Vicar at Mount Olive

It’s the Triune God who is the breath and heartbeat that gives life to our dusty bodies so that we may live, until we return.

Vicar Andrea Bonneville
Ash Wednesday, year C 
Texts: Joel 2: 1-2, 12-17, Matthew 6: 1-6, 16-21 

Beloved in Christ, grace and peace to you in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.

Today we remember our mortality, the very reality that we live in bodies that aren’t perfect, bodies that will hurt and be hurt, bodies that will one day die and return to the earth. We remember that our bodies were created with the love of the Triune God out of the dust of the earth and filled with the Spirit, the same Spirit that flows through our shared life with all of creation.

We don’t necessarily need to be gathered here today to be reminded about the realities of death and sin and suffering. The past two years have been a constant confrontation of disease, injustice, grief, loneliness, and death. Our hearts are fatigued and heavy from daily reminders of these realities.

We have had to be on high alert, changing the actions of our day to day lives to make sure that we and our neighbors stay safe. We’ve read books, consumed media, and learned how we can adapt and change our actions and attitudes to better love our neighbors and creation.

We’ve been doing our part step by step and living in this way exposed the treasures of our hearts and the gift of our shared humanity. It opened our eyes to see the world in a different way. It opened our hands to want to act and serve and our minds to learn. We’ve been forced to act in the present and long for a hope filled future for all of God’s creation.  

Living with the realities of sin and mortality taught us a lot about suffering and death, but even more so it taught us about our humanity—what in life gives our dusty bodies the breath, passion, love, and joy we needed to sustain us and give us hope.

In Lent, we journey with Jesus as he goes to the cross and the grave.  And as we do this, we encounter his humanity, his dusty body that held the same Spirit that gives us life. The Triune God dwelled in our world radiating love, peace, forgiveness, and justice so that even in the cloudiness of our world our lives can reflect light and love.  

Jesus reminds us that our bodies aren’t the empty vessels of sin and shame as the world tries to make us believe. Our bodies are treasure chests of grace and love, filled with the Spirit who dwells in each of us as we bear the image of God for all to see.

But what do we do on the days when we are feeling extra dusty, on days when the shadows of the world prevent us from seeing the Triune God active in our bodies and our world?

What happens when we sin against our neighbors and creation or when our bodies and spirits become ill and burdened?

What do we do when our hearts are saddened and grieved when the bodies we love experience pain or return to dust?

Where do we go when we can’t escape the pain, violence, injustice, and destruction in our world?

“Yet even now,” says the LORD, “return to me with all your heart.”

“Restore to me the joy,” sings the Psalmist.

“Be reconciled to God,” says Paul on behalf of Christ.

“Return,” says the prophet Joel, because “God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.”

The promise of this return, returning to God and the fullness of who God has created us to be, is why we need to be gathered here today, why we need to be in community praying, singing, and feasting together.

So that we, together, can come before God in worship and praise with fasting, and weeping, and mourning. We can join our hearts together in prayer and voices together in song to lament the brokenness of our world and hope for God’s mercy and justice to rise.  We come to know the love and peace that surpasses our understanding and cling to God who is love and peace.  

Returning again and again to God with our full humanity asking God to transform our lives so that we can experience comfort, healing, and love. And so we can reflect God’s love, justice, and mercy into our world.

As ashes are marked on your forehead today, remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return. And also remember that you are love and to love you shall return. That you are hope and to hope you shall return. That you are grace and to grace you shall return. That you are God’s beloved and to God you shall return.

In the returning to God, in remembering of our humanity among others and alongside all of creation, the love and grace of God dwells in our hearts, it flows through in our veins, it returns us to who we are and whose we are, called to follow Jesus in the midst of the pain and suffering, death and destruction so all know the power of the Triune God who gives life and hope to our lives and our world.

It’s the Triune God who is the breath and heartbeat that gives life to these dusty bodies so that we may live, until we return.

Amen.

