Charlotte Collins Reed
Christ Episcopal Church
November 23, 2013
Christ the King
Last Wednesday evening, we were privileged to host one of the events surrounding the 125th anniversary of the Bushnell home, now known as the Richards, Raff, and Dunbar Funeral Home. The home, which is just down the street from Christ Church, is a stunning piece of late 19th century architecture. The original owners of the home, Asa and Ellen Bushnell, were long time parishioners of this parish and once owned what we now call Hollenbeck House. So we were asked to host the event because of our historic ties to the Bushnells. Rather than use our worship space, which would seat more people, we used the Parish Hall. The Parish Hall building, which actually includes the Guild Room and kitchen on the same level with the Parish Hall, what was once a gymnasium and is now Christian Education space underneath the Parish Hall, and the choir room and sacristy on this level, was given by Ellen Bushnell in memory of her husband in 1906.
When Ellen Bushnell gave Christ Church a Parish Hall, she actually, although perhaps unintentionally, changed the identity of this parish. Christ Church had been founded in 1834 as a place for Christians to worship as Episcopalians-that is, with the customs and styles of the Church of England, minus any loyalty to the monarchy. The church started off in a small, frame building, then built a larger building, then in early 1870's build this glorious space. People gathered in this space to worship for about 30 years before there was a Parish Hall. But once there was a parish hall, people could gather here in new ways. Now the church could be a gathering place for education, meals, and other fellowship activities both for parishioners and for the community. A few of our parishioners remember when Christ Church used the Parish Hall to hosted an annual Christmas dinner for the Masonic Home, and in the great flu epidemic of the early 20th century the Parish Hall served as an infirmary for the sick. The gymnasium beneath the Parish Hall hosted scout troops and other activities. In the boom of the 1960's, there was need for even more space to gather people so the Education hallway was further developed and we gathered more intentionally for Christian Education. Eventually we would use the rooms in that hallway to host Interfaith Hospitality Network and gather people who were without homes or jobs to give them a place to sleep and food to eat. Once the East Entrance was added in 1989, people of all levels of physical ability could gather here for worship, fellowship, education, a support group, or whatever ministry was happening in the building. The practice of using Christ Church as a place to gather for more than worship began with Ellen Bushnell’s gift of the Parish Hall.
Today is Christ the King Sunday, the last Sunday before Advent begins. Christ the King Sunday is also our patronal feast day since we hold the name "Christ Church." We have no record that I know of that tells us why the name "Christ Church" was chosen, although we do know that the original name was "The Parish of All Souls." Names are important. They give us our identity as people and they give us our identity as institutions. What is the significance of carrying the name of the crucified and risen One?
Our reading from Jeremiah begins with the words "Woe to the shepherds who scatter and destroy the sheep of my pasture!," says the Lord." The passage ends with God’s promise of a king who will serve with justice and righteousness, who will bring together what has been scattered and heal what has been destroyed. As Christians, we believe Jesus is that promised king. When we read the gospels, we hear story after story in which Jesus gathered together those who had been scattered. The poor, the blind, the lame, the sick, all those that society scattered to the margins, Jesus brought to the center. Jesus ate with tax collectors and sinners, those despised by the world around them. Jesus told parables in which the people invited to the party could not make time to come, so people off the streets, the homeless and hungry, were gathered in their place. Jesus’ work did not earn him a popularity prize, as we hear in the gospel reading. For his efforts, we find Jesus on the cross this morning with a criminal on either side of him.
Even on the cross, Jesus is about the work of bringing the scattered together. The first words we hear from Jesus are "Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing." Forgiveness is the deepest form of gathering the scattered. Through forgiveness we are reconciled with those who are scattered from our lives. The last thing we hear Jesus say, to the criminal being crucified next to him, is "Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise." Not even death can destroy Jesus’ work of gathering together the scattered. In John’s gospel, from which we do not hear this morning, Jesus says to the crowds "And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself." The work of Jesus and the work of the Risen Christ is to gather.
