The Rev. Tommy Thompson
Seventh Sunday after the Epiphany
19 February 2017
Today the night time thunder storm that Jesus’ sermon is continues. Each section being a flash of lightning from the kingdom to come illumining an otherwise treacherous and dark path, giving us a glimpse of the future in the present, albeit for only a moment. It is this eschatological tension that necessitates Jesus’ words that at times, seem utterly impossible. The reason it sounds so impossible is because it is an ethos unlike anything we have seen or heard. Jesus sermon from beginning to end, presents the way of God’s kingdom, which goes against the grain of the ways of this age that is passing away.
If it were an already realized kingdom, then it would not seem so foreign and impossible. If it were strictly a kingdom which is to come somewhere in the distant future, then there would be no need for such urgent proclamation. This kingdom Jesus came to proclaim is not just here already and it’s not just coming in the future. It is meant to be both here right here and now and coming in fullness in a future that only God determines. We might call it an ‘already but not yet’ kingdom. It’s like a train that is both here and still coming at the same time.
To live as one of the baptized, a disciple of Jesus Christ, means that we have aligned our lives with the future reality of the kingdom that Jesus continues to reveal to us in the present circumstances of our lives. The future world is meant to clash with the old through faithfulness to Jesus Christ in this world which engenders new creation from the old with more and more following Jesus toward the future way in the present until the future comes to full fruition.
So, as we’ve been invited for these past few weeks, remember, God does not expect any of us to master all of this immediately in the here and now. Jesus’ words are meant to challenge each and every one of us, no matter how long we have been following him. There are no masters of the sermon on the mount. It is constantly a challenge for us all who are still enslaved to the old even as we live more and more into the new way of grace.
So, as we continue our trek through the dark thunderstorm, the flashes of lighting reveal more and more the path to the future, bringing us closer and closer to our destination. The first bit of lighting flashes, “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.”
The way to the future means to live as citizens of a kingdom where there is no place for revenge. Once again Jesus steps up the old commandment. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth was not necessarily meant to call for revenge but to protect from extreme measures of revenge. An eye for an eye meant that if you and a member of another clan or family were out working in the forest and you accidentally put the other clan member’s eye out, you were protected – the most they could do is take an eye, but no more, or a tooth, if that’s the injury you caused. This law was purely to balance the scales of justice and not to let them fall too much to one side or the other. But Jesus takes it even further. Do not even seek justice on your own. Be merciful. Trust in the judgement of God. If someone strikes you on the cheek, turn the other and let them strike it as well…This may not make a whole lot of sense to this world that is passing away, but like St. Paul said in his letter to the Corinthians, it isn’t meant to: “If you think that you are wise in this age, you should become fools so that you may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.” Emphasize mercy and leave justice to God and by doing so, you will be living into the future kingdom where there will be no need for such revenge.
It doesn’t take long after the first flash of lightning dissipates into the dark night before the next one strikes, illumining the path once again. “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?
Love your enemies? But we’ve been taught to curse our enemies, to care only for those who are like us – of like mind…This is a tough one today just as much as it must have been in the first century world. It was hard for a disciple of Jesus to hear this and then somehow learn to love the enemy – most especially those who occupied the land they lived in! And it is just as hard today. We live in a nation that is as divided as it has ever been. Red vs. Blue. No matter what you say, someone is going to figure out a way to label you on one side or the other. Sometimes there seems there is no way to a middle ground. The best we can do is stay away from one another or just avoid talking altogether about anything other than the weather. But the kingdom that has come and is coming shows us something else – Love not just those who are easy to love – those who look and think like you, but most especially those with whom you are at odds. I don’t know about you, but I often fail when it comes to Jesus command. Which is why I love this prayer offered by theologian Jurgen Moltmann:
PRAYER FOR ENEMIES (inspired by Matthew 5:43-48, Luke 6:27-38, Romans 12:9-21):
Heavenly Father, we call upon you in Jesus’ name.
We come with empty hands.
We have not been able to love our enemies.
As a rule we have never even seen them.
We have avoided them.
When we saw them, we felt only fear and anger, not love.
