Ye Watchers and Ye Holy Ones

By The Rev. Bernard W. Poppe, Rector

We began our service singing “Ye Watchers and Ye Holy Ones”. It’s one of the great hymns of the church singing in glad alleluias of the Joy shouted in heaven in praise of God’s goodness and grace. Let all that have voice shout alleluia, let those whose hearts are full live alleluia.

This season of Epiphany is a recalling of the manifestations of God’s love active in the world and the Gospels stories over these past weeks describe how Jesus made manifest the love of God and put flesh to the words of praise sung for countless generations.

Ye watchers and ye holy ones. People of St. George’s, visitors and all gathered here - you are the watchers and the holy ones singing the praises of God today. You are raising the glad alleluias. You are continuing the songs of the angels, the bright seraphim, the prophets, the martyrs, the holy twelve and all people of good will around the world. Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.

This last Sunday of Epiphany is sometimes called “Alleluia Sunday” because it’s our last chance to say them liturgically before it is silenced by the solemnity of Lent. The children will symbolize this by putting away the “A-bugs” that on Easter will become Alleluia butterflies. These are the church seasons that mark the year liturgically, and make flesh our understanding of the grace of God in chronological and thematic ways.

And just as we mark the changes in the liturgical year, our cultural calendar changes seasons as well. We’ve observed Black History Month in February and next week, the first week of March will usher in an observance of Women’s History Month.

God is manifest in the lives of people and in the trends of history. The writers of scriptures understood God’s character by analyzing history and interpreting the movement of societies as God's guidance. When Martin Luther King said that the arc of history bends toward justice, he captured the ancient understanding of God’s manifestation through time.

So we observe segments of society and listen to their stories, hear their music and prayers. Hear how God has spoken to them and lifted them up on their own journey towards justice and fulfillment. Liberation for one group of people is a liberation of all others as well. When the slaves sang spirituals they gave voice and alleluias to God in a code of hope that still stirs people who feel enslaved by societies prejudice and injustice. Even captors and bigots are slaves to their anger, fear and hate and without knowing it, the freedoms grasped by those who are captives set even their captors free.

Over the past few weeks we’ve heard stories focusing on the complex history of African Americans from first hand and historical points of view. Tragic stories, hopeful stories, inspiriting stories from the points of views of black and white people. As brothers and sisters our histories are not lived apart except in artificial ways. The history of one people is a history of all people whether they are aware of it or not. We are all participants in this world, we have a share in how it unfolds and a responsibility to see that it unfolds in a way that is peaceful and just.

It’s good for us to include observances of the stories of people working toward justice, whether that justice is for people of color, for women or gay and lesbian. Everyone’s story is our story and God is manifested in them.

I want to say a word about the clothes I’m wearing. On the occasion of my 50th birthday a year and a half ago - you can do the math - Moses Chimezie and his family presented me with this traditional Nigerian men‘s clothing. Mr. Chimezie’s career in Nigeria was in the fabric and garment industry and his love of the fabric and eye for detail and quality is a joy to experience.

I wear this now in pride aware that it combines several themes for us today. As Black history month concludes we recall the Africans torn from their homeland and viscously enslaved. We recall the work for freedom, the industry and pride in a heritage that is beautiful and strong. We recall the blending of cultures and the gifts each now can offer to the other.

Another theme these clothes represent is a trip I am about to take to the great continent of Africa. For weeks we’ve been talking about and planning the next three months of my sabbatical. My travels will take me to Africa for a month, England for a month and Europe for a month. My travels will be chronicled via a blog I promise to maintain. The parish will welcome The Rev. Anne Bolles-Beaven as my substitute while I’m on this trip, and the wardens and Sabbatical Planning Committee have come up with activities, events and forums that reflect some of the themes of my trip. It will be a time of reflection and renewal for all of us. Sorry to say that I’m the only one who will get frequent flier miles out of it, though!

The scripture lessons this morning fit in quite well with these themes. They are about change and transfiguration. They are about continuity of leadership despite the people who are in those roles, because ultimately it is still God in control whose love is manifested in the good will of God’s followers.

I’m staying in monastic houses and with communities of people of faith in various cultural and social settings. I want to experience how different people understand God, pray to God, sing alleluia to God, live with God and reflect God in their music, words and lives. I want to see the colors and hear the rhythms of faith in this world. Even though my trip only scratches the surface of human experience, it’s far deeper than I’ve ever gone before. I’m excited and scared and determined.

When the apostles saw Jesus transfigured on the mountaintop, they too became transfigured. They walked back to the others as changed people. Our experiences and stories change us. The telling of those stories changes others. Over the next few months we’ll create some stories to share and we’ll be changed by the experience.

