Sermons from St. Mike's CdM
Nov 26, 2023 |
Sunday, November 26, 2023 - Christ the King
| Father Shane Scott-Hamblen
Sunday, November 26, 2023 - Christ the King
View PDF - The Rev'd Shane Scott-Hamblen, ThD, preaches.
Nov 04, 2023 |
Saturday, November 4, 2023 - Celebration of a New Ministry
| The Rt. Rev. John H. Taylor
Saturday, November 4, 2023 - Celebration of a New Ministry
View PDF - The Right Rev’d John Harvey Taylor, DD, Bishop of Los Angeles at the Celebration of a New Ministry inducting The Rev'd Shane Scott-Hamblen, ThD, as the Fourth Rector of St. Michael and All Angels in Corona del Mar, California.
Transcript:
In this beautiful liturgy, we’ve heard words to remember well and take back out into the world – because if we don’t, the world will be poorer for it, and we will grieve the heart of our risen Savior.
During the first part of our service, we entered into a contract – we offered our mutual consent – the wardens presented Shane to be your fourth rector – and Shane consented – and I consented – and we did it all in the presence of his mother, Linda, which lent additional significance to the proceedings.
And then I was given to say these words: “Let us proceed in peace” – and the people of God promised in the name of Christ that they would.
I just want to make sure that bit didn’t go over your head – that we had all promised before the throne of God – and Linda -- to proceed in peace.
As usual at the end of the service -- we’ll be bidden to go forth in peace – but today we get a double measure of peace – and we need it desperately.
In the church, beginning with All Hallow’s Eve on Tuesday – All Saints Day on Wednesday – All Souls Day on Thursday – All Saints Sunday tomorrow – in the Christian church it’s been a festive long weekend with all the saints, including this celebration at St. Michael and All Angels right in the middle.
I’ve gone from service to service – hearing the All Saints readings describing the glorious unity of heaven – and I’ve been unable to evade the image of children massacred in kibbutzim in Israel -- children buried under rubble in Gaza after rocket attacks – children now all raised and robed in white, encircling the throne of the lamb, enfolded into the heart of God’s love, and pleading with us in the name of God to stop.
Perhaps we heard their voices in the sweet music this morning – in the descant of our processional hymn – “Help us to adore him!” – or as we joined in chanting the psalm -- “For the peace of Jerusalem pray: Peace be to your homes! May peace reign in your walls, in your palaces, peace.”
Let us reckon that as the children’s choir of Israel and Gaza singing to us.
As antisemitism spikes on college campuses – as members of the House of Representatives introduce legislation banning Palestinians from the United States – may we go forth this morning singing a different song.
As some people find it hard to hold two truths simultaneously – that Hamas committed an unjustifiable act of terrorism and that the occupation of the West Bank must end – we Anglicans will keep singing in harmony -- looking for the middle way –proceeding in peace, notwithstanding our differences of outlook and background.
Of course, our Lord knows we’ll be tested – and so does your rector.
First formed in faith in the heartland of America – the only Episcopal priest, as far as I know, ordained and consecrated by Pope Benedict – a former monk who has ably served congregations in Indianapolis, New York, London, and Foster City, whose St. Ambrose parish is well represented today – Fr. Shane knows that our capacity to be peacemakers will be tested each day.
“My son, if you want to serve the Lord, prepare yourself for an ordeal” – the rector’s motto!
That’s from the passage in the Apocrypha that Fr. Shane’s son Simon proclaimed.
It goes for vestry members and wardens, too – for members of the altar guild, for choir members, for congregants, for bishops.
And we heard these words as well -- “Let us love one another” – theoretically, this is all we should ever have to hear – it’s the peacemaker’s credo, to begin with love – with an expectation that everyone, in the end, wants the same thing – to belong and to be treated with dignity – that everyone, most of the time, is doing the best they can.
We have so much capacity for love; but it’s so simple to convince ourselves that we should hold it in reserve.
Pickle read our passage from the first letter of John – she’s a native Angelina and graduate of Hamilton High School Academy of Music and Sarah Lawrence College – the City of West Hollywood named her in June as its first drag queen laureate.
It’s actually a privilege to have Pickle read the word of God for us morning – the week before last, demonstrators in San Fernando weren’t as welcoming as St. Michael’s – they made it impossible for her to enter the public library in San Fernando to keep an appointment to read to children.
They didn’t just demonstrate – they wouldn’t let her enter the building – and this was in the United States of America.
