A Tribute to Church of the Ascension, Sunday May 15, 2011

“Community Life”, A Homily preached by the Rev. Canon Dr. C. Denise Yarbrough on Sunday, May 15, 2011 at Church of the Ascension, Rochester, New York

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. ⁴ (Acts 2:42)

Today is an auspicious day for Church of the Ascension. Today you welcome your new priest in charge, The Rev. Patricia Cashman, who joins this community to accompany you in this next phase of your journey as a faith community. You’ve been in a period of significant transition for about 20 months, having been served by four interim priests during that time. Your search committee did a splendid job of discerning the leadership needs of this community and then seeking the right leader to take you to the next place in your life together. They worked diligently, faithfully, prayerfully, and with vulnerability and openness to the promptings of the Holy Spirit as they reviewed resumes, CDO profiles and candidate question responses, conducted interviews, checked references and discerned the person they believed the Spirit was calling to this place. They deserve a round of applause and much gratitude for the important and prayerful work that they did on behalf of the whole community. And now you are poised to begin the next phase of your transition. And you will still be in transition for some months to come, to be sure. Rev. Pat has to get to know you and you her. You will have to spend time together discerning the ministries to which you believe yourselves called as a faith community as you move out into the local community and seek to grow your church, both in numbers but most especially in spiritual maturity and depth.

As you make this transition in these weeks of Eastertide, the stories of the early church in the book of Acts provide you some material for reflection. In today’s selection we are reminded of how the very early church lived together as a community that shared all their material goods, making sure that everyone had what they needed. They met together for meals, to break the bread of communion, to be schooled in the apostle’s teaching and to pray. Their entire way of being in the world was informed by their commitments to their Christian community. Being part of the church wasn’t something they did for an hour a week, it defined every day of their existence. And being a Christian was not something they did individually. It was an intensely communal commitment, involving interaction and relationship with other Christians and with everyone else in the larger world.

From my brief sojourn with you here at Ascension I can attest that you do have a strong sense of yourselves as a community. You care about each other and you care for each other. You have generous hearts, as the blanket campaign in February and the Gifts for Life campaign in Advent demonstrated. You are good at food, gathering around the table for your quarterly dinners with enthusiasm and good spirit. You are firm in your faith and you support one another at important junctures in people’s lives. We drew together as community in love and support of several families who lost loved ones, honoring the faithful departed with dignified liturgies and standing with the bereaved as they walk the journey of grief. We have joyfully baptized young ones into the community, gifting them with magnificent baptismal quilts. The quilters do a quiet but significant pastoral ministry through the truly beautiful quilts that they make and give away to those who need them for occasions both joyful and sorrowful. You have a wonderful music ministry, with a dedicated choir, a gifted organist/choirmaster, and an organ that cheerfully says “good morning” when it is first turned on every Sunday morning! I have personally enjoyed being greeted by the organ every Sunday morning! And your music has certainly lifted the heart of this priest, who, as you’ve noticed, loves to sing!

As you move forward into your new life with Rev. Pat, I hope you will draw upon your strengths as a Christian community and let her guide you into whatever new ministries you all discern together. I urge you to remain open to change, be flexible, good humored and generous of heart. Expect to be delighted. Expect to be empowered. Expect to be transformed. Expect to be surprised. Expect to be reconciled with those you least want to embrace. Trust the Spirit to guide you into all truth. Remember your baptismal covenant that calls you to be faithful in the apostle’s teaching and fellowship, the breaking of bread and in the prayers. You are a covenant community, not an aggregation of individuals who happen to come here to pray. Your covenant in Christ calls you into deep relationship with God in Christ and then back into the world to minister in Christ’s name. You know how to do this and you can do it well.

Before I turn you over to Rev. Pat, I want to thank you for welcoming me into your midst, as the fourth of the interim clergy who have served you during this tender time. I thank you for your good humor and grace as I brought some new liturgical resources into worship. I thank you for your intellectual curiosity and keen insights as you embraced our study of Islam and our Lenten study of “The Last Week” by Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan. I thank you for your generosity of spirit and hospitality as you welcomed our Jewish and Muslim neighbors into this sanctuary in January for our interfaith worship service, which was a genuine liturgical adventure into unknown territory. I thank you for the commitment and faithfulness you embraced as we walked through a very holy, Holy Week together, culminating in a memorable and joyful Easter Vigil. I thank you for your loving embrace of the families who grieved and for all you contributed to making those requiem Eucharists the dignified and spiritually rich occasions that they were. It takes a community to honor the faithful departed in that way – it’s not just the priest who makes it happen. You have much to offer this city and neighborhood and much wisdom and faith to share with Rev. Pat. And, as I’m getting to know her, all I can say is brace yourselves my friends. You are about to venture deeper into the waters of baptism and to feel the wind of Pentecostal change. May God be with all of you as you continue your journey together. Our paths diverge at this crossroads, but know that you will remain in my prayers and I’ll be watching from afar awaiting the good news that I know you will bring to this neighborhood, the city, the diocese and your ecumenical and interfaith neighbors. Shalom, Salaam, Namaste – Peace.

