Most of you know that I just completed my PhD at the Toronto School of Theology in the University of Toronto. Most of you would not know that my specialty is in comparative theology. I look at religions around the world and compare them to understand their theological similarities and difference. Because my main religion for comparison is Christianity, I often analyze how other traditions can strengthen our understanding of God and Scripture in relation to our experiences as Christians in the world. This has been actually quite helpful in giving me a different perspective when reading Scripture and interpreting sayings and parables. This is also beneficial because when we read Scripture, it is important to us to approach it also from a Jewish lens. After all, the Hebrew Bible is a Jewish text written for the Jewish people and the New Testament tells of a Jewish preacher and his followers – it too is set to the context of Judaism.

We know from the Gospels and in particular the John’s Gospel that Jesus was a mystic. Many of his sayings and parables are inherently mystical, pointing to a deeper way we as humans can seek and experience the infinity and eternity of the great “I am” – that of God. In this line, I am going to approach interpreting today’s Gospel reading from another great mystical tradition – Buddhism. When I approached this passage from a Buddhist lens, I realized it told me a lot more about what Jesus might have been trying to tell his disciples.

Today’s parables again describe the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven as we know it is this mystical but also physical plane of existence that we should all strive for as Christians. It is the ultimate destination for us as followers of Christ – salvation as some would call it. Paradise as others do. Academics call the study of this soteriology. The Ultimate goal seems to have a common language of infinite and eternal beauty and harmony. A goal where everyone is one in love with God and with each other, where the lion can sleep with the lamb. The parables we hear today, tell us of the preciousness and value of the kingdom of heaven. Jesus compares it to a treasure in a field and pearls from the ocean. What is interesting, however, is the extent in which Jesus says that people would go to achieve the kingdom of heaven. They would sell everything to receive this treasure. I realize that we often talk about the value of the kingdom of heaven but not what we have to do to get it. To Jesus, we need to sell everything to get it – to give everything up.

In the synoptic Gospels, Jesus is quite clear with this instruction to the rich young man who approaches him and asks him what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus tells him then, to sell everything he owns and give them to the poor, and then to follow him. Following Jesus alone does not mean one with receive the kingdom of heaven. We are asked as the rich young man is to sell everything and then to follow Jesus. But what does Jesus mean by selling everything. Does it mean to literally sell all our physical possessions? Some people interpret that to mean, yes. So, they end up as monks and friars in the church or wild men like St John the Baptist. Think St Anthony the Great, founder of Christian monasticism and of course, St Francis of Assisi. But not all of us are called to be monks and friars so then what does Jesus mean?
This is where another tradition might give us some help. Like Christianity, Buddhism also has a great monastic tradition. Like Christianity, not all Buddhists are monks. Also, Buddhists believe that you don’t have to be a monastic to achieve nirvana – their Ultimate goal of reality. Bring a monastic simply helps you get there quicker. But everyone is called to give up. Not all their physical possessions but their attachments. Not just physical attachments but emotional ones as well. And even philosophical ones as well. That means giving up any semblance of power and control. Ones that attach us to a certain way of doing life defined by society or culture or whatever. To be in that present moment where you experience a sense of true freedom. I wonder if Jesus might have been talking about that too. After all, how are we to truly follow him and to listen to God’s call that brings us closer to God if we are distracted by our attachments?  We need to give up all of our attachments to things, feelings, philosophies of how life should be lived, and especially to power and control in order to follow him and to eventually receive the kingdom of heaven!

And that also translates to church. When I arrived at St Peter’s I sensed a great unease that many of you have with regards to the church. Many of you are afraid that this church would close down in the next few years. Others are afraid that the church will change so much that you would not recognize it anymore. But it is my duty as your priest to also tell you that you need to let go of those thoughts. We need to accept the fact that we cannot 100% control the future. There are too many changing circumstances for us to even know what will occur in the future. So, we need to let go and realize that everything we know of will one day also come to an end. The St Peter’s which we know of one day will also cease to exist. That is life. Parish churches rise and fall every day everywhere on Earth. Churches evolve so much that they do not look like what they once were. I mean, look at the Pentecostal churches with their light shows and smoke machines. How they differ from the early, medieval and even Victorian church less than 200 years ago! So, for those of us here holding on very strongly to something in this church – let it go. We cannot control the way things have always been done anymore. In order for us to truly be the church – the mystical body of Christ, we need to let go of our power, control, and ideals of the physical church and what it looks like to us and follow Jesus. Everything else will fade but God’s Word will always remain but God’s Word may not be spread in the parish church anymore. So, I ask all of you here to realize also that no one is indispensable, one day someone else will be doing your job here in this church. One day someone else will be priest here and not me. We need to be in that mindset of freedom and not be attached to our roles, knowing that the one day can come at any time. No one can predict the future.

But Jesus reminds us that the kingdom of heaven is also like a mustard see. Small when planted but grows to be the biggest and most magnificent of trees. In order for us to grow as Christians we need to take that first small step. A leap of faith of sorts. Let go and let God. Only then can we grow and achieve the kingdom of heaven. Modern Western Christianity tell us to believe that salvation is already done with Jesus’ death and resurrection. That it is over when we believe we are saved. We can then continue to live our lives as per normal. There are many who take this as “Oh, all I need to do is just believe in Jesus. I don’t have to do anything else. No need to come to church. No need to do charity and good works. I am already saved.”  But I do not agree with that. That is transactional and God’s grace is not transactional. The Eastern Orthodox Churches reminds us that salvation is always a continuing process. It is something that grows and blossoms like the mustard seed which grows into the biggest tree where the animals and birds find their rest. If we let everything go and put our trust in God and truly follow Jesus then we will continue to be saved, moving closer to the Ultimate salvation – in this life and the next. Being Christian is not easy. It is not about that transactional power which comes with simply believing. God’s grace, rather is reciprocal. It continues in our blossom and flourish with us in our lives but we must first give up our lives and follow Jesus. At the end of the day, achieving salvation to the Orthodox is not just going to a utopian heaven but in becoming one with the Triune God. It is a process which they call deification. Becoming like God. And that process starts now and continues in the life to come. We must first start as the mustard seed before we can grow to be a great tree like God. We must all start that reciprocal relationship somewhere. We must first give up our attachments, our power and control, and then follow Jesus.

