St. Paul Archive

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Neither Heaven Nor Hell

By
Linda
– July 26, 2011Posted in: dominos fleet, Episcopal Church, free church, jerusalem of the people, prayers, seeds, Sermon, St. Paul


I grew up outside the Episcopal Church – outside the Book of Common Prayer – outside a three year lectionary cycle – outside the church calendar with it’s seasons and colors. I knew nothing about the Season after Pentecost, for instance, and that green was the associated color. The idea that there would be formally written prayers for virtually any situation imaginable, was unimaginable.

We made up our prayers – out of our own hearts, out of our own experiences, and out of our own courage and conviction. Instead of Prayers of the People, we prayed our “Joys and Concerns” out loud and spontaneously. That made for some rather simple prayers – but they were, for the most part, deeply heartfelt. They were also, often – too often – centered on family, friends and self. And it’s true – our Heavenly Father wants us to tell him what is on our heart and our mind, and to pray deeply and fervently for those we love.

Belonging to a “free” church is a heritage I treasure – But perhaps because of that background, I am even more conscious of the treasury of the Book of Common Prayer, and the lectionary and colors and all the rest that goes along with being a “liturgical” church – because each of those things takes us beyond our personal joys and sorrows and plunks us into the wider sphere of the grand diversity of biblical witness, the depth of church tradition, the heritage of the saints who have lived faithfully in a variety of circumstances, and in the world around us. Read the rest of this entry »

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Blackberry Bliss

By
Linda
– July 16, 2011Posted in: Mary Oliver, resurrection / Romans, Sermon, St. Paul


Ever been to Jamba Juice? My favorite is Blackberry Bliss. And there’s all kinds of add-ons – protein powder, vitamins – I usually get one – it’s free! – and it makes me think my drink is healthier.

Now, I’m going to make a really awful comparison – so please don’t boo at me too much – but – Jesus is not protein powder – He’s not an add-on to an already full life. He’s the Blackberry Bliss itself.

Because the biggest thing about Jesus is Resurrection. The biggest thing about Jesus is what God can do – The biggest thing about Jesus is that there is nothing that sin can do to us or through us or with us that God cannot redeem and raise up to new life. There is no barrier to new life in the Spirit – and by that I mean, and Paul means, new life through and through – in your body, in your mind, in your spirit, in your soul. God can, and does – all the time – create something out of nothing – create in you and in gatherings of believers, an entirely new order of being. At the baptismal font, an Ontologically new order of being is created – grafted into the eternal vine that is Christ, and indwelt by the Holy Spirit, that never leaves, regardless of what life brings.

This is happening now. It’s happening to you and to me and it’s happening in the world around us. The Lord of Life is free and on the move – and there is no power in hell or on earth, or above the earth or below the earth, or in the halls of the greatest powers of the nations or the multi-nationals or the militaries or the police states or at the heart of gang violence or in war plagued places, where the Son of Man, the Lord of Life, is not raised up by the Eternal and Everlasting and Almighty Power of Life and Love. God claimed Jesus as his own Son and there is nothing that can undo that and no power that can sever that connection and flow of energy and life.

And you and I belong to that same Source. That same Eternal and Everlasting and Almighty Power. The biggest thing about Jesus is Resurrection – and it’s the biggest thing about you and me as well. We are Resurrected and Resurrecting people.

We do not belong to the powers of death and sin – sin being that orientation of mind and life towards self over and above all others, preservation of self over everyone else. Sin destroys community and it eats up soul spirit. And it is a fact of life. You cannot escape it because it is woven into you – there is no moral judgment about that – it just is – it just is as surely as your feet are below your head. When I say there is no judgment about that, I mean that there is no God pointing his finger at you because of it. You are born into it – you cannot help it.

Let me tell you a story about this…

When my daughter was five, she was invited to a birthday party. She knew about birthdays and she was very excited. When her daddy picked her up, she got into the car and burst out crying. When he asked her what happened, she said, between sobs, that there were lots of presents – but none of them were for her. We explained that the presents were for the birthday girl and that when it was her birthday again, she would be the one getting presents. She said, “I don’t want that other girl to get presents. I want all the presents.”

