WORD & LIGHT

On December 28, 2014, I was blessed to preach my first sermon at St. Phillip's Episcopal Church in Circleville, Ohio.  The text was the gospel for the day, John 1:1-18.

Word and Light

As many of you know, The University of the South and Sewanee, Tennessee has become my temporary home.  A place atop the mountain, shrouded in mist and mystery, separated from the world, closer to God.  It is a place of beautiful peace, removed from the noise and bustle of the OTHER world.  Though the Domain of the University is a sacred space, it is not entirely immune to the darkness of our modern society.

At the start of this last term, my classmates and I journeyed on pilgrimage to Hayneville, Alabama, to honor the memory and sacrifice of Jonathan Myrick Daniels.  Jonathan was a seminarian at Episcopal Divinity School in the early 1960’s.  He answered the call of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to journey to Alabama and stand with the African American community in Montgomery and on the Selma March.  After the march, many of Jonathan’s friends and classmates returned home to Massachusetts, but Jonathan remained to continue his work for the Civil Rights movement.  During that summer of 1965, Jonathan befriended a young white catholic priest from Chicago, Fr. Richard Morrisroe, and someone you might have heard of, Miss Ruby Sales.   Jonathan and his companions were arrested for their attempts at peaceful civil disobedience.  They were jailed in the small town of Hayneville.  After a few days of incarceration they were released without any explanation.  Upon their release the group made their way to a local store to purchase some drinks.   When they arrived at the store, they were met on the steps by the shop owner, holding a shotgun, and refusing to serve them.  When young Ruby attempted to enter, the proprietor raised his weapon.  Jonathan pulled her to safety, but in the event, took the bullet himself.  More shots were fired and Fr. Richard sustained injuries.  He would survive, but Jonathan was pronounced dead at the scene.  Very soon thereafter, the shop keeper was put on trial for the murder of Jonathan Daniels.  After rushed proceedings, the jury found the shopkeeper not guilty.

We returned to our safe mountain, struggling to process what we had just experienced.  That week, a young man named Darren Wilson was fatally shot by a police officer in Ferguson Missouri.  I will spare you the details as I am sure you know, but I could not shake what I had just experienced in Hayneville, while reading reports of the events in Ferguson. 

Through the course of the semester, other such dramas continued to unfold.  Not just matters of race, but war in Israel, ISIS in Iraq, death and disease, sexual violence on college campuses across this country, Sewanee not excluded.  Violence and more school shootings, one just a few weeks ago.  Hatred seemed to be everywhere.  The darkness was deep, and it continued to encroach.  The words I heard were of pain and fear, anger and confusion.   

Then we entered the season of Advent.  As one professor put it, Advent comes, whether you are ready for her or not.  I love the season, I put up my decorations, lit the Advent candles each week, but I continued to struggle with the darkness.  I was seeing a season of hopeful anticipation shrouded in shadow.  The words I heard from the lectionary were of people walking in darkness, a thief in the night.  Yet as I said, these came with a glimmer of hope with words of comfort and a promise of light.  Then last week, the Annunciation and the Song of Mary.

To return to Jonathan Daniels for just a moment; it was the Magnificat which convicted Jonathan to answer the call and to put his vocation into action. To quote the song of Mary:

   He has shown the strength of his arm, 

   He has scattered the proud in their conceit.

   He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,

   And has lifted up the lowly and meek.

   He has filled the hungry with good things,

   And the rich he has sent away empty.

The words of Mary’s song continued to ring in my ears and enter my heart throughout the semester just as they had for Jonathan in his experience.

Two weeks ago I had the opportunity to attend the Festival Service of Nine Lessons and Carols in All Saints Chapel at Sewanee.  The service began in darkness, only the light of the flickering candles to remind us where we were.  The University choir was stationed at the west end of the nave so that in our position we could not see but only hear.  They sang the words of O Oriens, one of those ancient antiphons of the Advent season.  Translated, the text reads, “O Morning Star, splendor of light-eternal and sun of righteousness: Come and enlighten those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death.”  The readings and carols continued in subtle darkness, leading us to see with our hearts and not with our eyes.  The final lesson of the evening was the Gospel passage we heard this morning.  I was already thinking about this morning’s homily at the time and in doing so I prayerfully took note of two themes: word and light.

With these in mind, let us recall the text.

“In the beginning was the WORD, and the WORD was with God, and the WORD was God.”