So we come to you, not as the children of your love,
but as the enemy of our enemies,
beseeching you for ourselves and all the others;
Bless those who curse you,
do good to those who hate you.
Forgive us for what we have failed to do for our enemies.
You lead us out of the constriction of fear
and out of the prison of hate,
into the wide space of freedom.
Let us see your sun,
which rises upon the evil and the good,
and rejoice in its warmth, together with our enemies. Amen.
Such love is the only way to the fullness of the kingdom to come. And the good news is the one who preaches has proven it. Jesus did not just speak these words – he lived these words. Jesus turned the other cheek, he went the extra mile. His life emphasized the mercy of God, God’s way of bringing justice through selfless, other-centered vulnerable love. When we sinful human beings, the enemies of God, threw our best punches at God, God loved, and love won. What constitutes the kingdom of God and the church who is the sacrament of this kingdom on earth is the mighty resurrection of Jesus Christ. Vulnerable love for the enemy in the form of the cross has trampled down death by death. Evil could not hold down love. God’s love which brought all into creation has now redeemed the creation which had become enslaved by sin to death. To live in the new world is to be awakened by love to love. Such a life will be against the grain, because in the midst of a world that is still becoming, such a life has begun to live into it’s proper telos / aim in the world. Which is why Jesus ends this section with words that seem even more impossible to us with this last flash of lighting: “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
The word perfect here is not meant to point us to moral perfection…like hitting the moral bullseye every time…no God is not so much concerned with how many times we hit the bulls eye. The word here comes from the Old Testament use of the Hebrew word tamim. It means wholeness/completeness, and is associated with the purpose of a thing. If I tell you that this ink pen is perfect, it is because it is living up to it’s created purpose which is to write. Our wholeness as human beings is to be like our Father – to be his children. And children reveal their parents. People have told us all before, “you’re just like your daddy…your mother.” We are perfect / whole / complete in this world when we are just like our father – our heavenly father. And we know what God is like by looking at Jesus who is the Son of God, who has revealed him to perfection. You are a living your purpose as a human being when you love with the other-centered, self-sacrificial love of Jesus Christ. It happens in this world, here and now. It doesn’t wait until the kingdom comes in fullness. Yes, we will be most complete then, but right now, every time we love with the love of Christ, we are perfect, complete, as our Father in heaven is perfect/complete.
There is yet another flash of lightning to illumine our path towards our destiny before we are sent back into the world to live Jesus' words: when love once again takes on tangibility as the bread and wine we offer to God in thanksgiving becomes for us the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ – love that we can hold in our hands – love that we consume, love that then consumes us. Come to this table with your eyes wide open, receive love and be love and may God’s kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.
Sunday, February 19, 2017
Sunday, February 12, 2017
The New Way in An Old World, Sermon on the Mount, Week 3
The Rev. Tommy A. Thompson
St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, West Vincent
6th Sunday after the Epiphany
12 February 2017
In the Name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
The following poem by George Herbert is one of my favorite poems and one with which any human being on earth can resonate.
Love bade me welcome. Yet my soul drew back
Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning,
If I lacked any thing.
A guest, I answered, worthy to be here:
Love said, You shall be he.
I the unkind, ungrateful? Ah my dear,
I cannot look on thee.
Love took my hand, and smiling did reply,
Who made the eyes but I?
Truth Lord, but I have marred them: let my shame
Go where it doth deserve.
And know you not, says Love, who bore the blame?
My dear, then I will serve.
You must sit down, says Love, and taste my meat:
So I did sit and eat.
We know what it is like to be welcomed and yet not feel worthy of the welcome. We know what it’s like to feel like we fall short or that we’re just not good enough. Have you ever felt that way? If so you’re definitely not alone! Unfortunately, the church is to blame for much of this feeling of not measuring up…Even though St. Andrew’s and the Episcopal Church as a whole does an amazing job of sharing the Good News of God’s love for ALL people, we cannot ignore the fact that the church of which we are part has a dark spot in her history and even in her present … unfortunately we’ve been one of the primary reasons people are afraid…feel unwelcome…outcast…alone…helpless – most particular in the sight of God. To put it short, we’ve given people a very bad picture of God toward them. When you feel unwelcome/unclean/unworthy to be in God’s presence, it’s not easy to hear good news in Scripture lessons like the one we just heard today.
