First Sermon at Epiphany

Pilate, Pontius Pilate- The man ultimately responsible for the crucifixion- A man vilified throughout history- A man we love to hate. According to our creeds Jesus was crucified under Pontius Pilate. Our Lord and Saviour was scourged and humiliated by Pontius Pilate. This the Pontius Pilate, who represented greed, power, and militarized barbarism. In this Gospel Passage we see this grand inquisitor question Jesus as to the very nature of his being, “Are you the king?”- Jesus cryptically answers back with “I am the Truth,” and it got him crucified- We as the Church proclaim that Christ is King, that his truth is our truth- How could a truth so evident to us- that Christ is King, that he spoke truth, be so easily disregarded by a man who actually stood in his presence? Christ is King we proclaim, we hold that allegiance as a stamp upon our very hearts and minds-


How could he not bow down to the Kingship of Christ and serve the King of all of Creation? How could Pilate disregard the Truth and the power of Christ the King? In this passage from the Gospel of John, we see Jesus and Pilate wrestle with the two opposing forces of relativity and eternity. This wrestling begs the age old question, “what is the very nature of the Truth in this world?”



This question begs us to ask,”What do we know about this man named Pilate?” How did Pilate, this vilified man, treat the truth, power and sovereignty of Christ? Do we have anything in common with this man? Surely not!......... right? Well maybe not, But I don’t think we can go so far as to condemn the man. Pilate was a 1rst century AD man, a governor- a man of great power. He had the power of life and death. Pilate had the Power to judge the guilty and the innocent. Pilate, the Roman governor of Palestine, had the power to unleash the awesome might and power of the most organized and systematically lethal military force of that epoch of time. Pilate worked hard to get this power and Pilate climbed the Roman Bureaucratic ladder, and he wanted to stay there. It may have been a stressful job, but he had worked hard to get a great villa, the nice obligatory two chariot garage, a wonderful hot tub (also known as the roman baths), a great spouse and family. Now, the Governor had climbed that ladder to the top- but according to historical sources it was a notoriously creaky ladder- one of those lofty heights that when someone achieves the climb- they might look down and realize that suddenly that they are afraid of heights. You see Pilate’s boss was a little unstable; Tiberius Caesar was not what one would call a compassionate boss. Caesar wanted two things efficiency and public order. Pilate knew this and that if he wanted to keep his position, and possibly his life, Pilate had to placate Caesar and his cronies. How did these facts effect the way this bureaucrat saw the truth- what version of truth was it? Would Pilate do anything in his power to keep what he had, even ignore the truth? Or, to be fair, did Pilate actually ignore the truth? In his world, the state and material wealth were the only truths he had ever known. He was taught from an early age to strive for the state, to be a part of his culture, a culture where conquest and commerce where king- where the state and the culture of Rome were Sovereign- We might say that Caesar was king, but many Caesars where assassinated for threatening the status quo of culture. So, we can say that the pull and allure of creature comforts, security, and wealth were the Triumvirate of Truths in the Roman Empire. When we think of this material truth, The Triumvirate of Truths of Pilate, we may say that it was his truth; that was “real” to him.



To understand how radical an idea Christ was proposing to Pilate, we must now ask, “What is this Truth that Jesus brings to us?” In this passage, Jesus says that he is testifying to the TRUTH and we know that it is not Pilates’ truth; it can not be Pilate’s -truth. We know that there is a world-shattering conflict between the old truth of Pilate’s world and the Truth of Christ. We know that Pilate’s truth is of his broken world and not of the Kingdom to come. So, what is Jesus’s Truth?

It is the Truth of Compassion, Jesus taught us to love one another.

It is the Truth of Sacrifice, Jesus was the one true and perfect sacrifice for all time, His truth tells us to put others first, as opposed to Pilate’s truth of self above community.

Jesus taught us to love our neighbours as ourselves.

The Truth of Life and Healing, after all in John’s Gospel, the raising of Lazarus from the dead, is what got Jesus in front of Pilate anyway.

This truth is the truth of Forgiveness.



Now, there is a danger here, There is a danger in thinking that this Truth, this Kingdom Come is of a world to come. That the truth that Jesus brings us is one that only applies in another world, Heaven. There is a tendency to throw our hands up in the air and proclaim that this truth reigns only in Heaven, while we are left here to deal with Pilate’s version of a cruel societal truth here on earth. We may think, “When Christ comes down from the clouds in glory and tells us that he is the Alpha and Omega- then and only then will Christ will give us the Truth of his reign.” It is hard not to think like the ancient Romans. Our contemporary society is addicted to the material world. Many believe that to be happy, they need power, prestige and creature comforts, and that that need is so insurmountable that the truth of Christ must be of another Kingdom -- one which we must wait for with baited breath. But, there is GOOD NEWS, It is the Truth of the King Jesus Christ and it is one that is not far off, it is here and now, it is working and bringing healing to the world now. This truth, through the death and resurrection of Christ, dwells in us. The truth is born into us. We are made in the image of God and that truth is God, and our Power comes from God. Our power comes not from Rome, or material wealth, prestige or anywhere else, but only from The One Triune God. This unobvious Power is here with us now. If you listen, you can hear it in the whispers of your soul. This power of the truth is incarnational, that is to say that the power and the truth dwell in us. This power of the truth of Christ feeds us NOW, and we in turn feed the world with the power of the truth-

