Hentzi Elek

22 Billion dollars. That’s right. That’s how much was discovered in the vaults underneath the 16th century Sri Padmanashaswamy Temple in the State of Kerala in India.

22 Billion U.S. dollars- is the estimated value of the stockpile of gold coins, jewels, precious stones, and more- some of which may not have been disturbed for over 150 years.

You can read about it in today’s New York Times, pg. A4 in the article entitled,

“Beneath a Temple in Southern India, a Treasure Trove of Staggering Riches” by Vikas Bajaj.

22 Billion– Can you imagine that?

Hentzi

Robbed Some More: Well,  today we discovered that somebody had also broken through internal doors into the Thrift Shop and stolen $72.00 from the cash register.

Please pray for whomever is struggling and turning to crime to solve their problems, to hide from their problems, and or to get relief or escape from seemingly intractable problems.

Hentzi

In my 16 years of ordained ministry, I’ve served three different churches, including St. Alban’s Newtown Square, my current place where I’ve been for 10  years. In those 16 years, the various churches have been robbed about a dozen times. Thankfully, nobody ever got harmed and the cash value of the things stolen has always been relatively minor.

When I was in Great Falls, Virginia, the bridal party at a wedding for which I was officiating had their 6 purses completely cleaned out. The police told me that thieves comb the newspapers looking for weddings, funerals, and other church events at which people might be preoccupied and valuables might be unguarded. It certainly makes sense, if you can imagine the logic of a crook.

The attack at St. Alban’s, Great Falls occurred sometime between the evening of Sunday July 3 and about 12:30 pm.  Monday July 4rth. This we know because I was working at the office until about 6 pm. July 3rd. On July 4rth, when our bookkeeper Bill arrived at 12:30, the external doors to the Church buildings were locked. However, his internal office door was smashed in.

That’s the second time in about 5 years that the treasurer’s office door has been smashed in. The first time, the thieves took a bunch of checks and several hundred in cash. A few months later, we found the checks buried and hidden, under some boxes in Bill’s office. This time the thieves apparently took nothing as there was nothing to take. Bill had already deposited the Sunday offerings.

Today, a parishioner said something that really made me think. She said, ” We should pray for a person who is desperate enough to try and rob a church. ” And,  I thought, ” Wow! She absolutely right!” So, please pray for whoever broke into the treasure’s office at St. Alban’s. Pray that he or she might have a change of heart and a change of action. Pray that he/ she might find more healthy and legal solutions to the problems and pain that he/ she struggles with. Pray for those parts of violence, desperation, anger, fear, and hopelessness that assault many of us from time to time. May our justice always be tempered with a sense of merciful  forgiveness, compassion, and peace. Pray that we may create places where all can feel safe, secure, and peaceful.

Hentzi

Sermon 4 Pentecost, Proper 10

Genesis 24-27

The Rev. Hentzi Elek

St. Alban’s Episcopal Church

Newtown Square, Pa.

July 10, 2011

Rebekah The Great Trickster

Let us pray, “ Gracious God, make us like Rebekah, wise as the serpent and innocent as the dove. Give us the umph to tackle our day to day lives with vitality and hope but also give us clarity of vision to see the horizons and to prepare for the future. In your name, we pray. Amen. “

            Rebekah was one wily trickster. She was incredibly resourceful, incredibly faithful, incredibly resilient, and absolutely tough. She married into a hard, hard family, that family of Abraham and Sarah and their son Isaac. Yet, she navigated the mine fields of that Biblical dynasty with tremendous aplomb.

            Today, we honor Rebekah, one of the great women of the Bible, one of the greatest women of all time. We don’t know very much about Rebekah because we truly don’t know very much about any Biblical character. And so, we have to imagine who she was. We have to imagine the hallmarks of her character.

