Sermons from St. John's Episcopal Church
May 17, 2024 |
Funeral Homily: Barbara Schubauer
| The Very Rev. Gideon L. K. Pollach
Funeral Homily: Barbara Schubauer
A Reading from the Book of Proverbs (4: 10-27)
Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless. Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.
A Reading from the First Letter to Timothy (6:11-12,17-19)
But as for you, man of God, shun all this; pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life, to which you were called and for which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. As for those who in the present age are rich, command them not to be haughty, or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but rather on God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share, thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life.
A Reading from the Gospel According to Matthew (5:38-45)
Jesus said: ‘You have heard that it was said, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you. You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.” But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.
Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless. Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.
A Reading from the First Letter to Timothy (6:11-12,17-19)
But as for you, man of God, shun all this; pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life, to which you were called and for which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. As for those who in the present age are rich, command them not to be haughty, or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but rather on God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share, thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life.
A Reading from the Gospel According to Matthew (5:38-45)
Jesus said: ‘You have heard that it was said, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you. You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.” But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.
May 16, 2024 |
Funeral Homily for Bradley Reminick
| The Very Rev. Gideon L. K. Pollach
Funeral Homily for Bradley Reminick
A Reading from the Gospel according to John:
Jesus said, “ I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away— and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.”
Jesus said, “ I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away— and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.”
Apr 28, 2024 |
Loving in Unloveable Times
|
Loving in Unloveable Times
I’m trying to work through a question. I hope you’ll forgive me for bringing this jumble to you all without much of an answer. But I’m going to share it with you because, I think perhaps, some of you may be trying to work through it as well.
It’s a question of how we are bound together by the love of God, and what that means for my life. A question of how if LOVE is our participation in God’s life, am I supposed to live. A question of how, as 1st John says “those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.” A question of how, as the reading we didn’t hear this morning shows, with the conversion of a man from far-away Ethiopia, the boundaries of this “brotherhood” extend FAR beyond our nuclear family. A question of how a man, in his last meal with his closest friends, knowing he’s going to his death the next day, tells them he is a vine - and they as branches must stay connected to him, and that through that there will be much fruit.
These readings all focus on relationships. They remind us of the ways we are bound to God and another. Of the ways we can strengthen those bonds, following God’s will. Of the ways our abiding presence with God and one another will bear forth the fruit of the spirit.
You see…. On Thursday night (three days ago) I was at Burgerology in Huntington - a place I like to go with friends. And a woman at the bar looked up at the TV, and seeing a crowd said something about campus protesters, which made it clear she was not in favor of them, nor did she deem them worthy of respect. I want to say she scoffed, but that’s probably me putting it on a bit hard. In any case, It turned out the crowd was actually just the NFL draft, so the conversation moved on quickly, but in that brief moment my heart jumped. I thought “can she just SAY that to a stranger? Does she just assume I agree with her, or does she not care?” I didn’t say anything at all.
I think back to the word of God… We love because he loved first.
On Saturday (eight days ago) I was in New Haven, spending the afternoon with my friend Noelle, who’d never been there before. I think many of you heard about my ventures out to “the all day singing.” As we walked around campus we saw the library, “old campus” where the freshmen live, and walked by the Beinecke, home to Yale’s extensive Rare books collection. As we passed by I saw the encampment of students outside the president’s office, and went to take a look. They had organized a library. There were maybe 20 tents, and some students were carrying over pieces of what looked like a hand-made marimba. It was larger than the 2017 encampment from the student labor organizers, which lasted 25 days, and included a hunger strike, but less well organized. Around the edges I saw jewish students well-dressed in the early evening for the passover holiday, sort of watching. I wondered what they were thinking.
I think back to the word of God… Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another.
When I was in graduate school at MIT (fifteen years ago now), in the political science program, one of my favorite traditions was celebrating the passover second seder with my friend andrew, the seder which is on the second Saturday of the ten-day holiday. We used the haggadah from his brooklyn heights temple, which included modern plagues like apartheid and climate change. I was one of the few non-jews in our cohort, but have experienced few religious rituals so moving. And even among that liberal crew, every seder ended with the saying “next year in Jerusalem!”
I think back to the word of God…. if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.
