Amelia Jane at 4.5 months

Granddaughter Amelia Jane, 4.5 months old.

Rob and I flew to San Francisco Thursday, babysat on Friday, and returned Saturday. Took Amelia out to breakfast at the neighborhood Mexican restaurant. (She wasn't hungry.) This is how she looks when she's well rested and her tummy's full. Need I say more?

We had a great time out there. Next trip for me is May 22d.

ThisWeeksSermon on the 5th Sunday of Easter, April 20th, 2008

“The king of love is dead”
The 5th Sunday of Easter, April 20, 2008

THIS MORNING'S STORY OF STEPHEN'S MARTYRDOM
This morning's story of the martyrdom of Stephen is set in the first decades of the church.
Luke tells us it was a time when the followers of Jesus were increasing by leaps and bounds.
And Stephen, we're told, was doing wonderful things among the people, unmistakable signs that God was among them.
But there was trouble in paradise, trouble between the Greek-speaking believers, and the Hebrew-speaking believers.
Some of those Greek-speakers from the synagogue were no match for the wisdom and spirit within Stephen.
So what they did was bribe witnesses to lie.
"We heard him cursing Moses and God," they said.
That stirred up the religious leaders and the scholars.
They grabbed Stephen and took him before the High Council.
The bribed witnesses testified.
The Chief Priest asked Stephen what he had to say for himself.
Stephen replied with what actually amounted to a very long sermon about God's former relationship with the Jews and now…
God’s relationship with those first Christians.
At the end, Stephen, we're told…
condemned his accusers, called them traitors and murderers.
And that's the point at which this morning's reading takes up.
The crowd went wild, a rioting mob of catcalls and whistles and expletives.
But Stephen, full of God's spirit, hardly noticed.
He only had eyes for God, whom he could see…
God in all God’s glory…
with Jesus standing at God’s side.
Yelling and hissing, the mob overwhelmed him.
They dragged him out of town.
Forgetting order and reason, they threw rocks at the skull of their opponent.
They smashed Stephen's brain, the center of language…
Sephen’s brain, the center of reason.
They smashed Stephen’s brain…
the center of faith.
They smashed it with stones…
they smashed at what they could no longer tolerate.
Stephen prayed his way through it all.
"Master Jesus, take my life.."
"Master, don't blame them for this sin."
Those were his last words.
Then he died.
The first Christian martyr.
Clearly, Christians identify Stephen with the suffering and punishment of Jesus.
Jesus endured a similar irrational violence, an innocent but entirely faithful person.
Stephen died the same way…
died like Jesus, His last words of forgiveness, and commending his spirit to God, clearly echo the last words of Jesus.

THE MARTYRDOM OF MARTIN LUTHER KING
It’s interesting that this story comes up just days after the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King's assassination in Memphis…
Martin Luther King…
a modern-day Christian martyr.
King also spoke truth in a way that often invoked blind rage against him as well, and even rejection from within the Christian community.
He spoke truth in a way that unfortunately resulted in his death as well.
They had to kill what they could no longer tolerate.
Again, a death of an innocent but entirely faithful person.

GENE ROBINSON
Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson could be next.
There’s a possibility that his life is in jeopardy.
At his consecration ceremony, he had to wear a bullet-proof vest.
There was a serious possibility that he might become yet another martyr in our lifetimes.
Still is a possibility.
Gene Robinson has written a new memoir called In the Eye of the Storm.
It’s about his experience as the first openly gay bishop in the entire Anglican Communion.
If you’ve been following news, you know that he has been denied a seat at the once-every-decade Lambeth conference of all of the worldwide bishops…
all but one this time.
Gene Robinson has been denied a seat there, the only duly elected and consecrated bishop in the Anglican Communion anywhere who is not being invited.
He's going anyway, but he’ll be staying on the sidelines, available to talk with anyone who wishes to talk with him, but on the outside looking in.
He was interviewed this past week on the PBS program, Fresh Air.
Terry Gross…
the interviewer…
recalled his wearing that bullet-proof vest at his consecration…
and she asked him if security would surround him at Lambeth.
He said yes.
He will have security with him.
Too risky to be there without it.
Gene Robinson knows that what he’s doing is dangerous work.
He’s aware of that.
But like Stephen…
and I expect like Martin Luther King…
he also recognizes that one of the great joys about faith in God, and walking in this path with God, is that you don't have to be fearful, and if there is any great reward to the Christian life, or the life of faith in any religion that knows God, the reward is that you don't have to be paralyzed by your fear.
Jesus always said that life in him would be costly.
And for Bishop Robinson it means that his speaking out has taken an enormous toll on him and his family.
However, in the end…
he says, having the opportunity to do what God has called him to do is just plain awesome.

