PROPER 12, YEAR C

July 27, 2025

Saints Matthew and Mark, Barrington, R. I.

 

Genesis 18:20-32

Luke 11:1-13

 

A key theme in today’s Scripture readings is persistence in prayer. These passages also demonstrate that God can be trusted to show mercy and love when we persevere in asking Him for what is truly in our hearts.

 

The Old Testament reading from Genesis picks up where last week’s left off. Last Sunday, the Lord appeared to Abraham and Sarah in the form of three visitors and accepted their hospitality. Today, the three proceed toward the infamous cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to investigate reports of their sin and immorality.

 

Fearing for his nephew Lot, who lives in Sodom, Abraham pleads with the Lord: Suppose there are fifty righteous people in the city. Far be it from the Lord to destroy the righteous along with the wicked! Will the Lord not spare the city for the sake of the fifty? When the Lord agrees, Abraham doesn’t stop. He keeps repeating the question, each time lowering the number to 45, 40, 30, 20, and finally ten. And each time, the Lord agrees, ending with, “For the sake of the ten, I will not destroy it.”

 

This exchange is often likened to two people haggling over a price in a Middle Eastern bazaar. It’s unclear, however, whether Abraham actually persuades the Lord to do anything He wouldn’t do on His own anyway. It’s possible that even without Abraham’s intercession, the Lord would still spare Sodom if he found as few as ten righteous people there. 

 

Abraham seems to understand that God is not a deity who destroys the righteous on account of the wicked, but rather one who spares the wicked on account of the righteous. This shows the depth of God’s love and mercy—He accepts the offering of a faithful few on behalf of a multitude that is neither faithful nor righteous.

 

Even so, Abraham is by no means wrong to make his prayer to the Lord. And so we see the Lord bearing with Abraham, patiently answering all his questions—because God delights in our reaching out to Him with our hearts’ deepest desires.

 

Today’s Gospel highlights this same theme. Jesus encourages His disciples: “Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.” In other words, be bold in your prayers. Don’t hold anything back.

 

It’s important to recognize the humor in many of our Lord’s sayings. It’s a mistake to think of Jesus as always being serious and solemn. So, in today’s Gospel, he offers his disciples two tongue-in-cheek examples of the need for perseverance in prayer.

 

When you go to a friend’s house at midnight asking for three loaves of bread to entertain an unexpected guest, even if your friend refuses to get up because he’s your friend, your persistent knocking will eventually convince him to attend to your request so that you’ll go away and let him get back to sleep. And, our Lord is saying, we should be just as persistent in our prayers.

 

But then, to correct any impression that God is like a bad-tempered neighbor who needs to be pestered to the point of distraction to give us what we need, Jesus provides another example. God is like a loving father who delights in giving good gifts to his children. “Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion?”

 

The kicker comes at the end: “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” Why does Jesus mention the Holy Spirit at this moment? Because this is the ultimate fulfillment of the disciples’ initial request: “Lord, teach us to pray, as John [the Baptist] taught his disciples.” Only the Holy Spirit can teach us to pray for the right things in the right way. We cannot ask for any greater gift. 

 

In a few minutes, we shall be administering the Sacrament of Holy Baptism. There, Ari’elle will receive this same gift of the Holy Spirit. The prayer that I will say at the baptismal font includes the affirmation that by the water of baptism we are “reborn by the Holy Spirit.” Again, when I mark the sign of the cross on Ari’elle’s forehead, I will say the words, “You are sealed by the Holy Spirit in baptism, and marked as Christ’s own forever.”

 

One of the Holy Spirit’s gifts is precisely the gift of persistence and perseverance, not only in prayer but in the entire Christian life.  One of the promises that we make in the Baptismal Covenant is to “persevere in resisting evil, and whenever [we] fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord.” And again, at the end of the baptism, I will read a prayer asking God to grant Ari’elle, among other things, “the courage to will and to persevere.”

 

Persistence in the Christian life—keeping our baptismal promises—is a gift that God gives us through the Holy Spirit. Remember, in the Genesis reading, that the Lord said he would spare Sodom if he found a faithful remnant of only ten people there. The virtue of perseverance is what enables the faithful remnant in any community to continue to serve the Lord when others fall away. 

