say “Yes” to his call – she is the first human being to follow her son in his resurrection.  Her risen body is with Jesus’ risen body awaiting that day when all will be made right.  Mary’s glory is a foretaste of our glory.  Christ’s resurrection leads the way to our resurrection, and as our Blessed Mother was raised, so too will we be raised at the last day.

What will life be like when our bodies are raised, and God creates the new heavens and the new earth?  In her song in the gospel of Luke, Mary tells us that in God’s kingdom, things are very, very different.  Unlike our world, it’s not the powerful on their thrones, or the proud, or the rich who will be extolled and given a place of special honor.  It’s the lowly, the humble, and the poor.  In God’s kingdom, the first will be last, and the last will be first.  Status won’t be measured by wealth and pride and fancy titles, but by humility, tenderness, forgiveness, and unconditional love.

While we have to wait until the last day to experience God’s kingdom in its fulness, in a moment, we will pray “thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” as our Lord taught us.  When we pray these words, we’re asking God to bring the values of his heavenly kingdom here to earth.  To disrupt the value systems of this world.  To bring heaven to earth.  And we’re asking him to use us to accomplish this.

What does this look like for us at a parish church under the patronage of St. Mary in Kansas City in the year 2019? 

Friends, we are called to proclaim the life, death, and yes…bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ in both word and deed.  There is an unfortunate tendency amongst a subset of clergy in the Episcopal Church to say things like, “I believe in spiritual resurrection, but it doesn’t really matter if Jesus’s body rose from the dead.”  Or, even worse, “Dead people don’t come back to life.  If you believe in science, you can’t possibly believe in the resurrection.”  Hear what Saint Paul saith: “If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain.”

Like Mary, we are called to live out the incarnation of her Son by proclaiming the coming of His kingdom.  And like Mary, we are not to live our lives thinking that this future kingdom of God is something we’re just twiddling our thumbs waiting for, it began to break into our world on that first Christmas night.  When we pray “thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven,” we are telling God and ourselves that we’re willing to forsake our own devices and desires and say yes to God.  And praying the Lord’s Prayer means that we’re willing to trust that the Holy Spirit will give us everything we need to fill the hungry with good things and lift up the lowly. 

St. Mary’s has a long history of feeding the hungry in our area via the food pantry and hot meal – a good and holy thing – but it is time that we intentionally discern how God is calling us to serve the least of these in Kansas City. To that end, our newly formed Social Justice Committee has met a couple of times and meets again in a few weeks.  They’re exploring how we might engage in important issues such as prison ministry, racial reconciliation, LGBT rights, economic injustice, immigration issues, and so on.  Please pray for them as they discern how God is leading our parish family to cast down the mighty and lift up the lowly in Kansas City and beyond.  And then when their program is published, please pray about how God may be calling you to get involved.

Maybe next year for Mary Day, I’ll bore you to tears with the nitty gritty about whether Mary’s assumption was before or after her death and why that matters theologically.  But for now, friends, let us follow the good example of the Blessed Virgin Mary in saying yes to her Son and boldly proclaiming God’s kingdom to a lost and broken world.  And let us join with Christians throughout all generations in calling her blessed.    

[1] https://www.ncronline.org/news/spirituality/scripture-life/assumption-mary

[2] 1 Cor 15:12-14.

Fear is in the air.

Everywhere you look – social media, your favorite news website, or even the street corner – fear is in the air.  Fear that the economy will fall back into recession.  Fear that you’ll lose your job.  Fear that the person you ask out on a date will say no.  Fear that your spouse will turn you in you for a younger model. Fear about the current state of the political discourse in this country.  Fear that you can’t pay next month’s bills.  Fear that you won’t finish an important project at work by the deadline.  Fear that God isn’t here beside you as you struggle through this life.  Fear that you will die alone and unloved.

Fear is in the air.

Our Gospel passage from Luke begins with Jesus saying to his disciples, “Do not be afraid.”  This isn’t the first time that we heard these words in the gospel of Luke.  This is the same message given to Zechariah when the angel told him his wife Elizabeth was pregnant with Jesus’s cousin John the Baptist.  It’s the same thing the angel said to Mary at the Annunciation when she was told she was pregnant with God’s son. It’s the same thing that Jesus proclaims to Saint Peter before he tells him that he will be a fisher of men.[1]
 
“Do not be afraid.”

In all instances of this phrase in Luke, “Do not be afraid” comes before the announcement of a significant, life-changing event.  In this case, Jesus says “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” This is no small matter and is just as daunting of a message as the angel telling Mary that she is pregnant with God’s son.
Out of his own delight, God gives us the kingdom.  The word kingdom is not easy for us to relate to.  The last time we had a king in this country, we rejected his authority and declared our independence!  The kingdom of God refers to an inbreaking of God’s love, peace, freedom and justice into the world.