Skipping ahead a few verses, “What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the LIGHT of 

all people.  The LIGHT shines in the darkness, and the darkness does not overcome it.  There was

a man sent from God, whose name was John.  He came as a witness to testify to the LIGHT, so 

that all might believe through him.  He himself was not the LIGHT, but he came to testify to the 

LIGHT.  The true LIGHT, which ENLIGHTENS everyone, was coming into the world.”

Then in verse 14 we come to Christmas. “And the WORD became flesh and dwelt among us, and we

 have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.”

I sat in my seat in the chapel and pondered this text.  It sounded so very familiar, not only because I had been reading it in preparation for today, but from somewhere else.  Oh yes, I remembered, in Genesis.  At the start of creation there was darkness, and chaos covered the abyss of the earth; encroaching, swirling chaos and darkness, full of fear and anger and hatred and confusion.  Then God spoke a WORD, “Let there be . . . LIGHT.”

From WORD and LIGHT was born creation; and now at Christmas we celebrate the new creation when WORD took on flesh to be the LIGHT of the world; an incarnation born to bring peace to the chaos and confusion.  We know this WORD and LIGHT as Jesus, God incarnate.  The translation we read for John says that he came and DWELT among us.  The Greek word is εσκηνωσεν, which literally translates to tabernacled among us.  As Father Dave offered last week, God now makes a home within each of us.

So as we enter the coming year how do we contend with the difficult WORDS of pain and hate and confusion in the world of DARKNESS?   We speak the WORDS of love and peace, compassion and hope, so that we might take the incarnate WORD, the enfleshed LIGHT into a world so desperate for it, just as Jonathan Daniels did in his own time.  In this we become what John the Baptist was, not the light ourselves, but witnesses to the light.

In the days following the grand jury decision in Ferguson, protests erupted in cities all over our country.  At one such protest in Portland, Oregon, a twelve year old African-American boy carried a sign.  This sign was not of anger or hate, this sign simply offered FREE HUGS.  In one scene captured by a local photographer, the young man is giving one of his free hugs to a police officer sent to control the crowd.  The photo has since been dubbed “The Hug felt round the World.”  This image offers us just one example of being a witness to the light in a world that can only see darkness.

 As the Collect for today says, “Almighty God, you have poured upon us the new light of your incarnate Word: Grant that this light, enkindled in our hearts, may shine forth in our lives; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.”

Make Me An Instrument of Your Peace

"Lord, make me an instrument of your peace."

            It is a blistery day here on the mountain at Sewanee.  The leaves are changing and the trees creak all around us.  My robe blows behind me on my way to the simple eucharist and I feel a little like Charlton Heston as Moses at the sea in Cecil B DeMille's The Ten Commandments.  As I sat in the Chapel of the Apostles I attempted to center myself but kept being distracted by the sound of the organ.  It is necessarily to make known at this point that no one was sitting at the organ console, nor was it turned on.  As the service progressed I noticed the large doors to the chapel kept swinging open.  The strong winds were whipping around the chapel and causing the doors to open and close periodically.  These small bursts of wind would enter the chapel and swirl to the rafters.  On their journey some would make its way into the organ pipes, causing the mechanism to sound.

            I sat contemplating this phenomenon and felt a strong comparison to my own life.  The spirit of God is often described as a breath, as in Genesis or as a mighty rushing wind as in the book of Acts.  I was drawn to put myself in the place of the organ.  As an amateur organist myself I love controlling those mechanism.  Opening and closing the stops to force certain sounds and timbres from the instrument. In this I am controlling the creation, the development of the melodies and harmonies of the music.  What would happen if I were to allow myself to be like the organ today?  Not in control but being completely reactionary to the wind that passes by and flows through.  What would happen if I were to let go and let God make his music in me?

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace;

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;

Where there is injury, pardon;

Where there is discord, harmony;

Where there is doubt, faith;

Where there is despair, hope;

Where there is darkness, light;

And where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,

Grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console,

To be understood as to understand,

To be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive,

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Amen

The Best Part of Baking is in the Waiting

On the First of January this past year I had much to reflect on; I also had much to prepare.  My family has learned over the course of the last decade that they eat well when I am home.  I decided this year to cook a portion of the feast for New Years day.  Through the generations, my family has followed the old tradition of eating pork and cabbage on New Years day in hope of a prosperous year.  Many times in the last three months I have questioned if we ate enough or if that luck had run out.  It has been a difficult time with many cares, concerns, and decisions, and a lot of waiting.  This evening I was looking back through some old Facebook posts, laughing at the memories evoked by the pictures and comments during the month of January.  The winter of 2014, saw some record low temperatures, which led to multiple days of waiting.  Waiting for the heater to kick on, waiting for the snow to stop, waiting for the city wide State of Emergency to be lifted, simply a lot of waiting.  I was drawn today to my first post of the new year.  It also had to do with waiting.

