Jesus did not endear himself to the scribes when he pointed out that they liked to walk around in long robes and be greeted with respect and have the best seats and places of honor but they were at the same time devouring widows' houses and for the sake of appearance saying long prayers. Then to top it off he pointed out that the poor widow who had dropped two small coins in the treasury had given more than all of them. No wonder they hated him and wanted to kill him.

To understand the full impact of this confrontation, you have to remember the place of widows at that time. They had no status. The story of Naomi and her daughter in law Ruth shows this. Naomi had to concoct a complicated scheme, so that Boaz would marry Ruth and then both Ruth and Naomi would have a place in society. So a widow was really insignificant. When Jesus said that this poor widow had contributed more than the scribes had, this was infuriating to these power brokers.

This is just one of many instances where Jesus confronted the leaders of the people, accusing them of hypocrisy, avarice and not living according to God's design. The prophets had been saying things like this for centuries, but the prophets were not well received. They were hated and sometimes killed. Jesus was worse than the prophets because he said the same things, but he also said that God's kingdom was even now among them and that it was centered in him.

Not only that, Jesus hung around with the riff-raff of society: sinners, outcasts, tax collectors, the poor. He went to dinner with them. Unlike the drab and dreary moralists of his time, Jesus was a party person. He liked feasts and he liked to party with folks at the low end of the social order

In our enlightened time and place, of course, we don't have leaders and powerful people who neglect and oppress the poor. Our political and corporate powers can't do enough for the poor and for us ordinary folk. They have our best interests at heart 24/7. Well not exactly. Maybe they don't wear long robes. But we do have what's called power clothes. A thousand dollar suit does trump something off the rack at Kohl's. And we also have people who are constantly spinning their ethical lapses and sins into virtue. So maybe things haven't changed all that much since that long ago day in the Temple.

All this would be enough to make one cynical except for the fact that the kingdom of God which Jesus was proclaiming is a kingdom of hope. In our weekly Bible study in the mission center we have been looking at a book which describes the kind of kingdom this is supposed to be.

The book correctly points out that we are called to be agents and instruments in that kingdom of love and mercy. Our mission is to work with God to bring it about. We must really mean it when we say Lord's Prayer: Thy kingdom come, they will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

What is the spiritual equipment we need for this task? First we need courage to confront the leaders of our day; we need to remember always this poor widow in the Temple and the countless others like her in our own time. We need to do what the prophets and Jesus did. We need to be right in the face of the scribes and leaders of our own time. Second. We need to be people of profound prayer as Jesus was and as his first disciples came to be.

But we also need to avoid the sour-faced glum moralizing and the utter seriousness of those who think that they alone by their own efforts can bring about this kingdom. The best antidote to this is to be like Jesus a lover of feasts and we need to spend our time hanging out with our fellow riff-raff in that great community called the church, the Body of Christ.

Before he died Jesus gave us a special feast, one that we celebrate today. The Lord's Supper, a feast which makes present for us here and now his death and resurrection. This feast is a foretaste of that eternal celebration in heaven. It is a prelude to that banquet to which the poor widows and the outcasts and the people from the world's highways and byways are invited. In this sense we are truly party people. Because we live in hope, we cannot ever be cynical or fearful. Our faith engenders not utopian optimism, not a false happiness, but a joy which goes deeper than sadness and suffering and oppression. A joy that stares evil in the face and then transcends it. This is the peace that passes understanding. Though we always walk through the valley of the shadow of death we shall fear no evil

We are a community of poor widows and outcasts and yet also of the wealthy who care about them. We are not yet at that great and eternal feast, but we are pilgrims on the way. Our feast today is a reminder of where we are headed. As a great American preacher once said. "We're on the move now." As we limp along through history down through the centuries and into our own time, we keep on inviting others to join us until we become that biblical great cloud of witnesses. As we journey along we keep on walking and keep on singing our song. And what is that song?

In the early fifth century Rome was sacked and the tribes were invading and destroying civilization as it then existed all over Europe and North Africa. To the people who lived then it seemed that the world was coming to an end. Augustine, a great bishop in North Africa preached a remarkable sermon giving his people guidance in that terrible time. What he told them was: SING ALLELUIA AND KEEP ON WALKING.

That's really what the Body of Christ has always done. When the emperors came and butchered them and fed them to the lions and terrorized them, what did they do? SING ALLELUIA AND KEEP ON WALKING.

