Feast of St. Matthew - Sermon on the Mount

If the Persecution came and a Tyrant was burning all our Bibles, what part of the Bible would you consider to be the most important? What would you memorize and pass on to the coming generations? 

In our Gospel tonight, we learned that St. Matthew was one of the Twelve Apostles, called by Jesus. He traveled with Jesus, lived with Jesus during his ministry and we have a Gospel attributed to him. 

It is not my intention to tell you about St. Matthew. My intention is point out and honor what I think is his single most important message, the one thing that he would want to say if he were here right now.

When I turn my Bible to Matthew Chapter 1, I see two incredible things;

Verse 18 - "This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about[d]: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit."

and

Verse 23 - “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”[g] (which means “God with us”). 

Matthew is telling us something monumental! He's telling us the Yin and the Yang have come together, that Physical and Spiritual have come together, that Heaven and Earth (God and Human) are One - in Jesus, the Bridge-builder.

In Matthew Chapter 2, our Saint tells us another story, one that should leave us breathless. The Magi, Gentiles, worse! They're pagans! They see an unusual star in the night sky and they follow it to come worship the new King. What's more is, Joseph & Mary, Jews who are not allowed by Mosaic law to bring Gentiles into their home, open their doors in hospitality... Matthew is saying that Jesus is going to do away with all social classes; there will be no Jew or Gentile, no male or female, no rich or slave - all is becoming one in this bridge-building Messiah. Jesus will turn the world upside down and inside out, leaving no stone unturned and make everything new. Forget what you thought you learned, what you thought was important, this is new world. And Jesus shows us to get there.

As an adult, Jesus goes out to visit John the Baptiser and he is baptised by him. This is a rich scene, entire books have been written about it and what it might mean. But I'll say this much. Matthew has just shown us that Jesus has just de-throned the "god of money". Knocked him right out of his chair... Jews, in order to obtain forgiveness of sin by God, had to undertake a perhaps long and expensive travel to Jerusalem. Upon they had buy a pigeon or a lamb and present it to the priest for sacrifice. John and Jesus were both saying; God is everywhere, his heart is with the people and his forgiveness is as free and easily obtained as water. This is why the priests were standing on the shoreline pulling their beards in frustration and crying out; "By what authority do you do this?!" They were losing authority and money... But the people lined up. They were finding God, here, on earth. All were converging and becoming One. 

Still, the baptism, renouncing our enmity with God and humanity, becoming reconciled with God and one another, that's just the very FIRST step. In the Sermon on the Mount, Chapters 5 through 7, Matthew presents us with the heart of Jesus's teaching. And it's a revolutionary, transformative teaching, in every way. Matthew says: if we repent and come into the kingdom of God, we will be changed, then we can change the world.

How? In the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew gives us the heart of Jesus's Gospel. Transform your minds, open your hearts. Recognize the HEART of crisis. Divorce is evil, he said, but the lust of adultery is the core of the problem - don't invest your time and energy in fantasizing about other people. Murder is evil, he said, but it is harboring anger and holding grudges that is the real root of the problem - take care of the anger and you'll never have to worry about murder... The whole of the Middle-East is rising up in anger against the United States right now, there will be much more blood-shed. If only the home of the Messiah could see this with the eyes of their hearts and be transformed. "Blessed are the Peacemakers!"; Jesus said. They shall be called children of God.

What else did he say? He said; "Blessed are the poor and blessed are you who hunger now."... Jesus had a table theology. When he set out the loaves and fishes, a prefiguration of Communion, he fed everyone who came to the table. No one was excluded. The rich and the poor were there, the Jew and the Gentile, the male and the female and he fed them all with love - for the scriptures say, he had looked upon them with compassion. And again, at the Last Supper and Institution of the Eucharist, Jesus lovingly hand-fed even Judas, the sinner and betrayer... This was incredible! Remember, the priests and public authorities of the day criticized him for this very thing. They criticized Jesus for eating with tax collectors, prostitutes, sinners. And they, themselves, would never have been in the same room with gentiles, which is why the Jews remained in the court-yard and had forced Pontius Pilate to get up off his throne come out to confer with them... Jesus did away with all of these social rules and more. He not only said, but showed us that what is most important is the state of the heart. An excluded heart is a hurting heart, he told us to be open, to love enough to heal the world, to become one. To share our burdens and our joys, as one, as the Body of Christ to the world. Love sees all as sacred and transforms everything it touches.

Ok. So, once we've opened our hearts with love and we've set the table, then what? Then, the great Commission, preach the Gospel and when necessary, use words. Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, heal the sick and visit imprisoned. These are all incredible, revolutionary things. We hear the world clamoring about it today. Turn on the tv and you hear people say; "Why should I pay for food or health care for THOSE people? Why can't they take personal responsibility?"... When Jesus healed the woman who'd had a bloody hemorrhage for years, the scripture tells us; "she'd spent all her money on doctors and they could not heal her." Can you imagine? Can you just see how angry those doctors were that Jesus had just "stolen" a source of their income? And he did it not just for her, we're told that Jesus healed the blind, the lame, those with leprosy - he put a lot of doctors out of business giving away free health care. 

Jesus transformed the world, he was building the kingdom of God and through St. Matthew's Gospel, especially the Sermon on the Mount, he calls us to do the same. Forget money and social status, he says. Love sees all as sacred and heals, transforms everything it touches.

I'd like to close with this portion from the Sermon on the Mount

13 “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.

14 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

Feast of Dietrich Bonhoeffer

If we are not in God’s grace, may he put us there. If we are in God’s grace, may he keep us there. Amen. +

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was born in 1906 to a middle-class family in Breslau, Germany.  His father, Karl Bonhoeffer, was a famous neurologist and psychiatrist and Dietrich was expected to follow in his father’s footsteps.

The Bonhoeffer family wasn’t known to be religious. So his family was unpleasantly surprised when Dietrich told them he planned to become a pastor. His older brother told Dietrich not to waste his life in such a "poor, feeble, boring, petty, bourgeois institution as the church", fourteen-year-old Dietrich replied, "If what you say is true, I shall reform it!"

