King of the Universe
Our opening, processional hymn calls to mind the ancient Hebrew prayer,
Baruch ata, Adonai Eloheinu, Melek ha-olam “Blessed are you, Lord our God, King of the universe,”
praising God for things of this earth, when everyone but us is at the beach getting earthy hot, earthy sandy and earthy sticky in salt water! A perfect September Fall morning for Shell Island Sunday! Pray a safe day for them, and praise God for the magnificence of the Earth.
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You may have noticed, I did not pray the Lectionary’s Proper Collect for the Day, which goes,
Grant us, Lord, not to be anxious about earthly things, but to love things heavenly; and even now, while we are placed among things that are passing away, to hold fast to those that shall endure.
No thank you! The scholars who frame our Book of Common Prayer cling to ancient Latin prayers from the ancient Roman Church, and Boy is this an oldy. With a hint of the Gnosticism that hates the material world, loving only the spiritual unseen, and dating before 625 AD, the prayer was written in the tumultuous violence of the barbarian invasions that brought the Fall of the Roman Empire, and the collapse of Western Civilization into the Dark Ages.
It was a Time when the Church was an oppressive dictatorial authority that controlled people’s lives and minds with power, cruelty, and fear; while praying to put aside anxiety in this life, with the solace of paradise hereafter. That’s what this collect was about.
But life is not about avoiding stress and dying to go to heaven, life is about living. Jesus taught us to live in THIS life: Love God, Love Neighbor.
Life is a gift - - anxiety and all.
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My gratitude for life stirs memories of Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town,” a popular stage play when I was in high school. Set a hundred years ago, at the turn of the 19th/20th century, “Our Town” is timeless, and there are lines in the play that hit me where I live as I grow older, lines about the wonders of life here on Earth. Maybe you remember -
There is a line when Rebecca Gibbs tells her brother George about the address on a letter. She says,
“… on the envelope the address was like this: It said: Jane Crofut; The Crofut Farm; Grover's Corners; Sutton County; New Hampshire; United States of America … Continent of North America; Western Hemisphere; the Earth; the Solar System; the Universe; the Mind of God… .”
Thornton Wilder imagining tiny little Grover’s Corners into the grand scheme of things in the Universe, through the words of a little girl! And the thought that our lives, and the world about us, are the mind of God.
That’s intriguing and powerful theology!
Another line, in the final act of “Our Town.” After high school, the two main characters, George Gibbs and Emily Webb, marry. Years fly by, and as the scene opens, we’re up the hill at the town cemetery because Emily has died in childbirth. If you know the play, you’ll remember.
Emily is granted a wish to return and relive one day of her life on Earth as an observer. Emily thinks about it, and rather than choose an extraordinary Time, like her wedding day, Emily chooses her 12th birthday, thinking it will be an ordinary day.
But it proves that THERE ARE NO “ORDINARY DAYS,” every day IS life, and Emily is so overwhelmed with emotion that she has to halt the experience. She says,
“I can’t. I can’t go on. … I didn’t realize all that was going on and we never notice. Take me back—up the hill—to my grave. But first: Wait! One more look. Good bye, good bye world. Good bye Grover’s Corners … Mama and Papa. Good-bye to clocks ticking … and Mama’s sunflowers. And food and coffee … and sleeping and waking up. Oh, Earth, you’re too wonderful for anyone to realize you.”
And one more line,
“Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it—every, every minute?” and the Stage Manager answers, “No, the saints and poets maybe - they do - - some.”
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Life is a gift. Life is stressful, full of anxieties. Christianity is not a religion to die by; Christianity is a faith to live by, in which Jesus commands us, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and soul, and mind, and strength; and you shall love your Neighbor as yourself - -
where “love of neighbor” is not hugs and kisses, or warm, fuzzy feelings, but how we treat strangers, people foreign to us, people different from us; shockingly, especially enemies and people we hate - - as in Jesus’ Parable of the Good Samaritan, where the foreigner, the Samaritan, is the enemy, the man they hate because he is not “one of them,” he’s Other, he’s different, and as it turns out, it's the hated Samaritan who IS - - Neighbor.
This comes to the surface during election year when the political machinery works to divide us and PIT Americans against each other.
But we are Neighbors, and life is short, and God’s creation is magnificent. It’s a blessing that we are given life with each other together on Earth, with our sun and solar system in a remote spiral of the Milky Way Galaxy, among trillions of other galaxies - - in this Universe, the mind of God - -
where we are special - - because God said Ye-hi “let there Be,” and set free an experiment to see whether creatures can be like God himself, in God’s likeness and image, loving each other as God loves.
We are not here so we can avoid the anxieties of life to die and be saved into things heavenly; we are here to live as Jesus lived, in this beautiful world, a life of love and sacrifice and service.
And so - - hear the theology of one of our Eucharistic Prayers. This is Rite Two, Prayer C, which we've seldom used here at Holy Nativity. Listen:
God of all power, Ruler of the Universe, you are worthy of glory and praise.
At your Word all things came to be: the vast expanse of interstellar space, galaxies, suns, the planets in their courses, and this fragile earth, our island home.
Lord God of our Fathers: God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ: Open our eyes to see your hand at work in the world about us. Deliver us from the presumption of coming to this Holy Table for solace only, and not for strength; for pardon only, and not for renewal. Let the grace of this Holy Communion make us one body, one spirit in Christ, that we may worthily serve the world in his name. ++++++
Life is in this world, here and now. Life is Good. GOD is good, all the Time. Baruch ata, Adonai Eloheinu, Melek ha-olam: Blessed are you, Lord our God, king of the Universe, who brings forth bread from the earth; and wine, the fruit of the vine; and life itself as a gift. Blessed are you, Lord our God: Father, + Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
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Heavenly Father, you have filled the world with beauty: Open our eyes to behold your gracious hand in all your works; that, rejoicing in your whole creation, we may learn to serve you with gladness - - for the sake of him through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Sermon/homiletic endeavor preached in Holy Nativity Episcopal Church on Sunday, 22 September, 2024 by the Rev Tom Weller, retired priest.