As time went on, they became aware of their own sin and corruption and did evil things and fought crusades and wars. And yet they also cared for the widows and orphans and built hospitals and freed slaves and they built a new civilization and kept on limping along. And all the while SING ALLELUIA AND KEEP ON WALKING.

So right now here we are mired down in two wars, a sinking economy, surrounded as always by oppression, by huge systems that want to use us up and spit us out, fearful of terrorism, plagued by environmental degradation, tempted to despair. We are corrupted ourselves and see no way out. And as always we have to call out our leaders--and ourselves--on our own hypocrisy. So what do we do in the face of such evil? SING ALLELUIA AND KEEP ON WALKING

Aware that we are still in the valley of the shadow of death, we shall fear no evil for the divine rod and the staff comfort us and a table is prepared before us and our cup overflows and goodness and mercy shallow follow us all the days of our life and we shall dwell in the house of the Lord. We need nothing more so we can SING ALLELUIA AND KEEP ON WALKING

And as we prepare the table for the Lord's Supper today, this interim feast on the way to the great banquet, we are aware as a parish of our own problems and failures and of the obstacles that face us. So what do we do? SING ALLELUIA AND KEEP ON WALKING

And we shall find others to join us at our weekly feasts and we will deepen our community life and enter into deeper spiritual waters together and pray more profoundly and worship with joy. We shall invite others, among the widows and the outcasts and from the highways and byways to come along with us. And we shall fear no evil for we dwell in the house of the Lord.

And all the time we will SING ALLELUIA AND KEEP ON WALKING

Once more SING ALLELUIA AND KEEP ON WALKING

Now Sing it: Sing Alleluia to the Lord, sing alleluia, sing alleluia Sing alleluia to the Lord.

And now KEEP ON WALKING. AMEN

Edward Douglas Lockton does not understand what we are doing here today. So why baptize him? Why do we baptize infants at all? There are two reasons. Anyone who has been around babies knows that from birth, infants relate fully and completely to their parents, siblings and those around them. They don't think in abstract terms, but they relate to people and to their surroundings no less than we do. Just cuddle a baby and you realize this.

After healing Simon’s mother-in-law Jesus healed those who came with diseases and expelled evil spirits. Immediately after this, Jesus found a solitary place for prayer. It is only after this period of prayer that Jesus and the disciples began the work of proclaiming the kingdom of God.

The healing of Simon's mother in law was the first step in a journey of healing which pointed to something even deeper, something that changed the world and must change our lives as well.

Jesus did not heal all the sick and suffering in Israel, but only a relatively few. He did not expel enough evil spirits to eliminate all or even most of the evil in Israel. Nor was his healing permanent. Everyone he healed eventually died. Having the power of God, he certainly could have healed all the sick. He could have forestalled death for all and he certainly could have avoided death himself. Why did he not do this? Why did he have to do it the hard way?

Because we know the end of the story, we now realize that these early healings were signs along the way of the final healing toward which all else pointed. Expelling evil spirits was the beginning of the expulsion of all evil and the healing of all pain, sickness and even death itself.

"Why?" I asked.

"Because I not only killed enemy soldiers in combat, but I murdered lots of innocent civilians as well." Knowing I had been a chaplain, he went on: "You have spent your entire life working for God, and I have done all this evil, so where does that leave me?"

"You get the party and I don’t," I replied.

"What are you taking about?" he asked.

SHEMA YISRAEL ADONAI ALOHANU ADONAI ACHAD
Hear, O Israel, the Lord, the Lord our God, the Lord is One.

Thus begins the Shema Yisrael, the ancient Hebrew prayer found in Deuteronomy 6. It is the foundational and daily prayer of the people of Israel from biblical times to this very day--a bold proclamation that there is only one God--a gutsy statement in the ancient world--the foundational understanding of God as well for us, the people of the new Israel, the new Covenant. The Lord our God is One.

It was this God who made the promise to Abraham. It was this God who called to Moses from the burning bush and promised to rescue the people from slavery in Egypt. And when Moses asked the voice for a name, he got a very short answer and no name at all: 'ehyeh asher ehyeh' translated "I am who I am" or better "I will be who I will be."

It was this God whose name could not really be uttered, a God of awesome mystery, who dwells totally beyond the world--and yet a God who hears the cry of the people. This is a God of absolute power, more powerful the Pharoah's army, more powerful than the sea--One who could rescue his people. This name and this God admits of no further penetration, no further interpretation.

