『Christ Episcopal Church』のカバーアート

Christ Episcopal Church

Christ Episcopal Church

著者： The Rev. Diana L. Wilcox
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 An Anglican Church Growing In Faith ~ Serving Our Neighbors ~ Creating Community キリスト教 スピリチュアリティ 聖職・福音主義
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  • “The Power Of Love”

    “The Power Of Love”
    2025/12/16
    December 7, 2025: May God’s words be spoken, may God’s words be heard. Amen. You’all know I love Hallmark Christmas movies. However, there is nothing quite like the ultimate story we hear at this time of year – A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens. And as much as I love Hallmark, they just do not compare in their remakes of that classic, to the ones that star Alister Sims or Sir Patrick Stewart. Now, we are in Advent, not Christmas, so why do I bring this classic tale of Christmas up? For the same reason I did many years ago when I was preaching on the texts for this Sunday – especially the one from Isaiah, because Dickens knew how to create a setting. And, the truth is, while the movie adaptations are good, nothing is better than the actual book in telling that important part of the story. I mean, isn’t that nearly always the case – Lord of the Rings trilogy, Dune, the Chronicles of Narnia – I know, I am showing my fantasy/scifi side. Even the Harry Potter movies, while really good, were not as good as the books. The same is very true for A Christmas Carol. The opening paragraph of this Dicken’s seasonal classic makes one thing absolutely clear. It reads, “Marley was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it: and Scrooge’s name was good upon ’Change, for anything he chose to put his hand to. Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail. Mind! I don’t mean to say that I know, of my own knowledge, what there is particularly dead about a door-nail. I might have been inclined, myself, to regard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of ironmongery in the trade. But the wisdom of our ancestors is in the simile; and my unhallowed hands shall not disturb it, or the Country’s done for. You will therefore permit me to repeat, emphatically, that Marley was as dead as a door-nail.” So, I guess Marley, old Scrooge’s business partner, was very much dead? Or, as we get from the coronor in The Wizard of Oz – Marley is “…not only merely dead, [he’s] really most sincerely dead.” Clearly we do not need to ask, in our best Monty Python voice, “Is he dead yet?” Marley is dead. Got it. But why all the fuss – why all the repetition? Well, as we continue in the story we realize that if we weren’t quite sure about Marley being dead, than it throws off the basis for the very strange set of Christmas Eve visitations that result in a miracle of new life for Scrooge. And it is this new life that is an important part of our Advent journey. The life that grows out of death. Now you might be thinking, isn’t that Easter, not Advent? Well, it is both, as will see in the passage from Isaiah, and also from St. Paul in his letter to the Romans (who quotes the very scripture in Isaiah we heard today). The passage begins with this: “A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.” That branch, the passage continues, is the birth of a new leader – one who is righteous and faithful, who has compassion for the poor and the meek. Oh, how we yearn even today, for that. Now we often hear these words and think of Jesus, but Jews then and to today know these words as applying to King Hezekiah of Judah. Still, everyone all over the world yearn for this type of leader – one who has compassion for her people, and knows they are not God, but are there to serve God’s people. The prophet’s words remind all of us what is expected of those that lead the people of God. And it is a proper metaphor for the incarnation too. So, let’s get back to that stump, that leftover remains of a very dead tree. A tree that, as Dickins would likely say, is as dead as a door nail. Why is this imagery so important to the people then, or us now? Well, remember last week? The prophet was speaking of a vision of a new world where swords would be turned into plowshares? Well, that hasn’t come about yet. The Assyrians were still a threat to Jerusalem, and had destroyed many a city in Judah and Israel. In fact, in the chapter before the one we read from today, we hear about those rulers who oppress the people, turning aside the needy from justice, and robbing the poor and vulnerable. It was a time of darkness for the people, where hope was far gone and everyone seemed like the walking dead. The stump is a metaphor for the people who felt dead inside. The shoot is the birth of a new leader who is righteous, faithful, and good. That would be a miracle to those so worn down by the reality in which they lived. But the passage doesn’t stop there. This new life is beyond anything anyone has ever experienced – beyond even swords being made into plowshares. It is what we have come to call the peaceable kingdom…where “The wolf shall live with the ...
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    15 分
  • “Live Without Fear”

