|
 uest
 ermons
& Homilies
2010
James Eric Herndon
Vespers Homily
March 14, 2010
In the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
Our gospel reading from
today tells the story of a man who was born into tragic blindness. Many
believed that he was beyond help. And if I had to guess he probably did
too. You see, people who lived during the time of Christ did not
understand blindness as we do today. They believed that his condition
had to have been punishment given to him because of his or his parent's
sin. It wasn't a medical condition, it was a spiritual condition. There
is a huge difference in physical blindness and spiritual blindness.
Jesus tells us "While I am in the world, I am the light of the world."
And, as I was reading this I thought of the blind man Jesus healed and
how his experience with blindness relates to our lives and the things
that challenge us everyday. I know we have all experienced some type of
personal tragedy and it's weight is measured by the person who is
experiencing it. For some, tragedy is the loss of a family member or
pet, an unexpected move, the onset of an illness, or even the loss of a
job. Now, for others it can be as major as wearing brown shoes with a
black cassock or running out of bacon at the pancake dinner. There are
many different levels of severity when tragedy is involved. And as I'm
sure you know, tragedy loves to play center stage in this Broadway show
we call life. But the important thing to remember is what comes before,
during, and after tragedy. When Jesus and his disciples came across the
blind man they asked Jesus "Who sinned, him or his parents that he was
born blind and Jesus tells them "Neither him nor his parents sinned"
"but this happened so that the work of God may be displayed in his
life." What I believe Jesus is trying to tell us in this scripture is
that although we may experience tragedy in our lives we must (as much as
humanly possible) try to allow God to work through the good and the bad
in our lives and use us according to his will. He will never give us a
load that we cannot carry. And if the burden is too heavy, he promises
he will be there to help us along the way. Now, the cool thing about
this is, we are all the body of Christ in this world. And one of the
greatest sacraments of all is to love and support each other along our
journey. Just as Christ did with the blind man. And when we do this, any
"blindness" or tragedy that occurs in our lives, big or small, is a
testament to the glory of our God and his never ceasing presence in all
of us.
In His Holy Name
2009
Elizabeth Hanson
Oct. 25--Youth Sunday
Job
42:1-6, 10-17
Psalm 126
Hebrews
7:23-28
Mark 10:46-52
“Go” said
Jesus, “your faith has healed you.”
Has our
faith really healed us? How do we know if we are faithful?
This
statement from Mark, leads us to question our own faith, and wonder if
we would be healed in times when our faith may be tested. To truly act
on God’s word we must not get caught up in our problems of today’s busy
lifestyle. God has a plan for us and our faiths lead us to where he
wants us to be.
Faith is hard to describe because it’s not simply praying to
God, or attending church. Faith cannot be explained, Faith is acting on
our duty to accept or overlook challenges Christ puts before us. Some
reaffirm their faith through the prayers we say together, through
sharing communion, or through listening to others. The church provides
endless opportunities to experience faith, but in actuality as
individuals we must pick up where Jesus left off. We must accept the
calling he offered us when he died on the cross- the calling to live our
lives for him. To truly believe and to live our lives according to Him
is faith. Through Christ, our faith grows, and sometimes may even die
down, but Christ gave us the gift of fellowship and sacraments to lift
us up in our efforts to find peace and salvation.
Fears and worries in life may keep us from hearing God’s
plan for us. We all have experienced traumatic events in our lives which
have caused us to worry-for ourselves and for others. However, each
Sunday we receive communion and we are healed. When we give things up
to God he takes them out of our control. We are not to linger in the
past; he gives us our lives to be lived. He cleanses our sins so we may
be refreshed to live for him, and act out his word. One Wednesday at
EYC, Dr. Dan told the youth, “We are the hands and feet of God.” God is
in control, but we are his earthly servants, and we must have faith in
our gifts. We cannot let our fears limit ourselves or others. I come
from a family who worries, a lot. We love each other so much, each time
we hear a siren or ambulance we call to check on one another. I love
that we care so much, but really I don’t think these worries are based
on love as much as they are based out of fear. Events in life affect
who we are and who we become. My mother lost a sister, my father lost a
dad, and my grandparents lost a child due to car accidents. We all face
struggles, and my family’s struggle is facing the deadly vehicles we
travel in daily. However, we are not alone in our fight. God is present
in our lives, and has healed us. We must have faith in Him to protect
us. Last weekend, I finally fulfilled a goal I have had since receiving
my license: to make a road trip to visit my good friend Lily Broome.