But this God had to be called something: Adonai, El, Elohim or simply the short form of God's unpronounceable name "Yahweh" which means: "he is," or "he will be" or "he will cause to be." And, God tells Moses, "this is my name forever and my title for all generations." (3:15)

As we heard in the readings from Isaiah and Revelation a moment ago: This is the God who created the heavens and is now enthroned in the heavens and is called: "Holy, Holy, Holy." "Who was and is and is to come." The people will see who this God is when they witness what this God does--as Ezekiel reminds us: "And they will know that I am Yahweh." This is the God who tells Isaiah: "I am the First and the Last." (48:12) and yet a God whom Isaiah knows cherishes the people with a mother's love and comforts them as a mother comforts her child (49:15; 66:13).

This is the God who hears the groaning of all creation (Rm 8:22). This is the God who has mercy on his people in their struggles with sin and suffering and death. This is a God who connects with earth, not like the kite at the end of a string, but as One who comes among us: This is Emmanuel, God with us.

From the New Intro to Out of the Night on civil religion and war

Once again the country is divided over a war which seems to have no end in sight. Once again, troops are called upon to fight a war against an insurgency that seems to grow stronger. Once again the American military is called upon to chase an enemy into the midst of a civilian population. Once again the American military is seen by an indigenous population as oppressors. As was the case in Vietnam, the origins and conduct of the war seem grounded in erroneous intelligence, misjudgments, mistakes and outright deception on the part of political leaders.

Soldiers and their families are beginning to raise their voices in protest about shabby medical treatment they have received back home. Multiple deployments of military personnel back into the war zone have caused serious morale problems among the troops. Reserve and National Guard units have been called up and deployed in ways not seen since World War II.

Once again the American civil religion--which is often confused with authentic Christianity--has been used as a religious and moral underpinning for war. The discussion of civil religion in Out of the Night is as relevant today as when it was written. The religious rhetoric used to support the war in Iraq is even more blatant and virulent than that used during Vietnam. The dangerous doctrine of American exceptionalism which formed the basis for this pre-emptive war has its roots in civil religion. There has never been a greater need for a public conversation about religion and war than there is now. Out of the Night provides a framework for this discussion.

Discussions with counselors who work with newly returned veterans of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and some personal contact with these veterans make it abundantly clear that the questions and problems confronting these young men and women are the same as those that plagued older generations of warriors.

The sole exception and crucial difference between these new veterans and those who returned from Vietnam is that the country has learned from the bitter experience of a generation ago that we must provide support for our troops. We must not scapegoat them for whatever errors the civilian authorities might make in the decision to go to war and the blunders they make in fighting the war.

As are other Vietnam vets, I am profoundly grateful for the support our troops have received during this war. I like to think that this book has played a small part in making Americans aware that veterans need our support, whatever we may think of the war itself.

Brent's description of Gordon's death was both accurate and deeply moving. He wrote: "Gordon died cradled in the arms of Louise and surrounded by friends of many years who have stood beside him (and Louise) in good times and bad. His death was peaceful and holy, as Louise hoped it would be. He knew that it was time to die and the passage was mercifully swift. The continuum between life and death was fully evident and Gordon made the transition with grace, surrounded by love."

The doctors and the medical staff at the VA loved and respected Gordon and Louise. In fact one of the doctors who visited during his last hours commented that most people aren't surrounded by this kind of love as they slip away towards death.

Certainly there is a large and deeply felt absence here in this parish. To quote Brent again: "The voice of St. David's died. Gordon’s voice was heard in worship, in the pages of The Gospel, in his strength of spirit, and in the dignity with which he lived his life. That voice is now silent here, but singing the praises of God in a place where there is no suffering or pain."

At the reception after the service we will hear many stories from the life of this multi-faceted and magnificent man. We will learn that he was a lifelong devotee of railroading, he was at various times a gymnast, a radio announcer, a licensed pilot, a soldier, an electrical engineer, a computer expert, a pioneer designer of the internet and a handyman who could do just about anything. Gordon knew everything about computers and would answer any question. The only trouble was, after talking to Gordon you always needed just a little more ram or another few megabytes or gigabytes.

Louise and Gordon loved children and before the accident they would offer assistance to parents by taking care of the kids for a weekend or a few days. And kids loved them and responded to them. When the parents returned, Gordon and Louise would remark on how well-behaved the kids were--and you'd wonder whose kids they were talking about.

