Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice He prostrated himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan.  Luke 17:15-16.

Something extraordinary happened in the State of New Jersey this past Tuesday: State Supreme Court Justice Helen Hoens had her last day on the bench. Some of you may have heard back in August that she was not going to be re-appointed beyond her first term; some of you may have even seen the article in Wednesday’s Star-Ledger, noting the event, or heard the You Tube clip of her final speech. Some of you know Helen; she lives in Basking Ridge, she is a fine jurist, and a remarkably funny and wise person; she also has a son who is severely autistic. And Helen used her last day on the bench to say this:

“Every important thing I ever became, all of the qualities like patience and compassion and strength and courage, all of it was forged on the anvil of autism. The truth of it is, I have never left the margins of society. I have never left the people like my son, the people in the shadows, the folks that the important people don’t see or just don’t want to see. Someday each and every one of you will come across someone like my son. When that day comes, you’re going to be just like me, you’re going to want to get by, you’ll want to do what everyone wants to do: you want to push these people aside, look the other way, get on with your busy, important life or your movie or your fast food or your groceries. When that day comes," she concluded, “stop, stop, take a deep breath, reach down deep, deep into the reservoirs of love and patience and kindness and compassion that reside deep in every one of our souls ... and tell yourself this: Somebody just like that taught me everything I needed to know to be a justice of the Supreme Court of the state of New Jersey. Think on that. Remember that. My work here is done."

I don’t know about you, but when I read those words on Wednesday morning, they moved me to tears. How often have I, how often have any of us, walked right past the people in the shadows, on the margins of society, because I was too busy or stressed or even frightened? Probably too many times.

One of the hallmarks of Jesus’ life was that he noticed – he noticed and paid attention to the people in the margins of life, in the shadows, no matter how awkward or inconvenient it might have been: women, children, tax-collectors, those who were sick, lame, ritually unclean, the poor, the mentally ill, foreigners and outcasts. Jesus noticed these people, spoke with them, prayed with them, shared meals with them, lifted up their faithfulness to the crowds who followed him – all to the consternation of the religious authorities who were more concerned about their own spiritual purity and than they were about recognizing God’s Spirit at work in their midst in and through Jesus. Today’s Gospel is one such example.

Jesus was traveling in the borderlands between Jewish Galilee and less-than-Jewish Samaria – a no-man’s land, a shadowy margin.
And he encountered ten people with leprosy, a skin disease that made them outcasts from their community – not only because of the fear of contagion, but because Jewish Law as outlined in Leviticus declared such people to be ritually unclean – they could not participate in the life of the community or the prayers and sacrifices that constituted the worship of God.

This group of lepers on the edge of the village saw Jesus from afar and called out to him: "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!" When they called him “Master,” they were using the word that in every other instance in the Gospel of Luke is used by the disciples for Jesus; Luke here is casting these lepers in the role of disciples. Jesus did have mercy on them and healed them, by sending them on their way to the Temple so that the priest could declare them clean and restore them to their families and community.

But one of them turned back - a Samaritan, someone who was doubly outcast in Jewish society – this man was glorifying God, fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, and thanked him for his healing. And Jesus blessed him even further: he said, "Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" Then he said to him, "Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well." He was made well, whole, sound – not just physically, but spiritually; the word that Jesus uses here is the word that means “salvation.”

When the Samaritan man returned to praise God and thank Jesus he was blessed even further, more deeply; it is probably no surprise that this man who had been living in the shadows and borderlands was overflowing with gratitude when Jesus noticed him, paid attention and then healed him. And once again, Jesus lifted up this man – someone from the margins - as an example of faithfulness and right response to God.

So where does this leave us, with the Gospel in one ear and Justice Hoen’s words in the other? Some of us do know what it is to live in the margins, because of our own experience or because of the condition of someone we love, perhaps live with, or even someone from whom we have had to separate ourselves for our own safety and theirs.