We learn, of course, that it isn’t nice to want all or most of the presents – and that we need to share. But deep down – when we’re not getting presents and other people are – there is that little voice in us all that refuses to believe – believe in the sense of trusting- that we are one body in Christ – and that if you get something good – it is just as good as if I got something good. That when Jesus said to love others as yourself – he surely meant others as yourself – that we are that fundamentally related. This desire to consume more than we need and almost always at someone else’s expense is built into us – until we enter a new way of being – a new order of being.

And that new order of being that we are born into through the action of the Holy Spirit in us – it changes our orientation – it changes our mindset – it changes who we are from the inside out and from the outside in.

We begin to see differently. Not all at once of course …. We still live in a world that sees things as separate and some people as lesser than and others as greater than but gradually we notice that we are more and more content with whatever our lives have brought to us, and more and more at peace with our bodies and our neighbors and our spouses and our lives. More and more at peace.

As we are working through this letter to the Romans, I have to say – it’s really growing on me. This letter is a practical working out of the resurrected life in a community of real people who are beginning to come apart over matters of race and class and gender –just like we find ourselves in our own culture. This letter is about the practical working out of what it means to be a forgiven, healed, renewed, restored, resurrected people who belong to God and who are “in” Christ – and our reading today begins with this astonishing amazing truth about this new order of being –

There is, Now, in Christ, No Condemnation. Take that in….. No condemnation for those in Christ….

Yes – you want all the presents – or at least more of the presents. Yes – you lied on your taxes. Yes – you cheated your brother when you were older and were supposed to be taking care of him. Yes – you don’t know what you think about Jesus, and you doubt his resurrection. Yes – you took the shortcut the wrong way down a one way street.

But you can turn yourself in, and feel the full relief of it – you can know intimacy with God again. Even though there most likely are consequences – there is no condemnation – no secret burden that needs to be carried. No torment from which you cannot be free, no corner of guilt or shame that needs to remain in the shadows, sucking away at your energy and your joy.

Now if you can delve down into your mind and into your soul – and find no shade of guilt or shame that you’ve covered over and hoped would just disappear eventually – you are truly an Enlightened Being or just terribly unconscious – but for most of us –well – the news that there is No Condemnation – well, it knocks me over.

It’s more than astounding, really. It is terribly, terribly freeing – and that may be, in fact, why we prefer to run back to imposing rules and breaking rules – because it is a terrifying gift to be really and truly free. It is a huge responsibility. I mean, now what! What are you going to do with this freedom? This awesome freedom that is yours, in Christ.

Mary Oliver asks the question this way – “tell me, what is it that you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” This one wild and precious life that has been given to you by God, redeemed for you by Jesus – and the central truth about this precious life of unbounded freedom is that the Holy Spirit dwells in you – abides in you. So you don’t have to retreat into fear about making mistakes or not making the perfect choices – God has already forgiven you – you are already free – and you can go down a different road, or continue on the course you are on – either way, and always, you have the Holy Spirit of God within you and within this community to guide you and to listen to you and to love you – eternally.

When you came in – you were given two pieces of paper. One is there to write some hindrance, some burden, some condemnation that you have secreted away, that is in like a thorn in your heart – and destructive to your joy – write it down – and if you’re brave enough to claim your freedom in Christ, you can throw it away in this trash can. During the Confession, during the Absolution – or during the Peace that follows – you can throw it away. There is Now NO Condemnation in Christ – that is the truth – it can be your truth.

The second piece of paper is to imagine what you might do with your one wild and precious life – with your Freedom in Christ . That paper is to keep – put it in your pocket or in your purse and bring it out from time to time – to remind yourself that the biggest thing about you is resurrection and freedom.

