Mother's Day

By The Rev. Bernard W. Poppe, Rector

In the collect this morning we prayed, "O God, you have prepared for those who love you such good things as surpass our understanding..." Much of our lives and the spiritual journeys we take open us up deeper and deeper into the mysteries of those very things which God promises to us which are beyond our understanding. When we pray, we allow our spirits the freedom to expand our understanding. When we meditate, it's the same thing. When we study scripture or any material that calls our spirit out, we are expanding our understanding of God. And as much as it expands, and as far as our imaginings and understanding take us, so much deeper and deeper is God, and even further than that, so much deeper and deeper is God's love for us. How far will you go for understanding? How much time will you devote, or lengths will you go to expand your understanding of God's love?

Such a quest brought Paul to many places, meeting many people and establishing churches. He risked much and suffered much, but kept going because the call was so intense and the relationship to God so endearing. In our first lesson we read how that call drew him to Macedonia, current day Greece. In this lesson he met Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth. It's an interesting detail that the writer of Acts gives us about her, clearly it's an indication that she was wealthy and influential. Purple cloth was rare and expensive since the dyes were extremely difficult to make. To be a dealer in this cloth was lucrative. Even further than that, to be a woman in this business in that time was very rare indeed. Paul, drawn to Greece in a dream, was drawn by the river to a place of prayer was to be expected and met this woman. After their conversation, she and her household were baptized. That must have been quite a conversation! And as amazing as the story is, what is more amazing to me is Paul's openness to going in the first place. It's beyond understanding.

In the book of Revelation, St. John the Divine gives a picture of heaven that evokes images we see in the book of Isaiah. The throne of God with rivers of crystal flowing from it, trees symbolic in number and bearing fruit with mystical purposes of healing the nations. It's a picture of heaven that has no sun, since the glory of God is the only light that's needed and is by far and a way brighter than any in the sky. There is so much in the book of Revelation that is beyond understanding, but is speaks in the language of mystery and symbol. It draws us deeper into that mystery, teasing our imaginations to picture this wonder.

The Gospel lesson is also beyond understanding. How a paralyzed man can be healed with a word. Jesus saw him and told him to take up his mat and walk. For so many years the man sat so close to this miraculous pool, known for it's healing properties, and he was unable to get to it in time. Trying desperately to find elusive healing and Jesus comes to him and accomplishes it with a word. It's beyond understanding.

In each of these stories, Paul, Lydia, John, and the man by the pool called Bethzatha, wanted to know more. They pursued the information and experiences of God. Yet it was with the help of God and another person that they went beyond their previous understanding and deeper into God's mystery and love.

I believe that we all share a hunger deep in our spirits. This hunger is for God, we're fascinated by God and drawn to a deep spiritual quality of living. We all have a certain level of understanding, most of which were formed in Sunday school when we were children, and then in various other pursuits along the way. But there's always more to read or hear or experience. Sometime that can be frustrating. They say that being and expert is knowing more and more about less and less, or that the more we know about something, the more we're aware of what we don't know. When the subject of our inquiry is God, that can indeed be frustrating. Sometimes we might feel like the man by the pool, paralyzed but so close to this healing that we can't stay away and yet somehow can't seem to get closer.

If getting to know God beyond our understanding is our goal, the first thing to grasp is that we cannot do it alone. We get to know God with God's help and with the help of each other. Like Paul and Lydia sitting by the river, it's often done in conversation. Sharing experiences, thoughts, prayers, this is how we get to know God.

I remember a long time ago wanting to know about prayer once. I wanted to get it right so I read about it, went to workshops and listen to speakers supposing that someone else could give me the definitive words or understanding. To some degree, someone did. Jesus taught his disciples in the words of the Lord's Prayer. And, in fact it can be that simple. But finally the realization dawned on me that, in learning about prayer, the best way is to pray. No amount of books or lectures can substitute for the prayer itself. There are no magic words, just sincerity and desire to be with God in silence. Often words just get in the way anyway. St. Francis once said "Pray constantly and only if you must, use words." Sometimes the desire to want to do something perfectly creates a form of paralysis all its own. Wanting to be perfect at the start prevents us from trying at all.

I heard a lecture recently about the New Testament, specifically about the sources available for study. The lecturer outlined the possibilities and they are surprisingly few. We have the collected book in our Bible, we have a couple brief references to Jesus in histories written by Jewish historians within the first century and no references in secular history. The lecturer went on to say that the beginning student imagines libraries full of available texts and references and is shocked to discover so few. His point was that all the intervening books are drawn from the same sources available to all of us. The greatest scholars in the world have at their disposal the same books and references we do. What they bring to it is their time and inquiry.

As we sit here this morning, we see evidence of renewal. Construction is happening in here and downstairs and in various other places. It's exciting to see the changes occurring and at this point imagine what the finished product will look like. We're very much like this building, in our prayer and understanding of God we're also under construction. But it's happening and nothing can really stop us, not even the paralysis we may sometimes feel. Since with even a word Jesus can come to us and tell us to get up and walk. The man near the pool called Bethzatha had the luxury of the physical Jesus calling to him. The rest of us have the silent tug at our hearts and spirits calling us onward and deeper through a hunger of the soul.

When going on a trip overseas, we can read all the travel books we want but in the end there's no substitute for the trip itself. In the lives of our faith and journey to God, the same holds true. There is no substitute for our own prayer and conversation with each other to go beyond our understanding into God's love. Amen.

© 2007 St. George's Episcopal Church, Maplewood, NJ

Mother's Day Proclamation

Arise, then, women of this day! Arise, all women who have hearts, whether our baptism be of water or of tears!

Say firmly: "We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies. Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience. We, the women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."

