A Children’s Message
The Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost
 
Okay friends, for our Children’s Moment today I have a treat for you. How many of you like candy? "So, there's one for you, one for you, one for you, two for you and one for you. Here are three for you, one for you, one for you, two for you, one for you and three for you."
Did you notice that I gave some people one treat, others received two, and some even got three treats? Now I can imagine that some of you were thinking to yourself, "That isn't fair! Is that fair?  I mean, I gave some of you three treats and others only got one!" Well, maybe it wasn't fair, but they were my treats -- don't I have the right to give them to whomever I please?
Jesus told a story about a landowner who was hiring men to work in his vineyard. He hired some of them early in the morning, some in the middle of the day, and some he hired just before quitting time.
When it was time to pay the workers, he paid them all the same. The workers who were hired early in the morning began to complain, "Hey! That's not fair! You paid the workers who worked only one hour the same as those of us who worked all day."
The owner of the vineyard said, "I am not being unfair to you. I paid you what I agreed to pay you. Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Are you jealous because I am generous?"
What is the point of the story that Jesus told? The point is that there are some people who trust in Jesus and work in the church and serve him all the days of their life. What is their reward? Their reward is eternal life in heaven.
There are other people who never work in the church. In fact, there are some people who come to church late. They don't serve the Lord until the very end. What is their reward? Their reward is the same as one who has served the Lord all their life -- eternal life in heaven. I’m not saying on this “Ministry Fair Sunday” not to work in the church. We need everyone to be active in the church.
But it matters not, if you’ve been working in the church for many years or never do. The ground around the cross is level. There are no big “I” or little “you.” God’s love, grace and goodness extends to all.
 

~ Fr. Joseph Alsay, St. Augustine of Canterbury Episcopal Church

Lughnasadh (August 1) was the third Cross-Quarter Day.  It celebrated the wedding of the sun god to the earth goddess which was thought to cause crops to ripen.  The Church transformed the day into a day to offer the land’s first fruits.  Loaves baked from new wheat was offered at a Loaf Mass which corrupted the pronunciation of Lughnasadh to Lammas.  Samhain (October 31) was the final Cross-Quarter Day.  It marked the beginning of winter for Celts, and historians believe that it began the Celtic calendar.  Since Samhain celebrated the old year’s death, it was associated with ghosts and graveyards which linked the Eve of All Hallows (our Halloween) to this day.  It also has happier associations, such as apple bobbing, which was       used to foretell fortunes for the upcoming year.  Samhain was a time to celebrate the lives of ancestors, pets, and other loved ones who had died.  It was seen as a festival of darkness six months from Beltane (Candlemas) which was celebrated as a festival of light.  All Hallows or All Saints Day was first celebrated by Pope Gregory III on November 1st to honor all saints, known and unknown.

~ Dr. Gil Haas, St. Augustine of Canterbury Episcopal Church

Excerpts of a Sermon Delivered on the
Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost – September 13, 2020
Genesis 50:15-21 & Matthew 18:21-35
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        The Reverend Joseph C. Alsay
 
“Living in God’s Limitless Forgiveness”
 
