A
Reflection for the V Easter All
Saints’ Church, Southern Shores, NC
April 29, 2018 Thomas
E. Wilson, Rector
What
is there to prevent us?
A couple of weeks ago I attended a service of Yom HaShoah with the Jewish Community of the Outer Banks, a Holocaust remembrance service
held close to the annual anniversary of the uprising of the Warsaw Ghetto in
April of 1943. The uprising failed but it is a reminder of the need to actively
stand against any kind of hatred masquerading as “business as usual”. Never
again do we go down the road of letting hatred rule our lives.
At the service we light the candles, listen to the
poems, hear the high school students read their prize-winning essays about the
current rising wave of Anti-Semitism in a contest sponsored by the Ministerial
Association, read a couple hundred names of the six million who were
slaughtered, and we say the Mourners’ Kaddish. The Kaddish is said at most
services, but especially it is an act of mercy to say to say it in the name of
a person after they have died. It is not about death but about helping the
person who has died say “Amen” to God. It is a mitzvah, a good deed done in
connection to God. In the Hebrew tradition there are 613 mitzvot, and therefore, at least 613
ways to connect to the Blessed One. It goes:
Glorified and sanctified be God’s great name throughout the
world which He has created according to His will.
May He establish His kingdom in your lifetime and during
your days, and within the life of the entire House of Israel, speedily and
soon; and say, Amen.
May His great name be blessed forever and to all eternity.
Blessed and praised, glorified and exalted, extolled and
honored, adored and lauded be the name of the Holy One, blessed be He, beyond
all the blessings and hymns, praises and consolations that are ever spoken in
the world; and say, Amen.
May there be abundant peace from heaven, and life, for us and
for all Israel; and say, Amen.
He who creates peace in His celestial heights, may He create
peace for us and for all Israel; and say, Amen.
What is it like to say “Amen”?
When I was a child, I watched the Warner Brothers cartoons
and at the end of each of them, the figure of Porky Pig would burst in the
center and say, “Th–th- th- that’s all folks”. That is what I grew up thinking that was a
translation of “Amen” at the end of a prayer: “That’s all folks!”
Later I came to understand that Amen meant that I
was saying “So be it”, “I agree”, “Let me sign up for the plan, the hope, the
mission.!” Amen is used in good times as well as difficult times. In successes
we say “Amen” as a way of giving thanks to God. In failures we say “Amen” as a
way of saying that God will redeem and forgive all things.
When I looked at the lessons for today I could see
that they had in common a call for an Amen. In John’s Gospel lesson, Jesus is
saying to his disciples that they must be connected to him as the branches are
to the vine and abide in him as he abides in us, So be it. Amen. I understand
that is the core of our reality, connection.
The Letter from the Elder says that we cannot love God without loving
our neighbor. So be it. Amen. We understand that our loving connections to
Christ call for us to enter into doing at least 613 loving mitzvot for our
neighbor or our enemy.
The 22nd Psalm begins with the cry, “My
God, My God, why has thou forsaken me” which is the worst of times, but
continues to hold on to the hope that “All the ends of the earth shall remember
and turn to the Lord, * and all the families
of the nations shall bow before him.” The
singer of the Psalm makes the pledge that the singer’s soul will continue to
live for God; another way of saying Amen. It is the Psalm that Jesus sings
while he is on the cross before he commits his soul to God. Amen.
The Ethiopian eunuch in the lesson from the Acts
listens to Philip and then comes to the point of either saying “Well that is
interesting; but no thanks” or make a decision to say Amen by entering into the
waters of Baptism and re- entering into womb of God to be born into a deeper
way of living. Philip’s work is done and the spirit takes him to another place
where he can say Amen. There are always more places to say “A-men”
One of my favorite movies is the 1963 Ralph Nelson
film, Lilies of the Field, where
Homer Smith, played by Sidney Poitier, driving through the Southwest nowhere,
comes across a group of German nuns, for whom he agrees to work to build a
chapel. At the end when his work is done, he steals out of their lives while he
is leading them in singing, the spiritual, “Amen, Amen, Amen, amen, amen.”
It is time for me to leave this church so that you
will find a new Rector. What is there to prevent us from saying a Holy Amen to
each other - Amen to the successes that God has given us the will to do, Amen
to the failures we have known which we believe in the light of the resurrection
will all be redeemed, Amen to the past, Amen to the present time to give thanks
to God and you, Amen to the future where Paul promises, “God, working in us,
can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine.”
What is there to prevent us from saying “A-men?”
What is there to prevent us?
Ethiopian
Eunuch said; “Look, here is water!”,
which
in a wilderness is cause to be surprised,
“What
is to prevent me from being baptized?”
Running
to embrace the future he did not falter,
even
though by so doing, leaving Philip behind,
then
returns to his Queen on his way rejoicing.
You
and I are practicing our farewells voicing
shared
memories of us making haste to be kind.
As
the Spirit led Philip to different destinations,
so
also am I being led away onto another
path
knowing
that the love you shared with me hath
blessed
with gracious joy all of my life situations.
Thank
you for swimming in sacred water with me
now
in diverse streams but flowing to a same sea.
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