God’s presence and love is among us, it’s transforming us, it’s leading us, even as we continue to learn and listen to what this means here and now for the sake of all that God has created. 

Vicar Andrea Bonneville
Transfiguration of Our Lord, year C 
Texts: Luke 9:28-36

Beloved in Christ, grace and peace to you in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

We are living in a time of cloudiness.
And it can be hard to see and hear and discern God’s presence.

Our world is clouded with hatred, discrimination, injustice, and oppression. Our lives are clouded with lies that tell us that we are unworthy and lead us to be filled with guilt and shame. Power and money are what people strive for, especially when we are shown and told that if you have enough money and power, you should be able to control any body, any country, any thing.

The more pain and grief and loss that we experience or the more pain and suffering we see our neighbors experiencing the more our vision becomes cloudy and we have to figure out how to discern God’s presence in our lives, our communities, and our world.

But this is why we are here today.

And that is why Peter and John and James where on the mountain top with Jesus on that day. The day when they saw, heard, and experienced God’s glory, even though it was confusing and terrifying.

Like us, they needed to see and experience for themselves God’s glory. But even after seeing the physical transformation of Jesus, hearing Jesus’ talk with Elijah and Moses about his departure and death on the cross, and hearing the voice in the cloud proclaim Jesus’ identity as the Son of God, the Chosen one.

Even after of all of this, we don’t know if the disciples actually knew what was happening.

Luke’s Gospel tells us that they went up on the mountain top with Jesus to pray. And while Jesus was praying his appearance transformed and suddenly, he was talking with Moses and Elijah about his departure and what he would accomplish on the cross. 

We are told that Peter and James and John were there, but they were weighed down with sleep trying to stay awake to see Jesus’ glory and hear about what was happening.

Peter tries to comprehend, offering care and hospitality, but we are told he doesn’t have a clue what is going on. Nevertheless, he tried to act and make sense of what was happening because he must have sensed that it was important.  

But then the cloud appeared and it overshadowed them and they were terrified. They heard a voice say “This is my Son, my Chosen; Listen to him!”  And then Jesus was found alone.

This is how this mountain top experience ends.

We don’t hear about the cloud separating to give way for the sun to shine again. We don’t hear if they talked with Jesus, their friend, to try to learn more about what just happened. We don’t know if their emotions change or if they continued to be terrified.   

All we know is that eventually they went down the mountain and kept silent, not talking about the transfiguration and transformation they witnessed and experienced.

It seems like the cloud did more than terrify them, it clouded their lives. Before the cloud appeared, Peter was at least trying to make sense of what has happening, engaged in what was going on, but after the voice spoke from the cloud, he also remained silent.

Perhaps what they then understood was too much for them to share, or maybe they didn’t think that people would believe what they had experience, or maybe they still had no idea what was going on and instead of talking, they stayed silent so that they could continue to listen to Jesus, as he journeyed toward the cross.

But even if they didn’t talk about what they experienced, we know that they continued to follow Jesus. And we know that for them, continuing to follow Jesus meant entering the sin and suffering and death and destruction of the world.

And this is our task today.

Even with our confused and terrified hearts, with pain and hurt, we follow Jesus to the mountain tops and into the valleys of our world attempting to keep our eyes, ears, and hearts open to see where God’s glory is transfiguring and transforming our world.  

We pray that God clears the cloudiness of our vision so that we are able see, listen, and discern who God is calling us to be and where God is calling us to act with love and service.  We do things with love and care, even if we don’t understand the full picture of what is happening. 

And at times, we remain silent and open our ears to listen to God and we pray to be in communion with God asking God to lead us and guide us.

We trust and hope and believe that we will be transformed so that we can bear God’s light and love and be the sun that shines through the cloudiness of our lives so that all people may know that love that we have in the Triune God. God with us who gives us and all creation the hope and nourishment we need to sustain, and grow, and transform.