To go with the annual New Year's meal I was baking bread.  I mixed the ingredients together the day before and I woke extremely early on the first of the year to make good work and prepare for more waiting.  As I sat in anticipation of my next move I began to reflect on the process.  So even though it centers on New Years Day, I believe it is something we can appreciate and need reminding of the whole year through.  I hope that it will bless you as it has again blessed me today. Here is a link to the bread recipe. http:allrecipes.com/recipe/no-knead-artisan-style-bread/. If you bake it make sure you break it and share it.  God bless!


There is something incredibly moving about starting the New Year by waking up at 6 AM (not a school day) to make bread for my family. As I work the dough again I turn on morning prayer through http://www.pray-as-you-go.org/home/This mornings reflection uses the following reading and focuses on the opening line where Paul says "But when the fullness of time had come......." What an interesting phrase. It suggests that everything had to be in place in its proper time and order for God's purpose to be fully accomplished. The reader posed the question "Is there something in your life or coming to fruition that you must wait for the "fullness of time?" My spirit is anxious as I begin this year, for I see God working His purpose while patiently preparing the "fullness of time." This was brought home to me in the making of this bread.

The process began by combining all the ingredients yesterday before noon, and covering up the infant dough and waiting. Waiting for quite some time (18 hours). During prayer I turned out the dough and worked into a ball, at which time I covered it again and wait (another 2 hours). When that time is accomplished, I will place the dough into the pot, set it in a hot oven, and wait (another hour). At which point I will set the "completed" bread on a cooling rack and wait (another few hours till the New Years Meal). Then finally, "when the fullness of time has come," I will say the blessing and break the bread with my family.

This new year (and every day) I pray that I will have peace in the waiting. That in the "fullness of time," the bread of my spirit may be ready to be broken for what God has prepared.

The rest of the appointed verse brings about this reasoning; "[But when the fulness of time had come] God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children. And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying "Abba! Father!" So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir , through God." (Galatians 4:4-7) Pray with me, as I pray with you, that we all learn to rejoice in the waiting.

FRATRES

Ecce quam bonum et quam jucundum habitare fratres in unum.

Many of my friends will know this as the motto of the University of the South - Sewanee.  Others may know it as the first line of Psalm 133.  The Latin translates to "Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to live in unity."

In 2009, I was beginning my final year of my undergrad program at Lee University.  After years of contemplation I finally decided to rush Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia.  For most of my college career I told myself that there was no point in joining a fraternity, that it was just paying for friends.  Boy was I ever wrong.  My last full semester has become the best of my time in college.  I have truly gained BROTHERS; an actual extended family.  These men who would have been just friends have become so much more.  I love all of them, and I have found that this extends just like a real family.

In the four years since graduating from college I have spent most of that time away from my blood family. My family has done something that every family does in that time, it has grown.  New babies have been born almost every one of those years, and although I have not spent much time with them or really know them, I love them so much and would do anything to protect them.  They are still my family.  The same applies to my brothers.  Some men had come a gone from our chapter before I arrived and multiple men have come and gone since I left.  They are all my brothers and I love them as I love all those new members of my family.  I have also discovered that this extends beyond the Pi Xi Chapter.  After moving to Indiana I have met Brothers in the some of the most interesting of places. One while in passing at a performance the the Blue Devils DCI, while another Brother noticed me wearing my letters in the parking lot at the grocery store.  One I met through a Facebook group for young people who love Liturgy and another who has become a Benedictine Brother at a monastery. Wherever or whoever they may be now, I love them all the same, because we are all Brothers.