Because sometimes fear crowds out love – anger persuades us to withhold it – bigotry smoothers it.
And if you’re like me, you’re tested every day.
Bidden on Saturday or Sunday to proceed in peace, on Monday we gird for war.
Tip O’Neill, speaker of the House of Representatives in the seventies, was a politician from Boston who famously said, “All politics is local.”
The same can be said about our lives in faith – think of the words Simon read out about the ordeal of serving the Lord righteously when the going gets tough – think of it as a warning about our tendency to put an internal regulator on our love and neighborliness – even when the people who need us most are not in Jerusalem and Gaza, but right here.
Politics is local – Jesus is local – love is local.
How then is my heart to be tested as I go about my day?
How deep is my personal reservoir of love – forgiveness – humility – grace – curiosity?
If you approach me, I had better smile and say hello, wondering why God has put us on coinciding paths.
If you make a mistake, I had better not make you feel bad.
If you ask to pull in front of me on the freeway, I’d better let you.
If you have a weak moment and say something unkind to me, I’d better hold my tongue instead of replying in kind.
If you’re hungry or homeless or addicted or mentally unwell on the street, and you can ask me for a dollar, I’d better give it to you.
If a thought about you pops into my head, I’d better wonder why and give you a call.
God also tests the hearts of institutions to seek how broadly we construe neighborliness.
That’s one reason we’ve committed to building affordable housing on 25% of our 133 mission and parish campuses – aiming to give up to 5,000 neighbors we haven’t met yet places to lay their heads.
I know that Fr. Shane and the vestry are discerning carefully about the immense capacity for love baked into your real estate here along the coast – please know that I understand the challenges you face and will walk with you each step of the way.
But back to the step into a new season of ministry that Fr. Shane takes today.
In a bit of liturgical theater, I handed him the gospel just as the attendant – in the synagogue in Nazareth, the gospel says – just as the attendant handed our Lord the scroll containing the words of the prophet of Isaiah – which Shane proclaimed as Jesus had.
“Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing”; and we have been anointed to proclaim it as well.
It takes very little work to paraphrase Isaiah’s words for our times – Jesus proclaims good news for the poor and unhoused – release of those imprisoned because of addiction or mental illness – recovery of sight for the eyes of our hearts so our innate love is finally unobstructed – freedom and dignity for those all oppressed because of race or nationhood, orientation or identification.
We won’t accomplish all this during Shane’s rectorship – it is and ever will be the work of all the faithful to take up in their ways and in their times – all according to God’s unchanging purposes.
But we’ll make a good head start if we can just figure out how to proceed from here this morning in peace.
Transcript:
In this beautiful liturgy, we’ve heard words to remember well and take back out into the world – because if we don’t, the world will be poorer for it, and we will grieve the heart of our risen Savior.
During the first part of our service, we entered into a contract – we offered our mutual consent – the wardens presented Shane to be your fourth rector – and Shane consented – and I consented – and we did it all in the presence of his mother, Linda, which lent additional significance to the proceedings.
And then I was given to say these words: “Let us proceed in peace” – and the people of God promised in the name of Christ that they would.
I just want to make sure that bit didn’t go over your head – that we had all promised before the throne of God – and Linda -- to proceed in peace.
As usual at the end of the service -- we’ll be bidden to go forth in peace – but today we get a double measure of peace – and we need it desperately.
In the church, beginning with All Hallow’s Eve on Tuesday – All Saints Day on Wednesday – All Souls Day on Thursday – All Saints Sunday tomorrow – in the Christian church it’s been a festive long weekend with all the saints, including this celebration at St. Michael and All Angels right in the middle.
I’ve gone from service to service – hearing the All Saints readings describing the glorious unity of heaven – and I’ve been unable to evade the image of children massacred in kibbutzim in Israel -- children buried under rubble in Gaza after rocket attacks – children now all raised and robed in white, encircling the throne of the lamb, enfolded into the heart of God’s love, and pleading with us in the name of God to stop.
Perhaps we heard their voices in the sweet music this morning – in the descant of our processional hymn – “Help us to adore him!” – or as we joined in chanting the psalm -- “For the peace of Jerusalem pray: Peace be to your homes! May peace reign in your walls, in your palaces, peace.”
Let us reckon that as the children’s choir of Israel and Gaza singing to us.
As antisemitism spikes on college campuses – as members of the House of Representatives introduce legislation banning Palestinians from the United States – may we go forth this morning singing a different song.
