Searching Advent Hope Reflection and Poem

A Reflection for I Advent                     All Saints Church, Southern Shores, NC 

November 29, 2015                               Thomas E Wilson, Rector

Jeremiah 33:14-16 Psalm 25:1-9 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13 Luke 21:25-36

Searching Advent Hope

The first Sunday of Advent is the beginning of the Church Year; so “Happy New Year!” As on our traditional New Year’s, we look back at the past and look forward to the coming year. There were some rough times in the past year, and there have been some real joys. The first Sunday of Advent is always a challenge for me because the lessons are usually all about loss of control over what is happening in the world. So as I sit down to write the sermon, I am also thinking about what we are going to do for Thanksgiving Day which comes just before this Sunday, and all those lessons have to do with giving thanks. What happens is a little like living through a rapid fire manic-depressive, bi-polar week. I thought back to my theater days when the symbol of the two masks of the Muses of Comedy (Thalia) and Tragedy (Melpomene). The characters in ancient Greek theatre would put on masks depending on the role they would play to help project their emotions. But this life is not a play, and we are not here to play act our way through life. We are here to live into each moment, each moment of loss and each moment of joy, sometimes in the same moment.

Masks of Comedy and Tragedy in a mosaic in Hadrian's villa

 

The dynamic tension of loss and joy is what we call hope, which is also the theme of the first candle we light in the Advent Wreath. Vaclav Havel, playwright and first President of the Czech Republic, who had spent years in prison for his fight against Soviet rule and Communism, said of Hope: “Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense no matter how it turns out”

Psalm 25 is the Psalm for today and it is an acrostic poem, in which each line begins with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet. In it, the poet/singer talks about putting trust in God in the face of the opposition of seemingly overwhelming enemies. Notice how the writer/singer refers to “the sins of my youth and my transgressions,” as a way of taking some responsibility for the situation in which enemies are encircling them, while simultaneously patting themselves on the back for being humble and thereby deserving being rescued. Yet the rest of the song underlines the hope that even if the immediate present is at doubt, there is an underlying meaning in the relationship.

It is an appropriate Psalm to go along with the Hebrew Testament lesson for today from Jeremiah. In this part of the Book of Jeremiah, the Babylonian Empire had captured Jerusalem in 597 BC and, in return for not destroying the city, they took a group of the leaders of Judah and carried them out in exile as hostages, discouraging the remaining leaders from getting in the way of Babylonian control. The leaders started listening to the firebrands who wanted the city to rise up in revolt. Jeremiah warned against that kind of the saber-rattling as unrealistic and said they needed to find hope in a power greater than themselves to get through, and learn from, this loss. They jailed him as a defeatist, tore up their peace treaty and rose up in revolt. Predictably Nebuchadnezzar brought his armies back to destroy the whole city, which he did in 587 BC. Jeremiah has a vision where he hears God saying that, even in the middle of the coming catastrophe, God will be faithful and redeem even the loss that is to come. God promises that there will be a new reality which is a continuation of the love that never ended. Even if the immediate present is at doubt, there is an underlying meaning in the relationship.

Paul, writing to the Thessalonians from Corinth in today’s Epistle reading, is undergoing opposition and he knows the Thessalonians are undergoing opposition. Yet, he gives thanks for their hope in their faithfulness to him, to the Risen Christ, and to the hope for a new reality. Even if the immediate present is at doubt, there is an underlying meaning in the relationship.

In the Gospel lesson, Jesus is facing his own dim future. He has gone so far in pushing the religious and political establishments that all of his options for a happy resolution have been lost. Yet he has not lost hope for the fulfillment of God’s redemption of all things. Even if the immediate present is at doubt, there is an underlying meaning in the relationship.

I do not know what will happen to me, to you, or to this church, but I am thankful for the past year and the relationship we have had with each other and with God. I invite us to join together in hope for this coming year as we live into each grace-filled moment of the present and to the future with the God in whom we place our trust.