And the margins can be identified in a number a different ways, perhaps not as dramatically as the Samaritan leper or Helen’s son, but painful and over-looked, nevertheless: the child who is bullied or teased at school; the immigrant who busses your table at the restaurant or cuts your lawn or pumps your gas; the disabled vet who is given a hero’s welcome on first arriving home, but then fades from view when it comes time to re-enter the work force;  the family whose jobs cannot cover the household grocery bill and who must rely on food stamps; I’m sure you can think of others who live in the shadows of our society.

As Christians, Jesus calls us to follow his lead: to notice, to stop, to pay attention, to offer our compassion, to learn wisdom, patience and love. And Jesus also calls us to follow the example of the Samaritan leper: to return and give thanks, to praise God, to stretch out our lives at Jesus’ feet in gratitude, offering what we have – our hearts, our time, our financial resources, and our talents and abilities. Everything we are and everything we have are part of what we offer back to God for the blessing of life and wholeness and salvation.

We do that every day when we awaken and give thanks for the gift of life and offer the day to God, asking that we may spend the day wisely and well; and again in the evening when we review the day, thank the Lord for our blessings, and ask forgiveness for the things we have done wrong and the ways in which we have fallen short. We give gratitude back to God each week – literally and symbolically - when we put our financial offering in the collection plate and when we raise our hearts in praise and thanksgiving in the Eucharist.

And we come to this season when we intentionally think about our stewardship of God’s gifts for the coming year – what we will pledge, how we will pray and think and talk and plan about how best to support and join God’s mission in the world, the mission that includes the people living in the shadows.

In the next week you’ll be receiving stewardship materials in the mail – a letter, a brochure, and a pledge card that includes room for both a financial pledge and a commitment of time and talent. Before you make any decision about what level of giving you will make for the coming year 2014, stop and consider your gratitude for God’s presence in your life; recall all the ways that Jesus has noticed and spoken and healed you when you felt you were in the margins, in the shadows; read the letter and the brochure; pray for the guidance of the Holy Spirit about how you should return thanks to God by supporting God’s mission in the here at All Saints’ and in the wider world.

Someone commenting on this Gospel reading said that “the love that springs from gratitude is the essence of faith.” God has given to us so generously, even when we least deserved it, even when we were in the shadows and the margins; to return to God to offer our thanks and praise – we can do no other.

Let us pray.
Thank you, O Lord, for seeing us in the shadows and in the light; accept our praise and gratitude for all you have done for us; open our eyes to see others who need compassion and love; strengthen us to act generously in Jesus’ Name; and finally, grant us the joy and peace of knowing we have served you faithfully and well.  Amen.

Victoria Geer McGrath
All Saints’ Church, Millington, NJ
Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost
October 13, 2013

The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!" The Lord replied, "If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, "Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you. Luke 17:5-6

In Lewis Carroll’s second children’s novel “Through the Looking Glass” there is a conversation between Alice and the White Queen.  
The Queen says: "I'm just one hundred and one, five months and a day." "I can't believe that!" said Alice. "Can't you?" the Queen said in a pitying tone. "Try again: draw a long breath, and shut your eyes." Alice laughed. "There's no use trying," she said: "one can't believe impossible things." "I daresay you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”

Believing in six impossible things before breakfast – sometimes it seems that that’s the way the world thinks about faith; and sometimes we may think of it that way, also. There is much, when thinking and speaking of God, that doesn’t fit a narrow modern, analytical, critical, and scientific outlook, and so some people paint God and faith and the Bible with the category of believing the impossible.

Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel don’t help us any, either. After the disciples asked Jesus to increase their faith, he said to them: If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you. It sounds like Jesus is rationing or doling out faith, and then expecting us to do silly things, like commanding trees to uproot themselves and be thrown away. Why would anyone want to believe that…if that is what faith is about? I know I am being overly literal here, but to make a point.

In fact, faith – as Jesus means it, Christian faith – is not about believing impossible things, just for the sake of believing them. Instead, Christian faith is about giving God our full attention and loyalty – heart, mind, body and soul – and then living in such a way that the reality of God’s love and truth will find a practical expression in what we do and what we say out in the world. Another way of saying it is that faith is more like a muscle than it is like an idea; and just like a muscle, the way to increase faith is to exercise it.
That’s why Jesus gave the disciples such an abrupt and slightly irritated answer when they asked him to increase their faith: “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.”

