I'm Just Passing Through

A Reflection for 2nd Sunday of Lent Thomas E Wilson, Guest Presenter March 16th, 2025 Church of the Holy Trinity, Hertford Genesis 15:1-12,17-18 Philippians 3:17-4:1 Luke 13:31-35 Psalm 27 “I’m Just Passing Through.” There is a play by W. Somerset Maughan, called Sheppey, which is the name of the main character and of the Island from which that character hopes to return to escape death. It has a scene in which the character of Death comes to visit Sheppey before Sheppey is able to run away and hide from death. Death makes a speech based on an ancient Middle Eastern Story. That speech was lifted by novelist John O’Hara, for his Novel Appointment In Samarra. This is the speech given by Death Death replies: "There was a merchant in Baghdad who sent his servant to market to buy provisions and in a little while the servant came back, white and trembling, and said, “Master, just now when I was in the marketplace I was jostled by a woman in the crowd and when I turned I saw it was Death that jostled me. She looked at me and made a threatening gesture; now, lend me your horse, and I will ride away from this city and avoid my fate. I will go to Samarra and there Death will not find me.” The merchant lent him his horse, and the servant mounted it, and he dug his spurs in its flanks and as fast as the horse could gallop he went. Then the merchant went down to the market-place and he saw me standing in the crowd and he came to me and said, “Why did you make a threatening gesture to my servant when you saw him this morning?” “That was not a threatening gesture, I said, it was only a start of surprise. I was astonished to see him in Baghdad, for I had an appointment with him tonight in Samarra." I am not a big fan of dying myself. Edward Albee, a playwright who wrote Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? “, a play I did the summer before I went to seminary, once said: "I take pretty good care of myself, and I have no enthusiasm whatsoever about dying. I think it's a terrible waste of time, and I don't want to participate in it." I thought of these plays when eight days ago, I was at a deanery meeting about the search for good candidates for an election of the next Bishop in this Diocese. Years ago, I had been on the search committee for the present Bishop, and I kept my mouth tightly closed during this discussion, so I would not look as if I wanted to serve. I have to tell you how relieved I was not to be on this committee to search for his replacement. I wanted nothing to do with church politics. I like church and I am proud of the over four decades of work I did as a Curate and Chaplain at one Church and Rector at three other churches and fill-in at others.. I was honored to be a Pastor, Preacher, Teacher and Celebrant, but I was not fond of doing administrative work. Almost seven years ago when I was about to turn 72, the mandatory retirement age of a Parish Priest came and I was so happy that I did not have to do any more Church Budgets, Pledge Drives and Committee Meetings any more. Yes, it was work that needed to be done and I was good at it, but it was so good to see that work in my rear view mirror. While I did some full time Interim Work to help a Parish search for a new Rector and had to do administrative work, I was so glad when they hired a Rector, so I could be set free from offices. Now, to keep me off the streets, I do some fill-in work of preaching, pastoring and celebrating, like I am doing today. One of the problems is that I almost messed up being here because I had double booked, but your Warden, and my friend, Frank straightened me out. This summer I will do a short term Interim for that Priest who will be doing some Sabbatical work, so I will have to spend some time in an office. I owe this Priest a lot, he is the Pastor of the church I attend and pledge when I am not filling in at other churches like today. This Priest is the one who visited my wife when she was going through Hospice at home and dying. She liked him because he was young and cute and had a good heart and listened well. He visited me when she died, and he presided at my wife’s funeral almost two years ago; he was there for me and my family. He is one of the few people I trust enough to cry in front of. I owe him a great deal. In 1989, my wife and I got married in the church I was serving in Virginia and we started the journey of faithfully passing through life together; and in so many ways it was a dance. Now, there is no one I take care of, besides myself and my dog. My daughter is hinting for me to move out to Colorado where she can watch over the old man. While I think I am in good health, I am increasingly aware that now I am at a stage of my life where I am just passing through alone until I have my appointment at Samara, whenever and wherever it will be. And as I pointed out a few minutes ago, there seems to be times when I double book. “Passing through”; it is a theme in the lessons for today.. We begin with the “Passing Through” of Abram. God calls him from Ur of the Chaldees and Abram will spend the rest of his life passing through. Just before this lesson, Abram has come out of Egypt and now in this lesson Abram is told, he will continue his life “passing through”, but his descendents will one day claim the promise and occupy the land west of the Jordan as the gift from the loving God. For Abraham, passing through is the way he is able to go deeper in his relationship with God and a deeper understanding of himself. Paul, in the Epistle, writes to the people in Philippi, where the people who belong to the church live in houses. Yet, while they stay in one physical place, they are just “passing through”, for they must go deeper into their hearts and souls, until they come to rest in the Risen Christ. Paul may visit them, but he trusts that the lay leaders and members will be the ministers of God’s love to each other. Every member of the community treasures the moments that they spend together, but they fully understand that they are all just passing through until they rest in Christ. In the Gospel lesson for today, the people tell Jesus that he should find a place to hide away from the wrath of the religious and political authorities. Jesus tells them that he is just passing through, for he has an appointment in his heart with his death in Jerusalem. Each step he takes is a step into a deeper understanding of what his life and death means. Passing through is not about strolling through, but about living each day working to make ourselves better people and the world a better place. Henri Nouwen wrote in “You Are The Beloved: “Whenever contrary to the world’s vindictiveness, we love our enemy, we exhibit something of the perfect love of God. Whenever we forgive instead of getting angry at one another, bless instead of cursing one another, tend to one another’s wounds instead of rubbing salt into them, hearten instead of discouraging one another, give hope instead of driving one another to despair, hug instead of harassing one another, welcome instead of cold-shouldering one another, thank instead of criticizing one another, praise instead of maligning one another...in short, whenever we opt for and not against one another, we make God’s unconditional love visible; we are diminishing violence and giving birth to a new community.” But there are so many of the places to pass through where I still have appointments in my heart. I want to visit the Shwedagon Pagoda in what used to be called Burma and climb the stairs to revere the sacred hairs of the Buddha; one holy step at a time. I read an article about that Temple that reflected that Western consultants wanted to put in escalators and elevators for the pilgrims to visit the holy shrines quickly and easily, because they reasoned that the point of a pilgrimage is the end product. But the Eastern view, which is truly Christian, is that each step on a spiritual journey is a Liturgical step, an act of worship. Passing through faithfully is what worship is about. Each time I show up here, we do a service, we pass through a liturgical service. The point of the service is not about getting rewarded with a piece of bread and a sip of wine, but about slowing ourselves down, to live faithfully into each moment of mindfully passing through the Holy dance we have with each other.. I’m Just Passing Through Looking if Samara is on my calendar, Next week, or next month, or decade, Maybe getting an appointment made, To meet at the Temple in Myanmar Climbing the steps at the Shwedagon, Each step being a Holy step landing On Holy Ground, full understanding To fill in the places where I’ve gone. Same’s true as a Holy Trinity broker When breathing in Holy with others, Seeing them as sisters and brothers, And wine as ways to be more sober. Passing through is a way of dancing Faithfully, while we live enhancing.

