The Seer Prepares To See

A Reflection for I Advent                                              All Saints’ Church, Southern Shores, NC November 17, 2016                                                  Thomas E. Wilson, Rector

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

The Seer Prepares To See

The Hebrew Testament lesson for today is a vision from the Prophet Isaiah of Jerusalem in the 8^th Century BC. He had a vision from God during the time of upheaval in 8^th Century BC in the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah. The nations are surrounded by enemies, crippled by misrule, impoverished by corruption, and bitterly divided between the poor and their rich exploiters, and yet God sends a message for Isaiah to give to his people. A Prophet is a “seer”, one who sees the messages of God. Visions are not simple memos sent; they are messages sent within the context of images that are approached spiritually. If you try to do it literally, you will be frustrated.  These visions are kept by the followers of the Prophets who suggest that these visions might be of help to people and nations yet unborn in different places and circumstance in the future.

My own theology is that God speaks in visions to us all the time and to all sorts and conditions of people, but most of us ignore them because we are too busy with our own agendas if it is day or dismiss them as mere dreams that don’t make sense at night. I suggest that if we are to hear God, we must take time to listen.  Too often our prayer time is devoted to telling God what he/she needs to do to make us feel good.  I walk my dog every morning before the sun rises, and I walk slowly because 1) My dog like to sniff everything and uses the time to search, and 2) I use the time to search and pay attention to the stars and listen to the sounds of the ocean and the forest. God uses the whole universe to speak to us of God’s love. When we become aware of God’s overflowing love, then we are able to become a “seer”, one who sees the world from God’s perspective.

At night, I don’t consider dreams to be “mere”. I see them as the heart of God trying to get through to me when my conscious mind, with its preoccupation with my own ego, is asleep. The messages I hear from God by day or by night are not things like to diversify my investment portfolio. God does not speak to me in prose, but more like poems without rhyme and meter but instead with symbols and images.

Let me give you an example. I hear a fox cry in the predawn darkness. I reflect on what the fox might be saying to me. I ask myself, “If I were the fox, what might be my cry about?”  I think of someone I love and the pain they are in. I am reminded that I need to reach out to this person and share their pain, so they won’t feel as if they are alone crying in the dark.

Looking at Isaiah’s vision, I would treat it as a dream. Since he shared that dream with us and I am listening to hear God, I will claim that dream as mine. If this were my dream and all the images and people in the dream are part of me, then I would see that I am part of that world being called to dwell in the presence of God, the house of the LORD, which is not somewhere far away in time and space but right here and right now, wherever I am or wander. If the nations dwelling with God are to beat their swords into ploughshares and spears into pruning hooks, then I am to take my anger and aggression and transform them into things that are used to harvest God’s love.  To whom am I feeling that disapproval, or is it that part of me with whom I refuse to share my love? To walk in the light of God might mean to shine light on my own darkness and claim my shadow. Is it a message for me as a member of my country or my community or church that I need to speak and share God’s vision of light in the darkness? 

Paul writes a letter to the Romans - or is it also a letter to us? Before I went to Seminary, I read a book by someone who had a secretary type the Epistles and then send a chapter to him in the mail. He was to read it as if the letter was from a friend and addressed to him. If it were my letter; what is the darkness and what I am keeping in it?

What if the Psalm for today is to be sung to me as if I were the House of the LORD, if I were Jerusalem in which Peace needs to dwell within its walls?

What if Jesus in today’s Gospel lesson is telling me his vision of the need to be fully aware of the presence of God in all things and I am to pay attention?

We print the lessons in the bulletin so that you might have time before the service to sit down in the silence and ask what is God saying to you by these lessons before you hear them being read aloud. Because I want to be faithful to take a Sabbath Day of rest on Friday, I post my reflections and poems on the web with links to the lessons usually on the Thursday before the Sunday so those who cannot be here can join us in reflecting or for you to think about for a while before you come to the service. My reflections and poems are not meant to be the last word, but an invitation to a continuing dialogue. 

I am not interested in your approval of my work - I am too old to worry about anyone’s approval - but I am interested in being part a community that actively listens to God. If we aren’t listening to God in order to transform the world we live in so that God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven, then is this whole church stuff a waste of time and money?

The Seer Prepares To See

Open my gate that will visit and bless my garden.

Open my door that you may enter giving pardon

Open my shadows that all my fears might be set free

Open my hope that darkness will ne’er overcome me.

Open my pride that I need never from thee to hide

Open my hurts so that forgiving I’ll be at your side

Open my mouth that I might sing within your song.

Open my heart that I rest beside you all the day long.

Open my imagination that I might glimpse thy view.