Easter 3, Year A, Sunday, May 8, 2011, Sermon

“Discussion with Jesus on the Road”, A Sermon preached by the Rev. Canon Dr. C. Denise Yarbrough on Sunday, May 8, 2011 at Church of the Ascension, Rochester, New York

17And he said to them, “What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?” They stood still, looking sad. 18Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?”…. 21But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. (Luke 24:17-18;21)

What an incredible ten days we have lived through in these early weeks of our Eastertide season in this year of our Lord, 2011. Ten days ago I awoke early to watch the fairy tale royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, enjoying the British pomp and circumstance, the beautiful Anglican liturgy of their ceremony, and delighting in the scenes of dancing in the streets as people from all over the world gathered to celebrate with them, partying hearty in Hyde Park and on the Mall and the streets of London. Everyone loves a wedding, with all the promise of happiness and love and good fortune that it embodies, even for those who are not of royal blood. That same weekend, tornadoes ripped through the American South, killing hundreds of people in Alabama and destroying everything in towns and villages throughout Alabama and Mississippi. And later in the week, the waters of the Mississippi rose so high that levees had to be broken to save a town, flooding and destroying acres of farmland in the process.

Then on Saturday night, two 17 year old boys, one from Brighton High School and one from Rush, burned a swastika into the street on Edgemere Road, in Brighton on the eve of the Jewish Community’s commemoration of Yom Hashoah –Holocaust Remembrance. Our city awoke to that news in shock that in our multi-religious, multi-cultural community such a hateful show of bigotry, intolerance and malice could come from two young men, one of whom, I later learned, is a member of a Christian youth group in a local church, which youth group is led by one of our students at CRCDS. The Brighton neighborhood gathered last Sunday evening for a candlelight vigil to show solidarity with the Jewish community and to bear witness to our condemnation of such acts of bigotry and violence in our community. I spent much of this week in interreligious meetings – Christian Muslim, Christian Jewish, Christian Hindu, Interfaith Forum – where this incident was the subject of much discussion. The interfaith groups have sent statements addressing this event to the local media, wanting to be on record that the values that we all stand for do not countenance this kind of behavior in our community and calling for a restorative justice approach to this crime rather than retributive or punitive justice. We have also been involved as resources to the Brighton Schools and the local district attorney who are directly involved in the matter. Our hope is that these boys can be restored to right relations with the whole community through a process of repentance and reconciliation.

And then the crowning event, the assassination of Osama Bin Laden by our government on Sunday night. This was the second major topic of discussion in all of our interreligious meetings this week. We all struggled with our own emotional reactions to this momentous event. My first thought when I heard the news, particularly as the media began to show scenes of people gathered at Ground Zero, at the White House and all around the country dancing and chanting “USA! USA!”, was “Ding dong the witch is dead” immediately followed by the conviction that there are still more wicked witches in the world. Killing this one bad man has not rid the world of evil, so why are people dancing? And no matter how bad a person Osama Bin Laden was, and he was truly an evil man, I cannot rejoice at the death of a human being, nor be proud that we killed him, even as I feel relief that he is gone and the threat he personally posed to the whole world is somewhat diminished. In all of our interfaith conversations this week everyone of whatever religious tradition echoed that same sentiment. We cannot rejoice at the death of any human being, no matter how despicable we thought him to be, but everyone is relieved, most especially Muslims who suffered terribly from his distortion of their faith and the suspicion and malice that his actions brought upon millions of innocent, peaceful and God-fearing Muslims.

All of us struggled with the tension between the teachings of our religious faiths, that call us to compassion and mercy and steer us away from desires for revenge, and our all too human emotions that rejoiced at the death of someone who had caused so much pain to so many around the world. We were very much aware that living up to the values of our religious traditions is truly a struggle against our basest human nature that does not always run immediately to compassion and mercy when faced with threat and danger. The extent to which we all need God to imbue us with God’s grace and mercy as we work through human conflict and tragedy was made abundantly clear to all of us as we prayed and wrestled with this news together.

In the midst of all of these human joys and sorrows, I turned to the lectionary to prepare to preach today and read one of my favorite gospel narratives – the road to Emmaus story. Into this week of deep discussion and prayer, Jesus came and asked me “What are you discussing with each other as you walk along?” And I found myself responding, “Are you the only one in the world that does not know the things that have taken place here this week?” And I told him of all the things that have happened and of the concern and pain and struggle they bring to all of us in this community. And then I listened to Jesus’ response.

Jesus took me through the scriptures, beginning with creation and the call of Abraham and Moses and all the prophets. He walked me through the story of salvation history, the story we tell every week at the Eucharist, that we told in beautiful detail on the night of our Easter vigil. How God created the world and it was good and God created humankind in God’s image. How humankind repeatedly turned away from God and had to be called back again and again by God, through the prophets and uniquely, through Jesus himself. How God brought God’s people out of slavery and bondage in Egypt, through the Red Sea into freedom in the wilderness, and stayed with them during that long wilderness sojourn. How God blessed God’s people, feeding them with manna and leading them to the Promised Land. How God was with them in exile and called them back again when they returned to Jerusalem. How Jesus came into the world to walk with us, as God walked with Adam and Eve in the garden, to show us in a way we could see, touch, hear and feel, what the love of God looks like and how we are to respond to human conflict and pain. “Blessed are the peacemakers” he reminded me. “Love your enemies and do good to those who persecute you.” “Love one another as I have loved you. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, that you have love for one another.” How he taught us to pray, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven….forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation and deliver us from evil.” Forgiveness, repentance, reconciliation, peacemaking- these were the themes he reminded me of as he went through all the Scriptures with me.

