[Propertalk] 7 Easter b rcl

Thu May 17 12:55:24 EDT 2012

Here's my draft for Sunday as it stands for correction, etc 8 - )

Bob

THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF ST. ALBAN, ALBANY  	         	      THE SEVENTH 
SUNDAY OF EASTER - B
ACTS 1:15-17, 21-26                            		    	                	 
20th MAY, 2012
1 JOHN 5:9-13		                                                	 
PSALM 1
JOHN 17:6-19

	Did you know that, “Some 3.7 million Americans claim to have been 
abducted by aliens.”? “Most found it a positive experience.” To this 
comment, a book editor queried, “Why haven’t you been contacted?”  1

	I remember the title of a book published by a seminary professor one or 
two decades ago. The book was called “An Ethic for Christians and other 
Aliens in a strange Land” 2 The book took its cue from the advice by 
Jesus that we are to live as if we are in the world but not OF the 
world. In other words, our ministry is here. The earth and its habitants 
are to benefit from our ministration, but we are not to become so 
identified with this world that we forget that our mission is to tell 
people about God’s reign and to help them – and ourselves – enter into 
that fully.

	This doesn’t mean that we can ignore the plight of our neighbours 
who’ve fallen on hard economic times, or whose children let off 
fireworks at midnight, or whose dog treats your immaculate front lawn as 
its digging spot and prime bathroom. It’s our job to care for our 
neighbours, no matter what. BUT, and this is a big but, BUT if push 
comes to shove, we cannot put our own security ahead of doing what’s 
right – for our neighbor, for our community, or for the universe. And 
the really difficult thing about this is we may even have to put 
neighbour ahead of family.

	We’re to become – and behave as – aliens because our ties are to be 
secured elsewhere. But even if we may not be totally comfortable, even 
if we have all sorts of potential difficulties to face, Jesus promises 
that we’ll never be alone.

	Last Thursday was the day in the calendar on which we marked the 
disappearance of Jesus from human sight. We call it “Ascension Day”, 
using old concepts for heaven. Where Jesus “went”, if I can put it that 
way, isn’t nearly as important as the fact that the disciples’ source of 
power, and comfort, and counsel no longer appeared available 
immediately.

	Jesus didn’t simply walk, however, and pray as hard as He’d ever done 
that the disciples wouldn’t fall apart under the stress. Jesus prayed 
that they’d be enriched, that they’d be given insight to know what is 
true and loving, and that they’d find a source of support, so that 
whatever might happen, they wouldn’t go through life alone.

	This isn’t for the first century disciples alone, though. It’s a prayer 
that Jesus made for us and for everyone who followed.

	I read a very moving story a week or so ago.

	“12-year-old Cody Green has always admired the strength and courage of 
the marines. At 12:35 Saturday afternoon, it was the Marines admiring 
the strength and courage of Cody.

	“Cody had leukemia since he was 22 months old, but beat the disease 
three times. Although he was cancer-free, the chemotherapy lowered his 
immune system and Saturday afternoon, he died from a fungus that 
attacked his brain. Members of the Marines decided to step in and do 
something.

	“‘They decided Cody, with the strength and honor and courage he showed 
through the whole thing, he should be a Marine,’ said Cody's father 
David Snowberger.

	“Cody was given Marine navigator wings and was made an honorary member 
of the United States Marine Corps. For one Marine, that wasn't enough, 
so he did even more.

	“‘The night before Cody passed, he stood guard at Cody's door at the 
hospital all night long for eight hours straight,’ said Snowberger.

	“Cody was a fifth grader at Carroll Elementary School and, if you asked 
anyone, could only be described in one way.

	“‘He was a comedian all the time,’ said Snowberger. ‘I mean, nothing 
was ever negative. He was just always happy, always worried about 
everybody else.’
	“Although there were tears, there was also laughter, as everyone took 
the day to celebrate the life of Cody Green.” 3
	That’s the kind of support Jesus promised His first-century friends, 
and that’s the sort of support He promises us.

	We don’t get to hear Matthew’s final verses read this year, with the 
famous line from Jesus, “I am with you to the ages of ages.” But the 
message is there nevertheless. We shan’t ever be alone, no matter how 
difficult the times.

	A couple of weeks ago I found small knitted rectangles with a card 
attached to them. They were entitled “Hope in Your hand” and they had a 
wonderful message on the card. “We place in your hand this symbol of 
comforting hope – a pocket prayer shawl – a little hug from God to carry 
you through your day. May the presence of someone praying for you bring 
you comforting hope, peace and safe harbor found in each prayerful 
stitch created especially for you.”

	I’d heard of prayer shawls, of course. We asked God’s blessings on 
several here during our services. But to come across this little 
rectangle, something small enough to fit in my pocket, but large and 
soft enough to have an impact when my fingers touch it – involuntarily 
or voluntarily, I was struck by two things about these. First this is 
something that I can take with me wherever I go, so that there’ll be no 
place where I can’t touch it and be touched by it. But secondly, even 
stronger than that, although it grows out of the first, the great 
comfort of knowing about someone who’s compassionate enough to have 
knitted the hope blanket, and someone concerned enough to have given it 
to me. Wherever I am, I know that I’m surrounded by prayers.

