Jesus Christ comes to us as the one who serves and leads us into lives of service and love. 

Vicar Andrea Bonneville
Sunday of the Passion, year C 
Texts: Philippians 2: 5-11; Luke 22:12–23:56

Beloved in Christ, grace and peace to you in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

“But I am among you as one who serves.”

Jesus tells his disciples at their final meal together. It is what his mother, Mary, sang before he was born. It is what he showed and told them throughout his entire ministry. “I am the one who came to bring good news to the poor, who proclaims release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, who lets the oppressed go free, and who proclaims the year of the Lord’s favor.”

“But I am among you as one who serves.”

Jesus exemplifies to the crowd and the powers that be as they mock him, torture him, and brutally execute him by nailing him on a cross. Using his very last breath to overcome evil with unconditional love. “Forgive them”, he says, “for they do not know what they are doing.”

“But I am among you as one who serves.”

Jesus reminds you today as we remember his death on the cross and his going to the grave. The Christ of God emptied himself of divine power and control. Christ humbled himself and served us and took on our humanity and everything that comes with living in human skin: pain, sin, suffering, violence, destruction, and death.  

Jesus shows us self-giving, vulnerable, and unconditional love. Love that cannot be contained by the evil of the world. Love that doesn’t stay buried in the ground.

This love that we hear about today has already taken root in our world.  It’s rooted in compassion and healing, forgiveness and service.  Rooted in speaking truth to power and advocating for the oppressed. Rooted in prayer and lament and praise. Rooted in the water and bread and wine.  Rooted in you, and me, and all of God’s creation.

And it is just waiting to sprout and bring forth the newness of life.

But love, and healing, and forgiveness, and compassion, and service cannot and will not sprout without you, without this community, without all of God’s beloved carrying our spices and ointments, our tears and our hearts, to the graves of our world with minds and hearts open to see what can heal and transform.

We turn toward our neighbors, our friends, and our enemies. We turn toward the brokenness and pain of the world, with the same mind and heart that was in Christ when he ate with his disciples and washed their feet.  The same heart that healed sick, welcomed the outcasted, and loved without limits. The same heart that was on that cross. The same heart that breaks from the pain and heals with kindness and love.

Because the love and forgiveness that they tried to kill on the cross and bury. The love that challenged power and evil, and brings forth a new way of life is the love that is waiting to sprout in your heart and mind.

This week, this Holy week, we open our ears and hearts and minds to listen to the one among us who serves.  We listen to the one who heals and transform. The one who loves and forgives. We listen to the one who says “do this in remembrance of me.”

And we wait and watch for the one who comes in peace, blooming love and forgiveness that continues to transform lives and heal our world.  Christ Jesus whose Spirit is in you among you as one who serves.  

Amen.

 

 

God’s unconditional love and embrace leads us to a ministry of reconciliation with our siblings in Christ. 

Vicar Andrea Bonneville
The Fourth Sunday in Lent, year C 
Texts: 2 Corinthians 5:16-21; Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

Beloved in Christ, grace and peace to you in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

God loves you, no exceptions.
You are welcome here, no exceptions.

This is the message of the father to both of his sons in our Gospel reading for today. It is the unconditional love and embrace of the parent who rejoices that his family is together again. It’s the unconditional love of God who welcomes and embraces you, and me, and the people we embrace and the people we turn away from.

One of the biggest lies the world tells us is that God’s love is conditional. The world wants us to believe that if we sin, we are unworthy.  It wants us to believe that we have to earn God’s love and that there is a scarcity of love.

It suggests that if one person receives love and forgiveness, it will somehow take away from the opportunity for us to experience the same love and forgiveness.  These lies divide us, and they destroy relationships and communities.

But the father in our Gospel story today doesn’t fall captive to this lie. The father shows us that God’s loving embrace is unconditional.  The father doesn’t use his power to favor one son over the other but rather unconditionally loves and embraces both of them.

He doesn’t suggest that loving one son unconditionally will take away from the love that he has for his other son. The father loves both of his children with all of his heart and celebrates that his family is together again.

This is a story of reconciliation between a son and a father, but it isn’t a story of reconciliation for a whole community.  The unconditional love and forgiveness is healing for the younger son, but it upsets and challenges the eldest son.

When the story ends, all we know is that the eldest son is upset and perhaps confused by his father’s actions. We don’t know if the eldest son attends the celebration. We don’t know if the brothers reconcile with each other.

This is where the Gospel story ends and our story begins.  