            I imagine the beautiful, taunt, and bursting with vitality and potential actress Angelina Jolie playing young Rebekah. It took great courage and gumption to leave her family behind and to go and join Isaac and his family. But, she did. Like other Biblical women, she up and left her old life, trusting that God would lead her and not abandon her. Like other Biblical women she went from the power and authority of her Father’s family to the power and authority of her new husband- to be and his family. It was a life of obedience and service, a life that would not recognize modern liberty, independence, and freedom. Yet, Rebekah was game for the adventure, and she proved to be quite a vibrant author of her own destiny, one who walked with God in generating a powerful Biblical legacy.

            Imagine Angelina Jolie, or some other dynamic actress portraying a barren Rebekah, yearning, crying, desperate to get pregnant. Remember that ancient women were defined by their ability to bear children, to raise them, and to run the household. A woman without a child was a cursed women, little or nothing to her husband,  her family, and the world. And so Rebekah, like all Biblical women, needed to get pregnant so that she could assume her rightful role of power and authority within the community. And eventually, after some failed attempts, she does.  And, oh ( exclamation.) watch out what you ask for! God plants not one but two babies in Rebekah’s womb.

            These aren’t docile twins either. They’re tough, competitive fighters from the start, kicking up a storm even before they’re born. So, Rebekah cries out in rage and pain and utter frustration. “ Why do I live! “ The exasperation that pregnant women and young mothers have known since time began for, as you all know, giving birth and raising children can be one extremely challenging, crazy-making journey.

            Eventually the twins are born, and they continue to be a handful. Rebekah loves both her boys but she’s particularly partial to the younger of the two, younger maybe only by a few minutes, but still the baby. Now imagine, Angelina Jolie as Rebekah raising her two children, favoring the younger Jacob over the elder Esau. Imagine her whispering in Jacob’s ear, giving him the best food. Imagine her plotting how her baby will steal the birthright of the older brother.

            Now the boys are young men. And the middle aged Rebekah is played by a tough, wizened, but still beautiful Helen Miren or maybe Meryl Streep. Let’s take the British actress Mirren, fantastic in her role as Detective Jane Tennison in The BBC series on PBS- Prime Suspect. Imagine Academy Award Winner Helen Mirren who played Queen Elizabeth 2 in the movie the Queen. Mirren, playing Rebekah guides her son Jacob into tricking his Father Isaac and cheating the rightful heir Esau. The trickster, the cheat, the gambler.

            Yes, Helen Mirren, playing Rebekah is oh so wise, calculating, calm, and fiercely determined. She wants her son Jacob to get his Father Isaac’s blessing regardless of the cost. And eventually, she and Jacob prevail. The duped and aging Isaac gives the coveted blessing mistakenly to Jacob and hence the family dynasty moves forward. Esau becomes almost an irrelevant footnote in history, but Jacob and his eventual wife Rachel become the parents of the 12 tribes of Israel. They continue the lineage: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Sarah, Rebekah, and Rachel.

            Rebekah, like all ancient women, had limited options, limited power, limited rights and limited freedom. They depended upon the men in their lives and the patriarchal society to protect them and to advance their interests. Yet,  like so many women before her, and like so many of the women who came after her, Rebekah took wise advantage of every opportunity she could. She was fiercely courageous, fiercely faithful in God and passionately confident in her cause. Rebekah was fiercely focused in her objectives, determined not to let other women or men get in her way.

            Imagine Rebekah played by Angelina Jolie. Imagine the great matriarch played by Helen Mirren. Imagine a beautiful, talented, wise, and passionate woman deadset on her course and unwilling to let anything stop her. She could handle day to day life quite well, but she also clearly saw the horizons. She planned and plotted for the future. Rebekah worked as hard as she could to create that future, trusting in the rightness of her cause and trusting in God.

            Admire Rebekah. She certainly wasn’t perfect, certainly not always honest, but she made the best of a very hard life. Rebekah refused to take no  for an answer. She refused to let the traditions and prejudices and men block her path. She had a God-inspired, God- blessed vision that was  beyond herself. May the very human and very faithful Rebekah inspire you today and always. In God’s name, we pray, Amen.

Dear all,

6 Countries: Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, and Somalia.

That’s right- United States forces are attacking six countries currently.