And so, as Christ Church, we gather. We gather to worship each week. We gather people every Wednesday at the Food Pantry. People who are working hard to break the bonds of addiction gather here on Saturday night. People gather here to listen to lectures, hear great music, be nurtured and fed, to grieve losses and celebrate joys. But gathering is about more than simply opening our doors. Jesus did not simply sit in a tent with a sign that said welcome. Jesus gathered by showing up in the places where people gathered-in the synagogue or at the Temple, by the lake, at a wedding, in a locked room in the midst of frightened disciples or along a dusty road. Jesus was out and about doing the active work of gathering.
Christ the King Sunday challenges us to live as a church that carries on the gospel work of gathering. Christ the King Sunday challenges us to be not only a welcoming and inclusive place for people to gather, but to actually do the work of gathering, bringing together all sorts and conditions of people to hear the Good News, know Jesus, and be fed together. Jesus challenges us to gather those who have been scattered, whether those who have given up on faith because they have experienced church as judgmental or exclusive, or those who have been scattered because the world has given up on them. When we are shepherds who work to gather people together, the Paradise Jesus promised the thief who was gathered with him on the cross comes just a little bit closer.
Amen.
Charlotte Collins Reed
Christ Episcopal Church
November 17, 2013
28 Proper C
Some four or five years ago, a small group of 6-8 Christ Church folk set off on a path to bring Reading Camp to Christ Church. Reading Camp would be a new ministry that fit with our core values of outreach, education, hospitality, and worship. The process of learning, developing, and planning for this new ministry took about two years, and in 2011 we offered a free one week Reading Camp to children who had finished third grade and were about a year behind in their reading. Reading Camp was an amazing experience of the Body of Christ at work at Christ Church. Different people used their skills to shop, plan and make meals, organize field trips and recruit chaperones, plan the curriculum for the reading stations, recruit children, decorate, and create a library. For two summers, we gave a small group of children a fabulous week that enhanced their reading skills and taught them to love reading. We were justifiably proud of this program which made a real difference in the lives of the children we served. Last year, however, the Ohio legislature passed the Third Grade guarantee, which requires children to pass the third grade reading portion of the Ohio Achievement Assessment before going on to 4th grade. Since a very large number of Springfield children were at risk of failing, Springfield City Schools developed a summer program to benefit the exact population we had served. So, we let go of Reading Camp, at least for the time being.
At about the same time as we launched our Reading Camp at Christ Church, we were also invited to host the Dayton Gay Men’s Chorus for their first concert outside of Dayton. To make a long story short, this parish, you, rallied around this opportunity and many people worked to offer both Springfield and the Chorus the finest possible hospitality. People offered to usher, greet, organize a reception, bake cookies and make appetizers, set up, clean up, and all the things involved in welcoming 200 people into this space. We were energized by that work, which was a significant ministry of outreach and hospitality. Our Sunday attendance went up significantly, not so much because new people began to come, but because we were excited and proud of what we were doing at Christ Church and we came to church more often. After three highly successful years, we have literally worked ourselves out of a job. The Chorus would like a larger venue so this year we will co-host with Faith United Methodist Church in their facility.
Over the past 4 years, these two events have been a part of who we are at Christ Church as we lived into what we value. Now, through no fault or failure of our own, indeed in one case because of our success, we no longer host either of these ministries. With ears open to what new thing God might be calling us to, we hear God say this morning "For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating." These soaring words are spoken to a people in great distress. God’s people have returned from exile in Babylon and are trying to rebuild their lives in what was once the prosperous Promised Land. Now, however, infant mortality is high, food and housing are scarce, employment is in short supply. God promises a time when there will be a new beginning for everyone. The people’s transgressions will be forgotten and Jerusalem will be restored like a new Eden. "No more shall there be in Jerusalem an infant that lives but a few days, or an old person who does not live out a lifetime....they shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit...." says God. God calls the people to expect that time when God will make all things new.