Have you ever heard this warning: Be careful what you pray for – you might get it. Here’s a prayer many of us pray at least once a week – forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
Is that what we really want? We know we want God’s forgiveness. Of that, we are quite sure. However, we are not so sure about the second part, about the way we forgive others. We know that we are not nearly so quick to forgive others as we hope and pray that God forgives us.
I mean, we’ve heard the proverbial phrase attributed to Alexander Pope, “To err is human; to forgive, Divine.”
But, limitless forgiveness is so hard.
We’re talking about forgiveness like the story of Joseph mentioned in our lesson from the Hebrew Scriptures. You remember, Joe-Joe-Joe-Joseph and the technicolored dream coat. Joey, the dreamer. Joe-Joe whom his brothers left him for dead, lied to their father about saying he was killed type of forgiveness.
In our Gospel lesson, Peter comes to Jesus and asks, “Lord, if someone sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?” Seven times is a lot. It is a lot of times to turn and forgive someone who has sinned against you.
But, Jesus says, “No, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.” New Testament scholars debate whether the Greek text means “seventy-seven times” or “seventy times seven times.” But that is beside the point, because either way, Jesus is holding up an enormous number, a number so big that we can’t begin to calculate it in terms of forgiveness.
Perhaps that’s why Jesus tells Peter the story about the unforgiving servant, a story where the numbers don’t add up, because the numbers can’t be added up, when it comes to what Jesus has done for us. In the story, a servant owes the king ten thousand talents. Now, this is a crazy number.
A single talent was more than 15 years’ worth of daily wages. So, when Jesus says, this servant owed the king ten thousand talents, he’s effectively saying he owed him a bazillion dollars.
The servant, no surprise, couldn’t pay back the debt, so the king orders him and everything he has to be sold off. So, the servant falls on his knees and begs for an extension and promises that if he gets some extra time, he will pay everything back. Since there is no way the slave will ever be able to pay back what he owes, the king just forgives the debt, every last cent, and sets the slave free.
Yet, when the servant, who has just been forgiven a debt of a bazillion dollars, runs into a guy who owes him a hundred denarii – which amounts to a few bucks in comparison to what he owed the king – what does he do? Well, he grabs the guy by the throat and demands that he pay up. And when the king finds out that the servant for whom he had just forgiven an unimaginable amount wouldn’t forgive the pittance that was owed him by another, he had the servant thrown into prison.
In the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God has taken upon Godself all our burdens and sins and debts and has forgiven them. Completely, irrevocably, utterly forgiven and healed by Jesus. God is the God who forgives. Yes, forgiveness can restore a life, a community, and even become contagious.
In 1995, Raymond Johnson drove by and shot Casson Evans, the three-year old son of Sharletta Evans. It wasn’t until 17 years later that a truly deep and meaningful conversation between a victim and offender was able to take place. She and Raymond rose from opposites sides of the table and approached each other He extended his arms. She asked him to turn his palms facing up. She then clutched his hands and said a prayer. She said, “I prayed that they would cause no more harm, that they’d be hands of comfort, that they would bring help and serve people and that they would no longer be hands of destruction but hands that bring life.”
We forgive, then, because God forgives. The forgiveness that we are to pass on to others is the forgiveness we have in union with Christ. Not because we are moral heroes or because we seek our own wellbeing, but because we are forgiven sinners. Amen.
 

~Fr. Joseph C. Alsay, St. Augustine of Canterbury Episcopal Church

Between the Quarter Days are the cross-quarter days of Candlemas (February 2), May Day (May 1), Lammas (August 1), and All Hallows (November 1).  When Simeon greeted the Holy Family in the temple, he declared Jesus to be the light of the world.  This image is celebrated by the lighting of candles on Candlemas.  Candlemas falls during the Anglo-Saxon month of Solmonao when the power of the sun’s light was celebrated paralleling the celebrating of Christ’s light in the world.  During Solmonao, ploughs were blessed before the first tilling.  Soil from the farm’s four quarters were ceremoniously collected paralleling the priest beating the parish’s bounds on Rogation Sunday.  It was a bad omen if the day was sunny, for that predicted snow and frost to continue until the hiring of laborers six weeks later on Lady Day.  Groundhog Day is a remote survivor of this belief.  May Day was halfway between the spring equinox and the summer solstice marking the beginning of summer for ancient Celts.  It was celebrated with dancing and singing to greet the sprouting seeds.  The power of light over darkness was celebrated with dancing around the May pole.
~ Dr. Gil Haas, St. Augustine of Canterbury Episcopal Church

The second Quarter Day was Midsummer Day (June 24th).  It celebrated the summer solstice midway between planting and harvest.  Anglicans celebrated this day as the birthday of John the Baptist who, by his leaping in Elizabeth’s womb, foretold the birth of Jesus six months later.  Midsummer eve was celebrated with “bonnefyres” (bonfires), feasting, and merrymaking.   Michaelmas (September 29th) is the feast of the Archangel Michael, corresponding to the autumnal equinox marking shorter days and winter’s onset.  It celebrated the harvest’s conclusion and was a time for stocking food to prepare for winter.  Since the farm workers were freed from their toil and had more free time to vote, elections were often scheduled at this time.  Elections were shifted to November in America because our growing season was longer.  Although Yule is thought synonymous with Christmas, it actually occurs on the winter solstice (December 21st).  The word Yule is linked to the word “wheel” marking the turning point of the year when the shortened days began to lengthen.  Farm workers were paid for their year’s labor around this time, giving them reason to celebrate followed by a three month rest before the next growing season.