Open my will that I might be destined to follow you.

Open my ears so that I may hear the cry in the night.

Open my eyes so that I may see ocean wave’s sight.

Open my lips that I might feel soft brush of thy kiss.

Open my pores of skin to sense caresses of thy bliss.

Open me that I might truly see.

.

The Thanksgiving Gatherings

A Reflection for Thanksgiving Day 2016                  All Saints’ Church, Southern Shores, NC November 24, 2016                                                            Thomas E. Wilson Rector

Deuteronomy 26:1-11             Psalm 100        Philippians 4:4-9         John 6:25-35

The Thanksgiving Gatherings

Thanksgiving gatherings have always occupied a soft spot in my memories. For many years it was a time for all my father’s side of the family to get together - my Grandfather and Grandmother Wilson, my father’s older sister, her husband and their six children and their dogs. On Wednesday morning my mother, father, us four children, and our dog would cram into the car for the interstate drive. We all stayed in the one house for several days, from Wednesday afternoon to Sunday after lunch, when we left to drive home into the west. It was a time of rejoicing and wonderful hospitality and the best behavior with people we loved. Although I remember one evening flying through the air while falling out of the upper bunk bed onto the floor after some roughhousing with my older brother Paul, it was mostly a time of God’s Peace. 

Paul - the Apostle Paul, not my brother - wrote to the Philippians to rejoice:

Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.”

At our cousins’ home, the stories were told, the photo albums pulled out, and there were lots of “ooh” and “aahs” about how everybody had changed over the years. The food was great, but the gathering was not about satisfying our individual or corporate appetites, but instead, the most important part was how we were reminded that we were all connected. When the prayers were said at every meal, we were aware that we were part of something much, much, greater than just this branch of the Wilson family. We were connected to our past, the future, to the dead who were not at the table but in our memories, and to the whole of creation. Each of us was a gift from God to each other and to the world.

The Hebrew Testament passage for Thanksgiving is from the Book of Deuteronomy which reminds  the people of the Covenant to use the time of the harvest to remember who they are. They remember their past and their place in the universe with a prayer containing a basic confession of faith told in story format: “A wandering Aramean was my ancestor . . . “, and they relate the story of the hard times wandering through the wilderness and how God was with them every step of the way in this bountiful creation.

The Gospel story for today is from the John’s Gospel, and it takes place after the feeding of the 5000 in which the people gathered together to be fed in the lonely place. The people ate all they needed, and there were 12 baskets left from the five barley loaves and two fish. The hope that Jesus had would be that the people would be reminded about who they were - descendants of the wandering Aramean who still had God by their side wherever they were and that there was no place God-forsaken in all of creation, of which they were an integral part. The problem was that they just wanted more food, they wanted to feed their own appetites. They refused to see themselves as part of something larger than their own desires. Jesus tries to remind them that he and they are gifts, not just consumers, in a universe of gifts, and that God is present right then and there.

Today many of us are gathering with all sorts and conditions of people to remember that we are connected to the past and future, that we have received many gifts and that we are ourselves gifts, not just consumers, in a universe of gifts.  And for that we give thanks, as well as for the knowledge that God is present in all times and in all places. It is a time to rejoice, a time to give thanks, a time to be on your best behavior, and a time to remember who we are.

The Thanksgiving Gatherings

The counters are sagging with weight of the meals

bringing together those different family and friends

waiting for stories to pause, parade coming to ends.

Latest babies passed around making pictures real.

The empty places speaking of conflicting agenda

and repositioning members through the mazes

of relationships. A religious ceremony amazes

new friends acting as this year’s new addenda.

Folding tables and chairs are borrowed to give

each an awareness that all belong in this gathering

of noisy laughs, kisses, hugs, even some blathering,

finding a seat and voice to all coming here to live

in this day long moments of giving God Thanks

while regretting our yearlong posing as cranks.

Reflection and Poem for 20 November "Greater Allegiance"

A Reflection for the Feast of Christ the King            All Saints’ Episcopal, Southern Shores, NC November 20, 2016                                                            Thomas E. Wilson, Rector

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

Greatest Allegiance

Today is the feast of Christ the King, which is the last Sunday before Advent. What do we mean by “King”? The King is an outward and visible sign of the spirit of a nation, and therefore he is invested with a quasi-divine status as God’s representative on earth. Often the King is the political and military leader of that nation and is invested with symbols of worth - palaces, regalia, titles, ruffles, and flourishes. Musicians often play anthems to announce the comings and goings of the King. He is given a place of honor, which is usually above his subjects, so he can look down on them with condescension and they will look up to him in awe. To rise up against a King is considered treason and is fought with the King’s military and political power. 