And all of this is in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The Summer Day, by Mary Oliver – one of my favorite poems!
Romans 8: 1 – 11

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God’s Household is for Everyone

By
Linda
– January 20, 2008Posted in: Episcopal Church, hope, open hands, Presiding Bishop, St. Paul

Epiphany 2, Year C

The Rev. Linda Campbell

“God’s household is for everyone.”

Epiphany – it’s fun to say. And it’s great when it happens to you. Epiphanies are those a ha! Moments. Those times when you slap your forehead, “Oh, I get it!” When the light bulb goes on. When the fog clears and the light shines. I’ve read that in Israel, the dawn comes quite suddenly. It’s black as night, and then the sun comes up and boom – it’s light. Arise. Shine! Your light has come. Morning is here. The darkness has vanished.


Epiphanies are like that. Like what happened to Paul as he was on his way to arrest some of the followers of “the Way”, as the early Christians were called. He was passionate about the Law, about following the Rules of how to please God, and he was on a mission – God’s mission. But then he was confronted by the living reality of God – blinded by the Christ light of God’s intense love for him personally, confronted by God’s justice and Christ’s Question – Why do you persecute me?

Paul alluded to this experience in his letter to the Ephesians – “surely you have already heard….how the mystery was made known to me by revelation…” This epiphany permanently changed Paul’s life – it changed his life from that of a zealous Pharisee who focused on strict adherence to rules about how to please God, to that of a disciple of Christ who focused on being known, accepted and loved by God, and proclaiming the new things God was doing in the world.

And the new thing that God revealed to Paul was that Gentiles and Jews had a permanent place in the kingdom. That God’s household was inclusive. That God’s household was a place where everyone belonged – where no one was left out. This is the mystery revealed by the grace of the Spirit – in Paul’s words – “the Gentiles have become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.”

The truth is, the Source of our Life is not about slavishly following the rules to please God – it is about bowing down, with open hands and hearts before the awesome, incredible mystery of God’s steadfast, faithful, permanent, unfailing, active Love that flows out toward us, reconciling us and drawing us into God.

The truth is, the Source of our Life is God’s active love – and the way to tap into that source of life is to open our hands and heart in trust and dependence. The two traditional stances of prayer reveal this to us. One is to stand with open hands, reaching up to receive and praise. The other is to kneel in humility and trust.

And when the living Christ revealed himself to Paul, Paul’s stance completely changed from clutching stones to throw at his enemies, to opening his hands in radical inclusion and friendship.

This is the mystery of the ages that Paul proclaims – the eternal purpose that God carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord – to gather up all things – all peoples and nations, things in heaven and on earth – into himself. Proclaiming this is what got Paul imprisoned. Living it is what got Jesus crucified. Because the world, the powers that be, for the most part, are about walls and boundaries and judgements about who is good, who is evil, who is acceptable and who is not.

This is as true today, as it was then. Our world is deeply polarized, and life is often held up in terms of absolutes. In our own Episcopal church, as well as in government and international forums, we hear a lot about us vs. them, good vs. evil, orthodox vs. revisionist. And, as the past Presiding Bishop, Frank Griswold, said, “rather than listening to the other with an undefended heart and a spirit of graced curiosity, people feel obliged to defend their points of view.” But, as he went on to say, “The mystery of our baptism is that in Christ we have all been made irrevocably one – beyond all imaging or desire. Within our own community of faith, we are being called to a radical encounter with Christ in one another, which is not easy when “the other” holds views very different from our own….This is not an easy season in the life of our church, and yet it is in precisely times such as these that a deeper, and more costly, understanding of what it means to be limbs and members of Christ’s body is literally being pulled out of us by the very circumstances we are called to live as a community of faith.”*

The uneasy season in the life of our church to which the Presiding Bishop referred is the decision by the last two General Conventions. The first to include homosexuals in the full life of the church. And the second is to institute the first woman as Presiding Bishop.. Referring to the first, Bishop Spong concluded that “our Church has done an audacious thing. This is … a cause for rejoicing that another in a long list of human prejudices has begun to fall. This is not “cultural trendiness,” nor is it a denial of “doctrinal clarity.”” Rather, it is the binding together of an ancient faith with the insights of our contemporary world, insights that gender and race and sexual orientation are simply biological givens.

