nov5-all-saints-tr.md

Homily: Nov. 5, 2017

All Saints tr. ⚜ St. Paul’s, Monroe, NC

Many years ago my brother sent me an audio tape of a concert / program given at Carnegie Hall in honor of Harry Chapin’s 45th birthday. 12/7/87. He had died, tragically a few years earlier. Harry Belafonte was mc’'íng the program. Somebody said to him that the Smothers Brothers were next on the program. Belafonte feigned surprise. He said.

They’re here? My god, I’m glad I came man. Isn’t it great.

Harry Chapin was a personal saint of mine. I first encountered him as a gifted folk singer, a singer of tales. Then I learned that he was one of the first – if not the first – artist to bring attention to world hunger. It was reported and commonly known that he would do one concert for himself and then do another concert where the proceeds went toward a charity of some kind. His legacy lives on to this day in the form food banks.

Chapin was also a dedicated humanitarian who fought to end world hunger; he was a key participant in the creation of the Presidential Commission on World Hunger in 1977.[1] In 1987, Chapin was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for his humanitarian work.

He sang a song about how he had just experienced his 34rd birthday. There was some relief because as he said so many great people died at 33.

When I started this song I was still thirty-three
The age that Mozart died and sweet Jesus was set free
Keats and Shelley too soon finished, Charley Parker would be
And I fantasized some tragedy’d be soon curtailing me (There Only Was One Choice)

He made 34., but 5 years later (1987) he died in a fiery car crash on the Long Island Freeway – on his way to a free concert.

his epitaph reads:

Oh if a man tried
To take his time on Earth
And prove before he died
What one man’s life could be worth
I wonder what would happen
to this world

My God, I’m glad I’m here, man. Or as I might put it, I’m glad I count harry Chapin a part of the communion of saints. I’m glad we’re in the same family, man.

Blessed among us

Mary Pat and I read each day at morning prayer about saints, some of them well known, others less so. Some of them recognized as saints. Some of them not so much. The section of the prayer is called blessed among us.

One of the things we like about it is that we read about unusual “saints”. Not on the usual lists. Not on any list in some cases.

Peace Pilgrim: Wikipedia

One them we learned about some months ago lived much of her remarkable life in anonymity. She walked. And she walked and she walked. In the 1950’s she started walking across the US talking to whoever she could and whoever was willing about peace. In 1953 she gave up using her real name and just referred to herself as Peace Pilgrim.

She stopped counting the miles she had walked in 1964 at which point she had walked 25,000 miles for peace. She became known as: spiritual teacher, mystic, pacifist, vegetarian activist as well as peace activist. She was on her 7th cross country journey when she died in 1981.

Because of the communion of the saints I get to count her as part of the family I belong to.

I’m glad we’re in the same family, man.

Peace Lady homeless blessing citynews

Along the way I learned about another peace lady. In April of this year a lady died known to most of the people in Toronto as the Peace Lady.

Donning an all white gown, her arms outstretched – one holding a white flag the other making the peace symbol, Davis would stand for hours.

In 2009, Davis told the Toronto Sun she decided to end her highway blessing mission when a driver suddenly stopped his car in the middle of the DVP to take her picture, nearly causing a massive crash.

When she wasn’t blessing drivers, Davis spent most of her life living in a tent by a ravine near the Don River.

She was a mother, a grandmother and even a great grandmother.

I confess to you that I have a special place in my heart for homeless people. They can often be very weak in defenses, they don’t have property or pride to protect, and they can be simply present. I’m glad I’m in the same family as the peace lady.

Summoned by Love

On my birthday the person we read about was a French man named Carlo Carretto. blog about him I lived with him every day while I was in seminary. I stumbled upon his book Summoned by Love and used it to keep myself going during days of discouragement and loss of vision.

He was an activist for the church in the early 20th c. when suddenly at age 44 he gave up the life he had known and became a contemplative monk of the Little Brothers of Jesus, inspired by the life and witness of Charles de Foucauld.

Essentially, he showed how to live a contemplative life in the midst of the world, in the desert that is ultimately everywhere. The challenge of the Gospel, as he saw it, was to create in this desert an oasis of love. He died on my birthday in 1988.

