It's simple. What he did was harassment.

Okay. This is the first and last time I am going to weigh in on this. Now that Anthony Weiner has resigned...after one of the weirdest three weeks in American politics (and that's sayin' something)...I am amazed that all these writers, pundits and politicos have missed the core of what the former congressman did wrong.

Everyone, including Mr. Wiener, agrees that what he did was sleazy, wrong and stupid. Most think it was sleazy. Most put the wrongness in with the stupid because he both left a trail and got caught. But I have only heard one commentator and only one blogger (granted, I can't read them all) say clearly why Wiener needed to resign--if not go to jail.

It was not just the "sexting." Nor was it the pictures. It wasn't even lying after being caught. None of these things were "the problem" for which he needed to step down.

One can debate if he broke his marriage vows (I think he did) but even that is not the issue.

The problem was sexual harassment.

How did the congressman get the e-mails or twitter addresses of the women to whom he sent his pictures? They contacted him with a note saying "I really liked your speech" or "I really admire your stand on health care" or "Thank you for taking this or that stand on the House floor." And his response? A lewd text, tweet or picture.

He had access and opportunity to do what he did because of his position of power, and he abused that power for his own gratification.

A week ago, Wormwood's Doxy said it much better than me.

Anthony Weiner is a sexual harasser. He sent 21-year-old college student, Gennette Cordova, an unsolicited sexual photo of himself.

Unsolicited.

That’s really important—because it goes to the heart of what so many people do not seem to “get” about sexual harassment.

I’ve had this argument with more than one person over the last couple of days. I’ve argued with intelligent people—intelligent women, no less!—who have basically said to me, “I like his politics, so what he did doesn’t matter.” Or…even worse to me, in some ways: “It’s not sexual harassment unless you tell him to stop and he refuses.”

No.

NO.

HELL NO!!

Unless that young woman sent him a message saying “I want to see pictures of you naked,” he had no business sending her suggestive photos. She says she didn’t. Even he admits she didn’t. He says he sent the photo as “part of a joke.”

That makes him a sexual harasser.

That's why Weiner needed to resign.

How's that again?

I always thought it was "the Dali Lama walks up to a hot dog wagon and says to the guy...."



h/t to Church Mouse.

Joy!

I am, as some of you may know, a real fan of Rube Goldberg-type devices. This one is deceptive in its simplicity, and a strangely meditative take on an old favorite.

Spiritual energy put to work

The other day I passed a convoy of trucks driving north on Route 33 towards the Poconos. Each flatbed truck had a huge white piece of machinery on it. Soon I realized that these trucks were carrying the finished parts for a huge wind-turbine…we used to say wind mill. If you drive south out of Wilkes-Barre, you catch a glimpse of a few of these huge white propellers on towers that slowly turn producing electricity. Amazing, isn’t it? We can take the energy of the wind and turn into electricity.

Everyone is talking about energy…where to get it and how to use it. When I filled up my car the other day, I was aware that the cost of energy has gone up. I notice that there a few homes and businesses around that use the energy of the sun to heat or cool their buildings or make electricity of both.

One thing that separates humans from other creatures is that we are pretty good harnessing energy. One of our ancestors took the potential energy in wood and turned into a campfire for cooking. Someone first harnessed the energy of the wind to sail a ship or used a rushing river to turn a wheel to grind grain into wheat or drive a loom for cloth. We’ve unlocked energy from gas or coal to make things go. Now we’ve come full circle, with these great wind turbines that use the wind to make electricity.

Energy is all around us. The challenge for us is how to put it to work.

We have three pictures of Pentecost today. In one, we see potential spiritual energy. In another we see spiritual energy put to work. And in another we hear about the engine that makes it all go “vroom!”

In the Gospel of John, the disciples are in the upper room on that first Easter evening, and the Risen Jesus gives them the breath of the Holy Spirit and the authority to use it. That’s the first picture.

In Acts, we see the second image. The disciples along with other people from throughout the world were gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate the Jewish festival of Pentecost when “Fiery tongues appeared on them, and all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit." The Spirit ignited a new movement and a new people. The energy of the spirit was released and suddenly these people had power to overcome the former languages of division and competition with a new language of God's love and Spirit. The potential energy of the spirit was released and the church was born.

One of the most ancient hymns of the church goes like this, "Come, Holy Spirit, our souls inspire...and lighten with celestial fire." It is a prayer that the energy released on that first Pentecost day might continue to burn within the church. It is a prayer that God's spirit will continue in each of us and in the whole Body of Christ, so that we might live our faith with zest and commitment and do the work of mission boldly and imaginatively.