So, that is my challenge to all of us here at St Peter’s. Are you willing to give up everything and follow Jesus today?

the Rev. Dr. Ollie Lim

Today we approach another of Jesus’ parables in the Gospel of Matthew. The parable of the wheat and the weeds is also a well-known parable but it is one that has been used in problematic ways throughout Christian history particularly in the 20th and 21st centuries as a way to separate Christians and non-Christians and distinguish the groups in an ever-opposing “us and them” situation.  It has been used to persecute others who think differently from the “right type of Christian” and used as an excuse to perpetuate fear and coerce conversion in people using the threat of hell.

I always find it difficult when I read passages like this in the Bible and I often ask myself whether these are reflective of an all-loving, all-gracious, and all-merciful God. But then again, I also realized that it is ok to feel uneasy that because we have been taught to interpret the Bible through a very literal and historical sense. This is, though, really not the purpose of the Bible. The Bible as a document was written to inspire hope, first among its original readers and then for the generations who come after. So, I encourage all of you to keep this in mind when approaching Scripture. What hope do we get out of difficult and problematic readings. How then should we interpret them?
Well, the first thing we should do is to approach reading any theological text with what my Bible professors call a “hermeneutic of suspicion”. We need to be suspicious of the text and continue to critically ask ourselves if the text really means what it says. This brings me back also to English Literature classes where we critically analyze poetry, prose, and plays from the past. I mean, we read Shakespeare plays to enjoy them for political intrigue and social commentary, not seeing plays like Julius Cesar or Henry V to be absolute historical fact, right? So why can’t we approach the Bible in the same light?

So, let’s break down this passage in the context of the Gospel of Matthew. The Gospel of Matthew was written not long after the destruction of Jerusalem and the Second Temple at the hands of the Romans. The Jewish people were exiled from their homeland once again. The Gospel was aimed at the early Jewish followers of Jesus Christ – Christians who kept kosher. The book was supposed to allow them to find hope in a world of exile and destruction and to give them a purpose to continue pursuing God and remembering God’s covenant. If we understand this, we can then interpret this particular reading in the light of resisting empire. We start to see the kingdom of heaven as mentioned in this reading as the Jewish community in Judea, fed by the words of God in the Torah and the prophets. The evil one becomes the Roman empire, sowing seeds of distrust and destruction amongst the Jewish people, poisoning them with ideals of empire. The slaves of the householder can be seen then to be the disciples of Jesus Christ, the householder himself, whom he explains the meaning of the parable to.

The Gospel writer then is giving his readers hope in Christ Jesus. In a real-life situation – it is impossible to remove empire, their ideals, and the people they affect in the community by turning them away from their family and friends. Also, it would not be wise for the people to divide themselves up. This would cause more disunity and disharmony in the long run so the Gospel writer is almost giving the readers hope by telling them that God is the ultimate judge and that at the end of the day, empires will be destroyed and those who uplift them will be purged in fire just like the burning of garbage outside the city walls. It is a parable to uplift the spirits of the recently exiled Jews and to tell them that because God has become one of you in Christ Jesus, a human being, God knows how and what you are feeling. But, keep the faith, hold on strong to God’s word in the Torah, live like Jesus and his community because at the end of the day, you will reap benefits. God knows who amongst you are sowing discord and working in the ways of the empire. They will eventually be judged.  

This parable, thus, if read in this way, has so much more meaning to us in today’s world. We turn on the TV to news of political chaos in our country, wars and conflict around the world, and to an economy which exploits the least of us while uplifting the super-rich. These are the marks of empire in today’s world. And we are also reminded that empire is not in a country far away but in ours as well. The system nation states are built on support the politically powerful and economically rich at the expense of the least of us all. Though these things divide us, it is difficult for us to solely call for the destruction of who we identify as the “weeds” because the more we think of it we all have a part to play in uplifting empire. We give ourselves up to and live in a system which unfortunately exploits. But if we were to get physical and purge who we think are the weeds, we fall further victim to the division of empire. So, all we need to do is hold faith and trust God but to work on ways that do not remove people but to bring people together. To do what the Prophet Micah reminds us – do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God and with one another. In the end, Jesus tells us that love will win out always as empire is destroyed. As we look at the world around us – great empires never last. They rise and fall but what always remains is love.

So, now let’s turn this inwards to ourselves. All of us have wheat and weeds in us but if we are to concentrate on God’s word and love other unconditionally, at the end of the day, God will burn away the hatred and sin in us all, purifying our souls and spirit. We let Go cut out the bad in us if we practice love. If we contemplate and pray. If we engage in spiritual practice. We do not need to go around condemning others because they might be different from us. It is not up to us to remove the weeds for we do not know them and we do not know God’s will a hundred percent. All we can do is love each other and let God work. Everyone has weed and wheat in them and who knows what kind of trial and tribulation another person is going through? To walk humbly with God is to also remember what Jesus tells us in Matthew 7:21-23. Jesus said: Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; go away from me, you who behave lawlessly.’

Let us do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with one another. Love one another as God loved us first. Amen.

​the Rev. Dr. Ollie Lim

The parable of the sower which we heard in the Gospel acclamation today is one of the most familiar of Jesus’ parables. Many of us know the story by heart and understand what it means to our individual spiritual lives as Christians. The farmer sowing the seeds is Jesus – teaching us the word of God. The word is the seed and the seed is always good. It can always take root and sprout but is conditioned on the ground it which it falls upon. The different types of ground Jesus describes in the parable represent us as humans and our receptivity to God’s word.

Some of us are like the harden path – our hearts are hardened to the words of God. We hear them but we ignore them. They are then snatched away by the evil one – think distractions, temptations, and excuses we make for not being open to the word.