We call ourselves citizens of a republic because we, in our history, threw off the yoke of King George III, but what we did then was to elect Presidents to whom we have, over the centuries, invested with the aura of Kingship. We created semi-monarch figures who live in a palace with lots of regalia. Instead of “God Save the King”, our musicians play “Hail to the Chief” preceded by four ruffles and flourishes. That particular song takes its title from a Sir Walter Scott poem, The Lady of the Lake, as the hero advances in glory. “Hail” in this context means the awareness that we are in the presence of a powerful force with an almost divine stature to which we acknowledge authority over our lives and imaginations.  We see “Hail” used in history with “Hail Caesar” or “Heil Hitler” or “Hail Mary”. We don’t usually consider disagreement or opposition to the President as treason, but some will plot an overthrow by ballots at the next election if their lives are not satisfactory. An Oxford historian, Frank Prochaska, observed “the Loyalists lost in the Revolution but had their revenge in the republic”. Monarchies blame their Kings for their misfortunes, and we blame our Presidents. Novelist Jennifer Donnelly reflects, “Most of the mess that is called history comes about because kings and presidents cannot be satisfied with a nice chicken and a good loaf of bread.”

Shakespeare did a great number of plays where the theme is the nature of being a King.  Some were tyrants and scoundrels, some were good and heroes, but almost all of them lived with the anxiety of losing what it meant to be a King.  In Henry VI part 3, Act 3, scene 1 after several attempts by others to take Henry’s crown and become King, Henry disguises himself and goes for a walk. A gamekeeper stops him and, in their discussion the gamekeeper asks him, if he (Henry) is a King, where is his crown? Henry replies:

“My Crown is in my heart, not on my head:
Not deck'd with Diamonds, and Indian stones:
Nor to be seen: my Crown is call'd Content,
A Crown it is, that seldom Kings enjoy.”

The Bible spends a lot of time looking at what it means to be a King and still be faithful to God and pursue justice and mercy. Jeremiah, in today’s Hebrew Testament reading, reflects on all who were Kings in the past.  He uses the image of a shepherd for King, and concludes that they were failures in that they were never satisfied nor content; rather they, in their thirst for power and fear of losing it, destroyed and scattered the sheep in the pasture. Jeremiah has a vision which looks forward to a new kind of King who would rule faithfully as God’s regent on earth.

What the Jesus movement promotes is to see this new kind of King in Jesus. The Kingdom they envisioned was not plots of land with borders and political and military strength. Rather they saw Jesus, who was crowned with a crown of thorns and raised up upon the cross to look over those who were his subjects - and his enemies - as the outward and visible sign of God’s Kingdom. The writer to the Colossians lays it out saying the church sees Jesus as an embodiment of the Christ, the creating and communicating energy of God, who chose not to announce the presence of God through power and might or ruffles and flourishes, but through vulnerable love. Over the years they reflected that, when they had seen this Jesus, they were really seeing through Jesus into God’s communicating love. 

We seem to like Kings and strong rulers, but this Christ Jesus brings us up short.  Today in the 1^st Chapter of Luke’s Gospel, we have the Canticle from the Song of Zechariah in which Zechariah declares that God is calling his son, who will later be called John the Baptizer, as the one who will prepare the way and preach the God of tender compassion. Later in the same Gospel, Luke paints a verbal picture of the scene of the crucifixion. The disciples have all fled. At the top of the cross, the official declaration makes fun of the title “King of the Jews” with the implied threat that this will happen to those who choose to follow anyone other than the one with the power of the occupying army. At the foot of the cross, the soldiers mock Jesus as a failed King. One criminal, who tradition says was named “Gestus”, on an adjacent cross to the left, baits Jesus as a poseur and pours out bitter scorn that if Jesus is innocent, then it would have been useless to repent since Jesus seems to have no power. The other criminal, who tradition says was on the right and was named Dismas, is the only one who sees with a different vision and becomes the first citizen of the Kingdom, breaking in as Jesus has been placed on the throne of the cross. This is the first royal proclamation of the Kingdom of Tender Compassion.

I have a great niece, River, whose mother is my niece, born in Charlotte and who has a dual citizenship in the United States and Canada.  The child’s father has a dual citizenship in Great Britain and Canada, so River has a choice as she grows up as to which country she will claim citizenship. But the reality is that all of us have choices today on our ultimate citizenship. This is the tension in which we, as Christians, live. William Henry Seward, who was Secretary of State under Lincoln, lived in this tension when he was a Senator as he thundered after the Supreme Court Dred Scott decision, “There is a Higher Law than the Constitution, there is a greater Judge than the Supreme Court.”