And I said to him, “But we had hoped” – hoped that our young people had been raised to value the diversity and difference that is part of our community and that they would not perpetuate the hatreds and bigotry of their parents and grandparents’ generations, but then look what these children did. We had hoped that with the death of Osama Bin Laden the threat of terrorism might be taken away, but we’re not sure that killing him alone will make the world safe for everyone – soldiers and innocent civilians continue to die in Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel and Palestine. We had hoped that spring would come after a long and harsh winter and yet as it does it is bringing death and destruction in its wake. And he responded, “repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in my name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.” And I realized that he was reminding me of my baptismal covenant and of my responsibility as his apostle to embody the gospel he came to proclaim. The gospel of peace, reconciliation, non-violence, and forgiveness. That last one is so hard when the ones to be forgiven are so easy to hate. But he was relentless in reminding me, and started once again to go through the scriptures. “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us” he taught me again.

And like Cleopas and his companion, I asked him to stay with me. And he reminded me gently that he is with us all the time and most especially when we break bread together as disciples of the Risen Christ. He reminded me that when the pain of the human condition becomes as real as it has this week, with the many ways we humans can hurt each other made manifest in the course of our daily lives, and when the vagaries of the natural world wreak havoc on human civilization, we have our community of disciples to return to where, when two or three are gathered together, he is in the midst of us just as he was with Cleopus and his companion. And I remembered how right he is about that. I remembered that when I come to the Eucharistic table each week, he is here, however briefy, however ephemerally, and for a moment I am bathed in the power of his love and empowered to return to my rich, verdant, hopeful and hopeless, joyful and painful world, with my heart burning within me because of my sojourn with the sacred at the holy table.

Amen.

Easter is the time for Lilies

Ascension Happeninings, May 1

ALL BAPTIZED CHRISTIANS ARE INVITED TO RECEIVE THE HOLY COMMUNION. LORD, LET US PRAY AND WORK TO HEAR YOUR WORD, CHANGE OUR HEARTS AND GO FORTH TO DO YOUR WILL, EMPOWERED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT Dear Friends, May 1, 2011 Yesterday Rev. Denise preached on the words of Christ to his disciples after the Resurrection, Peace Be with You. There is much to learn in these weeks after the Resurrection. Lessons for our lives and for our Christian Mission.Please visit the blog archive soon to reflect on the entire text of her remarks. The Chicken & Biscuit Dinner was a great success. Thanks go to Stuart Denison, to all the Chefs, to Patty Frasca the lead organizer and to everyone who assisted. You are the BEST!! Superb Dinner!!!Kindly keep in your daily prayers all those in need of healing, and those who serve in our military forces. And our Vestry and prospective clergy. To assist in our spiritual life, Forward Day by Day booklets are $.85 each in the back of the Church [Tower Room].If we want to grow and share God's prosperity of faith, we must love God, love our friends and then speak openly to them. A congregation grows starting with each faithful person. God will help us share the Bread of Life.....God will help us live into our Baptismal Covenant of sharing His word and our lives and resources [which is the true Meaning of Life]. We never know how ready a friend may be to hear a word of encouragement in faith. We never know when God will bring someone to speak to us, and enrich our own life.

LAST CALL: WOMEN'S GROUP: May 5th meeting at noon, a presentation by the Wende Clinic on Women's Breast Health. This is the second presentation in their series on Women's Health. For this interesting program, the Group has invited the women of the Cathedral Community to participate. Also - bring a friend or relative for this event. Salad and dessert luncheon will be provided before the presentation. Those willing to contribute a salad or dessert should let Jan Wills know, 621-3900.

DON'T FORGET - Our Ascension Piecemakers Quilt Group is offering a stunning queen-size quilt. This quilt would be a handsome addition to any decor! Coupons are $2 or 3 for $5. All proceeds will go to the Bell Tower Restoration Project. You can see the quilt and get more details each Sunday at Coffee Hour. The drawing and award will be to a lucky coupon mid June.As we celebrate this season of the Resurrection, please remember those in need of our help. The MEEK food cupboard asks your continuing donations of food [put items in back of church/Tower Room], and also seeks volunteers to assist in this ministry. Please call Jan Wills 621-3900 if you can assist as a volunteer.

HIGHLIGHT OF THE SEAFOOD SEASON & TIME TO MARK CALENDARS for
Friday, June 3rd, 2011 and the Annual Ascension LOBSTER DINNER.
PLEASE MAKE NOTE, and tell friends!!! Coffee Hour after the 10 AM Sunday service is a wonderful opportunity to greet friends, old and new, and catch up on news. There are opportunities to host Coffee Hour in the weeks ahead. Won't you help this ministry? If not sure how to host, you may call Nancy Lennox at 663-5805 or Stu or Gene Denison at 663-0988. To sign up - see list in the back of the church or call 458-5423. Thanks!

As our beautiful spring begins, please phone or visit a friend who is not able to get out or whom you've been meaning to contact. There are many who would love a call and an invitation to church or an inquiry as to when you might pay a visit. We can invite friends to accompany us to church - and take them out for brunch afterward!To beautify our worship, in upcoming weeks there are opportunities for altar flowers. Will you take up this ministry to the glory of God and to our spirits? To donate, please contact Laurie Phillips, 865-2802 or email LBP@rochester.rr.com

If we wish to learn the true Meaning of Life, grow as Christians and share our love of God, we need to know the stories of the Bible. Thursday Bible Study is in the Library at 9 AM. Please 'Come and See'. The Lenten season is a time for careful reflection on Jesus’ teachings and how we model our faith to family, friends and all whom we meet. God’s Word guides such a process. Much food for thought and often refreshments to share. The study is of the Gospel Lesson for next Sunday, found below.