Dietrich attended several different seminaries, in different countries. We get the impression that as a student, he was all brain and little heart, out of touch with the nature of the daily life of ordinary people, an aloof intellectual walking on imported air. When Dietrich came to the U.S., in 1930, to do some postgraduate study, he found the program and professors lacking. He said, contemptuously; “there is no theology here.”… little did he know, he was in for the surprise of his life.

While Dietrich was studying here, in New York, a friend named Frank Fisher took him to a Baptist Church in Harlem. Can you imagine? This stuck up, white, German intellectual in a black, Baptist Church with its swinging choir and out-cries of “Amen!”, “You preach it, Brother!” Talk about culture shock, it’s a wonder the man didn’t die of a heart-attack! But that’s not what happened.  Dietrich fell in love with we what used to call the Negro Spirituals of the Old American South and through these songs he was captured by the rhythm and the passion, it made him feel alive! He began to see Jesus with new eyes. Instead of seeing Jesus as a lofty idea, Dietrich found him in the faces of the singers.

The preachers of this Baptist church introduced Dietrich to the gospel of social justice. Teaching him to see things “from below” – from the point of view of the oppressed. Dietrich’s heart was broken and he was set aflame with passion, all at once. He said; this was the point at which “I turned away from ideas to reality, turned away from a love of words to a love for God and neighbor.” It was in the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem that Jesus resurrected and came fully alive in Dietrich’s heart.

Dietrich’s university days in the U.S. came to an end and he returned to Germany. His career was full of promise, but this was to change when the Nazis came to power in 1933.

Dietrich clearly saw the dangers of nationalism and the Nazi party. He spoke out against them at every opportunity, in Church, on the radio, at meetings with his colleagues. Once, his radio address was even cut off in mid-speech. At this time, Dietrich was the first voice crying for resistance to Hitler’s persecution of the Jews, and his was a lone voice with no one to back him…

In July of 1933, an unthinkable, frightening thing happened, Hitler unconstitutionally imposed church elections. Of course, the elections were rigged and Hitler installed Nazi-theologians into the positions of leadership. For some pastors and theologians, this would have been frightening enough for them to shut up, hunker down and wait till the threats had passed. But not Dietrich Bonhoeffer, he stood up in resistance to this hostile take-over of the Church and called for all pastors to refuse to conduct baptisms, weddings, funerals, etc. Dietrich said;

“We are not to simply bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice, we are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself.”  ― Dietrich Bonhoeffer

But his colleagues refused to go on strike with him.

Some of his colleagues did, however, stand with Dietrich in opposing Nazism in the form of the Confessing Church. Karl Barth, for example, drafted a declaration which made it clear that Jesus Christ, not Adolf Hitler was the head of the Church… Still the hostile Nazi take over of the Church continued. Their next move was to forbid any non-Aryan from taking parish posts. Dietrich’s heart was broken, he felt helpless and when he looked around, there was not enough help to be found.

In the autumn of 1933, Dietrich left Germany, not out of fear, but out of hope. He hoped to convince the pastors of Churches outside of Germany to join him and the Confessing Church in denouncing the Nazi party and put an end to the take-over of the Christian church and an end to the persecution of the Jews.

In 1935, however, Dietrich Bonhoeffer returned to Germany, where he worked leading an underground seminary, training pastors. Still, the Nazi party knew who Dietrich was, they understood he was a threat. So, he was forbidden to speak in public, he was not permitted to publish his books and constantly had to report his whereabouts to local police.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was so alarmed by the evil of the Nazi regime that he joined the Abwehr, which was a military intelligence organization in resistance of the Nazi party. Through Abwehr, Dietrich was involved in several plots to assassinate Adolph Hitler. He did this because he believed;

“The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world that it leaves to its children.”  ― Dietrich Bonhoeffer

This was not a justification, Dietrich sti ll felt that murder was evil, that it was a sin, regardless of the circumstances. But he felt he was in an evil situation where there were no good answers that he had to choose between the lesser of two evils. Killing Adolph Hitler and putting an end to the carnage, or letting Hitler live and the carnage continue. Ultimately, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was willing to stand up, take responsibility before God and say; “I am a murderer.” He said; “before God I can hope only for grace.”

On April 6, 1943 Dietrich Bonhoeffer was arrested. He spent two years, nearly to the day, in Nazi concentration camps, where he continued to pastor and to write letters, some of which have reached us.

Dietrich once wrote; “Music... will help dissolve your perplexities and purify your character and sensibilities, and in time of care and sorrow, will keep a fountain of joy alive in you.”  ― Dietrich Bonhoeffer

 I can see him, too, in the concentration camp; thin, cold, ravaged and taking his comfort in singing Negro spirituals like this one;

"Steal away, steal away, steal away to Jesus Steal away, steal away home I ain't got long to stay here

My Lord, He calls me He calls me by the thunder The trumpet sounds within-a my soul I ain't got long to stay here".

On April 9, 1945, the Nazis hung Dietrich Bonhoeffer at dawn, less than 2 weeks before soldiers from the United States liberated the camp.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer still lives, though, through the amazing writing he left us. And to give you a feel for who the man is, to make him come alive for you, I’d like to leave you with a couple of quotes.

“Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility.” 

“Being a Christan is less about cautiously avoiding sin than about courageously and actively doing God's will.”   

“To deal with the word of Jesus other than by doing it is to lie to him. It is to deny the Sermon on the Mount and to say No to his word. That is why as soon as trouble begins we lose the word, and find that we have never really believed it. The word we had was not Christ's, but a word we had wrested from him and made our own by reflecting on it instead of doing it.” 

Feast of St. Luke

Today we celebrate the Feast of St. Luke, the writer of the Gospel and the book of Acts. Luke was a first century, Gentile Christian. Some sources say that Luke was one of the 70 missionaries that Jesus sent out, some say that he was one of the disciples that Jesus appeared to after his resurrection, while on the Road to Emmaus. Others have said that Luke had a special friendship with our Lady, Mary. We can’t know any of this for sure. 