In January 2006 (eighteen years ago) I was in the airport in London on the way to Israel when I learned from a heavily laden journalist that the Prime Minister of Israel, Ariel Sharon had suffered a stroke. We didn’t know it then, but he would not recover. Sharon, a centrist politician, had led Israel’s policy of unilateral disengagement from Gaza the year before, and had been expected to do the same in the West Bank. On that trip we saw the Holy sites, but also visited refugee camps and did a homestay with a Palestinian Christian family. I had previously NO idea what was going on. On that trip I decided to change my life because of the suffering I saw.
I think back to the word of God…. Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God.
I’m sure most of ya’ll know I’m the sort of person inclined towards sympathy with campus protesters, and having spent time in the homes of Palistinians, and had every inch of my luggage searched three times on the way to the airport in Tel Aviv because I was in an East Jerusalem cab, I find Israel’s containment of Palestine very upsetting.
But as a priest, here in Cold Spring Harbor, I know plenty of you all come from different points of view. And as priests, our first job is to love our people. Truthfully, ya’ll are a pretty loveable bunch. I watch as you show up here again and again. I hear about your families. Your aging parents. Your confused kids. I hear about your health. I hear about your dreams. I hear about your goofy ideas for the cemetery. I listen to your mix-tape CDs in my car. I see you delivering meals and designing greeting cards. I watch you joke around with those you’ve known a long time. I see you bee-line for someone new to say hello. No you aren’t hard to love at all…. even those of you who don’t agree with me on immigration policy.
But I think what I am trying to say is that it feels like we are in a hard moment for love in the world. At times it can feel like the branches of the vine are being pulled further than they can stand. At times it can feel like one side or another lacks even basic humanity, or doesn’t see ours.
At times, it’s a scary place.
But I think back to the word of God… Perfect love casts out fear….
I know I’m not there yet. But my hope is that together we can work to get one step closer.
Sometimes this parable or the vine, the branches and the pruning is used to say some PEOPLE are bad branches, pruned and thrown into the fire. But that misses the part where Jesus says it is the branches which bear fruit that are pruned to bear more fruit.
The good news of God in Jesus is that God loved US FIRST - thus giving us our first fruit.
We are all branches of the vine, and as such can stand some occasional pruning. I can’t say where you need pruning anymore than you can say for me.
But, I do know this… emboldened by God’s love, I pray that you, and I, may have the courage to love fiercely in God’s name, and the wisdom to let go of anything that stands in the way of that Love, keeping us from greater fruit.
Mar 17, 2024 |
Planting as Seasons Change
|
Planting as Seasons Change
View PDF - One of the classic images of the church calendar shows the whole year presented in a circle. Each Sunday of the year as a block in the wheel - 52 Sundays, each with its own color. Advent begins the year with four blocks, four purple or blue sundays - or maybe three, with one pink. Christmas is white, and so is Easter. Pentecost is red, but the many weeks that follow after are green.
Lent is five purple sundays, with one red - Palm Sunday.
The pattern of the year gives us a sense of predictability. We know how Advent goes. We know what to expect from the beginning of Lent, and from its end, Palm Sunday.
Today we find ourselves on the Fifth Sunday of Lent. Which is to say we’ve been at this whole “Penitance and fasting” thing for a while - but we’ve yet to turn the corner into holy week.
If we were running a marathon we’d be at the 17 mile mark. Well past midway, but still almost ten miles from finishing. And I don’t think I’ve EVER run ten miles all together.
Which for me raises the question - what IS the fifth sunday of Lent? What are we doing here? Where are we going? What is God’s message to us here today?
This morning’s Gospel is at once heavy and confusing. Let’s just summarize what’s going on:
This morning we are shown how his public ministry ends dramatically, just as it began…. With the voice of the Father from above.
We know what’s coming.
God knows what’s coming.
It seems Jesus knows what’s coming.
But the people around him don’t know what’s coming.
And so the Gospel stands in this moment between what IS, and what IS to COME.
The specifics of Jesus’s story are pretty remote for us. But that feeling maybe isn’t so relatable.
The sense of one chapter ending, and the next about to begin is one we can probably all relate to.
Lent is five purple sundays, with one red - Palm Sunday.
The pattern of the year gives us a sense of predictability. We know how Advent goes. We know what to expect from the beginning of Lent, and from its end, Palm Sunday.
Today we find ourselves on the Fifth Sunday of Lent. Which is to say we’ve been at this whole “Penitance and fasting” thing for a while - but we’ve yet to turn the corner into holy week.