Changing Likeness

Last Sunday of Epiphany Reflection St. Luke’s/St Anne’s, Roper, Grace, Plymouth March 2, 2025 Thomas E Wilson, Guest Preacher Changing Likeness Exodus 34:29-35 2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2 Luke 9:28-43a Psalm 99 This is the Last Sunday of the Season of Epiphany. The word “Epiphany” means a sudden manifestation or perception of the essential nature of something. The “Oh Wow, that is what is really going on!” It is like when you hear a joke and you don’t get it- until a couple hours later, and then you start to laugh. It is not that you are stupid; it is just you didn’t get it at the punchline; you needed to work it out. Epiphany is the season right after Christmas and in the Bible most of the people in the story don’t understand the meaning of the birth of Jesus and they have to work it out for themselves, in order to work on going deeper in the time of Lent to prepare for a life of resurrection. Let me give you an example of an epiphany. It’s Christmas and your old maiden Aunt sends you a sweater. You look at it and you say; “Well; (putting on a smile) That’s nice”.You write the thank you note and you put the sweater away. But then one day in January, it gets cold and your mother says; “It’s cold, why don’t you put on the sweater my sister gave you. “ You sigh, and then as it gets even colder, you break down and dig up the sweater. And you put it on. And, it feels so good, not to be shivering. The longer you wear it, the more you like not being cold, the more you think kindly of you aunt. Then your mother takes a picture of you smiling wearing that sweater and sends it to your aunt. Epiphany is the time when we start to have some idea of the gifts in our lives. Especially what this gift of Jesus is all about and how do we faithfully live into it.. This is the Last Sunday of Epiphany, so that means that this Wednesday is the beginning of the Season of Lent. Lent is a time when we look at our lives and realize how blessed we have been, and we make a decision that we can start seeing about how we might make a difference in the world we live in. Is there someone who we need to help? Is there some difference we need to make in this world? Jesus makes his way into Lent to fulfill his destiny in Jerusalem. We all have a destiny. One of the themes for today, seems to me, is about how we are changed when we have an encounter with the Holy. In the Hebrew Testament lesson, Moses is changed physiscally; his face is shining because he had a conversation with God. In the Psalm, people tremble because they have heard God is present and God has a loving concern for Justice to be done. In the Epistle, Paul writes to the Corinthians:”And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; “ In the Gospel lessonm Peter, James and John see Jesus transfigured; he becomes a Holy light shining in the darkness, as he is talking with Moses and Elijah. The disciples want to stay on the mountain and make a living off building a shrine. But Jesus is telling them that the hard work is to done, not on Mountain Tops - but in the embracing of the crosses in our, and others’, lives. There can be no Easter, unless we first embrace our crosses, giving ourselves away. Changing likenesses! Likenesses are the personas we have; what we allow people to see. What we spend our energy projecting to the rest of the world. What are the likenesses that you have had and used in your life? I had an older brother, Paul, who was a year and four days older than I was. He was tall dark and handsome, I was shorter, red haired and dumpy. He was cool and an extrovert. I was socially awkward and an introvert. For years, I wanted to be him, but I could never pull it off. . Going away to college was one of the best things that happened to me, because I did not have to compete against him, I started to learn who I was and learned how to better live into my likeness, instead of trying to fit into his. When I graduated from college, I became a Social Worker, then a therapist and then a Professor. I was doing all right, but I came to realize there was a spiritual dimension that was being negleced in my work with people. I went to seminary to explore what it was to help people, and myself, deal with a life as a Person of Spirit. You are here, in this place, for many reasons, but my hope is that you have come because you have found your need to grow deeper in spirit, and you join with other people who are doing the same thing. When you are here, take a look at some of the other people and see if you can help them claim their spirit, or if they can hele you claim God’s spirit, shining through you. Changing Likeness Day in, night out, searching for light. A light to shine into our deepest time, to help make sense, reason or rhyme, of a hopeful meaning in darkest night. Turning to see persons in nereby pews, questing for what might be hints of soul, allowed to escape and try to score a goal, by touching other livea with good news: that life is not something to be borne as a heavy burden each day and night, but as precious gift to hold on tight, then given away before time to mourn. For lives are too short to hide away, a joy of love that can be ours today.