We who remember Gordon before the accident know that his great delight was in doing all that he could to make life pleasant and bright for his beloved Louise. And then there was that terrible day in March of 1989.

When Gordon returned to St. David's in his wheelchair, though diminished in size, he grew in stature. He never complained, rather, he inspired us all. He resumed his place in the choir he loved so much. He served on the vestry. He read the Scriptures from the very center of the church. He published our monthly newsletter. After the accident Gordon moved even more into the center of our parish life.

And so did Louise, for she continued on as our liturgist and devoted parish helper, but now she was constrained by the tremendous responsibility of caring for Gordon. So Louise and Gordon inspired us in new ways from their place at the very center of life in this parish.

Many people came to their assistance, and were in turn inspired and helped by them. Parishioners went over to help. There were the attendants and the choir. Their circle of friends grew to include the wonderful medical staff at the VA hospital where Gordon was a patient so many times.

Then there was that incredible day sixteen years ago when Gordon discovered a daughter he had never met. When that daughter and her husband came to San Diego to visit, there was a public ceremony of adoption right here in this parish.

Gordon and Louise accepted Tinker as their daughter and Barry as their son-in-law. The lives of both couples were immeasurably and permanently enriched by this relationship and they have been even further blessed by the four children since born to Tinker and Barry.

When Gordon died, the VA presented Louise with a flag because Gordon had been a soldier. When Tinker opened the box, this young woman who had been an army wife, realized the flag was not properly folded, so we went to the Marine Corps Recruit Depot to have the Marines fold it the right way. Louise decided that Tinker should receive the flag.

So six Marines from the color guard folded the flag properly--as at a military funeral--and presented the flag to Tinker. And upon leaving the premises they rendered a proper salute to the departed soldier, to his wife and daughter.

Tinker, that flag is yours. Keep it and treasure it, for it is a reminder of your father at a stage in his life when he was young and vigorous, when he endured the rigors of basic training and lived the army life with which you and Barry are so familiar. And Arielle, Caleb, Adrianna and Alexis--remember that your grandfather was at one time a young man whose energy was at least the equal of your own.

Really Gordon's life is best summed up in his signature hymn: The
Exultet, the Easter Proclamation. Each year on the night before Easter at the service of the Great Vigil, Gordon sang right here in this church that most ancient and beautiful Christian hymn. It is a hymn that summarizes all we believe about the core of our faith: that Christ crucified, was raised from the dead and that we who are baptized into his death are joined also in his resurrection. The root meaning of Exultet is to exult. That's our Easter faith. That's the way Gordon sang it and that's the way Gordon lived it.

You see Gordon, the skeptic, the doubter, the careful scientist had come to faith by resolving in his own mind the deepest questions of science and faith and he had also accepted that faith in his heart and at the very center of his soul.

Gordon sang the Exultet every year, but he lived it every day. This year he had again prepared to sing it at the Great Vigil of Easter, but was too sick to come to church, so he called our home that night and sang it beautifully over the phone for Carol and Marie. He sang it and he lived it.

So, what does it say, this song which was Gordon's song and is actually the signature hymn for the entire human race? It begins when the church is dark and the paschal candle is brought in signifying the light of Christ, This light is then spread to the smaller candles, representing all of us who receive our light from the light of Christ. Did Gordon, confined to a wheelchair as a quadriplegic, understand darkness and the night of the soul? Oh yes, he did! Did he understand the light of Christ and did he extend it to others? Oh yes, he did!

Just remember or imagine for a moment that man with less than 30% lung capacity, in his wheelchair singing with full voice and great joy the opening words of that ancient hymn:

"Rejoice, heavenly powers! Sing, choirs of angels!
Exult, all creation around God's throne!
Jesus Christ, our King, is risen!
Sound the trumpet of salvation!"

Remember this man, who lived for 19 years in the darkness of quadriplegia singing this:

"Rejoice, O earth, in shining splendor,
radiant in the brightness of your King!
Christ has conquered! Glory fills you!
Darkness vanishes for ever!"

And the hymn goes on, bidding us to do what Gordon did with his life among us:

"Rejoice, O Mother Church! Exult in glory!
The risen Savior shines upon you!
Let this place resound with joy,
echoing the mighty song of all God's people!"