THE VOICE OF GENE ROBINSON
With stones…
they smashed Stephen's brain, the center of language, reason, and faith.
He died like Jesus.
They shot Martin Luther King, hoping to extinguish what they could not tolerate.
He died like Jesus.
Bishop Gene Robinson is apparently also vulnerable, but willing to die like Jesus.

WHY? THE KING OF LOVE IS DEAD
Three days after King's assassination in 1968, performer Nina Simone and her band played at the Westbury Music Festival on Long Island.
They presented a song called "Why?”
Its subtitle is “The King of Love is Dead.”
It’s a powerful song about the contemptable killing of Martin Luther King…
but clearly…
it’s also about Jesus.
It’s about the brutal killing of Stephen, and it’s about the vulnerability of Bishop Gene Robinson and others like him.
I have, loaded in my iPod, about one minute of the Gene Robinson interview from Public Radio.
That minute is followed by a five-minute version of the Nina Simone song, “Why?”
I’m going to play that piece of the interview…
and the song…
for you…
and I want you to listen for images of not only Martin Luther King…
but also Stephen…
Gene Robinson…
and Jesus.
They’re all there!
I’ve typed up the recorded words of Bishop Robinson and the lyrics from the Nina Simone song.
Follow along, if you’d like.
They’re tucked into your service booklet.
I’ll start the playlist, and then I’ll sit down.

STEPHEN, MARTIN LUTHER KING, GENE ROBINSON, AND JESUS
Stephen, we're told, was doing wonderful things among the people, unmistakable signs that God was among them.
So was Martin Luther King…
and so is Bishop Gene Robinson…
just like Jesus.
Something we know…
I think…
is that the King of Love did not die after all.
We’ll follow up with the creed.

(The recorded words of Bishop Robinson and the song by Nina Simone are included in the audio version of the sermon. Click on the link ThisWeeksSermon Easter 5 April 20 on the right-hand side of this page.)

BISHOP ROBINSON’S WORDS

If I can perhaps even risk my own life, but certainly risk whatever angry and hateful words that might come my way, to sit at the table and engage those who might disagree with me, if I can do that, certainly these conservative bishops can come to the table and remain engaged with me and with one another around the issues that face us. We just cannot write off a fellow brother or sister and it argues for a kind of doctrinal purity that has never been the tradition of the Anglican Church. And so for these people to call themselves traditionalists is really a misnomer. And to walk away from the table is the most unfaithful act of all because it says that reconciliation isn't possible.

WHY? (THE KING OF LOVE IS DEAD): BY GENE TAYLOR & RECORDED BY NINA SIMONE (1968)

Once upon this planet earth, lived a man humble birth
Preaching love and freedom for his fellow man
He was dreaming of the day, peace would come to Earth to stay, and he spread this message all across the land., Turn the other cheek, he plead, Love thy neighbor was his creed, pain, humiliation, death he did not dread, With his mother at his side, from his foes he did not hide, It’s hard to think this great man is dead., Will the murders never cease, are they men or are they beasts, What do they ever hope, ever hope to gain, Will my country stand or fall , Is it too late for us all, And did Martin Luther King , just die in vain., He has seen the Mountain Top, and he knew he could not stop., Always living, with the threat of death ahead, Folks you better stop and think, ‘cause we’re headed for the brink, what will happen now, that he is dead., He was for equality, for all people, you and me, full of love and goodwill, hate was not his way, he was not a violent man, tell me folks if you can, just why, why was he shot down the other day, But he’d seen the mountain top, and he knew he could not stop, always living with a threat of death ahead, Folks you better stop and think, and feel again, while we’re headed for the brink , what’s going to happen, now that the king of love is dead.