Others are like the rocky ground. We receive the word well. We might be enamored by the message of Jesus. It is enlightening. But we are not consistent in receiving the word. Therefore, it does not really take root and withers away quickly. When we are faced with setbacks when it comes to our faith – troubles or doubts, we don’t preserve and lose faith in the word. Faith seems to be sustained only by skin-deep emotions. When the going gets tough, the tough does not get going.
Then, there is the third soil with thorns. We receive the word of God but it is choked out of us by the ways of the world – wealth, comfort, desires – and even things which are not inherently sinful – responsibilities and societal pressure. These draw us away from the deep spirituality of Christ’s message because it runs counter to what we are taught to believe in or brought up with – values we might consider good.

Finally, Jesus speaks of the good soil – the heart that hears the word, understands it, and bears fruit. The good soil is not perfect soil. It is receptive soil. It is soil which preservers regardless of the weather conditions. It allows the seed to sink deep, to take root, and to grow. We all want to be the good soil.

It is interesting when we read this text because today’s Gospel reading takes these two parts: the parable and Jesus explanation of it and puts them together. They do not actually follow one another in the Gospel itself. In my opinion, the lectionary authors wanted to put these together to show us Christians who listened to this proclamation that we are like Jesus’ disciples. We are privy to the deeper meaning of the parable. We are reminded in Matthew 13:10-17 that the secrets of Jesus’ spiritual teachings are not for the crowds. They are not for the world. They are only revealed to the disciples – the ones who are genuinely interested and who follow Jesus. Because we are here in church, we want to follow Jesus. We want to read the Bible and if we do so, we hear the message of the parable explained to us like Jesus did to his disciples. And because we hear this explanation today, we are reminded that we are God’s elect because we first chose to follow Jesus. The seeds of God’s word are plentiful. The farmer will continue to sow seeds if there is ground to be developed. And the seed is always good. We just need to be receptive and preserve as we receive the seed so it can take root in us.

But I wonder if Jesus is not just talking to individuals receiving his word but to his church as well. After all, soil is plentiful. The word soil used in this context is meant to be understood in its plural form and not its singular. Could Jesus be talking to his people as a whole? To us not just as individuals but if we come together as a church as a whole? The different types of soil here can represent different groups of Christians gathered in Christ.

Because the sower continues to sow day after day, God approaches us through Jesus day after day as well. We are not just bound by one interpretation of the bible or one interpretation of God’s word. After all, the Holy Spirit was sent to be with us so that we could continue to discern God’s word as it changes throughout time – to discern God’s small, quiet voice as our life progresses. Are we as the church still open to hearing God’s continuing word? Or are we like the hardened path refusing to listen to God and just continue to do the same things church is supposed to do and be? Like the good old days when it worked for us. Why should we change and be open? Why should we be humble and admit that our previous ways do not work anymore?

Are we like the rocky ground? Excited when something new comes around to make church exciting again but then get tired when we the new thing loses its flavor. Or when a setback occurs and we lose faith in the newness and freshness of change we once embraced, falling back to our old ways?

Are we like the thorny soil? Only responding to the ways of the world when doing church? Thinking solely about numbers in our pews or the money we have in our bank account? Or thinking about how progressive we are in our voice that we fail to realize that we are just virtue signalers – that we say and not do? While all those are important and not necessarily bad, do we miss the point of what church should be in and for the world?

Or are we like the good soil? Always open to change, discerning God’s word carefully and even in difficult times being steadfast and strong, allowing the seed to take root and flourish in our community?

I thought a lot about this because a few days ago, I chanced upon a post by Rev Lizzie, an Episcopal priest who pondered about why young people are no longer coming to our churches despite many of our churches being progressive and inclusive – churches where we preach openness, welcome and love. And she suggests the reason why – we claim to be diverse, to welcome all kinds of people because the body of Christ should not look like just one body. But when we look around at ourselves, we realize that we are that same, single, one kind of body. We have been doing church for ourselves only – the way we know how to. We fear change and doing something or trying something different.

Rev Lizzie then gives us an example of how it is so. She writes: my best friend from college — the one exception who was Christian and actively was looking for church — talked about how she tried every single Episcopal and Lutheran Church for a twenty-mile radius and felt nothing but iced out. But when she dipped her toe in the booming nondenominational church up the road, she left worship with five phone numbers of people her own age who were genuinely excited to hang out. She confided in me that only about half the people in said megachurch actually aligned with the church’s theological and political stances on women and LGBTQ people.

But it was the fact that (1) most of those young folks did not know there were any other options for church, and, (2) that the mainline churches around them were so sparse in demographic parity that kept me up at night.

Hear that again: the mainline churches around them were so sparse in demographic parity that kept her up at night.

The church needs to be ready for a changing world. The world out there hungry for spirituality and hungry for God does not look like us anymore. It does not see spirituality like we do anymore. Are we willing to hear God’s voice that we need to change for them so that they can come to know God too? Can the church be like the good soil, receptive to change and enduring in the face of difficulties, especially with letting go of the past? There might be difficulties at first. Even with change, we might not see the results we want. But could we be patient and wait on the Holy Spirit? After all, even in the good soil, the seed takes a while to sprout.

Nonetheless Rev Lizzie recommends the following. I thought her recommendations were so good that I should just repeat them here.

1. Your website is your front door. Explain what you do on Sundays EITHER without any church jargon (this includes “coffee hour” and “Eucharist” and “formation”) OR by explaining each church term in the best secular comparison you can.
2. Relatedly, most people will watch your livestream before they ever darken the door.
3. Greet first time guests warmly, but know they may need a little space. Have at least 3 points of contact for them to plug in: info in the bulletin or something they can take home to contact people, someone who greets them at the door, and someone in the pews looking out for newbies who are a bit overwhelmed.
4. Children are not the future of the church, they are the church. Make room for them, and their noise and their wiggles, in the worship space. Children will only grow up and go to church if they spent their growing up going to church.
5. Relatedly: working class families are shelling out mortgages for childcare, and we’re exhausted. But we also want time to simply enjoy our kids. The greatest gift the church can give families is space to enjoy our children, which means we don’t typically need or want a traditional nursery where we drop the kids and go away for hours — we’ve done that all week. Maybe we want a little break, but mostly we want people to help us with our kids — feed them, maybe help watch them and teach them during the sermon so we can hear it — and space for us to chit-chat with other grown ups after worship while our kiddos zoom around with their new little google-eyed crafts or play with the stack of Bible-y kids books set out for them.
6. Take God so seriously that you don’t take yourself too seriously. I don’t know about you, but I am not special or powerful enough to break a 2,000 year old prayer all by myself. So I’m not going to break this 2,000 year old tradition by being a human praying instead of a robot reciting.
7. Don’t try to gloss over how weird church is. Every week when we have Eucharist, it could be summed up as: “Behold: our dead God, now raised, let’s eat Him!” That is so strange, y’all. The mystery is the magic. Trust us to step into it with you.