In this poem, it’s not just anyone offering the invitation to come and sit at the table…It is God – pure, holy, spotless, radiant, majestic –God! God invites me/you/him/her to be a special guest at his table and the first reaction is to draw back – to feel guilty of dust and sin… How often has this been my response to God’s invitation…I feel too dirty – too guilty to do anything in God’s presence so I draw back. But quick eyed love notices…knows how we’ve been made to feel deep within…and God responds gently and tenderly, sweetly asking “What it is that you lack that makes you feel unworthy to be with me at my table. And my response…I lack a guest worthy to accept your invitation. I’m unkind and I’m ungrateful…I cannot look on you in your holiness, radiance, and glory!
And like a kind grandmother who can sense the good outcome before it happens, God takes me by the hand with a bright smile upon His face and responds “Who made the eyes but I?” It is brokenness within that thwarts your perspective…you think you cannot look upon me yet I created your eyes for just this purpose…to look upon love and be loved.
Oh but the excuses continue to flow…yes you might have made these eyes but I have marred them…so let me in my shame go where I deserve and that’s certainly not here at your table and in your presence. But God, full knowing our condition is patient and will continue to listen and offer a new perspective in the midst of the old until we finally do just accept that He is love and we are loved. Now God speaks and no other excuse will be able to follow. God responds, “Why yes – of course you have marred your eyes…of course you have sinned…of course you feel guilt…of course you have walked a path that includes dirt and darkness. But let me ask you this. Do you know who bore the blame? …. I can imagine silence filling that room. God bore the blame on my behalf. He knows my condition and knowing full well my condition, God stepped into my existence and lived my life, bearing the blame of dust and sin and overcoming it by his love when he rose from the dead! God did this for me! For me – the unkind and ungrateful!
So I have no more excuses…. Instead, I offer my own works. Okay I get it, it’s because of what you have done that I get to be here…I’ll come to the feast…but I must serve you…you cannot serve me. No, God says – If you think you must do the work, you still aren’t getting it…you must do one thing -- sit down and accept the gift. Just be…stop doing and just be with me.
What a picture of God! I believe that Herbert has zeroed in on the very heart of God toward us through this timeless poem. And I believe it is this picture of God that must be held up and illuminated as we make our way through the bible and the journey of faith. We will run into some very difficult challenges throughout this journey but we must never forget that God is for us and if God is for us, nothing God says or does is intended to bring us down…to make us feel unworthy…unloved…dirty and without hope of being made clean.
It’s not because Valentine’s Day is just around the corner that I share this poem but mainly because the Gospel lesson for today is indeed one of those challenges on the journey. To truly understand what Jesus is doing, we must begin with God’s love for us…that God is for us…and whatever God says to us must be for our own healing and good and never for our condemnation or to bring us down.
I’ve noticed that when Jesus’ sermon is read (particularly this part of it), many of us including myself cringe... we can’t wait for it to be over and we hope the preacher won’t expound on it...and the preacher hopes she doesn’t have to...
It’s hard enough for us to hear, “have righteousness equal to scribes and Pharisees and you will enter the kingdom of heaven”...even harder to hear that our righteousness must exceed it...it’s one thing to hear, “you shall not murder,” but quite another to hear “if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment. It’s one thing to obey the command “you shall not commit adultery…” It is another to hear, “Whoever even looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart...
This is serious stuff Jesus is proclaiming...stuff that seems so far removed from the world we live in... Jesus proclamation is radical heard through the filters of this decaying world...it turns upside down everything we’ve been taught as normal...And there’s a reason for that. Remember – God knows our condition full well. He knows the world in which we live. Which is why this sermon of his sounds so radical. It is not for this age that is passing away. It is the revelation of the new way in the old world – the ethos of God’s future kingdom clashing with the many ethoses of this world that God is making brand new. An ethos is “the guiding beliefs, principles and ideals that characterize a community, nation, or ideology.” As we hear Jesus’ sermon on the mount, it is clear that the ethos of the kingdom that has come, is coming and is to come is grounded in relationship, human dignity, and is centered upon concern for the other and not simply the self. In a world where we’ve been taught to look out for ‘number one,’ this sounds so strange and so foreign.
