When we feel like the prowling wolves are too powerful, like we are powerless sheep without a shepherd, let us remember the power of Jesus’ love that lives in us. Let us remember the power of soul-force, the force of the love of God that lives within us. Through soul-force, when we are “wise as serpents and innocent as doves,” the fake sheep’s clothing of the wolves is exposed, the wolves are exposed for who they are, the systems of domination are undermined, and the Reign of God shines forth. May it be so, that your kin-dom come, your will be done, here on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.

photo credit: Photo by Yoonbae Cho on Unsplash and by Josh Felise on Unsplash

Both the story of Jesus eating with the outcast and healing the sick and unclean are stories of Jesus healing broken relationships, which is at the heart of Jesus' ministry.

Making disciples of all nations was a political statement in a particular context. What might making disciples of all nations mean to St. Aidan’s, in our context?Preach the gospel of love. Make disciples who will protect the vulnerable. Welcome everyone: noisy children, people who speak other languages, people who have been shunned by churches they grew up in, immigrants, people who will stretch you. Welcome them, protect them, be transformed by them. The world does not need more church-goers. The world needs more people with hearts transformed by Jesus’ vision of a kingdom where all are welcome and all are fed.

The fact that fire can be both so dangerous and so life-giving makes it a perfect way to talk about the Christian ministry inaugurated by the first Pentecost. The power that comes with the descent of the Spirit is dangerous and life-giving. The work of God in the world, the work of healing, liberation, and justice, which Jesus was sent to proclaim, is dangerous work. And yet, it is the life-giving work for which we are commissioned every Sunday.

When I pray for someone on the other side of death, my prayer brings me closer to them. When I pray for people who have caused me hurt or difficulty, my love for them deepens. I say all of this not because I’m such a good person, but because that’s what prayer does. Prayer is one of Jesus’ parting gifts to us, and it is for all of us. Being pray-ers is one of the ways we are called to be imitators of Christ, to be Jesus in the world.

God raised Jesus and therefore raised all that Jesus embodied: Justice, forgiveness, love of enemies, not just tolerance, but love, extravagant generosity, risk. Freedom that comes from truth, no matter how awful that truth might be. These are the politics of Jesus, the politics that possessed Stephen, the politics that Thomas and the other disciples in the upper room knew as the Way, the truth, and the life.

When I look around I see that our world, and especially our country, has the appearance of a dumpster fire right now. Escaping that is not what church is about. Looking for light, looking for glimmers of hope and sharing them, is what we’re about. 

For all of us, there is an edge to our own comfort zone where we find Jesus by seeing differently.

The Episcopal Church—which loves to make public statements—has been strangely silent on the decades of sexual abuse and human trafficking engaged in by Jeffrey Epstein (may he rest in peace if he possibly can), and his friends. Every moment of silence devalues women and girls.