I’m really glad we’re in the same family, man

Righteous Gentile

A few days later we read about Oskar Schindler. That’s a name more of you may be familiar with. He’s not on any list of saints that I know of. But he became a hero of mine as soon as I learned about in the 1990’s as the movie about him was being produced.

He was in so many ways nothing like what we might think of as a saint. He wasn’t pious and demure. He wasn’t an obvious model citizen or father. He was flawed. But in all his ambiguity, in the raw grit of his life and times – he became a hero of the spirit, a person that I am glad to call a part of my family.

As the catastrophe of the European Jews was rapidly accelerating into genocide and mass murder, through deception and cunning, he found a way to save thousands of Jews – "Schindler’s Jews. At his death, at his request, he was buried in Jerusalem.

In the words of the Talmud, “He who saves one life, saves the entire world.”

I’m really glad we’re in the same family, man

Conscientious Objector

The person marked in our prayer book for Mary Pat’s and my anniversary was a traditional Christian. In his case it was Catholic, but it might have been any denomination. He followed the ritual and doctrine. But then he came up against a brick wall. And it was 1942. And he found that he could find nothing in the teachings of Christ that would give justification for killing another human being. He announced that he was a conscientious objector – in the midst of WW2, after all! Gordon Zahn was one of my personal models when I was in my 20’s during the VIetnam War.

Zahn wrote and taught tirelessly about the cause of peace and helped found Pax Christi USA (Peace of Christ). He died 2 days after Franz Jäggerstätter was beatified. Franz had died for refusing to be drafted by the the Nazi’s.

I’m really glad we’re in the same family, man

“All I see is Christ”

Dorothy Day died on Nov. 29th, 1980. She became one of my saints when I had to teach about her life and witness during my graduate studies at Notre Dame. For all her activism, support for the downcast and homeless and hopeless, for all her interest in social justice of all kinds, the one thing that cemented her as part of the family I wanted to be a part of was a video clip that we would show the students at ND.

In the clip, one of Dorothy’s friends was interviewed at the New York Catholic Worker House. She related an episode where a man had come to the back door (the camera panned to that door) and asked for a place to spend the night. He asked if there was an extra bed. Dorothy said, “Yes.”

At that her friend pulled her aside and said, “We don’t have any extra beds.” To which Dorothy replied, “Yes, we do. I will give him my bed.” At that her friend was exasperated and said, “But Dorothy, didn’t you see that he has open sores all over his body?” Without hesitation Dorothy responded, “No. All I saw was Jesus.”

I love the fact that I can count Dorothy a part of my family. I’m glad we’re related, man

The church and the poor

10/27 Fr. Henri Perrin (Worker priests)

I first learned about Henri Perrin and his fellow worker priests in the 1970’s. They and some other priests had volunteered during WW2 to work in labor camps to which many of the French had been conscripted in order to work for the Nazi war effort. Their experience led them to later give up traditional parish work and to take jobs with other factory workers, seeking to break down barriers between rich and poor. Eventually the organized church banned this experiment.

But their vision lived on and it became my own initial vision for my ministry. I told my bishop back in the 1970’s that the way I imagined my work was to be with the outcast, the disenfranchised, and the weakest in our communities. By that I had in mind, working with the dying and with small congregations that couldn’t afford “normal” clergy. In order to make that possible, I thought, I will have a 2nd paying job which will pay for my real ministry.

I have at least in part lived out that vision and I owe so much of it to Fr. Henri Perrin. I’m glad we’re part of the same family, man.

Prayer

I’m glad we’re in the same family, man.

Almighty God, you have knit together your elect in one
communion and fellowship in the mystical body of your Son
Christ our Lord: Give us grace so to follow your blessed saints
in all virtuous and godly living, that we may come to those
ineffable joys that you have prepared for those who truly love
you; through Jesus Christ our Lord,

oct-29-reformation-st-peters.md

Homily: Oct 29, 2017. St. Peter’s.

Anniversaries

We have several anniversaries presented to us this morning. They represent the general theme of remembering.

