Face To Face

 

A Reflection for the 1^st Sunday of Advent                St.Anne's- St. Mark's, Roper Grace, Plymouth

December 1, 2024                                                     Thomas E Wilson, Guest Celebrant

Face To Face

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

Happy New Year!!

I know it is not January 1^st. but this is first Sunday of Advent, the beginning of the church's year. We can blame this on the Council of Nicaea, called by the Roman ruler, Constantine, a soldier first and foremost, who wanted order in the unruly church he wanted to head up. He wanted his people to set up a Church year that would be able to blend the Christian and Pagan calendars, to mesh together throughout the Empire. The accepted idea was to downplay Jesus' Jewish roots and play to the calendar of the pagan Romans to make the transition easier for the Pagans. Constantine looked at the mess where Christmas and Easter were set up at different times in different parts of the Empire. Constantine had the delegates at Nicaea railroad a Creed and Calendar for the Empire and the church, and that is what we have handed down to us.

The official state holidays remained the same but they were now based on Christian time tables. Christmas was when Jesus was born nine months after the Spring or Vernal Equinox, and it replaced the old Pagan Festival day. New Years day was based on the old Roman New Year dedicated to the pagan God, Janus, the God of beginnings and it was Christianized as the Circumcision of Jesus, the first time his blood was shed, six days after he was born. Easter was the 1^st Sunday after the first full moon after the Vernal Equinox. The Holidays remained the same except the names were changed and Christianized. Christianity began to evolve into a religious facade, like all the other religions, instead of being a whole different way of coming face to face with with the living God in our daily life with our neighbors and ourselves. The lessons for today call us back to being face to face.

From Paul's First Letter to the Church in Thessaloniki, he says a prayer that there will be a New Year:: “Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you face to face and restore whatever is lacking in your faith.” He is praying that, “This time we will get it right!”

From the prophet Jeremiah's book, the writer relates seeing face to face with the will of God that as the people return from exile, that this time they will execute justice and righteousness instead of following their own narrow political and economic agendas. It is a good New Year's hope that this time the people, you and I, will chose to do justice and mercy. “This time we will get it right!”

The Psalmist sings of the need that we have of strengthening help; “Remember not the sins of my youth and my transgressions; * remember me according to your love and for the sake of your goodness, O Lord”. Help us to be able to be face to face with the will of God instead of chasing our own narrow agendas. “This time we can do it right!”

In the Gospel, Jesus is warning his disciples that the in the coming times, they, and you and I, will need, face to face, a strength greater than ourselves to make it through this time, in order to get it right.

I remember when I graduated from Seminary and I was not at all that sure that I could survive. It was at that time I met Pat, who would later help me find strength. But, I first met her when I went to a meeting in the new diocese and I saw her at that meeting. She was standing with a bunch of annoyed women with scowls, who were all wearing an almost uniform of large coats and long scarves, and smoking little black cigarettes. I looked at them and thought, “God deliver me from angry women.”

She came up to me, the new guy on the block, to complain that her son had stopped going to the Episcopal Church in the University town in which I was just called to be a Chaplain and Assistant Rector. All I could think was that her son was trying to find his new life away from home. I understood in my life when I went off to college, I just did not want to do any religious bit. I wanted to tell her that our children need to make their own decisions as adults. She cut me off before I got through the first sentence. She did not want a discussion; she wanted me to look him up and face to face, get him back into the fold of the Episcopal Church. That was my job!

We were standing next to each other, but we were not seeing face to face, but from facade to facade; I in my clergy suit and she in her angry woman uniform. She worked for the Diocese and it took years before we were able to go beyond facades to facades, to face to face. When we stopped looking at the convenient facades and looked deeper, seeing each other as complex broken people who cared deeply for other people. We learned how to care for each other, face to face. She helped make me a better Priest and Pastor in the churches we served together. Face to face changes every thing.

One of the drawbacks to me being a visiting fireman, jumping between two churches on Sunday mornings, two or three times a month is that, and while you have been very gracious to me; we do not take the time to spend to really know each other. I am sorry for the reality of our schedules, but we need to do what we can to see each other face to face, if that is your desire. You are kind and listen to me when I am here; I would like to listen to you with what St. Benedict called, “listening with the ear of our heart.” and have you share how you see or hear the Holy in your life. This time we will get it right!

I want to end with a beginning of a prayer by the Rev. Dr. Randley Woodley, that I read on a Thanksgiving day blog:

“Great Mystery,   I am humbled that I will never know everything about you, but I am grateful that through the lives of the other I can know more of you. While I thank you for those who are like me, I especially thank you for those who are different than me.”