I still believe that St Peter’s is where the good soil is. After all, you worked hard to keep this place going after the retirement of Padre Sid. I have never seen such a bunch of dedicated people before. I remember someone telling me that “we are all in our eighties now. We do not have enough energy anymore and are tired.” To my surprised I replied in my head “Are you? It doesn’t seem like it.” You have taken the first step in receiving God’s continual sowing of the seed. Now be steadfast and allow it to sprout and to grow.

I ask for your patience, your encouragement, and your love as we change church, our community, and the world together. We begin my changing ourselves. We need each other now more than ever before. Let us be the good soil for the world. Let us be the church God calls us to be. Amen.

the Rev. Dr. Ollie Lim

Happy feast day everyone! This past Monday we commemorated the feast of St Peter and St Paul but seeing that we do not have a service on Monday, that we should commemorate our feast day today. 

I've always wondered why Peter and Paul share a feast day. They seem like two very different apostles. One met and lived with Jesus during his ministry whereas the other never even met Jesus. But as you can see from the Book of Acts, their ministries and destinies were intertwined making them the two foundational pillars of the church. Pope Benedict XVI mentioned that they inseparably represent the entire Gospel of Christ. Peter was the chief apostle to the Jewish people, while Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles; together, they symbolize a unified, universal Church. This is quite clear when we read the Book of Acts and delve into the Epistles of Paul and Peter. 

Finally, they were both essentially to bringing the Gospel to Rome where they shared a similar date of being martyred under Emperor Nero. One was beheaded while the other crucified upside down. Celebrating them together highlights their spiritual brotherhood and their unified role in establishing the Christian faith.

But it did take a long journey to get there. For Paul, he had to see the errors of his ways as a persecutor of Christians. For Peter, it was overcoming his doubts along his journey as a disciple of Christ to finally letting go and following Jesus.

Let us focus on Peter since he is the patron of our church. Jesus always knew that Peter was special. After all, Peter was his lead apostle. Jesus even changed his name from Simon to Peter and told him that he would be the foundation of his church. On this rock, I will build my church. But Peter was also the most problematic disciple. He often questioned Jesus' judgement and defended his teacher using physical violence. Most of all he denied Jesus. First when Jesus told his disciples that he was destined to suffer and die (Jesus told Peter: get behind me, Satan) and then again at the crucifixion where his denial led to the cock crowing three times as Jesus predicted.

Peter represents all of us as human beings. Peter's foresight was limited. He could never grasp Jesus' bigger picture. He first thought that Jesus was the conquering messiah who would lead the Jews into a victorious battle with the Romans when Jesus message was a spiritual one, a one reflected by love so powerful that the strong will be eaten away by it. A love that would eventually gather all the different peoples of this earth together so much so that powerful empires and institutions would be eroded away so that the very least of us could thrive.

Peter often put himself and his safety over others. He denied Christ three times at his crucifixion seemingly to save his own skin. This theme was further reflected after Jesus death, resurrection, and ascension. He often clashed with Paul over the inclusion of Gentile Christians. In Galatians, Paul criticizes Peter's hypocrisy. Peter eats with Gentile Christians till friends of James came by and he left for fear of being criticized by them. This time, he did so to save his own face. 

But the reminder Jesus left with Peter at the shores of the Sea of Galilee no doubt would always return to him throughout Peter's travels and ministry. In today's Gospel passage we are reminded of how Jesus asked him three times to feed his lambs, tend his sheep and finally to feed his sheep to remind him of his shortcoming when he denied him at his crucifixion. Peter had to reply time and again that he loved Jesus and would do his work. Jesus then reminded Peter that though he was in control in his youth, that control would be taken away in his old age pointing to the fact that Peter would eventually realize that he had to give up his good intentions, his face, and eventually his skin in order to follow Jesus' message of radical love. Peter eventually did so and in submitting to Jesus, Peter was crucified upside down for his faith and work. 

It was in Peter finally grasping the message of Jesus that very day on the beaches of the Sea of Galilee to follow him that he achieved something so great that he would not see in his lifetime but have ramifications till this day - the birth of the Church. The spread of Christianity where everyone, Jew or gentile, male or female, slave and free could be a part of. The message that in God and through God that no matter who we are, we are welcomed at Christ's table. 

And we can still see this message in our everyday here in the United States. As we celebrate this country’s 250th Independence Day, we remember our embrace of human rights, our belief in freedom, and our understanding that no matter who we are in this country, that we are can do anything we want in order to achieve the life we want.

But the lesson of today is that if we want to continue to be that country we so love, two we must first recognize that we are like Peter. We have good intentions, we may make mistakes, but we must eventually let go of it all and follow Jesus' message of radical love and welcome. 