As of this past week we added Somalia to the list of countries in our war on terrorism. Yemen slipped in some time back with a quiet article in the Times. And now Somalia. Drone attacks in both countries. It’s seems completely crazy! Is anybody even paying attention that we are using U.S. tax dollars, U.S. weapons and U.S. might to kill and to destroy in six different countries! Maybe I’m only dreaming it.

Yes, we need to follow-up credible leads on terrorists. Yes, we need to stop the monsters before they attack. But, I had lots of faith in all the conversations about Saddam being a mad man,  a source of terrorism, a source of weapons of mass destruction. I believed those stories because of our time living and working outside of D.C. In those six years we knew good people who used their wisdom and compassion to work through the government to try and make our world a better place. And then, of course, as we all know, the reports came out that the reasons for going to war in Iraq were mistakes, confusions, misleading, or downright dishonest and wrong.

How can alienating every nation in the Muslim world be a smart and ethical way to proceed. It certainly beats me.

Best and peace,

Hentzi

Sermon 3 Pentecost

Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30

The Rev. Hentzi Elek

St. Alban’s Episcopal Church

Newtown Square, Pa.

July 3, 2011

Let us pray. Gracious God inspire us to heed your words, “ Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Amen.

The Unanimous Declaration
of the Thirteen United States of America

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. –

         Powerful and very true words from The Declaration of Independence. Yet, also very problematic. For, they state, “ all men are created equal, “ excluding women. And the words were never meant to refer to African Americans or anybody else but white men.

When I was a boy, my parents had a valuable painting of my great, great, great, I don’t know how many greats back, grandfather. They were very proud of this painting, because it was by a famous American portrait artist and because my great, great, great grandfather was a very famous man. His name was Arthur Middleton and he signed the Declaration of Independence in big clean, legible script. Arthur was a delegate to Philadelphia from his home in South Carolina. At various points he was Governor of the State, A U.S. Senator, and the first American ambassador to Russian. I was very proud our heritage, and psyched that I got to wear his official ambassadorial formal wear to my high school prom, and I was proud when I took Sara to visit Middleton place, the ancestral home in South Carolina.

However, in 1776, when Arthur signed The Declaration, he also owned more slaves than anybody else in the State of South Carolina. And over the past 20 years, through my prayers and reading, I’ve become less proud, and certainly much more ambivalent about my great, great, great grandfather Arthur Middleton and  his colleagues who founded our country.

Arthur, like other signers of the Declaration believed in freedom and dignity, liberty and independence, life and happiness for males like themselves. But, woe unto you if you were a woman or a person of color. Beyond their inherent racism and sexism, beyond their blindness, inconsistencies, and prejudices, these men still had a wonderful and hopeful vision. Furthermore, the founders had no problem imbuing their dramatic declaration with words that echo Biblical tones. If we slightly modify the text to reflect more inclusive language, we get: “ All people are created equal and endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights- life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

“That statement, “ All people are created equal and endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights- life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, “ is fundamentally and unambiguously Christian. It reminds us that there is a God beyond us who lovingly made us and the whole world. We don’t own this country or the money in our pockets. We didn’t make it and it’s not ours. All of it, our possessions, our bank accounts, the land, the world around us comes from God, belongs to God, and will all eventually return to God.

You could certainly add to these gifts of creation a sense of relief, rest, and refuge. For it is relief, rest, and refuge that Jesus offers when he proclaims in today’s Gospel. “ Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. “

Our great country, born of the 13 colonies was founded as  a place of relief, rest, and refuge for those seeking to shed the shackles of bondage from points all around the world. Our great country was founded as a place of opportunity where one could be born again, starting a new life, with new opportunities and new chances to be happy. Of course, we did it on the backs of Native American Indians, stealing their land, destroying their culture. Of course, we did it on the backs of African American slaves,  unleashing the worst of all evils. And these are grievous sins that still require prayerful repentance, honest reconciliation, and the mercy and love of God

Yet, ours is also the land that gave freedom to many refugees fleeing persecution- my Quaker ancestors fleeing hatred. My Jewish father fleeing the horrors of the holocaust. Your ancestors fleeing England or Germany or Ireland  or Italy or Poland, or wherever.