Jesus is also concerned with the end time this morning. Jesus tells the disciples that the time will come when not one of the Temple stones will be left upon another. All will be thrown down. Jesus is talking about that same end time that we heard about in the reading from Isaiah. The people are still waiting for God to come and make all things new. So the disciples ask Jesus with great expectation-when will this be and what will be the sign that this is about to take place? Jesus answer is not exactly reassuring. There will be wars and earthquakes, famines and plagues, dreadful portents and great signs from heavens. I much prefer Isaiah’s version, myself! But the promise is still the same-neither war, nor earthquake, nor famine, nor plagues, nor any other disaster will have the final word. God’s promise will have the final word in God’s good time.
Well, God’s people have been waiting for a few thousand years now. The Church still believes that time moves toward an end when all creation will be reconciled with God. Every week in the Nicene Creed we say "He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end." And despite any individual skepticism we might have, the Church holds fast to this promise.
But the reading from 2 Thessalonians cautions us against believing that God will only do a new thing at the end of time. Some of the Thessalonians are sitting idly as they wait for God to act at the end time, and they are chastised for their idleness. The words from Isaiah that we said/sang in place of the psalm this morning tell us clearly that God acts in the present. "Surely it is God who saves me. I will trust in God and not be afraid. For the Lord is my stronghold and my sure defense...." All in the present tense. God and Scripture both call us to see where God is at work in the present, making a new heaven and a new earth, metaphorically if not literally. Our task as a congregation over the next months will be to discern where God is at work in our midst now, and how God is calling us to be part of a new creation, where, as we hear in Isaiah, everyone lives out a full life, food and housing are plentiful, employment opportunities are available, and peace shall reign. As many of you have already heard, during the early spring beginning February 10, I will be on sabbatical. Part of the reason for a sabbatical is for refreshment and renewal, but part of the reason is also to take time away to get a better view of the big picture and what new work God might be calling us to as a congregation. But the sabbatical is not just about my being away. The sabbatical is also a time of renewal for the congregation as you have the opportunity to do that same work of praying, reflecting, and discerning as you think about what we do well as a congregation, what we might do better, what we need to let go of, and what new thing God might be doing in our midst. The vestry is in the process of calling the Rev. John Johanssen, one of the best sabbatical interims in the church, to be at Christ Church while I am away. John has been a parish priest for many years in churches small, medium, and large. John loves congregations and loves the work of congregational development, particularly for churches that are healthy and not in crisis. Most importantly, John is someone I trust to be your priest while I am away. And I trust that when I return on the Sunday after Easter, between us we will have many new ideas for the future and renewed energy to bring those ideas to fruition.
Every week we proclaim together "Christ has died. Christ is Risen. Christ will come again." Our readings this morning point us both to that time when Christ will return in glory, and to way in which Christ dwells among us now, pointing us to God’s new creation in our midst. Christ will come again. And again. And again. And again. The real question is not when. The question is where. Where will we meet the Risen Christ and what work will we do together?
Amen.
Charlotte Collins Reed
Christ Episcopal Church
November 10, 2013
27 Proper C
As I drive around Springfield, I typically bounce back and forth between two very different radio stations. In the morning and late afternoon, I listen to National Public Radio for the news. Mid-day, I listen to a country station out of Dayton. The two stations offer two different perspectives on life, for sure. The country station plays songs with great names like "God is great, beer is good, people are crazy." Some days I think that, if I could cross stitch, I would cross stitch that phrase to put on the wall in my office, even though I don’t drink beer! For the most part, however, the theme of many if not most country songs seems to be nostalgia for the past. The songs are full of longing for what was, whether a relationship, or the time when the children were young, or a time of more financial stability, or when mama was alive or whatever. The news shows on National Public Radio, and most media outlets for that matter, seem to focus on the future, specifically on anxieties about the future. What will the stock market do? Where will the storm hit? Who will be hit by the next terrorist attack? What will happen if the tax levy fails? And on and on. When I get tired of the news, I switch to the country station, and when I get tired of nostalgia for the past, I switch to the news. And when I am tired of both, I turned the radio off.