I have found the same to be true in the church.  I have spent my entire life in the church but this feeling was on a purely local level until my time in college.  During my Sophomore year of college I began attending the local Episcopal Church.  This was a huge step for me, having been raised in the Pentecostal tradition, worshiping through liturgy was like a whole other world.  As I grew in my faith and became more active in the local, national and global church I noticed a beautiful connection.  The first thing I noticed was the connectivity of the word.  The Episcopal Church, as most liturgical denominations, follow a cycle of readings.  Over the course of three years, if you attend church every Sunday, you will have heard most of the Bible.  Plus, that cycle is a connecting tie between all the other parishes around the world.  My college roommate was living and teaching in South Dakota, while I was in Knoxville, Tennessee doing the same.  We could talk to each other on Sunday afternoon and discuss the days scriptures and sermons.  We had heard the same scriptures read even though we were separated by over 1,000 miles.  Though each parish may do things slightly different their is a beautiful universality about the liturgy.  I can feel just as comfortable worshiping in the National Cathedral in Washington D.C. as I do participating in the Eucharist at Saint Phillip's in Circleville, Ohio. Whenever I drive into a town and see a sign reading "The Episcopal Church Welcomes You," or see the Episcopal shield or flag on a building or car, I feel an immediate connection.  It is the same connection I feel whenever I see the letters ΦΜΑ. For the first time in my life I have begun to feel this family connection with the entire Christian community and the world in general.  I have always been empathetic but in recent days this has taken on a whole new meaning.

During the summer of 2011, I spent two weeks with the Brothers of Saint Gregory's Abby in Three Rivers, Michigan. You can check them out at www.saintgregorysthreerivers.org. During that time I fell in love with the Daily Office.  After spending four weeks with them over two summers in their Summer Vocationers program, I have chosen to make the Daily Office part of my everyday life.  Even though I do it alone, I know that there are people joining me in prayer at all hours of the day all around the globe. There are multiple moments in the Office for Morning Prayer that recall the whole human family and connect us all to each other.

I find this in the Prayer of St. Chrysostom:

Almighty God, you have given us grace at this time with one accord to make our common supplication to you; and you have promised through your well-beloved Son that when two or three are gathered together in his Name you will be in the midst of them: Fulfill now, O Lord, our desires and petitions as may be best for us; granting us in this world knowledge of your truth, and in the age to come life everlasting. Amen

We are all in this together, we are family.  HABITARE FRATRES IN UNUM; That brothers live together in unity.  This is not necessarily HABITARE FRATRES IN PACEM, not in peace, but in unity.  We are one family, with family problems.  We do not all get along at all times but the world would truly be a better place if we remember that we are all family and think of each other in that way.  It is much more difficult to feel hate toward family.  Love is difficult but that is what makes it love.  That is how we live together in unity.

Most Holy Lord, Jesus Christ; bless us with the knowledge and forbearance to live as one as you and the Father are one.  To show forth such love that we see all of humanity with the eyes of love, the eyes through which you see us.  Grant us a sincere awareness to know the needs of our brothers, that we may offer a hand, or give a meal, or even something as simple as a thought and a prayer.  help us to remember that we are all brothers in Christ and therefore equal in the eyes of the our Father.  AMEN

aperitif

aperitif: (fr) noun- a small alcoholic drink taken to stimulate the appetite and awaken the pallet before a meal.

   I thought it appropriate to begin this new blog as you would a special meal, by wetting the appetite so that all the flavors may be savored.  

   Why Breaking Bread, as a child I enjoyed many wonderful meals at my grandparents.  The one thing that was always on the table was some kind of bread.  The most common forms from my grandmother were either cornbread, biscuits or what we called a "daddy pone."  A Daddy Pone is drop biscuit dough uncut in a skillet to make a giant biscuit.  My grandfather had one rule when it came to table bread in our family: NO KNIFE.  His argument was that so many important meals in the Bible involve the breaking of bread.  To this day I have trouble cutting table bread.  There is something to be said about sharing a meal with friends and family and especially with strangers.  After a shared meal strangers become friends.  There is also something to be said for homemade break.  Something happens to the food when it has been worked by hand.

   Though I am not certain where this blog will go, I do know that I would like it to be a place for me to share recipes for table and for life.  I hope things will develop as with the story in Luke 24.  The travelers on the road to Emmaus have invited the stranger to stay with them for the evening.

   30 When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. 32 They asked each other, "Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?"

   Earlier this year I had the opportunity to join our Deacon to make the altar bread for church.  I kneaded the dough, I worked it into small rounds, cutting crosses into each side.  At communion the bread is then broken by hand and shared by hand.  A prayer from the Roman Rite sums it up nicely.

"Blessed are you, Lord, God of all creation.  Through your goodness we have this bread to offer, which earth has given and human hands have made.  It will become for us the bread of life." 

In our lives, as in the Eucharist, God uses us and the work of our hands to feed a hungry world. 

   I pray that this blog will help all of us to open our pallets to the food of this earth and open our hearts to the food of the spirit.