By this point in Luke’s Gospel the disciples had been with Jesus long enough to have been present for healings and exorcisms, and all manner of confrontations with religious authorities; you’d think they would have had lots of faith by now. But Jesus has also been making it very clear to the disciples, and to anyone else who cared to listen, that being his follower is, as the saying goes, not for wimps. So maybe it’s understandable that the disciples felt they didn’t have enough faith; but Jesus was telling them that they had all the faith they needed to do really great and good things for God – even if their faith was a small as a grain of mustard.

Faith, as I said before, is like a muscle and it must be used and exercised on a regular basis or it will atrophy. Faith has to find very concrete expression in the way we live day-to-day if it is going to grow and flourish and make more of itself, and more of us. It certainly starts with our experience of God, our relationship with God – but then, if we are giving God our full attention and loyalty – our faith will be exercised in ever-widening circles, like the proverbial ripples in a pond when a stone is dropped into it.

What are some of the ways we put our faith as Christ-followers into practice? We think of corporate/community worship, of course - and prayer and Bible reading; but throughout Christian history there have been practices that have helped Christians become stronger and truer disciples, and the world around them has been the beneficiary. Some of these practices may seem to be merely common sense – but that’s only because they took root and shaped so much of the Western world into a civilization where Christian values were the norm, even if they weren’t exercised by everyone. And now as our society is increasingly secular we can’t take these practices, and the values they convey and imbed in us, for granted. We Christians need to consciously and conscientiously be practicing our faith out in the public square, as well as at home and at church.

So what are these practices that flow from being in touch with God and being a follower of Jesus? Some of them you’ll recognize, and some may surprise you:

• Forgiveness – not just asking for it from God, but asking for it from others, and offering it, as well.

• Managing our household life – the way we keep our schedules, use our time; busyness, simplicity; the way we spend, invest and save our money; clutter and the sense of enough.
• Hospitality – is about the way we welcome a stranger or guest into our midst, and then are willing to allow that person to become the host, the one who welcomes us.
• Honoring the body – as Christians we follow a Risen Lord, a God who came to us in the human life of Jesus, and we celebrate the Holy Spirit who dwells within us a in a temple; we are, therefore to respect and care for our bodies as part of God’s good gift.
• Keeping Sabbath – in the Old Testament no one was to work non-stop, without a rest or break; Sabbath was a time to recognize our human limitations, and to rest while trusting in God’s goodness.  In our 24/7 world that will not stop for us, we have to choose to stop and honor God in ways that are both restful and re-creative for us.
• Telling the truth – this is not just about being factually accurate, but about being honest with ourselves and those around us about how things are - the state of the world, and being a trustworthy and reliable witness.
• Healing – this was such a central part of Jesus’ life and ministry, an expression of God’s gift of life. The practice of medicine and health care, as well as laying on of hands for healing prayer, are all part of Christian healing.
• Transforming our world – caring for creation, doing justice, peace-making, serving others, protecting the vulnerable and oppressed are all rooted in Scripture and the nature of God.
• Shaping communities – civic and church communities – through roles, rituals, laws, agreements, shared commitments and institutions for the common good.
• Dying well – as Christians we know that death is not the end, that there is hope and life with God still to come, and so we can let go of life here with dignity, with calm, and with the ability to comfort one another.
• Celebration and joy – even in the midst of difficulty, there is gratitude and a celebration of life, an enjoyment of what is, rather than a lament for what there is not.

All of these, in their way are part of the practice of Christian faith; they are done again and again, privately, publically; sometimes with others, and sometimes alone. There are other practices that we could add to the list, others that might speak to you, but this is plenty for now. As we live and act and speak and do each of these things our faith will be exercised, that muscle will grow stronger, we will have grown in our loyalty and love and attention to God; and in the end, we will find that we have been living God’s life, right in the midst of our very human, very flawed, but very beautiful world.  Amen.

