[Propertalk] Proper 5 c rcl

[Robert P Morrison]

Here's what I'm working with for this Sunday. Of course, it's only Wednesday! 8 - )

Bob

THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF ST. ALBAN, ALBANY  	THE SECOND SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
1 KINGS 17:8-24		       PROPER 5 C RCL
GALATIANS 1:11-24	                            6th JUNE, 2010
LUKE 7:11-17		       PSALM 146

	Where does God speak to us? When does God speak to us? And what does God say and expect us to do?
	A small part of the answers to these questions was, I hope, not buried too deeply in what was said last week about God being revealed in Trinitarian manner in so many ways and places. The way I find God addressing me comes, so often, from every-day, even commonplace things. A newspaper headline; a chance comment by an interviewee on a radio or TV programme; a line or a verse from a hymn; maybe even in a sermon! And, yes, on the Internet and Facebook!
	Last Monday a friend from San Diego wrote from London, where he’s spending time on sabbatical, about to engage in research. Michael Russell e-mailed, “I am currently in England, working on Richard Hooker (– a seventeenth century Anglican theologian who forms the cornerstone of the development of Anglican theology. I was …) just soaking in the riches that London (at the moment) has to offer. Last week I went to Lambeth for the exhibition of their library’s treasures. Today I wandered about the exhibition of the treasures of the British National Library. The tiny Lambeth exhibit had some lovely jewels in it, including the order for the execution of Mary Queen of Scots signed by Elizabeth herself.  But it was the National Library’s exhibit that pondered these reflections. 
	“There was a large section devoted to religious texts. Two (codices) of the New Testament, plus other manuscript fragments were there. But those delights were surrounded by ancient manuscripts of the world's major religions: Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism of various flavors, Islam, Taoism, Jainism, Sikhism as well as Christianity. It was marvelous to stand in one room and see the manuscript history of humanity’s hunger to be in relation to the divine and to note the common threads that united them as well as some that divided. 
	“Then I walked in the room with the Magna Carta. There has been a big discussion of late in Britain over whether or not it actually has a constitution at all.  Indeed the new sitting parliament made up of a Conservative-LibDem coalition is noting that it has the power to change nearly anything in the way England is run just by voting for it. In fact there is no Constitution as we know it, but an evolving body of law and rights descending from the Magna Carta.  According to the exhibit only three of the provisions of the original are still in effect, all the others have been eclipsed as the body of law has evolved. 
	“As you left the exhibit the wall panel showed some of that evolution, but the curators continued it beyond England to include the US Constitution and Bill of Rights and then the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In all it was a powerful witness to the evolution of a body of law that moved from protecting the rights of Barons and Lords to protecting the rights of the marginalized and the weak.” 1
	It was that last sentence that stopped me and leapt out at me – I believe it was God, digging me in the ribs again, to wake me out of complacency over what I think I know and have made part of my everyday behavior, and to get me to open my eyes even wider to what’s going on around me.
	The Magna Carta – even if we haven’t seen it in person, or it’s been decades since we may have heard of it – the Magna Carta is an incredible document. The Magna Carta from the time of the currently-running movie “Robin Hood”, which, if you’ll allow an aside, takes incredible liberties with history and crams in all sorts of anachronisms – the Magna Carta from the time of Robin Hood compelled King John to quit riding roughshod over the rights and privileges of the Barons and Lords on England.
	This document of tremendous influence actually said squat about the serf who struggled to scrape together a couple of turnips for the evening meal, or about the woman whom the local Nobleman had just seduced and raped. And yet, somehow, in that document, there lay the seeds of what lies at the heart of what we should be about as followers of Jesus.
	Now that the fancy vestments and the elaborate processions of Easter Season are safely behind us, now we get down to the real business of putting the resurrection into practice. The Magna Carta, and what it has spawned and, pray God, what it is yet to spawn, this fragile piece of parchment with crude ink lettering and ciphers directs us to move out from here at the end of every liturgy and make sure that what we recite is more than a mouthful of oatmeal, as nourishing as that may be!
	Look at who are the figures slightly off centre in the first and third readings this morning. Widows – expendable – I should be careful here, I’m talking about a goodly proportion of this congregation – widows – people who in Prophetic and Messianic times were pushed out to the very margins of society – widows were members not even counted in any census of the community, but were among the most important figures whom God chose as brilliant ikons of the way in which Love is gracefully shown and administered.
	God moved into situations filled with anger, with confusion, with grief – filled with every imaginable emotion, and then some – God came into those moments and so touched the participants that there was a wonderfully grace-filled moment of calm.
	There’s a temptation sometimes to think that these tragedies were created by God, occasionally even argued that such tragedy is to be the means of God opening our awareness to the Divine Presence.