We know that God’s children are divided and it is our calling to join in the work of reconciliation so that all may receive the love and forgiveness that comes from the Triune God.  Our calling is to act out of the unconditional love and grace that we experience so that all may know that they are loved and embraced by God.

But just like the ministry of reconciliation between the sons cannot and will not happen unless the father unconditionally embraces both of his sons, we cannot begin the ministry of reconciliation unless we experience and trust the unlimited and unconditional love that God has for all of God’s children.

We have to trust and hope that God’s love for us is enough to break down walls of fear and hate that divide us to see the love of God that is within all of humanity and creation.

We have to turn away from patterns that convince us that we have to do more or be more or have more. Patterns that convince us that our gender, sexuality, skin color, work ethic, wealth, or possessions change the love that God has for us and our neighbors.

And when we turn away from what divides, we turn toward what unites us which at the bear minimum is that we are unconditionally loved and forgiven by God.  The ministry of reconciliation begins with our relationship to God, and it quickly turns to our relationships with our neighbors.

As siblings in Christ, we have to figure out how to reconcile with each other. We have to love unconditionally and forgive unconditionally, especially the people we don’t expect or want to see in God’s embrace. 

Because the reality is that no matter how much someone hurts us, or challenges us, or confuses us, God has already reconciled with them just like God reconciles with you today.  

God’s love for you has no exceptions.
You are welcome here there are no exceptions.

Now this life saving and healing work of reconciliation is up to us, so that all people may know the unconditional love and embrace of God. So that all may feast on God’s grace and mercy together, now and forever.

Amen.

 

 

It’s the Triune God who is the breath and heartbeat that gives life to our dusty bodies so that we may live, until we return.

Vicar Andrea Bonneville
Ash Wednesday, year C 
Texts: Joel 2: 1-2, 12-17, Matthew 6: 1-6, 16-21 

Beloved in Christ, grace and peace to you in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.

Today we remember our mortality, the very reality that we live in bodies that aren’t perfect, bodies that will hurt and be hurt, bodies that will one day die and return to the earth. We remember that our bodies were created with the love of the Triune God out of the dust of the earth and filled with the Spirit, the same Spirit that flows through our shared life with all of creation.

We don’t necessarily need to be gathered here today to be reminded about the realities of death and sin and suffering. The past two years have been a constant confrontation of disease, injustice, grief, loneliness, and death. Our hearts are fatigued and heavy from daily reminders of these realities.

We have had to be on high alert, changing the actions of our day to day lives to make sure that we and our neighbors stay safe. We’ve read books, consumed media, and learned how we can adapt and change our actions and attitudes to better love our neighbors and creation.

We’ve been doing our part step by step and living in this way exposed the treasures of our hearts and the gift of our shared humanity. It opened our eyes to see the world in a different way. It opened our hands to want to act and serve and our minds to learn. We’ve been forced to act in the present and long for a hope filled future for all of God’s creation.  

Living with the realities of sin and mortality taught us a lot about suffering and death, but even more so it taught us about our humanity—what in life gives our dusty bodies the breath, passion, love, and joy we needed to sustain us and give us hope.

In Lent, we journey with Jesus as he goes to the cross and the grave.  And as we do this, we encounter his humanity, his dusty body that held the same Spirit that gives us life. The Triune God dwelled in our world radiating love, peace, forgiveness, and justice so that even in the cloudiness of our world our lives can reflect light and love.  

Jesus reminds us that our bodies aren’t the empty vessels of sin and shame as the world tries to make us believe. Our bodies are treasure chests of grace and love, filled with the Spirit who dwells in each of us as we bear the image of God for all to see.

But what do we do on the days when we are feeling extra dusty, on days when the shadows of the world prevent us from seeing the Triune God active in our bodies and our world?

What happens when we sin against our neighbors and creation or when our bodies and spirits become ill and burdened?

What do we do when our hearts are saddened and grieved when the bodies we love experience pain or return to dust?

Where do we go when we can’t escape the pain, violence, injustice, and destruction in our world?

“Yet even now,” says the LORD, “return to me with all your heart.”

“Restore to me the joy,” sings the Psalmist.

“Be reconciled to God,” says Paul on behalf of Christ.

“Return,” says the prophet Joel, because “God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.”

The promise of this return, returning to God and the fullness of who God has created us to be, is why we need to be gathered here today, why we need to be in community praying, singing, and feasting together.