Sermon On The Plain

Reflection for the 6th Sunday after Epiphany. Thomas E Wilson Guest Pastor St. Luke/St. Anne, Roper and Grace, Plymouth February 16, 2025 Jeremiah 17:5-10 1 Corinthians 15:12-20 Luke 6:17-26 Psalm 1 Sermon on the Plain In the Gospel of Matthew there is a section called the Beatitudes, where Jesus gathers a large group of followers on a Mountain and tells them what it means to follow him in Blessings and Woes. Matthew sees Jesus as the new lawgiver, remembering Moses, the revered law giver of the past, setting down the law on Mount Sinai. The writer of the Gospel of Luke has a similar story which remembers Jesus the day he comes down from a mountain and gathers his followers on a plain. This story sees Jesus not as a lawgiver but a giver of Grace; addressing a group of followers on a plain, blessing the space between them as they are all in this together. So which is the true story; the mount or the plain? And the answer of course is “Yes!”. Chances are that these collections of Blessings and Woes were part of a collection of Jesus sayings that were remembered by different communities of faith and were part of their worship for decades, before they were written down in the Gospel formats.They are reminders that there is joy in following Jesus and yet, there will be hard times as well when Grace will be hard to find. For decades the Christian communities held on to hope in the promise and for centuries we are part of those who hold on to hope in that promise. This belief in a power greater than oneself is also the theme of the first lesson for today from Jeremiah, who sees the exiles returning from Babylon to the ruins of Jerusalem . He urged them not to hope for a return to the past for Jerusalem; it is time to begin a whole new way of living, a hope in someone greater than themselves. He warns “ Cursed are they who trust in mere mortals and make mere flesh their strength. whose hearts turn away from the Lord.” This hope is echoed in Paul’s 1st Letter to the Corinthians who urges them to find the hope that there is a power in the resurrection that gives them strength to make it through each day. He writes:”If for this life only that we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people to be pitied, But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died.” I am reminded of the Wedding ceremony where a couple makes a series of promises about being together for better or worse. When I would do premarital counseling with couples, I would have them tell me about how they were able to resolve difficulties. Relationships are never free from strife. There is a need for rhem, and indeed us,to have a belief in a power greater than themselves that can help them find love, even in the rough times. There are times in each of our lives when we just want to give up. I know something about that. About 22 months ago in June of 2023, my wife of 34 years died. I was not sure I wanted to keep on living. Both of us had worked hard on keeping the marriage together; we had both known divorce and how to give up; but we did not want to let go of each other’s love and forgiveness. She is no longer here to remind me that I was loved, and she can no longer hear me say how much she is loved. I am lucky for my daughter, my step daughter and stepson, and our friends and many of my former parishioners and neighbors who keep reminding me of what a treasure she was. It is one of the reasons I don’t want to move, because I need people who knew and honored her, to feed and honor my memory of her. I have no idea of what the future holds for me, or for you; but we have to live each day, one day at a time. Let us all give thanks for the memories as we are walking into a future we cannot control..Yet, we have the promise that like the exiles returning to Jerusalem, like the apostle Paul holding on to hope, like the crowds on the plain listening to the words of strength from Jesus; all of them to face each blessed new day that we are given in this life. It is the time for us to ask; where are we called to be? We are called to be there for our neighbors. Frederick Buechner in his “Spiritual Gifts” wrote “ The place Calls you to be is the place where your deepest gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet!” Today, where are each of us called to be?