Today, the reading from Haggai is our dose of nostalgia for the past. Haggai’s people have returned from exile in Babylon to the devastated land of Judah. During the 50 years of the Babylonian exile, pretty much everyone who lived in Judah before the exile had died. The only memories of the great temple in Jerusalem came from the stories handed down through the five decades of captivity. Now, those who returned to Jerusalem had the daunting task of rebuilding their lives and their temple. The land had was a barren wasteland. The infrastructure was in ruins. Morale was low as the people pondered the somewhat pitiful replacement temple they were able to build. The people longed for the time when God’s people dwelled in the promised land in prosperity and worshiped in a temple fit for God.
On the other hand, the letter to the Thessalonians is full of anxiety for the future. The earliest Christians believed that Jesus would return quite soon, and they shaped their lives around that belief. Everything they did and every decision they made was their response to the question "How do we live in a world where Jesus has been raised from the dead and will return to take us with him?" Now, 20 plus years have passed and Jesus has not returned. Faithful Christians began to worry that Jesus actually had returned, but they had missed him. If that is true, everything they have believed was for naught. There is great anxiety among the Thessalonians about what the future might, or might not, hold.
The response to the people who have returned to Jerusalem and long for the past is the same the response to the Thessalonians who are anxious about the future. Haggai says to the people of Jerusalem "Take courage, all you people of the land says the Lord; work, for I am with you, says the Lord of hosts, according to the promise that I made you when you came out of Egypt. My spirit abides among you, do not fear." Haggai reminds the people of the way God brought them out of Egypt, not so they will have even greater longing for the past, but to remind them of the way God dwells among them now. Haggai calls them to remember the way God acted in the past so that they can see God at work in the present, in the midst of the destruction and chaos of their lives. Watch, for God is about to shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. Look and see where God is at work now.
Likewise, in the letter to the Thessalonians, in the midst of their anxiety about the future, the Christians are called to stand firm and hold fast to the traditions they were given. The passage ends with a prayer for the Thessalonians. "Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and through grace gave us eternal comfort and good hope, comfort your hearts and strengthen them in every good work and word." God, the Thessalonians are told, is at work in their lives now, comforting them and strengthening them in every good work. In the midst of their anxiety about the future, they are to pay attention to what God is doing in the present and what the good work might be that God is calling them to in the present.
Nostalgia for the good old days and anxiety about the future are easy traps to fall into. We do this as a church when we long for the days when the culture was more church friendly, or families were larger, or the roof did not leak. We do this when we get anxious about the future, whether something might change, or how the bills will be paid or whether the roof will leak. We do this as individuals when we long for the time when the children were young, or our finances were more stable, or our loved ones were still alive. Or we get anxious about whether or not we will still have a job or health insurance, or have our health, or our retirement fund will be adequate. All of these are good memories and reasonable causes for concern. But God calls us to look to the past as a reminder of the way God worked in our lives then so we can better see God at work now. And when we open our eyes to what God is doing in our midst now, we know that God will work in our futures whatever they may hold and we need not be anxious. What is God doing in our midst now? How is God acting in our lives as individuals and in our life as a church? As Christians, we are called to neither nostalgia for the past nor anxiety about the future. We are called to answer the question "What is God doing in our midst now" and then we are called to proclaim the answer for all the world to see.
Amen.
Charlotte Collins Reed
Christ Episcopal Church
November 3, 2013
All Saints Sunday
Miss Minnie Lee was my grandmother’s closest and dearest friend. Her real name was Minnie Lee Brantley, and she was married to Mr. Ben. Miss Minnie Lee, Mr. Ben, my grandmother and their assorted and various friends and neighbors lived in Headland, Alabama. There, along with most of the rest of the south, the custom was for children to call the adults friends of their parents and grandparents by their first name, prefixed by Miss or Mister.
The friendship between Miss Minnie Lee and my grandmother spanned some 6 decades. They were the best of friends, except when they weren’t, which was about once a week according to my mother. Whatever the cause of their periodic arguments, they always made up and day after day, week in and week out, they shared celebrations, heartaches, meals, and pretty much everything else.
