HOPE'S STILL HERE

Reflection/Poem for the 1st Sunday of Advent               St. Thomas, Gatesville, NC

Thomas E Wilson, Guest Presider                                   November 27, 202

Isaiah 2:1-5          Romans 13:11-14       Matthew 24:36-44         Psalm 122

HOPE’S STILL HERE

One night, last week I got out of bed, no longer able to sleep. I am an old man so I do get out of bed for many reasons, but that morning at 2:45 there were so many things going through my mind. I decided to do something useful and detour the mental traffic inside my skull by looking at the lessons for the 1st Sunday of Advent. My eyes stopped  at the passage from the Epistle for today in Paul’s letter to the Church in Rome: “the night is far gone, the day is near”. I had this vision in my head about Paul sitting at a table, at 3:00 in the morning after deciding that God was calling him to get out of bed and quit the cycle of worrying by writing to his friends in the community in Rome.

Like my vision of Paul, I had so many things swirling in a cesspool of worry about things I had no control over, that the only way out was to find a message of hope to live faithfully. I was reminded of the prophet Zechariah’s invitation “Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope.” 

I reflected on all the things I was worried about. There were people, places and things in the past that I had no power to fix. People, places and things in the present, that I must learn to accept and live with. Then there are people, places and things looming that will come up in the future over which I will have no control.

Each of the four weeks of Advent Season has a theme: hope, love, joy and peace. I realized that the reason I got out of bed was I needed to reconnect with hope. This 1st Week of Advent week is about hope. By instinct I went to Emily Dickinson’s poem: Hope is the Thing With Feathers:

Hope is the thing with feathers

That perches in the soul,

And sings the tune without the words,

And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;

And sore must be the storm

That could abash the little bird

That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land,

And on the strangest sea;

Yet, never, in extremity,

It asked a crumb of me.

The process of hope is to change worry into wonder. Like the heroes of Fairy tales, we move from fear into action. G.K Chesterton  wrote;” Fairy tales are more than true - not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten,”

Too often we associate Hope with wishes. The problem with the commercialization of Christmas is that hope gets hijacked into what we want for Christmas. When we too often wish for things that we want for Christmas; we tell Santa Claus or Amazon  or some other higher power for wish fulfillment of being able to grasp more things to fill an emptimess in our souls..

When I typed out the last sentence, the computer suggested that I had a mis-spelling and it was a “M” instead of a “N” in the word “emptiness” so it was “emptiMess”. That is what psychologists call a “serendipity”- when two things happen at the same time and while they are unconnected; we ascribe meaning to it. I think my soul is not really empty- it just feels like it is; BUT- it is a mess that I need to spend more time cleaning up.

Before Jesus was born  his parents and their neighbors longed for a Messiah that would kick out and humiliate the enemies  and restore the Jewish Community to military glory. However, the hope that God gave in Jesus was not about fulfilling the wants of the people but to fulfill the desire of God to dwell in the hearts of all of God’s children; friend and enemy alike..

The hope of God was that God’s children knew that the indwelling Spirit would change their lives so much, that love and forgiveness would break out in communities. That the people would be the hands of God in comforting the broken, feeding the hungry, healing the breaches in communities, doing justice, loving mercy and walking humbly with each other.

Today, what is your real hope in your soul? Please pray for God to be born in your heart again.

HOPE’S STILL HERE

“Well, what do you want for Christmas?”

I’d be asked as a child and later as lover, 

to come up with a thing able to smother,

emptiness, to be cured by some business.

As ordered by suggestion; presents came,

In time to try fulfilling that empty open void,

which gifts often failed. I became annoyed,

with playing that old magic giving game.

However, suppose I gave and shared hope,

Not from a store, but from a love freely given,

And passed through one who, being forgiven,

who’s able to see with  a much larger scope.

Hope is still here, turning worry to wonder,

Amazed when God tears greed asunder.