Searching Advent Hope (poem)

The shaker was making one more Martini batch;

it would numb, of course, some of still unknown

things to come which might indeed be of a groan

moment, where despairs might well joy to snatch.

If Emily is right in write and hope a tiny feathered

bird which continues against gale and all adversity;

but losing control moves the shaker to blasphemy

so future might well loom a large vulture tethered.

Wanting a belief, having faith or trust; almost does

a lot of the time, but it’s like walking across a Swiss

cheese floor not knowing the step leading to abyss,

fearing, not death, but foolish seeming lot being his.

He knows pride keeps note of those coming alarms

If he but banish pride, hopes will come to his arms.

Blessing the Sacred

A Reflection for Thanksgiving Day                                All Saints Church, Southern Shores, NC November 26, 2015                                                   Thomas E. Wilson, Rector

Joel 2:21-27                 Matthew 6:25-33

Blessing the Sacred

This spring author Diane Butler Bass released a new book, Grounded: Finding God in the World, A Spiritual Revolution, in which she related that while numbers in Religious Denominations and Institutions have declined, she sees this as a change in seekers finding God no longer in buildings but in nature and the environment. She has suggested that the focus of Christianity has been the 3Bs, believing, behaving and belonging; but in the last couple of generations the way we look at these fundamental questions have changed: “Contemporary people care less about what to believe than how they might believe; less about rules for behavior than in what they should do with their lives; and less about church membership than in whose company they find themselves.”  This church has tried to address those changed questions with opportunities for different kinds of worship, moving away from emphasis on “sin” and more on living in graceful stewardship, less about creeds and more about reaching out into the larger community. She writes: “The church is not the only sacred place; the world is profoundly sacred as well.”

All Saints knows something about this move especially when we see our Outdoor Labyrinth being used by people who do not darken our church door, but who find Christ with their feet on the path of the Labyrinth into their own soul. the number of people who flock here to attend classes in the All Saints After Dark program and the Music programs. I notice it on Easter Morning as people come to church and while the music, liturgy, and - dare I say it - the preaching is excellent; the deepest spiritual; experience for many visitors is looking out the window behind the altar at the cherry trees full of blossoms as the birds flit back and forth between the branches. They get the message that Easter is not just the time of an event years ago but the present reality of the time of a new beginning brought about by a power much greater than us.

Cherry trees outside the window behind the All Saints Altar on Easter 2015

We get a hint of the whole earth as sacred in the first lesson from Joel for today as the prophet speaks of God’s love not just to his human audience but he speaks to the soil and to the animals to give thanks for all that God is doing: “Do not fear, O soil; be glad and rejoice, for the LORD has done great things! Do not fear, you animals of the field, for the pastures of the wilderness are green; the tree bears its fruit, the fig tree and vine give their full yield.”

Jesus in today’s Gospel lesson urges us to be like the birds of the air and the lilies of the field who have a deeper relationship with God in their daily lives than religious folk find in their Temples and rituals.

Many of you today have come to check into this religious establishment but I might suggest that you might find a deeper spiritual experience sitting down with a friend or relative and listen to what is going on in their lives and to share the food for the journey in giving thanks.

Blessing the Sacred (poem)

Thinking about speaking about Joel’s kind words to soil;

he walks into the Sanctuary, imagining air composing

itself preparing for an increase of CO2 levels praying

as if the air did not exist. Stopping, he thanks God for air,

the first breath in creation bringing light.

The air pauses, not used to being noticed.

Feeling the ground under his feet, he thanks the floor,

a place on which to stand on this hurling earth.

The floor, used to being walked over, pauses.

Looking out the window, he sees the tree shedding leaves,

leaves halting in retreat from the branch as they are thanked

for all the spring and summer comfort and beauty given.

Thinking they were too old they are confused by thanks.

They have all given their very selves.

He thinks he needs to bless all he overlooks.