The Rochester Interfaith Jail Ministry asks your ongoing help - by donating through United Way or directly by check to R.I.J.M., 2 Riverside St., Rochester, NY 14613. This will bring books of healing and group sessions to those needing to start lives anew. Remember the Good Samaritan... Please answer this call. To volunteer, call 254-6790. The invitation to help is ongoing, so you are not late to the party! We recently began doing visits to the young men ages 16-19 in the Downtown Jail. Many Thanks! Please include this ministry in your daily devotions:Dear God, even in the face of miracles, our human hearts have doubt and fear. As
the Apostles hid in fear, so, we too, are held hostage by our fears, and as
Thomas doubted, so do we. Our faith is strong, but our convictions and courage
are weak, and so we ask for you to give us strength and fill us with your grace.
We pray this week for the ACOA men at Monroe County facility who meet with Dick
Laidlaw on Fridays: Clifford, Ernesto, Miguel, Angel, Lester, Oliver, Alan,
Edward, Nick, Victor, Gary, and Joshua. Please be with them as they work to
change themselves and be with Dick in his ministry.

There is God's work for each of us when we see new people on Sunday or at an event. Let's introduce ourselves and make them welcome. An invitation to chat at Coffee Hour is a great ice-breaker. So is sitting with a new person and guiding her/him in the materials, if this is their first time with us. Do you have a pocket card to hand to a friend who asks about Ascension? Cards are on the table in the back of the church. Please take a few, and be ready to share. We have pocket crosses in the table drawer to hand to those who answer the call to "Come and See".. This is all part of "The Growing Season at Ascension" The Season of Easter has especially beautiful music. Here is a vigorous Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah :http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76RrdwElnTU

If you have a new or better email address for yourself, or know someone who might like to receive this weekly e-letter, please send in that information.With Mothers' Day next Sunday, men - here is a recipe for a treat for yourself, friends and loved ones, especially for Mothers or a lovely lady in your life. Please see the recipe below for Lemon Chicken and Pasta, with asparagus. [We can also make extra for someone in need of our kindness.]Blessings and all good wishes,DysonD. Dyson Gay585-671-0364dysongy@aol.com

Lemon Chicken and Pasta is a simple and flavorful spring recipe that is quick and delicious.
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 35 minutes

Ingredients:
1 (12-ounce) box bowtie [also known as farfalle] pasta
1 pound fresh asparagus spears
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
3 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon white pepper
1 teaspoon dried dill weed
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup dry white wine or chicken broth
1/4 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/3 cup heavy cream
1-1/2 cups fresh or frozen baby peas
1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest

Preparation:
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cut the asparagus into 1" pieces. While water is heating, cut chicken into 1" cubes. Toss with flour, salt, pepper, and dill on a shallow plate.
In large saucepan, combine butter with olive oil and garlic; heat over medium-high heat. When garlic sizzles, add the chicken mixture. Cook and stir until chicken is browned and almost cooked, about 4-5 minutes. After the chicken has been in the pan for a few minutes, add the pasta to the boiling water.

Cook the pasta according to package directions. Add asparagus to the pasta during the last 3 minutes of cooking time.
In small bowl, combine wine, chicken broth, lemon juice and cream and mix well. Add to chicken mixture and stir; bring to a simmer; simmer for 3-4 minutes.
When pasta and asparagus are cooked, drain, reserving 1/4 cup pasta cooking water. Add peas to chicken mixture; cook and stir for 30 seconds. Then add pasta and asparagus to pan with chicken; bring to a simmer. Stir until slightly thickened, adding pasta cooking water if necessary. Top with lemon zest and serve. Serves 4-6

GOSPEL FOR NEXT SUNDAY
Luke 24:13-35
That very day, the first day of the week, two of the disciples were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. And he said to them, "What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?" They stood still, looking sad. Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, "Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?" He asked them, "What things?" They replied, "The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place. Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, and when they did not find his body there, they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but they did not see him." Then he said to them, "Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?" Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures. As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on. But they urged him strongly, saying, "Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over." So he went in to stay with them. When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight. They said to each other, "Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?" That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. They were saying, "The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!" Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

Sermon, May 1, 2011 - Easter 2

“The Peace of God”, A Homily preached by the Rev. Canon Dr. C. Denise Yarbrough on Sunday, May 1, 2011 at Church of the Ascension, Rochester, New York

Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.”

Take a moment and let your imagination drift to a scene that evokes peace for you. What do you envision when you think of peace? What has brought you peace in your life? When I have done this exercise in small group meditations, people have all sorts of different images of peace. For some, it is lying in a canoe on a glassy pond looking up at a blue sky on a warm summer afternoon. For others, it is gazing upon the face of a sleeping baby, like our baptisand Bailey who slept peacefully through our baptismal preparation meeting on Monday evening. Or, listening to the sound of waves pounding the shore at the ocean, feeling the sand between your toes and smelling the salty sea air. Or sitting in an armchair listening to your favorite music, or reading a good book armed with a cup of tea or coffee or good wine. Or spending an evening with a close friend, or watching a fire blazing in the fireplace on a snowy winter’s night, or sitting around a campfire by a lake on a warm summer’s eve. Whatever your particular vision of peace is, I doubt that it includes images of wounds, scars, death, torture or scenes of hiding and fear.

In our gospel story today, Jesus appears to his frightened disciples on Easter night, as they gather in a locked room. They have gathered in secret, fearing for their own lives, afraid that his fate might befall them. They are dejected, discouraged, defeated, their hopes and dreams for him having been shattered by the events of Good Friday. They have heard stories of his resurrection from some women, but they don’t yet believe in what they’ve heard because, of course, women are presumptively non-credible witnesses. They don’t know what to do with themselves, or where to go next. Then suddenly he appears, entering the locked room without unlocking the door, and greets them with the same words he left them with at the Last Supper. “Peace be with you.”

