Miracles

 (Kateri Tekakwitha, First Nations Saint )

The Bible contains a lot of stories about Jesus performing miracles

All good and fine for the folks of Ancient Palestine, but how about today?

What has happened to miracles?

It's a question that gets posed by quite often, not only by skeptics, and atheists, but also by "true believers"!* (I really can't believe I just used that phrase, but it seems to fit under the circumstances.)


My theory (how's that for mixing science with religion) is that miracles occur far more frequently than any of us realize. The miracle exists with or without attribution. More often than not the miracle simply is not noticed because we are looking for external evidence. All too seldom do we remember to count the internal changes that God manifests within us as miracles. Healing miracles wrought changes within not just the physical body, but also the mind and spirit.

Still, we fail to recognize even the purely physical miracles because we have difficulty tracking the evidence, the chain of events which lead up to the miracle.

Here's a story to illustrate my theory.

The story starts out

 "Jake Finkbonner was so close to death after flesh-eating bacteria infected him through a cut on his lip that his parents had last rites performed and were discussing donating the 5-year-old's tiny organs. " 

It continues on to tell how one person, with amazing faith and perseverance came to his bedside with something of a last ditch intervention. The power of faith in God's desire to see health and wholeness restored to little Jake was the basis of the intervention. After every other effort had been exhausted, one believing community began intercession through a soon to be saint, Kateri, known as Lily of the Mohawks, and a relic of the soon to be saint was brought to the boy where he lay in the hospital, so near to death.


Miracles do occur with far more frequency than we ever acknowledge. In fact, I think miracles are like trees that fall in the woods... their sound is cast with a thunderous bang. But they go unnoticed because no one was near enough to crash site to hear it.

Those miracles may be of many varieties:

• Miracles of the deep wounds from broken relationships becoming places of forgiveness after years of determined resentment. 
• Miracles of rescuers being within reach of an accident, and proper treatment being engaged soon enough to revive the fallen, injured or trapped. 
• Miracles of addictions being overcome through the power of the Holy Spirit.  

Many other too numerous to list can truly be claimed as miracles, and with it thanksgiving and praise to God should ascend to the heights of heaven daily. The most important miracles, for which we rarely stop to give thanks to God, is the very miracle of being loved by God; NO EXCEPTIONS
 -----------

*"True believers" are those persons who deeply profess faith in God, and hold fast to the conviction that salvation comes through belief in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, crucified, died, buried and resurrected. They may be tolerant or not, defensive or not, and from any denomination of the one holy catholic church.

Healing Minister

Jehovah Rapha... God who heals

Two and a half years ago I attended a weekend Healing Mission conducted by the Order of St. Luke the Physician.
 
That weekend I committed to engage in a study of the stories of Jesus' healing ministry in the Gospels. The scriptures are full of stories of God's reconciling and restoring work during Jesus' life. What about today?

That weekend in January was one of many places along a five year journey to understand the healing ministry in the Church. It has been a fitful journey, with starts and abrupt stops many times along the way. I signed up as an associate member of the Order of St. Luke but could not make a viable connection.
The obstacles seemed as much directed by the Spirit as anything could. I continued my studies independently, attending many different events named as healing services and classes.

I've always felt a part of my call was to peacemaking, one that included facilitating reconciliation and peace, but struggled relentlessly to find a genuine expression of that call, especially a sacramental expression, something that could be experienced within the context of worship. 

How could I integrate healing into my ministry? Intention to offer oneself as an intercessor for healing ministry is an awesome and scary step. Would I have to be a wild eyed crazy person, like the movie character played by Chevy Chase or those television evangelists? If that's what it would require, there's no way I would submit myself to that type of calling or ministry..no wild eyed evangelist for me!

During Lent in 2011 I had the privilege of framing the question  within a five week course which I taught collaboratively with our Interim Priest, Fr. Paul Price. This course opened up to me the rich tradition the Episcopal Church maintains as a leader in integrating healing ritual into the liturgy.

What I discovered is that Anglicans have been offering a dignified ministry of anointing and healing prayer within worship, at special services, and in pastoral care settings following in the tradition of the early church.

And since collaborating on that course we have offered a weekly healing service with Holy Eucharist. participating in the service offering intercessory prayer and joining in the laying on of hands has been one of the most precious places of ministry during the past year.

This month I asked God, how was I supposed to be faithful to the call that was placed on my heart, and one of the answers was "deepen your healing ministry."

But Lord, do I have enough faith?

The Spirit whispered..."I have given you sufficient faith. Go, be true to the call...you are a minister of healing in my name."