What we do know for sure is that Luke was a physician and faithful companion to St. Paul. He accompanied Paul on  missionary journies and Luke remained in Rome, serving Paul while he was in prison, until the day that Paul was beheaded by Roman authorities… And if you’re familiar with the scriptures, with the stories of St. Paul, it’s not hard to see why Paul needed his best friend to be a physician! Paul was forever in need of an emergency room, whether because he was starving in some remote wilderness, suffering from the cold, being bitten by snakes – or, because he was always offending somebody and being beaten up or being stoned and left for dead! There’s no doubt that St. Paul kept his beloved Doctor quite busy. 


I wouldn’t doubt that Luke waited until after Paul’s death to write the Gospel and the Book of Acts. Fortunately for us, he lived to be 84 years before he died in old age and he had plenty of time to write. And he did. The commentary  I’d turned to for guidance says that Luke actually contributed more material to the New Testament than any other writer, including Paul. I’m a little skeptical. But it’s not so much how much St. Luke wrote that counts, but what he wrote… 


Luke is my favorite author in the Bible. Countless books have been written about his intellect, his charm, his good humor, his emphasis on compassion and social justice… I could go on and on about the joyous wonder that is St. Luke! For one thing, if he had not written the Book of Acts, we have would have precious little idea regarding the day-to-day lives of the first century church – no other new testament author has given us so many detailed and delightful stories (as opposed to letters)… Anyway, as I was saying, I could go on and on about the joyous wonder that is St. Luke, but I’d rather buckle down and focus on one of Luke’s more unique contributions, his particular portrait of what the Good News is.

Anyone who has studied the gospels knows; each one of the gospel writers gives us a slightly different portrait of Jesus and a different picture of what the “Good News” is. St. Matthew, for example, presents Jesus as Messiah, Suffering Son of Man and the one who will render justice for everyone at the End of time. St. John portrays Jesus in a very mystical way, he is the Logos, the creative Word of God and the Passover Lamb. Luke portrays Jesus as the compassionate Liberator, he has Jesus in the temple reading; 18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free…” This is not the only reference that Luke makes to the poor, the lame, the blind, the outcast. His entire gospel is a parade of the poor being provided for, the blind and lame being healed, the outcast being embraced by Jesus. Throughout the entire gospel, Luke creates a “Table Theology”, where God’s Kingdom is portrayed as a banquet and ALL are invited! – without exception. It’s a joyous riot! It would be easy to mistake this for the whole of Luke’s “Good News”. But if we do, we miss something so profound, something that is so powerful that it raises the hair on my arms and my neck.

To illustrate for you what I mean, let’s compare Jesus’s birth story in Matthew with Luke’s story about Mary and the angel Gabriel: Matthew 1:18 ”This is how the birth of Jesus Christ took place. His mother Mary was engaged to Joseph, but before they were married, she found out that she was going to have a baby by the Holy Spirit.” That’s it. One verse. That’s all. In the very next verse, we read; “And meanwhile back on the ranch, Joseph was contemplating divorce.”… Matthew completely drops Mary, completely drops the Holy Spirit and focuses on Joseph.

Compare that one single verse to the long, lyrical and poignant story that Luke gives us in our Gospel! Luke is highlighting this event, he’s trying to tell us something.

I’ve read the Bible cover-to-cover more than 7 times, I’ve studied it for years at college. And for me, Luke’s story of Gabriel’s Annunciation to Mary and Mary’s “Yes!” is the most profound, most powerful passage – it is the hub that the entire wheel of the Bible and the Church revolves around, without it we have NOTHING. This here, is the Good News – that God chose Mary to be a co-worker and intimate partner in Creation and Salvation. And may I add, if God felt that he needed Mary, still needs Mary – who are we to think that we do not?

I mean, really, think about it. God is reportedly All Powerful, All Knowing, All loving, etc… He could have had Jesus appear, full bodied and fully grown in the middle of the Temple, ready to take charge – Instant Salvation… Why not? The Greek and Roman gods and goddesses reportedly did. For that matter, so what? So Adam and Eve screwed up, we as the human race have screwed up, so what? As the Scripture says; “love covers a multitude of sins”, why couldn’t God just say; “I love you, forgive you.” And let that be the whole of Salvation? Why this long, bloody, passion play that we call human history? Why the long, wandering missionary journies of Jesus? Why that horrific Crucifixion? We can guess some of the reasons, others will remain mysteries ‘till the end of the time.

Whatever the reasons, God decided he needed Mary. And he decided that he needed her for more than just an incubator for his only Begotten Son… He needed her to feed Jesus, to clothe him, to hold and cuddle him, to teach him how to walk, to teach him good manners, to discipline him, to play with him, to teach him, to kiss his boo-boos. God needed her to devote her LIFE, first to Jesus and then as Luke testifies in the book of Acts, to devote her life to the mothering and care of the first century Church… This is exciting stuff! God needs Mary, he wants Mary, he works and plays in intimate partnership with Mary. As Paul would say, God is closer to Mary than her very breath.

What makes Mary so special? Why her? My answer to you, and Luke’s answer to you is; Mary is special only in the fact that she was First. Everything you see, hear or read about Mary, is true for you as a believer, too. This what Luke was saying in the story of the Pentecost. The Holy Spirit over-shadowed Mary and she gave birth to the Body of Christ. The Holy Spirit over-shadowed the Believers and they, too, joyously gave birth to the Body of Christ. God decided he needed you, and you, and you… And just in case you didn’t get it the first two times, Luke thought this message was so very important that he tells the story yet a third time! Acts 10:44-46 Peter was in the home of Cornelius, a captain in the Roman army… ”While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit came down on all those who were listening to his message. The Jewish believers who had come from Joppa with Peter were amazed that God had poured out his gift of the Holy Spirit on the Gentiles also. For they heard them speaking in strange tongues and praising God’s greatness.   Just for giggles, let’s compare these 3 “Pentecost” stories by Luke with the Pentecost story found in the Gospel of John.