​~ Dr. Gil Haas, St. Augustine of Canterbury Episcopal Church

Excerpts of a Sermon Delivered on the
Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost – September 6, 2020
Romans 13:8-14 & Matthew 18:5-20
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        The Reverend Joseph C. Alsay
 
“We’ve Got A Problem”
 
 
You can tell where this is going. You can see it on his face. You can hear it in her voice. I think we need to talk. We’ve got a problem. We’re going to have a come to “Jesus Moment” here.
 
You listen carefully, a bit on your guard, and then you realize that you are the problem.
 
Either your boss is not satisfied with your work. Your spouse is upset that you don’t do your share of the work around the house. Your friend feels you have no time for him or her anymore.
 
And there you have it: conflict. A part of life.
How do you feel about disagreements?
 
Do you avoid them?
Do you hate them?
Do you enjoy them?
Do you always win them or lose them?
 
Some of us are better at it than others, but most of us would rather not have to deal with it.
 
Sometimes people have the impression that since we claim to be Christians, we will live in eternal harmony-even here on the earth. People have expectations that all will be harmony and things will just be perfect, peaceful, and harmonious.
 
While most of us prefer agreement, probably few of us have these kinds of expectations. All of us have been schooled in the real world and we know and expect that we will have disagreements.
 
The reality is that we do not experience the world as a place where people come together to agree and get along. Our general experience is the opposite. Even now, in our city, nation and world we are experiencing: resentment, revenge and racism.
 
One of the insights from today's Gospel is that this same problem existed when Jesus was sharing his life and parables of insight. Human nature has not changed very much over the course of history.
 
 
You could say that Matthew 18 has a section that reads like a church discipline manual. In essence, it says that if someone offends you, confront them. “Houston, we have a problem.” If that fails, do an intervention. If that doesn’t work, cut the off and kick them out.
 
I learned that some Christians treat this advice from Matthew as if they were reding someone their Miranda rights. And if you didn’t know, “mirandize” is now officially a word. As in: “did you mirandize him?” So, in some more legalistic Christian circles this all leads to something like: did you “Matthew 18-ize her?” No wonder we church people get a bad rap. Matthew 18 leads to excommunicating people, and well, let’s not go there.
 
Most of the time we think the other person is the problem. In fact, we usually try to change them.
 
When we see others as the problem, we begin to see ourselves as the center of the world and others as objects whose needs are not as important as our own.
 
Could it be that being in community and being in relationship are the things that teach us about ourselves, about being human, and about our common need for reconciliation?
 
One liturgical scholar Aidan Kavanaugh was known to say that “the Christian community is the place where you are close enough to get on each other’s nerves and then need their forgiveness.”
 
One of the greatest challenges for me, and maybe for you, is to get along with people who are a constant nuisance.
 
In Romans Paul writes, “Owe no one anything, except to love one another.” All commandments can be summed up in this way: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” So simple yet so hard.
 
We are bound together in community: in families, towns, churches, nations and even as siblings on planet earth. And heaven knows, together we have all kinds of problems. Yet, we are in this together. We all stand in need of God’s mercy. We are all self-centered. We all think the problem is someone else rather than looking closely at ourselves.
When the inevitable conflict arises, trusting in the forgiveness and mercy of God, will help us begin to see our problems in a different light.
 
We are confident that the spirit is with us. We can be assured that the love and care of Christ will bring about reconciliation. We can experience the Shalom of God and enjoy our lives.
 

~Fr. Joseph Alsay, St. Augustine of Canterbury Episcopal Church

Medieval festivals that divided the Celtic year were called Quarter Days, each occurring on a solstice or an equinox.  In addition, each quarter was halved by four Cross-Quarter Days creating eight annual segments.  With the adoption of the twelve month Roman calendar and the establishment of the Church, the Celtic festivals were renamed for feasts of the Church’s liturgical year.   The renamed Quarter Days were Lady Day (formerly Ostara, March 25th), Midsummer Day (formerly Litha, June 24th), Michaelmas (formerly Mabon, September 29th), and Yule (December 21st).  A mnemonic for remembering when the first three quarter days fell was March has five letters, and Lady Day is March 25th.  June has four letters and September nine, with Midsummer Day and Michaelmas falling on the 24th and 29th, respectively.  The cross-quarter days were Candlemas (formerly Imbolic, February 2), May Day (formerly Beltane, May 1), Lammas (formerly Lughnasadh, August 1), and All Hallows (formerly Samhain, November 1).  Lady Day occurs on the vernal equinox.  It is so named because on this day Christ’s incarnation was announced to Mary.  Until 1752, it was England’s New Year.  It was often the day for hiring farm laborers for the upcoming growing season.

