St. Blogory's: the internet café at St. Gregory's Episcopal Church, Deerfield, IL

Easter Day: Children's Sermon

+ In the Love of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Anastasia Escargot is the Chaplain of Ryerson Woods. Her first name means "Resurrection," and as a snail (alive within her tomb-like shell) she is a symbol of Resurrection. She visits St. Gregory's Nine O'Clock Service every Easter.

Bill              Happy Easter, Anastasia!

Anastasia    Happy Easter, Father Roberts, Boys and Girls!

Bill              So, how are things at Ryerson Woods these days?

Anastasia    They’re wonderful. With gas prices so high people are walking through the woods more.

Bill              So what new animal have you hired this year?

Anastasia    Well, what do you mean?

Bill              Well, three years ago you hired Jack Rabbit, and two years ago it was Dismas Duck and. . .

Anastasia    . . . and last year it was Pasqual Pig. Yes, that’s true, but we’re an equal opportunity employer so this year we hired a human being to be our new baker.

Bill              So what’s his name?

Anastasia    His name is Elvis.

Bill              As in Elvis Presley?

Anastasia    Well, yes, except we call him Elvis Pretzel!

Bill              Elvis Pretzel?! Why do you call him Elvis Pretzel?

Anastasia    Well, there's a bit of a story there. You see, we decided to give Elvis a welcome party at the Cubby Bear, but he got there ahead of us. The waiter showed him to a table, and there was a bowl of pretzels for him to munch on. Well, after a little while he heard a voice: “That’s a lovely tie you’re wearing.” He looked up, but he didn’t see anyone near him, so he thought maybe he was just mistaken. So he grabbed a few more pretzels, and then he heard another voice: “You’re a very handsome young man.” So again he looked around, but there wasn’t anyone near him. Still puzzled, he grabbed a few more pretzels. And a few moments later he heard another voice say, “That’s a great haircut, makes you look handsome.” Once again, he looked all over but he couldn’t figure out where the voice was coming from, so he called his waiter over and said, “I must be going crazy. I keep hearing voices saying I’m so handsome, and what a great tie I’m wearing.” The waiter said, “Oh, not to worry, sir. Those are the pretzels. They’re complimentary.”

Bill              Oh, Anastasia! Well, I think that’s about enough from you! Say good-bye to the boys and girls. . . . 

Anastasia    Happy Easter, boys and girls. Happy Easter!

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So, boys and girls, how many of you had pancakes at our Shrove Sunday pancake brunch before Lent began?

Does anyone know why we have pancakes before Lent begins?

Well, during Lent some Christians don't eat milk and eggs and butter, so a good way to eat up all the milk and eggs and butter before Lent is to make pancakes.

About 1400 years ago, some monks in northern Italy were making special Lenten bread with only water and flower. One of the monks took some strips of the dough and folded them to look like arms crossed in prayer, like this. Can you do that? Sometimes when people come to the Altar for a blessing instead of the bread and wine, they fold their arms across their chests like that.

Well, the monks decided to give this special Lenten bread to boys and girls as a little reward when they learned their prayers, and the Italian word for “little reward” is pretiola.

Can you say, pretiola?

What does the word pretiola sound like?

That's right! It sounds like pretzel!

Well, people loved the new pretzels, and as time went on pretzels came to symbolize not only prayer, but good luck and prosperity and spiritual wholeness.

The monks were quick to point out that the three spaces in the pretzel represent the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Turned one way, a pretzel looks like folded arms; turned upside down, it looks like a heart, and so it stands for love.

At weddings the bride and groom would break a pretzel in the same way we like to break wishbones these days.

And pretzels began to show up in paintings, too. Here’s a painting from 1190― the woman is Queen Esther and King Ahasuerus from the Old Testament, and yet what do you see on the table?

And this painting is from a prayer book in 1440, showing St. Bartholomew with pretzels along the top and down the left side and along the bottom.

And here’s a famous painting by Peter Bruegel in 1559: do you see the pretzels on this closeup?

And then guess what? Parents began to hide a pretzel and two hard boiled eggs on Easter morning for their children to find. The pretzel stood for everlasting life because it twists around in a continuous loop, and the two eggs stood for rebirth and new life. And that’s how the Easter Egg hunt got its start!

So, after the service is over, as your pretiola or "little reward" for being such good boys and girls, you can go to my office for a cinnamon pretzel, which my daughter Karen and her husband Jason are picking up right now at Auntie Anne’s Pretzel Bakery so they’ll be fresh-baked for you and so delicious!

+ + +

And Auntie Anne's cinnamon pretzels were absolutely delicious, and still warm when Ingrid and Karen and Jason handed them out! Thank you Auntie Anne's and Scott and Barbara and the bakers! The 70 children at the service loved them.