Face To Face

There is a Holy space between us,

wherein the Sacred One dwells,

listening without church bells,

when a word “God” isn't a cuss,

but a lover's whispered address,

to a one who's beyond knowing,

unbound by categories showing,

yet, helping each of us to bless,

those who care, or who busy don't,

because we've all this work to do,

in keeping up with all what's new,

but especially the ones who won't.

The Holy is between you and me

shaping “you” into a Holy “Thee.”

Beginnings of Birth Pangs

 

A Reflection for the 26^th Sunday after Pentecost                          Thomas E Wilson, Guest Celebrant

St. Luke/St.Anne's Roper and Grace, Plymouth                            November 17, 2024

1 Samuel 1:4-20        1 Samuel 2:1-10       Hebrews 10:11-14 (15-18) 19-25           Mark 13:1-8

Beginnings of Birth Pangs

As I was looking through the lessons for today, I saw a theme of people living lives that they wanted to change, and yet and the same time feared, to change. What was seen with fear and loss of hope was transformed to be the beginnings of the birth pangs for something beyond imagination.

In the Hebrew Testament Lesson from Samuel, Elkanah was a Levite, a tribe that was given responsibility of being intercessors for God's people to God. Elkanah, makes a yearly pilgrimage to the shrine of Shiloh, with his two wives. His first wife, Peninnah, has given birth to children. But his favorite wife is Hannah, who has no children. On that pilgrimage, he sees her acting strangely and thinks she is under the influence of spirits of alcohol. However, she is under the influence of God's spirit in prayer with God, asking for a change in her life, to bring forth a child. God grants her that prayer and she gives birth to Samuel, the name could be something like “Borrowed from EL” El is the Hebrew word for God.. Thus the story continues that Hannah will wean Samuel, a gift from God, and then she will not give, but lend, Samuel, to God through the Priest Eli, who will raise up the child. Hannah will live with her husband and have three sons and two daughters and every year she and her family would come on pilgrimage to see her son whom she had loaned to God. For Hannah, what was seen as a lack of hope, turned into the beginnings of the birth pangs to a new life for her and the people of Israel.

Her son Samuel, the one borrowed from God, will be one who will preside over the birth pangs of a new Nation of Israel with Saul and later David as King.

Hannah sings the song,The Song of Hannah, a song where she gives thanks for the reversal of her life, from barren to full of blessings. The song will be an influence to the Virgin Mary who sings her Prayer, The Magnificat, whose life has changed from being a a woman who might be under the shame of being an unwed mother to being the Blessed Mother of Jesus. Biblical Scholar, Walter Brueggemann, suggests that the Song of Hannah paves the way for a major theme of the book of Samuel, the "power and willingness of Yahweh to intrude, intervene and invert." To change life from what seems like a failure and allow it to be transformed into a life of joy; a life following what became birth pangs of a new life..

Before I went to seminary, one of the things I used to do was to work with people who had been addicted to substances and they came to a decision that they could no longer live as an addict. They knew what the past looked like, but now they had to leave that behind and enter into a new way of living. My job was to help them see that they were not alone in facing a new unknown. They came to realize that sheer will power was not enough, and they would need a power greater than themselves to make it into wholeness. Almost every thing in their lives is going to change. If they have a job; the eight hour job tasks may remain the same, but the spaces between each moment of those eight hours needs to be seen in a new light in how they deal with those hours, which can now be filled - rather than killed. Their lives begin to have meaning. They will go through new birth pangs; bringing forth a new life in place of the old.

The writer of the Book of Hebrews echos this promise of strength given to people in difficulty, and reminds them that the waiting for the return of Jesus, will need to be seen as living into daily birth pangs into a deeper faith.

“Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful. And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching. “

In the Gospel story, Jesus and disciples are wandering through the magnificent Temple of Solomon which had rebuilt and then expanded and all dolled up by the Tyrant Herod the Great, the King who wanted to kill the child the Wise Men sought to worship. The disciples are really impressed. The death of Jesus in 33AD, put to death by the Romans, will be the beginning of the end for the Temple which is destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD, 27 years later. But Jesus sees into the future where that splendid temple will be turned into rubble, but that failure will be the new birth pangs beginning of leading into the new life of following the Risen Lord.

“When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. This is but the beginning of the birth pangs.”