Christ the King Sunday 2015

A Reflection for Last Sunday of Pentecost               All Saints’ Church, Southern Shores, N.C. November 22, 2015                                                            Thomas E. Wilson, Rector

Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14         Psalm 132:1-13                  Revelation 1:4b-8             John 18:33-37

Christ the King Sunday

This is the last Sunday of Pentecost, the last Sunday before the Season of Advent; but it is also known as the Feast of Christ the King. When I was growing up in the Episcopal Church and using the 1928 Book of Common Prayer, we did not use the name “Christ the King” in our church calendar, but some churches were borrowing the name of this feast from the Roman Catholic Church, and the Collect and lessons for today follow the Roman Catholic lectionary and Missal. This unofficial practice became official when the 1979 Prayer Book came out.

The Feast of Christ the King began in 1925 when Pope Pius XI, in the aftermath of World War I, became concerned about the number of countries who were moving in a more secular trend and displaying increased nationalism. The War itself was partly caused by increasingly competing nationalism.  

1st page of Manifesto of 93 German Intellectuals Supporting the declaration of War by Germany in August 1914

 In 1914, Karl Barth was a young Swiss pastor having studied under the foremost German religious scholars, and he watched in disbelief when the German Government declared war and  his major professors at Seminary celebrated and joined in the fervor for war to save their national culture as they saw it. The horrendous slaughter of the war, over 20 million military and civilian deaths and over 17 million wounded, appalled everyone. Good German Lutherans fought against good British Anglicans and good Scottish Presbyterians, and good French Catholics fought against good German Catholics, and good Italian Catholics fought against good Austrian Catholics. The fact that all of the local priests and ministers blessed the boys going off to the blood bath and the eagerness with which religious institutions - Protestant and Catholic in Europe and Orthodox in Russia and the Balkans - all joyfully joined in, undercut the respect for organized religion in which Christ was a captive of culture.

Pius XI issued a Papal Encyclical in which he called for the Peace of Christ to be in the hearts and minds of all believers so that all would see themselves as primarily citizens of the Kingdom of Christ. It would be nice to say that the churches lined up behind this idea, but the sad fact was that each church looked to its own advantage to protect their religious institutions. Instead of working to change hearts and minds, the churches played it safe by only addressing personal sins. Then came World War II with 21 million military dead including 5 million military prisoners of war, and 50-55 million civilians dead which includes 20-28 million civilians who died from war-related from disease and famine. 

The idea of the Kingdom of Christ with the Peace of Christ begins in the first lesson from the Book of Daniel. This book was probably written in the 2^nd Century during the time of persecution of the Jews by the Selucid Empire under Antiochus IV Ephiphanes. The writer, channeling the spirit of Daniel who had withstood persecution under the Babylonian empire, has a series of visions in which God sends God’s spirit in human form to have dominion over all creation. This will be seen as a Messiah who is to come in Jewish hope. However, the hope was for a military Christ as the Messiah would lead them to victory over their enemies.

When Jesus appears in Israel, two centuries later, many people see him as the Messiah, the coming King, or the Christ. They want that Kingdom to be a political kingdom like all the other kingdoms they know in this world. However, Jesus in John’s Gospel tries to tell Pilate that the Kingdom of the Christ is different from all the other kingdoms of this world

.

What are the differences in the Kingdom of Christ and the rest of the kingdoms of this world? In other kingdoms, the leaders are separated from the citizens. They live in special houses and they have special perks which they take for granted. Let me give you an example of a perk:  I am the Rector of this church, “Rector” in Latin means Ruler, and one of my perks is that I have a parking space out in front of this church which says Clergy Parking Only. On last Monday night and again on Wednesday morning, I drove into the parking lot and in both instances there were cars where my car ought to be. I was unprepared for the resentment that boiled up in me as I wanted to force the malefactors of prerogatives, in one case a misguided Methodist, to acknowledge my right to have deference. Luckily I had been thinking about the Kingdom of Christ rather than my own rule, and the words died in my shame before I spoke them. In the Kingdom of Christ, all rulers are turned into servants who ask not what they can grasp but what they can give. In the Kingdom of Christ privilege is no virtue, humility is no vice.