 

Christ the King Sunday 2022

 

Poem/Reflection for the Feast of Christ the King    St. Thomas Church, Ahoskie, NC

Thomas E Wilson, Guest Presider                November, 20, 2022

Jeremiah 23:1-6      Canticle 16          Colossians 1:11-20         Luke 23:33-43

 Christ The King Sunday 2022

There is a line that Frank Sinatra sang in the standard, “New York, New York “ 

“I wanna wake up in a city that doesn't sleep

And find I'm king of the hill, top of the heap”

What a desire to be the King above all the rules! I remember a time, in the spring semester of 1965, almost seven years more than half a century ago, when  I was trying so hard to be Sinatra. There is a line “You can always tell a Sophomore, but you can’t tell him much!” I was a second semester freshman and I was sure I knew everything that needed to be known. I had turned 18 over the Christmas Break and returned to have my first legal beer and wine in North Carolina. Some friends and I went out to eat at a restaurant. At the next table there were these pretty girls and I decided that I would demonstrate how cool I was. I started slowly swirling my glass of wine, to show while I was only 18, I had more sophistication than sense. I was so cool. Until, my friend, Ted Simpson, leaned over and  whispered, “Tom, you are spilling your wine.” Sure enough my white long sleeved shirt’s cuffs were being loaded with red wine. My other two friends laughed. Over half a century later, I still shudder at the fear that the beautiful girls might have rolled their eyes. I would not be the last time I tried, and failed, to be cool like the King.

The Feast of Christ the king is less than a century old. It began under the rule of Pope Pius XI who was elected in 1922. The world he had grown up in had changed.  When he was growing up and in his Priestly career, wherever he looked there were Kingdoms. Except, the 20th Century had changed the social and political alliances. World War I had swept away the Hollenhauser German Empire, dismantled the Habsburg Austro-Hungarian Empire, swept away the the Romanov Czars of the  Russian Empire, dismantled the Ottoman Empire giving most of their territory to British, French and Saudi zones of interest, with a Republic of Turkey that continued the genocide of Armenians.  The war saw the Chinese Quig dynasty fall apart with feuding warlords and the Empire of Japan picking over the carcass. The War played havoc with the Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland with the victors losing a generation on the slaughter yards of battle and southern Part of Ireland in the Irish rebellion to become a Republic.

Pius XI  saw the rulers who had replaced the old Kings in Spain, Portugal, Russia,  Italy and later Germany and saw authoritative rulers who only worshiped power. Pius looked at the Victors of the War and saw countries  becoming more and more secular, more and more  focused on creating individual wealth and the  neglect of the care of the poor. 

Pius feared the rot in the religious pews and called for a remembrance that our faith was centered on following the dictates and example of the Christ; to remember that while the earthly Kings were passing away, Christ was the King to follow. With this in mind Pius called for a special festival of renewal of Christ the King to be held in the last week  of October. Pius also had a less admirable motive ,because in many parts of Germany the last week of October also contained a state Holiday for the Celebration of the Protestant Reformation when many shops were closed so the Christ the King would provide competition.. Much later, in a spirit of ecumenism the Feast of Christ the King was changed to the last Sunday before the First week of Advent., which is when we celebrate today.

Jesus was given the Title of King, not by his followers but by his enemies as a mockingly cruel jest, putting a sign, “King of the Jews” and then mocking him for his lack of power. Earthly Kings and Queens don’t put up much with mockery because they always want to maintain their “Dignity”. Jesus had this habit of getting on his knees and washing feet. On the Cross, Jesus forgives and invites a convicted thief and robber  to join him in Paradise.

Kings and Queens return with interest any slight given to them, holding on to any grudges. Jesus forgives easily. Kings and Queens in their own mind, separate themselves from the common people. Jesus  did not sit on any thrones of privilege but emptied himself out at every opportunity, sitting and eating with broken sinners. It is one of those broken sinners, who on an adjoining cross, see Jesus, the Giver of Mercy, as the King of Kings. He cries, like all of us broken sinners: “Jesus remember me when you come into your Kingdom.”