Although I’ll still be at St. George’s this coming Wednesday, Ash Wednesday, today is my last Sunday with you until I return on June 7. In one sense it seems long, but we all know too well that three months also passes in the blink of an eye. But I’m also missing you already. I love you all and I love my ministry in this wonderful church. It’s really painful to leave even for this short time, and yet my hope is to be a better priest for you when I return.

Spiritual healing is an important part of my ministry and I’ve been so happy that the prayers we offer during the service and the interest in healing has taken root here so well. Much of the preaching and many of the classes I’ll be teaching during my trip will center on this topic. My life in this ministry has been a seeking for healing myself. I’ve had a very happy life, but there have also been serious personal issues. Some of these struggles I’ve been able to share with you, and others may come in time. As an adult coming to terms with these issues I’ve found in God the source of healing and love. I’ve discovered that a ministry showing others what I have found and continue to seek is the most important thing I have and can offer.

We are all in need of some kind of healing. The stories are different, but the end result of need is the same. And the solution is the same also. God’s love. When we pray for each other after communion or on Wednesday evenings at the healing Eucharist, in the hospitals or homes, around this altar or anywhere, it’s how we manifest God’s love. It’s how we offer healing.

The opening of the hymn trumpets the watchers and holy ones of all ages in all sorts and conditions. Our common shout is Alleluia - a word of unsurpassed joy. That joy transfigures us. Good people of St. George’s, you are watchers and holy ones. Raise the glad strain, Alleluia, cry out dominions, princedoms powers, virtues, archangels, angles choirs, alleluia, alleluia. Let’s add another verse to this great hymn - O children in your schools, actors in technicolor dream coats, committee members, altar guilders, readers, and greeters. Computer geeks and business people. Raise the loud strain, Alleluia! Those afraid or hidden doubters, those with secret pains or unjust scars. Raise the loud strain, Alleluia. God’s love reflects your joy and heals your wounds. Share your stories and sing your songs. God is good, and we change and grow and make our histories arcing toward justice, transfigured in God’s grace and always within God’s sight and love. Alleluia, Amen.

© 2009 St. George's Episcopal Church, Maplewood, NJ

"Every Day"

By The Rev. Bernard W. Poppe, Rector

In the psalm we heard, "Hallelujah! I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart, in the assembly of the upright, in the congregation." What a fitting verse to use on the occasion of our annual meeting - to give thanks to God in this assembly. The best of what we do here is in relationship to God. Today we will hold our annual meeting, we will usher in Black History month with a series of events and speakers and I will offer some reflections on the annual Diocesan Convention held yesterday. What a tall order!

But then again, maybe not so tall, because it’s all ways in which we give thanks to God as an assembly of upright and a congregation. The common denominator of all that we do is the worship of God and the mission God calls us into.

Yesterday at the Parsippany Hilton delegates from over one hundred Episcopal churches gathered as we do every year to elect people to offices, review the budget, debate resolutions which reflect the mind of the Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Newark which comprises the upper third of this state. It is a diverse mix of over 500 people from a fascinating cross section of this complex state we live in. The content of the resolutions varied from speaking out against torture in all places under all circumstances to support of marriage equality for gay and lesbian people in this state. There was conversation of what is fair and equitable compensation for clergy and lay church workers. There were presentations called Mission Minutes which began last year and highlight in large screen projection format the ministries of churches and agencies around the Diocese. Bishop Beckwith reiterated his image of gates of spirituality that we pass through in our work - namely Worship, Radical Welcome, Peace and Justice and Christian Formation. It is through these gates that the work and witness of the Diocese is refracted into a splendid and hopeful rainbow of ministry giving thanks to God with our whole heart. I was particularly proud of our parishioners Michael Francaviglia and Diane Sammons who serve on the Bishop’s staff and whose work is vital and recognized throughout the Diocese.

After the service this morning we as a parish will conduct our Annual Meeting which serves the same purpose as the Diocesan Convention, but on the local level. We have practical business as a church in the midst of the worship and ministry that goes on here. My report on the highlights of the year and some of the challenges we face will be distributed as part of the Annual Meeting Packet. We have much to thank God for and how wonderful it is to do so "...in the assembly of the upright, in the congregation."

Part of our ministry is recognizing and celebrating the diversity which is in the fabric of our church and which gives us interesting dimension and spiritual texture. February marks Black History Month nationwide and it’s a gift to all of us to celebrate with so many the unique witness and contribution African Americans bring to the national community. It’s often said that which does not destroy you, makes you stronger. The devastatingly cruel and sadistic spiritual violence done to Africans brought against their will to this country in chains and who endured centuries of slavery and prejudice cannot be minimized or overlooked in any discussion of Black History. It is indelible and reverberates in every aspect of race relations. The response it brings out of us, both black and white, is the challenge we face and live with, even as we struggle to recognize the depth of it’s influence.