As we approach July 4rth tomorrow, we have much to be proud of as a nation. We have much to be proud of as a Church for it is Christian ideas of freedom, dignity, and even salvation that breathed life into the Declaration of Independence and into the founding thoughts and words of our country. We can be proud that today July 3, 2011, we are a nation of many refugees and immigrants who have cast off the heavy burdens of their former lives to start lives of hope and possibility in America.

We can be proud that we are a country that is flexible and adaptable because, God knows we still have a lot of work to do. Some of the anti-immigrant legislation and voices in our country are profoundly wrong and sinful. The way we handle public schools, the criminal justice system, issues of poverty, and the expanding gulf between the haves and the have-nots in our country is absolutely wrong and sinful. These issues are profoundly unjust, uncompassionate, riddled with racism and discrimination on so many fronts, and frankly not compatible with our founding framework, and certainly not compatible with any sense of Christianity.

But, there’s so much hope. We have the creativity and the resilience, the skills, the talents, and the dreams  to make our country more just, more compassionate, and more holy. We can and we should be a place where people can shed the burdens of oppression and hatred. We can and we should be a place where people can shed the burdens of horror and deprivation. We can and we should be a place that God smiles upon, a place that is life giving to ourselves and to the world around us. And, in this faith, there is great great hope.

Amen.

Easter Sermon

April 23-24, 2011

The Rev. Hentzi Elek

St. Alban’s Episcopal Church

Newtown Square, Pa.

Let us pray: Gracious God, guide us in seeing your presence in the face of everybody we meet. Teach us to love others as you love you us. Encourage us to love greatly but hold lightly, even unto our own hopes and lives. Endow us with a lightness and joyfulness of spirit this day and always. And remind  us all that the appropriate response is a very loud and very enthusiastic response:

Thanks Be To God! The Lord is Risen indeed, Alleluia, Alleluia!

Hentzi:      Alleluia, Alleluia, Jesus Christ is Risen Today!

People:     Thanks Be To God! The Lord is Risen indeed. Alleluia, Alleluia!

Hentzi:      One more time:

Hentzi:      Alleluia, Alleluia, Jesus Christ is Risen Today!

People:     Thanks Be To God! The Lord is Risen indeed. Alleluia, Alleluia!

Happy Easter!

 (encourage response of Happy Easter! ) Please be seated!

The Greeting is Happy Easter! It’s the word “ Happy! “ For a Reason. The gift of Easter is the command to go forth and be Happy! No excuses! The Gift of the empty tomb is Joy. The gift of our Resurrected Christ is actually the unambiguous commandment: “ Go forth- To Live; To Laugh; and to Love! “ That’s actually what the phrase “ Happy Easter! “ really means- it’s the ability, the strength and the courage, the patience and the humility, the peacefulness and the resilience to get up, to go out, to share generously, extravagantly with the world. Live! Laugh! And Love! (pause)

         To Live; To Laugh; To Love- that’s got to be what God wants most for all of us. That’s got to be what will make a difference in the world. It’s certainly what the resurrected Jesus did when he emerged from that tomb. He kept right on living, laughing, and loving.

It’s what Jesus does his whole life. He lives. He laughs. He loves. As I was preparing for this sermon, I had a small crisis earlier this week. I couldn’t find “ Laughing Jesus.” I looked all over and turned everything upside down. Where’s Laughing Jesus? Where’s He’s Gone? And, then, after an increasingly frustrating search, I finally found him hiding on a shelf. Flattened under the weight of The Bible!

( Show everybody Laughing Jesus poster!)

 And I could only laugh! For that’s one of the sad stories of Christianity! The  Bible and The Church and our Christian traditions want to control God. They literally want to flatten out Jesus. No room: To Live; To Laugh; and To Love.

Priest, after Priest. Theologian after Theologian. They all celebrate the suffering, sacrificial, Lamb, the innocent victim who gave his life as the greatest of all martyrs, the greatest of all saviors. Yes, all those qualities describe part of who Jesus was and part of what he did for all of us. And thankfully, what God still does for all of us. But the heaviness and the seriousness are only Part! They’re never the whole, and perhaps not the Best! 