I think that is also the call of the church today. We must submit and follow our mission to love others as Jesus first loved us. I believe that St Peter's Episcopal Church is in the process of a reformation. We are at the crossroads once again in the midst of a dwindling national church, but I believe that St Peter's can still be the focal point of the community and of Jesus' message. But we need to let go of our ideas of what church should be and just follow Jesus. God will do the rest. Have the intention, aim for it but to let go and let God. I hope to use this period of time as I begin my ministry to recalibrate. I hope that together, we can redefine our mission here in Morro Bay, reset ourselves, and then go out into the world again. We need to trust God and pray as we walk this journey together. If we put God and spirituality first, change ourselves and our ideas as we put others before us, then we will see the change that we want.
​
In Folk Christianity, because Peter holds the keys to heaven, he is seen as a saint who opens doors and removes obstacles for those who pray to him, asking for his intercession. But I believe that for that to happen, we must not only pray but to be like Peter, to let go and let God work. Make our intentions known, refocus our intentions on Christ's central message to love, and let God do the rest. Following Jesus is hard. St Peter and St Paul know that. Their stories remind us of that. Now it is the time for us to be like them. To emulate them. To follow Jesus. Amen. 

the Rev. Dr. Ollie Lim

Happy Pride everyone! Yesterday, I was at Pride in the Plaza in SLO and had a great time. It was nice seeing the whole community out in support of LGBTQ rights. Before coming to St Peter’s, I spoke to Rev Caro over the phone and asked if St Peter’s was planning to do something to commemorate Pride Month. She told me that although St Peter’s is a LGBTQ inclusive and affirming church, that we do not have the history of commemorating Pride. So, I thought that we should at least, in a small way commemorate the lives and gifts of all our LGBTQ siblings today with this day being the last Sunday in June.

Growing up as a queer person, I also had a difficult relationship with the church. Although I was not very open about my identity, and that the churches I went to growing up were not condemning LGBTQ people outright with threats of hell fire and brimstone, the marginalization was quite subtle and institutionalized. Churches operated on a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy but would slide in comments during sermons and conversations by saying “love the simmer, but hate the sin”. When the Singaporean parliament was debating to repeal the colonial-era penal code which criminalizes mutual sex between adult men, a cell group I was at even prayed to God asking for the code to remain for the fear of unleashing “LGBTQ values” onto society. Churches were discreet in their combat of what they see as the debauchery of the LGBTQ community by funding and lobbying the government to adopt conservative sex ed in schools run by right-wing organizations such as Focus on the Family to the detriment of the mental health of LGBTQ children across the country. When the debate of the repeal of the penal code was heating up, churches became more open, often citing their opposition to the LGBTQ community using what is commonly known as the six clobber passages of the Bible to argue their point. One of these passages is the one where God destroys Sodom and Gomorrah in Gensis supposedly for “engaging in homosexuality”. I am sure that many of you here were also exposed to these homophobic troupes in Christian circles when growing up in the US. After all, many of these were brought to my country by evangelical missionaries in the 1980s and 1990s.

It was years later when I discovered progressive and inclusive Christianity first in the Scottish Episcopal Church when I was studying my undergraduate degree in the UK and in my home church – Free Community Church, the only openly LGBTQ inclusive and affirming church in Singapore that I realized that a lot of the way I was taught the bible and interpreted what Christianity really is was problematic and wrong in many ways. However, this was so ingrained in me that although I loved the person of Jesus and saw his compassion and welcome to the very least of us all, I could not shake notion that Christianity was an intolerant religion. It took years of deconstruction and reconstruction of my faith before I could get where I am today.

Jesus reminds us of radical welcome in today’s Gospel passage and I think it is very apt that this passage falls on the day we commemorate Pride in church – if we do to the very least of us, we do to Jesus. And that is the calling of every Christian. But to even identify with the LGBTQ community, to identify with myself, we have to learn to let go off and reinterpret many theological notions, doctrines, and biblical interpretations were taught. For example, I now know that the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was not welcoming the poor and the oppressed as Ezekiel 16:49 clearly states that the sin of Sodom was having pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease but did not aid the poor and needy. Another contemporary example in relation to the LGBTQ community is the reinterpretation of the word “queer”. In the past the term queer was seen negatively but the word was reclaimed by the younger LGBTQ community in the 21st century as a broader term that went beyond the terms “gay”, or “lesbian” or “bisexual”. Queer, hence, became a more inclusive rallying term of identity for the wider LGBTQ community and many would prefer to use the word queer to identify themselves. Thus, many of us had to learn to change and accept the word queer as a preferred term of identification especially amongst the youth.

Our reading from the Hebrew Bible today is one such reading that needs significant reinterpretation in Christian circles. The binding of Isaac is often used to teach us about faith but a faith which is dangerous, blind faith. A faith in following whatever we think God commands us to the extent that it hurts us and people around us. After all, if God is good, we should be obedient to the extent of killing our own first born, right? While I feel that this passage affirms Abraham’s unwavering faith in God, I also believe that it tells us something more about the issue of good discernment. If one reads this in the original Hebrew language, one discovers that there are two words used for the same word “God” in Hebrew – Elohim and Yahweh. The passage starts off with Elohim; a plural term used for God before the final part where the word for God changes to Yahweh. The angel of Yahweh called to Abraham telling him to not lay a hand on Isaac. I wonder if the original writers of Genesis did this intentionally. I interpret them trying to tell us that Abraham was still not apt at discerning God’s voice. He heard only one side of God calling to him – Elohim. He had heard the call of Elohim to sacrifice his son but might have interpreted it wrongly till the angel of Yahweh, another side of God appeared to him. Perhaps this was a challenge God presented to Abraham to discern whether he was really asked to sacrifice his son – perhaps it was a challenge to disobey even the orders of God of someone would be harmed. To put the life of a human being even before the commandments of God. The story, then, is less about faith but about discernment in the face of challenge and the value of human life.

And this is what Jesus was sent to preach to us about. Jesus reminded us that God’s love is all about putting others before us and before our rigid doctrines and codes of purity. Love is turning the rules and regulations upside down if it means putting the very least of us before us and the structures of the world we create to order it. But this radical love requires sacrifice and sometimes sacrifice in the name of loving one’s neighbor means giving up one’s life for it. It means even going to the cross like Jesus did.

But I think God does not call solely for physical sacrifice where we have to die for love. Not all situations demand for us to do that but God calls for us to give up certain values and beliefs so central to us that it means sacrificing a piece of ourselves if that means that someone else is loved for who they are. Let me tell you the story of my late pastoral mentor the Reverend Dr. Yap Kim Hao who first identified my calling and sent me to seminary in Los Angeles. Rev Yap was the former bishop of the Methodist Church in Singapore. He was a straight man with children and grandchildren. Upon his retirement moved away from the church to serve the LGBTQ community, migrant workers and people living with HIV in Singapore as the church did not want to support or be affiliated to those groups. In fact, he was the very first senior clergyperson to come out in support of the LGBTQ community in Singapore. Because of that, Rev Yap was shunned by many of his former colleagues and congregants and eventually found his way to become pastoral advisor to Free Community Church, my home church in Singapore.