Great Triduum

Tonight is the beginning of the Great Triduum; three solemn days of remembrance before the great Resurrection Celebration. In these three days, which for me become ever more dear with the passing of each year, we reflect on the final days of Jesus’ ministry on earth.

In the Gospel of John, following the triumphal entry into Jerusalem when the Greeks came to Phillip and Andrew saying they wanted to see Jesus we begin to see Jesus shut down his public ministry. The response to the request which was related to Jesus by Andrew and Phillip sidesteps the request. Jesus begins talking about his “hour”. He talks about the need for death and uses a grain of wheat as his example. The Greeks, on that day, were apparently left with an unsatisfied longing, an unfulfilled yearning to see Jesus. Somewhat oddly the way the lectionary is currently set up, this passage was assigned to the fifth week of Lent, pulled out of the chronology and placed before us to reflect upon those who still long to see Jesus. It provides a call to faithful discipleship for the church in this hour. After preaching on this text John 12:20-33, two weeks ago I presented a challenge to each and all, self included, for us to pray about where we were being called to become broken open, like the grain of wheat Jesus taught about, to bear fruit.

During the Paschal Triduum we are brought to table, the garden, the trial, the cross, and the tomb. We encounter the sinfulness of humanity as well as the heroism. The love and devotion as well as the betrayal which comes from being weak and human are played out for self examination and meditation on the life of the one we claim to be the source of our salvation.

Do you wonder, as I do, how much Jesus “knew” and how much Jesus “intuited” of the coming end to his human life? Did God reveal to him, as centuries later Martin Luther King related his mountain top experience? Was it “just a feeling” that had to be followed, as we so often chart courses for our lives? Did Jesus really and truly remember what he left behind when he “emptied himself of divinity” to become incarnate?

Does it matter to you in your journey of faith as it seems to matter for mine?

The incarnation is interpreted in many ways. Some hold such high Christological formulas that it seems that Jesus never really did suffer. That heterodoxy diminishes the ability for me to find comfort from Jesus, as Great High Priest. Jesus as the pattern and perfecter of our salvation must have had to deal with temptation, but demonstrated the power of the Almighty Father-Mother accessible to all humanity, even you, even me. This is the Jesus I need to encounter in Scripture in order to place my whole faith and trust in the Triune God. .

I favor a view of Jesus growing in wisdom and understanding as a human, gifted with intuition and empowered with a spiritual discipline to grow in grace and love to follow the inspiration of God through the presence of the Holy Spirit in his life. With that I can imagine his wrestling with the decisions of each day, in the same way that I must toss and turn options and speculate upon the results of my actions.
Unlike me, Jesus was so perfectly connected to the Divine Source of all life that each decision served to fulfill the Divine Intentions for all humanity. And yet, El Shaddai withheld the use of any coercion upon Jesus.

It is conceivable that Jesus would have never even sat upon the colt which had never before ridden. Jesus could have chosen obscurity, anonymity and lived a very long life in human form.

But he didn’t and the rest, as they say is history.

In the end he gathered his disciples together and remembered the Saving Acts of God for the children of Abraham and Sarah. He offered a new interpretation for the meal that they shared together that night to provide the way to continue his presence among them, after the fleshy temple was destroyed.

He enacted a parable of servanthood in the washing of his disciples’ feet. He taught them that servants are never greater than their masters.

Then he called them his friends. Thick or thin, good times and bad, they were his friends for whom he prayed and beseeched the Father to grant power to go forth in his name.

This is where the Greeks come in. Only through those who would later receive and use the power gifted to them would the Greeks come to see Jesus. Through the mystery of the community which would repeatedly share the meal in remembrance of Jesus’ death and resurrection until he comes again in Glory, the Greeks and Romans, Celts, Galations, (the list goes on) came to see Jesus, to see and be set free.

Tonight we gather to retell the story and experience the presence of God amongst us. It is a night for reflection upon our own discipleship. Have we picked up the cross, been able to drink the cup, wash the feet, feed the hungry, heal the sick, release prisoners from their peculiar bondages? Have we looked upon all around us and seen the face of God in each person? Have we gone to the places that Jesus would have us go? Have we denied the Lord Jesus?

Tonight is a night to watch and wait with Jesus, either in community through the vigil which follows in the sanctuary with the Blessed Sacrament or in private meditation. For me this will be a solemn time of prayer and reflection upon my ministry and the next turn in my journey.

One month from today, May 5, 2012, I will, by the grace of God, have completed the work and will be presented a certificate that acknowledges my completion of the course Anglican Studies at Bloy House. Beyond that accomplishment, there is a significant amount of uncertainty.