John 20:19-22 ”It was late that Sunday evening, and the disciples were gathered together behind locked doors, because they were afraid of the Jewish authorities. Then Jesus came and stood among them. ‘Peace be with you,’ he said. After sayign this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples were filled with joy at seeing the Lord. Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father sent me, so I send you.’ Then he breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’”Pentecost gets two whole verses in the Gospel of John and no mention in Mark or Matthew. Again, Luke is highlighting these 3 events, he’s trying emphasize something incredible and profound. Luke is trying to tell you something.

Luke is saying that salvation is collective, it must happen in community. He’s saying that God needs you, and you, and you… God needs you to feed the hungry, heal the sick, visit the imprisoned, give your neighbor a hug and a smile, he needs you pray and to love – to work with him in bringing Tikkun Olam; that is healing, justice and love to the world.

And guess what? The Church agrees with Luke. As I’d mentioned on the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels, the Consecration of Eucharist and the Forgiveness of sins in Confession are services reserved for the Priest. But it is equally true, that without you – there are no sacraments. You are co-creators with God, you are birthing Christ… You know this because you are called to participate in Mass, as opposed to just sitting passively and watching the priest do all the work for you. When I was a child, we used to kneel in adoration during the consecration of the Eucharist, God and the priest performed this sacramental act alone and we, the Faithful were passive recipients. The Church decided, however, that this was not a truly representative portrait of how our salvation is worked. So, now we are asked to stand, with the priest (who stands as representative of God), we are asked to pray out loud with the priest (who stands as representative of God) and work together with God to manifest the Christ – in just the same way that God and Mary worked together. This is the Good News, the incredible news, the profound news. God wants to be closer to you than your very next breath, he wants to work and to play in an intimate way with you to heal the world, to transform the world, to  bring something Divine and wonderful into being.  

St. Elizabeth of Hungary

Tonight, we celebrate the Feast of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary. Elizabeth was a princess. She is a canonized Saint within the Catholic Church and was definitely “the People’s Princess”, so much beloved by her people that she is remembered as “Dear Elizabeth”.

We don’t have royalty here, in the U.S. The closest thing we have to royalty is not our politicians, but our celebrities. So, I’d like you take just a second and imagine what would it be like if you were the son or daughter of say, Elvis Presley or Michael Jackson, or Madonna? We can say is that you’d have a lot of nice clothes, that you’d eat gourmet food, that you’d be surrounded by  intelligent and interesting people at all times;  musicians, artists, politicians, hair-dressers, makeup people, engineers, lawyers, accountants – a flurry of all kinds of the best, brightest and most influential people. You’d also be surrounded by security personnel. At least one body-guard, even in your quiet and most private moments… One of the most treacherous pitfalls to this kind of life is; it would be easy to grow up to become guarded, jaded, suspicious. Growing up in an environment of wealth and influence, it’s difficult to know who is your friend and who is your enemy. It’s difficult to know who loves you and who is pretending to love you, while using you for your money or using you for their own social and political gain. This kind of situation is heart-breaking. This is the world that Princess Elizabeth was born into.

Elizabeth was born in Hungary, in the year 1207, daughter of King Alexander II and Queen Gertrude. She was surrounded by wealth, the finest clothes, the finest foods – surrounded by the best, brightest and most influential people. She was surrounded by people who smiled at her and treated her kindly, but who privately lived lives devoted to personal ambition, competition, devoted to devious political schemes. When Elizabeth was 4 years old, her parents arranged a royal marriage for her and she was sent away from her home to Thuringia, to be raised and educated in the household of her future husband, Hermann of Thuringia. This must have been traumatic for the young girl, she must have been heartbroken. When Elizabeth was only 6 years old, her mother (Queen Gertrude) was assassinated. When she was 9 years old, her betrothed Herman died. I do not know the cause of his death, whether it was political intrigue or war, or illness. A year later, King landgrave (her betrothed-husband’s father) was excommunicated from the church, went insane and died. Part of King landgrave’s insanity came from the belief that another King had hired mercenaries to assassinate him, he was afraid for his life. So, for a long time the court and Elizabeth’s home had been in horrifying uproar and chaos. These events and I’m sure a whole legion of other horrors of the political life must have had profound effects on Elizabeth. Still, she did not withdraw from humanity and isolate herself in self defense, she did not look upon everyone with suspicion and treat everyone with a guarded demeanor, quite the opposite… Wounded Elizabeth chose to reach out, to embrace and heal the broken world around her.

We’re told that she was intelligent, that she had a mind of her own and the inner drive to see her goals accomplished, that she let no one stand in her way.

Elizabeth wasn’t one who cared much about what other people thought of her either, she wasn’t going to be intimidated or cowed into submission by the disapproval of others. For example, Elizabeth refused to wear formal dress or embroidered gloves to Mass. Instead, she wore simple, plain and unadorned clothing. I’d like to think that she did this because she didn’t want the poor to feel shamed for their poor clothing, she didn’t want them to feel too ashamed to come to Church. But the truth is, I don’t know if the poor were permitted to worship with the wealthy? So, I don’t know why Elizabeth did this, except that she felt that “embroidered sleeves and embroidered gloves were unnecessary and gaudy luxuries” so, she dressed plainly. The other royalty, the nobility and members of the court saw this as a rebuke to them and they were quite offended, they became hostile toward Elizabeth. But she never changed, she continued to go her own way and do what she thought was right… Other than this, Elizabeth practiced giving alms to the poor, penance and prayer vigils.

At the age of 14 Elizabeth was considered an adult and was given in marriage to the 21 year old King Ludwig. In Ludwig Elizabeth found a true soul-mate, in him she found love that she could trust and love that would not only heal her but which would empower her to become a force for healing a hurting kingdom. King Ludwig, we are told; “gave his protection to Elizabeth’s acts of charity, her acts of penance and vigils.” When he traveled away on business, he left Elizabeth in control of the finances and she worked wonders with them.

Then the Kingdom of Thuringia was beset by floods and pestilence…

You know? I love today’s Psalm so much, I’d like for us to read it again, together, as this was the cry of Elizabeth’s people, when they’d been devastated by floods and pestilence, had lost their crops, lost their homes, lost everything.

Psalm 109:20–25     

20 But you, O Lord my God,

oh, deal with me according to your Name; *

for your tender mercy’s sake, deliver me.