Many times I have planned everything, and made all the arrangements, but
each time ended with an excuse from my parents saying I couldn’t go.
Well, since it was fall break I explained I could take the day Friday to
finally make the trip slowly, and with no worry of running out of
daylight. After asking, my mother of course needed time to think and
pray about it, but my father shocked us all by agreeing that I should
go. He told us that we cannot live in the past, and that our lives are
meant to be lived to the fullest. We must use each day we are given to
learn and grow in Christ. Christ heals. There is no need to worry with
God. Test your faith. Accept a challenge. If you fall, He is there to
catch you. Through Him all things are possible.
I’ve
learned one of the best ways to test our faith is through change. We
seem to have goals planned out for our future, but God is always in
control. I had happily decided on my college choice, but God has a
funny way of changing things around. Earthly desires are meaningless
compared to the substantial fulfillment we find in Christ. No matter how
hard we try to find answers, God will show us things at the time he
means for us to know. Through our busy life it is easy for us to
overlook His presence. I know, through the numerous pressures of high
school I am easily distracted and sometimes unknowing of the way God
wants me to live. This year things are changing fast. In one year, I
have no idea where I will be living, what friends I will have, and what
adjustments I will be facing. This scares me to death. Change is a test
of faith, and an opportunity to grow closer to the most important values
of life. Last year was my first year at Lowndes High, and although the
transformation from a small private school to a large public school
sounds intimidating, I really enjoyed meeting new people and becoming a
part of something new. Throughout our lives, God has prepared us with
many gifts to live our lives. I am so thankful for the loving community
of Christ Church, my supportive family, and my loyal friends. Life’s
blessings are important to enjoy, but through living, learning and
working for Christ we will experience the ultimate blessing of peace and
happiness.
“Go” said
Jesus, “your faith has healed you.” Amen.
2008
Stephen Sandbach
Matthew 22:34-46
A
lawyer, asked him a question to test him. "Teacher, which commandment in
the law is the greatest?" He said to him, "`You shall love the Lord your
God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your
mind.' This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like
it: `You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two
commandments hang all the law and the prophets."
It’s kind of like a
trick question on a test at school,
But Jesus answers by
summarizing the entire Bible in 2 lines
Then he turns the
tables on the tester
He asks them a
question , one they can’t answer,… thereafter the questions,… the
testing stops.
The most important
part of this passage of Matthew is Jesus’ summary of God’s Commandments
to us
He boils it down to
the simplest terms possible….terms that anyone can understand
Love God… love your
neighbor
What does this mean
It’s the entire Bible
in a nutshell
Love God, Love your
neighbor
Not ten Commandments
only two
Not hundreds of daily
rules only two
No dietary rules
No lengthy moral code
Just two things
Love God, Love your
neighbor
This is the thrust of
Jesus message to us throughout the Gospel….
Matthew 6:12 And forgive us our
debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
Matthew 7:2 For in the same way you
judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will
be measured to you.
Matthew 7:12 So
in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this
sums up the Law and the Prophets.
Going to church,…
memorizing the Bible,… tithing…. all good things
But they mean
nothing… if we don’t Love God and Love our neighbor
So how do we love
God?
We can’t see him,…
touch him
How do we show God
our love?... How do we love God?
….We show love… to
our neighbor!!!!
So who is my
neighbor?
Is it the coach who
doesn’t have a sense of humor,
the teacher who
doesn’t like teenage boys,
the bully at school,
the person spreading
untrue rumors ,
the homeless man on
the corner downtown,
the police officer
who give you a speeding ticket
the friend who wants
to talk at 2am about a problem he or she is having,
the big brother that
pesters constantly
Out of these,… who is
my neighbor?
They all are!
So how do we love our
neighbors?
We must live our
lives in such a way that God’s love for us and our love for God is
reflected in our daily lives
Christians are called
to use their God given talents to show love
Whether working in a
soup kitchen, visiting the sick, or serving at church
The easy answer is
…….KINDNESS
We must show
kindness… to everyone,… every day
There was a song that
was popular a few years ago by the pop singer Jewel that my parents
liked that came out after September 11th, 2001
“Only kindness
matters” was the name of the song, but she ends it by saying
“We are God’s eyes,
We are God’s hands”
………….“We are God’s
eyes and hands in this world”
Love your neighbor as
yourself
This would solve most
of the world’s problems
No starving
No war
No homeless
If everyone treated
everyone else as they wished to be treated
If everyone showed
kindness to everyone…. how this world would be different
We could solve our
problems…….