Splashing Out Of The Womb

Reflection for 1st Sunday after the Epiphany Grace, Plymouth, and St. Luke/St. Anne, Roper, NC January 12, 2025 Thomas Wilson, Guest Celebrant Isaiah 43:1-7 Acts 8:14-17 Luke 3:15-17, 21-22 Psalm 29 Splashing Out of the Womb Most of us in the room have had the same first impression of life when we were born; the water breaks over us and we came splashing out of the womb and had to adjust to being thrust into and to seeing a whole different world. If I had been paying better attention, I could better describe was it was like for me in that hospital in St. Louis, Missouri 78 years, and a little less than a month ago. The closest I am reminded is of the words of William Butler Yeats in his poem Easter 1916, when he tried to capture the breath taking wonder of Irish Freedom from the British and the horror attending the time of struggle locked in the heart, and the times of plain stupidity that each nation will have woven into even the moments of high ideals; “All is changed, changed utterly/ A terrible beauty is born.” To be born is to enter into being fully human, one way or another, splashing out of the womb. Last month we celebrated Jesus splashing out of the womb of Mary, his mother, in a the stall of a stable in Bethlehem because there was no room for this refugee family in the inn. Yet Kings came from far off lands to kneel before him in that place. At the same time, the forces of evil were gathering to try to destroy this child's message of peace on earth good will to all, but “All is changed, changed utterly/ A terrible beauty is born.” In today's Gospel lesson, Jesus comes out of East Nowhere Nazareth, walking to make a call on his cousin John down by the Jordan and a good guess is about 60 miles distance. When I go to the Y in the mornings, I get on an Elliptical and it takes me about a half an hour to cover two miles; it would take me about 30 hours to cover the distance that Jesus is walking, but between Nazareth and the Jordan is not a smooth flat walk. Lets assume he is in great shape, he is about 30, and he doesn't stop to talk with people, or to have meals with travelers, which from what we think we know about Jesus, seems highly unlikely; he can do it in three days. He makes this trip because he is called to follow a destiny. If he had stayed in Nazareth, he would have been a busy carpenter, because there were Roman dominated cities, especially three miles away, Sepphoris, a thriving center of Herod Antipas's rule. Father and son could have made a very good living. But Jesus was leaving that all behind him, because his spirit was calling him to leave. “All is changed, changed utterly/ A terrible beauty is born.” This is an important trip for him as he tries to figure out what is his meaning in life. His name was Jesus, which is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Yeshua ,which is Joshua in English. Joshua had come to the River Jordan and according to the Bible, the Priests under Joshua leads the ark into the River and the waters part and the Ark of the Covenant crosses the River without getting wet. Jesus enters into the water, the blessed water of the Jordan which marks the boundary of the Promised Land. Except this time, Jesus gets sopping wet. He comes, not as his namesake as a powerful conqueror but as a soggy, splashing supplicant. “All is changed, changed utterly/ A terrible beauty is born.” Joshua came to destroy the hated cities of the enemies. Jesus comes to bring love to the homes of his enemies. He comes with a faith that all will be redeemed, even death itself. He walks into his fate trusting the words of the Prophet Isaiah in the first lesson for today: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;” Maybe, as he goes under the waters, is he strengthened when he remembers what the Psalmist sang that he is not alone; ”The voice of the Lord is upon the waters;the God of glory thunders; * the Lord is upon the mighty waters.“ All is changed, changed utterly/ A terrible beauty is born.” I remember a day over a half a century ago. I was waiting in the hospital. My wife had just delivered a baby and I was waiting to see her. A Nurse came by and saw my name tag and asked if I wanted to see my daughter. I looked in the basket and I fell in love. She was a mess, because she had just come splashing out of the womb; and nobody looks good after that experience. I went back to see my wife and I lied and said that the baby was beautiful. In a few minutes, another nurse brought the baby to my wife's room and my daughter was all cleaned up and now she was physically beautiful. “All is changed, changed utterly/ A terrible beauty is born.” My daughter is my child and she inherited a lot of my good, and not so good, traits. Her children , my grandsons, are almost all grown up, one has graduated from college and the other is a Junior at another college. Some of my most desirable, and some of my less desirable of the Wilson traits, are part of their DNAs as well. And every time I see them, I reflect: “All is changed, changed utterly/ A terrible beauty is born.” This last week, I attended the church that Tommy, the young man who had ministered with you so faithfully was honored for his faithful service as the Associate Rector of that church. He had been chosen to be the new Rector, the fourth Rector of the church that I had served for as the second Rector for about a decade and a half. I did not want to leave but I was reaching the mandatory retirement age of a Rector. I poured my heart into that church and I loved the time there. They had a problem with someone to fill an opening and asked me if I was available to do the Christmas Eve and Christmas Day services. I jumped at the chance, loving every minute of it . This Sunday is his first Sunday as Rector, it will be the Splashing Out of the Womb for him as their new Rector; and my fervent hope is that they will love him so much that they will never be tempted to compare him to me. “All is changed, changed utterly/ A terrible beauty is being born.” What is happening with you? Life is not static. What had changed? What is changing? What terrible beauty is in the process of being born for, and in, you?