So, why? (pause ) Why does the Church seem to fixate so dramatically more on problems than anything else? Why do so many great artists get so fixated on the misery, and the pain, and the traumatic, horrific agony of the cross? Maybe, it’s because artists and lots of Church people prefer the security of misery to the freedom of joy? ( pause ) I don’t know. (pause)

You can choose to focus on what you want. For my money, Jesus had a great life! He did so much in such a short time. Jesus lived. He laughed. He loved. And he was loved and is loved today, here and around the world. He taught and he healed and he fed. He changed lives and he changed the world. It was a Great Life!

 Yes, his living and laughing and loving were also punctuated by a hard and, at times, disappointing journey, ending with a bang. First Jesus was betrayed by one of his closest friends, Judas. Then, Peter, one of his even closer friends, denies him three times. Then, the people, friends and strangers tell Pilate to release Barabbas, a criminal, ( pause ) Barabbas of all people! Not Jesus! Then Jesus endures with grace and humility the trumped up bogus charges and the sham of a trial. And then the agony of the cross on Good Friday, which really should be called Bad, bad, bad Friday- but that’s another sermon.

But, the story continues, for after Jesus is murdered on Friday, he’s placed in the tomb. Yesterday, on Holy Saturday,– Maybe Jesus rests in that tomb for a little while. But, he doesn’t rest for long. For soon, Jesus goes down to the land of the dead to share with them life and liberation; laughter and love.

And then, Thank God, the Resurrection! That first Easter, and today on Easter, and every day of our Lives, for every day is filled with Easter life. Every Day! Jesus Lives! God is Alive and Well. Jesus the Christ comes back from the dead and joins us all! And God remains always with you, always and forever, never abandoning you.

 Through all the trials and tribulations, Jesus chooses to be upbeat and hopeful. Through all the disappointments and dangers, Jesus chooses to see the best in humanity, and he seeks relentlessly to develop, to strengthen, and to encourage the Best in all of Us!

Like the consummate coach, cheerleader, and captain who never gives up on the team; Jesus is always there for us. Like the passionate conductor who brings heavenly sounds out of the strings and the brass of the orchestra to join the beauty of the singers in the chorus, God strives to bring out the best in us. And, as God is the most amazing and dedicated coach, as God is  the most skilled and artistic conductor, God can bring incredible life, and laughter, and love out of each and every one of you!

God wants you to celebrate the many blessings of your lives. God wants you to marvel at the wondrous beauty and the exciting mystery of the human soul and of all human relationships. God wants you to stand in wonder and awe of our world. Smile in the face of the majestic mountains. Lap up the peace on the shores of the endless sea. Thank God for all the gifts of creation.

The Gift of Easter is a Wonderful, phenomenal, breath-taking promise. The promise is simple. Determine to Live; to Laugh; and To Love; and God will never abandon you in those most Holy of efforts! And when you fall down and think you have failed, God will remind you that failure is not a measure of your worth but rather a chance for a new start. Easter is a chance for a New Start for you, ( point to parishioners ) and you ( point to more parishioners ) and you ( point to a few more parishioners ). Easter is a New Opportunity for the whole world!

Rejoice! Give Thanks! And Celebrate! With God always by your side, you can do it! Live! Laugh! And Love!

Please stand. And please Remember your response- a bold, confident, and enthusiastic “ Thanks Be To God! The Lord is Risen indeed! Alleluia! Alleluia!

Hentzi:         Alleluia, Alleluia! Jesus Christ Is Risen Today!

People:        Thanks Be To God!  The Lord Is Risen Indeed. Alleluia, Alleluia!

Hentzi:         One more time—

Hentzi:         Alleluia, Alleluia! Jesus Christ Is Risen Today!

People:        Thanks Be To God! The Lord Is Risen Indeed! Alleluia, Alleluia!

Now, in silence, Let us pray.