Victoria Geer McGrath
All Saints’ Church, Millington, NJ
Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost
October 6, 2013

Jesus said: There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus. Luke 19:19-20a

I am holding something very small – can you see what it is? A penny, the smallest coin we have; it all started with a penny. Three and a half years ago, at our parish Annual Meeting when we were discussing the need to repave our parking lot, one of our parishioners suggested a “Pennies for Parking” jar. We all knew that collecting loose change in that way would take a monumentally long time to save enough money to do the job – but somehow people took it seriously. Another parishioner found a large beautiful vase at her house and brought it to Church and we began collecting pocket change: Pennies for Parking – and two of the most consistent contributors to that jar were Delano and Leroy May. I’m not sure how much we actually collected – maybe three hundred dollars or so; that’s a lot of pennies, but not enough for a whole parking lot.

And then a terrible thing happened; Delano’s health declined precipitously and she died in October of that year; many of you were here for her funeral, and many more have missed her friendship, her leadership on the altar guild, at the rummage sale, as an office volunteer, on the search committee, on the Vestry – where she served as clerk, then member, then Warden - and most of all, her quiet, steady and determined faithfulness and care for others.

At the next Annual Meeting, Leroy issued All Saints’ a challenge (and who doesn’t love a challenge?): if we could raise $20,000 in two months for the parking lot, he would match it. Volunteers went into action – letters went out to parishioners, we solicited our neighbors, we held our first Fish & Chips dinner and had a car wash; our Boy Scout troop, our Cub Scout pack and the Girl Scout Leaders of Long Hill Township each contributed a thousand dollars, and many supportive letters and phone calls came in. By the end of the eight weeks, we had more than made our match and were ecstatic.

And as we worked and prayed that we might be able gather the resources to make our grounds safe and welcoming to all, a funny thing happened: we began to be aware, in a whole new way, of our place in this neighborhood. We began to see that a very large number of people are connected to All Saints’ in ways that have nothing to do with coming to worship, and yet there would be a hole in their lives if we weren’t here: certainly the Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts we sponsor, and all the Girl Scouts that meet here; and all of the seven weekly AA meetings that make All Saints’ their home, but also other community groups that hold meetings, and the people who vote here, and the folks who walk their dogs across the property, the people who slip quietly into the Memorial Garden for prayer and meditation, the kids who play on the play ground and learn to ride bikes on the parking lot; the teenagers who learn to drive in the parking lot; the people who come to Pilates class; the neighbors who rely on us for overflow parking for their parties; and the repairmen and deliverymen who pull into the lot at noon to eat their lunch at the dashboard deli. All of these, and more, are our neighbors – the people at our gate, like Lazarus in the Gospel – and it became very clear that God was calling us to increase our hospitality to them, and to the wider community, by making our resources available to them in the best way we could.

And then came the next step – Leroy’s offer of a lift or elevator that would make the Parish House fully handicapped-accessible on all levels, since he had recently been wheelchair-bound himself, and it would be done in memory of Delano. What a journey of faith this has been – almost like a scavenger hunt where you follow a clue to a destination, only to find that there is another clue that leads you farther on, and on, and on – many clues. But so often that is what being a follower of Jesus is all about – walking by faith, and not by sight, trusting that God’s purposes will be made clear if and when we need them to be, and that doors will open and resources materialize when we least expect them. Not that we didn’t work hard; the Vestry, Finance Committee, and Parish House Entryway Committee had many meetings, e-mails and phone calls with the architect, the engineers, the attorney, the general contractor and his subs, the paving contractor, township officials, and conversations with neighbors and passers-by about what we were doing.

And in the middle of all this your Rector went on sabbatical and Hurricane Irene hit, damaging the lower level of the Parish House – that was a detour we did not expect; but thanks to the outstanding leadership of our Wardens Tom Day and Jackie Sullivan, and to the calm and steady presence of our Curate Beth Sciaino, and thanks to the generosity of the Church Insurance company, it was a detour for the better, with a new kitchen and refurbished lower level, French drains and sump pumps.