Living Together

Reflection for the First Sunday of Christmas                         Thomas E Wilson, Guest Celebrant Grace Church, Plymouth, St Marks/St. Anne, Roper December 28, 2024 Living Together Isaiah 61:10-62:3  Galatians 3:23-25; 4:4-7      John 1:1-18 Psalm 147:13-21 Today, the 5th Sunday of the month, it is your habit to gather the two churches together and we have a meal together as an outward and visible sign to yourselves and others that there is a deeper connection than just being Episcopal churches in the same part of the state. While most of the services these churches do are held in the respective churches, you get along well, in spite of the fact there is often a spirit of competition in Episcopal churches. Every place I have lived in my life there are Episcopal churches in driving distance from each other. We Episcopalians get used to going to one church , and when we feel just like trying out something different we might visit another venue, but our heart  stays in the church of our family.  However, you on the 5th Sunday of the month acknowledge that there is a deeper connection rather than  a competition.  You have agreed to live together, to see yourselves, and that is important as a sign of a “deeper reality”;  what, to use a phrase from a Christmas sermon by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King called “an inescapable network of mutuality”. Dr. King said in that Sermon:  “It really boils down to this: that all life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. We are made to live together because of the interrelated structure of reality.”  In the Hebrew Testament lesson for today the Prophet Isiaiah is welcoming  the people who have been in exile back into a deeper relationship with God and God’s people. The purpose is not a return to the past but a new beginning of what King called that; “inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny.” I have been really hit with that concept of how we are all tied into a single garment. Before Christmas this year, I got a visit from Scott, one of my nephew’s and his family. Scott, his son and I all share the same middle name of my Grandfather Wilson’s first name, Everitt.They came up from Florida to visit me in Nags Head, and  then drove over to visit my sister in Wilmington, and their cousins in Chapel Hill, and  went sledding in the Mountains with his brother Mike and his family, then back to visit  my younger brother and his daughter in Florida, then his mother and sister in another part of Florida. Hundreds of miles driven with the desire to connect with family; that “inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny.” As I was writing this reflection on the day after Christmas, I was thinking about my daughter and I called her to tell her that I loved her. She is 55 years old with a great husband and two wonderful grown up sons aged 23 and 21; but she is still my baby that I held in my arms after we brought her home from the hospital where she was born, more than a half century ago.  I embarrass her when I remind her that she will always be my baby, but she admits she is swamped  with emotion when the oldest son who has moved out of the house to be on his own after he graduated for college last year, said that next year he wants to take some of his ornaments to put on his own tree.  Distance may give us an illusion that we are separated but  in that “inescapable network of mutuality.tied into a single garment of mutuality.” On the 22th of this month you hosted the Rev. Tommy Drake as your celebrant; he had been with you for years before he went to Nags Head. That is where I met him as I started to attend the church in which he was the Associate Rector. I grew fond of him. Then, this month he was called to be the 4th Rector of All Saints Parish, the church in Southern Shores, where I had served as Rector as the 2nd Rector for 15 years before I reached the mandatory retirement age of 72.  I was called back to that church last week to fill in as Preacher in the Christmas Eve services and the Celebrant and Preacher of the Christmas Day service. Three points in the conversation with parishioners was (1) how they were fond of me, Tom, as their old historic Rector,  and (2) how much they missed my wife who had died a year and a half ago, and (3) how much they were thrilled that Tommy was coming to be their new Rector. In my sermon in the  Christmas Eve services, I thanked the congregation on how they loved my wife and made her and I feel welcome to join them in the interrelated structure of reality of that church and urged them to love Tommy and his spouse as deeply as they loved us. If I had been bright enough to look ahead to this week I would have used the phrase; “the inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny.” An important part of the work of the church is outside the boundaries of the church buildings and engage in the work outside of church walls as Dr. King urged us to do work and “to live together because of the interrelated structure of reality.”  This work is with and for the people to whom we are not related or even fellow parishioners, but people, neighbors and strangers, who need to be loved and encouraged and prayed with and for. May your hearts be open to help to identify these people to be with you in this“inescapable network of mutuality.” Living Together Words spoken decades before, echo again, but now in different circumstances calling Justice to flow down over us when falling asleep, no longer noticing neighbor's pain. The new voices of those renewed prophets, echo those voices heard centuries before, warning to no longer forget days of yore when we most longed to see higher profits. Can we have new Isaiahs awakening calls to see the space between us as sacred soil and everyone's labor as God blessed toil, when we're working to tear down walls. Knowing that we are all tied together with those destiny garments forever.

