Sunday Sermon -The Rev. Dr. Hillary Raining (February 1, 2026)

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Sam. The Holy Gospel of our Savior Jesus Christ according to Matthew. [00:00:42] Speaker B: Glory to you, Lord. [00:00:46] Speaker A: When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak and taught them, saying, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven. For in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. The Gospel of the Lord. Alleluia. Alleluia. Alleluia. Children ages 3 to 10 are invited [00:02:42] Speaker B: to go to the music room of Babylon for a story and prayers and [00:02:45] Speaker A: music, and they will return at the peace. [00:02:50] Speaker B: In the name of one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen. Please be seated. I spent this past week on retreat in Wisconsin, hanging out on a frozen prairie at a Benedictine abbey called Holy Wisdom Monastery. And I'm not kidding about the frozen part. There were several days that bottomed out next to negative 20 degrees. That's not a temperature humans like. Nonetheless, part of the beauty of this sacred site is that it is situated on several acres of Restor prairie that the nuns have been stewards of for generations. If you want to learn more about them and that powerful stewardship, they're featured in a New York Times article this past September that you can still Google and find. But I got to start hanging out with them before they became so famous, because I've been part of a clergy cohort that has spent a year returning to their holy bit of earth for prayers, for nature, for fellowship and renewal. The nuns follow the traditional vows that are founded by the ancient rule of St. Benedict. In fact, that's why we clergy were out there, to shape and renew our own rules of life. A rule in the Christian tradition is a set of guiding principles and practices, like rhythms of prayer, study, spending, community, etc. That people prayerfully discern to live by. The root of the word rule actually has the same root as trellis in Latin, which means growing up alongside God. This rule was created by Benedict in the times often referred to as the dark ages in 529 A.D. the world at that time was characterized by political instability, violence and economic decline and moral decay. He watched as people died of a plague that was ravishing the land and dying of extreme climate change as they lived through something that historians have called a little Ice Age. Most destabilizing of all, the Roman Empire was falling, causing a rise in violence and power grabs and social systems crumbling and a huge rise in political violence. One of the nuns said to us, you know, there was a time when that all didn't sound quite as familiar as it does now. Indeed, we found our own peace in Wisconsin, punctuated by the news of the killing of Alex Peretti, of course, following Renee Goode's death at the hands of ice, and of course learning about the many other non white people, too many to list here, who have died under ice's custody this year. And there was also the story of five year old Leman Romas, who was detained and used as bait so that ICE could arrest his father. We also heard from our clergy colleagues, many of whom were late to the retreat so that they could take part in protests that our own Bishop Buddy spoke at at the Twin Cities. The sisters reminded us that Benedict's answer to this kind of pain wasn't to ignore it, but instead to face it head on. He started what he called a spiritual school, to give people a place to be grounded in the Holy Spirit, A place where they would know stability in a deeply unstable world, but not just for themselves, but for others. He didn't just help to invent modern monasticism and set the foundation for our own Book of Common Prayer, but he helped people for literally over a thousand years, including us today, find a pattern of life that has grounded them in God, no matter how destabilizing the times they found themselves living in. Now obviously Benedict didn't invent this idea himself. Like all wisdom teachers in our tradition, he turned to the life of Jesus for inspiration and guidance. We know that the Beatitudes, which is our gospel reading for today, deeply influenced his process because how they are like a rule of life for Jesus. The Beatitudes come from Jesus very first sermon. This is right after his baptism and time in the desert. And it's what he wants his movement to be about. Like Benedict's rule of life. These are not a five secrets to happiness and successful kind of rule of life here. Rather, the Beatitudes are a prophetic declaration made on the Convention of the coming and already present kingdom of God. It's calling it forth. The Beatitudes remind us that the Christian life is not one primarily, or maybe even at all, interested in comfort. Hence going and hanging out on a negative 20 degree prairie. Rather, the Christian life is one that finds itself finding joy in being reviled and persecuted, like the prophets who preached justice and peace and were ostracized or often killed in the process. We've seen that recently with again the deaths of good and pretty who were killed trying to stand up for their neighbors. Jesus and Benedict, after him, knew that to really, really work to bring the kingdom of God to this world was no easy prospect and a rule. A set of guiding principles helped prepare their people to become so spiritually grounded that they would be ready to claim courage no matter what. We get a glimpse of this in the way Jesus uses the word blessed in Aramaic. Unlike English, there's not that many words, so each one has to use itself in kind of poetic ways to mean more than one thing. Blessed, for example, could mean blessed or you will be a blessing. But it also could mean ripe, like you are ripe, ready to take on the kingdom of the work of the kingdom when you have become so meek that you can identify yourself with the marginalized, that you see no separation between them and you, or that you have become so grieved that you are now ripened when you see the world in pain and anguish. One way to think about this kind of ripening is with an example from the prairie. The sisters taught us that wild prairie grasses and flowers, when they are ripe, tend to grow so tall that they're well over a person's head head. But they are so deeply rooted that what's above ground only counts for about one third of the plant. The other 2/3 exist as a root system, meaning that they're not going anywhere. You really