Finally the plans for the new entryway and the town approvals and permits came together … and then we had Superstorm Sandy, and I was sure our project would be delayed because someone’s house or business would need an emergency repair. I think we were all surprised and elated when work began in mid-November – right after we had gotten power back after a two-week hiatus.
Of course, like any construction project, it has taken more time and more money than I could ever have imagined – and I would be very remiss if I didn’t mention that some of the work in the Parish Hall itself, and part of the parking lot, was funded from a generous bequest from the estate of John Mason – a long-time parishioner.

And so here we are – all the construction finished, the paving finished, that which shimmered like a distant hope on the horizon finally here; what a wonderful day, what a wonderful way to celebrate. Like Jacob in the first reading I can almost see the angels ascending and descending on the ladder – or is that a wheelchair lift?

But – and this is really important – our ministry of Community Hospitality doesn’t stop here, with safe, accessible, and attractive buildings; we can’t say we’ve done our bit, thank you very much, we can all go home now. The ministry of hospitality to our surrounding community is something that will engage us for the long haul, finding ways to serve others, being a blessing to our neighbors, contributing to the common good where and how God leads us. We do that as a congregation, as a parish, certainly; but we also do it individually each day in our families, our work, our volunteer activities – living lives fueled by faith in God, and nourished by worship, Scripture, sacrament, and the life we share with each other. Hospitality means that we welcome others as Jesus has welcomed us – sometimes with open arms; other times by sitting quietly, patiently, alongside another; and at other times standing up and standing with people who are telling the truth when no one else wants to hear it, or doing what is right, even when it is really hard. Because that’s part of being a Christian, it’s part of being a member of All Saints’, God working in us and through us to be a blessing to others in whatever way they need.

And in this ministry of Community Hospitality, in this following of Jesus, we will know ourselves to be found by God – over and over and over again. And will know, just as our parish forbears did when they stood on this spot and on this day in 1906 and consecrated this building for worship, that the hospitality that God extends to us is so generous and so bountiful, that it cannot help but overflow the banks of our hearts into the lives of those around us – a blessing and a treasure.

And so, for all that has been, for all that is, and for all that is yet to be we say: thanks be to God.

Victoria Geer McGrath
All Saints’ Church, Millington, NJ
Dedication of the Parish House Entrance
Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost
September 29, 2013

Jesus said: "Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. Luke 16:10
 
I think most of us, when we are  looking for guidance or advice, like to have clear, direct options; even if the choices are hard, at least we want to have clarity about what they might be. Probably the only time we like ambiguity is if we are reading a mystery novel, or watching a suspense film when obscurity and mixed motives and the occasional red herring just add to the enjoyment of the plot’s twists and turns. We certainly don’t want our spiritual or moral guidance to be ambiguous or hard to discern, and yet Luke
has presented us once again with a parable and Jesus’ own commentary on it that are very hard to grasp.
  
It’s known as the parable of the Unjust or Dishonest Steward, and it only appears in Luke’s Gospel, so we can’t even try to compare it to another version in Matthew or Luke. What makes this story so difficult is that the master/employer commends his steward/employee once he finds out that not only is the steward cheating his master, but then turning around and very shrewdly adjusting the accounts to the customers’ benefit. And part of Jesus’ commentary on this is that “the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light” – meaning essentially that those who are not trying to live by God’s values and purposes are often quicker and more willing to size up a difficult and ambiguous situation, and to act in their own behalf that people of faith are. So is Jesus really saying we are to be like the dishonest manager?

The steward – at this point still representing his employer - certainly found a way to give the customers a break (giving them what amounted to a rebate), which then made the master’s business look good and probably engendered some brand loyalty for him and maybe made him willing to give the steward a reasonable reference, and the steward curried favor and created an “in” for himself for a possible job with the customers – all at the same time. You have to hand it to him – that was pretty clever. And Jesus doesn’t want us to be naïve and foolish in our dealings with world; elsewhere in Matthew (10:16) he says:  ‘See, I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.’