Reformation Sunday

passing on the “tradition” of Reformation Sunday

• Grace alone
• Scripture alone
• Faith alone

These are Reformation truths, dogmas, that been at the core of its teaching down through the centuries. But the truth is, we are not alone.

For many who have recently written about this anniversary there is considerable introspection and wondering about which part of the Reformation we ought to celebrate. On the one hand there is the reforming part that sought to rid the church of dysfunction, abuse, corruption, incompetence, etc. On the other hand the Reformation set in motion things like an excessive and exuberant celebration of the individual over the community, the splintering of Christianity that at one time in the 1980’s was creating 3-5 new denominations in the US per week!, a distrust of institutions that threatens the civic conversation that keeps our nation functioning. Luther himself was a passionate man who gave his posterity both great music, the German language, and a heritage of vicious anti-semitism.

One of my personal heroes and mentors, Stanley Hauerwas, has said, “I don’t like Reformation Sunday” firsthings

In the words of another writer:

If we mark Reformation Sunday in the humble confession and joyful conviction that God, with amazing grace, is not done reforming the church and the world, then another robust chorus of “A Mighty Fortress” may yet be justified. ministrymatters

For myself this morning, I think that anywhere we look in history there are warts, miscues, innocent victims … as well as transcendent service to humanity, victory over callousness, and seeds of resurrection.planted daily.

If we were celebrating me, I wouldn’t want us to too closely without using eyes and hearts of wonder, compassion, and forgiveness.

For the sake of our dear friends, Gordon and Leslie, and with such a spirit, I would like us to celebrate Reformation Sunday.

But there’s more that is presented to us in the readings from the Bible.

Exodus

The Exodus reading is presented in the text as the The First Passover Instituted.. For myself, at least, it is strange to read it

In the text at this point we are reading about the plagues that God is imposing on the Egyptians -ostensibly to try to convince Pharaoh to let the Israelites go. Then in our chapter (12) God instructs the Israelites on how they are to celebrate Passover in memory of this event -onward into their posterity.

Then God does indeed smite all the first born of Egypt, spare the first born of Israelites, empower Moses to lead them out of Egypt, give them the Torah on Mt. Sinai, lead them to victories to the very shore of the Jordan River, … fast forward through catastrophes and misguided efforts and saintly acts, the Jews are still celebrating Passover 3,500 years later.

It’s as if in the New Testament we were to read about Jesus taking his disciples through the adventures of his last week in Jerusalem, leads them up the Upper Room, --and then in an interludes talks about how the church of the future is to celebrate the Eucharist -whether to use wine or grape juice, who is allowed to receive or not receive, who is allowed to preside or not preside, etc.

Only then would the passage go on to describe Jesus celebrating the Last Supper with his disciples.

2 or 3 Gathered Together

In a strange sort of way we have just such a passage from the gospel of Matthew.

Matthew the only gospel to talk about “Church”

but this is ecclesia – assembly – not a building or institution – essentially the same meaning as the word “synagogue”

so today’s reading: “Whenever you gather together, you act in my name, …” These things will follow. You will be empowered to bind and to loose, to gather up and to scatter, all in my name.

Through the centuries these words have been used to explain or justify a variety of different actions of the church.

We have these anniversaries of sorts. An event occurs and sets in motion events and decisions, scenarios and theatrics, that we could scarcely have predicted.

Today we Remember.

I remember the first time I heard someone talk about “remembering” as something that was more than recalling what the right answer was for my history quiz or what I was supposed to do playing 2nd base when I got a hit with a runner on 3rd base.

I was early adolescent, but I was eager to learn about religion and Christian faith. I was in confirmation class, on my way to becoming an Episcopalian. It seemed fantastic -even magical -what was described to us by the priest. He said that in the words and action of the Eucharist we re-member the words that Jesus used at the Last Supper. And in the act re-membering them, we were making present the very event that we recalled. Our memory had the power to bring to the present what seemed to be ancient.

re-membering -later I would learn about a greek term that made it seem somehow more accessible, more acceptable. anamnesis

Anamnesis (from the Attic Greek word ἀνάμνησις meaning “reminiscence” or “memorial sacrifice”), in Christianity, is a liturgical statement in which the Church refers to the memorial character of the Eucharist or to the Passion, Resurrection and Ascension of Christ.

