A
Reflection and Poem for the Occasion for the Memorial Service for
David Myatt
May
9, 2016
All
Saints’ Church
Thomas
E. Wilson,
Rector
The
Fearless Soul
In
1735, a
Priest in the Church of England, John Wesley, was
sent out to the edge of the world to the British colonies of North
America. He was a significant failure, and
he came back to England disillusioned and afraid he had made the
wrong vocational choice. In 1738, he
was persuaded to attend a Moravian service back in London. He went,
and his life
changed when he took an honest look at the state of his soul. As he
struggled, he
came to hear the words of scripture in a whole new way. He started to
form groups where people would gather
together and
begin the meeting with the question:
“How is it with your Soul?” Usually when Christians went to
meeting, they
were told what to think and preached to
about what the
state of one’s soul should be. These
groups of honest people were made fun of by the established church
and were derogatorily referred to as people using a “Method” and
were called Methodists. In response, they
formed Methodist Chapels while
remaining members of the established Church
of England.
The power structure in the church which was afraid of things getting
out of control and reacted making prospects
for the ordained ministry promise
to "preach the Gospel and stamp out Enthusiasm.”
When
The Church of England was on the wrong side of the American
Revolution, many
of the members in the former colonies used that event to move
the societies
to a new and separate denomination. Those left over in the ruined
Church formed the Episcopal Church of America. Yet, the
question remains for us to answer, “How
is it
with your soul?”
We
do not have souls -
we are souls,
images of the
Living God and the God of the living. And at times, we
souls are troubled when the world doesn’t behave the way we would
like. We
like to be in control, but
we find ourselves forced back to accept that which is now called the
“Serenity Prayer”. “God,
grant me the serenity to accept what I cannot change, the courage to
change the things I can and the Wisdom to know the difference.”
Just for
today. Or just for the next hour.
We
souls also get anxious when we enter into the unknown, for we like
things to remain the same. However the central message of the Gospel
is “Be not afraid!” Many
of you remember when the fear of contracting AIDS hit this country.
There were cries to segregate Haitians when the first report was that
the disease was
rampant in Haitian society.
Then when it was learned that it might be contracted by contact with
someone who had AIDS, I was serving at a church where there was a
huge outcry from my parishioners to no longer have a common cup for
Eucharist. They
were afraid because there were some people who were homosexuals in
the congregation. There
was a joke I told my parishioners then. The
young Priest
asked the Bishop, “Bishop,
is it possible
that I could contract
AIDS at
the altar rail during the communion service? The Bishop replied,
“Yes it is
possible, but
it would be very
disruptive of the service.”
Any
of you remember the Y2K scare where people wrung themselves into
knots that the entire world economy would crumble when computers
would cease to function upon reaching
the year 2000?
One man made a mint from that
fear by writing a book called “Who
Moved My Cheese?”, helping
people to deal with the fear of change. I remember I was at my
previous church where we owned a high rise apartment building for
seniors and
a block of townhouses, and
oh, the
howls of fear. I would attend the Board of Directors meetings,
and I would
make sure we centered ourselves so that fear would not rule the
meeting. Y2K came and went and then 9-11 came. Then the housing
bubble burst, then the Market crashed, then and then and then—fill
in the blanks. The fear-mongers keep coming back and we have to stop,
center ourselves,
and deal with
the problem instead of allowing our souls to be ruled
by fear.
We
don’t like feeling afraid, so
sometimes we hide behind the feeling of anger so that we will feel
more powerful. I remember I was 19 when my father was dying and my
older brother and I were so afraid of what life would be like without
our father that we
decided we would spend the time picking fights with each other,
trying to be
angry with each other as
a way of not facing our fear. Fear-mongers and
others make a lot of money and get a lot of votes off that particular
tactic of anger.
Death
is, as Hamlet says, “that
undiscovered country from whose bourne no
traveler returns.” The
church remembers the angels and Jesus saying, “Don’t
be afraid. Let not your souls be troubled.” The world changed when
he died, but he and God’s Holy Spirit gave comfort to the fearful
ones and gave power to move beyond hiding in an upper room and
go and
challenge the Empire of Rome.
David
Myatt was not ruled by fear, and
he was too gentle
to waste time in anger. He
had more things to do than be afraid.
What he could
control, he
did and what he couldn’t, he
let go. I
remember him on the Vestry of this church when he would just listen
to opposing views and then calmly respond with
his opinion. Life was too short for David
to waste time not loving and loving in the way that Paul illustrates
with his first letter to the Corinthians.
At
the end of life, all
that we will have is the love that we gave and the love which we
allowed ourselves to receive. Love is the true state of our soul, the
image of God, as we cross the river to be joined fully and completely
with the current of divine energy that flows from the throne of God.
How
is it with your soul? Don’t be afraid; for
life is too short to waste, not
to love.
The
Fearless Soul
A
lifetime ago, did
we so fear coming
down that birth canal,
leaving
a place we knew
well to enter into God knows what?
Over
a half century ago, we were afraid of Russian Missiles
raining
down on
us with
only hiding under desks as protection
Decades
ago we were afraid of getting AIDS at the Altar Rail.
A
generation ago we were afraid of the power of 2000, Y2K.
Now,
we getting older see the “unknown country” draws closer
to
individual borders and gives us pause in our collective fears.
Is
it the death which we fear or is it the standing at
the door,
powerless,
waiting to enter the gate? Angels say “Fear not, but
BE;
be each moment aware that you are surrounded by a loving
energy
of Being that is the true center on both sides of every door.
You’re
entering into
a new canal into a different God knows what.”
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