As some people find it hard to hold two truths simultaneously – that Hamas committed an unjustifiable act of terrorism and that the occupation of the West Bank must end – we Anglicans will keep singing in harmony -- looking for the middle way –proceeding in peace, notwithstanding our differences of outlook and background.
Of course, our Lord knows we’ll be tested – and so does your rector.
First formed in faith in the heartland of America – the only Episcopal priest, as far as I know, ordained and consecrated by Pope Benedict – a former monk who has ably served congregations in Indianapolis, New York, London, and Foster City, whose St. Ambrose parish is well represented today – Fr. Shane knows that our capacity to be peacemakers will be tested each day.
“My son, if you want to serve the Lord, prepare yourself for an ordeal” – the rector’s motto!
That’s from the passage in the Apocrypha that Fr. Shane’s son Simon proclaimed.
It goes for vestry members and wardens, too – for members of the altar guild, for choir members, for congregants, for bishops.
And we heard these words as well -- “Let us love one another” – theoretically, this is all we should ever have to hear – it’s the peacemaker’s credo, to begin with love – with an expectation that everyone, in the end, wants the same thing – to belong and to be treated with dignity – that everyone, most of the time, is doing the best they can.
We have so much capacity for love; but it’s so simple to convince ourselves that we should hold it in reserve.
Pickle read our passage from the first letter of John – she’s a native Angelina and graduate of Hamilton High School Academy of Music and Sarah Lawrence College – the City of West Hollywood named her in June as its first drag queen laureate.
It’s actually a privilege to have Pickle read the word of God for us morning – the week before last, demonstrators in San Fernando weren’t as welcoming as St. Michael’s – they made it impossible for her to enter the public library in San Fernando to keep an appointment to read to children.
They didn’t just demonstrate – they wouldn’t let her enter the building – and this was in the United States of America.
Because sometimes fear crowds out love – anger persuades us to withhold it – bigotry smoothers it.
And if you’re like me, you’re tested every day.
Bidden on Saturday or Sunday to proceed in peace, on Monday we gird for war.
Tip O’Neill, speaker of the House of Representatives in the seventies, was a politician from Boston who famously said, “All politics is local.”
The same can be said about our lives in faith – think of the words Simon read out about the ordeal of serving the Lord righteously when the going gets tough – think of it as a warning about our tendency to put an internal regulator on our love and neighborliness – even when the people who need us most are not in Jerusalem and Gaza, but right here.
Politics is local – Jesus is local – love is local.
How then is my heart to be tested as I go about my day?
How deep is my personal reservoir of love – forgiveness – humility – grace – curiosity?
If you approach me, I had better smile and say hello, wondering why God has put us on coinciding paths.
If you make a mistake, I had better not make you feel bad.
If you ask to pull in front of me on the freeway, I’d better let you.
If you have a weak moment and say something unkind to me, I’d better hold my tongue instead of replying in kind.
If you’re hungry or homeless or addicted or mentally unwell on the street, and you can ask me for a dollar, I’d better give it to you.
If a thought about you pops into my head, I’d better wonder why and give you a call.
God also tests the hearts of institutions to seek how broadly we construe neighborliness.
That’s one reason we’ve committed to building affordable housing on 25% of our 133 mission and parish campuses – aiming to give up to 5,000 neighbors we haven’t met yet places to lay their heads.
I know that Fr. Shane and the vestry are discerning carefully about the immense capacity for love baked into your real estate here along the coast – please know that I understand the challenges you face and will walk with you each step of the way.
But back to the step into a new season of ministry that Fr. Shane takes today.
In a bit of liturgical theater, I handed him the gospel just as the attendant – in the synagogue in Nazareth, the gospel says – just as the attendant handed our Lord the scroll containing the words of the prophet of Isaiah – which Shane proclaimed as Jesus had.
“Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing”; and we have been anointed to proclaim it as well.
It takes very little work to paraphrase Isaiah’s words for our times – Jesus proclaims good news for the poor and unhoused – release of those imprisoned because of addiction or mental illness – recovery of sight for the eyes of our hearts so our innate love is finally unobstructed – freedom and dignity for those all oppressed because of race or nationhood, orientation or identification.
We won’t accomplish all this during Shane’s rectorship – it is and ever will be the work of all the faithful to take up in their ways and in their times – all according to God’s unchanging purposes.
But we’ll make a good head start if we can just figure out how to proceed from here this morning in peace.