Kings and Queens like to control people, places and things.  Jesus redeems and sets free. Kings and Queens like to talk down to people. Jesus walks with us. Kings and Queens can be royally amused. Jesus laughs out loud. Kings and Queens make loud proclamations. The Christ whispers into our hearts to the point of tears. Kings, like Sinatra tells us, want to be on top of the heap. The Christ kneels down and washes feet.

When I became a Rector of a church, I was faced with a need for balance. One one hand I was a Rector which comes from the Latin of being a ruler. On the other hand I was a Pastor, to minister, where my life was to be a trustworthy outward and visible sign of the presence of Christ ‘s love to the community in which I served. In the churches I served as Rector: there were times I was able to keep the balance and more than a few times when I needed Christ’s, and my parishioners’, forgiveness for letting my Parishes down. The search committees of the two St. Thomas will have a hard time keeping that balance in their search to enter into a Covenant with her or him.

I want to add a note on the nature of a Covenant. The Bulletin today offers a Prayer of Thanksgiving on the Marriage Covenant Anniversary of Hugh and Dawn Davis.  British Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, who died this month 2 years ago, offered his view of a covenant:

A covenant is like a marriage. It is a mutual pledge of loyalty and trust between two or more persons, each respecting the dignity and integrity of the other, to work together to achieve together what neither can achieve alone. And there is one thing even God cannot achieve alone, which is to live within the human heart. That needs us.

Pius XI wanted a return to when someone seems to be in charge, he longed for a King in the Christ. I understand his fears of having things seem to fall apart. There is something that Jesus keeps saying in scripture, over and over again. The phrases, “Fear not” or “Be not afraid”, occur 103 times in the King James Version of the Bible. He says to his disciples and us: “Do not be afraid.” He says” I am with you even to the end of the age.”

Christ The King Sunday 2022

The King sign was a cruel joke of shame,

Mocking pretentious of man and nation,

For trying to raise up above their station;

Letting all know only Romans had a name.

However, centuries pass longing for a ruler

Of my passions, pretentious and appetites,

While claiming them as sovereign “rights”,

In sad quest to claim the title “Mister Cooler”.

My goal was Out Sinatraing Sinatra in cool;

Melodying my own songs, in my own way,

Posing as if  I was master of my fate, I’d say:

“I’m the only one who over me can ever rule!”

But, finding I needed greater than myself power,

Daily realizing I needed the King in every hour.

 

Sing a New Song

 

Poem/ Reflection for the 23rd Sunday after Pentecost    St. Thomas Church, Ahoskie, NC

Thomas E Wilson, Guest Presider                November 13, 2022

Sing A New Song

Isaiah 65:17-25        Canticle 9          2 Thessalonians 3:6-13        Luke 21:5-19

The opening Hymn for today was Earth and All Stars, with  the refrain “Sing to the Lord a New Song”. The Hymn is so much fun with all those “loud boiling test tubes” and “ hard bashing hammers”, “athletes and bands”: all those images of people gathering and working together. One of the problems we have is that we refer to St. Thomas  as a church building, when it is an assembly of people gathering and working together to be the Body of Christ, singing a new song. The New Testament Biblical word for “Church” Is “ekkelsia” , which is a gathering.

Thank you for choosing that Hymn. It opened up the words for the poem  and the Reflection.

In Luke’s Gospel lesson for today, Jesus is pointing out the Beautiful Temple in Jerusalem. His disciples are so impressed, but Jesus urges them to look beyond the surface and see the institution that exists only for itself.  This was not the first Temple to be built in Jerusalem. The First was built by Soloman and destroyed by the Babylonians.  Many of the people were taken into exile. While in Exile they tried to remember how to worship without the Temple. The Persians overthrew the Babylonians and allowed the exiles to return to Jerusalem and begin to rebuild. This rebuilding  is what Isaiah is writing about in today’s lesson with such hope. However the Temple that was built was a disappointment to the people  Ezra will report that at the dedication of the 2nd Temple many people cried out with grief their memories of the old Temple and the  fact that the new Temple was not as magnificent.