The writer of John’s gospel wants to show us what God’s peace looks like and it doesn’t seem to be a lot like the images we would have conjured up for ourselves. The peace of God seems to be a peace that comes to us in the midst of turmoil, of fear, of hiding, of pain and death, of scars and wounds and torture. Both of the appearances that Jesus makes in that upper room, according to John, come in the midst of difficult and trying times. God’s peace seems to have more to do with our approach to suffering and pain and tribulation, than it does with simple, feel-good non-conflictual happiness.

When Jesus appears to his disciples he still bears the wounds of his crucifixion experience. He has endured the cross and grave and he is marked forever by that experience. The peace he offered the disciples at the Last Supper came just as he was preparing to go to the cross and die. And the peace he offers now comes after the cross, after the suffering and pain. The marks of his experience on the cross are now part and parcel of the peace he offers. “Peace be with you” he says to them each time he greets them, as they gather in fear, locked away from view, afraid of the wrath of their enemies.

Notice too that immediately after he says to them, “Peace be with you” he breathes the Holy Spirit upon them and sends them out to do his work in the world, his work of reconciliation and healing, preaching and teaching. These frightened disciples, who are afraid to meet together in public, who deserted him at his darkest hour are now being transformed into apostles, which means “one who is sent.” They are being offered the peace from God that will drive them right out into the midst of the fray, where they will confront the authorities, the principalities and forces that attempted to destroy their leader.

Peter, who denied Jesus when the chips were down, leaves that room to go on and proclaim Jesus’ message to all who will listen. Peter goes forth from that room, empowered by God’s peace to do God’s work in the world, despite the dangers to which that ministry subjects him. Peter’s reward for having received the peace of God was that he was ultimately crucified, head down. This peace of God is not a peace that sends us comfortably home to rest and be content. It sends us into the world, to confront all the evil and pain that is not of God and to fight against those forces with our very lives.

God’s peace is something that liberates us from all that binds us up and keeps us locked into our own private selves. In the reading from Acts we get a picture of the very earliest church where every member of the church liquidated all his or her earthly belongings and donated them to a common pool so that all members of the community would have what they needed to live and thrive. The profound faith of those early believers liberated them from the comforts and security of their own personal wealth and enabled them to give away all earthly security blankets so that they would be free to serve God unencumbered by conflicting loyalties or misplaced priorities. They were no longer imprisoned by their concern for their material wealth. When they were able to free themselves by that radical act of self-emptying, that very risky act of faith, they were also empowered to be apostles of the Risen Lord and the early church grew by leaps and bounds. The peace of God empowered them to give away everything and put all their trust in God.

Jesus offers his special peace to Thomas in the midst of Thomas’ doubt. He invites Thomas to touch him, to know him by the wounds and scars that did him in. God’s peace comes to us in the midst of our doubts too. Doubts are an integral part of faith, especially when things seem to go horribly wrong, when events do not unfold as we expected them to. When the women got to the tomb on Easter morning and found it empty, events still were not going according to plan, even though the resurrection was a wonderful miracle. Resurrection life is all about surprise and mystery, and about having the courage to walk into the tomb of death and darkness in the midst of doubt and fear because only there will the peace and glory of resurrection be revealed. When things seem to be awry we often doubt – we doubt God, we doubt ourselves, we wonder whether the promises of God that we were taught about in Sunday school have any real meaning for our lives. These moments of doubt are moments pregnant with the possibility of that “peace of God which passes all understanding” that “peace of God that is no peace.”

Faith is the opposite of certainty. Faith includes all those moments of doubt, those times when we need to reach out and touch God in some way to assure ourselves that the promises of God in which we believed were not mere illusion. Frederick Beuchner once declared that “Doubt is the ants in the pants of faith.” Those moments of doubt and skepticism, those moments of questioning and wondering are moments of tremendous opportunity, moments when we may find the courage to reach out and touch God in ways we’ve never done before. Thomas was lucky to have the Risen Christ right before him in bodily form so he could reach out and touch that body. We have to rely on prayer and the presence of the Risen Christ in the sacraments and in the faces of our brothers and sisters in Christ within our faith community. When we find ourselves engulfed in doubt, we have to act as if we believe by taking risks for the gospel, by accepting challenges and ministries we never thought we could manage, trusting that God has gone ahead of us to Galilee and is waiting there to welcome us as we do God’s work in the world.

In our moments of doubt, when peace seems illusive, our Christian community serves as the buffer to those moments of disequilibrium. When we are baptized into Christian community we make promises and become part of a community dedicated to sharing the good news of God in Christ and to upholding one another when the journey gets rocky. Bailey Adam will be baptized into our Christian community in a few moments and in so doing he joins a community of the Risen Christ who will uphold him on his journey and believe for him when he cannot do so, pray for him when he has no words to pray, and send him out do work for peace and justice, to love his neighbor, to be a part of the body of the Risen Christ in his world as he matures.