In my life, I went off to college and majored in Drama so I would be a professional actor. I loved the idea of immersing myself in the lives of characters which were parts of my own psyche. Then a couple years into my four years as an undergraduate, that dream became uninviting as I saw a need in people's lives. So, instead of heading off to New York to be a legendary actor, I graduated and got married and later we had a child, the birth pangs of being a parent. I think of that often when I realize that we do not own our children, we are only loaned them, to bring them up and pray for the best.

My mission in my working life was in the birth pangs of a life of helping others, I started working as a counselor with school drop outs, then a therapist with people, then a college professor teaching people how to work with people, then I went to seminary to help people find the strength if God's love in their lives within a Parish of faith. Now I am retired and when my wife died, I thought that it was the end of my life. It was. I mourned and then asked for signs how my life might find meaning. Looking for the new Birth pangs.

Next month, I will turn 78 years old and I still don't know what I am going to do when I grow up! I am still in the waiting for the birth pangs; of the next part of my life. I don't know what these birth pangs will look, or feel like. But, every day I end my prayers with two special prayers. The first is using the words of St. Francis, found in the back of our Prayer Book:

Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. Grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we
are born to eternal life. Amen.

Then I use my loose translation of Henri-Frédéric Amiel, a Swiss 19^th Century Moral Philosopher, Teacher, and Poet, to show me a way I can help live into my faith.

“Life is short and we do not have much time to gladden the hearts of those who travel with us. So be swift to love and make haste to be kind.

Today, this Sunday can be just the same old, same old life you had yesterday. OR it could be the beginning of birth pangs into a new life. A new life where you are not the center of your universe.

Beginnings of Birth Pangs

My first appearance as a discomfort,

was tolerated by my mother awhile

But then at birth, I gave a big wail,

she whispered sounds of comfort.

When my wife informs me of a birth.

to be expected in the months to come,

I alternated between wanting to run,

or giving support for all I was worth.

I was clumsy, figuring how to dad,

after years of my being for myself,

there was no easy book on the shelf,

yet I learned how to be a loving dad.

It wasn't perfect, I made mistakes,

but I learned loving was what it takes.

Wherever you will be, I will be

A Reflection for the Sunday after All Saints                    St Anne's/ St.Luke's, Roper and Grace, Plymouth

November 3, 2024                                                          Thomas E Wilson, Guest Preacher and Celebrant

Ruth 1:1-18      Psalm 146                   Hebrews 9:11-14                 Mark 12:28-34

“Wherever you will be, I will be.”

In the Hebrew Testament lesson for today is the story of Ruth. Ruth is a woman of Moab who married the son of Naomi, a Hebrew woman, who moved with her husband and sons into the country of Moab during a time of famine in Israel. The two sons marry local woman in Moab, but then the father and the sons die and Naomi is left alone in the land in which she is not a native. She is vulnerable, there is no one to protect her. Naomi hears that the famine in Israel is over and she plans to return in hope that she can join with distant relatives. Knowing the Jewish prejudice against people of Moab, she tries to send her daughters in law away to find some Moabite husbands. However, Ruth out of love and concern for her mother-in-law, affirms that wherever Naomi goes, Ruth will go. She says “Wherever you will be, I will be.”

This week after All Saints Day, I saw an ad on line for a 8” by 11” Collage of 36 Icons of Saints, for All Saints Day 2024, and in the center of the bottom row was an Icon of Ruth and Naomi together, united in love. Ruth who offers to be with Naomi, and Naomi who brings Ruth into her heart. One who loves and the other who allows herself to be loved and returns it. That is one of the themes of the lessons for today when people love and allow themselves to be loved. It is like all relationships of freely sharing love. One for the Other, risking love for each other, “Wherever you will be, I will be.”

When my wife and I got married 35 years ago, we bought a couple of wedding rings which had the Hebrew letters written on the bands proclaiming the promise of Ruth to each other; “Wherever you will be, I will be.” She had been married before, and in her first marriage, her husband a medical doctor, had been drafted and they spent the first couple years on an army base in Texas. She wanted to get the inside of the ring to be inscribed with “Anywhere but Texas”. But she came with me to Lynchburg, Virginia, and Macon, Georgia, and helping me working on my doctorate in Sewanee, Tennessee, and to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. But the promise was more than geography; it was a promise to be together in good times as well as bad times. Since the 23^rd of June, 2023, when her physical body died, she still lives in my heart. Bodies die, but love can live forever. As Ruth said, “Wherever you will be, I will be.”