Centuries later the Romans conquered the area and set up  a Roman collaborator, Herod , an Idumean, meaning he was a descendent of Esau rather Jacob, as the King of the Jews. This was not a popular move as Herod was seen as a Roman stooge rather than a real King. In response, the Romans decided to subsidize a massive Public Works Campaign to put people to work and assuage the ire of the people and build up acceptance of Herod. The centerpiece of the Public Works Campaign was to  make the 2nd Temple a real eye-popping doozy of a religious center. Jesus and many of his countrymen looked at the Temple as a work of vanity, cynical manipulation and a money making religious  scheme to separate good people from their money; sort of like a 1st Century Las Vegas resort with religious pretensions. So, when the Disciples start to “Ooh”and “Aah” about it. Jesus tells them that the political and religious underpinning of the Temple was rotten and it would be just a matter of time before it would all collapse; and if God was just it would be sooner rather than later. Jesus is telling the disciples that it is past time to “Sing a New Song”.

Jesus was a “Synagogue”, or a “gathering together” kind of person and he, and his cousin John, had very little use for the whole Temple prancing and dancing. I think in the eyes of Jesus, the Herodian Temple is a metaphor for each one of us. If we are like the Temple, and exist only to feed our own ego, wasting our energy of trying to impress people and become the center of our own existence, treating people as objects to be manipulated; then we lose the reason that God created us- to be part of a community of love and care.

I was put in mind of how I grew up. When I was a teenager I wanted to be “IMPRESSIVE”. I was an idol in my own Temple and spent a lot of energy making sure I would be noticed and admired. The problem was I didn’t spend as much energy developing my skills.  My first professional acting job was in an outdoor Drama. I was good in my acting, but  when it was time for the crowd to sing together. I was the only member of a cast of sixty told just to mouth the words because I was drowning out some of the best singers on the east Coast. I so much want to be heard that my ego was not interested in being part of a unified sound. I did not spend the time listening on how I might work with and help others.

I wish I could say that humiliation was the end of my ego being out of control, but it is a lifelong process. The struggle never really goes away.  A decade and a half later when I was a Social Worker and heavily involved in working with and helping others, I was serving as a Lay Reader/Chalice Bearer during a service in Boone, North Carolina, when the Priest, Chuck Blanck, of blessed memory, one of the most compassionate Priests I have ever known, took me aside and asked that I not get between him and the Organist since I was drowning  out the music he needed to hear to stay on pitch. Eight years later, only by the Grace of God and not by my own still lurking egotism, I was Ordained in that Church. 

Jose Marti, a 19th century Cuban revolutionary and Poet who died fighting the Spanish before the Spanish American War, wrote in “Wandering Teachers” :

People need someone to stir their compassion often, to make their tears flow, and to give their souls the supreme benefit of generous feelings. For through the wonderful compensation of nature they who give of themselves, grow; and they who withdraw into themselves, living for small pleasures and afraid to share them with others, thinking only of greedily satisfying their own appetites, will gradually change from a human into pure solitude, carrying in their hearts all the gray hair of wintertime.

The reality for me in my old age is that I cannot stop the gray hairs from growing in my beard, but I can stop them from growing in my heart. The gray hairs of the heart begin when we start focusing on ourselves as the center of the universe.

We need other people to work with and work for in order to Sing a New Song in our lives. Pittman McGehee, an Episcopal Priest, Jungian Analyst, Teacher, Poet and Lecturer reminds us of the truth; “You alone can become yourself, but you cannot become yourself alone”.

 Sing A New Song

As the only member of a cast of sixty asked not to sing, 

Because I was throwing off some of the better voices.

Being told paid as actor was one of the wisest choices 

That I could use; and only that talent to the show bring.

And, as the only Chalice Bearer whose Priest asked 

Me not to get between him and organ melody notes,

Because he couldn’t hear them over my raucous croaks,

Coming from my own contributions to a Santus blast.

Thing about following Christ; you’re not here to perform

For an audience, but to sing a new song with our life,

During all the times of joy, failure, struggle or strife,

To share, not with prancing but living into a new norm.

A norm not burdened with some temptations of glory,

But by being faithful in continuing the old, old story.