Through the love and grace of Christ, we are sent out into the world to look toward and listen to cries for justice and peace and proclaim the Triune God’s love and healing. 

Vicar Andrea Bonneville
The Seventh Sunday after Pentecost, Lect. 15 B
Text: Amos 7:7-15; Ephesians 1:3-14; Mark 6:14-29

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

It leaves an unsettling feeling. The image of John’s head on a platter.

Reminding us about situations in our lives that leave us unsettled.

A fire burning in the ocean.
A drought and record-breaking temperatures.
A pipeline threatening our watershed.

Homelessness and poverty.
Racial injustice.
Gun violence across our city.

The headlines of today show us that today’s Gospel reading could easily have been a headline in this morning’s paper: “Man executed after speaking out against the King’s relationship.”

We absorb so much information daily that we have been trained to keep it from touching us, likely a way to cope with all the brokenness around us.

We hear our Gospel lesson for today and we may unknowingly numb the emotions and the message.

Questioning what is wrong with the characters in the story.
Distancing their situation from ours.
Laughing about a birthday party we would never want to attend.
Hearing it and thinking, can a story like this really be the Word of God?

Our emotions and our bodies can only hold so much pain and brokenness happening in society, let alone the pain and grief that we experience in our lives, families, and communities. 

 The shock of John’s head on a platter leads us to be filled with fear of danger. And perhaps a gut reaction to not want to have anything to do with the message that John is proclaiming.

The challenge then, is to not be swayed by violence and displays of power, but to see what is really going on in the story. John is in jail and he speaks up about injustice and about people in power taking advantage of the law.

Like John, we have inherited the grace and love and courage to see the injustice and oppression happening all around us. And we have been anointed by the Holy Spirit to speak and act against unjust power and oppression.

We see situations in our lives every day and ask ourselves what role we have in it.  If we’re following God’s call like John, and like the prophet Amos who we heard from today, we know that we have a part in sharing the love, grace, and hope of the Triune God.

We do this by being who God has created us to be, finding avenues where our skills and talents match with the needs around us as we boldly step in directions that help us to proclaim justice and peace.

We do this by looking around in our community and listening to our neighbors. We do this by transforming our church community and our church building to be a place of hospitality.

So that when we look at the headlines about climate change, we know that we are continuing to strive to do our part and commit to environmental justice. And when we look at the headlines about houselessness and poverty, we know that we are impacting our community by being in relationship with and caring for our neighbors.

To look at the brokenness of the world and listen to the cries for justice around us is going to lead us down a path of discipleship where we continue to be and become people who: 

speak truth to power.
speak healing to brokenness.
speak love to hatred.

Speaking not only through our mouths by through our actions that at times are even more powerful than words.

Doing so will lead us down paths that will change us and ask us to step outside our comfort zones. It will cause us to have many unsettling feelings and emotions and we try to discern where we are being called and sent.

But we know that we do not do this alone, we do it in community. Caring for each other and caring for ourselves.

Like the disciples at the end of our Gospel reading who find ways to hold space and grieve, we find ways to lay to rest the brokenness in our lives and hold onto hope and believe with our hearts that God can resurrect and heal the world.

And then we go out to look and listen to the pain and brokenness around us and listen to where God is calling us to be agents of healing and love.

Like the prophets and people called throughout scripture and time, we too are called by God out of who God has created us to be. Perhaps this is the message that Paul is speaking to the Ephesians: Reminding them and reminding us of the love and grace that we have in Christ.

And that this love that we’ve been transformed by is going to send us into places where we see deep brokenness and are called to proclaim love—Love that will always transform. 

It leaves an unsettling feeling. The Holy Spirit stirring in our lives.

Reminding us of who we are created to be.
Calling us out into the world to proclaim justice, healing, and love.

Amen

Created in God’s image, we grow to be people who produce shade for all of God’s creation. A place where all can rest and experience the sheltering and protecting love of the Triune God.

Vicar Andrea Bonneville
The Third Sunday after Pentecost, Lect. 11 B
Text: Mark 4:26-34

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 have an apple tree in our front yard.

It was planted in a less than ideal location and now its roots are running out of room to spread and its branches are becoming heavy. Half of its branches are no longer bearing leaves while the other half is growing apples. It’s lopsided, its leaves are few and its branches are bent in uneven directions. It’s not a typical beautifully pruned tree and its apples are quite small, even though they’re delicious.  

We inherited this apple tree when we moved into our home, but it is clear that its time is coming to an end. At the beginning of spring, I figured I would leave it to bear fruit for one more season, so that way we could enjoy its apples again.

Bearing fruit is good. We as humans are created to bear fruit through our love and service to our neighbor. We give our resources and extend ourselves. We know that part of our purpose is to bear fruit, fruit that will last. And we also know that bearing fruit takes a significant amount of energy and can be overwhelming at times. So much of who we are is assessed by what we produce, how much we produce, and the quality of what we produce.

