Author Archives: Brother Abraham

Epiphany IV Year A: We’re Just The Gophers

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Micah 6:1-8
I Corinthians 1:18-31
Matthew 5:1-12

The sermon from the prophet Micah we just heard in our first reading is about the danger of living selfishly and sinfully (the two are really the same thing) and then trying to smooth things over with God by doing “religious” stuff. It is good for us to hear that and to heed it. But there is another meaning to Micah’s sermon that would also be good for us to hear and to heed. That is: there is no need for us to do anything to make God like us, love us, and give us good things. There is no need of that because God already likes us, loves us, and gives us good things, and there is nothing we can do to make God stop doing those things. All we can really do is what Micah says: “…do justice…love kindness…and walk humbly with our God.” Even then, we don’t do those things to win favor from God – we do them because we have already found favor with God.

So, we take this wonderful universe God has made and live in such a way as to share it with others. One of the most important things that can help us share it is to remember, realize, and live the fact that God did not make this wonderful universe for us – we are simply one small part of it. We are lucky here – we have more than we could ever need. So, we need to do what we can to help those people in our world who do not have everything they need. Sometimes they are lacking things because of natural causes, so we can respond to calls for help in crises. Most of the time, though, people lack what they need because others are acting as if God made the universe for them and are cheating the unfortunate people out of their share of things. There are many ways we can help solve those horrible problems, but unfortunately, they are usually the most difficult to correct. That is no reason to stop doing what we can to help.

But as important as it is to help people in need, it is equally important to remember that we are not the source of the things they need, we are merely a delivery service. We have been overly blessed, so we bring some of that blessing to others. In order to do that, we must always be receptive to God’s gifts and never forget that we have done nothing to deserve them. How much has God blessed us! We live in a place that gives us the opportunity to wake up early every morning to pray and then to come back throughout the day for more prayer. What a gift! It is God’s gift to us, not our gift to God. May we take that gift and allow it to form us into better deliverers of God’s good things to the people around us and the people far away who need them.   AMEN

No More, No Less: Thanksgiving Day Year C

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Deuteronomy 26:1-11
Philippians 4:4-9
John 6:25-35

Everything comes from God; nothing comes from us – that is the theme of today, and we are grateful for all that God has given. But from our narrowly human point of view, God is good at providing only raw materials; it is up to us to put in the work required to turn these raw materials into things which are (once again, only from our narrowly human point of view) useful. So we are thankful not only for the things God has given us, but also for the ability to work – for blessing us with memory, reason, skill, and most importantly: opposable thumbs. We must also remember to work not instead of God, but with and because of God.

There are a few things to help us work in gratitude and thankfulness. The first is to remember that we get the most satisfaction from our work when we do our best. We usually do that in terms of doing no less than our best, but we also need to be careful to not get caught up in the frenzied attempt to do more than our best. We have limits, and trying to go beyond them is as harmful as never trying to reach them. Work is our area of responsibility; results are God’s area of responsibility (and it is not our job to tell God what the results should be). We do our best and let God take care of the rest – that takes a huge burden off of our backs that we mistakenly took up in the first place.

We also need to work not with patience, but rather with constancy. The difference in the two words is subtle, but can have a big impact on our lives. Patience means we are merely waiting until things get better, so we work with a stiff upper lip and hope for the better. Constancy means we choose to do what we consider to be the right things no matter if things ever or never get better. Patience can lead to bitterness. Constancy is already infused with joy.

And we need to work out of love, not out of expectations for outcomes. One of my biggest prayers is that I hope to never see the fruit of my labors, and that we never see the fruit of the monastery’s labors (not that there will not be fruit, but that we will not see it), because when we see the fruit of our labors, we are tempted to work for results rather than out of love.

And so, the human race takes this wonderful planet that God has given us and makes wonderful things like donuts, spacecraft, and Olympic curling teams. I am thankful for all of those things. We at the monastery take this wonderful corner of the wonderful planet God has given us and we make guesthouses, meals, letters to prisoners, and calendars. Most importantly, we make prayers.   AMEN

Proper 23 Year C: Drama Queens Need Not Apply

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II Kings 5:1-3,7-15c
II Timothy 2:8-15
Luke 17:11-19

The prophet Elijah is a lot more famous than his successor Elisha, but the stories about Elisha are a lot more interesting than Elijah’s, like the one we heard at our first reading today. The story has a large cast of characters: two kings, a general, a prophet, the general’s wife and her slave, and the prophet’s servants. On the surface, the story seems to be about God’s healing power, and it is. However, on further reading and pondering, two other lessons are seen in the story: 1 – that of the harmfulness and uselessness of overreacting, or blowing things out of proportion, or unnecessary drama at hearing or seeing unwanted news; 2 – of the usefulness of calmly hearing or witnessing the entire story and getting other people’s opinions before making a decision about what to do in reaction.

The characters in our story who prematurely overreacted are the king of Israel and Naaman (the Aramean army general). Their fits of drama could easily have started wars, as is alluded to in the text. The calmer people around them saved the day by assessing the entire situation and looking at all options for response. By following the advice of the calmer people around them, the general was healed, both kings scored diplomatic points, and God’s love for all people was made known.

We live in a world much like that in our story this morning with too much drama, and it hinders us from taking care of things that really need our attention, because we are too worn out by all the yelling and pouting (our own and others’). How much easier it would be just let other people talk sometimes and listen to their entire point without interrupting. We can then think about what was said and calmly respond with something that might bring about good for everyone. We can get our information from a variety of sources rather than solely from sources that merely soothe our consciences by simply restating opinions we already have. We do not have to agree with everyone, but we do need to know what they are saying without it being filtered through other people whose goal is to skew things to fit their agenda. Then we can calmly ponder and pray for guidance about what we should do to bring about good, rather than making things worse with our emotionally overwrought first reactions. We just might learn the truth that not everyone who thinks differently than us is stupid and evil, and they might actually have a good idea every once in a while, and we just might be wrong sometimes. We can make room for others when we reel in our own smug haloes.

Doing all this is not easy, but it is good for us and everyone else. We don’t always react to things well, and neither do the people around us – it is understandable, but still inexcusable. May we give each other the time and space to work on becoming better at accepting unwelcome news, and may we never give up working on it – God never gives up on us. And – slowly we will be healed and wars will be averted, like in our story this morning. It is not just another weird Bible story – it could actually happen.   AMEN

New Website

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We are slowly editing our new website. If anyone finds anything that needs to be corrected, please let Br. Abraham know at:
office@saintgregorysthreerivers.org