We’ve all experienced this kind of shock to the old system by a new way being introduced. It reminds me of what happens with exercise and nutrition. It was only a few years ago that I realized that I let myself go for too long without proper exercise and nutrition. My cholesterol was getting high…fatigue was becoming too great a friend…I was as heavy as I had ever been in my life. Something had to be done. But when I listened to the doctor, my friend who is a nutritionist and fitness trainers, it was hard to take in – it was a shock to the old system. They knew the regimen they were laying before me was more than I could handle all at once…but they pushed me anyway and encouraged me…and gradually (and that’s the key word), I began living into the future reality of myself and no longer in bondage to the old system. I lost over 40 pounds through forming healthy habits. Many old habits have died but many more still need correcting. And that’s okay…I’ll get there. And that’s the point. Change doesn’t happen over night…
God doesn’t expect any of us to fully get the sermon on the mount to the point where it is no longer a challenge. He especially doesn’t expect us to live this reality in a moment but offers his gracious invitation to walk the journey with him constantly. As we walk with him practicing the new way in the midst of an old world, new creation bursts forth into the world and old bad habits die. We are never fully there as the fullness of the kingdom of God is still to dawn. Step by step…breath by breath, resting in God’s amazing love for us, we become the future in the present.
Imagine you’ve been out fishing and hiking all day in the mountains. You’ve had so much fun … the fish were biting so much as the sun began to set you forgot about time. You’ve had a blast…you’ve caught a lot of fish…but now the rain sets in…you hear the thunder…that beautiful day you enjoyed just a couple hours ago has turned dark. You’ve got a long hike back to the truck. The happy go lucky fisherman is now a hiker groping through dangerous terrain in the dark of night. You may chart the way by the wind in the trees, the obscure glimmer of the stars behind the clouds, the memory of the way as it was described earlier, or the faint light of a lantern against the storm...But the brilliant flash of the lightning illumines the path, the perils, and even the distant goal in the twinkling of an eye...Suddenly everything is clear, although the darkness quickly closes in again.
This is what I think Jesus’ sermon is like. It can be compared to flashes of light out of the future kingdom to come. Without the flash of divine light that Jesus’ sermon is, we are left with the obscure glimmer of cloud-covered stars and the faint light of our own faith and reason. The good news is that the Christ light shines forth from the reality of Jesus’ sermon showing us the way to our future…and we never travel alone – no we travel with the one who came from our future, is in our future and happens to also live in our present. He knows us better than we know ourselves and still loves us more than we will ever know how to love. He has our best interest in mind always. He is the perfect guide!
I hope we can hear Jesus’ sermon in a non judgmental and non-condemning way. It is the God of love who preaches this sermon to us. He doesn’t offer us impossible challenges just to watch us fail and say “I told you so!” No, this is the same tender God of Herbert’s poetry. He shines the light from the future way in the midst of the old world to gradually transform us into everything he already knows we are – citizens of His future kingdom whose ethos is love. You don’t have to be all of this today. Just be God’s beloved daughter, son…come to his table, sit down and eat. The rest will take care of itself. Amen.
St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, West Vincent
6th Sunday after the Epiphany
12 February 2017
In the Name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
The following poem by George Herbert is one of my favorite poems and one with which any human being on earth can resonate.
Love bade me welcome. Yet my soul drew back
Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning,
If I lacked any thing.
A guest, I answered, worthy to be here:
Love said, You shall be he.
I the unkind, ungrateful? Ah my dear,
I cannot look on thee.
Love took my hand, and smiling did reply,
Who made the eyes but I?
Truth Lord, but I have marred them: let my shame
Go where it doth deserve.
And know you not, says Love, who bore the blame?
My dear, then I will serve.