So what is my role in
this?
We must refocus our
lives on being Christ’s eyes and hands… in this world
…..Being Christ to
everyone we meet
I must reflect God’s
love,… in my everyday life….to everyone
I have had successes
I have had failures
But I always keep
trying....after successes and after failures
My best example of
kindness shown and received is Greg Marquis.
Greg was an exchange
student from France and a friend at school.
He and the family he
was staying with were not getting along and were having issues
Ultimately He was
told that he had to find another place to live
He was forced to
find another family.
I asked my parents
to let him live with us for several months, not only did he live with us
but my parents tried very hard to share their lives with him,
He in turn he invited
me to France last summer and I was treated just like family
Even though Greg had
been treated unkindly.
He experienced
kindness. He experienced Gods love
Even though I kept
hearing that French people don’t like Americans,
I was treated with
kindness… I experienced Gods love
I have experienced
the kindness of a friend who helped tutor me in algebra class when I was
struggling
I experienced
kindness, having been stranded with a jeep that did not start, and
having a stranger jump off my battery
I have shown kindness
by helping the homeless and working at the Food Bank
I have experienced
Gods Love and have seen Gods love experienced at youth programs at Honey
Creek
I often fail
miserably at showing kindness… but the goal is to strive to be kind to
everyone
in striving to be
kind we are remade
we are like salmon
swimming upstream against obstacles and problems
It makes us who we
are and who we are to become
Everytime I pray,
study the bible,
go to church
or show kindness,
I am growing
I am becoming who I
should be,
What God sees that I
can be,
And what God wants me
to be
AMEN
Susan Elliott
Vespers Homily
January 13, 2008
Luke
3:15-16, 21-22
In
the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.+
I love these passages because I have found two things in common with
Jesus! I was baptized as an adult and while for many years I was
embarrassed or didn’t understand why I wasn’t baptized earlier I know
that it all happened in God’s time. It was the absolute right and best
time for me. And as I have a tendency to do things non-conventionally,
I was baptized in a “private” ceremony – just my priest, my parents, one
of my godmothers and Jim along with the prayers of those not able to
attend and as Father Barrus said, “with the angels, archangels and all
the company of heaven.” I hope it still counts.
Although I didn’t immediately go out into the wilderness to be tempted
by Satan, I did soon embark on a new life away from my home – marriage,
a new town, a new job and new friends. Wanting to be a part of God’s
family – where ever and whom ever that may be – fulfilled my promise to
myself that I would make room for Jesus in my life. Jim and I chose to
have our children baptized as infants and I believe that was also in
God’s time and the absolute right and best time for us.
In the early days of the church, and at different times
throughout history, it has been the custom to wait until one was “of
age” to be baptized. There were years of study and work. That makes
sense to insure people are serious about their commitment to the Word of
God.
Yet despite the prophesy and the event of Jesus’ baptism and
all he did during his earthly ministry people still wouldn’t or couldn’t
fully believe He was the Christ.
It is easy to understand why people might have thought John
was the Christ although he looked no more kingly than Jesus. He was a
prophet who spoke with authority and conviction about the coming
Messiah. He had known since before his birth - when he jumped in his
mother’s womb upon hearing Mary’s voice - that Jesus was/is the Christ.
So
why would the people think it was him and not Jesus?
They seemed so willing to believe that John might be the Christ;
why couldn’t they believe that Jesus is the Christ - the one
they’d been waiting for for so long? Didn’t they know of or remember
Christ’s birth with the star and the shepherds and the Magi? Couldn’t
they tell the difference between cousins John and Jesus?
True, Jesus had not yet performed any miracles or begun
teaching so maybe people had forgotten he was around. It wasn’t like he
was a “boy king” who was kept in the forefront. I think he had been
learning his earthly father’s trade and studying the Old Testament and
the Prophets. This was God’s time for him to begin his new journey and
life.
Baptism is the beginning of a new life for everyone. The old ways and
laws are to be set aside to make room for the new way with only one
leading the way.
John knew he only had authority to baptize in the Name of Christ and
that only Christ could baptize and convey the Holy Spirit and fire for
he was not worthy. He was fulfilling his duty just as Jesus was
accepting His. The act of Baptism is our labor into our new life with
Jesus. Whether that is in infancy or in adulthood, it is
rebirth. As much as I love all of the infant baptisms we celebrate I
have a special fondness for adult baptisms and the greatest one we have
ever experienced was Vernon Pizer’s. There simply are no words to
describe it.