Have you ever noticed how the people who seem most at peace in this world are not those who have had easy lives, lives unmarked by tragedy, illness, or misfortune? Quite the contrary. The deep peace of God which passes all understanding seems most accessible to those who have known suffering and pain, who have been through the wringer and somehow survived to laugh and love again. Recovering addicts, cancer survivors, persons with AIDS, martyrs like Martin Luther King, Jr. or Gandhi, those people who choose to do the most difficult work for God on earth, like Mother Teresa, people who’ve lived through terrible family crises like abuse, or divorce, or the death of a child or spouse, people who’ve suffered great tragedies in their lives like all those families who lost loved ones in war or the spate of natural disasters that are hitting our world with alarming frequency. Many of such people that I’ve met have a deeper sense of God’s peace than folks who’ve not traveled such hard roads. Just as Jesus brought his peace to those disciples in that locked room in the midst of their darkest hour of fear and doubt, so God’s peace often finds us when we are most vulnerable, most in despair and pain, most fearful about the future. God opens our locked hearts, filled with despair and sadness and floods us with a sense of God’s enduring love, which no earthly pain can destroy. The peace of God gives us the courage we need to move forward in spite of our fear and doubt.

God’s peace is not the kind of peace we humans might at first envision. No, as my favorite hymn, 661 so poignantly puts it, The peace of God it is no peace, but strife closed in the sod. Yet let us pray for but one thing, the marvelous peace of God. May you know the deep peace of God this Eastertide as you move into the world as apostles of the Risen Christ. Amen.

Alleluia, He is Risen

ALL ARE INVITED TO RECEIVE THE HOLY COMMUNION.

LORD, LET US PRAY AND WORK TO HEAR YOUR WORD, CHANGE OUR HEARTS
AND GO FORTH TO DO YOUR WILL, EMPOWERED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT


Dear Friends, April 25, 2011

Yesterday was Easter Sunday and festive services were in order, close on the heels of the Great Vigil of Easter Service on Saturday evening. Rev. Denise declared to us "Alleluia, He is Risen" with words on the plan of Easter to banish fear and allow us to meet God face to face, remarking "You won't find Jesus in the land of the Dead." All her sermons are in the blog archive.

A special word of thanks to Rev. Denise, to the Acolyte Guild under the direction of Don and Sally Green and Dave Pomeroy, to the Altar Guild under the direction of Anne Schwartz, to the Ascension Choir under the direction of John Allegar and to our Administrative Assistant Mary Vasquez and to our Sexton Angel Perez for all their work and inspired contributions to the events and services of Holy Week. We are in debt to you all. Thank you!

Kindly keep in your daily prayers all those in need of healing, and those who serve in our military forces. And our Search Committee and Vestry. To assist in our spiritual life, Forward Day by Day booklets are $.85 each in the back of the Church [Tower Room].

If we want to grow and share God's prosperity of faith, we must love God, love our friends and then speak openly to them. A congregation grows starting with each faithful person. God will help us share the Bread of Life.....God will help us live into our Baptismal Covenant of sharing His word and our lives and resources [which is the true Meaning of Life]. We never know how ready a friend may be to hear a word of encouragement in faith. We never know when God will bring someone to speak to us, and enrich our own life.

WOMEN'S GROUP: May 5th meeting at noon, a presentation by the Wende Clinic on Women's Breast Health. This is the second presentation in their series on Women's Health. For this interesting program, the Group has invited the women of the Cathedral Community to participate. Also - bring a friend or relative for this event. Salad and dessert luncheon will be provided before the presentation. Those willing to contribute a salad or dessert should let Jan Wills know, 621-3900.

LAST CALL!! CHICKEN AND BISCUIT DINNER: Call Office today or tomorrow for dinner on Saturday, April 30th. The menu for this home-cooked Chicken and Biscuit Dinner includes tender chicken in gravy, home-baked biscuits, mashed potatoes, vegetable, salad, cranberry sauce and homemade desserts. The cost is $9.00 for adults, $4.00 for children aged 6 to 12; under 6 will eat free. Patty Frasca invites additional help on clean-up. If you would like to volunteer, please let Patty know, 315-986-5726 or cell 585-615-6790. Also, if you are willing to make a homemade dessert, please call her or Joan Swan.

DON'T FORGET - Our Ascension Piecemakers Quilt Group is offering a stunning queen-size quilt. This quilt would be a handsome addition to any decor! Coupons are $2 or 3 for $5. All proceeds will go to the Bell Tower Restoration Project. You can see the quilt and get more details each Sunday at Coffee Hour.

TIME TO MARK CALENDARS! Two delicious dinners upcoming....and one is just around the corner!

Saturday. April 30th, 2011 CHICKEN & BISCUIT DINNER
Friday. June 3rd, 2011 LOBSTER DINNER

PLEASE MAKE NOTE!!!

As we celebrate this season of the Resurrection, please remember those in need of our help. The MEEK food cupboard asks your continuing donations of food [put items in back of church/Tower Room], and also seeks volunteers to assist in this ministry. Please call Jan Wills 621-3900 if you can assist as a volunteer.

Coffee Hour after the 10 AM Sunday service is a wonderful opportunity to greet friends, old and new, and catch up on news. There are opportunities to host Coffee Hour in the weeks ahead. Won't you help this ministry? If not sure how to host, you may call Nancy Lennox at 663-5805 or Stu or Gene Denison at 663-0988. To sign up - see list in the back of the church or call 458-5423. Thanks!

As our beautiful spring begins, please phone or visit a friend who is not able to get out or whom you've been meaning to contact. There are many who would love a call and an invitation to church or an inquiry as to when you might pay a visit. We can invite friends to accompany us to church - and take them out for brunch afterward!