~ Dr. Gil Haas, St. Augustine of Canterbury Episcopal Church

A family’s wooden table was requisitioned as an altar in early Christian Eucharists.  As it became customary to celebrate Eucharist on the stone tombs of martyrs, stone altars were subsequently built over a saint’s relics.  Altars were originally freestanding but gradually became fixed to a curtain hiding the patron saint’s relics.  During the Reformation, many stone altars, which were associated with Catholic Eucharistic “sacrifice”, were replaced by wooden tables.  For this reason the Anglican BCP substitutes the word “table” for the word “altar”.  Reformed Anglican priests stood at the end of the “table” while high churched priests stood at the “altar’s” center.  With time, the concepts of an altar and Christ became inseparable.  Because of this importance, permanent altars can only be consecrated with chrism by a bishop.  Because an altar represents Christ Himself, five crosses are chiseled into altars symbolizing His five wounds.  Maundy Thursday’s stripped altar symbolizes Christ’s death.  Altars are cleansed with wine and water before Easter, reminiscent of the care given a corpse, to symbolize the mourning over the dead Christ.  It is customary to reverence the altar (Christ) with a bow or reverence the reserved sacrament (Christ’s body) with a genuflection.

​~Dr. Gil Haas, St. Augustine of Canterbury Episcopal Church

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
    be acceptable to you,
    O Lord, my rock, and my redeemer.
               This past Monday, I received in my email an old Jewish morning prayer.  It dates from the 16th century and Jewish tradition calls for this prayer to be said when one first opens your eyes, before you get out of bed. The prayer is only four short sentences, talking to God.
I gratefully acknowledge Your Face;
Spirit lives and endures.
You return my soul to me with compassion;
How great is your faith in me!
              