The current executive pastor of Free Community Church, the Rev Miak Siew recalled an incident he had at an LGBTQ conference at the church some years ago. At the event, a transgender woman who was a former sex worker approached him and asked him, “a pastor of another church told me that I would go to hell. What do you say?” And while he was trying to formulate his answer, theologizing deeply in his mind, Rev Yap appeared. The woman then turned to him and asked him the same question, “a pastor of another church said that I would go to hell. What do you say?” Rev Yap chuckled, and in his deep resonating voice said, “Where you go, I will go.” “Where you go, I will go.”

In that one moment, Rev Yap tied his entire destiny to hers. He sacrificed whatever he was taught by the church when he was young and gave up his supposedly strict and pious identity as an older clergyman in order to put someone else, a hurting transgender woman marginalized by the church before him. The sacrifice of his ideals and how society viewed a former bishop occurred when he identified himself and his identity with the woman. In that moment, he became the Christ figure for tour church. Even after his death in 2018 while I was in my first semester in seminary, he continues to be remembered, quoted on, and loved by not just LGBTQ Christians but by the entire the LGBTQ community in Singapore.   
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Rev Yap’s story reminds us that if we are to be followers of Jesus that we must radically welcome the stranger. We must give even to the little ones even if it means giving up and sacrificing a piece of ourselves. I hope that my sermon today gets us to challenge ourselves on our long-held beliefs and interpretation. Radical welcome means that we must continue to question ourselves and change our ways of thinking by putting our neighbors first especially those who are the very least of us. “Where you go, I will go.” Glory to Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Amen.

​the Rev. Dr. Ollie Lim

We live in strange times - times when people who identify as followers of Jesus Christ support violence against anyone who seems different, and what passes as Christian preaching is sometimes veiled white supremacy. It can make us feel ashamed to be called Christians.

In order to resist this mis-portrayal of our faith and of our Savior we get to be very careful that we are living as disciples of Jesus the Christ as he is seen in Scripture. The true gospel, the Good News of Jesus, is a gospel of non-violence, reconciliation and deep love and anything that goes against those values is not of the reign of God.

Today’s gospel reading gives us a long account of Jesus calling and commissioning his disciples. Today is my last Sunday talking with y’all for quite some time, so this is a good Sunday for us as St Peter’s to be thinking about what it means to be disciples of Jesus. Not disciples of me, or Padre Sid or Rev Ollie, but of Jesus the Christ.

Before I get into my ideas, I would like to hear yours. So let’s take a few minutes to pair and share. I would like you to find someone to talk with – you may have to change seats, and please look to see that no-one is alone. Once you have found your conversation partner, please talk about what is most important about being a disciple of Jesus; if you’re not sure you can make it up. So, let’s take a few minutes to talk about what you think is most important about being a disciple of Jesus…
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Last week I talked about the importance of deep love and of accepting God’s love. I described the path of the disciple as learning and living on an ever-deepening level—a seen-in-our-daily-lives, actionable level—learning and living the truth that God is love, that we are loved, and that the only path to wholeness and fulfillment is the doing of that love.

Probably Jesus didn’t talk much about this because his disciples were already experiencing his love and seeing it demonstrated as he healed people. But most of us have personal trauma and grief or generational trauma which can get in the way of us receiving the amazing and unconditional love that God has for us. We still think we have to do something to earn it.  We’re a bit like Sarah laughing in her tent when she hears that she’s going to have a child. “Really?? Me?”

The reality is that those of us who want to learn to give and receive divine tenderness have to deal with our experience of the falsehoods, the wounds, the craziness of love that is not love. Jesus invites us to unlearn ways of life that do not nourish us or strengthen the bonds of beloved community. We cooperate in our own healing, our un-learning and re-learning as we allow the Spirit to lead us into discipleship.

And at the same time, Jesus sends us out.

Discipleship is about learning and living the truth of God’s tenderness, but this is not just a gift for ourselves to cherish. God’s love is not to make us feel good but to share that love even when sharing tears us apart.

God’s tenderness extends to all beings. When Jesus saw the crowds, we heard, he had compassion on them for they were harassed and helpless. When Jesus looks at the people of Morro Bay he has compassion and tenderness- he sees that they are harassed and helpless. Yet Jesus also sees a plentiful harvest for God, waiting for people to harvest.

And Jesus told the disciples to pray.

Before all else, as the disciples of Jesus, we are to pray. It is in prayer that we learn more of the love and tenderness of God; it is in prayer that miracles of healing begin; it is in prayer that we align our wills with Gods and set into motion the possibilities of co-creation. It is in prayer that we unlearn the habits and resentment that prevent us from fully experiencing God’s love. It is a simple prayer to pray that God might graciously and gently remove all the blocks that prevent us from fully experiencing her love. And it is a simple prayer that God might graciously and gently remove all the blocks that prevent our neighbors from fully experiencing his love.

Jesus specifically told the disciples to pray that God might send laborers into the harvest; and then he authorized and commissioned them to be the laborers themselves.

Being disciples of Jesus takes work. It did then and it does now.

But the work is different. Then it meant going from town to town spreading the good news that the reign of God is near. Today we don’t have to travel on foot without any extra food or clothing. But we are still called to spread the good news that the reign of God is near.

And it is good news that God’s tender love is available for everyone, that we can celebrate peace and non-violence, that we can resist the culture of violence which today celebrates the president’s birthday by glorifying ‘ultimate’ fighting.

Our work is less obvious than that of the first century disciples – we don’t get to “cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, and cast out demons.” But through prayer and conversation whether in person or through social media we get to share the truth that God is love, that we are loved, and that the only path to wholeness and fulfillment is the doing of that love.