	If you’re curious, by the way, several of the ECW members have started 
making these little rectangular hope-bearing comforters already.

  	Like the example of the Marine who stationed himself voluntarily 
outside Cody’s hospital room door, a sign of love, and support, and 
honour, like these “Hope in Your hand” knitted blankets, there are signs 
of love and comfort all around us, if we can be sensitive enough to see 
and appreciate them.

	Sometimes I walk so quickly, and am so single-focussed, that I may not 
even notice what God may have left for me through the action of one of 
my brothers and sisters on the journey. When this happens, I’m the 
loser. Or when we act this way about bearing these signs, sometimes the 
intended recipient doesn’t have time to catch them. In fact, sometimes 
we shoot ourselves in the foot and blow perfectly good opportunities to 
be the Gospel comfort for people around us.

	A good friend from the Ordination Exam Reading Group is an Episcopal 
priest and a professor in Texas. He wrote about his brother, “After 
fighting a lethal brain cancer for almost seven years, my brother is 
facing a second surgery for recurrent tumor, in a different and even 
more delicate part of the brain. Please keep Dave and his family in your 
prayers. He is a courageous soul and physician. Someone who has embraced 
the suffering of others and could benefit from the companionship of 
others who believe it makes a difference to share that journey.” 4

	“But he doesn't go to church anymore in order to find help with that 
struggle. Why? Well, as he explains it, there are at least three reasons 
and I think that they help to explain why an increasing number of people 
think of themselves as spiritual but not religious.

	“One is that the church won't stop talking to him about money.	… 
Second, the churches he has attended won't talk to him in a way that 
speaks to his life. … Third, on the rare occasion when the church does 
speak to him about the challenges he faces, as he puts it, the preacher 
usually (if you’ll excuse the expression) ‘blows sunshine up my ass and 
tells me that everything will be alright.’ It's hard, he points out, 
when you've been told that you have a brain tumor to hear people tell 
you that God has a plan, that the best is yet to come, or that you are 
living a blessing in disguise.”

	Frederick wrote that, “The conversation (with his brother) has led me 
to begin applying what I call ‘The Dave Test’ to what I write. Am I 
writing for real people who work in the real world? Am I writing for 
people who think that their faith in God ought to make a difference and 
are looking for a book to help them in the press of busy lives that 
demand that most of their attention?”

	These are the ways Jesus addressed life. He didn’t mince words, but He 
didn’t load himself down in expressions with fifteen syllables per word 
either.

	Maybe this is where we need to learn to act as aliens in this society. 
We tend to live in a world which doesn’t like to talk plainly. We’d 
rather sugar coat sometimes, verbally or physically, and not deal with 
the realities of life. So we may short-change a person or ignore 
opportunities for simply sitting with her or him. What Jesus seeks to do 
for us is to remind us of the availability of support, and guidance, and 
comfort, no matter what’s going on. Jesus will NEVER abandon us – that’s 
His solemn promise. And that’s exactly what the Marine showed for Cody 
and his family. It wasn’t an order from a superior officer. As far as I 
know it wasn’t even the result of discussion among the unit. A single 
Marine simply decided he needed to be there, and he gave his day and 
night in devotion. Regardless of Cody’s age, he stood by his brother.

	And those knitted mini-shawls? … people have begun to knit with the 
barest of checks to see how many stitches per row and how many rows per 
rectangle. And they pray while they knit.

	People have responded to make sure that others won’t be alone, won’t 
ever feel that they have to face difficulties or decisions by 
themselves. Even with Jesus’ absence from human sight there’s another 
form of vision which is enabling us to find comfort. And this is exactly 
what we all need, and what we’re all called to do for others on their 
pilgrimage through life.

	Don’t worry about being an alien, then, or of taking a trip with them. 
In fact, this is MUCH to be preferred than becoming so set in our ways 
that we can’t see and hear Jesus all around us!

	Bon voyage!

NOTES:

1 	“The Paranoid’s Pocket Guide” by Cameron Tuttle. Chronicle Books, San 
Francisco © 1997

https://wipfandstock.com/store/An_Ethic_For_Christians_and_Other_Aliens_in_a_Strange_Land

3	“Boy made honorary Marine before death” Updated: Tuesday, 01 May 2012, 
10:01 AM EDT Published : Monday, 30 Apr 2012, 6:51 PM EDT Elisabeth 
Rentschler

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wlfi.com%2Fdpp%2Fnews%2Flocal%2Fboy-made-honorary-marine-before-death&h=5AQHXKQjf

4	The Spiritual Landscape: "The Dave Test", Frederick William Schmidt. 
http://www.patheos.com/Resources/Additional-Resources/Spiritual-Landscape-The-Dave-Test.html

Robert P Morrison
Interim Vicar
The Episcopal Church of St Alban
PO Box 1556
Albany OR  97321   541-921-1076 (cell)