From the bosom of the devastated Earth a voice goes up with our own. It says: "Disarm! Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice. "Blood does not wipe out dishonor, nor violence indicate possession. As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil at the summons of war, let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel.

Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead. Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means whereby the great human family can live in peace, each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar, but of God.

In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask that a general congress of women without limit of nationality may be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient and at the earliest period consistent with its objects, to promote the alliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement of international questions, the great and general interests of peace.

- Julia Ward Howe

Wondrous Love

By The Rev. Bernard W. Poppe, Rector

"What wondrous love is this, O my soul, O my soul? What wondrous love is this, O my soul? What wondrous love is this that caused the Lord of bliss, to lay aside his crown for my soul, for my soul, to lay aside his crown for my soul?"

This hymn is one of haunting beauty and draws us into the mystery of God. It is a wondrous love that calls us and embraces us. A wondrous love that inspires us and strengthens us to discern and then follow God's call.

During the season of Easter our first lesson is generally taken from the Book of the Acts of the Apostles. This book tells of the early struggles and discoveries of the fledgling Christian church. The writer never identifies himself by name, but clearly continues the narrative of the Gospel we ascribe to Luke. It's clear that he worked with both Peter and Paul and his chronicle is concerned, not so much with them as with the gospel being proclaimed. In fact the culmination of the book is the preaching of the Gospel in Rome by Paul. The triumph does not belong to the apostles, but God in this work. Peter and Paul are not the stars of this story, but supporting cast. It is always God at the center.

Our first lesson is taken from the Book of Acts and begins to describe the first crisis the church faced. It was to become the definitive problem over the centuries and continues today. It manifests itself differently, but at root is the same issue, namely -- who is in and who is out.

In this lesson, Peter was brought before the other apostles to explain his actions. Ever the impetuous one, Peter acted without consulting the others and what he did, crossed the line in their eyes. He did the unthinkable. He baptized Gentiles. I'll give you a moment to recover.

It seems laughable to us today, but at that time, the apostles understood Jesus to have been the Messiah to the Jews. If you were outside the Jewish community the Messiah had no relevance, since the purpose of the Messiah was to restore the nation of Israel. If a Gentile wanted to convert to Judaism, that would be a different story, but even then the process of conversion was long and required deep commitment to learn the laws, the traditions, and the scriptures.

In baptizing the Gentiles without any of this preparation, Peter undermined the purity of the faith and the Apostles needed to hear his explanation. In response Peter told them about his dream in which God told him to call nothing unclean. The unfolding of the dream and subsequent events led Peter to believe that this new community of faith called into being by Jesus was going to transcend everything they knew, and that included their old traditions and understanding. It was, to use a contemporary phrase, a "radical welcome" into a community that had once excluded others.

The other apostles initially warmed to this idea until it became apparent that the older traditions really were being put aside in favor of creating something totally new and unfamiliar. This argument was to be held again and again. Peter himself waffled on the issue after further debate. Paul comes onto the scene later as the staunchest advocate of the new church which redefined the old ways. Paul himself had been a zealous Pharisee and the most unlikely advocate of change, and yet God called him into this new life and understanding.

But as in all things, time passes. Peter and Paul, all their work and adventures, even their lives had long ended by the time the writer of Revelation took up his pen. From his prison on the island of Patmos, John saw the growth of the Christian church, its struggles from within and its persecution from outside. Imprisoned because of his faith he wrote, "I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more... the one who was seated on the throne said, 'See, I am making all things new.'..."

One of the reasons these lessons are important because they keep reminding us that the community of faith looks to God for the directions we need to go. Our church and society are full of changes inside out and people often look to the church as a symbol of changelessness in an ever changing world. But that is not reality. The Christian church changes significantly in ways that can be debated to be healthy or not. But at the core of any faith is the conviction that God is present in that change, inspiring, calling, leading and guiding.

Today we don't get bothered at all by baptizing Gentiles. But we have many other issues. There are issues from the shape, look and sound of worship to the most ancient of issues, who's in and who's out? Who can be part of the faith and who can't. We struggle over polity and authority. We fall into the trap of competition for followers. I sometimes wonder if we are spending too much time promoting a particular church -- and not enough time promoting God.

In the Gospel lesson from this morning, we see Jesus at the last supper giving his commandment to love one another. At this point, the reader knows something the disciples don't, namely that Jesus is about to be taken away and the events of Holy Week will unfold. Their lives will shortly change dramatically and totally. But even in the changes that were about to occur, his commandment was what would equip them for the changes about to happen. "Love one another as I have loved you." At that point, the disciples had no idea how wondrous that love was. But they would discover it shortly and the depth of that love would propel them into the world changed and prepared for the struggles and challenges ahead.

Once in a while when I'm feeling nostalgic I'll look at old pictures and year books. Sometimes I'm struck by some of the notes written in by friends from long ago. One well wisher wrote, "don't ever change." While meant with the best intentions, I'm sure, what a terrible thing that would have been! The intervening years have brought much change, some hard but most have been exciting and wonderful. I wouldn't have wanted to miss any of it. I suppose the core of her comment had to do with the quality of friendship we had and the love present in that friendship.

In a world of change, we must change also. Our anchor in the storm is not so much our beloved traditions, as much as our faith that God is still our companion along the way. It's the love, that wondrous love, which stabilizes us -- the love God has for us and the love we have for one another as God has loved us. Too often we react to change with fear and grief of loss. God's call to the early disciples and to us later disciples is to walk boldly into the new heaven and earth created anew and unfolding every day with the joy of possibility and the gratitude of discovery.

Amen.

© 2007 St. George's Episcopal Church, Maplewood, NJ