You must sit down, says Love, and taste my meat:
So I did sit and eat.
We know what it is like to be welcomed and yet not feel worthy of the welcome. We know what it’s like to feel like we fall short or that we’re just not good enough. Have you ever felt that way? If so you’re definitely not alone! Unfortunately, the church is to blame for much of this feeling of not measuring up…Even though St. Andrew’s and the Episcopal Church as a whole does an amazing job of sharing the Good News of God’s love for ALL people, we cannot ignore the fact that the church of which we are part has a dark spot in her history and even in her present … unfortunately we’ve been one of the primary reasons people are afraid…feel unwelcome…outcast…alone…helpless – most particular in the sight of God. To put it short, we’ve given people a very bad picture of God toward them. When you feel unwelcome/unclean/unworthy to be in God’s presence, it’s not easy to hear good news in Scripture lessons like the one we just heard today.
In this poem, it’s not just anyone offering the invitation to come and sit at the table…It is God – pure, holy, spotless, radiant, majestic –God! God invites me/you/him/her to be a special guest at his table and the first reaction is to draw back – to feel guilty of dust and sin… How often has this been my response to God’s invitation…I feel too dirty – too guilty to do anything in God’s presence so I draw back. But quick eyed love notices…knows how we’ve been made to feel deep within…and God responds gently and tenderly, sweetly asking “What it is that you lack that makes you feel unworthy to be with me at my table. And my response…I lack a guest worthy to accept your invitation. I’m unkind and I’m ungrateful…I cannot look on you in your holiness, radiance, and glory!
And like a kind grandmother who can sense the good outcome before it happens, God takes me by the hand with a bright smile upon His face and responds “Who made the eyes but I?” It is brokenness within that thwarts your perspective…you think you cannot look upon me yet I created your eyes for just this purpose…to look upon love and be loved.
Oh but the excuses continue to flow…yes you might have made these eyes but I have marred them…so let me in my shame go where I deserve and that’s certainly not here at your table and in your presence. But God, full knowing our condition is patient and will continue to listen and offer a new perspective in the midst of the old until we finally do just accept that He is love and we are loved. Now God speaks and no other excuse will be able to follow. God responds, “Why yes – of course you have marred your eyes…of course you have sinned…of course you feel guilt…of course you have walked a path that includes dirt and darkness. But let me ask you this. Do you know who bore the blame? …. I can imagine silence filling that room. God bore the blame on my behalf. He knows my condition and knowing full well my condition, God stepped into my existence and lived my life, bearing the blame of dust and sin and overcoming it by his love when he rose from the dead! God did this for me! For me – the unkind and ungrateful!
So I have no more excuses…. Instead, I offer my own works. Okay I get it, it’s because of what you have done that I get to be here…I’ll come to the feast…but I must serve you…you cannot serve me. No, God says – If you think you must do the work, you still aren’t getting it…you must do one thing -- sit down and accept the gift. Just be…stop doing and just be with me.
What a picture of God! I believe that Herbert has zeroed in on the very heart of God toward us through this timeless poem. And I believe it is this picture of God that must be held up and illuminated as we make our way through the bible and the journey of faith. We will run into some very difficult challenges throughout this journey but we must never forget that God is for us and if God is for us, nothing God says or does is intended to bring us down…to make us feel unworthy…unloved…dirty and without hope of being made clean.
It’s not because Valentine’s Day is just around the corner that I share this poem but mainly because the Gospel lesson for today is indeed one of those challenges on the journey. To truly understand what Jesus is doing, we must begin with God’s love for us…that God is for us…and whatever God says to us must be for our own healing and good and never for our condemnation or to bring us down.
I’ve noticed that when Jesus’ sermon is read (particularly this part of it), many of us including myself cringe... we can’t wait for it to be over and we hope the preacher won’t expound on it...and the preacher hopes she doesn’t have to...
It’s hard enough for us to hear, “have righteousness equal to scribes and Pharisees and you will enter the kingdom of heaven”...even harder to hear that our righteousness must exceed it...it’s one thing to hear, “you shall not murder,” but quite another to hear “if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment. It’s one thing to obey the command “you shall not commit adultery…” It is another to hear, “Whoever even looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart...