God’s presence and love is among us, it’s transforming us, it’s leading us, even as we continue to learn and listen to what this means here and now for the sake of all that God has created.

Amen.

The Holy Spirit is active bringing transformation in our lives, our community, and in the world. 

Vicar Andrea Bonneville
Third Sunday after Epiphany, year C 
Texts: Luke 4:14-21 

Beloved in Christ, grace and peace to you in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

The Holy Spirit is busy transforming.  Do you hear her?

Moving, stirring, breathing, growing, changing.
Challenging, testing, inviting, stretching.
Energizing, motivating, inspiring.

Systems of oppression and structures of power are being exposed, creation is crying out for healing, walls of division are crumbling. God’s Spirit is active in the world bringing good news to the poor, proclaiming release to the captives, recovering sight to the blind, freeing the oppressed, proclaiming the celebration of the jubilee.  

Today, Jesus says, today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. Today God’s spirit is filling your life. Today the Triune God is transforming our world.  Today, here and now.

And yet many are still trapped in systems of injustice, caught in the sin of the world, living within destructive patterns that are hurtful to their neighbors and creation.  

Many can’t escape the noise of fear and shame that lies to us and convinces us that we are not good enough to receive the good news of God’s love and mercy.  Many live in poverty, captivity, isolation and experience loneliness, discrimination, and hate.

It’s hard to believe that transformation is happening and that God is active in our lives when we look around us and see pain and suffering and division.  It’s hard to trust that change is going to happen when the weight of sin and evil weighs us down.  Some days we don’t know if what scripture says God is doing and has done in the world is enough or if God’s promises of abundant love and life will be fulfilled.

But don’t give up on hope. Don’t lose sight of the ways God is active in our lives. Because God, through the Spirit, is transforming you, this community, our neighborhood, our world. With God, transformation is happening, but we know that it doesn’t happen overnight.

When Jesus enters back into his community after his baptism and wilderness journey, people who have known him his whole life don’t notice the transformation that has taken place through the Spirit. And next week we will hear that his community doesn’t respond well to his transformed identity.

But Jesus plants a seed of promise that throughout his ministry he will continue to water and nourish the world bringing healing and justice until God’s promise of love and mercy is fulfilled through his death and resurrection.

And now, as people living in the hope of the resurrection, we take on the task of watering and nourishing until God’s promise can be fulfilled for all of God’s beloved.  Day by day change is happening in unexpected ways in unexpected people, and in unexpected places.  

When we encounter the word of God, hear the promise of a world filled will love, grace, and justice. And when receive glimpses of God’s promises fulfilled in our lives, we cannot help but open our hearts to the transformation that is happening in our lives through the spirit.  

Transformation happens as we hear God’s word through our singing and speaking in our silence and in our prayer. God’s word is being fulfilled today because as we hear God’s word and experience God ‘s word in others, we are transformed by it and through it. This is why it is so important for us to gather in community to worship, read scripture, pray, and serve together, to feast together, to be a part of each other’s daily lives.  

Transformation happens when we confront our biases and behaviors that contribute to division and destruction.  When we take responsibility for our actions and apologize when we make mistakes. It happens when we check in on a friend or take time to laugh, play, and share joy.

Transformation happens when we serve our neighbor. When we give of our time, money, and resources to help others and journey with them.  Like what is happening in our community as we take action to accompany and advocate for an Afghan refugee family.  Or when we continue to provide gracious hospitality to all who come to our door looking for support and love.

Transformation happens as we walk out of these doors proclaiming God’s love and justice through our actions and words whether that be in our classrooms or office, around the dinner table, at the doctor office, or in an interaction with a stranger.  

When we take time to pause and listen to the Holy Spirit, we are guided in ways that will grow our hope and confidence in God’s word active in our lives. And for now, we are nourished by the promises of God’s love and grace that have already been revealed to us. These glimpses of growth, of healing, of reconciling, give us hope to continue to follow the Holy Spirit nudging us toward transformations we don’t even know are possible. 

