Sunday, January 17, 2021

Something more

The departing homily of The Rev. Rowena MacGregor, Rector of St. James Episcopal Church, Mansfield, PA, September 4, 2005 - January 17, 2021.

Some years ago I spoke to a woman from the Philippines who told me she was always amazed to see the news stories about her country that focused on violent uprisings when her lifelong experience of the Philippines was radically different. She said that her friends in the US believed that the whole of the Philippines was rife with continuous violence all the time because of the news reports of sporadic uprisings, corrupt government and civil unrest. She reported a different viewpoint, that the violence was limited to localized areas and that in most areas of the Philippines people lived their lives and went about their business and peace prevailed in most places. Nonetheless, the people she spoke to in the US held to their strong opinion that the Philippines was a dangerous and unstable country.

It is easy to develop a very skewed view of reality when the only source of information about the state of the world is coming through news channels who trend to negative headlines. Social media amplifies the stories of the day with a barrage of open source op-eds, self-professed experts, and armchair pundits. Even short exposures to news and social media can leave us feeling dazed, disheartened and anxious about the future. We mustn't wait for the news to get better - not because good things aren't happening - but because the nature of news outlets is to report problems: disasters, political strife and corruption, war, famine and pestilence, murder and all manner of wrong-doing, pandemics and death. That is their job. But that is not all that is happening in the world. Whatever we are watching on our TV's or computers, iPads, or phones is only part of the story of what is going on in the world and it is far from the whole story. 

Be clear that I am in no way denying anything being reported in the news or minimizing it in any way. We have real and serious problems we must together work through in our nation, and in our local communities. But that isn't all there is, there is something more.... there is always something more.... The cameras of the world are not directed there, they are focused on something else, and likewise our attention is directed on something else. But God is calling us to look in the direction of the something more

The whole canon of Holy Scripture is the archived but ever-relevant news footage of the something more. The Torah with its tremendous stories of faithful guidance and faithfulness, the age-old history of human resistance to the divine and its occasional heroes in Kings and Chronicles, the prophets and sages who call to us still to turn around and return, the wisdom of the mystics, of Sophia, Solomon and Proverbs, the worship hymnody of the Psalter, the Gospels, beginning with Mark, whose words rose up out of the ruins of Jerusalem after four years of devastating war, followed by the accounts of Matthew, Luke and John, the book of Acts and the letters of Paul and his fledgling Christian communities as well as all the other accounts of Jesus, his life, his ministry to the people, his influence, his clear and resolute proclamation of the something more

The church throughout its long history, at its best, has been and remains the vessel for this something more. It is the voice that cries out in the wilderness - make the path straight, turn around, return to God - return to the kingdom which is your spiritual home your only true home. It too must be resolute in its proclamation that in the face of all evidence to the contrary there is something more, something that cannot be broken or even slightly influenced; its purity uncompromised by any human intent or design. It is the sole work of the church to proclaim the rest of the story, the never-ending story of the love of God and God's provisions of care for the people within the vast abundance of the created world. It is the church's work to promote a reasoned faith as well as blind faith; to point to the cloud of witnesses and to call upon the wisdom of the ancestors. It is the sole work of the church to provide comfort and succor to its communities, to be a balm of healing wherever it is planted. It is the sole work of the church to sing of God's love and at all times to be a model of unconditional love of neighbor; to offer the world a vision of another kingdom, the promise of the restoration of peace, the assurance of shalom... something more.

Today I complete my work with you in this place, in this community. But I am not leaving the work of the church and neither are you. The future of St. James is not dependent on who comes next to serve with you, but rather lies in the bigger questions you ask about your common life and purpose. The biggest, most important questions are not framed in terms of sustainability or even survival, but rather, How shall we be a witness to the love of God and neighbor in a nation divided? How shall we provide comfort and succor to those who suffer in this community? How shall we tell the stories of our tradition and offer a vision of something more to a world that cannot see anything else but the bad news of the day?

That is the work of the church and its only reason for being. So let us not, in this moment, wring our hands in worry and trepidation about anything. Let us turn our hearts and our minds over to the comfort of the Holy Spirit. Let us rest in shalom; not the far off promise of the ceasing of hostilities, but the peace that passes all understanding that is present with us here and now. Let us give thanks for our lives, for our families and our friends, for the strength and endurance of this nation, for this community and our neighbors, for the great cloud of witnesses - our ancestors. Let us tell our stories of liberation and grace and give thanks for our freedom. Let us share in the sacrament together, united as one body in Christ. 