This is serious stuff Jesus is proclaiming...stuff that seems so far removed from the world we live in... Jesus proclamation is radical heard through the filters of this decaying world...it turns upside down everything we’ve been taught as normal...And there’s a reason for that. Remember – God knows our condition full well. He knows the world in which we live. Which is why this sermon of his sounds so radical. It is not for this age that is passing away. It is the revelation of the new way in the old world – the ethos of God’s future kingdom clashing with the many ethoses of this world that God is making brand new. An ethos is “the guiding beliefs, principles and ideals that characterize a community, nation, or ideology.” As we hear Jesus’ sermon on the mount, it is clear that the ethos of the kingdom that has come, is coming and is to come is grounded in relationship, human dignity, and is centered upon concern for the other and not simply the self. In a world where we’ve been taught to look out for ‘number one,’ this sounds so strange and so foreign.
We’ve all experienced this kind of shock to the old system by a new way being introduced. It reminds me of what happens with exercise and nutrition. It was only a few years ago that I realized that I let myself go for too long without proper exercise and nutrition. My cholesterol was getting high…fatigue was becoming too great a friend…I was as heavy as I had ever been in my life. Something had to be done. But when I listened to the doctor, my friend who is a nutritionist and fitness trainers, it was hard to take in – it was a shock to the old system. They knew the regimen they were laying before me was more than I could handle all at once…but they pushed me anyway and encouraged me…and gradually (and that’s the key word), I began living into the future reality of myself and no longer in bondage to the old system. I lost over 40 pounds through forming healthy habits. Many old habits have died but many more still need correcting. And that’s okay…I’ll get there. And that’s the point. Change doesn’t happen over night…
God doesn’t expect any of us to fully get the sermon on the mount to the point where it is no longer a challenge. He especially doesn’t expect us to live this reality in a moment but offers his gracious invitation to walk the journey with him constantly. As we walk with him practicing the new way in the midst of an old world, new creation bursts forth into the world and old bad habits die. We are never fully there as the fullness of the kingdom of God is still to dawn. Step by step…breath by breath, resting in God’s amazing love for us, we become the future in the present.
Imagine you’ve been out fishing and hiking all day in the mountains. You’ve had so much fun … the fish were biting so much as the sun began to set you forgot about time. You’ve had a blast…you’ve caught a lot of fish…but now the rain sets in…you hear the thunder…that beautiful day you enjoyed just a couple hours ago has turned dark. You’ve got a long hike back to the truck. The happy go lucky fisherman is now a hiker groping through dangerous terrain in the dark of night. You may chart the way by the wind in the trees, the obscure glimmer of the stars behind the clouds, the memory of the way as it was described earlier, or the faint light of a lantern against the storm...But the brilliant flash of the lightning illumines the path, the perils, and even the distant goal in the twinkling of an eye...Suddenly everything is clear, although the darkness quickly closes in again.
This is what I think Jesus’ sermon is like. It can be compared to flashes of light out of the future kingdom to come. Without the flash of divine light that Jesus’ sermon is, we are left with the obscure glimmer of cloud-covered stars and the faint light of our own faith and reason. The good news is that the Christ light shines forth from the reality of Jesus’ sermon showing us the way to our future…and we never travel alone – no we travel with the one who came from our future, is in our future and happens to also live in our present. He knows us better than we know ourselves and still loves us more than we will ever know how to love. He has our best interest in mind always. He is the perfect guide!
I hope we can hear Jesus’ sermon in a non judgmental and non-condemning way. It is the God of love who preaches this sermon to us. He doesn’t offer us impossible challenges just to watch us fail and say “I told you so!” No, this is the same tender God of Herbert’s poetry. He shines the light from the future way in the midst of the old world to gradually transform us into everything he already knows we are – citizens of His future kingdom whose ethos is love. You don’t have to be all of this today. Just be God’s beloved daughter, son…come to his table, sit down and eat. The rest will take care of itself. Amen.