After our recent election, many of the parishioners in this church were either delighted or flabbergasted in horror over the results.  My idea of a political statement is a pledge to “Do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with God”, a statement that never made it to the ballots.  We are all living in a nation tinged with the “loyalist’s revenge” of investing semi-divine status on our Presidents. When we as a church celebrate Christ the King, indeed every time we come together, we are saying that there is a higher power to which we pledge allegiance. All the lesser powers are also-rans, and while we invest time, energy, and money in those lesser powers, we pray for them, not to them.  Our ultimate loyalty is elsewhere.

Greatest Allegiance

Once again the air is filled with chants,

Declarations of loyalty to the winners

or “wait until next time” ‘fore winters

of future when will get a new chance.

Cries of such pain issued of accusing

the almighty for choosing a bad side,

ignores that our enemies share a ride

with us. So much now needs excusing.

We forget that we are all thus related;

children of the same God formed out

of same mother earth, on a same route

and in God’s infinite mercy are fated

to be judged and loved equally by how

we treat others not as an it but a thou.

Warren Cameron Judge III Reflection for November 13, 2016

A Reflection for a Celebration of the Life and Ministry of Warren Cameron Judge III

November 13, 2016                                        Thomas E. Wilson

I want to start off by thanking St. Andrew’s Church for joining with All Saints’ to celebrate Warren’s life. St Andrew’s was the church to which Warren and Tess belonged before they came  to join the new mission first envisioned by as an act of faithful generosity by St. Andrew’s Parish and an act of courage by those who entered into the early life of that mission. They met in living rooms and elementary school cafeterias until they built the building - which is still too small to accommodate all the people we expected for Warren’s service.

I would like to also thank Gail Sonnesso of the GEM Adult Care program who had planned a service here at this particular time, but graciously postponed that service because, as she said, “Warren was such a supporter and had attended each yearly service since the beginning that the people who usually come would have wanted to pay respect to his faithfulness.” Warren had a lot of friends in this county.

I first met Warren when I came to the Outer Banks for an interview for the position of Rector of All Saints’ more than 13 years ago. I had driven in from Georgia and the church put me up at a hotel at which they apparently had “an arrangement”. There was this huge man behind the desk who welcomed me just as if I was an old friend. I did not know he was one of the owners and he didn’t tell me he was a member of the church. He did not try to interview me, or pass judgment, or push an agenda; he just welcomed me as if he believed what Jesus had said when he said those who welcomed followers of Christ welcomed Jesus. Now we could say that welcoming was part of his job in the hospitality business, and that is fair. Yet, welcoming was part of his very soul. It was a spiritual gift that he brought into play in the material world, which is what we are called to do with all of our gifts. Warren did not live into his last name, for he did not judge others because he knew that God’s judgment is always tempered with welcoming Grace. Welcome, that is what Jesus said. That is what Warren, in following Christ, did. This is who Warren Cameron Judge III is.

Jesus never asked us to worship him; he told us to follow him. That is what Jesus said. That is what Warren did. This is who Warren Cameron Judge III is.

Jesus said to love your enemy. Jesus gathered his followers from all sorts and conditions of people. Scripture tells us that Jesus called Matthew the tax collector, who was working for the occupying enemy, and he called Simon the Zealot who was a warrior against the Romans - two people who had nothing but hatred for each other and yet Jesus bound them together to work for a common goal. One of things that Warren did was to keep saying that he didn’t care who got the credit as long as the job got done. I remember when Warren’s party lost the election for control of the County Commission and Warren was then a minority member. Now, if he were not Warren, he would have been instrumental in trying to block any attempts by the other party in order to make them look bad. But he was Warren, and even when he would lose a vote, he would work to implement the program as legislated. He had not signed on to be right, but to help govern. He understood that Public Service was not about who has the biggest ego, but about the public being served so that this Dare County could live into John White’s words of 1587, that this is the “goodliest land under the cope of heaven.”  Warren could be counted on to serve. Jesus said, “Let your yes be “Yes” and your no be “No”; anything else comes from the evil one.” That is what Jesus said. That is what Warren, in following Christ, did. This is who Warren Cameron Judge III is.

Jesus said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free.” That is what Jesus said, and when Warren followed Jesus, that is what he did. If you had a program that would help people, you could count on Warren being there to work with you. He did that at our church, he did that in our community tirelessly. I used to joke with him that I could count on two pictures of Warren in every edition of the local papers because he was there to lend his strength and support to any cause that made peoples’ lives better.  The prophet Micah said, “What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with your God.” Jesus said “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” This is what Jesus did. This is what Warren, in following Christ, did. This is who Warren Cameron Judge III is.