So, our Episcopal church is audacious – but the church was founded in audacity. Paul was an audacious person doing an audacious thing – insisting, to the point of imprisonment, upon the full inclusion of Gentiles in the life of the church – something that had not even been considered possible, much less desirable. But God is persistently, quietly without fanfare, and loudly in the public eye, doing new things – and we, as much as the first Christians, are called to always be on the lookout for what God is up to. In this, we follow the magi, who traveled halfway around the world, to see what new thing God was initiating.

In our modern age of cynicism and easy hopelessness, it isn’t easy to be like the wise men – it sounds foolish and gullible – childish even. It is easy for us to succumb to the despair that things are hopeless and will always be hopeless – look how many billions of people are starving, there is really nothing we can do about hunger. Look how many are without homes, there is really nothing we can do about homelessness. Look how the nations spiral into violence, there is really nothing we can do about war. Look how the politicians are so slick, there is really nothing we can do about campaigns and finance reform and the restoration of civic, democratic discourse. Look how the church degenerates into name calling and threats.

But there is hope, and we are a piece of that hope. We have been baptized into a new identity, and given light and a new set of eyes with which to see – we see with the eyes of Christ and we live in his light. And in this light, we see God active in the world, urging us to offer back the gifts we have been given in order to serve God’s purposes. We see that the first step is to fall on our knees in worship, in homage and in trust that what we have to offer – our open hands, our hearts and lives – is sufficient for God to work miracles.

* Encountered by Love, Episcopal Life, January 2004

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Heaven’s Picture Directory

By
Linda
– January 13, 2008Posted in: epiphany, gifts, inclusion, joy, outsiders, pictures, shining face, St. Paul

Epiphany, Year A Heaven’s Picture Directory The Rev. Linda Campbell


How many of you have had your picture taken recently? I was sitting in my office yesterday, and my visitor thought they saw lightening outside – then, “no, that’s flashbulbs going off!” For the last two days, the parish hall has been the site of flashing bulbs, instructions to “lean this way just a little bit,” “Turn your head to the side. No, not quite that far.” “Tilt your head a bit to the right.” “Say Hawaii!”

There’s been an outstanding turn – out for the picture directory and we want to make sure to include everyone … whether you’ve been here eighty years or three months. Whether your birthplace is Baguio City, Philippines or Oakland, California. Whether you’re deeply committed to Rite 1 and 17th century music, or you’d really like to chant Taize, light candles and always use inclusive language. Your picture is important in the picture directory whether you like small and cozy or whether you like big and noisy, whether you prefer the King James version or The Message, whether you would never, ever attend a demonstration against the war or you have several arrests to your name, whether you like organized and orderly, or spontaneous and chaotic.

You. You. You. In all your God given uniqueness, quirkiness, with all your scars and unhealed wounds and fears and anxieties – YOU – your shining face – the epiphany of you – is important. The picture directory isn’t complete until you are in it.

St. Paul didn’t have Olan Mills to help him out, when he wanted to describe the ineffable, indescribable, outrageously improbable mystery of God’s inclusive, welcoming, inviting, enticing love – there were no picture directories that Paul could point to and say, “See, here is a blank spot – that’s where your picture belongs – the Directory’s not complete without it.”

He had words, and he used them. He piled word upon word to try to get across this central point – THE Point – the essential thing at the heart of his ministry – at the heart of his calling. This one thing – this unifying principle for Paul’s ministry – was this: “the Gentiles have become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.”

And of himself, sitting in a jail cell, Paul says: “Of this gospel I have become a servant according to the gift of God’s grace that was given me by the working of his power.”

To get the full import of this mystery shrouded from prophets and angels, and revealed to Paul, through God’s grace, would mean transporting ourselves back into the 1st century. Jew / Greek – the walls of separation and division simply don’t mean a whole lot to us. We are accustomed, especially in the Bay Area, to words like inclusion, tolerance, diversity, respect for the other ….. and they may even strike us as not particularly religious words, but words having to do more with secular humanism. My guess is that people having a leisurely breakfast right now down at the Sunnyside Café would agree with those words as much as you and I do. .