 

This theme of the faithful remnant recurs throughout the Old Testament. Observant Jews are called to be the faithful remnant within Israel; Israel is called to be the faithful remnant among the nations. And it finds its ultimate fulfillment on the cross, where God the Father accepts the self-offering of his Son Jesus, the only truly righteous man who’s ever lived, on behalf of the rest of us. In that sense, Jesus is the faithful remnant of humanity, whose obedience redeems and reconciles a fallen world.

 

This idea of the faithful remnant applies no less to the life of parish communities. Since my arrival here last December, I’ve heard more than a few parishioners lament the good old days before the pandemic when the church was packed on Sunday mornings. That all changed in March 2020. When we began to come out of the pandemic a year or so later, a good number of parishioners resumed attending, but not as many as before.

 

It may be, however, that our smaller congregations constitute the faithful remnant by which God will ensure that this parish not only survives but also grows and flourishes. So, whenever we feel tempted to despair because of declining numbers, we can hold onto this thought: when we persevere in prayer, worship, and Christian service, God is using us as a faithful remnant to fulfill His purposes not only for this parish but also for the wider Church, the community, and the world. And it’s into this glorious calling that we welcome Ari’elle today.

 

PROPER 11, YEAR C

July 20, 2025

Saints Matthew and Mark, Barrington, R.I.

 

Genesis 18:1-4

Luke 10:38-42

 

Today’s readings highlight the theme of hospitality. In Genesis, we see Abraham and his wife Sarah preparing a meal for three mysterious visitors who stop by outside their tent at the oaks of Mamre—near the town of Hebron in today’s West Bank. In the Gospel reading from Saint Luke, Martha and her sister Mary graciously welcome Jesus and his disciples into their home as they arrive in their village during their travels.

 

By the way, the beautiful mosaic on the bulletin cover shows Abraham, Sarah, and the three visitors. In Jewish tradition, these three visitors are sometimes seen as angels. The Christian tradition takes it a step further by viewing them as a visible representation of the three Persons of the Holy Trinity: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. As the story unfolds beyond today’s reading, one of the three visitors stays behind to talk with Abraham. The text explicitly names this visitor as “the Lord.” So, the traditional Christian interpretation might not be too far-fetched after all.

 

If this interpretation is accurate, it follows that the Jesus who visits Mary and Martha in the Gospel is the very same person as the second of the three mysterious visitors who appeared to Abraham and Sarah centuries earlier. In the Gospel, he’s the incarnate Son of God; in the Christian reading of the story in Genesis, he’s the Second Person of the Holy Trinity. So, the most profound connection between these two stories is that the same divine visitor appears in both. 

 

Both stories reveal intriguing similarities in their structure, beginning with the warm welcome given by the hosts. In each story, there are two hosts offering hospitality: on one hand, Abraham and Sarah; on the other, Martha and Mary.

 

In both cases, the hosts strive to make their guests feel at home. Abraham and Sarah lovingly prepare a meal of cakes, curds, milk, and a calf for their three visitors. Similarly, Saint Luke tells us that Martha is busy “with much serving,” preparing dinner not just for three but for thirteen—our Lord and his twelve disciples. These stories effectively emphasize the virtues of hospitality, which involves welcoming and caring for guests, whether they are friends or strangers.

 

In both stories, moreover, the visitors are not just passive recipients of the hospitality. They actively deliver a message or word to their hosts. In the case of Abraham and Sarah, this word takes the form of a promise of a miraculous birth of a son to a formerly childless couple well past childbearing years. In the case of Martha and Mary, Luke doesn’t tell us what Jesus is saying, only that Mary sits at the Lord’s feet and listens to his teaching. By doing so, she is fulfilling an essential part of Middle Eastern hospitality, which involves not only attending to the guests’ physical needs for food and drink but also giving personal attention to the guests themselves.