In all of the other Kingdoms of the world there are classes of people who are divided by wealth or social status, where the rich and the high-born work to keep their positions over others and greed becomes their social norm. They are called “job providers” for the servants who look after them and supply them with luxury goods. They pay for the finest legislators that money can buy to arrange the tax codes to favor them and keep the poor in their place. In the Kingdom of Christ, all are supposed to work hard to support themselves and help their neighbor. Hard heartedness is no virtue, generosity is no vice.

In all the other Kingdoms of the world, revenge is a key virtue so that fear is generated against any who would challenge or harm the Kingdom. That is why we are addicted to wars to teach anyone who would threaten our mastery. World War I was fought for mastery of Europe, as was World War II. In those Kingdoms, the most popular entertainment is the “good guys” blowing away the “bad guys” with massive firepower, echoing the song of Lamech, the great grandson of Cain who had killed his brother Abel and who passed on his love of power in the 4^th Chapter of the Book of Genesis:  Lamech said to his wives:/“Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; /you wives of Lamech, listen to what I say:/I have killed a man for wounding me,/ a young man for striking me./If Cain is avenged sevenfold,/ truly Lamech seventy-sevenfold.” In the Kingdom of Christ, violence and hatred are no virtues and forgiveness is no vice.

In other Kingdoms of the World, there is usually a security system to make sure the citizens tow the mark, but Jesus had this system where he kept giving people freedom to make other choices and forgiveness was freely offered when they fell short of the mark. Jesus taught that compassion was to be a virtue of strength, not a vice of weakness.

In other Kingdoms of the world, they worry about uniformity and keeping out people who think differently. However, Jesus in his ministry, the blueprint for the Kingdom of Christ, called together his disciples from all parts of his society.  Sworn political enemies such as Simon the Zealot and Matthew the Tax Collector worked together, as would Jew and Greek, male and female, slave and free.  All were equal citizens of the Kingdom of Christ to be treated with love. In the Kingdom of Christ, discrimination is no virtue and respect of differences is no vice.

At a meeting last week, one of my fellow attendees told me how she always kept her cell phone on in the car as she drove alone. She said it was like having a companion on the road that she could use if there was trouble and, if it rang, she didn’t really have to answer it if she didn’t want to. I told her that I had been thinking about Christ the King and how we have, in this so-called Christian nation, domesticated him so that he has become sort of like a public utility - a good companion on the road who could be of help if we run into difficulties and whom you can ignore if you don’t want to listen.

This last week there were some comments about allowing only Christians to receive asylum because, as the logic goes, Christians don’t do acts of violence or kill people who disagree with them, and this is a “Christian” nation. If we were a Christian nation with Christ as our King and following the Peace of Christ, what would this nation look like? How would this change us?

Did you ever wonder how Christ would do in an election in our system and culture? I wrote a poem about that:

Advisers for Christ The King Election

Should free Americans elect our Kings?

If want for elect Christ we need to hustle

composing polished pro campaign swings

with winning campaign strategy to muscle

the boy up. Know whole forgiveness stuff

doesn’t play well in the polls- say it makes

him look weak. Turn the other cheek fluff

is problematic: less doves and more snakes!

He needs to point out opponent eye specks

The only planks must be in party platform

of prosperity, wealth and a strength to flex

What kind of name is Jesus anyway? Norm

must be considered not Hispanic or foreign.

Party be crucified unless call him “Warren”.

Janet Harden "She is One of Us"

A Reflection on the Occasion of a Service of Thanksgiving for the

Life and Death of Janet Harden

All Saints’ Church, Southern Shores, N.C.               November 14, 2015    Thomas E. Wilson 

Romans 8:14-19,34-35,37-39     Psalm 23        John 6:37-40 

She is One of Us 

I am indebted to a Richard Rohr daily blog post of earlier this week where he remembered a 1950 Albert Einstein letter to Robert Marcus, a man who had lost his young son to polio. Einstein wrote: 

“A human being is part of the whole called by us 'the universe,' a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest--a kind of optical illusion of his consciousness. The striving to free oneself from this delusion is the one issue of true religion. Not to nourish the delusion but to try to overcome it is the way to reach the attainable measure of peace of mind."  