All the time, everyday Christians in everyday places are turning the potential spiritual energy we all have into amazing acts of courage, hope, and compassion that makes a real difference in the lives of people and communities. All of us can take the wind and fire of the Spirit that is burning in us—that started in our faith and baptism and is fed and banked as we practice the sacramental life—and put it to work guiding, inspiring, directing, renewing, advocating, re-making us in the very likeness of God, bringing mercy and compassion and hope to God’s people everywhere.

And that brings us to today’s third image of Pentecost in Paul’s letter to the Corinthian Christians. Here we learn what makes the whole thing go “vroom!” What makes the potential energy of John’s Gospel become the spiritual work of that first Pentecost in Acts is this turbine called the Body of Christ. “There are varieties of gifts,” Paul teaches, “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.” We are what God uses to turn spiritual energy into God’s work, and we are the ones whom God uses to make the lights go on in people’s lives.

Today is another busy day in the life of Trinity Church…a day that shows us how the wind of the Holy Spirit has turned the turbine of this parish to on lights in people’s lives. In a few minutes, we will give thanks to God for the leadership of Mike and Dotty Viglione who for over ten years chaired our Mission and Outreach committee and helped make this parish a remarkable powerhouse of compassion and imagination. With their faithful, prayerful leadership Trinity has come to be known as a place of caring and hope, where the potential spiritual energy of many in this parish is unlocked in ways that have made a real positive difference in the lives of people in Easton, in the diocese and around the world.

We will give thanks for the ministry of our choir who have in their prayer, their hard work and dedication enriched our worship and opened the creative, musical and poetic heart of God for many of us. So often this year, I have heard stories--and some of you have told me of stories you've heard or experienced-- of people whose hearts have been warmed in that strange way of the Holy Spirit and drawn people into closer relationship with God and each other in Christ.

And today we use for the first time two new chalices bought with All Saints Funds in memory of Helga Farrell who died and entered the larger life a year and a half ago. This gift will beautify our worship and tangibly feed and nourish us sacramentally. The potential energy of memory and story and will be weekly unleashed as God’s people are fed and nurtured and sent into the world renewed.

And that’s not all: Today groups will gather to continue work towards the fall bazaar and another group will plan next year’s children’s chapel. We have completed another Unbinding the Gospel group, with people who have discovered new ways to pray, and have shared their faith stories with one another. We are getting ready for a very active Heritage Day. This summer the Property Committee, led by Andrew Brodt—a Boy Scout working for the rank of Eagle—will renovate and repair the choir room. And there is so much more.

In these and many other ways, we show that what Paul told the Christians in Corinth is true: we have a variety of gifts, activated by the Holy Spirit to build up the body of Christ. This is how the real power of the Holy Spirit is unlocked and becomes new vision, new energy and new hope.

The ancient prayer is still "Come Holy Spirit, our souls inspire and lighten with celestial fire...." We all have in us the energy, the power of the Holy Spirit. The Risen Jesus breathed on the disciples on that first Easter and gave them the Holy Spirit. That same spirit comes to us and is sealed in us at baptism. But our prayer is that this spiritual energy will be unleashed. We yearn for God’s power to be let loose and light up our hearts and all creation, and make a real difference in the world. It turns out that God has a turbine, an engine, to make that work real and alive. We, the body of Christ, are the ones whom God uses to let loose God’s energy and make it all go “vroom!”

Pentecost, Year A: Acts 2:1-13, I Cor. 12:3b-13; John 20:18-23

Not "good-bye." A beginning.

This is not “good-bye.”

Jesus’ ascension is a moment of culmination and fulfillment and promise. But it is not good-bye.

At first blush, it sure looks as if Jesus is leaving… in our lesson from Acts, we hear about Jesus being taken up into heaven, and todays Gospel from John shows us Jesus talking about going back to the father…it sure sounds like “good-bye!”

When we hear the Ascension, especially as described in Acts, we can’t help but think of movies with a dramatic departure scene. Remember E.T. The Extra-terrestrial when he tells Eliot to “be good” before the tearful (and light filled) farewell? I like Casablanca when Rick and Lt. Renault walk off into the fog of what could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Jesus’ ascension is not “good-bye.” Jesus’ ascension is in a very real sense only the beginning.