In a wider sense, Anamnesis is a key concept in the liturgical theology: in worship the faithful recall God’s saving deeds.This memorial aspect is not simply a passive process but one by which the Christian can actually enter into the Paschal mystery.

the Platonist meaning

the remembering of things from a supposed previous existence (often used with reference to Platonic philosophy). In Greek thought, particularly Plato’s thought, to gain knowledge was to shed the veil of forgetfulness within us. It was to undo the forgetting that was between us and knowledge.

It is a strange concept at first, but if any of you have ever had an Ah, Hah Moment I think you might agree that it feels like “unforgetting” – as if we had known it all along.

comparing Wiesel & Augustine: link

Augustine, later in the Christian tradition, presuming the Platonist view of memory as holding knowledge -expands to seek God within himself, in his memory, etc. So Augustine conceived his own search for God as a search within himself. He sought to know who he was in the knowledge that he had been made in the image of God. To know oneself, then, in the deepest sense, was to know God.

Memory was where we would find God as we looked within. To lose our memory is to lose ourselves. To lose ourselves, there is no us to know God.

Legacy

The memory of these events we mark today have been passed down to us through the generations. They have been re-membered, re-embodied, re-discovered, generation after generation up to the present day.

Exodus was passed on from catastrophe upon catastrophe for the Jews. Egypt was not the last power to conquer them. They would be defeated and persecuted generation after generation. But actually to re-member the Exodus and to make it present in the current day was the point of it all.

day shall be a day of remembrance for you. You shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord; throughout your generations you shall observe it as a perpetual ordinance.

Eucharist

Like Passover – and we say weekly, “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.” – the Eucharist has come down to us from generation to generation. It frees us from the tyranny of thinking that we are alone in the Universe, that we can feed ourselves without being fed and sharing in turn, that life is only about the bread we make. The Eucharist, remembered over and over again, like Passover and the Reformation, brings God into our midst through the very act of remembering.

Dom Dix in The Shape of the Liturgy the quote

Was ever another command so obeyed? For century after century, spreading slowly to every continent and country and among every race on earth, this action has been done, in every conceivable human circumstance, for every conceivable human need from infancy and before it to extreme old age and after it, from the pinnacle of earthly greatness to the refuge of fugitives in the caves and dens of the earth. Men have found no better thing than this to do for kings at their crowning and for criminals going to the scaffold; for armies in triumph or for a bride and bridegroom in a little country church; for the proclamation of a dogma or for a good crop of wheat; for the wisdom of the Parliament of a mighty nation or for a sick old woman afraid to die; for a schoolboy sitting an examination or for Columbus setting out to discover America; for the famine of whole provinces or for the soul of a dead lover; in thankfulness because my father did not die of pneumonia; for a village headman much tempted to return to fetich because the yams had failed; because the Turk was at the gates of Vienna; for the repentance of Margaret; for the settlement of a strike; for a son for a barren woman; for Captain so-and-so wounded and prisoner of war; while the lions roared in the nearby amphitheatre; on the beach at Dunkirk; while the hiss of scythes in the thick June grass came faintly through the windows of the church; tremulously, by an old monk on the fiftieth anniversary of his vows; furtively, by an exiled bishop who had hewn timber all day in a prison camp near Murmansk; gorgeously, for the canonisation of S. Joan of Arc—one could fill many pages with the reasons why men have done this, and not tell a hundredth part of them. And best of all, week by week and month by month, on a hundred thousand successive Sundays, faithfully, unfailingly, across all the parishes of Christendom, the pastors have done this just to make the plebs sancta Dei—the holy common people of God.

The common pattern we have heard today is the act of passing on what we have received (from God) -passing it on to future generations, to keep it alive, to keep it eternally present, to change the course of history.

We remember your death, O Lord
We proclaim your resurrection,
We await your coming in glory;