PRAYER
Let us pray.
Eternal God, the Great Mystery that is outside everything and yet at the same time inside, keep alive in each one of us the search for a faith that is real, a faith that helps us to live happier lives, a faith that gives us a fuller meaning to life and the events of life. Bring us to know the goodness that flows from the heart of the universe and may we be expanded in heart and soul by that goodness.
This is our prayer. Amen.
Jerry Brooks

ThisWeeksSermon, Easter 4, April 13, 2008

“Being Green: Abundant life for all of God’s people”
The 4th Sunday of Easter, April 13, 2008

May I speak only the truth, and may only the truth be heard by you. In the name of God our Creator, our Redeemer, and our Sanctifier. Amen.

“BEING GREEN”: THE NEWSPAPER ARTICLE
Every other Tuesday is recycle day on my street, Cambridge Court in Highland.
Cambridge Court serves 48 families.
Tuesday morning the recycle truck came through and made quick work of the recycled trash…
as it does on two or three Tuesdays each month.
It’s always easy.
There’s never much to recycle.
This week only five of the 48 families bothered to separate their recyclables…
It’s typical.
That’s about 10 percent of us on our street.
Paper, glass, metal, everything is crammed together into the big gray plastic containers, along with chicken bones and plastic bags and apple cores, kitty litter, banana peels, and everything else.
It’s remarkable to me that only five families recycle.
My notion is that there’s been a “great awakening” about rising oceans, melting glaciers, drowning polar bear cubs, starving sea lions, all caused by our collective carbon footprint.
In our parish, it’s been an easy transition from foam plates and plastic forks, to real dishes and silverware, transition from whatever copier paper had been cheapest, to 100 percent recycled paper, transition from that huge dumpster, a receptacle that many of our neighbors thought was there for them, transition from that dumpster to a few demure, unassuming, gray, containers lined up behind the church.
CHURCH RECYCLING
In February, I received some eMail about a New Jersey meeting on use of solar power by churches.
Intriguing idea, I thought.
The idea that solar panels on a roof might not only provide clean energy, but also provide a visible sign of how a congregation is working proactively to help the environment.
It got me thinking about what else we might be doing here at The Episcopal Church in Marlboro.
And it got me thinking about what folks in other parts of the Diocese might be doing in their parishes.
I volunteered to write an article for The Episcopal New Yorker, the diocesan newspaper.
I sent out eMail to all of the clergy in the diocese.
I wanted to know what effect all of our talk about global warming has actually had in our parishes.
I heard back from 16 parishes.
That’s about 8 percent of the 200 congregations in our diocese.
Each of those 16 respondents claimed some “shade of being green.”
HERE’S WHAT’S BEING DONE OUT THERE
Here’s what I found out:
Most parishes report switching over from incandescent lighting to compact fluorescents.
Replacing old thermostats with state-of-the-art…
programmable thermostats…
has also been a popular energy-saver.
Many parishes report stepping up recycling, conducting energy audits, using recycled paper, carpooling.
Several parishes reported replacing hot water heaters and ancient heating systems with energy-efficient equipment.
Many churches have done what we’ve done:
replaced styrofoam plates and cups, and plastic forks and spoons, with real plates and mugs and flatware.
An automatic dishwasher actually turns out to save water and energy when it’s fully loaded.
One parish, after discovering that the “lining” material in their paper cups was petroleum-based, switched to a paper cup with a corn-based liner…
at no extra cost.
At St. John the Evangelist Church, next-door to Bard College, they insulated walls and ceilings.
(The church there is a wooden frame structure.)
They also replaced roofing with energy-efficient materials.
At St. John’s in New Rochelle, they say that Con Ed has agreed to replace every light bulb, including old fluorescents, with energy-saving starters and lower energy bulbs, at no cost.
Con Ed guarantees annual savings of $5000 on their electric bill this year.
Another St. John’s wrote to me, this one from Tuckahoe.
They sponsored a “green day” for the community.
It included exhibits by “green” organizations, vendors of “green” products, organic farmers, and so forth.
They’re going to repeat the event in September.
At St. Andrew’s Chapel in Montgomery, they’re talking about providing a collection point for burned-out fluorescent bulbs.
Those bulbs contain Mercury, you know.
They want to do this as a public service to the community.
At Christ Church in Bronxville, they’re looking at the possibility of switching to a geothermal and solar high-volume air conditioning system…