I also love these passages because, like Jesus, a voice came from
heaven, not descending in bodily form, as a dove, rather in the form of
a white-bearded, grandfatherly looking face descending on a rolling,
thundering cloud. Kind of like the “voice” we read about in Psalm 29
today. While the voice said I was His and He loved me, He also said He
was not well pleased. This was not a planned announcement on my part!
Yes, I had been baptized with water, received the Holy Spirit and reborn
into God’s family but I think this was my baptism with fire. Not fire
to destroy but fire for me to use as a shield to protect me from harm.
While if have slipped and fallen many times I know that God still loves
me. He promised me that. I am not worthy yet He helps me up, dusts me
off and sets me on the right path again. That is what families do.
Amen.
Return to Sermons home page
Stefani Carroll
Sermon for the last Sunday after Epiphany; February 18,
2007
Exodus 34:29-35
1 Corinthians 12:27-13:13
Luke 9:28-36
Psalm 99
I
wonder if you have ever thought of the circle that is our church year?
Every year we cycle through the seasons of worship, beginning and ending
linked together seamlessly, “moving through a circle of memory and
expectation” (Godly Play, Vol. 1) that is intended to invoke in
us an awareness of our relationship with God. We are on a journey, in
essence, on a path we travel over and over. Now, this isn’t to say that
this is a bad thing, because in truth, the journey itself is never
really the same. Think about it: How many times have you heard the
readings for today, but realized they meant something different to you
than they did three years previously? This is, of course, because we
ourselves change as the years pass. The ins and outs of our lives, the
people we meet, the people we lose, the events of the world around us –
all these things change us. And so today, these readings speak to me
about change and about journeys.
Now, it’s hard to miss the connections between the passages
from Exodus and Luke. Both events take place on a mountain; both Moses’
and Jesus’ appearances are altered – transfigured, as it were – in the
presence of God; both Moses and Jesus are intermediaries between God and
the people; and in both cases the others who are present show fear in
the face of the obvious presence of God. When Moses and Eli'jah both
appear and speak of “[Jesus’] departure, which he was to accomplish at
Jerusalem” (Luke 9:31), Luke uses the word éksodos for departure,
a clear allusion to the exodus of the Old Testament. Jesus is placed on
equal footing with Moses and Eli'jah, who respectively represent law and
prophecy, and who are intermediaries between God and the people. Peter
even places them on the same level when he proposes to make a booth – a
tabernacle – for each.
And then something happens that changes everything:
“As
he said this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they
were afraid as they entered the cloud.
And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, ‘This is my
Son,
my chosen; listen to him!’
And when the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone”
(Luke 9:34-36).
Moses and
Eli'jah are gone, and Jesus alone remains. The focus has shifted onto
Jesus alone, setting him apart from the law and prophecy that came
before, and this is echoed in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians:
“…as
for prophecies, they will pass away … as for knowledge, it will pass
away.
For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy is imperfect;
but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away…
So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is
love.
Now the stage is set for Jesus to fulfill his mission
as the Messiah of God, a mission that entails a physical journey to
Jerusalem and a spiritual journey toward his own death and resurrection.
Now, for me it’s no coincidence that the moment in Luke’s
passage in which the focus shifts to Jesus is a parallel to the moment
in which Jesus is baptized. At that moment, too, the heavens open, the
Spirit descends, and a voice from heaven says, “Thou art my beloved Son;
with thee I am well pleased.” Just as Jesus is beginning his mission, we
are reminded of the moment in which our own mission begins. Because when
we are baptized, we are sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked as Christ’s
own forever. We enter into a covenant in which we give ourselves over to
love and serve God, in whatever way is set before us, through Jesus
Christ, our Lord.
This is World Mission Sunday. Today, all Episcopal churches
are united
in
celebrating the one call to God's mission in the world. As God sent
Jesus into the world, we too, are sent into the world. And while my own
mission has been outside the boundaries of this country, yours doesn’t
have to be. Your call may not take you outside the country; within the
boundaries our church alone, the number of possibilities for ministry
can be almost overwhelming. Look around you and you will
see what you could do: You could be a layreader, a chalice
administrator, a choir member, an acolyte, an altar guild member, a host
or hostess for coffee hour. You could be a Sunday School teacher, a
preschool teacher, a caregiver in the nursery. Your mission could go
beyond our churchyard to Habitat for Humanity, the Food Bank, or LAMP.