 

In both stories, one of the hosts voices an objection. In the verses immediately following today’s reading from Genesis, Sarah laughs to herself and scoffs at the ridiculous idea that, in her old age, she will still conceive and bear a son. And in the Gospel reading, Martha complains that the Lord doesn’t seem to care that her sister Mary has left her to serve dinner alone: “Tell her then to help me!” 

 

But in both cases, the objection is overruled. The Lord asks Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh? … Is anything too hard for the Lord? … I will return to you in the spring, and Sarah shall have a son.” Similarly, Jesus gently rebukes Martha with the words: “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.”

 

Ultimately, the core of both promises is the assurance of eternal life. Abraham and Sarah live in a time and culture that lacks any well-developed concept of a personal afterlife, so their only hope of living on after death is through their descendants. The Lord’s promise of a son, therefore, represents a promise of salvation and immortality.

 

Similarly, the Church has traditionally understood the Lord’s words, “Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her,” as pointing to the life of the world to come. In this understanding, Martha represents the active life of service and good works in this world, while Mary represents the contemplative life of prayer and adoration. Sitting at the Lord’s feet and imbibing his wisdom, Mary experiences a foretaste of heaven. And that is “the better part, which will not be taken away from her.”

 

But it would be wrong to conclude that the contemplative life is inherently superior to the active life. One key message of today’s readings is that welcoming guests and extending hospitality is entirely good, worthwhile, and praiseworthy. The author of the Letter to the Hebrews writes: “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares”—a clear reference to today’s Old Testament reading.

Martha’s problem is not that her work in the kitchen is less worthy than Mary’s sitting at the Lord’s feet, but rather that she’s “worried and distracted about many things.” This worry and distraction make her jealous and resentful. Many spiritual teachers in the Christian tradition have testified that even the most menial and mundane tasks, that might otherwise seem sheer drudgery, can become a form of prayer, as long as we keep our attention focused on the Lord and perform these tasks joyfully for His sake. Brother Lawrence wrote in his spiritual classic, The Practice of the Presence of God, of experiencing the highest levels of contemplative prayer while washing dishes, pots, and pans in the monastery kitchen.

 

Today’s readings remind us not to let worries and distractions prevent us from listening for the Lord’s voice, trusting His promises, and receiving His blessings. In a parish like ours, we have many opportunities for service. But the essential activity, that needs to stay at the center of everything, is what we’re doing together here and now: worshiping the Lord, listening to His Word, and receiving His gifts. Whether we kneel to pray, stand to sing, or sit to listen, we are choosing the better part, which will not be taken away from us.

 

PROPER 10, YEAR C

July 13, 2025

Saints Matthew & Mark, Barrington, R.I.

 

Luke 10:25-37

 

At the beginning of today’s Gospel, a lawyer asks Jesus: “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” It’s a pressing question. Suppose we are open to the possibility of an afterlife, without assuming it’s automatic. In that case, the question becomes even more significant for each of us: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”

 

Once again, the person asking the question is a lawyer. In the world of the New Testament, that term had a slightly different meaning than it does today. A lawyer was a religious official knowledgeable in the Jewish Law, the Torah. Instead of answering directly, however, Jesus responds with a question of his own. And no question could be more fitting for a lawyer: “What is written in the Law? What do you read there?”

 

The lawyer responds by reciting the verses: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus commends the lawyer: “You have given the right answer. Do this, and you will live.”

 

The exchange could easily end there. But the lawyer wants more: “to justify himself.” Consider what this means. He could admit the difficulty of fulfilling the commandment he just recited: Who’s capable of loving God and neighbor so fully? Who can be saved? But instead, he seeks the affirmation that he’s truly entitled to eternal life. To achieve that, however, he must restrict and limit his obligations to his fellow human beings. So, in classic lawyerly fashion, he draws a legal distinction: “And who is my neighbor?”

 

Instead of answering the question directly, our Lord responds by telling the parable of the Good Samaritan. A traveler is going down from Jerusalem to Jericho. Jerusalem is situated high up in the Judean hills; Jericho is located far below in the Jordan Valley. Descending from an elevation of 2,500 feet above sea level to 800 feet below sea level over eighteen miles, the Roman road from Jerusalem to Jericho was winding and treacherous, with many good hiding spots for bandits to ambush lone travelers. And sure enough, robbers attack the man, strip him, beat him, and leave him half dead by the roadside.