And when we are filled with the food of the Spirit and refreshed by the Word, let us turn our attention to world, and bring to it something more.



Sunday, January 10, 2021

The Greater Holy Whole

There is no one living on planet earth at this moment in history who remains insulated, and therefore unaffected, from one or more of the crises presently occurring simultaneously. Every time I think we have reached the breaking point and nothing could surely worsen one or more of the crises deepen and widen, or simply erupt sideways. Still, I await the quieting of the storm and look for signs of a return to life before.

 

There are certain events that happen in our lives not just on a personal level but collectively that change the trajectory of the path we have been on. Today there is not just one such event but a watershed of seminal moments. 

 

Readers of Mark’s Gospel would certainly have pointed to the War of 66 to 70 as the event that altered their lives. For them, there was life before the war, life during the war, and life after the war. Mark simply cannot be read without understanding the influence of the war on the entire region, in the same way that one cannot read Isaiah without understanding that it covers the before, during and after of the Babylonian captivity. Mark’s Gospel proclaimed a new age of spiritual awakening from the ground zero of a desolate Jerusalem. 


One good resource for exploring the connection between Mark and the War of 66 is Stephen Simon Kimondo’s recently released book: The Gospel of Mark and the Roman-Jewish War of 66–70 CE. One reviewer of the text writes:


Kimondo’s thesis is that Mark’s hearers, living in rural Galilee, southern Syria, or both, received the Gospel shortly after the end of the Roman-Jewish War not only as a proclamation of Jesus but also as a commentary on the war…. Mark’s gospel contrasts the onset of God’s empire and the Roman Empire under Vespasian. According to Mark 1:1-14, instead of employing military forces, the onset of God’s empire is nonviolent, and is based on the proclamation, teachings, and redemptive deeds of Jesus.” 

 

At the very outset of Mark's gospel appears John the Baptizer who called the people to confess their abandonment of divine governance in lieu of the seduction of a worldly empire and return to God. John prophesied the coming of the Christ, who would usher in a new reign, a new kingdom far more powerful than the Roman Empire. The Kingdom of God is marked by peace and the insistence of love of God and love of neighbor in sharp contrast to unimaginable violence and persecution of the day: the thousands of crucifixions that daily filled the streets year upon year; the temple destroyed, Jerusalem left in burning ruins, the people displaced, far-flung and in desperate search for a place to live without persecution. This is what the hearers of the Mark’s Gospel had survived; this was their reality. The dove that descends on Jesus at the time of his baptism announces a reign of peace; an end to war and strife; open access to the Kingdom of God. Mark being the first gospel, is the bridge between life before and new life. 


We too live in a time marked by events previously unimagined. Standing on the back side of the events of last Tuesday in our nation there exists a clear line between life before the breach of the capital and life after the breach. There is a shift occurring, a great chasm opening and engulfing the nation that now goes far beyond the body politic and we do not know where this fault line will settle as events continue to unfold. 


The same is true of the pandemic. It is still very much in play and we do not know where things will stand, in terms of our health and well-being, or in terms of the world-wide economy. We only know that life was different before Covid than it is today. A shift has occurred but it may be some time before we can define it.


Today I speak to you on the other side on an unimaginable event in my life - a fire that destroyed a home and all the worldly possessions within it. The clarifying moment, the understanding that life before was coming to end came while I was calling 911 in a kitchen filled with smoke and flames no longer confined to the fireplace visible across the room. It came with the realization that something far out of my control was occurring and that it was bringing with it significant change. One week having passed, I see the fire with my in the here and now eyes as a single seminal event within a sea of cataclysmic events occurring all over the world - and not in any way an isolated event. In this way, I too am woven into the fabric of all that is now burning away to make straight a path for the coming of a new age - an age marked not with the acquisition of worldly goods and the welding of power over others through the possession of wealth or political capital but rather the putting away of those things; an age of higher consciousness, the realization of higher ideals; the coming of the Kingdom. 


To that end, there is nothing that is happening in our lives, personally or collectively that should be considered apart from the spiritual realm. Let me repeat this: There is nothing that is happening in our lives, personally or collectively that should be considered apart from the spiritual realm. The call of Mark is to rightly interpret significant personal and collective experiences as part of the greater holy whole and to find one’s place within that continuum. There is something more to be realized when the crack in the thin veneer of our lives reveals the light breaking in. Where a shift occurs there develops an opening through which the Kingdom may be perceived - a Kingdom not outside of ourselves but within us, so vast and so encompassing we did not know that we had arrived at the place we had always been, never beginning, never ending, but eternally a part of the greater holy whole.