On the morning he died, Gordon refused any further treatment, knowing it was fruitless. He told Louise, "I've decided to bail." A paraphrase of the words of Jesus on the Cross: "It is finished." When he was anointed and heard the prayers for the dying, he was still able to respond, in imitation of the one who said: "Father, into your hands, I commend my spirit."

And then came the transition from life into the long night of death…but here's what the Exultet says about the finality of death:

"This is the night
when Jesus Christ broke the chains of death
and rose triumphant from the grave."

Gordon lived out the Exultet every day. His example and his inspiration to us was his Easter faith. His legacy to us is to be found in the final words of that great song, his song, our song.

"May the Morning Star which never sets
find this flame still burning:
Christ, that Morning Star,
who came back from the dead,
and shed his peaceful light on all humankind,
your Son, who lives and reigns for ever and ever.
Amen." And for Gordon. Alleluia, Alleluia.

(The text of the Exultet used in this homily is from the longer version, cited in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exultet)

Jesus raises the young man to life (Lk 7:11-17), exercising the power of God, over even death itself. In the first reading (1 Kings 17:17-24) we hear the Elijah implores God to restore life to a young man who had just died. God responded. We learn that the author of life fully intends that death shall not have the final word. In this morning's second reading, Paul testifies that he proclaims what he has seen through a personal appearance of the risen Christ. Like the original disciples who had seen the risen Lord, Paul also has first hand knowledge of God's power over death. Paul now knows God's final intention for the world; he understands the decisive event which points humanity in a new direction as children of adoption towards the newness of life. He has become an apostle, a messenger of this good news to the world.

Paul explains to the Galatians that he received his mission first hand from the Lord and he exercises his mission independently and in no way is he subordinate to the Jerusalem apostles. And yet, he also tells us, and we know from other passages, that he had checked out his message with the original apostles. We know that Paul was a part of the community which itself decided on how the mission to the non Jewish world,--the mission to the gentiles--was to be exercised. He did not operate outside the church, but he was an equal and independent force within the church. Paul once persecuted the church and now he is an apostle of the Lord. He states that those who witnessed this change in him now "glorified God" because of him. He the messenger of God's new life in Christ also embodies and exemplifies what he preaches.

The betrayal at the highest levels: by bush, Cheney and the cabal of their cronies in Congress is at the root of why my fellow veterans are in such pain. It is at the root of why my VA colleagues are so distressed.

The consequences of this betrayal are laid out in considerable detail by a wonderful piece of reporting by McClathey Washington Bureau. I invite you to read the entire piece. Then please do what I intend to do along with some of my fellow veterans: contact your local congressional representative now, without fail and raise absolute hell. Demand that they "support the troops," not with cliches and bumper stickers but with funding. Hold them accountable.

"Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God."

John was preaching repentance. He was announcing the final outcome of God's plan for the world. John told his hearers that in God's own time, the mountains and hills we humans create will be made low; our crooked paths will be made straight and our rough ways smooth.

Most of my ordained ministry has been spent, not in parishes, but in other settings: school teacher, the military, the university campus, federal employee, health care clinician, administrator, non-profit employee. Though retired, I remain fascinated by work environments and still occasionally work for the VA. When I go into any kind of establishment or conduct business dealings on the phone, whenever possible, I do informal surveys of workplace conditions. I listen to and try to learn from everyone.

I am sorry to report this year that workplace conditions continue to get worse across the board. Though each workplace is different and some of them have excellent conditions, pay and benefits, sadly the larger trends are in the other direction. Recent statistics tell part of the story that many people experience daily. This past week we learned that:

The Fundamental Christian Position

1. Problems, questions and issues

May a Christian ever resort to violence? What does scripture have to say about this question? What does the history of the Church and theological reflection say? What are the real world problems?

The Mt. Soledad Veteran's Memorial in San Diego is located upon a hilltop overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Built with private funds but located on city property, it is topped by a forty-three foot cross, visible for miles. In 1989, the city was sued by an atheist Vietnam veteran to have the cross removed on the grounds that a Christian symbol on public land violates the principle of separation of church and state. The courts have agreed that this is the case and the cross must be removed by Aug. 1, 2006, or the city will face severe fines for each subsequent day that it remains. As a Vietnam veteran, I am strongly inclined to keep the cross in place. But, though this cause has a very powerful emotional appeal, as a Christian I realize that it may be spiritually destructive. I believe that this current local issue points to a much larger and more pervasive problem in American Christianity.