Jill and I experienced a miracle this week. It’s been over two years since we had a nasty falling out with the young couple who live next door. In the past six months the wife, at least, has begun to acknowledge that we exist and not always look the other way when she sees us. We have struggled with forgiveness. We have smiled and greeted them. And we have prayed. On Monday we saw the mother and her two young sons in the distance down by the bay. We thought they were avoiding us. Later we were working in our yard when the older boy came to tell us that now he is four and they had seen us by the water and picked berries for us but we were gone. His mother joined him and told us where to find berries by the bay and she stayed to chat for a few minutes. A little later the four-year-old returned with a small bowl of berries.

Those berries were a little sour but oh so sweet. Healing is happening. We are deeply grateful to see the reign of God coming near in our driveway.

And maybe that is one way that we go out into the harvest that God is preparing and sending us into. By praying for those who live and work around us, by praying for our neighbors and our friends and our acquaintances that God will remove the blocks that prevent them from fully experiencing God’s tender love. And then listening for how God is sending us out.

And, when we hear the Spirit’s prompting, having the courage to go.

the Rev. Dr. Caroline Hall
 

All preachers stand on the shoulders of others, and this morning I am particularly indebted to Nikki Mathis, a priest in Atlanta, Georgia for the way she expressed the ideas in this sermon.[i]

The Rev. Mathis points out the tenderness of God displayed in the compassion and actions of Jesus the Christ. It is the tenderness that welcomes desperate women who take their healing into their own hands, and irrational fathers who insist that daughters can be raised from the dead. It is the tenderness that calls as disciples people who have acted as traitors to their own people, and which hosts dinner parties that others see, at best, as morally questionable.

With the evidence of such attentive, transformative, and healing love in the gospel this morning, why, she asks, do we find it so hard to truly know divine compassion?

Why is it often so hard for us to do the work of disciples, which is learning and living on an ever-deepening level—a seen-in-our-daily-lives, actionable level—learning and living the truth that God is love, that we are loved, and that the only path to wholeness and fulfillment is the doing of that love? I say “doing love” because love is a verb, and it’s what we’re made for. 

It’s just that simple… but not at all easy.

It sounds great, doesn’t it: falling further into the endless depths of God’s tenderness and sharing that with others (all others). But how exactly are we supposed to do that?

How are we supposed to do that when our own life experiences, or simply watching 15 minutes of any news network, can so quickly plunge us into betrayal, heartbreak, and despair?

How can we believe in “love” when we have been brought up in families, or have had friends or partners, claiming to be Christian whose ability to love is quite poor, even if they are trying their best? 

How do we do “love” when we have suffered systemic injustice, presented to us as the best we deserve—as if any of us deserve racism, sexism, ageism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia. 

If any of you are blessed enough to have had all your family and friends always love you well; if you’ve never had anyone reject you, treat you unfairly or cruelly; if no inexplicable tragedy has ever happened to you; then this sermon is not for you. 

This sermon is for all of us who have experienced depression, fear, and deep loss. This sermon is for all of us who’ve had those with power over us use shame as motivation and exclusion as a way to maintain status quo.

Because the reality is that those of us who want to learn to give and receive divine tenderness are going to have to deal with the falsehoods, the wounds, the craziness of love that is not love. 

Jesus is inviting us to unlearn ways of life that do not nourish us or strengthen the bonds of beloved community. 

We are invited to abandon unquestioning agreement with questionable beliefs and wrestle with the scriptures, exploring the language and values of the cultures from which they came without abandoning faith.

Or we may need to reexamine the history of natural disasters being named “Acts of God,” indicating that divine love is deadly and arbitrary. Or worse, being declared God’s punishment as if God is angry and vindictive.

We may need to unravel the way we have been harmed by others wielding biblical texts or beliefs in divine retribution as being synonymous with how God loves and acts in the lives of God’s beloveds. 
As Jesus calls Matthew the despised tax-collector so Jesus calls us his disciples to practice this re-learning: inviting us to know and extend God’s tenderness beyond our ‘own’ people to all people however different from us.

On Tuesday you’re invited to come to Movie Night. Over a potluck we will watch the film “The Shack”. This is not a great film. It did not win any academy awards. But what it does is explore God’s tenderness, God’s especial love for each one of us as individuals as Mack, the protagonist confronts God, unlearns his anger, and learns about forgiveness and hope and love.

This morning, in God’s tenderness we’re invited to the dinner party of the communion table, surrounded by the motley crew of other fallible human beings. Here we are invited to learn—with the Holy Spirit’s help—to see human dignity and the face of God in all people, even in our enemies, simply because that’s also what God sees in us. 

We’re all receiving healing as we touch the garment of listening to and learning from the stories of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection, year after year after year. As we listen and learn, Jesus takes us by the hand, raising us from the living death of settling for anything less than a bone-deep knowing that we’re absolutely adored by the One who made us, regardless of what others might say or what we may think of ourselves. 

Let me repeat that: Jesus takes us by the hand, raising us from the living death of settling for anything less than a bone-deep knowing that we’re absolutely adored by the One who made us, regardless of what others might say or what we may think of ourselves. 

We cooperate in our own healing, our un-learning and re-learning as we allow the Spirit to lead us into discipleship. Discipleship means something different for each of us: learning the tenderness of God perhaps through a contemplative prayer group; perhaps through a group Bible study; and then living our learnings through relationship and service. We cooperate with the Holy Spirit by doing less doom-scrolling and more handholding. It is in relationship that we receive more of who God really is: inexhaustible, relentless, transforming love. 

But let’s not get it wrong… This process of re-learning, receiving, then doing divine love doesn’t fix everything. It doesn’t make suffering and evil suddenly cease to exist. Nor will we get satisfactory answers for why life seems unfair, why bad things happen to beloved people, or why our particular and communal roads to forgiving and being forgiven might look different from our neighbors’ roads.

But what we will get is this: the voice of God on a ever-reverberating loop, saying, “I am Love. You are beloved. You are made to love and be loved. And no matter what, I’ll always be with you.” “I am Love. You are beloved. You are made to love and be loved. And no matter what, I’ll always be with you.” 