    “Live Without Fear”
    2025/11/26
    November 23, 2025: May God’s words be spoken, may God’s words be heard. Amen. For some, this is a day called Christ the King Sunday, but as I say every year, that is not a title he would have ever claimed. As we heard in the Gospel, it was a title given to him by the oppressors who crucified him. No, Jesus would not be happy with this King business I believe, Jesus is Lord is enough, and was for centuries for his followers, as Christ the King wasn’t even a thing until 1925. So, not Christ the King…but it is Advent. And we have practiced the original seven week Advent here at Christ Church since 2016, and as then, it seems so appropriate now, because Advent is about a people walking in darkness, but not a people without hope. The people are in crisis. Many live in fear. The country is divided against itself. People don’t know which way to turn, how to take the next step, what to do, because the leaders have failed them. Certainly, this sounds like it is a time of darkness, and even very familiar – but I am not talking about the events in this country, at least not yet. I am talking about the passage in Jeremiah we heard this morning. If you were in doubt about whether Advent, from a lectionary point of view, is seven weeks long, just look again at our reading today from Jeremiah and the Canticle. Jeremiah begins with a stern warning from God for those in power that because they have abused their people, because they have not care for their flock, they will meet with God’s wrath. Jeremiah had been speaking about the failure of leaders in the time of the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians in 587 bce. And the passage ends with a very Advent-y verse “The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch…” God clearly was not happy with the shepherds who failed their sheep. One of the things that our faith, our scriptures, make abundantly clear, is the importance of shepherds. And being a shepherd is about never forgetting that the focus of your work must always be on the welfare of the sheep. This is true, not only for those who watch over flocks, but for all kinds of leadership positions – from President to parent, from CEOs to church leaders. We don’t have to have lived in the Ancient Near East to understand what can happen when shepherds fail in their work. We have borne witness to this in our lifetimes. Today, we can certainly understand what it must have felt like back in the days of Jeremiah to be a people divided, scattered, fearful of our leaders, and not sure what tomorrow will bring. Our own nation’s leaders have not only failed to be good shepherds, it is far worse than that. They have actually turned on the sheep. Our country – once a beacon of freedom and democracy to the world – has entered into the dark shadows of oligarchy and systemic oppression. The President has put masked troops in the street shooting tear gas and pepper balls into crowds of citizens, and callously throwing people, including clergy, onto the pavement – arresting them for the crime of free speech. He is responsible for the execution of over 80 people without due process of law through drone strikes on boats in international waters. He has had thousands detained, including zip tying children (let that sink in), again without due process of law, and even deported many of them to foreign prisons notorious for their human rights abuses. He has dismissed the concern of over a thousand female victims of a child sex predator to protect his own hide, calling their abuse a hoax. And his government has stolen affordable access to healthcare for the poor to give money in tax breaks to the rich and powerful. And while some may feel this is less important – it goes to his misogyny and eroding of the freedom of the press – the silencing of those who courageously try to protect the flock from predators. He told one woman reporter who dared ask him a question, “Quiet Piggy!” Then he held a meeting at the White House with Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, known for his brutality, including the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a US citizen, by having him chopped up while still alive. When the President was asked about meeting with him by another reporter (also a woman) he called her “insubordinate.” Insubordinate – as though he is a king who cannot be questioned. And to another who asked directly about the murder of Khashoggi, he said “A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about. Whether you like him or didn’t like him, things happen.” Things happen? Sure, a guy walks into a bathroom and things like a bone saw just kinda happen to him. Seriously. You can’t make this stuff up. These are dark days we find ourselves walking in, to be sure. And it could make anyone feel like just pulling the covers over their heads and praying that things will ...
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    18 分
  • “Frogs, Unicorns, T-Rexs, & Saints”

    “Frogs, Unicorns, T-Rexs, & Saints”
    2025/11/02
    The Feast of All Saints – November 2, 2025: May God’s words be spoken, may God’s words be heard. Amen. Today we celebrate the Feast of All Saints, when we remember those who have gone before us. Some may think that sainthood is for a select few, or just for those in what we call the Saints Triumphant, who live in eternal glory. But the fact is, any time the Christian scriptures mentions saints, they do so in the context of it being all you’all in the church – every single person, not just those we commemorate on special days. Now when we hear that word, saint, we sometimes think it also means perfect. Lordy, no. While there are some the church holds up as models of faith, even they were not perfect, nor would they ever claim to have been. And of those we have had the privilege to love here on earth, and remember today, it is doubtful that any of us would say they were perfect people, even if they were perfect for us in their way. We loved them, and they us, but perfection isn’t really possible for humans. So, it’s a good thing that God doesn’t expect that of us. As I remind everyone each year, All Saints isn’t about perfect people who have died, it is about recognizing that God asks ordinary people do extraordinary things. And given the context in which we all live, that’s a message we need to hear. We are a deeply troubled and divided nation. It is a time when we can long for the Matthew version of the beatitudes, ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. ‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.’ But that is not what we hear today in our gospel. In fact, we don’t even hear about saints either. In the gospel, Jesus spoke of four blessings – the poor will have the kingdom of God, the hungry will be filled, the grieving will laugh, and those who are hated will be given a great reward in heaven. Then comes the woes, something not found in the Gospel of Matthew. Woes to those who are rich because that will be all there is, those who are full will go hungry, and laughter will turn to tears. And then he tells them to love their enemies, reciprocate with goodness the evil done to you, and ends with what folks call the Golden Rule – “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” Now, imagine hearing this for the first time. Even today, this is radical stuff. Especially that last part. I mean, we can all get behind the overturning of fortunes for the poor and rich alike, but that other bit about doing good to those who persecute you? It is a complete overturning of how the world seems to work. You can tell that Jesus grew up in his mother Mary’s household, because this is the Magnificat made present tense. In the Magnificat, which is only in this gospel, Mary, in recognition of the promise of this child in her womb, echoes the words of Hannah, the mother of Samuel, and proclaims “He has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty.” Mary saw what this child Jesus would bring about. So, as we all know by now – yes, dang it, Mary knew, in answer to that ridiculous Christmas song. Now, before we go further, just a very brief review about what is going on here. This is not the Sermon on the Mount we get in Matthew. This is the Lukan Jesus – who is visited by shepherds, not Kings, begins his ministry saying he has come to bring good news to the poor and set the captive free, and in this telling, he is most definitely not up on the side of a hill speaking to people below. This is the Sermon on the Plain and he isn’t talking about some other people either, as we hear in Matthew when he says “blessed are they…”. No, he is standing amidst the folks who need to hear this the most, and he is saying blessed are you, woe to you! In the setup to what we heard today in the beatitudes, the text sets the scene: “He came down with them and stood on a level place with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases, and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And everyone in the crowd was trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them. Then he looked up at his disciples and said…” Jesus was among the people, a large crowd of those who were in desperate need, and he is calling for the overturning of the tables of injustice, and laying it out how to do it for his disciples. Yup – he’s Mary’s boy alright. But what does all that have to do with us today? Everything. For like it or not, we are standing in the midst of people who are hungry and oppressed – some of you may even be among them. These past few months have been horrific for this nation and the world...
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    19 分
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