OK, that seems fairly clear, but there’s still a lot of ambiguity here about what Jesus is asking us to do. He talks about being faithful in small ways and small amounts as the predictor of where we can be faithful in big ways and with large amounts of money. He also tells us that we cannot serve both God and wealth, comparing us to a servant or slave with two masters: “No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other.”

Once again, this can be confusing and can make us uncomfortable; is Jesus saying that we shouldn’t care about money, or be concerned about things like paying the mortgage, funding our 401K, or saving to send our children to college? While God does care about the details of our lives, there’s a bigger, deeper question at work here. And that question is: as people of faith and followers of Jesus, what is our relationship with money? We all have one; some of us are intimidated by money – how to handle it, and so maybe we don’t make such good decisions about how to invest, save and spend; some of us may be envious of other people’s wealth – we work just as hard and maybe longer hours, why do they earn so much more than we do, or have a nicer house or a better car…that list can be endless, and debilitating.

Some people have made the pursuit of wealth, and the status that can come along with it, their highest goal and greatest good – regardless of what they have to do to accomplish this goal; and others – once they have achieved their financial goals – cling to their money for all they are worth, effectively saying: this is mine, I have earned it, and no one else can have a penny.

Now, I realize that I have drawn these different attitudes pretty broadly, and there are certainly lots of other ways to describe a person’s relationship with money – these are just a few; but they all start from the assumption that our primary loyalty and allegiance is to accumulating wealth, at whatever level. But Jesus challenges us on that, and offers us a different way. He urges us to love God, to make God our highest priority and greatest passion and loyalty, and then to order our decisions about how we make and spend and save money based on that. In other words, our relationship with God is what shapes and drives our relationship with money – not the other way ‘round.

So how does this work? It starts by recognizing, at a very fundamental level, that everything we have, everything we make or earn, everything we are, comes from God…as a gift, an expression of God’s bounty and God’s love for us. God has made us, and God knows us intimately, and God loves us enough that Jesus died and rose again for us – that’s a pretty heavy-duty investment on
God’s part. And because God knows us so well, God also knows what we need; God knows that we need to buy groceries, educate children, have a safe and comfortable place to live, celebrate the joy of friends and family, be enriched by art and music and beauty, have meaningful work and ways to use our talents and passions – that’s the way God made us, that’s what it means to be
human. God knows all of this. And what he asks of us is that we hold all that he has given us lightly, reverently, as a gift that we have done nothing to earn or deserve, a blessing.

We are stewards, God is the master, and we have been given the task of caring for God’s gifts, wisely, prudently, even shrewdly – God doesn’t want us to be foolish, after all – but we also take on this task and responsibility with a light and joyful heart, knowing that everything we have belongs to God in the first place. Once we get that straight, then we can more freely ask God how he wants
us to use his gifts, his bounty – including money. The answer will be as individual as each one of us and our circumstances, but there are some basics, some answers that apply to all of us:

• Be thankful for what you have, every day.
• Give some of it away – to God and for the benefit and joy of others.
• Let the way you earn and spend and save be an expression of your faith as a follower of Jesus.
• Pray for God’s guidance.
• Remember to say thank you.
  

The point of our faith is for us to become more Christ-like, to become more like Jesus, to have our hearts and minds transformed – over time – in accordance with God’s heart and mind, and so the more we grow and mature in faith, the clearer we will be about being stewards, and the freer we will be in our relationship with money so that it will be neither a burden nor a barrier to our relationship with God and with our neighbor.

Let us pray.
O Lord, giver of life and source of freedom, we know that all we have received is from your hand. Gracious and Loving Father, you call us to be stewards of your abundance, the caretakers of all you have entrusted to us. Help us to always use your gifts wisely and teach us to share them generously. Send the Holy Spirit to work through us, bringing your message to those we serve. May our faithful stewardship bear witness to the love of Jesus Christ in our lives. We pray with grateful hearts, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
                                                                                                                 ~ Archdiocese of St. Louis

Victoria Geer McGrath
All Saints’ Episcopal Church
Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost
September 22, 2013