And that my friends, is enough. That is healing. That is God’s ineffable tenderness.

the Rev. Dr. Caroline Hall
 


[i] https://www.episcopalchurch.org/sermon/learning-tenderness-proper-5-a-june-7-2026/

Last Sunday I said that asking the question ‘what does the Bible say?’ about something often doesn’t have a simple, quick answer because the Bible speaks in many voices which do not necessarily agree. It is particularly difficult this morning, Trinity Sunday, since the Bible says nothing explicit about the Trinity, and yet it is a central part of our understanding of the nature of God.

The Bible does not say anything directly about the Trinity because it is a way of thinking about God that gelled in the years after the New Testament books and letters were compiled.

Jesus talked about the Father, and himself as the Son and he promised the gift of the Holy Spirit. In his prayer for his disciples in John 17 he said, ‘I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.  I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—  I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.’

Early Christian philosophers and theologians wrestled with how this unity could exist, how three divine persons could be one God. They did not agree and at times the debate was as acrimonious as today’s partisan political divide.

The debate went on for over fifty years before the church in the Roman Empire was declared Trinitarian. Of course there were Christians outside the Roman Empire, and they did not necessarily believe that the Christ was of the same substance as the Father. We use the Nicene Creed to remind ourselves that our ancestors were Trinitarian and that is how we have come to understand God.

By now you’re probably wondering why we care about this ancient history.  When I googled “Christian Heresies” to remind myself of the details of the debate, the listing at the top was for Amazon and its heading was “Early Christian Heresies – Keep Yourself Entertained.”

So we could keep ourselves entertained by talking about early Christian arguments about the nature of God, but what is really important is who is God for us today?

This is a vital question because the way we understand God is reflected in the way we live and love and pray.

If we think of God as hierarchical – as a solid triangle of authority - we will tend to have a rule-based approach to our spiritual lives. If we think of the Trinity as a dancing circle of light then we will be more organic and perhaps more playful in our approach to living with God.

It will come as no surprise to you that the dancing Trinity is the way I like to imagine God. This is no more Biblical than a triangle but I think it reflects the way our understanding of the cosmos increases our understanding of God.

As I understand it, at the atomic level there are tiny things that are in constant motion and their motion looks rather like a dancing sphere. At the other end of the scale, there are planets and galaxies who are also moving in relation to one another. The ancient people imagined that there were celestial spheres in which the stars and planets were embedded. Today we think of orbits through which the heavenly bodies move in space. So there’s been a shift from thinking of solidity to understanding movement as the fundamental nature of matter.

It makes sense then that our understanding of God becomes more fluid. Yes we still want and need God to be the bedrock on which we stand but now we know that that very bedrock is made of particles in motion and so we can think of God as more like water, constantly flowing in and through and around everything.

So I just threw in another metaphor – a few minutes ago I was thinking about God as a dancing sphere of light and now I’m talking about God as water. Which is it? Yes both, and neither because God is God but we can only grasp ideas of God through our own experience, by saying God is like…

There is a story of an old Rabbi who was dying. He was surrounded by a large crowd of family and followers all eager to hear his last words. The old man suddenly spoke and whispered, “God is a donut.” The people behind asked “what did he say?” “God is a donut” Finally the whisper reached the edge of the crowd, “God is a donut”. Then someone asked, “What does that mean, God is a donut?” the question was passed to the front of the crowd, “What does that mean?” “What does that mean?” “What does that mean?” The rabbi’s son bent over and said into the old man’s ear, “What does it mean – God is a donut?” There was a long silence and they all waited. Finally the old rabbi sighed and said “Maybe God is not a donut.”

So how can we know that our ideas of God are true, or at least as true as we can get?

As followers of Jesus, whenever we think about God we do so through the lens of Jesus’ teaching, life, death and resurrection. Jesus Christ is the revelation of God in human terms – in 1st century male human terms. And what we see and hear from Jesus is love. Jesus healed on the sabbath, Jesus ate with sinners, tax collectors, prostitutes. Jesus was not caught up in the rules of society, who was in and who was out, Jesus demonstrated love for all beings.

So that is fundamental. God is love. If it is not deeply loving, it is not God.

Regardless of whether God is like a triangle, a dancing sphere, running water or even a donut, God is love. And God is peace.

This has been a new understanding for me this month. God is peace. God is not worried about the things that worry me. God is not worried about the Middle East or the climate crisis or the coming El Nino. God is not worried about suffering and despair. It is not that God does not care about these things, I think God cares very deeply. But God’s peace is before and under and beyond it all.

Today we heard the first story of creation. God created it all and God saw that it was good. And God is working towards the redemption of creation when we will all be reconciled with God and all things brought into balance. And God is perfectly peaceful and relaxed about that process. It is all OK.  God is love and God Is peace.

That doesn’t let us off the hook. As the people of God, our calling is to be clear channels for the blessing of God to bless Creation. We are called to love, to pray, to act as if the Reign of God is here right now. We are called to be God with flesh on. We are called to speak and to act and to vote as we believe God would have us do.

We have a human tendency to make God in our own image. We imagine that God is like us and so we think of an angry vengeful God. We think that God is on our side when we attack other countries, especially if their people are predominately Muslim or Hindu or anything other than ‘Christian.’ We imagine that God wants us to have guns so we can defend ourselves and we can fight the enemy, whoever they may be.

This is not the God we see in Jesus. Jesus was ready to call out hypocrisy and corruption, but he did not fight even when wrongfully arrested; he reminded us that even the despised non-Jewish Samaritan was our neighbor; his compassion extended to lepers and social outcasts.

This is the God we worship. At this time in history our images of God will be more organic, more tied into the web of life than they were in the 4th Century. But whatever images we may use; Mother, Father, dancing Spirit, energy of the Universe – however we imagine God – what is important is that we allow ourselves to be transformed by God rather than transforming God into us.

If your imaginings of God do not pull you closer to the Abba God of Jesus then it is time to change your thinking. Because God is always challenging us to let go of our little ego ways and to be transformed into the Christ-like beings we were made to be. God holds out her arms to us and gathers us to her bosom.

And there we find love, peace and the courage to be more than we ever thought we could be.

the Rev. Dr. Caroline Hall