Of course, pick up the Chronicle, scan the national and international news and you will quickly see that even basic respect and tolerance for those who are different is not widely practiced. The overwhelming response – still, in 2008, to those who are different and perceived as threatening is violence, domination and control – whether through economics, politics, or firepower. It is human. The names many native tribes have for themselves simply mean “the people.” … When we are honest with ourselves, we too have the same proclivity to define ourselves over against others – especially others who are really different in ways that we don’t approve of.

Time for a confession. I don’t understand Islam. I haven’t yet taken the time to read the Quran, or commentaries on the Quran. I haven’t even read Karen Armstrong’s recent book on Islam. So – I am ignorant and yet I carry judgement. And I don’t think that it is possible for me to just intellectually jump over that judgement, even if I were to do research. I know it would help if I took it upon myself to form relationships with Muslim believers. It is always more difficult to judge when one is personally involved. Nevertheless – I know personally that it is possible to think of oneself as loving and inclusive and diverse and yet to draw lines – to be divisive in the privacy of one’s heart.

Faced with your “enemy,” it is tempting to pretend reconciliation rather than to face the brutal facts of what you actually think and feel – and then lay yourself bare before God. Prayer is hard work. Change is hard work. And a fundamental re-orientation of your life doesn’t happen automatically. The early church didn’t just easily understand or accept this glorious mystery that Paul reveals as the heart of the gospel. It took dreams, arguments and mysterious encounters, until by the 10th chapter of Acts Peter finally “opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons:” But church conflict didn’t end in the 10th chapter! Paul was hauled before a whole church commission – kind of a Diocesan tribunal – because he insisted on coloring way outside the lines. He finally won through because by the 11th chapter of Act, it is recorded that “When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life.” (Acts 11:18)

This wasn’t just a marketing ploy on Paul’s part, or a design to fill the church pews, or a way to poke at the main Christian community back in Jerusalem – Paul was absolutely and utterly convinced, to the point of going to jail and ultimately giving his life – of this one main big idea: read to us last week by John, from Galatians: “for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. 27As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. 29And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.” It is repeated again in this week’s reading from Ephesians: “Gentiles have become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.”

This is the church’s wealth – this wisdom of God in it’s rich variety – and the mission is to make this wealth – this mystery of God’s boundless inclusive love actively known.

And what do Gentiles – outsiders – bring in their wake? Well, like the Gentile Magi, they bring gifts – and sometimes the established community isn’t quite sure what to do with the gifts. Whether the newcomers are to a church or to a country, they bring gifts. Do you and I have the eyes to see the gifts, and the heart to receive them? The second thing outsiders bring are that they shake up power assumptions. Herod, the established ruler, got pretty bent out of shape thinking that there was another ruler in the neighborhood. The established church of Jerusalem got pretty upset with Paul for changing the power structure – for establishing far flung communities of faith that were building their own ways of doing things. Are you and I open and ready to let power change hands – to let those who haven’t had a voice began having a voice – a voice that effects change? And thirdly, outsiders bring joy. Outsiders can restore a sense of joy to communities whose lives have become kind of ho hum and ordinary. I like earlier biblical translations of the Magi’s response “When they saw that the star had stopped, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.” The description bends over backward with expression! The NRSV tries to subdue the hyperbole, saying simply they were “overwhelmed with joy,” Either way, you get the picture – they were jumping up and down with happiness! In Acts – as a result of Paul’s conviction that they belonged as well: “when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord:” (Acts 13:48)

Outsiders restore joy, they upset the power balance, and they bring gifts. And the deep abiding long term vision of the church is that there is a place in the heavenly picture directory – whether Olan Mills is in charge or not – for each and every shining face of God’s beloved children. You and you and you. And those who are not yet known to us. Those who have yet to be invited.