With the inauguration of President Barack Obama it is abundantly clear that we are living Black History. The worldwide response is unmistakable. The sense of community and hope in the majority of the world right now is an electric charge that has the potential of doing such good in a world so sorely challenged and fragile at this moment. We teeter, however, on an almost messianic expectation that is unfair to Mr. Obama, but the breath of fresh air at this moment is too exciting not to enjoy. No doubt, the everyday grind of political machinery will resume, but the symbolism of this historical breakthrough will last. The presidency of the United States is a pinnacle of power and prestige recognized throughout the world and having an African American in the Oval Office speaks of a hope justified in the fairness of our system. It certainly hasn’t been all sweetness and light, there have been many vitriolic and racist reactions to the election as well. But that is also part of our process. Who ever wins, bears the scorn of those who did not support the candidacy.

But the effects of slavery and prejudice are not erased overnight or with a successful presidential election. The wide range of discrimination based on skin color is very much alive. But that which does not destroy makes stronger. Black History is not only about slavery and discrimination. It is about faith, courage, creativity, persistence, witness and love in defiance of the very slavery and prejudice that sought to break the spirit. History books have been largely silent about the contribution of African Americans to exploration, medicine, law, church, invention, in fact every aspect of common life. That is changing slowly but it is changing only through the continued persistence of the Black Community and the widening support of an awakening white community.

As the white community awakens to the oft hidden and sad truths of the past, one of the reactions is guilt. A knee jerk reaction to profound guilt can be denial. And that’s where people of faith can offer a contribution. The truth is not to be feared, it is to be embraced as God is embraced. Jesus said "I’m am the way, the truth and the life." In another place, he said the truth shall set you free. Where prejudice exists, two people are spiritually injured, the one being discriminated against and the one discriminating. Both are captive to two different sides of anger and both need to be set free. The truth is how freedom starts. And the truth is told in story. It is up to all of us, black and white , to listen to each other’s stories without denial or fear, but openness and trusting God to be in the midst and bring healing to the wounds of history.

I have a personal story I’d like to share. Some years ago I was in a relationship for eleven years with an African American man. He was an avid jogger and marathon runner. One hot summer day he went for a long run and when he returned it was clear something was wrong. It got to the point where we called an ambulance and he went to the local hospital in Queens where we lived at the time. It turned out to be nothing serious and related to dehydration, but he stayed in the hospital for a while for some tests. Now, my partner was, at that time, a high profile official in New York City government. It did not go unnoticed the he had been admitted and the hospital administrator rushed to the room with a great entourage. Even though he did not know my partner, there’s a political protocol to these things. There were several beds in the hospital room, only two were occupied. The one by my partner and the other by a white man.

As the administrator and entourage hastily arrived at the door, there was that moment of indecision on the face of the administrator about whom to approach. On the one hand there was my African American partner sitting in the bed, arms folded, with that city official/ Yale persona he was good at presenting - and in the other bed was an older white man with blank eyes, scruffy beard and disheveled hair. Under his breath, my partner told me, "Watch this."

After the moment of hesitation the entourage went to the bed of the white man, who became alarmed by the energy of the group approaching him. Being a relatively small room we couldn’t help but overhear the conversation. Turns out the man was homeless and while he enjoyed some of the city’s services, he was not the one in the position of funding them.

The entourage turned in a sheepish fashion to meet the bemused gaze of my partner. They came over to the bed, dispensed with their official duties, ignored the elephant which had entered the room and left as quickly as they responsibly could. The bemused smile left my partner’s face and he simply said, "Every day."

Over the years of our relationship, I didn’t experience that every day. I often experienced getting the check when we went out to dinner, or being the only person addressed when meeting new people. I often did see the slights and hear the tones and words that could be taken differently. I heard his stories and frustration, and felt the helplessness of someone who cared but couldn’t change the world.

In the Gospel lesson Jesus threw out the unclean spirit and all were amazed. In the healing stories, Jesus often exorcized the demons by calling out their names. It seems to me, that the demons of the past continue to remain dangerous as long as they are unnamed. Telling stories and being open to the truth calls out the names and uncovers the demon hidden within. We are not the demons. Whether black or white, we are not the demon. The demons names are fear and anger. Those demons make us do awful things to other people and to ourselves. The love of God casts those demons out with truth so that the good inside each of us can flourish.

The work we do in this church and in this Diocese is to witness to the truth as well as we can and improve as much as we can. History does not happen separately, but together and together we can grow in faith and cast out the demons which hurt and threaten us. Together we can "...give thanks to the Lord with (our) whole heart, in the assembly of the upright, in the congregation." Amen.

© 2009 St. George's Episcopal Church, Maplewood, NJ