These inbreakings of God’s kingdom in this world happen in what is often referred to as “thin places.”  Thin places are moments in which time itself seems to stand still and the divide between this world and the next is very thin indeed. In these thin places, God’s love becomes tangible to us and we get a brief glimpse of heaven itself.  The sacraments are thin places, and particularly the Holy Eucharist, where we are transported in time to the hill upon which Jesus died and we are fed the bread of heaven and the cup of salvation.  In these thin places, heaven kisses earth.

But thin places are not only to be found in the sacraments.  They are also found in the face of the homeless person you see on the street corner.  In the cries of the sick person you are nursing and taking care of.  And in subtle, everyday things like hugging a child or hearing those repetitive words “I love you” from a family member.

These thin places are all around us, and ever difficult to detect.  How do we predispose ourselves to be aware of them?  Through consistent prayer, Bible study, silence, contemplation, selflessly serving others, and regular reception of the sacraments of the Church.   Without making the time and effort to engage in these sometimes-arduous spiritual disciplines, we aren’t able to put aside our fear and be aware of the inbreaking of God’s kingdom around us.

Jesus said, “Do not be afraid, for God is giving you his kingdom of love, peace, freedom and justice.”  It is in this context that Jesus tells his disciples to sell their possessions and give alms and make purses for themselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. When we graciously accept God’s loving kindness towards us, when we are intentionally aware of the Holy Spirit working in our everyday lives, when we are sensitive to detecting the thin places that we encounter throughout our lives, it is then that we are led to share that love and compassion with others. 

I’ll always remember one of the questions I was asked at one of the many Committee meetings during my ordination process.  “When you envision yourself as a priest, what scares you the most?”  My immediate response was, “Being around people who are dying and their families.  I not only don’t know what to say or do, but I can’t imagine what I would have to contribute to people in such pain and grief.”  Less than a year later, in my second semester at seminary, I got word that my co-worker’s 17-year-old son had died.  His name was Noah, and I’d known him because his mom had asked me to spend a little time with him as he was struggling coming out in high school, and to boot, he was afflicted with mental illness at a pretty severe level.  Noah died because he hung himself from a tree.  I was terribly sad when I heard the news, but when his mom called and asked if I’d do the funeral, I had an overwhelming sense of fear wash over me.  I called my bishop and told him I’d been asked to do this huge funeral for this young kid who died tragically, and he said to me, “Charles, the Church doesn’t normally asked folks at your stage of the process to do this kind of work, but it sounds like there’s an opportunity here for the Holy Spirit to work through you to help a whole lot of people. God’s been preparing you for this moment, and will give you everything you need to get through it.  How will you respond?”

With God’s help, I said yes.

Less than two years later, the 21-year-old son of one of the owners of the bank died of an accidental drug overdose. His dad called me and asked me to do the funeral.  And to this day, I think some of the most important parts of my ministry here at St. Mary’s have been walking alongside those who are dying, and then ministering to their family and friends upon their death. 

I tell you about my greatest fear coming into the priesthood not to encourage you to face your fears head on, or to assure you that things always get better, or to tell you to always say yes when asked to do something you’re scared to do.  I tell you this story because God didn’t ask me to help these people out of the blue.  In a sense, I’d been preparing for these moments for my whole life.  My imperfect attempts to consistently pray, to study the Bible, to listen to God’s voice…my constant reception of the sacraments of the church, sometimes because I felt so unworthy…God used all of that to make me sensitive to these particular thin places, and to have the courage to overcome my fear and say yes.  Inevitably when I do, the inbreaking of God’s kingdom in the moments that ensue ushers in God’s love, peace, and freedom where it is desperately needed.

“Do not be afraid,” Jesus tells us, “for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give alms!  Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit!  Be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour!” This call to be ready is both about Christ’s coming in our lives today and about his second coming at the last day.  The certainty of Christ’s coming is not a cause for panic, but a cause for watchful anticipation for blessing.[2]  This call to be ready isn’t a cause to be overly critical of our own sins and failings, but rather to be ready to receive blessings like we could never imagine.  To be watchful and ready for thin places in this world, to be watchful and ready for the unimaginable and overwhelming grandeur of being in God’s kingdom in all of its glory in eternity.  This call is to be ready for the foretaste of the heavenly banquet when we receive communion in a moment, and to be ready for the heavenly banquet itself in eternity with God.      
Friends, do not be afraid!  For God, out of his own delight, gives you his kingdom of love, peace, freedom and justice.  Be watchful for the inbreaking of God’s kingdom in the thin places.  And be ready for the coming of Christ, in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar, and at the last day.


[1] David Lyon Bartlett and Barbara Brown. Taylor, eds., Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008), 335.

[2] Ibid 338.