21 For I am poor and needy, *

and my heart is wounded within me.

22 I have faded away like a shadow when it lengthens; *

I am shaken off like a locust.

23 My knees are weak through fasting, *

and my flesh is wasted and gaunt.

24 I have become a reproach to them; *

they see and shake their heads.

25 Help me, O Lord my God; *

save me for your mercy’s sake.

When her people lost everything, Elizabeth was the answer to their prayers, she heard their cries and responded with great compassion. She opened the royal granaries and fed the people. We’re told that she clothed the naked, even giving them royal robes when there was nothing else to give them. She had a hospital built and every day she tended to the needs of the patients herself… This is amazing! Most royal homes would’ve barred the door, filled the moat and put guards in the towers to protect their food and resources. But Elizabeth opened the doors, she opened her arms and she gave everything, even the clothing from her own closet. In so doing, she set the example for each one of her people to follow, set the tone of cooperation for Thuringia’s recovery. If she had shut the doors of the castle and set armed guards against the people – the people would likely have treated one another that same way and Thuringia would have experienced more devastation, rather than recovery.

Our reading from 2 Corinthians says something interesting. St. Paul writes; “I’m trying to find out how REAl your own love is.” He’s saying actions speak louder than words and Paul then points to the example of Christ “who made himself poor for your sake.”… This is what Elizabeth did, not only financially, but mentally, emotionally and physically. She poured her very self out for the love of her people, esp. in her work at the hospital; feeding them, bathing them, binding their wounds. Elizabeth’s love was REAl.

Elizabeth and Ludwig were married for 6 years and had 3 children. Then, in the 6th year of their marriage, Ludwig died of illness while on the road to war. Elizabeth was devastated. When she heard the news, she was heard to cry; “All the joys in this life are dead to me now!”

She was 20 years old, mother of 3 and a widow – without protection now, in a court that was hostile toward her and her great acts of charity.

Immediately, Elizabeth’s family wanted to arrange another politically expedient marriage. But Elizabeth refused remarriage. Again, she didn’t care what other people thought, she had to do what she thought was right… She could not, however, remain in Warburg. Heinrich, Ludwig’s brother, had come to power and he was cruel to Elizabeth. He promised to give her shelter and enough food for each day, period. Nothing more. He refused to provide her money to give to charity, or to protect her charitable work.

Elizabeth, we are told, left Warburg “for moral reasons”. She took refuge with the Franciscans in Marburg and became the first member of the Franciscan Tertiaries. She was moved to have a Franciscan monastery built and again, to have a hospital built. She became a nurse there, tending to the needs of the patients herself. Again, Elizabeth was reaching out to heal the world… But that work was cut short when she died, just 4 years later at the age of 24.

Death was not the end of Elizabeth’s work. Almost immediately, miracles began to be reported at her grave in the hospital’s chapel, especially miracles of healing. Her grave became a popular destination for pilgrimages, so popular that it could be compared to the Shrine of Santiago de Compostela. Dear Elizabeth continues to be loved and continues to reach out in love even today.

Our reading from the gospel of luke tells us to “love our enemies”, to be children of the Most High God, who is good to everyone… And in 2 Corinthians, Paul tells us; “On with it then, finish the job! …it is only fair that you should help those who are in need. And rest assured, God will accept your gift on the basis of your eagerness to give. He will accept your gift on the basis of what you have to give not on what you don’t have.”

You don’t have to be a King or Queen, you don’t have to be celebrity, you don’t have to win the lottery and build hospitals to be a Saint. It’s not about your wallet. It’s about your heart and your efforts, the work of your own hands…

One of the most moving stories of love, healing and charity that I’ve ever heard came out of a concentration camp during World War II. A Jewish lady said; “We were starved, reduced to skin and bones. One day, my friend came to me with a gift. In her hand was a leaf and on it, a single blackberry. It was so good!”… A single blackberry can heal the world. Go be love!

Harriet Beecher Stowe

Harriet Beecher Stowe was born June 14th 1811. She was born into a family that was not only devoted to education, but was driven toward intellectual excellence. But her family wasn't comprised of "armchair generals" so to speak, they didn't just sit around and imagine what Utopia would theoretically be like. Her family believed that actions speak louder than words, her family was comprised of deeply spiritual people who actively sought to be the healing hands of Christ in this world. To do that, they knew they had to be loud, outspoken, ready to stir the pot and make people think, they had to be agitators. Her father, Lyman Beecher was a zealous preacher, a leader in the temperance movement and president of Lane Theological Seminary. Her mother, Roxana Foote, ran a school for girls and publicly advocated for the intellectual development of women at a time when Society frowned on women receiving college educations. Roxana believed that women could be intellectually equal to men, that women could do anything they set their minds to. Harriet's 7 brothers all became ministers. Her sister Catherine led the women's opposition against President Jackson's Indian removal bill. So, in light of all this, it isn't too terribly surprising that Harriet would be enrolled in the seminary (run by her sister Catherine), where she received a traditionally "male" education in the classics, including study of languages and mathematics. It isn't too terribly surprising that Harriet would grow up to become the author of more than 20 books, and abolitionist who not only spoke out against the evils slavery, but who actually helped slaves escape to freedom along the Underground Railroad. She was living out a family tradition!


On March 9, 1850, Stowe wrote to Gamaliel Bailey, editor of a weekly antislavery journal,  that she planned to write a story about the problem of slavery: "I feel now that the time is come when even a woman or a child who can speak a word for freedom and humanity is bound to speak... I hope every woman who can write will not be silent."


Why would Harriet say that? Because she could hear the slaves crying out with the Psalmist;


16 Who will rise up for me against the wicked?
   Who will take a stand for me against evildoers?
17 Unless the LORD had given me help,
   I would soon have dwelt in the silence of death
 Because Harriet knew, that not only is death silent, but silence leads to death. So, she wrote more than 20 books and gave public speeches. She was loudly outspoken in the face of great opposition and anger. It wouldn't surprise me at all to learn that she had received death threats. But she would not allow anger, political pressure or threats to silence her voice, she continued to speak for those oppressed persons who were robbed of their voices, to speak for those oppressed persons whose lives were made a silent living-death.