A priest walking down the road sees the man lying there and quickly walks past on the other side. Now, let’s consider the lawyer’s reactions as Jesus tells the story. Most likely, this priest has just finished his shift at the Temple in Jerusalem. His response is not entirely surprising. He may fear that he will also be attacked if he lingers in this isolated spot. Additionally, any contact with a dead body, even with blood, would make him ceremonially unclean, requiring lengthy purification rituals before he could serve as a priest again. So, while not excusable, it’s understandable that he chooses to ignore him and hurries on. And the lawyer might be thinking, “Well, of course, what do you expect from a priest?”

 

Next, a Levite comes along. Levites are also functionaries in the Temple, serving as sort of assistant priests. A bit like deacons. So, for the same kinds of reasons, it’s not surprising that the Levite also passes by on the other side of the road. And again, the lawyer is probably thinking, “Well, what do you expect from a Levite?”

 

So, who do you think the lawyer is expecting to come down the road next? Why, a lawyer, of course! He’ll do the right thing. That would be the perfect ending! So we can imagine the lawyer’s shock and disappointment when the story’s hero turns out not to be a lawyer but a Samaritan, a hated enemy of the Jewish people.

 

Now, remember that the lawyer’s question was, “Who is my neighbor? But at the end of the story, Jesus rephrases and reframes the question. He doesn’t ask, “Who was the Good Samaritan’s neighbor?” but rather, “Which of these three, do you think, proved neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?”

 

Simply put, Jesus is telling the lawyer: You’re not among those passing by who could help.  You’re the one lying half dead in the ditch. You’re the one who needs help.” So, to return to the lawyer’s original question, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” The answer is, “You can’t do anything to inherit eternal life. You can only receive it as a gift from God having mercy on you, just as the Good Samaritan had mercy on the fallen traveler.”

 

The lawyer aimed to justify himself, but Jesus’s point is that self-justification is impossible; we can't earn salvation through our own efforts. Instead, like wounded travelers, we need help—represented by the Good Samaritan, who symbolizes Jesus: rejected yet compassionate, tending our wounds and bringing us to safety.

 

The early Church Fathers developed a fascinating allegorical interpretation of the parable. The traveler falling among robbers symbolizes the Fall of Adam. The priest and the Levite passing by on the other side of the road represent the failure of the old religions to save fallen humanity. The Good Samaritan coming near represents Jesus coming down from heaven; the animal on which he places the traveler to carry him symbolizes the human body in which Jesus bears the burdens of our sins.

 

Finally, the inn where the Good Samaritan takes the wounded traveler is the Church. Notice that the Samaritan gives the innkeeper a substantial sum of money and tells him, “Take care of him, and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.” The Church is thus the inn where Jesus provides for us to be fed, nurtured, and cared for until He returns at the end of time.

 

We often think of the Church as the place where we reach out with compassion to those in need. And yes, so it is, and so it should be. However, this parable teaches us that the Church is first and foremost the place where we receive the forgiveness, healing, and care we need. Only when we admit our desperation and helplessness can we see Jesus as the Good Samaritan who comes to help us and save us. And only then can we even begin to fulfill his command to “go and do likewise.”

PROPER 9, YEAR C

Sunday, July 6, 2025

Saints Matthew and Mark, Barrington, R. I.

 

Isaiah 66:10-14

Psalm 66:1-8

Galatians 6:1-16

Luke 10:1-11, 16-20

 

Lately, it seems that we’re being inundated with a never-ending stream of bad news, leaving many of us feeling discouraged and demoralized. This morning, we woke up to reports of more than fifty people drowned by floods in Texas, including fifteen children, with something like twenty more children still missing.