My father died when I was 19, but there has not been a day when Bill Wilson has not lived inside me, in how I see, and treat my neighbors. We disagreed on many things, like music, religion and politics; but how you treat your neighbor was not one of those disagreements. In the winter of my 4^th grade, we were living in Upstate New York and then one day the first snow came down. There was no question that my older brother and I were expected to shovel the drive way and walk. But my father sent us out to first shovel the driveway and walk of our next door neighbors, Mr. and Mrs Lyon, Walter and Millie. He had been the managing editor of the Binghamton Sun-Bulletin morning newspaper, since 1920, and was retired. They were an elderly couple, they were in their 70's. younger than I am now. who had been so kind to us when we moved in that summer. She was so gracious and they both told marvelous stories. If I live another year, I will be as old as he was when he died. We were instructed to do it quietly, without being asked, and to not expect, or accept. any money. These were our neighbors; and that is what neighbors do- help one another, out of love. “Wherever you will be, I will be.”

My father was a lapsed Roman Catholic who married a Presbyterian girl, so they split the difference and the children were raised as Episcopalians, He had a hard time believing in religious doctrines about God, after battling in the South Pacific as a Marine in World War II; but he believed in the ethic of faith, which he saw was in kindness to your neighbor. The church taught me religion, my parents taught me faith. The church told me that as a faithful Christian, I had to be ready to face to Lions in Roman Coliseums. My father taught me that I had an obligation to help Mr. and Mrs. Lyon next door. “Wherever you will be, I will be.”

The passage from the Book of the Letter to the Hebrews , which is not a letter but a polemic, and is not to the Hebrews but to Christians; but otherwise well named, is that this Jesus did not come to earth to do religious ceremonies but to give himself away for others and allowed himself to be vulnerable to be loved. I am pretty sure that Bill Wilson did not study the Book of Hebrews, but he lived it. “Wherever you will be, I will be.”

In the Gospel lesson for today, Jesus meets a scribe and tells him that he was holding the scribe in his heart. Now the scribe belongs to a separate political party than Jesus. Yet Jesus says; “You are not far from the Kingdom of God.” The Gospel does not tell us what happened to that scribe, but I am persuaded that wherever that scribe went, he was in Jesus's prayers and love wherever the scribe physically went in his life. However many miles away he was, he was never far from the Kingdom of God. Jesus knew how to love and be loved. Jesus loved Judas, and Judas betrayed him. Judas said: “The one I kiss, is the man you need to arrest.” The reality is that you can only be betrayed by someone who you love and who loves you. “Wherever you will be, I will be.”

One of the things I have seen in your churches is that when you hold people in the congregations in your heart. But more than that, your hearts expanded beyond the building. Your hearts expanded to be present with the people of Western North Carolina going through such devastation: you were with them in the Kingdom of God. You went out of your way when you understood that you were not the center of the universe. You understood that saying a prayer of thanksgiving for being spared from the Hurricane was not enough. You understood that you were spared not from, but for. You understood, that while you might throw a party, but you understood that the purpose of the party that was you were to help these neighbors hundreds of miles away. You understood the words of Ruth, “Wherever you will be, I will be.”

This coming week, on Tuesday, election day, we have a chance for moments when we will not all agree and there will be a least two different camps of partisans. One camp will win and the other will lose, but we do have a greater duty if we are to have a democracy we must have respect and love our political adversaries. We do not have to agree, we don't need to even like, but we do have to love, even the people with whom we disagree. My prayer is that before the last vote is counted, it will be a chance to treat them and think, or say, to our opponents; “You are not far from the Kingdom of God.” “Wherever you will be, I will be.”

It is like going to church, where Christ is the guest of honor, but the purpose of the party is to try to get ready to help a neighbor. We pray for growth in faith, but the faith is lived out when we walk outside the church doors, when the echos of the organ song fades and then hear the cries of our neighbors come into our hearts and will. Our hands are not there to pat ourselves on the back but to reach out to meet the needs of our neighbors. As Ruth said, “Wherever you will be, I will be.”

“Wherever you will be, I will be.

There are people who continue living in memory,

They were there helping me grow up, and deeper,

Walking me with me as paths were getting steeper,

Sharing stories to be told from pulpits or refectory.

These are you people who showed me how to live,

Live as if each moment was meant to be savored,

With guests of loved friends meant to be favored.

Extra special twists we'd really would want to give.

Recalled as saints who didn't from their labors rest,

Tasted again as if it was wine from a vintage rare,

Treasured as if was always really meant to share,

Calls us to love fully with every second as the best.

Some went ahead, but soon I will join you,

And we will dance together as lovers true.