Her most famous book is "Uncle Tom's Cabin". A book that was an emotional portrayal of the evil consequences that slavery has on families. The book became an international phenomenon, the bestselling novel of the 19th century, not only here in America but in; Britain, Europe, Russia and even China! Not only was Harriet's book loud and outspoken, the people who read it became loud and outspoken. The people of the North celebrated the book by turning it into a play, they were inspired to form abolitionist groups, and even name their babies after characters in the book. In the South, slave owners were outraged. Her work intensified the sectional conflicts that would eventually lead to the Civil War. According to legend, when President Abraham Lincoln finally met Harriet Beecher Stowe, he said; "So this is the little lady who started this great war!"
Unfortunately, Harriet's time is not so different from ours. In her day,Traditionalist type Christians of the South waved the Bible and proclaimed that God's Word had sanctioned slavery. While on the other hand, Christians like Harriet Beecher Stowe proclaimed a new truth, one contrary to traditional readings of the Bible - that slavery was evil. The nation was bitterly divided... Today, we see the nation is just as bitterly divided now as it was then. Actually, more so! Traditionalist type Christians wave the Bible and proclaim that God's word declares homosexuality is evil, that God's Word says; "God helps those who help themselves" and so we should do away with all the safety nets our Society has put in place to protect the weakest members of our society; the elderly, the children, the ill, the mentally ill, the disabled. Often, these same people advocate slave wages.


As a result of these "traditional" voices, Christianity is in a time of great crisis and Church of Our Saviour is in a time of crisis. Recent polls show;


Only 16 percent of non-Christians aged 16 to 29 years old said they have a "good impression" of Christianity,


Only 3 percent of 16- to 29-year-olds who are not of the Christian faith express favorable views of evangelicals. In the previous generation, 25 percent of young people had positive associations toward evangelicals. That is a massive, jaw-dropping 22 percent change!


Half of young churchgoers, hear me! I said half of young CHURCHGOERS, Christians! said they perceive Christianity to be judgmental, hypocritical, anti-homosexual and too political. Also, one-third said it was old-fashioned and out of touch with reality.


Millions of Christians are leaving the Churches every single year... Here at C.O.S., we're facing a financial shortfall of $800.00 a week and the reason is not because we are poor church, the reason is because we have empty pews. Empty pews equals fewer people to fight injustice and keep Christianity alive and vital in the way that Harriet Beecher Stowe and her family did. So now, with Harriet Beecher Stowe I say: "I feel now that the time is come when even a woman or a child who can speak a word for freedom and humanity is bound to speak... I hope every man, woman and child who can write will not be silent."


Speak out against slave wages and for employment at a living wage, speak out against hunger and for the right to feed the homeless without fear of arrest, speak out for poor people to have access to medical treatment, speak out against the injustices of our society. Silence is death, not only for the oppressed, but for all that we love. Let's be a people who proclaim life and life most abundant.

Thomas Gallaudet and Henry Winter Syle

Today, we celebrate the lives and work of 2 Episcopal priests; Thomas Gallaudet and Henry Winter Syle. Both of whom lived and worked in the late 1800’s, both of whom became heroes within the deaf community.

But in order to fully understand and appreciate who these men were and what their work still signifies to the deaf community even to this day – we first have to take a look at what it meant to be deaf in the 19^th century America.

I must begin by saying that religion has not been kind to the deaf community. 9 out of 10 deaf children were and are born to hearing parents. And, I tell you the truth, hearing parents who discover their child is deaf just cannot see this event as a blessing, as a gift from God. Usually, parents feel a crushing sense of guilt and wonder what they’ve done wrong? The deafness is seen as; punishment for sin, or is believed to be a result of possession by an evil spirit. The deafness is seen to be an evil in and of itself. That was true in the 19^th century and it is true even now. How deeply do these feelings of guilt and/or rejection run? Well, today, less than 20% of hearing parents learn American Sign Language or learn to communicate effectively with their deaf children. In 19^th Century America, that percentage was actually a great deal lower.

As late as 1817, there were no deaf schools in America. American Sign Language was unheard of and the deaf remained largely uneducated. They were truly handicapped – but not by their lack of hearing, rather they were handicapped by their lack of education.

By 1830, education of the deaf in America had taken many great strides forward, thanks to Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet the father of the priest we are celebrating today and the founder of the 1^stdeaf school in America. Because of his many and mighty efforts at establishing deaf education in America, others were inspired to do the same. So that by 1830 (just 15 years later), America had gone from having no deaf schools at all to having hundreds of deaf students who were learning sign language and how to read and write. There were now deaf schools in New York, Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Ohio. Soon, there were a great many deaf folks who were graduating from college and entering professions such as; doctors, lawyers, journalists, etc… But the one profession most deaf people were drawn to, the one profession closest to their hearts was deaf education. It soon came to be that the majority of teachers of deaf children were deaf themselves.

What a victory for Dr. Gallaudet and all of his associates! To bring the American deaf out of a world of isolation and away from the debilitating handicap of ignorance – to bring the deaf into both community and empowerment! And all within a space of just 15 years.

This was the world our first priest, Thomas Gallaudet, was born into. He was born to a hearing father and a deaf mother. He sawhis father take deafness as a state and the deaf as a community of people that religion had said was cursed by God and innately evil… He saw his father and mother prove all of those negative ideas completely wrong. He learned growing up, from experience, that the birth of every child (hearing or deaf) was a blessing. The deaf community was a good, intelligent, loving and productive community – capable even of producing the most excellent scholarship, when given the proper education and tools to work with. Fortunately, for the deaf community and the world, it was a lesson that Reverend Thomas Gallaudet would never forget. For religion was to deal the deaf community yet another cruel and nearly fatal blow. One that Thomas Gallaudet would have to meet head-on, both as a priest and educator.

Okay, so now enter a Roman Catholic and Italian priest name Giulio Tarra, who also took a leading position in deaf-education. His speeches are well-known and reviled among the leaders of the deaf-community even today.