Easter Day: Rejoice!"

+ In the Love of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The two Marys are running with great joy to tell the disciples “He is risen!” and suddenly they come face to face with Jesus and he says to them, “Greetings!”

I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I’ve ever greeted anyone by saying “Greetings!” Usually, it’s “Hello!” or “Hi!” And, in fact, that’s the common, ordinary meaning of the Greek word translated in this morning’s Gospel as “Greetings!” Once upon a time people may have said “Greetings!” but these days it just sounds archaic and much too formal.

So the only thing the translator got right is the use of the exclamation point, because one thing’s for sure― someone who’s just been raised from the dead doesn’t say an ordinary “Hello!” or “Hi, there!” In fact, although the Greek word has the common, ordinary meaning of “Hello!” the literal meaning of the word is “Rejoice!” and it’s hard to imagine that the risen Jesus would have met the two Marys with anything less than the greatest rejoicing.

So please stand up, and turn to the persons near you as if you’re Jesus and you never thought you’d ever see them again and give to them a great big “Rejoice!”

{{Congregational Response}} [Afterward, the congregation is seated again.]

There are two other times in Matthew’s Gospel when he uses the word “Hello.” In the Garden of Gethsemane when Judas betrays Jesus he says to him, “Greetings, Rabbi!” And when the soldiers dress Jesus in a purple robe and put a crown of thorns on his head, they say to him, “Hail”― “Greetings”― “Hey there”― King of the Jews!”

The betraying Judas and the mocking soldiers remind us that the same word may be used to bleed as well as bless, to hurt as well as heal, to savage as well as salvage.

In just a moment we will renew our Baptismal Covenant, and one of the questions we will answer is this: “Will you proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ?”

I had always understood this question in a narrow, evangelistic sense. To “proclaim by word” meant saying something like, “Jesus loves you!” or asking something like, “Are you saved?”

But now I realize that whenever we use words to bless rather than to bleed, we proclaim the Good News of God in Christ. Whenever we use words to heal rather than to hurt, we proclaim the Good News of God in Christ. And whenever we use words to salvage rather than to savage, we proclaim Good News of God in Christ.

There’s another ordinary word with an extraordinary meaning in this morning’s Gospel. When the angel sends the two Marys on their way, the angel tells them to “tell his disciples,” but when Jesus sends the two Marys on their way, Jesus tells them to “tell my brothers.” Now in this case what makes the ordinary word “brothers” so extraordinary is not its literal meaning, but its spiritual meaning, and its spiritual meaning is “forgiveness.” For these disciples whom Jesus now calls his brothers are the same disciples who had abandoned Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane and fled for their lives. Jesus uses the word “brothers” to bless and heal and salvage his forgiven disciples.

“Rejoice” and “Forgive”― these are resurrection words, these are words which bless and heal and salvage.

The poet David Whyte wrote a piece titled Loaves and Fishes, an allusion to the time when Jesus took five loaves of bread and two fish, and blessed them, and broke them, and gave them to over five thousand people:

This is not
the age of information.

This is not
the age of information.

Forget the news,
and the radio,
and the blurred screen.

This is the time
of loaves
and fishes.

People are hungry
and one good word is bread
for a thousand.

Alleluia! Christ is Risen! The Lord is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!

Journey through Lent: The Fortieth Day

Collect for Holy Saturday

O God, Creator of heaven and earth: Grant that, as the crucified body of your dear Son was laid in a tomb and rested on this holy Sabbath, so we may await with him the coming of the third day, and rise with him to newness of life; who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

 

The next day, that is, after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate and said, “Sir, we remember what that impostor said while he was still alive, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ Therefore command the tomb to be made secure until the third day; otherwise his disciples may go and steal him away, and tell the people, ‘He has been raised from the dead,’ and the last deception would be worse than the first.” Pilate said to them, “You have a guard of soldiers; go, make it as secure as you can.” So they went with the guard and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone. Matthew 27:62-66

Journey through Lent: The Thirty-Ninth Day

Collect for Good Friday

Almighty God, we pray you graciously to behold this your family, for whom our Lord Jesus was willing to be betrayed, and given into the hands of sinners, and to suffer death upon the cross; who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

 

From noon on, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. And about three o’clock Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” When some of the bystanders heard it, they said, “This man is calling for Elijah.” At once one of them ran and got a sponge, filled it with sour wine, put it on a stick, and gave it to him to drink. But the others said, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.” Then Jesus cried again with a loud voice and breathed his last. Matthew 27:45-50

Journey through Lent: The Thirty-Eighth Night― Maundy Thursday

+ In the Love of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

John’s Gospel begins with these words about Jesus:

“He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came to his own, but his own did not receive him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God.”

Tonight, these first words from John’s Gospel begin to be fully realized:

“Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.”