If we were running a marathon we’d be at the 17 mile mark. Well past midway, but still almost ten miles from finishing. And I don’t think I’ve EVER run ten miles all together.
Which for me raises the question - what IS the fifth sunday of Lent? What are we doing here? Where are we going? What is God’s message to us here today?
This morning’s Gospel is at once heavy and confusing. Let’s just summarize what’s going on:
- Before our scene opens, two major things have happened: 1. Jesus has arrived late to Bethany, but raised Lazarus from the dead. And 2. Jesus has traveled to Jerusalem for Passover, being greeted by the crowds. This is all before our story begins, however.
- Some Greeks (which is to say Gentiles, outsiders) are in Jerusalem in the days before the festival of passover. And they want to meet Jesus.
- They approach one of his inner circle, a friend from home even. Philip isn’t sure how to answer, so he asks Andrew. Andrew isn’t sure either. So they together ask Jesus.
- Jesus’s answer is ANYTHING but straightforward. He tells them a story about a grain of wheat… a thinly veiled metaphor for himself. The wheat must die to bear fruit. He must die to bring the world to him.
- But he doesn’t answer their question about meeting the greeks.
- He goes on… asking a rhetorical question about denying his responsibility. (Perhaps a reference to the other Gospels, where Jesus seems to express a reluctance to die.)
- And then God’s voice breaks in…. Just as God’s voice broke in at the beginning of Jesus’s public ministry, his baptism.
- The crowds hear God’s voice. They may not all understand the words, but it seems most know something incredible has happened.
This morning we are shown how his public ministry ends dramatically, just as it began…. With the voice of the Father from above.
We know what’s coming.
God knows what’s coming.
It seems Jesus knows what’s coming.
But the people around him don’t know what’s coming.
And so the Gospel stands in this moment between what IS, and what IS to COME.
The specifics of Jesus’s story are pretty remote for us. But that feeling maybe isn’t so relatable.
The sense of one chapter ending, and the next about to begin is one we can probably all relate to.
- Sometimes it’s predictable changes. Like the end of a period in school or training. The completion of a major project or deal. A job that has reached its end.
- Sometimes we can track the progress of a season of our lives by counting down the weeks. Just as we count down the days of Lent.
- We can all find ourselves like a grain of wheat, suddenly stripped off the head. A seed lying on the ground. Bare and vulnerable.
- No one but Jesus seems to know what is to come.
- From the outside, it must look like his star is only rising. His fame is only growing.
- But Jesus knows things are about to change.
- But for Jesus, the finish line won’t be the end of the story….
- Rather it will be the beginning of a new story.
- Most of the time these deaths are small… not so much the end of a life, as the end of a season of our lives. “Dying to self” as some theologians put it.
- In order to follow Jesus, we must be willing to let go of parts of ourselves which do not serve us.
- We must be willing to allow our vision of how things “Should” go to die - in order that things may unfold
Jan 14, 2024 |
Come and See
|
Come and See
I can’t remember where I first heard it, but somehow I squirreled away a single piece of trivia about church growth: It claims the number one reason why people go to a new church for the first time is because someone invited them.
Now, this may well be among the 73.6% of statistics that are made up - but it stuck with me because it rings true of my own experience. Especially my experience of returning to church after a long time away.
Like many people raised going to church, I went mostly because my parents made me. This isn’t to say there weren’t things I liked about it - there were - a friendly community, snacks at coffee hour, singing songs together, crafts in Sunday School, occasional field trips. But I wasn’t a particularly spiritual child.
So, as I began to make my way in the world as an independent adult in college, and after graduation, church didn’t play a big role.
That is, until someone kept gently inviting me.
That person was the Episcopal Chaplain at MIT, where I was a graduate student. I’d met her years before I started at MIT, but I hadn’t stepped foot in the chapel since I’d arrived, so it was a shock to run into her walking out of my advisor’s office in the Political Science Department.
It might have just been a fun coincidence, and nothing more, but Amy took the opportunity to make it more. She invited me to “come and see” some of the work she was doing on campus. She invited me to join a committee that planned lectures for the Technology and Culture Forum. And she invited me to come to church with them on Wednesday nights.
That meeting, and that invitation to “come and see” was the beginning of a new path for me. One that would eventually allow me to truly encounter Jesus. And know him as “the Son of God” that Nathanael names in his meeting with Jesus.