In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus shares two parables to help us glimpse into what the reign of God looks like in the here and now.  The first parable focuses on the mystery of planting, growing, and producing a harvest.  A miracle and mystery that continues to amaze so many.

Yet the second parable doesn’t focus on what the seed will produce, the focus is on what the seed will become. Jesus says, “[the reign of God] is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”  

This is who we strive to be, a community of people living out the identity of who God has created us to be, not solely focusing on what we can produce, but focusing on how our very presence can be an invitation for someone to experience the sheltering and protecting love of the Triune God.

We become a living shade that provides comfort, shelter, and rest so that people, like every winged creature, can build their nests and find a home within us. Opening ourselves to how God is working through us and holding within ourselves the capacity to be a shelter for any one of God’s beloved, not knowing who is going to build a nest in our shade.

We are a living shade as we provide and create a listening presence to neighbors as they share stories of their lived experience, as we provide hospitality so that someone feels they have a place to belong, as we see each other for who we are and not solely for what we can produce.

How can we, not only bear fruit, but also be shade for all to feel safe, secure AND nourished under our branches?

We don’t exactly know how and perhaps there is comfort in that. But what we do know is that there is going to be growing involved and that God is going to do it.

And if we are being honest with ourselves there is probably going to have to be some trimming as we unlearn patterns and messages that kept people from making their home in our branches. Replacing them with new patterns of inclusivity and radical hospitality in which we are invited to change and grow by that impact others have on us.  Only making our branches stronger and roots deeper.

We know that there are going to be growing pains. At times, we may feel like a small, uneven apple tree. The one with little fruit to share and a small patch of shade. But with God’s love and grace, we are sharing what we have with the rest of creation.

As small as it is, birds’ dwell in our apple tree all day long and while it was blooming bees were buzzing at every flower. Yet as often as we do, I only saw what the apple tree could produce for me and not the impact it has on all the other creatures that find a home within it.

Even when we’re tired and we’ve bore all the fruit we can in one season of our life, we know that the structure, the presence, of who we are will be a place where people can find shade, a place where people experience God’s love and see the ways that God dwells within us.

We are this presence because we have been created out of and rooted in the nutritious soil of God’s love and grace, watered with the waters of baptism, fed at Christ’s table, and sent out in community to grow branches and be who God has created us to be.

For we never know who will build a nest in our shade.

Amen.

Through the love that we receive through Christ, we become an embodiment of God’s love in the world by living in love and sharing God’s love with all of creation. 

Vicar Andrea Bonneville
Sixth Sunday after Easter, Year B 
Text: John 15:9-17

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

Do you know how loved you are?  Created. Claimed. Called. Chosen.
To be an embodiment of God’s steadfast love in this world.

Do you know how worthy you are? Created. Claimed. Called. Chosen.
To proclaim God’s steadfast love to all of creation.

The love that the Triune God has for each and every one of us is at the heart of our Gospel message for today. Abide in my love, Jesus tells us. Rest in the love that has been poured out for you for I have Created. Claimed. Called. Chosen. you to continue in my loving service and care for all.

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”

Jesus’ command to love comes out of the assumption that we have known and experienced what the Triune God’s love can do and continues to do in our very own life.

Love that was present when we were created.Love that was present when we were claimed and called by the Holy Spirt in the waters of our baptism.
Love that is present as we are chosen to bear the lasting fruit of love.

The command to love isn’t as easy as it sounds, and the invitation to abide in God’s love is almost more difficult. Social pressures, shame and guilt, compassion fatigue, you name it.. All make us think that God’s love isn’t enough.

It’s one thing know about God’s love for us, but it’s another thing to live out of the conviction that God’s love is within us. We are all God’s beloved and embodying the image of God’s love is what we are created to do.

Because God incarnate laid down his life for us, his beloved friends, we live through our experience of being transformed by God’s steadfast love for as we become an embodiment of God’s love for all. Love that leads us to lay down our lives for not only our friends, but for all that God has created.

It sounds intimidating, laying down our lives, but we have to remember that Christ laid down his life for the salvation and reconciliation of all creation and we lay down our lives so that people may see the love and grace that has been given to us through Christ.

What if laying down our lives means opening up so that God’s grace can transform us to live out of the love that God has for us, and no longer be held captive to lies that tell us we lack talent, ability, money, or confidence to be an embodied proclamation of God’s love.

What if laying down our lives means challenging the culture of white supremacy and letting go of some of space that we take up and the privilege that we have so that all of God’s creation has the opportunity to flourish in our communities.

What if laying down our lives means stepping out of our comfort zones to hear and authentically listen to perspectives other than ones like our own to help expand our empathy and build more unity and collaboration.