Jesus even loved those who refused to receive him, and as a sign of that love, Jesus washes his disciples’ feet, including Judas’.

And then he comes to Peter, and when Peter objects, Jesus tells him that if Peter doesn’t let him wash his feet, he can’t have a share in his life.

Tonight, many churches will have foot-washing ceremonies; and by now the Pope has already washed the feet of 12 chosen laymen. There were several years when we did it here at St. Gregory’s. I don’t remember when or why we stopped doing it, but as I’ve thought about it for tonight’s sermon, I have come to the conclusion that the idea of washing feet is, well, wrong-footed, for two reasons.

First, the person washing the feet is almost always someone who is in a superior power relationship to the people whose feet he’s washing. Either a superior liturgical power relationship― a Priest washing a Deacon’s feet; or a superior institutional relationship― a Pope washing a layperson’s feet.

But Jesus wasn’t play-acting for one night. His entire ministry, from his first words, “What are you looking for?” to his last words: “It is finished!” was an act of foot-washing.

The second reason, and the more important reason, is this: even if our foot-washing is completely mutual and without any power differential, it’s a subtle way that we, like Peter, refuse to let Jesus wash our feet.

You see, the real question tonight is this: are we willing to let Jesus wash our feet? Because unless he washes our feet, we, like Peter, can have no share in his life. And only if we let Jesus wash our feet, will we be able truly to wash one another’s feet.

So let’s take a moment now to go to that upper room, and in the silence that follows, let Jesus wash your feet.

. . .

“So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.  . . . Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Journey through Lent: The Thirty-Eighth Day

Collect for Maundy Thursday

Almighty Father, whose dear Son, on the night before he suffered, instituted the Sacrament of his Body and Blood: Mercifully grant that we may receive it thankfully in remembrance of Jesus Christ our Lord, who in these holy mysteries gives us a pledge of eternal life; and who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

 

On the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Where do you want us to make the preparations for you to eat the Passover?” He said, “Go into the city to a certain man, and say to him, ‘The Teacher says, My time is near; I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples.’” So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them, and they prepared the Passover meal.

When it was evening, he took his place with the twelve; and while they were eating, he said, “Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me.” And they became greatly distressed and began to say to him one after another, “Surely not I, Lord?” He answered, “The one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with me will betray me. The Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that one by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that one not to have been born.” Judas, who betrayed him, said, “Surely not I, Rabbi?” He replied, “You have said so.” Matthew 26:17-25

Journey through Lent: The Thirty-Seventh Day

Collect for Wednesday in Holy Week

Lord God, whose blessed Son our Savior gave his body to be whipped and his face to be spit upon: Give us grace to accept joyfully the sufferings of the present time, confident of the glory that shall be revealed; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

 

Then one of the twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, “What will you give me if I betray him to you?” They paid him thirty pieces of silver. And from that moment he began to look for an opportunity to betray him. Matthew 26:14-16

Journey through Lent: The Thirty-Sixth Day

Collect for Tuesday in Holy Week

O God, by the passion of your blessed Son you made an instrument of shameful death to be for us the means of life: Grant us so to glory in the cross of Christ, that we may gladly suffer shame and loss for the sake of your Son our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

 

When Jesus had finished saying all these things, he said to his disciples, “You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.”

Then the chief priests and the elders of the people gathered in the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas, and they conspired to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him. But they said, “Not during the festival, or there may be a riot among the people.”

Now while Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment, and she poured it on his head as he sat at the table. But when the disciples saw it, they were angry and said, “Why this waste? For this ointment could have been sold for a large sum, and the money given to the poor.” But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman? She has performed a good service for me. For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. By pouring this ointment on my body she has prepared me for burial. Truly I tell you, wherever this good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her” (Matthew 26:1-13).

Journey through Lent: The Thirty-Fifth Day

Collect for Monday in Holy Week

Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy before he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he was crucified: Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

[On Monday] morning, when he returned to the city, he was hungry. And seeing a fig tree by the side of the road, he went to it and found nothing at all on it but leaves. Then he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” And the fig tree withered at once. When the disciples saw it, they were amazed, saying, “How did the fig tree wither at once?” Jesus answered them, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only will you do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ it will be done. Whatever you ask for in prayer with faith, you will receive" (Matthew 21:18-22).

Journey through Lent: Rest Stop

Sundays are in Lent, but not of Lent, because every Sunday is a celebration of Jesus' resurrection. Consequently, the forty days of Lent don't include Sundays. So today is our sixth and final rest stop in our journey through Lent.

"His blood be on us!" the Palm Sunday crowds exults (St. Matthew 27:25).

". . . and through faith in his blood, we, and all thy whole Church, may obtain remission of our sins, and all other benefits of his passion" (Book of Common Prayer, page 335).