Jesus said; “Let the little children come unto me.” Jesus’ disciples saw children as an interruption to their work, but Jesus held them and blessed them, seeing them as part of his family, as fellow sons and daughters of God. Warren would ask the question “How is what we are doing affecting the children?” Warren was interested in children. He took four kids and made them his own, creating with Tess a family where love was the center. But beyond his family, he worked in the communities in which he served. His children speak of the time when he was a Town Councilman and, spending his own time, money, and energy, headed up the effort to make sure that the children would get uniforms for their Little League teams. Yet, more importantly he was a coach for over 13 years. He was a coach not just so kids could play but he was a coach so that young boys could grow up to be men who respected themselves, respected the community, respected the rules of life, respected their opponents, respected women; he showed them by word and especially example what it means to be a man. He was heavily involved in a community response to youth substance abuse. And when one of his kids got into some trouble, he came before the group, walking humbly with his God, and said, “It can happen in any home; it is not about those people over there somewhere else, but about all of our families.” Jesus asked us to follow him in blessing children. This is what Jesus did. This is what Warren, in following Christ, did. This is who Warren Cameron Judge III is.

You may notice that I say “is” about Warren, not “was”. In my theology, God calls each person before we are born for a ministry of making a difference in this world. For those who are serious about their faith, they see their whole lives as ministry to show God’s love, not just in religious institutions, but in and to the family, in and to our neighbors, in and to our community, in and to the nations of the world, in and to our environment, so that God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven. This is the prayer that Jesus taught us and what he did. This is what Warren, in following Christ, did. But we are also to follow The Christ by giving our lives, even through death - which does not end God’s love - into a resurrection of serving God in the deeper life after we have shuffled off this mortal coil. As we say in our service that life is changed not ended. Life is a Call.  There is a poem written in 1633 by George Herbert entitled “The Call”:

Come, my Way, my Truth, my Life:

Such a Way, as gives us breath:

Such a Truth, as ends all strife:

Such a Life, as killeth death.

Come, my Light, my Feast, my Strength:

Such a Light, as shows a feast:

Such a Feast, as mends in length:

Such a Strength, as makes his guest.

Come, my Joy, my Love, my Heart:

Such a Joy, as none can move:

Such a Love, as none can part:

Such a Heart, as joys in love.

You will notice that all are invited to come to Communion. Neither the Church nor I are the one who invites you to come forward. God’s love invites you, and we are not to stand in the way of a foretaste of being in full communion with God as we live in this world and the next. Who may come? All may, some should, none must. The ushers will come to the end of each row and invite you to come forward.  If you come forward for communion, there will be a clergyperson up front to give you bread and a layperson to give you wine.  If you do not wish to receive, cross your arms and you will receive a blessing.  Jesus gave bread and wine as a small part of his greater ministry of blessing and called us to follow him to bless others.  Blessing is what Warren did. Blessing is who Warren Cameron Judge III is.

Whenever I have communion in my church or in a hospital or living room, my imagination, my heart, and my spirit know that I am not alone with just the bodies in the room. The energy of all those who have gone before is present, and I am aware that they are on the other side of the table, just in another dimension. Fifty years ago my father died, and his love and strength are still with me. We will miss Warren when we are not paying attention, when we get too busy with our own agendas and no longer seeing the spiritual side of this life.  The Love through Warren is with us, for love does not die, but rather, as Herbert notes, it is the love that “killeth death.” That is what Jesus did. This is what Warren did. This is who Warren Cameron Judge III is. 

You may notice that the family has suggested that instead of flowers you donate to the Mortgage Reduction effort at All Saints. That would be nice. But let me tell you what would be better. Jesus said, “In my Father’s house there is room for all.” Work with your family, friends, neighbors, and especially your enemies to build a better community, a place where families are nourished, love is honored, respect for others is the norm, and all are welcomed, none are judged. That is what Jesus did. This is what Warren did. This is who Warren Cameron Judge III is.

Warren Cameron Judge III

He straightens up from behind the counter

And my God he is big, the biggest is his smile

as he welcomes me and signs me in,

as if this is his own home.

Never being there before, me a stranger

who he treats me as if I belong,

a friend he has not met before.

My paranoia wonders about his agenda,

but welcoming is only thing on the table.

He moves, it seems as if defying gravity,

shoulders lift his body, directing his walk.

Learning over the years of how much those

shoulders carried; children, family, friends

church, county, state, but always with that smile.

I was not aware until he died and then I realized,

when the world seems heavier, that I was one of

those burdens he helps carry with a smile

as he follows one who says, “Come unto me . .  “