We are capable of laying down our lives because of the love that has been shown to us through Christ, love that casts out fear, so that fear doesn’t have the final say as we live out Jesus’ command to love one another. Laying down our lives in love, care, and service to each other is how we embody Jesus’ command to love. It is how others will see the radiance of God’s love that reflects into our world.

We know that laying down our lives in love is possible because we have witnessed this in community. We have experienced the love of Christ embodied in each other and have experienced this love from being in relationship with each other.

Love that checks in and prays for a friend. Love that tends the gardens for pollinators. Love that cares for their family. Love that shows up when we need it the most and when we least expect it.

We have a first-hand account of being in community and witnessing to the ways that each of us embodies the love of Christ, for each other and for the sake of our communities that we participate in daily.

Of course, this has been challenging as we have been separated for over a year, but even apart we have been the embodiment of God’s love to each other through screens, telephones, emails, cards, and small gatherings.  And we’ve had the opportunity to look into our local community and see the ways that people have embodied love in advocating for justice and social change. 

And we know that following the command to love should come with the caution label: follow at your own risk, because we know the Holy Spirit will lead us to people and places that challenge us to embody love. At other times our heart will grow weary as we look at the brokenness of the world and wonder if our love is enough to bring healing. We will look and ask, do we really need to love that person?

But this is the beauty of God’s love for if we live out of the transformation that God’s love has in our lives and abide in God’s love, the Holy Spirit will led us and guide us into the places where we can radiate the of the image of God, even when we know what we are doing and even when we don’t know how God is working through us.

Our baptismal identity roots us in the nutritious soil of God’s love so that we can extend our branches as far as they can reach so that we can bear fruit that will last, fruit that will regenerate and share the sweetness of God’s everlasting love.

Do you know how love you are? Created. Claimed. Called. Chosen.
To be an embodiment of God’s love and to live out the love that God has for you.

Amen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jesus appears to the disciples and asks them if they have anything to eat. They give him broiled fish and recall their ministry of the past and are called to be a witness to Christ’s peace.

Vicar Andrea Bonneville
Third Sunday after Easter, Year B 
Text: Luke 24:36b-48

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

They saw their beloved publicly executed for a crime he did not commit as they watched, even at a distance, all the things that had happened (Luke 23). Mourning the death of their beloved who died at the hands of people who enforced the law, they gathered on that day, terrified and doubting, attempting to put together their fragmented pieces of hope to make sense of the reality of the past and piece together their future.

And then their beloved appeared. Again.

Fully embodied in a human body with flesh and bones and wounds. And they didn’t know if what they were seeing was real. Because why would they? The fresh and raw experience of death and injustice consumed their thoughts. Wondering what they should have done differently. Asking how they had been complacent.  Seeking answers for why and challenging how something like this could happen again and again.  It led them to believe that resurrection wasn’t possible; they needed evidence to hope and reassurance to be filled with joy.

So Jesus asked if they had something to eat.

The embodiment of the Triune God goes to the disciples who gathered in that room. The risen Christ shows up to people who are grieving, looks them in the eyes, says peace be with you, and then asks them if they have anything to eat.

And they gave him broiled fish.

Fish that they probably went out and caught early that morning because even in their mourning fishing was what they knew how to do. When Jesus asks them for food they look around and they see that fish and it is the ah ha moment.

And like how the smell of bread reminds me of my grandmother’s kitchen and her love for me, the disciples see Jesus eat the fish and they see an embodiment of love that took on everything that was broken and unjust and rose bringing peace and reconciliation to all of creation.

The fish reminds them of when they were by their fishing boats, exhausted from a long day of fishing without a catch, and Jesus boarded the boat and suddenly their nets were filled till they broke. Remembering what it felt like to trust in the Word of God and live into their vocation.

Or maybe their minds wandered to when they only had the two fish and a few loaves of bread and Jesus told them to feed the people. They watched as the little resource they had turned into an abundance and all the people where filled. Reminding them of what it felt like to provide food and love to the people in their community.  

Or maybe their minds went back to the last time they were all gathered around the table, breaking bread and drinking wine together, being reminded of what it felt like to be in community together and feel love. And then be told to go out and share that love (Luke 22).

The broiled fish was the food they ate the most of; it was so common in their everyday lives that they forgot it had significance to their identity of who God had called them to be and their identity of what it meant to be a follower of Jesus.  

So what is our broiled fish today?  What helps us when we are filled with fear and doubt see the risen Christ in our communities in our lives?

I don’t know what the broiled fish is for you because my assumption is that the broiled fish is different in all of our lives. But what I can say is this: the tangible thing that helps us to see the resurrected Christ in our community is as much a part of our identity as followers of Christ as fish was to the identity of the disciples who gathered in that room on that day. 