an approach that would use underground coolness and the sun’s warmth to maintain indoor temperatures.
They’re also looking at the R-value of their windows, roofing, and insulation.
At Holy Apostles in New York City, they only serve Fair Trade Coffee, and they’ve created a composting program in the church garden.
The sunday bulletin in that church carries a weekly tip on how to be “green” at home.
Some really interesting ideas, I think!
And I find it especially interesting that “being green” often actually saves money.
(I still can’t believe that $5000 energy cost reduction in New Rochelle. I wonder whether the decimal point was misplaced. One too many zeroes?)
LOVING OUR NEIGHBORS/CARING FOR CREATION
This growing awareness is a sign of enormous hope, I think, hope for this world that we believe God so-loved.
Christians bear some of the responsibility for the current environmental crisis, you know.
There’s that darned verse from Genesis that led many in the wrong direction:
Genesis 1, verse 28:
God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth and subdue it.
Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."
Reverence for creation has not been a high priority for Christians.…
until now.
The question today is this:
How can we love God if we don’t love what God has made!
We base much of our approach to loving God and our neighbors, loving God and showing kindness to one another, we base much of that on our baptismal promises, promises that actually imply caring for the rest of creation.
We’re just now beginning to be aware of the ways in which our lack of concern for the rest of creation results in death and destruction for our neighbors.
How can we show kindness to our neighbors, love our neighbors as ourselves, if we do not care for the creation that supports all of our lives.
We’re not respecting the dignity of our fellow creatures when our sewage and garbage make their living space putrid and disgusting.
We’re not respecting the dignity of our fellow creatures when atmospheric warming, due in part to the methane output of the millions of cows we raise each year to produce hamburger, when atmospheric warming begins to slowly drown the island homes of our neighbors in the South Pacific.
When we do these things…
we’re not respecting the dignity of our fellow creatures, not really loving our neighbor as ourselves…
sharing the essence of Jesus’ message.
THE ESSENCE OF JESUS’ MESSAGE: ABUNDANT LIFE
If the essence of that message is accurately captured in this morning’s gospel reading, and I think it is, then following Jesus is about experiencing Life, Life with a capital “L”, having life and having it more abundantly.
If the essence of Jesus’ message is
I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
then we should be challenging any course of action of any people that diminishes the possibility of abundant life for any child of God in any part of the world.
SPRING SPRANG ON THURSDAY
Thursday it was quite clear that winter is over…
and with spring…
a promise of abundant life is in the air.
What a great day!
Yesterday, too!
Signs of new life are everywhere.
New growth…
green grass, flowers, warm afternoons, children outdoors at play.
Now seems a great time to think about how our daily living can be an act of ensuring abundant life for other creatures.
Now seems a great time to think about how we can act out the abundant life we know in Jesus the Christ.
It’s a great time to think about how we can be a sacrament, an outward and visible sign, of the grace that we know in the resurrected Christ.
THE QUESTION
How can our living allow others to live abundantly?
The food we eat, the energy we use, the stuff we buy, the ways we travel.
All these are opportunities, choices and decisions, decisions to be FOR others, both human and not human.
Our presiding bishop says this to us:
Christian commitment is certainly about having a more abundant life…
but that commitment includes having it in a way that results in abundant life for the whole world.
I dream of a day when the fear of an environmental apocalypse is nothing more than a shadowy memory.
I believe that’s how all this will eventually turn out…
because I believe God is in on this.
God is all about abundant life…
for everyone.
PRAYER
Let us pray.
Eternal God, the Great Mystery that is outside everything and yet at the same time inside, keep alive in each one of us the search for a faith that is real, a faith that helps us to live happier lives, a faith that gives us a fuller meaning to life and the events of life. Bring us to know the goodness that flows from the heart of the universe and may we be expanded in heart and soul by that goodness.
This is our prayer. Amen.
Jerry Brooks

Children's service April 6 Easter 3

Children in the Sunday school gathered around the altar during the consecration at the April "children's mass."