Christmas Day 2024

A Reflection and Poem for Christmas Day                               All Saints , Southern Shores, NC

December 25, 2024                                                                   Thomas E Wilson; Guest Preacher

Isaiah 9:2-7                Titus 2:11-14                 Luke 2:1-20                     Psalm 96

Christmas Day 2024

Fifteen days ago, I finished writing the reflection I gave last night and delivered it to the office with the bulletin. I don't usually write so far ahead, but I was getting ready to go visit my daughter, her husband and my two grown up grandsons in Colorado and I did not know how much time I would have after I got back to the Outer Banks.. The times I have with my daughter so far away and, my now all grown up, grandsons are so precious that I did not want to have any church work to get in my way.

Well, so much for plans! I had to cancel my trip to Colorado when Yoda, the Wonder Dog, got awfully sick and I had to take him to the Vet, instead of dropping him off at the Kennel. It is not that I love my grandsons less; it is about being a responsible person to the dog Pat and I found at the shelter to help heal some of the pain we had when the dog we had died. Long time members of this church will remember that both of these dogs used to sleep during the sermon, and before and after, try to find the snacks that parishioners smuggled in to slip to them. I had to cancel my trip to be a good parent to my dog, and will put off my trip until June when both of the boys will be at home. It is what the Letter to Titus urges us to do: “and purify for himself a people of his own who are zealous for good deeds.”

The family is not all that big into religion, but I will not be there to convert them; I will be there to love them. Love is more important than views about theology. I think of lines written by 19^th century poet, Emily Dickinson whose school put on a full court press to get her to be an evangelical. She resisted their bullying and went deeper into her soul by writing about what it is to love deeply, instead of bargaining for approval. Love is a gift not a commodity over which we bargain.

            There is a solitude of space

            A solitude of sea

A solitude of death, but these

Society shall be

Compared with that profounder site

That polar privacy

A soul admitted to itself —

Finite infinity."

Ministry is not about prancing around an altar; but about opening our human lives to the presence of the Holy in every moment of our lives, like Dickinson's “Finite infinity”; a living in the dynamic tension of the finite human life and dwelling within the infinite of Holy Love. This Jesus that we remember being born into human life is the entering of the infinite of God into the finite of humanity. We who follow Jesus, fully human that we are, are also touched with the infinite as death is no longer the end, but the passage into a new life.