—
This morning’s gospel is a classic choice for the season that follows Epiphany. Jesus is beginning to be recognized in Galilee. In this season we will hear a number of stories of his movement gaining momentum:
There are many different paths to following Jesus in the Bible.
For Nathanael, for Samuel, for us - an encounter with Jesus is just waiting for us to “come and see.” Sometimes we are Nathanael - reluctantly following a friend’s invitation. But sometimes we are also Philip - being the one to share with a friend, “I just found Good News.”
Come and See!
The Psalmist speaks for us saying, “Lord, you have searched me out and known me; you know my sitting down and my rising up; you discern my thoughts from afar.”
God knows us, loves us, and is ready to transform our lives, if we are open to it - so that someday, like Nathanael we may see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.
Now, this may well be among the 73.6% of statistics that are made up - but it stuck with me because it rings true of my own experience. Especially my experience of returning to church after a long time away.
Like many people raised going to church, I went mostly because my parents made me. This isn’t to say there weren’t things I liked about it - there were - a friendly community, snacks at coffee hour, singing songs together, crafts in Sunday School, occasional field trips. But I wasn’t a particularly spiritual child.
So, as I began to make my way in the world as an independent adult in college, and after graduation, church didn’t play a big role.
That is, until someone kept gently inviting me.
That person was the Episcopal Chaplain at MIT, where I was a graduate student. I’d met her years before I started at MIT, but I hadn’t stepped foot in the chapel since I’d arrived, so it was a shock to run into her walking out of my advisor’s office in the Political Science Department.
It might have just been a fun coincidence, and nothing more, but Amy took the opportunity to make it more. She invited me to “come and see” some of the work she was doing on campus. She invited me to join a committee that planned lectures for the Technology and Culture Forum. And she invited me to come to church with them on Wednesday nights.
That meeting, and that invitation to “come and see” was the beginning of a new path for me. One that would eventually allow me to truly encounter Jesus. And know him as “the Son of God” that Nathanael names in his meeting with Jesus.
—
This morning’s gospel is a classic choice for the season that follows Epiphany. Jesus is beginning to be recognized in Galilee. In this season we will hear a number of stories of his movement gaining momentum:
- Last week we heard about his baptism by John in the Jordan, and the voice that spoke from the heavens, naming Jesus’s authority as God’s son.
- This week and next we hear stories of the men that are drawn to follow Jesus, becoming his disciples.
- The name Nathanael only appears in the list of Jesus’s followers in this one Gospel, and even then only in two places: here…
- and then at the very end of John as “Nathanael of Cana,” when Jesus appears by the Sea of Galilee following the Resurrection.
- Because of his friendship with Philip, he has been identified for the last millennium with Bartholomew. Bartholomew also appears alongside Philip in the other gospels, and is more likely a surname meaning Son of Tolmay. So it has long been argued that there are the same guy.
- But, disciple or not, the call of Nathanael speaks to me - because it lays out a path that we can still follow today.
There are many different paths to following Jesus in the Bible.
- Many of them show people encountering Jesus directly and being moved by his message.
- This is what happens for Philip at the beginning of today’s reading.
- We can hear these stories and imagine what it might have felt like to meet him in the flesh.
- But these stories can still feel remote. Not like anything that might happen to us…
- He is brought to Jesus first by a story.
- Philip tells Nathanael about something he wants to share with him - and Nathanael is initially reluctant. “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” You can hear the scorn in his voice from 2000 years away.
- And yet Philip simply says “Come and see.”
- I wonder how many of you have had experiences like this?
- Where you didn’t expect to be moved, or to experience anything real, and yet you came anyway, just to see what would happen.
- Maybe it was joining a new church - or coming to church at all.
- Maybe it was trying a new spiritual practice, a new way of praying, a meditation?
- Can you think of who it was that encouraged you?
- Who invited you to “come and see.”
- And who might you be called to invite?
For Nathanael, for Samuel, for us - an encounter with Jesus is just waiting for us to “come and see.” Sometimes we are Nathanael - reluctantly following a friend’s invitation. But sometimes we are also Philip - being the one to share with a friend, “I just found Good News.”
Come and See!
The Psalmist speaks for us saying, “Lord, you have searched me out and known me; you know my sitting down and my rising up; you discern my thoughts from afar.”
God knows us, loves us, and is ready to transform our lives, if we are open to it - so that someday, like Nathanael we may see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.