This leads us to ask “What is our personal truth, today?” Is our truth is just getting through the day, no matter how it affects others or ourselves? Can we be so angry that our truth is mired up in self, and we forget about others? Is truth ever dependant on where we are and what we are trying to achieve? Do we ever center our idea of truth on what we want or need? Does our truth make us feel we need something that might not be so healthy? Has our truth ever been, “I’ve got to take care of myself and I don’t care what happens to that other guy?” Pilate’s Truth is a worldly truth that seems to very familiar if one listens to CNN or reads the Washington Post. Pilates Truth is one that brings us visions of homeless children in the streets looking at us with vacant stares, the truth of famine, the truth of torture, the truth of Ponzi schemes, the truth of brokenness and separation. This truth that Pilate proclaims through his edict is one that is in direct opposition to the Truth of Christ.



Now this is pretty and uplifting little message, Jesus’s Truth, the Truth we strive to follow, is right and good, and Pilate’s is wrong and hurtful. But this TRUTH I speak of comes with work, it is not a truth we can just lay under a nice little tree (or sit in church) and ponder. It is rather the work of all of us to testify to this truth- There are many who have testified to the truth in our past, so it’s nice to have examples right?

Martin Luther King Jr was afforded the opportunity to be a minister at one of the largest black churches in the nation, he was respected in what was considered his community and he could have followed the example of many and been happy, complacent, and – yes- comfortable like the people before him. But this was not what God called him to do, he worked to create the new Jerusalem by fighting for equality among all of God’s people and sadly he died for it. Another example is The Reverend Charlie Andrews, an Anglican I might add, and who in the early twentieth century decided that the posh parish life in England was not what God called him to do. Father Andrews went against his ordination vows and sided against the king of England to assist Gandhi in liberating India & Pakistan, two nations that were bound by the yoke of oppression.

Still another example from the pantheon of Saints is Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Reverend Bonhoeffer was living a comfortable academic life in New York City and decided to return to his native Germany during the rise of Hitler to confront the most heinous version of power with the Truth of Christ. He was led to the gallows for his witness. Still another, with a much happier ending, is the example of living the Truth that Archbishop Desmond Tutu gives us. Archbishop Tutu is a priest and an Archbishop who could have quietly performed the duties prescribed to his office and made no waves. But, God called him from complacency and he led a nation to justice and equality by being instrumental in ending apartheid in South Africa. Most importantly, there was a Jewish carpenter who decided to abandon the old truth of Ancient Rome in Nazareth, realize what his destiny was to be, and acknowledge who he was – Jesus Christ, the saviour of the world and God’s only son. This Truth is the one that led Jesus to give himself to us and the cross. This giving was an acknowledgement of the Truth that saved the world. These are examples from the history of our church and these events changed our perception of the Truth and brought us a vision of the truth. Every time you love your neighbour, forgive, and practice compassion, when you stand up for what Jesus has taught us to do- you stand up for the power of the Truth- We don’t have to be in Pilate’s position of power to stand for the truth- We have a different type of power- it is the solar power of the light of Christ, the wind power of the Holy Spirit, the Hydro Power of Baptism, not the dirty power of Pilate. Every time we as a church community lend a helping hand to the world through the programs that we do here at Epiphany, we testify to the truth. Whether it is Gospel arts, Franciscan Spirituality, bringing the Eucharist to Franklin Park, feeding our community at the Welcome table, discerning with the Breaking Bread For Justice Ministry Teams, working to bring music to the downtown community or participating in the healing power of prayer we witness to the truth. These ministries are all a witness to the healing power of the Truth of Christ. This is Christ the King Sunday. Let us embrace the power and the truth of our King, Jesus Christ. Let us prayerfully and intentionally disregard the old, broken truth adhered to by Pilate, because we are loyal to our sovereign of power and light! Let us be that power and light in this world, ambassadors of grace, workers for our king’s world. May this truth be realized on Earth as it is in Heaven.

Field ED Assignment!!!!