You could visit the homebound, those in the hospital, those in a nursing
home. Your mission may be your job as a teacher, a doctor, a caregiver,
a parent. I could stand here all day and not have named all the ways in
which the members of Christ Church minister to each other, the
community, the city, and beyond. The possibilities are endless, so how
do you know which is the best way for you?
As Epiphany ends and Lent begins, we begin to see the shadow
of the cross stretch across every act, word and deed of Jesus, and we
find ourselves in the perfect moment to address the way in which we will
express our Baptismal covenant. For just as this is the time in
which the apostles follow Jesus on his mission and struggle with their
own discipleship and ministry, so we follow Jesus, and we struggle to
discover what it means for us to be followers of Jesus, to be
“the body of Christ, and individually members of it” (2 Cor., 12:27).
The apostles had a hard time understanding the enormity of what was
about to happen. Jesus can tell them over and over – and he will – about
his impending betrayal, suffering and death, and they still won’t get
it. For all that God has just told them, “This is my Son, my Chosen;
listen to him!” (Luke 9:35), they can’t do it. They simply can’t
wrap their minds around the concept. And, to be frank, neither can we.
We, too, are trying to understand that which defies understanding, and
we can’t wrap our heads around it, either, no matter how hard we may
try.
So stop trying. During the coming weeks, stop trying to
understand with your head. Take this time to follow Jesus on his
journey, to get ready to come close to the mystery that is Easter, to
get ready to love and serve God through Christ our Lord.
Turn off your head.
Open your heart.
Listen to him.
Amen.
Stefani Carroll
Sermon for Mission Sunday, Sept. 24, 2006
Wisdom 1:16-2:1(6-11)12-22
James 3:16--4:6
Mark 9:30-37
Psalm 54
The Lord be with you! (And
also with you.)
I love that. That response
has always exemplified for me one the things I love about the Episcopal
Church. No matter where you go, the service is essentially the same, the
responses the same. There is a great comfort for me in the rituals of
our services, in the way in which we always affirm our faith together.
It makes us part of a community, definitely of the Episcopal Church as a
whole, but especially of this church in particular.
If, like me, you were not
raised in a church community, you know that from the outside of a church
community looking in, one can often feel like the ungodly in the Old
Testament reading today. In trying to find some loophole, some proof
that belief in God doesn’t make a difference, the ungodly want to test
the believer. The paradox of this situation is that you have to believe
to know that God does make a difference. You have to first open your
heart and mind and life to God in order to feel His grace; otherwise,
you can’t see the difference. You are, in essence, blind.
In Godly Play, we believe
that every child comes into this world ready and capable of having a
relationship with God. Our job is to give him or her the language with
which and a safe place in which to express his or her relationship with
God. That is what this church did for me. T.S. Eliot wrote that:
Except for the point, the
still point,
There is no dance, and
there is only the dance.
The Episcopal Church may
have given me the language I needed to express my relationship with God,
but you, this church, gave me a safe place, gave me a way to see the
still point, gave me a way to dance. When I was confirmed, Bishop
Loutitt was here for the confirmations. I asked him if it was just my
perception, or was Christ Church different, special in some way? His
immediate response was that there are few churches like this one. So I
owe you thanks, because without you, I wouldn’t be up here today.
Have you ever noticed,
though, that just when you think you’ve got the hang of things,
something happens to throw you off? There I was, teaching Sunday School,
reading when called upon, feeling pretty much like I had this religion
thing down pat. I have a relationship with God, I know what I’m doing, I
have it all under control. It is in a moment like that that your
relationship with God hits shaky ground. Remember what it says in James
today: “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” What it
came down to was that I was starting to just go through the motions.
And don’t we all tend to do that from time to time? Don’t we all hit
autopilot every once in awhile, lose our humility a bit? For goodness
sakes, the apostles do just that in the Gospel reading today. Jesus is
telling them, just as he did in last week’s reading from Mark, of his
approaching suffering, death, and resurrection and they don’t get it.
In fact, they are so far removed from understanding what is about to
happen, that they’re arguing about whom among them is the greatest.
They have the Messiah in their midst and they’re arguing about who’s the
greatest. Now, this would be the moment when we might have a
tendency to laugh at the apostles and the fact that they don’t
understand. In truth, though, what we ought to do is be a bit more
humble, remember that even with more than two thousand years of
experience with scripture, theological debate, and religious commentary,
we ourselves sometimes don’t get it, either. Maybe we can learn from
their example, for when the apostles are at their least humble
Jesus says something that should resonate with us all: “Whoever welcomes
one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes
not me but the one who sent me.” This is huge. It’s not enough to have
a relationship with God, you have to have one with Christ, and you can’t
have a relationship with Christ unless you “welcome one such child in
[Christ’s] name.”