	That might be nice. There IS a certain degree of comfort to it – God is willing to do something with me, and each of us, to try to draw others into the family of faith, But what if the widow’s son sickened and died anyway, maybe after Elijah had caught the next bus out of town? What if the widow in Nain had stopped to adjust her mourning veil, or her sister had been detained a couple of minutes in getting to the widow’s house, and Jesus and the disciples had already gone down the street before the funeral procession started out? What then?
	The more incredible and more comforting understanding of these stories and countless others in the Bible is that when tragedy strikes, when the diagnosis is spoken, when the relative dies, when the pink slip is put into our hands, when fire sweeps through our house; the incredibly comforting understanding which we claim as followers of Jesus is that in the MIDST of all that can make our lives miserable, almost unbearable, God moves to speak to every single aspect of the situation – whether it’s an empty cupboard, or the defencelessness of a member of society, or the death – even the anticipated death – of a loved one – in each and every one of those situations which happen all over this city every day, God meets us to bring reassurance for everyone.
	Part of what we miss frequently in stories about stress is that God DOESN’T rush in, wave a Michaelangelistic hand, and stop the tragedy much in the manner of Charlton Heston. Life CAN stink! As I mentioned on Easter Day when Maya was baptised, she and every other student will STILL have to write papers and take exams. Even those happy souls who’ve traipsed across a stage this week, or will do in the near future, will find out that a black folder containing a piece of parchment and a semi-legible signature doesn’t take any of the frustration out of waiting to find out which University, or which employer may pick up the student’s option.
	In actual fact, those diplomas, just like our baptisms, even illness and death themselves serve merely as doors into the next phase of life. There IS no by-passing them. Yet Elijah stands there, Jesus stands there, Paul stands there – even King John, in all his frustration and lack of understanding, stands there –to demonstrate and pass on to us the assurance of God’s powerful desire that we should live in love in such a way that we will honour both God and our sisters and brothers.
	As we leave the Season of Easter behind, one more time; as students start out on a less-than-clearly defined journey; as this congregation continues on the road of what it means to be a congregation and what we need and hope to find in a new leader – as we do something new, and face struggles as well as joy – every single day of our lives – we need to remember what Paul put to the Galatian Christians so succinctly – the Gospel, the Good News about God’s Presence on earth in Jesus, and of Jesus’ Redeeming Sacrifice of Love, is NOT of human origin. It was something which God brought to the heart, and mind, and spirit of Paul precisely so that he could take on those journeys of witness and face up to persecution and difficulties of all sorts. And that’s the promise which echoes across countless centuries to us. Something enabled Elijah to reach out to minister to that widow and her son. Something enabled Jesus to act to provide for the well-being of the isolated villager. And God made sure that whatever was needed arrived at EXACTLY the right moment for Grace to have the maximum impact.
	Who are the widows among us? We might be surprised – the person sitting beside us right now, putting on a brave front, not wanting to talk about what’s frightening, or what’s disheartening, or what’s isolating.
	It can just as easily be the child, or woman, or man across the parking lot, or across town. And it can also be the captain and crew of ships trying to bring humanitarian aid to struggling inhabitants of Gaza.
	A documentary called “The Lazarus Effect” which began airing recently on HBO and YouTube “tells the story of people who were once at death’s door, but are healthy today thanks to effective, affordable AIDS treatment. … “The Lazarus Effect” delivers a powerful message: it only costs around 40 cents a day for the life-saving pills needed to help people with AIDS in Africa stay alive.” 2
	When God nudges us, in whatever manner and with whatever means, the word is that we need to be on the alert, not only for God’s Presence and Desire, but also for a prompt that it is up to us to be the agent of God’s Grace to the world.
	Michael Russell, standing in the national Library in London saw all sorts of document, each filled with a rich sense of spiritual journeying. But it was to the Magna Carta to which Michael’s attention was drawn, and to an understanding that protecting the rights of, and securing nourishment, for one group leads inexorably to ensuring the protection and well-being of ALL groups.
	Michael wrote, “The manuscripts of the world's religions and the evolution of Human Rights theory and practice. They and the tension among them, represent the finest most shining light of the history of our civilization. They are not uniform, but pluriform and any possibility for peace in the world radiates from savoring the beauty and integrity of each of these expressions.”
	We still have a way to go. But, God willing, and their ears, and eyes, and hearts being opened, perhaps the graduates of 2010 will be able to bring God’s Loving Comfort to the tragedies they’ll experience in life. Through God’s Grace perhaps we too will be granted the opportunity to minister in Jesus’ Name to all the widows of Albany – and far beyond.

NOTES:
1 	Mike 	michael.pointloma at gmail.com Michael Russell, Rector, All Souls', Point Loma, San Diego.
2	http://www.one.org/r?r=362&id=1695-2942415-nQdYb9x&t=1

--
Robert P. Morrison
Interim Vicar
The Episcopal Church of St Alban,
P.O. Box 1556,
Albany, Oregon, 97321

541-921-1076 (cell)
541-967-7051 (church)