Moving, stirring, breathing, growing, changing.
Challenging, testing, inviting, stretching.
Energizing, motivating, inspiring.

The Holy Spirit is busy transforming. Do you hear her?

Amen.

The Triune God, through community, is leading us into abundant life and love 

Vicar Andrea Bonneville
Second Sunday after Epiphany, year C 
Texts: 1 Corinthians 12: 1-11; John 2:1-11 

Beloved in Christ, grace and peace to you in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

I must admit I am envious of the people in this week’s Gospel story. Together with both loved ones and strangers, celebrating a wedding without having to think about masks, social distancing, showing their vaccination cards, or locating a test.  The weather is warm and the wine is flowing abundantly.  It sounds pretty dreamy, if you ask me.

But even this celebration has a bit of a hiccup as the wine runs dry.  Mary tells Jesus, “They have no wine” which to me sounds like a code for saying “we are experiencing unprecedented times”.

Jokes aside, running out of wine is a serious issue. Unlike modern day weddings, this wedding was likely to last a whole week and there was an expectation that wine would flow abundantly throughout the celebration.

But before I go any further with this metaphor, I just want to create a clear understanding of what we are talking about with wine.  In this time period wine wasn’t necessarily a strong alcoholic drink. It was a slightly alcoholic drink filled with vitamins and minerals and it was safe and clean to drink unlike most of the water. 

If the wine runs dry, the celebration was likely to end. And if it does, it leads to shame and embarrassment for the newlyweds, and also reflects negatively on the community who is supposed to be supporting them. It was after all custom for guests to bring food and drink to keep the celebration going.  

Two years ago, I would have read this Gospel story and sort of dismissed it because it kind of seems insignificant in the larger narrative of Jesus’ healings, teachings, and signs throughout the Gospels.

But over the last two years, it has been reinforced time and time again of how important community is.  We know the heartbreak of having to cancel or postpone time spent with people we love doing things that bring us joy and nourishment and love and support.

It feels like the wine has run dry and we are living in a time of scarcity again as we navigate canceled plans, empty grocery store shelves, limited hospital beds, and physical and emotional exhaustion. We know scarcity, whether it be scarcity of our basic needs, scarcity of resources, scarcity of energy, or joy, or hope. Yet, today in our Gospel story God’s unconditional love, grace, and mercy is revealed to us through providing abundance in the midst scarcity.

And so, if you came to worship today with your glass half empty (or half full for the optimists in the room), I have good news. God is here transforming our scarcity into an abundance of nourishment and hope.

Mary knew it. The disciples were starting to learn it. The newlyweds and wedding guests had no idea what was going on as they received nourishment, joy, and hope that with the amount of fine wine available the celebration was never going to end.  

Jesus’ act of changing water into wine is a sign that with the triune God—abundant life, joy, and hope are here and now.  Jesus even proclaims later in the Gospel that he has come so that we can have life, and have it abundantly (John 10:10). 

Abundant life is more than portioning our energy and resources, more than checking off the boxes of our to-do lists, more than navigating division and fear. And is certainly more than hoarding resources and material things. Abundant life is about community.

Because abundance is not abundance unless we can share it with others. We may have abundant joy in our hearts, but our joy can’t be reflected if we do not have someone to share it with. Our meal may be the most delish looking feast, but the food is just going to spoil if we do not have a community to share it with. The abundance of gifts we have through the Holy Spirit are going to get rusty if we don’t use them by living lives of love and service.

Now there are varieties of gifts, Paul writes, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone.

God who created you, who knows you by name, who walks with you in the joys and sorrows in the grief and hope also calls you into abundant life and into abundant community.  Where all are invited, where all are embraced, where all can taste the fine wine that is the nourishment of our abundant life together.  So come to God’s table and be nourished, reflect God’s abundant grace and love for all to see.

We are being transformed with and through community and with and through God to share the abundant gift of God, who is our source of life.

Amen. 