But how do you do that?
Well, if you’re me and
you’re on autopilot like I was, you get an email from an Episcopal
priest in Philadelphia and a teacher at your daughter’s school starts to
drop hints that you need to go the Dominican Republic. The email, from
Father Craighill, who is the father of a college friend of mine,
referred to a new website that Father Craighill and several of his
colleagues had started: The Center for Baptismal Living (www.baptized.org
). The site describes baptism in this way: “More than an event; [it’s]
a way of life. Think about it: In baptism, we are sealed by the Holy
Spirit and marked as Christ’s own forever. At that moment, we enter into
a covenant with God and we are commissioned by Christ to serve him
through the ministries he gives us. Every time someone is baptized in
this church and we renew our baptismal covenant, I am now reminded that
I’m working on commission these days, and that sometimes you don’t
always see the ministry Christ has put right in front of you.
At about the time, I had
the epiphany about baptism, Mimi Allen started in on me. “You should
really go to the Dominican Republic; you speak Spanish and we really
need you there.” “Don’t you think it would be great if you could go with
us this year?” “Did I tell you about the time…?” I may be slow on the
uptake sometimes, but even I can take a hint. I figured, hey, I’ll go
for a week, I’ll come back, and if I like it I’ll consider a repeat. Do
you notice in that line of thinking a certain lack of humility?
And then God said, “Ha!”
Because having gone, I
have to go back. It could have been the worst experience I had ever had
and I still would have to return, because the community of Jarabacoa is
as much my community now as this one is. And the work there is not
finished, because the mission continues to grow. The first group from
Christ Episcopal traveled to Jarabacoa with the mission of giving 200
children vacation bible school, which they did. Today, however, in
addition to vacation bible school, the group counts among its successes
taking part in a new church and school. The impact the church and school
will have on the community cannot be stressed enough. We have, through
this ministry, given the people of Jarabacoa a center, a safe place, a
place to, as it were, dance.
It is impossible to
describe a mission trip without talking for hours, so I give you these
scenes:
A two-bedroom house in
which seven people live, including a bedridden man who previously spent
his life in the fields;
A little girl who is about
8 years old, and who wears the cutest little pair of shorts every day, a
pair of shorts that you finally notice has a broken zipper. These may be
one of the few pairs of shorts she owns;
Any number of children who
wear shoes two sizes too large, again because that is all they have, or
who go without shoes entirely;
A young teenaged girl who
has been, in essence, “given away” by her mother, only to be returned
later because someone else didn’t want her;
A boy who quits school so
that he can make money for his family to survive.
These are some of the
people of Jarabacoa.
On our last night in
Jarabacoa, all of these people, and people from the community we had
never met, crammed into the church. The wiring was still hanging out of
the walls, there were no doors, the drawings of children decorated the
pulpit and the lectern. The thurible didn’t function quite as it should
have, and to be honest, I didn’t catch most of what was sung. But it was
magical, because we were witnesses to and participants in the first Holy
Eucharist that church had ever seen. The offertory was a piece of marble
painted for Christ Church, and it is the most precious offering I have
ever seen.
But there is more: On
September 5, el Colegio Episcopal Monte de la Transfiguración opened its
doors to its first students, students who were able to attend thanks in
part to generous donations by many of you.
During the construction of
the sanctuary and school, these crosses were scattered throughout the
building. They are in the very structure of the building and they are in
the cross that hangs over the altar. I offer them now to you as physical
reminder of a spiritual connection that binds Christ Church to the
church and school at Jarabacoa.
Anne Lamott says, in her
book Traveling Mercies, that the two best prayers she knows are
“Please, please, please” and “Thank you, thank you, thank you.” I have
already tendered my thanks, but they bear repeating. For bringing me
into the dance, for supporting my journey through and in Christ, for the
miracle that is and will be the ministry at Jarabacoa, I can only say,
“Thank you, thank you, thank you.”
Now I ask one more thing:
Help to continue this ministry with which Christ has commissioned us.
Please, please, please. From my mouth to God’s ears; from God’s ears to
your hearts.
Amen.
James Guthrie
Lonnie Lacy
Oct. 16, 2005: Year A, Proper 24
Isaiah 45:1-7
Psalm 96
1 Thessalonians 1:1-10
Matthew 22:15-22
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