When Miss Minnie Lee was well into her 80's, or maybe her 90's, she crocheted an afghan for me. The afghan is navy blue, tightly crocheted, in a pattern that looks something like a net, but with larger, tight knots much closer together than a real net. I know nothing about crochet, other than to enjoy the warmth of a well crocheted afghan, so describing the piece in more detail is a bit like trying to speak a foreign language. The afghan is a treasure not only because my grandmother’s best friend made it for me, but because Miss Minnie Lee was completely blind when she crocheted the piece. She had totally lost her sight when she made this queen size, perfectly and intricately hooked, afghan.
How on earth could Miss Minnie Lee crochet without sight?
After pondering this great mystery for many years, finally the answer dawned on me. After she lost her sight, Miss Minnie Lee could still crochet simply because she had crocheted her entire life. Her hands knew exactly what to do, how the yarn felt, how the hooks moved. Of course, sight was a plus, but really her brain and her hands were doing the work, not her eyes. She had practiced over and over again, over the course of many decades, until she got to the point where she really did not have to see in order to create beauty.
Today is All Saints Sunday, a major and favorite feast day of the church. The hymns are some of the most beloved hymns in the hymnal. The candles stir up powerful memories and emotions. The sound of the names of our loved ones bypasses our brains and goes straight to our hearts. So, you might think that the story of Miss Minnie Lee and her afghan is the story of an ordinary saint, an ordinary person, overcoming disability to do something creative and beautiful. And you would be partially correct. But only partially. The story of Miss Minnie Lee is really the story about a woman who practiced and practiced a skill over and over again, over years and decades, until when the time came that she could no longer see, she had embodied the skill and could continue on without her sight. The saints of God practiced their faith in the exact same way. They practiced Bible study, prayer, worship, Christian fellowship, generosity, hospitality, and acts of mercy over and over again through the course of their lives. My guess is that sometimes that work was joyful and sometimes that work was tedious, boring even. But when put to the test, as the saints of God all were, their faith had become so embodied within them through the constant practice, that they were able to live that faith to respond to the darkness they encountered. The scripture they needed for strength was imprinted on their minds. Their relationship with God which had been strengthened by years and years of prayer, sustained them. Perhaps even a great hymn or two dwelled within them to give them hope and courage. The saints of God were able to stand up to injustice, care for the poor and the sick, or proclaim the gospel in the face of persecution. The saints could be the light that shines in the darkness because their lives embodied the faith they had practiced.
This morning, we hear Jesus say "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the Kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh." What makes the poor, the hungry, and those who weep blessed? And why would Jesus call woe upon the rich, the full, and those who laugh? I do not think Jesus is talking about blessings and woes in the next life. I think Jesus is talking about blessings and woes now. What the poor, the hungry, and those who weep know, that sometimes I forget, is that we cannot make it in this world alone. We are all dependent on each other and on the goodness of others in order to survive. The poor know that we are all connected. Those of us who are neither poor nor hungry tend to think that our success is our own and we forget that we are all connected. On All Saints Day, we do not celebrate the achievements of individual Saints. On All Saints Day, we celebrate that great body we call the communion of Saints. In the opening collect, we prayed "Almighty God, you have knit together the elect in one communion and fellowship in the mystical body of Jesus Christ, our Lord." All Saints Day celebrates the connection of all saints, past, present, and future. We sing and pray in the midst of the fellowship of all those who have practiced the faith, day in and day out, until that faith is embodied within us.
As we remember those who have gone before us, their deep faith and their impact on our own lives, All Saints Day calls us to practice our faith the way Miss Minnie Lee practiced her crochet-over and over again until, when the light was gone, she could crochet in the darkness. All Saints calls us to be as connected to each other as we feel this day towards those who have gone before us, because faith is first practiced in community. And, in the midst of the candles, our prayers, the music and emotion of this day, All Saints calls us to go out into the world as people who embody our faith and be the light that shines in the darkness.
Amen.
