Putting on the Cape-of-Christ
July 5, 2015
Christ Church Episcopal, Norcross, GA
The 6th Sunday after Pentecost; Proper 9
2 Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10; 2 Corinthians 122-10; Mark 6:1-13
(Gospel text is provided at the bottom of this post)
When I was growing up, summertime was a time for going to the movies – in movie theaters – long before Netflix and On-Demand. We’d pull out the entertainment section of the morning newspaper… you know, a real paper. We’d turn to the movie page to get the theaters and starting times, and we’d begin to figure out what we wanted to see.
The first thing you have to decide is what kind of movie you want to see – drama, romance, or action/adventure. Action was usually a safe bet, and in today’s fast-paced world, it seems to still be a big-draw.
If you Googled action-movies right now – please don’t, but if you did – you’d find a series of sequels to action films we can’t seem to get enough of, like Terminator, Mad Maxx and Jurassic Park. And then we have the Marvel Comic-book inspired Action-Hero movie: The Avengers! – where Superheroes come together, joining forces to save the planet from the evil villains of the world.
If I characterize the Gospels by movie genre, I’d say that Matthew seems more like a documentary, while The Gospel of Mark would be the Action/Adventure Movie of the New Testament. No, really! You may not be able to tell from the lesson we read today, but when we look at it as a whole, it’s filled with action.
They’ll know… by Our Love
June 1, 2015
Christ Church Episcopal, Norcross, GA
This is an article written for the church’s monthly newsletter, the Communique, published in June, 2015.
In early May the J2A Pilgrims (the 8th & 9th grade Youth Group) headed to Birmingham, Alabama for their Urban Adventure. The weekend’s purpose is to immerse the teens in an unfamiliar urban area and have them find their way to various locations, by foot and mass transit, without smartphones or internet assistance. It’s a weekend intended to prepare them for their Pilgrimage next summer when they’ll be in unfamiliar lands and work together to find their way.
To spice things up, the group is divided into two teams and they compete to get to all the locations and finish first. We added an Amazing Race component, so they had to gather a piece of information at each destination – like the number of birds in a specific statue. The adults are only there to make sure they don’t get into trouble, but not to help navigate, so the teams must work together and find their way together.
Before the trip, I decided to pick a song that could unite us. I thumbed through an old music book my mom had given me years ago and came across “They Will Know We are Christians by our Love.” It would be easy to teach, and I hoped it would temper the competition somewhat by reminding them that in the midst of a strange place, we’re setting an example of what it is to be Christian. In hindsight, it also connected with each phase of our weekend together – I call that the Holy Spirit!
One in the Lord = Love ALL
May 17, 2015
Christ Church Episcopal, Norcross, GA
The 7th Sunday of Easter
Acts 1:15-17, 21-26; 1 John 5:9-13; John 17:6-19
(Gospel text is provided at the bottom of this post)
We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord
We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord
And we pray that all unity may one day be restored.
And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love,
Yes, they’ll know we are Christians by our love.
This song has occupied my thoughts for the past several weeks. I chose it as the theme song for our Urban Adventure weekend earlier this month. And at the risk of making a shameless plug, you can find out more about how this song mirrored our experience that weekend when you read the cover story in the June Communiqué.
And even though that weekend is behind us, this song keeps coming to mind. It’s even managed to push out the ever-insistent refrain of “Uptown Funk,” though I’ll admit I’m working on some new lyrics for that: Christ Church Faith-you-up, Christ Church Faith-you-up. Say what? But, that’s for another time.
It’s not really surprising that the lyrics “We are one in the Spirit” and the refrain “They will know we are Christians by our love” continue to resonate with me. These same themes have been integral to our gospel lessons in recent weeks, and again today.
Living on Purpose
March 22, 2015
Christ Church Episcopal, Norcross, GA
The 5th Sunday in Lent
Jeremiah 31:21-34; Hebrews 5:5-10; John 12:20-33
(Gospel text is provided at the bottom of this post)
Is it just me, or does this gospel lesson feel a little awkward? It starts with some Greeks telling Philip that they want to see Jesus. Philip then goes and gets his friend and fellow-disciple Andrew. The two of them then go and tell Jesus that some Greeks want to see him. That seems normal enough, I guess.
But then, instead of Jesus saying, “Great! Where are they? Let’s talk!,” Jesus goes into this whole thing about the Son of God having to be glorified, and a grain of wheat having to die, and losing one’s life to keep it… it’s really quite confusing! What is the gospel writer doing with this story?
Well, not unlike the turning over of the tables we talked about a couple of weeks ago, I think John is using this passage to reveal Jesus’ full awareness of his purpose. Even more, I think this story shows us that Andrew and Philip also understood and lived into their purpose.
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