The Triune God is here bringing grace and love and hope into our lives and into our world.  

Vicar Andrea Bonneville
Nativity of Our Lord
Texts: Isaiah 52:7-10, Hebrews 1:1-4, John 1:1-14 

Beloved in Christ, grace and peace to you in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Grace is here.
Forgiveness is happening now.

Love is here.
Good news is being proclaimed now.

Peace is here.
Division is ending now.

Hope is here.
New life is springing up now.

The Triune God is here.
God is dwelling among us now.

But you already know this. You’ve already experienced this. This is the Christmas promise. 

God being born into the heartbeat of our humanity and all of creation.
God dwelling among us and with us and in us.
God bringing grace, love, peace, and hope into our lives and our world.

We’ve been lighting candles, praying and singing, hoping and waiting, anticipating this moment. For Christ’s light and glory, the very presence of God, to dwell among us and to scatter the darkness of the world. 

I wish I could tell you the waiting, and hoping, and anticipation was over. That the pain of this pandemic, the heartbreaks, the illnesses, the grief, and injustices were gone.  

On this day as we sing joyous praise our hearts are likely a little heavy, our bodies fatigued, our minds filled with worry, our voices worn out.

But we are still singing. We are still seeking, looking, listening for God to break into and transform our world.  Bringing peace, good news, and salvation for all of creation.

God is coming to us in plain sight, in places that are both expected and unexpected, in ways that have been passed down from generation to generation and ways that surprise us every day, in messy and vulnerable places through messy and unexpected people.

John, in our Gospel reading for today, gives a glimpse of how this looks.  We hear the promise of God being born into the world, into the cosmos, into the wind and the trees and the birds, into my life and yours. God taking on flesh and everything that comes with having a body in this world.  Showing us grace and truth and light and love will scatter darkness.

And in one of his letters, John even deepens what this means for our lives. He writes. “Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him” (1 John 4-9).

What does this mean for us today as beloved children of God. It means that we are created out of love.  That we embody love.  That we be love. 

Because to experience love, grace, hope, joy, and comfort is to experience God and to experience God in creation, in our neighbor, in ourselves is to experience comfort, joy, hope, grace, and love.

To know pain and suffering, to walk with people in their pain and journey with them at their death, to have our hearts break open because of the sin and suffering and death and destruction of our world, to weep is to be the reflection of God.

To stand in awe of and care for creation, to care for animals, plant gardens, grow food, put solar panels on our roofs, raise awareness about the climate crisis is to be co-creators with God.

To extend empathy when it is hard, to challenge ourselves and our neighbors to grow and learn, to recognize and acknowledge when we hurt others and creation, to strive for unity and community is to be the body of God.

To sing and praise, to curse and scream, to advocate for yourself and others and call out injustices in our world, to share words of comfort and hope is to be the voice of God.

To deliver diapers, welcome and support immigrants and refugees, build affordable housing, provide transportation, volunteer our time, go to our jobs, care for our families and our neighbors in whatever way we can is to be the hands and feet of God.

To forgive, to heal, to love is to be the heart of God.

God’s dwelling in you and creation is the Christmas promise.

And I can tell you, that because of who you are and how you love and because of who God is and God’s love, the world has been transformed forever and will continue to be transformed through God with us.

But when in doubt keep singing, seeking, looking, and listening.

Grace is here.
Forgiveness is happening now.

Love is here.
Good news is being proclaimed now.

The Triune God is here.
God is dwelling in you now.

Amen.

We join with Mary in singing her song and proclaiming with generations before us and future generations that Christ will be born in our world to bring justice, peace, and mercy.  

Vicar Andrea Bonneville
Fourth Sunday of Advent, year C
Texts: Luke 1:39-45

Beloved in Christ, grace and peace to you in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Is there a song that takes you back to a moment in your life when you were filled with joy, or sorrow, or fear, or love?  