Janet Harden was an Episcopalian and she was faithful to the liturgy and worship in the Anglican tradition wherever she was - be it in California, In Italy, In Virginia, in North Carolina - or wherever she happened to be while she was working waiting for her next plane assignment. She was part of us at this church. There were moments of wonderful joy with her, and other moments in which, because of the progression of her disease, she was difficult to be around and times she found us difficult; but she was part of us. She joined with us in being guardians of our heritage of worship and of service to the community in which we find ourselves.  

She put in many hours of work to help the poor through Interfaith Community Outreach, the broken and homeless though Room in the Inn. I remember when we first talked about being hosts for Room in the Inn, Janet was beside herself in fear of all the strangers who might be wandering around at night since she lived right across the street from the church. That continued until she met the people, and then she joined in with the welcome as she saw that she was part of them as well as part of us. She was active in being a prayer partner in the Daughters of the King where she prayed for me and my work. There were times when she did not like me much, I don't think we can blame that solely on her disease, but she prayed for me because we were all connected to each other. She was a faithful member of the choir, even when her confusion came to the point that she could not sing, but she was there, in her way, until it became dangerous for her, as a member of the choir.  

Because of the obscenity of her disease there were bone-chilling moments of tantrums followed by moments of pure sweetness, but she was one of us. We are all gifts of God for each other; God gives the gifts, but God does not hand us a catalogue from which to choose the gifts we receive. As we say in the service “All things come from thee O Lord and of thine own have we given thee.” 

Whenever I think of Janet; I see cats - cats in her home, images of cats on her jewelry and clothes, cats - Dickens and Miss Charlotte in her conversation - always cats! Earlier I called her an Episcopalian, but she was more than that, as I think she was a closet Native American religionist. The Native Americans believed that we are all connected in one large spiritual being of nature, animals and humans all in the same river of energy. As part of the whole, humans were to discern the totem, the spirit of an animal, which would be incorporated with one’s own spirit. The spirit could be discerned through dreams and visions; for the Great Spirit was always speaking to those who listened. I think that Janet’s totem was a cat. She talked to the cats and shared some of their characteristics. 

Cats are careful around people.  Trust has to be earned and can be withdrawn at a moment notice. Cats are curious; wanting to know what is going on. Cats are highly intelligent. Cats have bursts of energy and then withdraw. Cats are ferociously independent. Cats need to be cuddled. Cats find freedom in the dark. Cats do not forgive easily and are more comfortable with boundaries.  

Janet loved to tell the stories of when she was a dedicated teacher, a Warden of the church she attended in Italy, and as a Flight Attendant and the way she was treated and the joy she found in being treated with respect as a person instead of an object. She also liked to relate when she was not treated with respect and how she got even, especially when she was a flight attendant perhaps with an almost accidental spill. She was a cat who could purr and who had claws. All and all, she was something.  And she was one of us.  

 She talked to her cats and listened to them. We need to talk to the animals as Chief Dan George reminded us:

One thing to remember is to talk to the animals. If you do, they will talk back to you. But if you don't talk to the animals, they won't talk back to you, then you won't understand, and when you don't understand you will fear and when you fear you will destroy ” 

We need to talk with each other and realize that we are all connected through the Great Spirit, which we in the Christian tradition call the love of God, the Spirit of the living Christ.  Jesus reminds us in the Gospel reading that it is the will of God that nothing given to Jesus will ever be lost. Janet is one of us in Christ.  Paul’s Letter to the Romans drives home that sense that we are all connected when he wrote: “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” 

Today we gather together to thank God for the gift of Janet and the fact that all the things that separated her from others in this life are now put to one side and she is set free from all illness to love and serve God forever. Our life together in this world and the next is to overcome delusions that we are ever separated from each other. It seems appropriate that we do a blessing and since we had an earlier quote from Chief Dan George:

May the stars carry your sadness away,
May the flowers fill your heart with beauty, 
May hope forever wipe away your tears, 
And, above all, may silence make you strong.