The Rev. Roger Bower

Deuteronomy 4:1-9 | Psalm 15 | Ephesians 6:10-20 | Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

Good morning everyone. Happy Labor Day to all of you. A special welcome to any visitors or guests who are with us for the first time. It is a joy to have you among us as we celebrate this Eucharist and we hope you and your family and friends have an enjoyable Labor Day weekend. Labor Day is a great time and wonderful opportunity to gather together. It means that summer is OVER! Right?! Fr. Robert had said in our first interviews, "In September and October the palm tree leaves turn a brilliant orange and yellow. You got to see it."

We gather on Labor Day weekend and take a break from our work year to pause and remind ourselves that every vocation and occupation whether it is street sweeping, janitorial, doctor or lawyer has honor and dignity and should be cherished. We should feel meaning and purpose in our lives for doing it. It is time for us to do some barbequing. Oh, and I saw a college football game and all is well! Jerry Lewis is on again for the 117^th time for the MDA telethon. It is just wonderful.

Holidays are a great time for priests since we tend to get invited to things. About 40 members gathered down at the beach and they asked Barbara and me to join them for Eucharist. Well, I did not tell Fr. Robert about this but we were going to have a bomb fire Eucharist. Me with fire! The Altar Guild did provide everything needed including a fire extinguisher. The folks that invited us did not know I had done a beach Eucharist before in Galveston, Texas. It was wonderful. As I was preaching I picked up the bread and the Holy Spirit came with a big gush of wind and all those wafers just flew away. Let's just say communion was a little extra crunchy that day.

Holiday weekends are also times in our nation's history that special things have happened, momentous occasions have happened. Forty years ago, this Labor Day weekend, a man named Dr. Martin Luther King gave one of the most famous speeches in our nation's history. He gave the "I have dream" speech. In it he said this, "My friends, I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed. Hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal. I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood. I have a dream that even one day the state of Mississippi, a desert state sweltering in the heat of injustice and impression will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but the content of their character." Dream is what he said forty years ago this weekend.

I think he understood what the Gospel message was about this weekend. Deacon Margaret proclaimed the Gospel to us from the Gospel of St. Mark. Jesus was sitting down at a table with his friends. Remember who his friends were, tax-collectors, prostitutes and the low life of society. He sat down at the table to eat a meal and some religious type person like me walked up and said, "Aaaa! You did not wash your hands or dry the cups the right way." You can just see him shaking his head saying, "Good grief. Are you nuts? It is not about what is on the outside that matters it is the inside which matters. It is what is going on in my heart."

It is the dream that Jesus had for all of us two thousand years past his time. He had a dream that you and I would know that it is the interior of our hearts that matter. Our relationship with God and each other that matters not the color of our skin, nationality or culture. It is what we are and who we are to one another that matters. That was his dream and that was Dr. Martin Luther King's dream.

Let's check a little bit of reality. Last five years in a country called the Suddain, hundred thousands of men, women and children have been slaughtered because they are Christians. In the last few years in a country called Liberia, tens of thousands have been killed because they are not of the right ethnic or cultural group. Wednesday this last week in a country called Iraq, eighty-five people lost their lives because they were not in the right department of the sect in their religious community and a bomb blew up in front of a mass. In the Middle East, in Israel, the last couple of weeks over fifty people have lost their lives because of bomb attacks, suicide attacks simply because they are Palestinian or Israel. It does not matter people are killing themselves all over the place. Tremendous trauma in our world.

Do not think we are safe from all this in America. Did you know that every single year, dozens of people are killed by hate crimes? Because of the color of their skin, the religiosity, their sexuality. And we call ourselves a Godly nation? What are we to do? How are we to be in the mix of this?

I suggest you look at the second reading for this morning. Paul's letter to the Ephesians. My reading of this tells me there are five things or characteristics of how we should be and what we should do in the midst of this strife and difficulty.

First of all we need to know as people of God that our struggle is not against one another, not against person to person but a struggle of spiritual dimension. The Bible tells us our struggle is not against the enemies of blood and flesh but against rulers, authorities, against the cosmic powers in this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. It is a spiritual battle. I say that not to over dramatize it but to put the reality in to it that this is a spiritual thing going on. So what are we to do?

Paul says there are a number of things we aught to do. First thing is we are to put on the belt of truth. That is the first characteristic I would like to share with you in our dealing with what is going on in our world and our nation we aught to be a Christian people of truth. What is a belt for? It holds up your pants. It holds us together. It binds us in a way that keeps us from being vulnerable. We are called to be people of truth. To be true to who we are and who God calls us to be. To be honest and have integrity and honor. As you look in the mirror every day, did you tell the truth today? Did you act the truth? Did you speak and live the truth? We are called to be people who are simply honest.

I can't tell you of all the articles of all the celebrities, politicians and others who have disappointed us because they are not honest. Our people are hungry for honesty and integrity and we are called to be people of truth.

Second thing, Paul says not only are we to be people of truth but we are to put on the breastplate of righteousness. I figure a breastplate from a soldier back in the middle-ages, was a big metal device that protected the most ingredient part of your body, your heart. Do we protect our heart? Do we put on the armor of right living to protect the most precious thing in our lives that is our soul and heart?