can't even pull them up. It's a ripening from a place of deep, solid foundation. And a person who is blessed is so ripe in Christ that the part you see, the peacemaking part, the solidarity part, will not be moved. They're ripe and ready to do the work of God. Now, lest you think this is all for disciples and nuns and weirdos who hang out in the cold, I want you to turn your attention to the insert that you have in your leaflet today. It says commitment card at the top. Some of you may have heard me share this a few weeks ago in a gathering of our social justice ministries here at the church. This is Martin Luther King, Jr. S rule of Life, so to speak, but not just his personally. Like Benedict and Jesus before him, it's the rule for his entire movement. This commitment card was so serious that you had to sign this if you were going to be part of the nonviolent resistance movement. The signature part read, I sign this pledge having seriously considered what I do and with the determination and will to persevere. Now, before I read that to the group the other week, I asked them what kind of things they thought might be on King's Rule of Life. There were some good guesses. Things like protest, vote, donate, etc. All good, important things. But I don't think we all expected this list to contain so many deep spiritual principles and practices. Look at the list. Meditate daily on the daily teachings and life of Jesus. Remember always that the nonviolent movement seeks justice and reconciliation, not victory. Walk and talk in the manner of love for God is love. Pray daily to be used by God in order that all men might be free. Sacrifice personal wishes in order that all men might be free. Observe with both friend and foe the ordinary rules of courtesy. Seek to perform regular service for others and for the world. Refrain from the violence of fist, tongue or heart. Strive to be in good spiritual and physical health and then follow the directions of the movement and the captain of a demonstration. Are there any surprises for you here? The Seattle Times describes this as well as he had an inward concern for self, an outward concern for others, and an upreach for God. Just like Jesus and Benedict and many others before him who were living in violent times that called for a faith filled response. King realized that if a person was going to be a part of this movement to be a peacemaker had to start as an inside job because they would be tested. It's like that old maxim, if you squeeze an orange juice, orange juice. If you squeeze an orange, orange juice comes out. If you squeeze somebody who's violent, violence will come out. If you squeeze somebody who's rooted in peace, peace will come out. So obviously I've been thinking about the importance of all of this given the times we find ourselves in, especially when so many of us are asking what should we be doing? And in many ways that is an action question. What concrete steps should we be taking to help bring the Kingdom of God to bear in this place and this time? And that's absolutely, absolutely one of the right questions to be asking. I would say that as a church we strive to live into that question with bold action. We feed, we clothe, we show up for public demonstrations of peace. And we're even discerning how we could be doing more because there's always more to be done. In fact, we're in talks to bring more facilitators and trainers in so that we can take this work even further. So please be on the lookout for that. And that's right, because the scripture says faith without works is dead. But I think we have to also be really clear about doing the spiritual internal work as well so that we can do this for the long haul. To have a rule to help us grow and ripen, to do the work of the spirit not just for ourselves but for the whole world. We need to be able to hold on to hope and not burn out. That takes internal peace, that is unshakable and that takes work to cultivate. That's why these things are called spiritual practices. They take time, dedication and energy to let God ripen you. So to save you the time and discomfort of having to freeze on a prairie of Wisconsin, let me offer you this to help you build a rule of life, for there is not a single person on the spiritual path that could not benefit from it. A guiding principle to share your walk with God Take this time this week to deeply be in prayer with God to see how you might form a rule of sorts for yourself for this season. King's three principles are an excellent way to organize this practice to remind you it's what will be your inward concern for self, your outward concern for others, and an upreach to God. Your inward concern for self could be something that helps ground you. Perhaps one that King suggests, something like striving to be in good spiritual and bodily health. Then an outward concern for others. Again, King has some great ones sacrifice personal wishes that all might be free. Observe the ordinary rules of courtesy with friend and foe. That's the hard part. Refrain from violence and get involved in a ministry. Here at our church we have things like the Washington Interfaith Network, the water ministry, the refugee ministry, or heck, even teaching Sunday school to help foster the next generation of peacemakers is a way to engage in nonviolence. And then of course, the upreach to God. Back to King's list. Notice how many of them are in this category. To meditate daily on the teachings and life of Jesus. That sounds like Bible study to me. Remember always, the non violent movement seeks justice and reconciliation, not victory. Walk and talk in the manner of love of God, for God is love. And this one, this one I think will really ripen you. Pray daily to be used by God in order that all might be free. Pray daily to be used by God in order that all might be free. That will change you as a practice. Pick one or three things to ground you, to ripen you, to make you a better advocate for the follower of Christ. For this and every season, what Jesus, Benedict, King, the sisters at the monastery, and all those who sat so wisely live as people of change in this world, as prophets who declare the kingdom here and now. Know that we need to be rooted even when everything feels unmoored. Especially then. Friends, now is the time to let God and the Holy Spirit do that inner work on you. Now is the time to be ripened. Now is the time to bring the blessing to others, and to do so from a place of deep rootedness. Let us do this as we walk in peace. Amen.