I have colleagues from other places that are preparing to depart for Thailand, and changing posts from Mozambique to parts unknown. A call to church planting begins to resonate with me, though not to a distant place. I have been led back to this place to learn and to grow as well as serve. All around I see signs that I am in a field where the harvest is still plentiful but laborers few. My own calling is a mission to proclaim, to witness, to serve, to teach, to equip, to bring healing and reconciliation through word and sacrament and they await me, though only the Divine Author of all Creation knows the location. I feel it may be very near to where I already am. I know not for sure and wait upon the blowing of the Holy Spirit to direct my path.

In the Unity of the Spirit

This last Saturday I drove to Echo Park to participate in a Service of Repentance at the Cathedral Center of Saint Paul for the Diocese of Los Angeles for The Episcopal Church.

The event has been posted on the website for the Los Angeles Diocese for weeks, and been worked on by the Planning Group on Black Ministries for months.

The service was a fulfillment of General Convention 2006 Resolution A123 on Slavery and Racial Reconciliation. This resolution runs the risk of becoming like so many social justice issues passed by the highest levels of any institution. Those who are most passionate, the activists who fill the upper echelons of every organization, agree on language and understandings surrounding policies and past activities of the institution, and then covenant to change their ways going forward. But in making that step for reparation of a breach of faithfulness to the call to discipleship it is recognized that reconciliation is incomplete. One doesn’t just go forward without fully acknowledging grievous behavior of the past. The General Conference Resolution called for each diocese to respond by engaging in reflection and action to resolve a breach in the unity of the body of Christ. This is action on an institutional level, not merely the individual and personal.

You might wonder, “Why in the world would a local pastor of the United Methodist Church attend such a function occurring in the Episcopal Church?”

My answer is both simple and complex.

Simply put, this was an action of acknowledging a part of my own identity. I became a Christian through baptism and confirmation as a member of an Episcopal Church in the seventh grade. In my youth, the boundaries of the Episcopal Church Los Angeles Diocese included San Diego County. I am somehow deeply connected to the body of Christ through the Episcopal Church, a fact which became very clear to me as I participated in the Wesley Tercentennial Pilgrimage in 2007. Also, I have among my ancestors one who was an Episcopal Priest who served churches in North Carolina. There is also a string of generations before and after, who claimed membership in the Episcopal Church.

The more complex answer derives from my own passion around the topics of Race and Religion and their intersection with my personal history. I grew up in a time of change. The Civil rights Act was passed in my youth. My own schooling experience lacked the heated controversy over integration vs. segregation in San Diego. And yet, during my ninth grade and half of the tenth grade, I lived with a family in Texas so that I could attend a private Christian School. In that environment I first sampled blatant white prejudice. Racism was not in my lexicon at the time. What I heard felt wrong, in violation of what the messages of Paul’s letters were conveying in scripture. But I did not know how to speak out against this message. Years later I would come to learn more about my own family history and begin to put together the facts. I will only say there are many pieces of that history which offer no place of pride of inheritance.

Attending this service was a way for me to stop and acknowledge my inheritance of racial prejudice and complacency. It was also a time to learn more of the history of the Episcopal Church. In so doing, as a participant I did so as one who has reaped benefits from the institution of slavery and institutional racism, even if I had no personal part in creating the institutions.

There is something very empowering in naming the truth. It is even more so when done in the context of a service which includes the celebration of Eucharist. In the homily delivered by Bishop Jon Bruno, honesty and candor was the hallmark of the message. Not just speaking for the failings of the institution, but of his own places of failure. The Los Angeles diocese is blessed to have the leadership of one who demonstrates such humility and honesty.

I was impressed by the make-up of those who attended. It appeared that the European-Americans in attendance where mostly from among the clergy, clerical collars being the identifier used.While waiting in the reception line following the service with me stood a young Euro-American couple with their daughter who I would guess to have been 4 or 5 years old. Those parents, so much younger than I, are to be commended for creating a lasting memory for reflection with their daughter in years to come.

There was also a young man who I would say, by appearance, was of limited resources, and of mixed racial heritage. He learned of the service when he attended Sunday Worship at the Cathedral the week prior. He told me he hadn’t been to church in many years. He was very excited to attend this service and full of interest in the Story of Christianity. His enthusiasm and interest gave me a sense of hope. Somehow, as often as the church has failed to live up to the call of costly discipleship, we do see signs of repentance and growth that spring from it.

It was most humbling, when I reached the line-up of those who lead the service, and shook each of their hands, that each of them spoke warm thanks and appreciation to me for attending the service. My own heart was strangely warmed by the opportunity to acknowledge on behalf of prior generations, and of my own participation. It was a fitting way to enter into preparation for worship the following day as we joined to commemorate World Communion Sunday.

grace and peace,