So that we, together, can come before God in worship and praise with fasting, and weeping, and mourning. We can join our hearts together in prayer and voices together in song to lament the brokenness of our world and hope for God’s mercy and justice to rise.  We come to know the love and peace that surpasses our understanding and cling to God who is love and peace.  

Returning again and again to God with our full humanity asking God to transform our lives so that we can experience comfort, healing, and love. And so we can reflect God’s love, justice, and mercy into our world.

As ashes are marked on your forehead today, remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return. And also remember that you are love and to love you shall return. That you are hope and to hope you shall return. That you are grace and to grace you shall return. That you are God’s beloved and to God you shall return.

In the returning to God, in remembering of our humanity among others and alongside all of creation, the love and grace of God dwells in our hearts, it flows through in our veins, it returns us to who we are and whose we are, called to follow Jesus in the midst of the pain and suffering, death and destruction so all know the power of the Triune God who gives life and hope to our lives and our world.

It’s the Triune God who is the breath and heartbeat that gives life to these dusty bodies so that we may live, until we return.

Amen.

God’s presence and love is among us, it’s transforming us, it’s leading us, even as we continue to learn and listen to what this means here and now for the sake of all that God has created. 

Vicar Andrea Bonneville
Transfiguration of Our Lord, year C 
Texts: Luke 9:28-36

Beloved in Christ, grace and peace to you in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

We are living in a time of cloudiness.
And it can be hard to see and hear and discern God’s presence.

Our world is clouded with hatred, discrimination, injustice, and oppression. Our lives are clouded with lies that tell us that we are unworthy and lead us to be filled with guilt and shame. Power and money are what people strive for, especially when we are shown and told that if you have enough money and power, you should be able to control any body, any country, any thing.

The more pain and grief and loss that we experience or the more pain and suffering we see our neighbors experiencing the more our vision becomes cloudy and we have to figure out how to discern God’s presence in our lives, our communities, and our world.

But this is why we are here today.

And that is why Peter and John and James where on the mountain top with Jesus on that day. The day when they saw, heard, and experienced God’s glory, even though it was confusing and terrifying.

Like us, they needed to see and experience for themselves God’s glory. But even after seeing the physical transformation of Jesus, hearing Jesus’ talk with Elijah and Moses about his departure and death on the cross, and hearing the voice in the cloud proclaim Jesus’ identity as the Son of God, the Chosen one.

Even after of all of this, we don’t know if the disciples actually knew what was happening.

Luke’s Gospel tells us that they went up on the mountain top with Jesus to pray. And while Jesus was praying his appearance transformed and suddenly, he was talking with Moses and Elijah about his departure and what he would accomplish on the cross. 

We are told that Peter and James and John were there, but they were weighed down with sleep trying to stay awake to see Jesus’ glory and hear about what was happening.

Peter tries to comprehend, offering care and hospitality, but we are told he doesn’t have a clue what is going on. Nevertheless, he tried to act and make sense of what was happening because he must have sensed that it was important.  

But then the cloud appeared and it overshadowed them and they were terrified. They heard a voice say “This is my Son, my Chosen; Listen to him!”  And then Jesus was found alone.

This is how this mountain top experience ends.

We don’t hear about the cloud separating to give way for the sun to shine again. We don’t hear if they talked with Jesus, their friend, to try to learn more about what just happened. We don’t know if their emotions change or if they continued to be terrified.   

All we know is that eventually they went down the mountain and kept silent, not talking about the transfiguration and transformation they witnessed and experienced.

It seems like the cloud did more than terrify them, it clouded their lives. Before the cloud appeared, Peter was at least trying to make sense of what has happening, engaged in what was going on, but after the voice spoke from the cloud, he also remained silent.

Perhaps what they then understood was too much for them to share, or maybe they didn’t think that people would believe what they had experience, or maybe they still had no idea what was going on and instead of talking, they stayed silent so that they could continue to listen to Jesus, as he journeyed toward the cross.

But even if they didn’t talk about what they experienced, we know that they continued to follow Jesus. And we know that for them, continuing to follow Jesus meant entering the sin and suffering and death and destruction of the world.

And this is our task today.

Even with our confused and terrified hearts, with pain and hurt, we follow Jesus to the mountain tops and into the valleys of our world attempting to keep our eyes, ears, and hearts open to see where God’s glory is transfiguring and transforming our world.  

We pray that God clears the cloudiness of our vision so that we are able see, listen, and discern who God is calling us to be and where God is calling us to act with love and service.  We do things with love and care, even if we don’t understand the full picture of what is happening. 