A song that you know every word or note to. A song that lives deep in your bones and in your heart. It might not be your favorite, or on the greatest hits list, or by a well-known composer, but it has a meaning from a time in your life. And now when you hear this song it takes you back to a moment, a time or place, and you remember and feel all the emotions that are wrapped in it?

Take a moment. What song starts playing in your heart?

Today we sing and hear the song that was playing in Mary’s heart as she believed there would be a fulfillment of God’s promises and God’s Word in her life.

But where did she learn her song?

I’ve heard that this song that Mary sings is divinely inspired by God and that through her faith she sings these words of praise and proclamation. And we also know that Mary’s words are similar to the words that Hannah sings when she is pregnant with Samuel.  For Mary, this song was about her life about her community about who she knows God to be.

The words pour out from her heart with joy, and confidence, and hope, and mercy that indeed God is going to transform the world through her with the son she will give birth to.  She sings of a world where the people with power are brought down and the lowly will be lifted high, of the hungry being filled with good things and the rich being sent away empty.

She sings with joy knowing that, now with this baby in her womb, the promises that she has heard passed down from generation to generation are about to be born.

I don’t know if this is necessarily historically accurate, but imagine with me if Mary had heard this song her entire life. What if Mary’s mom sang this song when she was pregnant with Mary? What if Mary’s family sang this together before bed at night?  Hoping, waiting, anticipating for their current reality to be transformed by God.  What if the song was passed down from generation to generation by the prophets?  So just as Mary proclaims “Here I am” to the calling of God like the prophets before her she also proclaims this song.  Believing and trusting that she was created for and worthy of bearing the Christ child into our world.  

If this song, this promise and proclamation of who God is, was already deep within her bones and her heart whether she had heard it before or if the Spirit moved through her in that moment, there is no hiding that Mary was created for the task ahead of her.

When Mary says yes to the calling of the Triune God, she could have wept or hid in fear, but instead she goes to her relative Elizabeth who is also pregnant. She goes into a community that will love her, believe her, rejoice with her, and walk this journey with her because they have also heard the promises of God’s love and mercy. She goes to her community and she sings a song of joy and praise proclaiming God’s transforming power, mercy, and justice are here and now.

Mary takes joy in the promise that God is with, cares for, and acts on behalf of the poor and oppressed. And trusts that the mighty and powerful will not control the world, but that through people like her and her friends, family, and community God is working and stirring and breathing life that will transform. She knows that what God is doing is not just for her, but it is for you and for me and for all of creation.

We join our voices with Mary who proclaims the greatness of God and who rejoices in God’s promises in her life and for the world.  Knowing, trusting, hoping, anticipating, waiting for these promises to be made known in our lives and our communities.

Discerning that for some of us our voices will grow louder and for others our voices need to be softer.  That for some of us, we need to actively empty ourselves letting go of privileges, and excess money and belongs, and for others we seek more fulfillment of both physical and spiritual things that help us to live healthy and whole lives.  Living in community where we can challenge, and love, and journey with each other as we bear the living Word of God in our lives, being people who reflect the image of God through our love, our actions, and our songs.

In our songs of joy,
In our songs of transformation,
In our songs of hope,

In our songs that we hold dear to the core of our being, we are reminded of our belonging in the ongoing work of Christ. That we are part of the story from generation to generation of God’s beloved creation working together to bring peace and justice to our world.

Mary shows us and reminds us that each of us have been chosen for the communal task of bearing God’s transforming love in our world. And as we witness and participate together in God’s call for our lives, we singing praises, again and again so that our children, and grandchildren, and generations after us continue these praises.

Take a moment. Can you hear Mary’s song in your heart?

Mary’s song and proclamation is at the center of our lives. It’s the structure of our bones, the melody of our hearts, the chorus of our lives.  The good news and joy of God’s love and justice lives, and breaths, and has life in us as we join our praises together. Praising and rejoicing in the Triune God who continuously comes into our world and into our lives bringing hope, and peace, and justice here and now.   

Amen.