 

Overseas, dozens more people are being killed each day in Gaza—many if not most of them innocent civilians, women, and children—in the midst of a humanitarian disaster of starvation and disease that defies imagination. Meanwhile, the war between Russia and Ukraine seems as far from a diplomatic solution as ever, with daily drone strikes and missile attacks wreaking death and devastation among Ukraine’s civilian population in particular.

 

As for the current administration’s policies in this country, well, I recognize that we may have differences of opinion within this parish, as within the wider Diocese of Rhode Island and Episcopal Church. But I’m duty-bound to acknowledge that many among us are experiencing dismay at what seems an unrelenting tide of disturbing developments threatening to undermine the very foundations of democracy and the rule of law that we celebrate during this Fourth of July holiday.

 

Others among us may disagree with that diagnosis. And we all have a right to our opinions. But here we encounter more bad news. Americans are more divided than at any time in living memory. In some cases, people stop talking to one another, and friendships and family ties are broken, on account of political and ideological differences. So there’s plenty of bad news to go around.

 

The problem is, however, that the bad news all too easily comes to occupy our entire field of vision. Some of my friends and relations are so consumed by anger and indignation at everything happening in the world today that they seem unable to think or talk about anything else.

And that is a problem, because as Christians we’re called to see everything in the context of a bigger picture: namely, the Good News of God’s salvation. The Good News, that is, of what God has done for us in the past, of what he’s promised us in the future, and of what he continues to do for us in the present, even here and now, in our very midst. So, without discounting the reality or importance of the bad news of everything that’s wrong with the world, Christians are nonetheless called to be people whose lives are dominated by the Good News of the Gospel of Christ.

 

Today’s readings draw our attention to this good news. And it’s crucial to recognize that these passages were often written in the context of political, economic, and military challenges, even catastrophes, that gave God’s people as much if not more reason for despair as anything facing us today. Nonetheless, the biblical writers constantly proclaim the Good News of God’s salvation.

 

The reading from Isaiah calls on the people to rejoice with Jerusalem and “be glad for her, all you who love her.” At the time he said this, however, Jerusalem lay in ruins, and its inhabitants were living in exile in Babylon. Still, the prophet proclaims God’s good news: “As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.” The psalm re-echoes the theme, not just for Jerusalem, but for all the nations: “Be joyful in God all you lands … Come now and see the works of God, how wonderful he is in his doings towards all peoples.”

 

In the Gospel reading, Jesus commissions seventy disciples to go ahead of him into the towns and villages of Galilee. (Incidentally, that’s a representation of the seventy on the cover of today’s bulletin.) And he gives them a specific message of good news to relay wherever they go: “Whatever house you enter, first say ‘Peace to this house’…” and “Whenever you enter a town … say to them, ‘The Kingdom of God has come near to you.’”

 

Moreover, Jesus commissions the seventy not merely to proclaim the good news of peace and the kingdom drawing near, but also to help bring it about. He commands them to eat and drink with the inhabitants of the towns they visit, and then to cure the sick people that they find there. On returning from their mission, they report their success: “Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us.” (In this case, the demons were the spirits believed to cause illness and disease. In other words, the prayers for healing had the desired effect.)

 

In the same way, in the Church we’re called not only to proclaim the good news, but also to be the good news—a community of love, fellowship, and active concern for those in need. In this way, our life together conveys something of God’s peace and God’s kingdom to all who come into contact with us.

 

Saint Paul describes the kind of community we’re called to be in today’s reading from his Letter to the Galatians. “Let us not grow weary in doing what is right …” and “whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all, and especially for those of the family of faith.”

 

But before we can communicate the Good News to others, whether in word or in deed, we need to hear it and take it on board ourselves. As Saint Paul also says in today’s Epistle, we reap whatever we sow, either corruption from the flesh, or eternal life from the Spirit.

 

And as Jesus says to the seventy after they return from their mission, “Do not rejoice in this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” And that’s the best news of all: God has written all our names in his Book of Life! So long as we don’t do anything by our own free choice to cause our names to be blotted out from that book, our destiny is to spend eternity with God in heaven. And that’s the Good News that gives us the courage and strength we need to keep on doing what’s right, loving God and our neighbor, no matter what bad news this world may throw at us.