Hello All-

I hope this post from Seminary finds you all well! I have some news to relate to everyone about a big milestone in one's Seminary career. It's called "Field Ed." This two letter word can almost make or break one's experience at Seminary. If one gets a bad spot, or one that they do not love, it can be a bleak middler and senior year. If one gets one that is too good, it can mean a great experience, but a sunk marriage, and F's on exams and such due to the all encompassing giving over of the soul that has unfortunately victimized the Seminarian who chooses the site that is too good. For example, I heard of a Seminarian, a rural Arkansas low churchman, who succumbed to the alure of Church Incsense at St Paul's K Street and came out of the St Paul's Sacristy after 17 hours of inhaling the stuff- it was very bad, the person involved not only had a horrid sinus infection, but burnt all of his alb to a crisp. If that wasnt bad enough, he then walked around campus for about two weeks muttering bells and smells quietly to himself with reddened eyes...............

But seriously, no this didnt happen- the point is that one can spend way to much time at the perfect field ed parish. We have been warned not to do this, to draw boundaries and to practice Self Care. This is a good thing because I am delighted that I have found an incredible parish to be a part of for the next two years. The Parish is the Church of the Epiphany, G Street, Washington DC.

Epiphany G St, as it is known, is a church that has a very inclusive congregation with a strong emphasis in Social Justice. At the eight o'clock Sunday Eucharist Service there are probably 200 of Washington DC's homeless community in attendence. These wonderful people are accompanied by alot of folks from Washington's upper crust, as well. They are black, white and hispanic, gay, straight, young and old, male and female, fundamentalist as well as liberals- and this is what I mean by inclusive- not one narrow definition of the word but an all encompassing inclusivity. This inclusivness is then demonstrated further by the sharing of a common meal in which approximately 250 folks gather and eat a wonderful unabashedly southern breakfast together. It sounds like a full day, but it is only half over- The 11 o'claok service shifts in tone from a more spiritual african evangelical service to a pretty high Anglican Service! This service is also incredibly inclusive. It has many of the same people in attendance that were at the eight o'clock- seems like people cant get enough of this place!

The church also holds the Eucharist once daily and these are attended by more people than the Sunday service. these services are dedicated to the downtown working community, especially the government workers and the downtown homeless. One day of the week, the Eucharist is moved to Franklin Park in downtown for street church. At this service, not only is the Body and Blood of Christ distributed to the homeless, lunch is distributed as well as ............

So, as I hope you can see, Maggie and I am very excited by the learning, praying, and worshipping that goes on at Epiphany G St. I am very excited because I really want to learn how to make social justice a part of the culture of the community that is church. It will be a wonderful lesson to endeavour to learn, I only hope I will get a start at it at Epiphany!

Vacation for the family and time to paint!

Well the family is off for a vacation int he mountains of NC! Unfortunatley, I wont be with them. I will be finishing my unit of CPE and I am looking forward to little mini retreat so I can relax after a taxing summer. But, I do know I will be very lonely after the first few days. So, I will have to occupy myself with work and reading for the next two weeks.

One task that will be done is a painting commission that I will complete for a priest in Georgia! During the VTS art show there was a bit of buzz about a painting I did. I sold the painting ( Of St. Paul- that's it- up and to the right) and a few people actually contracted me to do some paintings. So, I will take advantage of the time to get a painting done!

After Maggie and the boys vacation, I will finish CPE and we will be on a proper vacation to NC and Georgia to visit the parish, family, and friends. It will be wonderful to get back to NC and relax during the break before the fall semester!

trying times

So, this is what they meant by CPE..............

For the uninitiated, it is a rite of passage for most Seminarians called Clinical Pastoral Education. It is a time where Seminarians go (uninvited) into hospital rooms, institutions, assisted living facilitates, etc. and provide pastoral care to the people who happen to be at these places. I can only say one thing..........wow.

Some visits have been very congenial here's a typical one- How are you! Oh that's great! Did you have a nice breakfast? Oh, Im sorry......, Did you sleep well? Oh again Im sorry, no I guess I wouldn't have either....

After these nice little chit chats, I find that I am getting more comfortable with asking about the Spirit and how their soul is doing. With these questions come amazing stories and revelations. Stories come that, frankly, you would rather not hear. I have had people ask for my advice on subjects that were uncomfortable ranging from infidelity to the sanctity of life. It was interesting because these folks wanted answers and I felt completely unable to answer their question. But, I did what I was told and put it back on them- A few well placed "tell me more" and "what do you think" and consultations if necessary. But, this does seem a bit hollow and wimpy. I felt like I had to solve the situation as the wise sage on the hill, but I guess these situations are not about me and my needs. It is about their need to have someone who cares and will listen to their problems.

This is the hard part, letting go of your needs and being what they need.

The Castle

The Castle's Foundations have proven brittle
The water of the tide has moved in ebb and flow
The Walls, eroded like Jericho, have tumbled down

The Castle stands naked
Like the Lamb led to the slaughter
All things old will begin again new

Whether it is pleasing to us- it has no matter
Only God knows
And we are left guessing and in hopeful tension