Years ago, when I was in college, before changing my major a couple times, I was a drama major and one thing I was in was a performance of the Second Shepherd's Play, in the style of the Medieval Mystery Plays I was an actor and I knew how to play roles. I was good at it. I could play a person who is spiritual, but after awhile reality creeps in, and we have to step off the stage. For people serious about having a spiritual life it is not about convincing other people, but to go deeper into all the time off the stage, or away from the Altar. It is about the time where there are no lines to recite, but there are questions each soul must answer.

Henri Nouwen wrote a series of daily questions for us regular dog faced people

“Did I offer peace today?

Did I bring a smile to someone's face?

Did I say words of healing?

Did I let go of my anger and resentment?

Did I forgive?

Did I love?

These are the real questions. I must trust that the little bit of love that I sow now will bear many fruits, here in this world and the life to come.”

These are the questions I decided to ask myself every evening before I would go to bed each day of my visit. I didn't intend to quiz anybody in the family and give them a grade on the test. For myself, while I, in all modesty, am a grade A Priest, but, at a lot more times times than I want to acknowledge, only a grade C- person. I need Nouwen's direction into the daily spiritual check in.

“Did I offer peace today?

Did I bring a smile to someone's face?

Did I say words of healing?

Did I let go of my anger and resentment?

Did I forgive?

Did I love?

Also as I was writing this reflection I read in the paper that Nikki Giovanni, Poet, had died and I thought of her lines from her poem Laws of Motion:

Man we are told is the only animal who   

smiles with his lips. The eyes however are the mirror of

the soul

The problem with love is not what we feel but what we   

wish we felt when we began to feel we should feel

something. Just as publicity is not production: seduction

is not seductive.

One of the dangers with doing Christmas Services is that we might be tempted to enter the past and not the present. We are tempted to remember all the times we did Christmas services in the past with people who no longer walk on this earth. We are tempted to complain that we do not have the present of the presence of people with whom we shared so many Christmases before. However, we who follow Jesus, fully human that we are, are also touched with the infinite as death is no longer the end, but the passage into a new life. Those who we miss seeing at the services, are with us still, in our hearts and hopes. We will meet again on another shore.

This afternoon, I will be a guest with a family that has lost some people who were loved by them and by me. We will miss seeing them, but will be with us in every breath we take and every laugh we make./

Christmas Day 2024

Now, just a shepherd without a flock

still called to try to touch a mystery,

in present moments, not just history,

wherever our feet take us for a walk.

Like the Gospel Shepherds' answer,

to that call of those angels' songs,

disrupts what an old routine longs,

so that faith will have an enhancer.

White candles were lit last night,

and wax drops hit the holy floor

as we tried to respond to do more

to say there is given a new light.

Today, we'll open a few presents,

as outward signs of Holy presence.

All Saints Christmas Eve Gifts

Reflection for Christmas Eve 2024                               All Saints Episcopal, Southern Shores, N.C.

December 24, 2024                                                      Thomas E Wilson, Guest Preacher

Isaiah 9:2-7                 Titus 3:4-7                     Luke 2: 1-14

All Saints Christmas Eve Gifts

This is Christmas Eve, this day we remember the Christ Gift being given. Madeleine L'Engle wrote about that gift;

Was there a moment, known only to God, when all the stars held their breath, when the galaxies paused in their dance for a fraction of a second, and the Word, who had called it all into being, went with all his love into the womb of a young girl, and the universe started to breathe again, and the ancient harmonies resumed their song, and the angels clapped their hands for joy?“

Today is a day we remember and cherish the gifts we have been given in our lives and look forward to tomorrow when we claim the gifts that are already in out hearts to give to others. It depends on if we can really receive the divine gifts in the manner in which they were given, or sing with the ancient harmonies and clap our hands for joy with the angels.

Thank you for having me here on Christmas Eve. I cannot think of Christmas without remembering what it was like when Pat and I were on Sabbatical studying at St. George's College in Jerusalem almost 30 years ago when there was more of a lull in the tension between Jews and Arabs, Hamas and Israel. One day the class we were in about 20+ clergy types and some assorted spouses took a trip to Bethlehem, and as we arrived in the evening there was a great light shining over the city. The light was for the Il Bambino Gift Shop sign where could buy thousands of souvenirs made in Manger Square of Bethlehem, or China, or the Philippines, or in Italy, or wherever, we could take home for souvenirs or help in deepening faith or as gifts to give to friends back home. Across from the square from the shop is the Church of the Nativity, where centuries after the birth of Christ, we visited an Undercroft of a church in Bethlehem where it was claimed was THE place where the Baby Jesus was born. In my western mindset, my first impression was that it was so cluttered and garish with centuries of devotion, that it was hard to see the lowly stable that it was meant to call to mind. But, off to one side. I saw a Palestinian father and his son, where this father was showing his very young son how to pray. Gently holding his son's hands together, the father was teaching his son the outward stance of prayer, and by example the inward attitude of prayer, and the lesson that we never pray alone in the sight of the Holy, as the words to say that had been passed on for centuries in the presence of that which is beyond words.