Seventh Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 13
August 4, 2019
Luke 12:13-21, Colossians 3:1-11
The Rev’d Charles W. Everson
St. Mary’s Episcopal Church
 
Our gospel lesson begins with someone coming to Jesus with an estate law question: the man asks him to tell his brother (probably his older brother) to divide the family inheritance with him. 

This sort of childhood squabble continues even in our day.  In one of the earliest funerals I did after being ordained, I asked the daughter of the deceased, “Will your step-brothers and sisters be coming to the service?”  “No,” she responded.  “They got all the money when their dad died, and we haven’t been able to stand being in the same room with them ever since.  We really don’t want them here.” 

In this case, the younger brother gets upset because the law and tradition of the day said that the elder brother receives the bulk of the inheritance.  The younger brother comes to Jesus, asking him to solve his problem.  “Nope,” Jesus responds.  No.  Can.  Do.  The younger brother thinks his request is all about fairness.  “It’s only fair that I get half,” the younger brother thinks.  But Jesus sets him straight.  His request isn’t about fairness.  It’s actually about greed.

Those two verses shape the parable that Jesus then tells.  A rich man’s land produces abundantly…so much so that he doesn’t have room to store all of his excess crops.  So he does something practical: he build larger barns in which to store them.  But here’s where the rub comes in.  The rich man then says, “And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, and be merry.”  Now that I’ve saved up and feel secure for my future, I can truly be happy.

God’s response couldn’t have been more high-direct.  “You fool!” he said.  “Tonight you die!  And all these things you’ve stored up…whose will they be?”  “So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich towards God.” And then the parable ends.  No happy ending like the parable of the Good Samaritan, or the parable of the Prodigal Son. 

What does it mean to be “rich towards God?”  Does it mean, “You can’t take it with you, so be generous with your assets – especially to the Church?” (wink, wink)  Does it mean that you and I shouldn’t plan for retirement, or save for a rainy day? 
There’s a difference between proper planning and greediness. I think Jesus’s message for us in this parable is this: you have to balance concern for the future with the call to give glory to God by caring for your neighbor – for the poor, the marginalized, and all those in need.  This balancing act is hard work, and requires a lot of discernment.[1]

I am not sure if everyone has this problem, but I have a very rich fantasy life.  I like to think about the day when I will hopefully no longer have to worry about paying bills, and dealing with constant repairs of an old home.  I like to think about what life would be like if I won the lottery. 

Jesus’s response to this rich man – “You fool!  Tonight you’ll die!  So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich towards God” – this response, as jarring as it is, reminds me that I need to stop being distracted by such fantasies.  Frankly, the rich man in this story had become so concerned for himself and his comfort that he had forgotten that God had created the land that produced the excess crop.  He’d forgotten that really, all the excess crop belonged to God and he was just the temporary steward of them.  And he’d forgotten that happiness and contentedness is not found in the abundance of wealth or possessions. 

Paul said in our epistle lesson, “If you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.  Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.  For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.  When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.”[2] 

It is only when we surrender our fantasies, whether they be about wealth or financial security or sexual happiness – it is only when we name these distractions for what they are – idols – and lay them at the feet of our Lord that we can truly set our minds on things that are above.  It is only then that we can begin to see what contentedness looks like.

What does it mean to be “rich with God?”  It means acknowledging who we are – sinners in need of a Savior – and acknowledging who God is – the creator and author of all from whom all good things come.  Being rich with God means acknowledging our fantasy life for what it is, and not allowing it to become a distraction as we seek to follow Christ with all that we have and all that we are.  Being rich with God means balancing the need to plan for our future with the need to give away our money and possessions to support the poor, the marginalized, and the needy.  Being rich with God means knowing in the deepest parts of who we are that money and financial security and possessions will not make us happy.  Jesus is telling us in this parable that we find our happiness in setting our minds on things that are above.  On Jesus Christ. 

Despite not being worthy to gather up the crumbs under God’s table, God’s unconditional mercy and love towards us makes us worthy to come into his presence with a quiet confidence that “all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.”[3]  It is from this deep sense of knowing who we are and whose we are that we should approach our money and wealth and whatever it is that captivates our fantasy life.  In knowing who we are – that we are buried with Christ in his death, and raised with him in newness of life – we are able to begin to see money and possessions for what they really are – gifts from God over which we’ve been given temporary stewardship.  Yes, God provides our daily bread – everything we need – but we’ve been entrusted with the gifts we’ve been given to return some to God and to care for those in need.

Friends, let us set our minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.  For we have died, and our life is hidden with Christ in God.  When Christ who is our life is revealed, then we too will be revealed with him in glory.  Amen.
 
[1] This concept is from the Theological perspective for this text in David Lyon Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, eds., Feasting on the Word. Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008).

[2] Colossians 3:1-11.

[3] Julian of Norwich.