In our first reading from the book of Deuteronomy, we are called to observe the commandments diligently, for this will show your wisdom and discernment to the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, "Surely, this great nation is a wise and discerning people!" For what other great nation has a god so neat to it as the LORD our God is whenever we call to him? Are we living rightly? What do you watch on TV? What do you listen to on the radio? What websites do you travel to on the internet? We are called to cherish and protect our heart and protect the teachings that we need to pass on to our children. We need to hang on to those things that make us Godly people. Guess what, what have we been doing the last two weeks in Alabama? We have been arguing whether we should keep the monument of the Ten Commandments in a Federal court building. I must be missing something. We are called to have the God near to us. We say, "In God We Trust." We are called to keep the Lord near to us and act rightly.

How many of you have a nightstand near your bed? What do you all have on your nightstand? Who said the Bible? Good, you get extra communion. We keep magazines, TV remotes but how many keep the Bible? When you travel do you keep the word of God near you? I thought about that since we are going to the beach today and remind myself to bring the Bible with us.

We are called to act rightly. Be people of righteousness. At the end of today, before you go to bed, ask yourselves, did you act rightly today?

The next thing says to do whatever it takes to put on shoes so you can proclaim the Gospel of peace. How many of you come here worried, traumatized; taxes, family that is going nuts? How many of us are worried about illnesses, coming here with heavy hearts asking for God's healing? We come with anxiety. In my experience there are hundreds of people feeling that. Barbara and I went to Costco yesterday to prepare for the beach. That is just the most fun place on earth. Lots of people with their full baskets zooming around the store. By the time we left we were feeling the vibration of everybody. The anxiety level was high. These people were driving around with these packages of fifty-seven rolls of toilet paper. In the same basket they would have a car tire and a package of frozen taquitos. What is all of that about? Like the world is going to end. Anxiety level around the world.

I have talked with some of our friends and do you get the sense also that people are just like scattered. Just trying to make it through life. Get all our ducks in a row. Now as for us parents with this week of school starting, we are all insane. In the scope of things, God calls us to the Gospel of peace. It says in the scriptures, "Be still and know that I am God."

At the end of Eucharist Father Certain will give a blessing and part of the Episcopal blessing is, "May the peace of God passes all understanding, guard your hearts and your minds and love in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." For those of you that are anxious and those who have come here worried or burdened, this is a place of rest. Even with sermonizer like me. A place of rest. To know you are covered by the Lord.

Julian of Noridge said, "In all manner of things, all is well."

Fourth thing says we are to put on a shield of faith. Shields protect from the darts, arrows and spears from life. How many of us come here battered and tired? We are wondering if this is all life is about. I can't take all the stuff coming at me. Illnesses, job insecurity, relationships and other things. We are called here to celebrate our faith and hold hands with one another and say that we do not have the answers to all life's questions but if I hold your hand we will be okay. I have faith in you.

Jesus said in John's Gospel, "Do not let your hearts be troubled, have faith in God and also in me." We are called to celebrate that today and remind ourselves of the necessity of never, ever giving up. Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end and will see us through all things as long as we are faithful.

Lastly, it says we need to have on the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. We are called to put on the helmet of salvation, to know and to protect in our hearts that Jesus said, "I am the way. I am the truth. I am the light." We are called to be continual learners and the word for learner in discipline. We are called to be disciples.

Deacon Margaret has worked tirelessly over the summer to prepare a tremendous package of programs and ministries for this fall that will begin next week. We have things on Sunday mornings and Wednesday afternoons for our younger angels and in the evening we will gather for Eucharist and fellowship with continued learning for the adults. Will you be there? I will! I need you. I need to learn from you. Please join us.

Put on that helmet of salvation and continue to learn what it is like to be a disciple of Christ. Put on that sword which is the word of God. Be rooted in the scriptures; be rooted in what the Bible says on how to live our lives. Be rooted in that sword of the Spirit to know that God is with us at all times. To know that Jesus is our savior and that we have been covered by the cross.

Reminds me of a story about a young boy who was going to public school and not doing so well. He was failing all his classes so Mom and Dad sent him to a private Catholic school. He got there and in six weeks, straight A's. Even his worst subjects like math. A+! Mom and Dad had to ask what the difference was and he said, "As soon as I saw that man up there on that plus sign I knew they meant business." He knew something internally. Jesus was the savior and had come to set us free.

What's the message? If we act truthfully, we are righteous if we come to celebrate peace. If we come to gather with the shield of faith and remind us to put on the helmet of salvation and carry the word of God as the sword of the Spirit, we know that God will protect us. You are so special and valuable to God that he gave the best that he had, his son, to set you free. Now it is our vocation, our labor on the Labor Day weekend to celebrate that and rejoice in that. To transform our lives and to accept the Lord as our Savior and to transform our families, churches, nations and our world. We can do it if we live by truthfulness, righteous, peace and faithfulness and know that we carry the word of God with us. We know that we can be about good work.

Father Certain told us last week, it is our choice. The Bible says I have put before you the choice; life, death the blessing, choose life all the time. That work will set us free because of the grace that God gives to us. Amen