To beautify our worship, in upcoming weeks there are opportunities for altar flowers. Will you take up this ministry to the glory of God and to our spirits? To donate, please contact Laurie Phillips, 865-2802 or email LBP@rochester.rr.com

If we wish to learn the true Meaning of Life, grow as Christians and share our love of God, we need to know the stories of the Bible. Thursday Bible Study is in the Library at 9 AM. Please 'Come and See'. The Lenten season is a time for careful reflection on Jesus’ teachings and how we model our faith to family, friends and all whom we meet. God’s Word guides such a process. Much food for thought and often refreshments to share. The study is of the Gospel Lesson for next Sunday, found below.

The Rochester Interfaith Jail Ministry asks your ongoing help - by donating through United Way or directly by check to R.I.J.M., 2 Riverside St., Rochester, NY 14613. This will bring books of healing and group sessions to those needing to start lives anew. Remember the Good Samaritan... Please answer this call. To volunteer, call 254-6790. The invitation to help is ongoing, so you are not late to the party! We recently began doing visits to the young men ages 16-19 in the Downtown Jail. Many Thanks! Please include this ministry in your daily devotions:
Dear Lord we praise you and thank you for your compassion and love and for our redemption through your sacrifice. We who visit the jails and prisons of our world sit with men and women who are in search of redemption for themselves. Lord, help us share our faith with them that they may reach out to you, and that you might change them and give them hope.

There is God's work for each of us when we see new people on Sunday or at an event. Let's introduce ourselves and make them welcome. An invitation to chat at Coffee Hour is a great ice-breaker. So is sitting with a new person and guiding her/him in the materials, if this is their first time with us.

Do you have a pocket card to hand to a friend who asks about Ascension? Cards are on the table in the back of the church. Please take a few, and be ready to share. We have pocket crosses in the table drawer to hand to those who answer the call to "Come and See".. This is all part of "The Growing Season at Ascension"

The Season of Easter has especially beautiful music. Here is a hymn video of "This Joyful Eastertide"
www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6NusBw2xtM


If you have a new or better email address for yourself, or know someone who might like to receive this weekly e-letter, please send in that information.

For a treat for yourself, friends and loved ones please see the recipe below for an easy Split Pea and Ham Soup. Knowing how many have some ham left from Easter, we can also make extra for someone in need of our kindness.

Blessings and all good wishes,

Dyson
D. Dyson Gay
585-671-0364
dysongy@aol.com

***************
.

Split Pea and Ham Soup

By: TEETOE from internet [edited to add more veggies and diced ham]

"This is a good way to use leftover ham, quite inexpensive, and VERY tasty. I hope that you enjoy it. Some people like to add carrots or other types of vegetables. Don't forget to serve with buttered bread toasted in the oven." Or some garlic & cheese croutons or cornbread...

Ingredients

• 1-2 cups diced onion
• 1-2 cups diced carrot
• 1-2 cups diced celery, including some minced leaves
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder or 2 or 3 cloves of garlic finely minced
• 3 Tbsp olive oil or canola oil
• 1 pound dried split peas, washed and picked over for stones, gold nuggets, etc
• 1 ham bone and 1-2 cups diced ham
• up to 8 cups water or chicken or vegetable broth; or more for a thinner soup
• pinch of Thyme
• 2 Bay leaves
• 1 pinch salt [optional] and fresh-ground black pepper to taste

Directions

1. In a medium large pot, saute' onions, carrot, celery and garlic in oil [add garlic at end], about 5 minutes. Add the split peas, ham bone, and enough water/broth to cover ingredients; add Thyme and Bay leaves; season with pepper.
2. Cover, bring to boil, skim if you like; reduce heat and simmer until there are no peas left, just a green liquid, 1.5 hours; remove bone and harvest ham from bone, to be added to soup; add diced ham and simmer half hour additional.
3. While cooking, check to see if liquid has evaporated. You may need to add more as the soup continues to cook.
4. Once the soup is fully cooked remove from heat and remove Bay leaves; check need for sprinkle of salt, more pepper.
5. Optional - let stand so it will thicken [once thickened you may need to heat through to serve].

GOSPEL FOR NEXT SUNDAY

John 20:19-31

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."

But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe."

A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe." Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe."

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

Easter Sunday 2011 Sermon - "Gambling on God"

“Gambling on God”, A Sermon preached by The Rev. C. Denise Yarbrough on Easter Day, April 24, 2011 at Church of the Ascension, Rochester, New York

Alleluia, the Lord is Risen!
The Lord is risen indeed, Alleluia!

Do not be afraid. I know that you are looking for Jesus…he is going ahead of you to Galilee. …. Then Jesus said to them Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee. (Matt. 28:5,10)

Life is for the gambler. The coward dies. (Anthony DeMello, Wellsprings)

The first quotation I read you is from the resurrection story according to Matthew and the second are two lines from a book of meditations by Anthony DeMello, a Jesuit priest who wrote extensively incorporating Eastern mysticism into Christian mystical practice. One meditation in that collection (entitled “Wellsprings”) contains those two simple lines and they were lines that transformed my life in profound ways when I first meditated with them well over fifteen years ago. DeMello isn’t, of course, referring to people with an addiction, shoving money into slot machines in casinos. The gambler of which he speaks is the risk-taker, the one who is willing to go out on a limb, to try new things, to go where others fear to tread. The coward is one who tries to be safe, to avoid risk, to shield herself from the vagaries of life’s fortunes. Resurrection is the theme of our Easter celebration and if we pay attention to Matthew’s account of the resurrection we see that fear and courage, death and life are prominent themes. Life is for the gambler. The coward dies.