ThisWeeksSermon, Easter 3, April 6, 2008

“Becoming Me. A Story of Creation” (Children's Service)
The 3d Sunday of Easter, April 6, 2008

May I speak only the truth, and may only the truth be heard by you. In the name of God our Creator, our Redeemer, and our Sanctifier. Amen.

On one of my recent trips to California…
Jennifer and I took Amelia out to lunch in Berkeley.
She slept.
We ate.
It was a warm, sunny day…
and we ate outdoors.
Afterward, we walked around a bit in that charming…
bustling Berkeley neighborhood populated by all kinds of people…
and I mean ALL kinds of people!
We wandered into a bookstore.
I was hoping to find something I could use with our Sunday school boys and girls on this children’s Sunday.
I found this little book.
Becoming Me. A Story of Creation
I bought the book.
Took it with me…
back to Jennifer’s.
When José got home…
I showed it to him…
And then I read it out loud for the three of us.
When I was done…
Jennifer and José and I stood silent for a minute.
All three of us found it to be incredibly, surprisingly moving.
It’s just a “children’s book,” you know!
But Wow!
I left the book there for Amelia to grow up with.
I’d like her to grow up knowing this alternative spiritual story of how it all began.
Ordered my own copy when I got home.
The title again…
Becoming me. A story of creation.
Not “the” story of creation”…
but “A” story of creation.
“Another” story of creation, actually.
There are already two creation stories in the Book of Genesis, you know.
The second version is older than the first.
Although both versions are supposed to have been written by Moses…
it’s totally not possible…
unless it was written posthumously.
The biblical creation narratives are clearly inspired stories told by followers of the One God…
but told in another time and another place…
based on a prehistoric understanding of the Universe.
So now there’s a third story of creation…
not science…
not evolution…
but also a clearly an inspired story told by a follower of the One God…
This version is told in the personal “voice” of our Creator.
It’s God who’s speaking directly to us in this little book.
It’s a story about creation…
but it’s also a story about relationship…
a story about each one of us.
In simple words…
and with beautiful illustrations…
it’s about creation…
it’s about playing…
it’s about friendship and love…
it’s about our world…
and it’s about becoming ourselves…
our True selves.
It tells a very big story in a very simple way…
a simple, charming, and profound story of God’s moving and changing presence in our world.

BECOMING ME. A STORY OF CREATION, BY MARTIN BOROSON1
Once upon a time…
I was.
There was nobody who knew that I was…
But I was.
I liked to make myself into different shapes.
Lots of different shapes—all me.
Everywhere I looked there was only me.
I must be VERY BIG.
I played by myself for ages.
It seemed like forever.
Then I started to get lonely.
I wanted someone else to play with, someone who wasn’t ME.
So I took a deep breath, gathered all my strength together, and squeezed really hard.
I started to feel dizzy.
It felt like I was falling.
And then suddenly, in a big burst, I became…
something ELSE.
This was so much fun, I did it again and again, lots of different ways.
I do it all the time now.
I can become all kinds of things, things that grow and swim and crawl and fly and run.
One day, I squeezed extra hard.
PUSHED and I PUSHED and I PUSHED, and then all of a sudden, I BECAME…
YOU.
What is this thing I’m in?
Just one moment ago I was SO BIG and now I’m SO little.
It’s like I’m all wrapped up in love.
But as soon as I become you, you forget that you’re me.
In time, you forget all about me.
Every so often, you wonder who you are.
And I’m right here, reminding you.
I’m always busy now, cheering you on.
I like it best when you discover me.
Then we play together, you and I.
And sometimes you realize that you ARE me.
But sometimes you forget that everything else is me too.
Even then…
don’t forget…
I still love you…
little ME.
NOTE
By the way, there’s a video version of this book…
narrated by the author, Martin Boroson.
If only a video screen could come up out of the floor like magic…
and a projector drop from the ceiling…
I could have shown the video this morning.
The video…
however…
is posted on my blog.
Among the February postings.
http://episcopalmarlboro.blogspot.com/2008/02/another-creation-story.html
(You can get to the blog from our church website.)
GOD ON THE ROAD AGAIN
Touching on this morning’s gospel reading…
to kind of tie this together somehow…
we get another big story told in a simple way.
We find Luke’s Jesus on the Road to Emmaeus.
In telling this story…
Luke also wants us to know something about God’s moving and changing presence in the world.
Luke has Jesus telling the two people on the road that his death had to happen.
It had to happen because the fear of a violent God who demanded blood had to be undone.
The “good news of great joy” for Luke was this:
God…
the creator…
the creative Lover of the World…
was willing to die at the hands of his own people…
and then was willing to come back again…
not to make them pay…
but to give them more love.
This love is unstoppable.
This love transforms people.
Even when we forget that God is with us…
and in us…
God still loves us…
little US.
That’s what Luke wanted us to know.
He also tells this very big story in a very simple way…
a profound story of God’s moving and changing presence in our world.
PRAYER
Let us pray.
Eternal God, the Great Mystery that is outside everything and yet at the same time inside, keep alive in each one of us the search for a faith that is real, a faith that helps us to live happier lives, a faith that gives us a fuller meaning to life and the events of life. Bring us to know the goodness that flows from the heart of the universe and may we be expanded in heart and soul by that goodness.
This is our prayer. Amen.
Jerry Brooks