And at times, we remain silent and open our ears to listen to God and we pray to be in communion with God asking God to lead us and guide us.

We trust and hope and believe that we will be transformed so that we can bear God’s light and love and be the sun that shines through the cloudiness of our lives so that all people may know that love that we have in the Triune God. God with us who gives us and all creation the hope and nourishment we need to sustain, and grow, and transform.

God’s presence and love is among us, it’s transforming us, it’s leading us, even as we continue to learn and listen to what this means here and now for the sake of all that God has created.

Amen.

The Holy Spirit is active bringing transformation in our lives, our community, and in the world. 

Vicar Andrea Bonneville
Third Sunday after Epiphany, year C 
Texts: Luke 4:14-21 

Beloved in Christ, grace and peace to you in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

The Holy Spirit is busy transforming.  Do you hear her?

Moving, stirring, breathing, growing, changing.
Challenging, testing, inviting, stretching.
Energizing, motivating, inspiring.

Systems of oppression and structures of power are being exposed, creation is crying out for healing, walls of division are crumbling. God’s Spirit is active in the world bringing good news to the poor, proclaiming release to the captives, recovering sight to the blind, freeing the oppressed, proclaiming the celebration of the jubilee.  

Today, Jesus says, today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. Today God’s spirit is filling your life. Today the Triune God is transforming our world.  Today, here and now.

And yet many are still trapped in systems of injustice, caught in the sin of the world, living within destructive patterns that are hurtful to their neighbors and creation.  

Many can’t escape the noise of fear and shame that lies to us and convinces us that we are not good enough to receive the good news of God’s love and mercy.  Many live in poverty, captivity, isolation and experience loneliness, discrimination, and hate.

It’s hard to believe that transformation is happening and that God is active in our lives when we look around us and see pain and suffering and division.  It’s hard to trust that change is going to happen when the weight of sin and evil weighs us down.  Some days we don’t know if what scripture says God is doing and has done in the world is enough or if God’s promises of abundant love and life will be fulfilled.

But don’t give up on hope. Don’t lose sight of the ways God is active in our lives. Because God, through the Spirit, is transforming you, this community, our neighborhood, our world. With God, transformation is happening, but we know that it doesn’t happen overnight.

When Jesus enters back into his community after his baptism and wilderness journey, people who have known him his whole life don’t notice the transformation that has taken place through the Spirit. And next week we will hear that his community doesn’t respond well to his transformed identity.

But Jesus plants a seed of promise that throughout his ministry he will continue to water and nourish the world bringing healing and justice until God’s promise of love and mercy is fulfilled through his death and resurrection.

And now, as people living in the hope of the resurrection, we take on the task of watering and nourishing until God’s promise can be fulfilled for all of God’s beloved.  Day by day change is happening in unexpected ways in unexpected people, and in unexpected places.  

When we encounter the word of God, hear the promise of a world filled will love, grace, and justice. And when receive glimpses of God’s promises fulfilled in our lives, we cannot help but open our hearts to the transformation that is happening in our lives through the spirit.  

Transformation happens as we hear God’s word through our singing and speaking in our silence and in our prayer. God’s word is being fulfilled today because as we hear God’s word and experience God ‘s word in others, we are transformed by it and through it. This is why it is so important for us to gather in community to worship, read scripture, pray, and serve together, to feast together, to be a part of each other’s daily lives.  

Transformation happens when we confront our biases and behaviors that contribute to division and destruction.  When we take responsibility for our actions and apologize when we make mistakes. It happens when we check in on a friend or take time to laugh, play, and share joy.

Transformation happens when we serve our neighbor. When we give of our time, money, and resources to help others and journey with them.  Like what is happening in our community as we take action to accompany and advocate for an Afghan refugee family.  Or when we continue to provide gracious hospitality to all who come to our door looking for support and love.

Transformation happens as we walk out of these doors proclaiming God’s love and justice through our actions and words whether that be in our classrooms or office, around the dinner table, at the doctor office, or in an interaction with a stranger.  

When we take time to pause and listen to the Holy Spirit, we are guided in ways that will grow our hope and confidence in God’s word active in our lives. And for now, we are nourished by the promises of God’s love and grace that have already been revealed to us. These glimpses of growth, of healing, of reconciling, give us hope to continue to follow the Holy Spirit nudging us toward transformations we don’t even know are possible. 

Moving, stirring, breathing, growing, changing.
Challenging, testing, inviting, stretching.
Energizing, motivating, inspiring.

The Holy Spirit is busy transforming. Do you hear her?

Amen.