Father Tarra arrived on the scene and began to teach that Sign Language was far too sensual, that it was leading the deaf into sin and contributing to their damnation. Where would he get such a crazy idea? Well, if you were ever really to watch deaf people use Sign Language, you very quickly learn that the deaf are extremely visual people. They not only use their hands and signs to communicate, they also use body postures and extremely animated facial expressions. Some would even say, exaggeratedfacial expressions… So, if a deaf person is describing a very angry fight that ends in murder, their exaggerated, angry facial expressions and fierce body postures really can become quite alarming to someone who is not used to sign language and deaf communication. To Fr. Tarra, it appeared as if the deaf person was indeed experiencing murderous anger – ready to strike, as opposed to just telling a story and he blamed the sensuality, the physicality of Sign Language. Likewise, we can imagine that the exaggerated facial expressions and seductive body postures of a deaf person telling a love story in Sign Language would have really been both threatening and revolting to Fr. Tarra. He would, in that case, have said that Sign Language was leading the story-teller and the audience into sexual sin!

Fr. Tarra also despised Sign Language as being quite simply “primitive mimicry”, incapable of abstract thought. What he is saying is; Sign Language cannot convey ideas like; Faith, Hope, Charity, God. Therefore, the person is just as ignorant as an animal and his ignorance condemns his soul to Hell… This was not at all true, of course. Sign Language does convey abstract ideas like God, Faith and Love. But it is what Fr. Tarra believed and taught nonetheless. So, for all these reasons, for the good of society and for the salvation of deaf souls, Fr. Tarra demanded that all Sign Language be completely forbidden and all deaf persons must be taught to lip-read and to speak.

And that is exactly what happened. All over the world, deaf teachers were driven out of the classrooms, Sign Language was forbidden, deaf heroes and deaf history were tossed into the nearest garbage can.

The result of all this? Complete isolation for the deaf child, who no longer has any deaf adults to look up to. There’s a 90% chance both of his folks are hearing, there are no more deaf teachers and no deaf heroes mentioned in school. This child is alone.

More, the deaf child has an extremely difficult time learning spoken or written English, unless he has American Sign Language to compare it with. It’s an impossible task. So, all of education is drastically effected. From this point on, the average 16 year old deaf student reads as poorly as an 8 year old hearing child. In other words, from this day forward, most deaf adults are unable to even read a newspaper. Even in his best subject, math, he is 4 grades behind… Most deaf children are no longer graduating from high-school, - so college is out of the question. And for those few deaf who do graduate college, they are literally forbidden to teach or work with the deaf.

Furthermore, being set up for failure, the child internalizes not only the disability label, but the failure label too. This, combined with the frustration of not being able to communicate with or understand the world around him, leads to psychological depression and disturbance.

This is what religion has done for the deaf community.

Science too, though, was proving itself to be cruel to the deaf community. Beginning with Darwin’s theory of evolution and survival of the fittest. Scientists and other professional thinkers took Darwin’s theory and ran away with it in directions that poor Darwin never intended – I believe that if he had foreseen some of the uses his theory was going to be put to, he would have burned the manuscript before it was published and never said a word… In any case there were many professionals who used Darwin’s theory to more or less start rating people on a scale from 1 to 10. Those who were “10’s” were the youngest, tallest, strongest, healthiest, fittest, most good looking and the most human. Those people who were “1’s” were the oldest, the smallest, the weakest, the most frail, the handicapped, the ugly and the least human – more like animals. The deaf were placed in the “1’s” category, the most like animals category. And because the Philosopher Descartes was teaching that animals were not sentient, had no mind, no feelings, no soul – they were simply put here for our use, abuse and garbage – this teaching, combined with that of Darwin’s was extended to the deaf. They were ignored, left ignorant and impoverished, enslaved, prostituted, institutionalized and forgotten, even put on display in freak shows – treated every which way, but they were not being educated and not being given societal or religious value. And, according to Descartes’ teaching, that was okay – because they were not sentient, had no mind, no feelings, no soul.

As I’ve said earlier, having grown up well within the heart of an active, vibrant and academic deaf community; Thomas Gallaudet knew from his own experiences that the deaf were not cursed by God. He knew that deafness was not innately evil. He also understood the nature of sign-language – he knew that sign-language was very picturesque and he was not at all intimidated or threatened by the exaggerated facial expressions or body postures that accompanied the finger-signs. He knew the deaf were not stupid, that both the people and their sign-language were capable of conveying abstract ideas, such as; God, faith and love… Finally, he also knew that the deaf community needed to be both protected and nurtured, and that he loved these people enough to do just that.

Thomas Gallaudet first became a deaf educator, just like his father. Teaching all of his students sign language, then spoken and written English and the rest of their academic subjects. Setting his students firmly among the “family” of the deaf school, among community, among successful deaf adults and heroes. He set them up for success, calling them out to be the best they could possibly be and fully live up to their full potential. He empowered them – so they could discover they were loved and their lives could be of real consequence to the Community that surrounded them. He did everything in his power to lead his pupils on to discover that their lives had real value and worth.

It was around this time that Thomas Gallaudet met and married Miss Elizabeth Budd, who was deaf. This was and is most unusual. The vast majority of deaf people, like 9 out of 10, marry other deaf people. Because only another deaf person has shared their experiences, has shared their language, their heroes, their history and culture. Yet, both Dr. Gallaudet and his son (Reverend Gallaudet) were married to deaf women. For me, this represents just how great an impact their efforts and work had on the deaf community. It demonstrates just how much they were accepted and loved by this community.

Thomas Gallaudet was ordained in 1851, and in 1852 he established St. Ann’s Church in New York, especially for deaf persons - with services primarily in sign-language… This is so incredibly important! Once again, he is establishing a community for the deaf, so that none need be isolated. He is conducting the services in sign-language, just like his classes – so that the language and the culture it carries with it are so firmly entrenched that men like Fr. Giulio Tarra cannot rip it away. They may drive sign-language under-ground or into the closet, but it will remain all the same – and generations of Gallaudets will step forward to defend it.