Photos from Sunday's baptism of Tayla Briana Ciaio

ThisWeeksSermon, Easter 2, March 30, 2008

“Beyond belief: consider the possibilities”
The 2d Sunday of Easter, March 30, 2008

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

Jesus' good news was bad news to many in Jesus' time.

It was such bad news that at the beginning of his preaching, they nearly killed him.

At the end of his ministry, they succeeded.

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

Yesterday, for some reason, I was thinking about those words of Jesus, when one of the religious leaders asked which, of all the commandments, was most important.
Jesus’ answer, of course:
Love God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.
And equally important, he said:
love your neighbor as yourself.
The “love God” part sounds fine to me.
but the “love your neighbor” part is pretty fuzzy.
What exactly are we expected to do when confronted with someone we really don’t like, but we’re told we have to love.
I don’t really know how to do that.
I’m thinking that an improvement would be to say it more or less this way:
Love God with everything you’ve got, and be kind to one another, even to that person you don’t very much like.
I’d like yo to hold that thought.

POST-CREDAL CHRISTIANITY?
One of the problems that churches face today is that the culture has been shifting over the last two centuries, shifting in its attitudes toward religious faith.
There’s been a gradual movement away from seeing Truth revealed by external authorities, such as the Bible or the church, there’s been a shift toward a belief that Truth is revealed to us through our own personal experience.
More important to many people these days, is living lives that are authentic, and expressive of our true selves.
The idea that the way to be “good” is to follow rules laid down by others has been displaced, displaced by suspicion of those who made the rules in the first placd.
There’s a sense that to think seriously about our lives, it’s better to turn to psychology, or maybe the latest book on Buddhism.
It’s better to do that than to listen to some sermon on a Sunday morning.

POSSIBILITIES?
But imagine a different kind of church, a church without creeds, without creeds, but at the same time, a church that remained fundamentally mystical in character.
At the heart of that church could be an awareness that we live in the presence of Mystery and Truth, and that we have been invited to take part in a reality that extends beyond our individual lives.
Imagine a church that would be without creeds, but would preach Truth about life lived in a context of love and generosity and kindness.
Imagine a church where God was not defined.
In theological terms, this approach to God has been called the via negativa, belief that we can only say what God is not, belief that God ultimately lies beyond any formulas or doctrines, God hidden in a cloud of not knowing.
This approach can be seen in ancient Judaism, where God could not be named for fear of diminishing God’s infiniteness.
This approach obviously is the opposite of “credal” Christianity, which claims that Truth can be reduced with certainty into various concepts and theological premises.
In the church that I’m imagining, members would not stop talking about God.
But they would recognize that any attempts to speak of God would have to be essentially poetic, simply pointers to Truth that lies beyond the words.
Talk about God would be seen as poetry.
It could be timeless and living, a living, creative force, not a fixed formula.
In the church I’m imagining, a major concern would be to ensure the well-being of others, to seek Meaning in this life, to transform the world through Kindness.
What d’ya think?
Does any of that sound good?

