A Reflection and Poem for 3rd Sunday After Pentecost (Proper 7) June 21, 2020 St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Nags Head, N.C. Thomas E. Wilson, Supply Clergy
Support
Coming to Town!
This is the 3rd part of a
Trinity of reflections and poems about helping relationships, which according
to one of my Social Work Professors, Alan Keith Lucas, is a Trinity of Reality- an aspect of the Creator God, Empathy- an
aspect of the Christ who enters into daily life and Support- an aspect of the
Holy Spirit who gives us strength to work together. Using that outline I also use the insight
of Pittman McGehee, an Episcopal Priest,
Jungian Therapist and Poet who in a conversation described the “mystic
expectation of seeing the Transcendent
in everyday life; a Trinity of
experiencing the extraordinary in the ordinary, the miraculous in the
mundane and the sacred camouflaged in the profane.”
The work of the mystic is to be curious; a
curiosity about oneself, about one's neighbor, about one's enemy, and about God
working in this world; all with an expectation of finding wonder. The mystic
calls upon the Holy Spirit and waits for, and expects an answer to her Prayer.
My favorite Prayer is the 9th century hymn, Come Holy Ghost Our Souls Inspire,
a fourteen line Sonnet, found in the 1982 Hymnal - Hymn 503, which I have had
sung at my 2 ordinations, my 3
installations as Rector of a church and at every Confirmation for those which I
presented and prepared.
1 Come, Holy Ghost, our
souls inspire,
and lighten with celestial fire.
Thou the anointing Spirit art,
who dost thy sevenfold gifts impart.
and lighten with celestial fire.
Thou the anointing Spirit art,
who dost thy sevenfold gifts impart.
2 Thy blessed unction
from above
is comfort, life, and fire of love.
Enable with perpetual light
the dullness of our blinded sight.
is comfort, life, and fire of love.
Enable with perpetual light
the dullness of our blinded sight.
3 Teach us to know the
Father, Son,
and thee, of both, to be but One,
that through the ages all along,
this may be our endless song:
and thee, of both, to be but One,
that through the ages all along,
this may be our endless song:
4 Praise to thy eternal merit,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
For my own confirmation in 1959, I
memorized the sevenfold gifts: “wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge,
piety, and fear of the Lord.” I memorized them, but it would take
decades before I tried to put asking the Holy Spirit for these gifts into
practice.
Next week you are having the new Rector
show up here to do services. He and his family are already in town, but you
began the spiritual journey together months ago. This journey together began as you started to
pray together. You asked the questions to find the answers of who you were, and
are, and hope to be, as a congregation and how can you be explained to others?
Nathan and his family did the same thing of asking themselves who they were,
and hope to be, as a partner with you in the support of mutual ministry. It
begins with curiosity of looking deeper than the usual surface for answers
about yourselves, your church, your community and the creation of God in which
you live and move and have your being.
Years, decades ago, when I was in training
as a Psychiatric Social Worker, I remember when I was in the initial session
with the mother of a child I was working with, and I asked her to tell me about
herself. Her reply was “I am a catatonic schizophrenic.” I replied that the
label doesn't tell me anything. Her response was to stand up, ramrod straight,
and stare at me . . . and stare . . . and stare. After a few minutes, I thanked
her and she sat down again. She thought the label was everything I needed to
know. It was what the insurance company needed to know for billing purposes.
However, if my task was to help her deal with her son, and he with her, I
needed to support them and support begins with curiosity. Who are they beyond
the labels, the roles, the behavior, the beliefs, the prejudices and the
habits.
In the past several weeks we have been
confronted with massive demonstrations and violence which are an outward and visible
manifestations of our persistent inability to be curious across racial and ethnic
lines. Let me read you a poem, Praise, by a Black Poet Angelo Geter, published online on
June 15th last week, as a way of his finding praise in the middle of
chaos
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William Glasser in his Choice Theory says
that we have choices in our habits between what can bring us closer together or
drive us apart. We can choose to encourage deadly habits or caring habits. We
can choose to support the relationship or destroy it:
Seven Deadly Habits Seven
Caring Habits
Criticizing Supporting
Blaming Encouraging
Complaining Listening
Nagging Accepting
Threatening Trusting
Punishing Respecting
Rewarding to control Negotiating Differences
It is my understanding that this is how
God the Holy Spirit deals with us as part of our relationship with the Triune
God; the seven deadly habits point fingers and the seven caring habits are
gifts given in grace.
In Paul's letter to the Romans passage in
today's reading, Paul would have referred to those seven deadly habits as sin,
in his greek αμαρτία, (h'amartia). It is a technical term in archery which
means that the arrow you are shooting is missing the target. It is not about
being good or bad; it is just missing the point, a waste of the precious gift
of life. Also in the Greek words, Μη γένοιτο, a negative “may” of a genitive
term of being, “genoito” that the translator has written “By no means” is too
nice. In the context of what Paul is saying in this chapter, Paul would not be
nice here and the best translation that I could use in mixed company would be a Wilsonian translation of Paul's Letter
to the Romans 6:1b-2: “Should we continue in this garbage of condemning others,
beating them up in the hope they will turn into better people by our abuse?
Hell NO- are you out of your ever-loving mind? That's a fact, Jack.”
Paul is at the end of his rope in this
letter to the Romans and the language he uses is an example of how we tend to
be drawn into being rough with each other in church situations. The way out of
that kind of relationship is to be curious of the other person; listen and go
deeper with the person with whom you disagree. It doesn't matter if your
viewpoint is “right.” Being “right” is an ego thing; being right and a buck
fifty will buy you a busted relationship and a cup of coffee.
We love pointing out other people's sins,
but we need to leave that love. To remember the old Paul Simon song, 50 Ways
To Leave Your Lover:
“You just slip out the
back, Jack
Make a new plan, Stan
You don't need to be coy, Roy
Just get yourself free
Hop on the bus, Gus
You don't need to discuss much
Just drop off the key, Lee
And get yourself free”
Make a new plan, Stan
You don't need to be coy, Roy
Just get yourself free
Hop on the bus, Gus
You don't need to discuss much
Just drop off the key, Lee
And get yourself free”
The relationship you will have with Nathan
and his family is a model of your relationship together with this church and
this community. Can you be graciously curious with one another, sharing your
shared ignorances and asking for, and giving of, forgiveness for not knowing
all the ready answers? Can you respect and negotiate the real differences in
each other? Can you spend time listening together to God, and each other, and
to the space between, and behind, the words we say and hear? Can you learn how
to laugh graciously with each other at blessings, and to shed tears together
when you mourn? Can you work together to encourage the breaking down of the
barriers of race and class and work for justice and peace which passes all
understanding? Can you find ways to redeem the past, accepting the
responsibility for comfortably condoning past violences, greeds and fears, but
making changes in order to live into a new future? Can each day you, together,
work to continue to care for God's creation in this, the “Goodliest land under
the cope of Heaven?” Can you work to build a greater trust that Jesus is giving
the daily bread we need for each day? Can you together ask for, and expect, the
wonder of the gifts of the Holy Spirit on a daily basis?
I will leave you with a poem as a
suggestion for your conversation with your new Rector.
Support Coming to Town!
Hi! My name tag tells you my name,
but I am more than that, and my dream
for these next years is; we'll be a team,
of mutual healing, setting love aflame.
For this community, world and church,
I don't corner the answers or solutions,
but I ask for help, seeking absolutions
for shared sins as we're ending search.
Help claim shared home in God's love,
in the Holy Space in, and between, us,
expanding beyond, singing in a chorus,
of praise beyond walls, to heavens above.
Share how we might be a support to you,
as we share our support for what is true.
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