I’m quite sure that Father Gallaudet refused to tolerate any of religion’s or science’s negative and prejudiced teachings to walk through the doors of St. Ann’s. No! Inside St. Ann’s, the birth of every deaf child was a blessing, and the child was possessed only by the Holy Spirit of Love. Every deaf person was a child of God; fully human, fully sentient, blessed with a good mind, a heart and a soul. Made to be loved, nurtured and brought to their full potential by the entire community of St. Ann’s Church… We will never know how many people Father Gallaudet rescued from isolation, how many people he rescued from ignorance, how many people he rescued from depression and suicide. But I can tell you, it was a significant number.

As a result of Father Gallaudet’s work, congregations for the deaf were established in many cities. Where the joyous scenes of St. Ann’s were played out over and over again.

No saint stands alone, he or she often has co-workers and their combined efforts often inspires others… This is true for this story as well. We began with Dr. Gallaudet, who passed the torch to his son (Reverend Gallaudet), and he in turn passed the torch to Reverend Henry Winter Syle.

Father Henry Winter Syle was deaf from a very early age. He was fortunate enough to be both a student of Reverend Gallaudet and a parishoner at St. Ann’s. Which means, he received an excellent education and strong community support. As a result he did not become one of those cast-off, ill-used and abused deaf men who cannot even read a newspaper. Far from it! Instead, he was empowered enough to attend Trinity College (Hartford, CT.), St. John’s (Cambridge, England) and Yale. This incredible academic achievement, alone, qualifies him to be a deaf-hero, but there’s much more. In 1876, he became the first deaf person to be ordained a priest by the Episcopal Church in the United States. He, too, established a congregation, a community for the deaf, in 1888.  And like his spiritual father, Reverend Gallaudet, Fr. Syle built a protective hedge around his community. He nurtured them, educated them and never allowed them to think of themselves as; handicapped, ignorant, less than human, stupid animals cursed by God. No. He gave them the gift of a happy and healthy self, an empowered self. He gave them each other. And He demonstrated the love of God for them, and he gave them a powerful and loving God.

Now, if Father Thomas Gallaudet and Father Henry Winter Syle were able to stand before you today, I can well imagine that they would say something to you like this;

    “Brothers and Sisters, we are honored that you have dedicated this celebration to remembering our hard work among you. We are grateful and we thank you very much – but the work we began while we were among you is not finished and there are some things we’d like for you to think about or to know about the deaf community today…”

First of all, we’d like for you to answer this question: Do you know any deaf people? If your answer is “no”, why not? There are millions of deaf people in America, where are they?

Can you name more than one deaf actor or actress? If you answer is “no”, why not?

And, do you know what happens when hearing parents first discover that their child is very hard of hearing or deaf? Their doctor begins to make appointments for the child with otologists, audiologists, speech therapists, perhaps even surgeons for cochlear-implantation… But the doctor will not speak to them about the necessity of learning American Sign Language (less than 20% of parents learn Sign Language or even learn to effectively communicate with their deaf child), the doctor will not mention anything about nearby deaf schools or deaf clubs. The doctor will not mention anything about the child’s need to be among other deaf children, to be among successful deaf adults, or the isolation and psychological devastation that child will feel if this need is not met.

Do you know, it is the law that every completely deaf child is forced to wear two hearing aids to school everyday – even though they do no earthly good at all? To the deaf child, this is very stigmatizing – much like the yellow star the Jews were forced to wear in Nazi Germany. It is a sign that they are handicapped, that they are not normal – that they are medicalized, a perpetual patient that has something wrong with them, something so wrong that it cannot be fixed.

Do you know, that most cochlear-implants are complete failures? That the deaf child who receives one of these mutilating and savaging surgeries, is still sent to speech therapists in order to learn to lip-read and to speak?… Do you know that the child who receives a cochlear implant has large, ugly scars and feels like “Frankenstein” – especially since most people can’t help but stare and other kids are cruel enough to make fun of them? Between the visits to the speech therapist, the ever present scars, and the stares of those around him, this child will always be painfully aware that Society thinks he is broken, Society thinks there is something WRONG with him and he needs to be fixed. This is called internalizing the handicap and failure label.

Do you know, that for some time now, deaf schools are being closed down and deaf children are being mainstreamed into ordinary schools? Imagine it, the child is the only deaf person in the class. Even if the child somehow has learned Sign Language, there is no interpreter provided – the child is expected to learn to lip-read and to read English, an impossible task without Sign Language to compare it to. The child doesn’t know how to communicate to the teacher, doesn’t understand what is going on in the classroom, has no way to communicate with other students and feels not only at a total loss, but feels like a stupid, handicapped, failure. Is it any wonder that most deaf children do not graduate from High-school, that most deaf adults cannot even read a newspaper? Is it any wonder that only 2 deaf children out of 100 will go on to college?… Is it any wonder that deaf people marry other deaf people? Is it any wonder that deaf people so very completely shun the company of hearing people?

Okay, so what can we do to demonstrate Christ’s reconciliation and love to this oppressed community who live within our country, but live within another culture so completely apart from our own? So close, yet so far away! What can we do?

The first step is stop looking at them as a “problem” that needs to be fixed. The deaf do not see themselves as handicapped, they see themselves as a linguistic minority and as a culture that simply has a different way of being. And so, when Jesus heals the deaf in the Scriptures, the deaf community understands those verses to mean that Jesus brought enlightenment and understanding to that person, not that he actually healed or “fixed” them.

The second step is to approach the deaf community in the spirit of love and reverence. Love, after all, is the universal language. For example, virtually everyone understands what a hug or a smile means… Jesus said: “The one who does not gather with me, scatters.”  Dr. Gallaudet and Reverend Gallaudet, and Fr. Henry Winter Syle were good workers within the harvest, they understood that love covers a multitude of sins, and so while they gathered their people together through Sign-language, they bound their people together with love.

These are the two most important steps out of so many that can be taken. These are the two that must be taken, even if no further steps are taken.

And, now, I say;

“Ephphatha”! Be opened!…

Let us all be opened to the understanding and enlightenment that only Christ can give. “Ephphatha”! Let all of our hearts be opened in a great outpouring of Christ’s love.

“Ephphatha”! Be opened!

Amen.