Rewriting Isaiah 1:13-17 in Context of the Church
Mood:  quizzical
Isaiah 1: 13-17
Quit your worship charades. I can't stand your trivial religious games:?monthly conferences, weekly Sabbaths, special meetings—meetings, meetings, meetings—I can't stand one more!?Meetings for this, meetings for that. I hate them! You've worn me out!?I'm sick of your religion, religion, religion, while you go right on sinning.?When you put on your next prayer-performance, I'll be looking the other way.?No matter how long or loud or often you pray, I'll not be listening.?And do you know why? Because you've been tearing people to pieces, and your hands are bloody. go home and wash up. Clean up your act.?Sweep your lives clean of your evildoings so I don't have to look at them any longer.?Say no to wrong. Learn to do good.?Work for justice. Help the down-and-out.?Stand up for the homeless. Go to bat for the defenseless.
Revised for the Christian Churches:
Quit your liturgical charades. I can’t stand your trivial religious services, weekly meetings, prayer services…I cannot stand them anymore. I’m bored with your activities that are self-serving while forgetting the poor, homeless and needy who walk the streets. Next time you pray during your self-serving prayer groups, I will turn my back to you and not listen as you are only offering words to yourself to feel good about yourselves. How can you call yourself my people when you don’t do the acts of mercy I require of you? Who do you think you are? You go about with all your god-talk while your actions deny my existence. When your actions actually reflect my good, then your god-talk might mean something. Get up and do something: work for justice for all people especially for my gay, lesbian, and transgendered children; meet the needs of the poor and homeless, comfort the mentally ill, and fight for the rights of the poor, marginalized, homeless and illegal immigrants above the wants of the rich, powerful and national interests. When you work towards those ends then you have earned the right in your god-talk.

Sermon: St. Francis of Assisi Episcopal Church, Oolteway, TN
“Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, our strength and redeemer.”

Alleluia, the Lord is risen.
The Lord is risen indeed, alleluia.

First of all I want to express my gratitude for your extraordinary hospitality you extended to us Gregorians and associates. In the cabin I noticed a sign that said that good food and fellowship made-up the 8th sacrament and I want to thank you for making our stay with you “sacramental”.

There is a saying within the brotherhood that everyone who comes into the Brotherhood changes the community. Even though you are not joining the Brotherhood of Saint Gregory: your hospitality has changed each of us and those changes will resonate through our community thereby forever changing us.

Also, I want to share with you that the Council of the Brotherhood of Saint Gregory interviewed Bo Armstrong last weekend as his first step in discerning his call to Religious Orders within our community. It is my joy and pleasure to announce that Bo has been accepted as a postulant-perspective which means he will join the Brothers this summer at Annual Convocation and General Chapter where he will get to know us and we him, and decide if the Brotherhood of Saint Gregory is the religious community for him. Please continue to pray for Bo in his discernment.

I also ask for your indulgence if I gloss over the scripture lessons today as I would like to focus on the events this past Monday of the tragic events at Virginia Tech; news that leaves us shocked and looking for answers as we try to make sense of the massacre. Questions like: Why did this happen? How could this have happen? Could it have been prevented? Echo through our minds and what little pieces we can fit together in trying to make sense of the events are not the balm that is needed to comfort our souls.

I cannot even imagine what the parents, family members, faculty, staff and fellow classmates are going through right now. The pain of loosing a loved one in their prime, of dreams now snuffed out and never to be realized, of relationships shattered and destroyed and the fears of the future for students who carry with them the senseless death of their classmates.

I look at a world torn, divided and wounded and question where is God for those whose lives are destroyed by the violence of war, injustice, oppression and hunger; and at times I cannot make sense of what is going on, but the good news is that I do not have to make sense out of this madness; but I an called to participate in God’s continued redeeming acts to turn violence into compassion, to work for justice, to wage peace and to join with those who are broken…to cry with those who cry. These are the very acts of mercy that restores wholeness to communities that are broken, that say even in death life continues and that redemption and resurrection are always happening everywhere around us because God is in control and leading us through the valley of the shadow of death.

As a person of faith, and as a Christian in particular, there is always the belief that life triumphs over death, that resurrection; even in the midst of our confusion, takes place…death no longer has victory but death is swallowed up in life, the resurrected life of Christ who calls us each by name into the Beloved Community as we share our common lives together.

I asked the question earlier: where is God in such events? Theologians and philosophers more qualified than I have tried to answer this question throughout history. My simple answer pales to their deliberations because I find God right in the middle of the chaos and confusion, and for me this is cruxifiction realized. Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, became as one of us…to share our common life together…to redeem humanity and to bring us into the Beloved Community; yet he was a victim of injustice and we murdered the Lord of Life. He knew first hand the pain of violence and Jesus is found right in the middle of those who suffer and are in pain.

Also, I believe with all my body, mind and spirit that Jesus is manifested by those who reach out in compassion to those who suffer, not only at Virginia Tech, but around the world. As a Christian this is a call to participate in the incarnation story by joining those who suffer in body, mind or spirit; to journey with them and to hear their stories: this is loving God and loving our neighbor.

Yet this is not the end of the story…this is not the end of our story. Jesus bore the sting of the grave and conquered once and for all death. Even the senseless death of the cruxifiction, resurrection and new life takes place. Even in the senseless deaths at Virginia Tech, or those who are victims of hunger, war, injustice and oppression…we will see resurrection and new life take place. It is hard for us to see them as our hearts are weighed down in sorrow and grief; but we have a God who loves us more than we can imagine, who wipes away our tears and welcomes us home.

Thanks be to God that death is not the end of the story, but as Christians we have the Lord of Life.

I would like to quote from I Corinthians chapter 15 from The Message translation of Holy Scripture…it’s an earthy translation that gets to the heart of the meaning behind the words:

“Whose got the last word, oh, Death
Oh, Death, who's afraid of you now?

“It was sin that made death so frightening and law-code guilt that gave sin its leverage, its destructive power. But now in a single victorious stroke of Life, all three—sin, guilt, death—are gone, the gift of our Master, Jesus Christ. Thank God!

“With all this going for us, my dear, dear friends, stand your ground. And don't hold back. Throw yourselves into the work of the Master, confident that nothing you do for him is a waste of time or effort.”

I will close with the following quote from, The Substance of Faith.

“The good news of the resurrection of Jesus is not we shal die and go home with him, but that he has risen and comes home with us, bringing all his hungry, naked, thirsty, sick prison brothers [and sisters] with him. The proof that God raised Jesus from the dead is not the empty tomb, but the full hearts of his transformed disciples. The crowning evidence that he lives is not a vacant grave, but a spirit-filled fellowship. Not a rolled-away stone, but a carried-away church.”

That is my charge for us today, that we become that spirit-filled fellowship…that carried-away church, as we seek and serve God in all people.

Alleluia, the Lord is risen.
The Lord is risen indeed, alleluia.

A Sermon by: Br. Aelred Bernard Dean, BSG
3rd Sunday of Easter
Saint Francis of Assisi Epistle Church, Ooltewah, TN