AN AMAZING SHIFT
One of the most astonishing revisions of the gospel narrative in the history of the church took place during its first 100 years.
Mark’s version of Jesus, in the earliest of the gospels, Marks version was of a Jesus who understood his mission as being one of announcing the reign of God that he saw breaking into the world.
Jesus saw signs of this when the blind were given sight, when the deaf could hear, when the lame could walk, when those appressed by “demons” were liberated from them.
The poor heard that better times were coming, THEY would be valued and honored.
It was the shift from this version of Jesus, to John’s version of Jesus, that was astonishing.
John’s Jesus explained his life as a human sacrifice.
John’s Jesus became one who preached that Christianity should be fundamentally about adhering to a set of correct doctrines, believing certain stuff.
The first Bible verse I ever memorized was from John’s gospel:
John 3:16.
I was a boy in Sunday School when I memorized it.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.
If you didn’t believe, you were doomed.
Scared me half to death, actually.
There were nights when I couldn’t sleep because of that “good news”!

THIS MORNING’S READING
This morning we get more of it, because we’re reading about John’s Jesus, in the John’s gospel.
Jesus said to Thomas, “Reach out your hand and put it in my side.
Do not doubt but believe.”
Then John’s Jesus says, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”
And preachers ever since have been telling us exactly that:
if you don’t have faith, you will perish.
HERE’S THE DEAL
But here’s the deal:
Jesus came preaching, preaching the good news, but the church wound up preaching Jesus.
For some reason, the church has insisted on making Jesus the object of its attention, instead of focusing on Jesus’ message.

THE GIFT OF HOLY WEEK
Every year during Holy Week, there’s what’s called a “Mass of Collegiality” for priests in the diocese.
It’s held at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York.
Bishop Sisk is host.
At lunch each of us receives a gift every year.
And this time it was a book titled The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus.
Its author is the esteemed Harvard teacher and minister, Peter J. Gomes.
Gomes believes that excessive focus on the Bible and doctrines about Jesus have led the Christian Church astray.
To recover the transformative power of the gospel, he says, we have to go beyond the Bible and rediscover how to live out Jesus’ original revolutionary message of hope.
“What did Jesus preach?”
That’s the question we should be asking.
Not what did Jesus do, or what would Jesus do, or what is it we have to believe.
“What did Jesus preach?”

JESUS THE PREACHER BECAME JESUS THE PREACHED
Jesus, who came preaching, somehow became Jesus-the-One-Who-Was-Preached.
In a way, it’s understandable.
Actually, it’s easier to talk about Jesus than to talk about what he talked about!, because Jesus’ preaching was outrageous.
The nature of his “good news” was scandalously radical.
He condemned the rich.
He challenged organized religion.
Love your enemies, he said.
Turn the other cheek.
Give away all your worldly goods.
Say goodbye to your family and follow me.
I could go on....
but I won’t.
It’s scandalous.
Jesus’ good news was bad news to many in Jesus’ time.
It was such bad news that at the beginning of his preaching, they nearly killed him.
At the end of his ministry, they succeeded.

KINDNESS: THAT’S WHAT JESUS PREACHED
If you were to distill the great spiritual teachings from around the world, distill them to their most basic principles, one thread would emerge to unite them all.
That thread would be Kindness.
It’s not the sweet, naive sentiment that you might think it is.
Instead, it’s an immensely powerful force that can transform individual lives, transform the lives of persons offering the kindness, as well as persons on the receiving end of that kindness.
Kindness, not toughness, can ripple out to change and improve relationships, change the environment, change our communities, and ultimately, change the world.

JESUS KNEW IT
Jesus knew that to be true.
Kindness was central to Jesus’ message, central to his preaching:
Love God with everything you’ve got, and be kind to one another.

PRAYER
Let us pray.
Eternal God, the Great Mystery that is outside everything and yet at the same time inside, keep alive in each one of us the search for a faith that is real, a faith that helps us to live happier lives, a faith that gives us a fuller meaning to life and the events of life. Bring us to know the goodness that flows from the heart of the universe and may we be expanded in heart and soul by that goodness.
This is our prayer. Amen.
Jerry Brooks