We know there are things in our everyday lives that make us look back to the bad things that have happened in our past and if we are being honest with ourselves there are times and places when that is what is needed and necessary, especially when we have to ask hard questions about our privilege in this society.

But we also need the tangible things; a tune of a song, the sound of children laughing, a Bible story, the smell of a home cooked meal, feeding and caring for our neighbors, that help us look back and see the goodness and love of the risen Christ.

Who on that day and on this day is coming to us and our community looking us in the eyes and saying peace be with you and then calling us to witness to these things.

So we bear witness in our community as we mourn the death and cry out for justice for Duante Wright, George Floyd, Adam Toledo, and countless other who have died at the hands of the broken system of violent policing.  Wondering what we can differently. Asking how we have been complacent.  Seeking answers for why and challenging how something like this could happen again and again. 

We have the evidence and we have the reassurance in the hope and joy that the risen Christ in our community and in our lives. Find where you can touch it, feel it, eat it, and see it.

Because we are the witnesses of hope and the embodiment of Christ’s peace.

Amen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Through Christ’s love and forgiveness for all, we seek to follow Christ’s commandment to love all, even when it is challenges us. 

Vicar Andrea Bonneville
Maundy Thursday, Year B 
Texts: John 13:1-17, 31b-35

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

It doesn’t make sense.

Perhaps this is what Peter was thinking as Jesus began washing the disciple’s feet. Why would Jesus wash my feet? I am the one that should be washing his. Why would Jesus serve me? I know there are people who need this far more than I do. Why me? It just doesn’t make sense.

This is the dialogue I imagine is running through Peter’s head as Jesus prepares to wash his feet. It doesn’t make sense so Peter resists it, at first. It seems to me like we’ve all been in Peter’s position before, struggling to make sense of or resisting an act of service and love, even when the source of love and service comes from God.

As Peter resists having his feet washed, Jesus says, “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.” Peter hardly has time to process Jesus’ words and actions before Jesus, the face of the Triune God, invites all the disciples to share in God’s healing and reconciliation in the world that is shown through Christ’s love and service.

The phrase “it doesn’t make sense” is what we say sometimes when we seek further clarification or we don’t fully understand what is being explained to us. And it is what we say when something is truly incomprehensible. It’s a response to shock when we look at a situation are not able to answer why? Or how?

There is a lot that doesn’t make sense in our world, our communities, our lives. It’s likely that we have made some peace with this. Peace with the idea that there are a lot of things we don’t know and even more things that are out of our control. 

We make peace.…  and then a pandemic happens and it shakes our core… then police brutality and gun violence happen and they shake our core…  something always comes along and leaves us putting fragmented pieces together trying to makes sense of the sin, violence, and oppression in us and around us.

We hear from the thirteenth chapter of John today, when Jesus gathers with his friends even with Judas who will eventually betray him. We hear about this last gathering, but the lectionary cuts out the betrayal of Judas. We don’t hear the story maybe because it doesn’t make sense. Why would Jesus wash Judas’ feet? How can betrayal and unconditional love exist at the same time? How do we show such love as washing our betrayer’s feet? It doesn’t make sense. It’s almost unimaginable.

We live in a world that suggests we should be able to rationalize everything. We are told that certain people don’t deserve unconditional love, that even we, at times, don’t deserve love and forgiveness Christ brings.

But Jesus puts aside what makes sense and helps us imagine how life will look like when we live out of our identity as God’s beloved.  We live out of Jesus’ love, because the reality of our life is this:  healed people heal people, forgiven people forgive people, and loved people love people.  We don’t just hold one part of this identity, but this identity encompasses all of who we are.

Healed, forgiven, loved. By Christ, who shows us and commands us to be the embodiment of God’s love even when it doesn’t make sense.

Jesus says: Do you know what I have done to you?  I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.

I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love on another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.

The commandment is to love as Christ has loved us.  How do we do this?  We do this through service and caring for our neighbors. We do this by embodying God’s love and proclaiming that God’s love is for all.  We imitate Jesus’ love and action regardless if we understand why or know how the Holy Spirit is working within it.

The commandment to love doesn’t come with a condition.  It comes with an unconditional promise. The triune God’s encompassing love on the cross, it just doesn’t make sense, not because we don’t understand what it means on the surface.  But because the cross is going to lead us into places in which we don’t have all the answers, places that filled with suffering, places that challenge what it means to be a Christian community.

Today and in the days ahead, God’s indescribable and unconditional love for us with be shown for all of creation. God’s love pours out for all of us regardless of who we are because God created us out of love, to be loved, and to share love. There is nothing more central to the identity of who we are or who God is. 

Christ’s love is for you, Christ’s love is for all.

Proclaim this because with God it will always make sense.

Amen.