Have you ever noticed how many Christians find ways of focusing on Jesus’ absence? A few weeks ago we were all caught up with the misguided antics of Pastor Harold Camping and his absolute certainty that the rapture would come on May 22nd. The whole silly ruckus reminded me of the disciples in Acts who look up at Jesus and say “now?”

Instead, the followers of Jesus are called back to earth and given a job: starting close to home in Jerusalem and then gradually spiraling out into the rest of the known world, they are to tell the Good News. Matthew’s Gospel says that they are to baptize and teach. This is not good-bye. It is a commissioning.

John’s Gospel, like the other three, is written to a resurrection community; a community to whom Jesus has given the reigns. John's is the last and the latest of the Gospels, written to a group of Christians who are more than a generation past the ministry of Jesus and even the apostles. The original witnesses are passing away and the church is now in it for the long haul.

So in the Gospel today, we hear Jesus praying a farewell prayer. John is teaching us about what Jesus is up to and what our job is. And he frames his description in terms of how estates were owned and run in the first and second century. God, in this prayer, is a patron—the owner of everything—like the owner of a farm or estate, to whom everything produced and sold belongs. Jesus is like the steward. He is the one to whom the job of doling out the master’s resources and seeing to it that everyone is on the job. As the steward of the estate, he is also the one who takes care of the people doing the work. We, the disciples for whom Jesus prays, are the ones who live on the estate and do the work. We receive the resources to do the job and benefits of being under the master’s protection.

To understand grace in the New Testament, one must understand that this was how life was structured in the first century. Someone owns. Someone oversees on behalf of the master and takes care of the ordinary folk. And the ordinary folk pay tribute the master and do his work. That’s how it was in the first century and for much of human history.

Today, we work differently. Today, we do not see ourselves as beholden to anyone, but to understand what Jesus is praying in John’s Gospel, we must recognize that this is how it worked in the first and second centuries. It was a world in terms of interdependent relationships where everyone had a role and a job.

Knowing that, we can now see the radical thing about Jesus’ prayer. In his prayer Jesus changes the relationships. He is going back to the father, and he will care for us. But now we disciples are now the stewards of creation. We are the people who represent the master. We are the ones in whose hands God places the estate.

The ascension is not “good-bye,” it is an Easter appearance and most of all a commissioning of God’s people to do God’s work in God’s world. The ascension is a beginning because now it is possible for Christ who reigns to fill and transform all creation.

Here is how we do that:

We are a praying people. We are a people that Christ prays for. Imagine if we understood ourselves as a people that Jesus prays for. That means we know that we are not alone and that we are able—not self-sufficient, but competent to do God’s work. We are a people who pray because we are being prayed for. Our pattern of worship and prayer shows us again and again that we are a people being prayed for and cared for. We become mindful of our relationship with God in Christ.

We are a witnessing people. What we do points to Christ. Ever notice how many Christians point to an angry, vengeful, judging God? These folks take all their fear, anger and disappointment, dress them up in divine clothing, and then in God’s name tell us what we are doing wrong. Being a witness for Christ is entirely different: being a witness when we show off how God empowers us for justice, changes people at their core, and builds up our gifts.

Witnessing is also something the community of the faithful does. Each of us alone witnesses to the resurrection and ascended Jesus who fills all things. And all of us together are witnesses, too. People see Christ in each of us and in all of us. No one of us expresses the fullness of Christ, no one of us shows off the power and transformation of Christ. We all do. Each of us whose lives God touches show off Christ together.

We are a compassionate people. Being the stewards and being the workers of God’s reign means that we see the world more and more as God sees. We acknowledge and are present to the real pain in this world. And we confront the things that divide us knowing that we are already one with Christ as Christ is one with God. And we look out for those that no one else cares about. We find that when we listen for God in the voices of the weak and the poor we find ourselves walking with Jesus. We find that the God who has lifted our burdens is also lifting the burdens of those around us.

In these ways we are present to the world and the people God has given us.

It is not “good-bye.” It is a beginning. Everything is completed. All preparations are done. The incarnation, the crucifixion, the resurrection means that God and creation are reunited. Christ reigns victorious. Now Jesus has invited us—called us—to share in the job of stewarding creation. We are the living signs of Christ’s presence in this broken world. We are the visible sign of God in Christ filling all things and making them whole. We participate in Christ’s healing of the cosmos one relationship at a time. Not “good-bye,” a beginning.

The Seventh Sunday of Easter: Acts 1:6-14; John 17:1-11

Image: h/t Liturgy. Info here.