Matthew’s account is pretty dramatic and certainly has its share of vivid images. In the passion story that we heard last week, at the moment of Jesus’ death on the cross we are told that “the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened and many of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. After his resurrection they came out of the tombs and entered the holy city and appeared to many.” Now that little detail about all these corpses marching out of their tombs and making appearances around Jerusalem is not much discussed when this story is told, but it certainly is a vivid image. Then we get all the theatrics surrounding the women’s arrival at the tomb early on Easter morning. A great earthquake, an angel descending from heaven who was dazzling white like lightning, the stone rolled back and Jesus nowhere to be found in the place of the dead.. Both the angel and Jesus say the same thing to these women – “do not be afraid” and “go and tell.” How on earth anyone could not be afraid in the face of all that drama is the question of the day, but Jesus and the angel are pretty consistent in their message.

On this day of resurrection, we too need to hear those words, “Do not be afraid.” We live in a fear filled world. A world in which terrorism is rampant, wars rage in various parts of the Middle East, violence mars the landscape of many neighborhoods in our own city. We do live in scary world. Everyone in this room comes to church today harboring some fears - fears about our own personal lives, our professional lives, fears about our faith and how we are living into it or not, fears about relationships, fears about our church, fears about the world. I suspect many of you at Ascension are harboring some fears about what the imminent transition to new leadership is going to mean for your life as a faith community. “Do not be afraid” are the words from Jesus on this most glorious day of resurrection. Fear and resurrection seem to be connected but most of us, I wager, have more familiarity with what fear feels like than what resurrection feels like.

Fear is a funny thing. It protects us from harm and yet it can also impede our growth and keep us from the ministries to which we are called. It keeps us from walking onto thin ice, or jumping off a bridge, or walking too close to the edge of a cliff, or driving too fast. But it also keeps us from trying new things, or going new places, or talking to someone we don’t know well, or starting a difficult but necessary conversation, leaving a dead-end job, or moving to a new place. Fear of the unknown can keep us confined and contained in a safe life in which our growth may be stunted. Fear of failure can make us small-minded and stale, and keep us from dreaming and thinking outside the box. Fear can keep us trapped in habits, rituals, ways of being and doing that are destructive or stultifying, even if they are comfortable.

Sometimes fear is a healthy reaction to a situation that is scary, even if it is happy much like the two Marys experienced when they arrived at the empty tomb. What bride and bridegroom have not felt fear as the strains of the processional music begin on their wedding day? Who has not felt fear walking into a new job, or a new neighborhood, or a new school? Who has not felt fear when leaving a child at college or on that first day of kindergarten? Who has not felt fear on the eve of surgery, even when the operation is “routine” and “safe”? In the face of these healthy fears and in the face of the unhealthy ones, remember Jesus’ words to the two Marys - “Do not be afraid.”

Life is for the gambler, the coward dies. Do not be afraid. The coward isn’t one who has fear, it is one who lets the fear win the day. Courage is the ability to go forward in spite of fear, not in the absence of it. Where there is courage, there is life, abundant and new resurrection life.

Do not be afraid. That is Jesus’ recipe for soul-making. Do not be afraid. Walk through your fears and all the way to your cross – because we all have one – and when you are trapped in your tomb know that God will lead you out of it, scars and all. Whatever it is you fear most, God’s love can conquer it just as God’s love raised Jesus from the dead. Resurrection life has something to do with facing down fear and moving ahead in spite of it. The women were terrified, but they ran and told the others what they had seen. They took a huge risk in a culture in which women were presumptively non credible as witnesses. They did what they were called to do even when some would say they had no business doing it.

And then, of course, there are those for whom it is God they truly fear! This God who changes lives, who molds souls - who sends people to the cross when they accept God’s call to become who God created them to be. This God of empty tombs and thunderbolts and angels in dazzling white is a no comfortable God and life with this God is unpredictable at best! Life with this God is fearless and bold and abundant. Everyone in this church today has taken a big risk just coming here this morning. You have opened yourself to the possibility that the holy mysteries celebrated here will capture your soul and draw you in. Given the story we tell today, some might think they’d be better off staying home than meeting that God face to face!

Jesus’ resurrection was God’s way of assuring us that there is truly nothing on earth or in heaven of which we must be afraid. Even bodily death cannot keep us from being in relationship with God, so what else can we fear? For Easter people, resurrection is what waits on the other side of fear. We do not have to be afraid to face even the worst that life can dish out, because we are witnesses, with the women at the empty tomb to the reality that is resurrection. Marcus Borg said it well – “You won’t find Jesus in the land of the dead.” We who are modern day disciples of Jesus are followers of the Risen Christ, the one who left the place of death and decay and went out to continue his ministry in new ways. He was not resuscitated, he was resurrected. The scars of his ordeal remained and his body was different – able to walk through walls and disappear like a ghost but able to eat fish with the disciples on the beach. Resurrection life isn’t about reviving old dead things, it is about making something new and wonderful out of the trials and sorrows of the old. It is about having the courage to embrace life, with all its challenges and changes.

As followers of the Risen Christ, we are Easter people, people of the resurrection. As resurrection people you will welcome a new priest in charge to your community in the next few weeks, embracing the changes that will come with that transition, gambling on her as she is gambling on you, moving into an exciting future that you will create together. We are gamblers all – we gamble on God, which is not much of a gamble when you think about it. We believe, in the words of the mystic Julian of Norwich, “All shall be well, and all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well.” In the face of God’s resurrection madness, no fear can stunt our growth. So rejoice and sing and glory in the good news of Easter. Do not be afraid! Life is for the gambler. The coward dies.

Alleluia, the Lord is Risen!
The Lord is risen indeed, alleluia!