It seems the last line of this morning prayer – “How great is your faith in me!”  and a line from our collect are connected - “bring forth in us the fruit of good works.” These words can also be used to frame our readings for today as we reflect on these questions,
               “Where is God?” and “What must we do?”
               So here we are, together - on ZOOM, again. What brought us to this point is not easily forgotten. The first case of COVID in Oklahoma was reported on March 7; and the first Oklahoma death eleven days later, the shutdown on March 24.
For many this period has been spent “attending” Church by looking at a computer monitor.  For too many it has meant the loss of jobs, stretched finances, and unsettled futures. It has included the illness or loss of loved ones, fellow parishioners, and friends. 
We have not been allowed to reach out, to support, to comfort or to be comforted. For many of us, the losses can be close to unbearable.
               And we cry out – “Where is God?”
               At this same time, while we manage our isolation and distance ourselves from illness, we also see the disorder within our country, within our society. The taking of George Floyd’s life on May 25th, and just this week, the assault against Jacob Blake, are recent, horrific examples. For many, these events have brought an awareness of a pandemic of a different kind, a pandemic of inequities within our country. Too often the opportunities offered and assumed to be available for all, have been withheld systematically from many. The history of these injustices begins over 400 years ago in August 1619 in the Colony of Virginia when Africans were sold into slavery.
               And if we listen, we can hear them cry… Where is God?  
               Still, our opening prayer calls for our rejoicing at the morning light— How great is Your faith in me. In the Book of Exodus, we read of the fulfillment of the divine promise to increase the children of Jacob, who become the Israelites.  And while Israel grew into a great nation, they find themselves in Egypt where the practices of oppression and genocide are the norm. 
               We hear their cry, “Where is God?”
               I think an answer exists in our opening reading.  Today, we hear the story of the burning bush. As “Moses kept the flock of his father-in-law,” we might imagine Moses on a beautiful, sunny day, keeping these sheep.
We would expect that Moses wasn’t looking for a miracle—just as we likely would not set our sights on a miracle, either.  Moses was only trying to get through this ordinary day.
               But God had other plans.
               “There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush.”
Now it’s common in Scripture to use winds, fires, and earthquakes to serve as messengers of God. In these situations, God is present with his people. And in this lesson, we also learn of God’s motives for appearing.      God is not deaf. God has been listening to the cries of his people. We read, “the Lord said, ‘I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry…” and later, “The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them.”
But “Moses looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed.”
               Most of us have heard the story of the flaming bush—but a bush on fire that is not consumed?  As a person anchored in the physical sciences, I know that a flaming bush that is not consumed is really not possible!  That’s just not the way of the world! My guess is, Moses was grounded in the physical world too—not grounded in the physical sciences, but as a shepherd, Moses met nature every day. And Moses surely knew that fire burns things up! We might imagine Moses being surprised, maybe even afraid.
               As I reflect on this image of a burning bush not consumed by flame, I am encouraged to see that this is a symbol of God’s unquenchable fire of Love. This flaming bush which remains unconsumed reflects God’s undying care for us.
It reflects his unfailing desire to reassure us. God tells us he will always be with us. After Moses’ surprise and fear, I wonder if he may not have also felt reassured, felt loved.
               In this fire that does not consume, I also see the Church.  Here too is where God’s Spirit will always reside, regardless of pandemics, financial instability, or social unrest. Today we find our lives and even the church engulfed in unprecedented situations—but like the bush, the Church is not consumed by it.
               Maybe when we look, we find our own burning bush. Early this week, I was reminded of God’s unchanging love and presence while sitting at my desk.  I was looking out the window, the stars were visible.  As I sat there, I saw what I thought was the North Star.  After several days of looking every morning, my observation was confirmed.  It struck me that the North Star represented a burning bush to me.
               It reminded me of God’s promise to be with us--always!  When I see the North Star, I imagine the generations that have gone before and the future generations that have and will look on that same star. God’s love was with them, is with us, and always will be. Even in the darkest times, God’s love is with us.
               So, given these signs and promises, how will we respond? Our Gospel lesson for today gives us guidance. In St. Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus teaches his disciples for the first time that God’s purpose involves Jesus’ death and resurrection. Peter responds, “God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.”
               But Jesus’ response is to say to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling-block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”
               Suffering and death were not the future Peter envisioned for the Messiah, and they were not the future he envisioned for himself, either.  But Jesus knows he is not going to Jerusalem in search of death... Jesus was going to Jerusalem...in search of life!  Jesus tells us, “For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”
               Saving one’s life means conforming to the injustices of the present, for opting for our self-interests. It is giving in to the flesh. It is focusing on human things, not divine things. We try to hold on to our lives.
The moment we start to fear death, it will not be long before we start to fear life. …the moment we start to fear death, it will not be long before we start to fear life.
               Let us also recognize that Jesus directing Peter to get behind him is no accident.  To place Peter behind Jesus is to place him in a position of following Jesus.  Have no doubt: Peter was a leader, and he was also a devoted follower of Jesus—a servant-leader.
               This is our place, our position and calling, too. Jesus calls us to be his disciples, Jesus’ servant-leaders.
               Like Moses, we spend much of our time “just keeping the flock,” doing our jobs, tending our relationships, our lives. And like Moses and the Israelites, we too to cry out,
               “Where are we? When will it end? Where is God?”
               The burning bush that is not consumed reminds us that God is always present with us.  Where is God? God is always with us! God is presence in our lives, in our Church, in those around us. God is in the temple that is our world, an unspoken statement of his presence. 
God is expressing his faith in us—in me and you!  How great is God’s faith in me! In you! God affirms this every morning.
               And with this awareness comes our call to action.  God – though Jesus has given us a road map.  Jesus has demonstrated how to model love for all.  He calls us to discipleship, to follow.
               Let us be present to God
               Let us extend the love of God to all.
               Amen
​
~ Deacon Intern Todd Olberding, St. Augustine of Canterbury Episcopal Church

Formal mindfulness meditation is the practice of sustaining one’s attention to the body, breath, sensations, or whatever arises in each moment.  Mindfulness is a translation of the Pali (a unique language of the Indian subcontinent that was used to write many Buddhist and Hindu documents) term sati (sometimes translated as “to remember”).  Many psychologists believe that rumination and worry contribute to depression and anxiety, while the practice of mindfulness is an effective reducer of rumination, worry, as well as drug addiction and pain.  Mindfulness meditation is practiced sitting with one’s eyes closed either cross-legged on a cushion or in a chair with the back straight. The meditator’s focus is on the abdominal excursions during breathing or the feel of breath within the nostrils.  Desirable physiological and psychologic changes can be monitored scientifically in a person employing mindfulness meditation.  Henry Thoreau’s writings from Walden Pond offer a uniquely American slant to mindfulness observations.  Mindfulness-based stress reduction was developed at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center using a combination of mindfulness meditation, body awareness, and yoga to help people become more mindful producing the beneficial effects of stress reduction, relaxation, and improvements to their quality of life.

~Dr. Gil Haas, St. Augustine of Canterbury Episcopal Church