All over the world, at this moment, or in this day, there are people taking time to stop and pray, in different languages, in different styles of Prayer, all asking that Holy will stop to listen to what is behind the words, and inside the meditations of their hearts. There are people who will disagree with us in politics, in economics, in theologies, and religious practices; but the Holy listens to each and every one of them. As medieval theologian, St. Thomas Aquinas in his Summa reminded us: “Whatever is received is received in the manner of the receiver.” Looking at that son and father, I realized that I had to change to be open to the Holy that was there in the space between this father and his son, and was also in the space between Pat and I as we had traveled half way around the earth to go deeper in faith.

On this Christmas Eve, I am reminded of the time, a couple decades ago, when Pat and I, in another pilgrimage, moved 600 some miles from a church in Georgia to this church in Southern Shores. Pat was carrying some wounds which she had received being the wife of a particular Pastor in a particular place and she was coming here for healing. And, this is the place where she found a community that cared for her. And she blossomed here. Your gifts to her was a gift to my soul and the courage to take deeper steps into faith.

She got a gift from being in the choir. For years, when we visited other churches in different places around the world, where she had to sing next to me as I was droning on and she learned how to hold her own in order to sing somewhat on tune. Here, in this church, she loved how Steve worked with every member of the choir, lovingly, patiently, helping them to learn how to sing together.; many voices becoming one deeper, complex sound. For Steve it wasn't a matter of a Hobson's Choice, of take or leave it, but gentle invitations to work together for something greater than one's self. Thank you for that gift, of Steve and the choir. Thank you for your tolerance of my singing with gusto, if not by skill.

She got a gift from being on the Altar Guild, where careful preparing the place for worship, was part of a preparation of herself for her own worship in community with others. When I was in Seminary, I did a yearly Rota of being on the Altar Guild at the Seminary Chapel. I learned what needed to be done, and as some of my Professors who were celebrants at Seminary Communion services, I was aware that mistakes made by me, a mere student, would be noted as a sign that I wasn't taking worship seriously. Since graduation, in the decades of my being a Celebrant at altar many, I depended on the Altar Guild for never having to worry about things being where they were supposed to be. Thank you for that gift of an Altar Guild, and a congregation, I could always count on.

Soon after we got here, Mary Mason and Pat got together and cornered me that we do a Church Bazaar here. That idea just froze my soul. I had been a Rector of a church that did a yearly church Bazaar and how I dreaded it. I asked Pat, did she not remember those days? The competition between vendors who were fighting for the best spaces, or who got the better trash and treasures or who kept tasting the soup and adding more salt on the sly. I could think of nothing worse. At that church when we added a new addition, there was now more space to squabble over. Yet, there was something happening here that changed, the people had fun and no one more than Pat. Thank you for that gift of a church having fun together, instead of trying to be God's frozen chosen.

My greatest honor was in being able to be with people who were going through joys, changes and challenges in your lives. I did not always fix everything, but I was honored by that trust. Thank you for the gift of allowing me into your lives of faith.

You are in the process of opening your hearts to having Tommy as your a new Rector. I have known him for several years and am impressed with his heart as he was the associate at the church I was attending on a somewhat regular basis. I also have done some fill in work at churches where he used to minister with and to. They had nothing but joy to remember how helpful he had been to these small churches. I am happy that you have been given an opportunity to have a fresh start. My prayer is that you will treat him, and his partner, as a gift, and they will also see you as a gift from the loving God.

All Saints Christmas Eve Gifts

It'd be nice to live in the moment,

but what about times of the past,

when memories were first cast,

and bound into life's enrollment?

They do come for us to cherish,

honoring for making our hearts,

filled by gratitude for the parts,

that'll never be allowed to perish.

These times for us to give thanks,

grabbing the chances for moments,

risking forgiving of our opponents,

from afar and those on our Outer Banks.

God grant us all of the gifts to cherish,

we've received, or given, in this parish.