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Sermon by Ellen Francis, OSH |
Preached by Ellen Francis, OSH on Sunday November 18, 2007 at the Convent of St. Helena, Vails Gate NYand St. David's Church, Highland Mills NY
I guess I’ll be showing my age to admit this, but I usually prefer movies with happy endings. If the ending isn’t a particularly happy one, my mind (or my heart) wants to adjust things just a little so the ending will be a happier one. So often, today, movies don’t end with happiness, or even with any real closure. So also with the lectionary in year C, we are concluding the season of Pentecost with a bit less than a perfectly neat and tidy and upbeat message. Our Gospel reading for today is from Chapter 21 of Luke, and this is the last chapter before the Passover narrative. JC says that all will be thrown down, including the Temple with all its Gold and precious stones and gifts. He goes on to make predictions of war, earthquakes, famines, plagues, betrayals. The final editor of the Gospel of Luke was most likely writing after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 C.E., and in compiling sayings of Jesus, he (most likely “he”) was updating Jesus’ prophetic statements in the light of what had already happened. The disaster “to come” has already occurred, and not only the Temple, but even the city of Jerusalem had been destroyed, although yet the end of time has not yet come. The immediate discussion is then expanded (towards the end of chapter 21) into a global view of destruction and mayhem, affecting “all who live on the face of the whole earth” (Luke 21:35b). Jesus advises his listeners to be vigilant, persevere, be alert, be always prayerful. Above all, he says, “Do not be terrified”.Although we don’t have a neat, tidy, “happy” ending, we do have words of advice and courage for the on-going journey, which include “don’t prepare ahead of time”. However, not being prepared is probably my own most frequent nightmare: in my dream, I’m ready to preach in a large and fancy parish; the sequence hymn has been sung; the last chords of the organ have just faded; the moment has come; I’m at the pulpit and there is a hush in the congregation; I open the folder on the podium…. And there looking back at me is a budget report from three years ago!
Yet JC is asking us to trust in the Spirit to be with us and to give us what we need at the crucial moment, and that his followers in particular will be given the words for defense for their very lives, at the last moment. Surely, that would be the greatest and most profound trust imaginable – to trust the defense of our very lives to the Holy Spirit! And, why not??! In our Scripture, there are a number of stories of crucial moments, real turning points in the history of Israel or in the ministry of Jesus, when someone (frequently a woman!), without preparation or training, at that crucial moment, is given just the right thing to do or say. In the Hebrew scriptures, there are women throughout the history of Israel who stand up and sing or preach or find just the right words or thing to do at the right moment: the prophet Deborah, Miriam, Ruth, Esther, Judith, Rahab, and others. The Samaritan woman hears the words of Jesus, and (who would have thought!) preaches to the Samaritans of her own experience and of her new faith. Perhaps most importantly, Mary Magdalene, who may never have spoken in front of the apostles or anyone else ever all before, is the one sent to them with astonishing words of grace. In modern times, there have been a few crucial moments when the right person was given the right words and wisdom.
Sister Sophia Woods has recently brought to my attention the life story of Pauli Murray. Pauli Murray was a person of color, born in Baltimore in 1910, and orphaned as a child. She was brought up by an aunt, who encouraged her education, and Pauli went on to study and faced enormous challenges. At first she was rejected by Hunter College in NYC, so she repeated a year of high school in New York, and graduated the only person of color in a class of 4,000. She was told that her “background” would keep her from passing the bar exam, so she took this as a challenge, studied for just 3 weeks, and passed the exam. In the introduction to her autobiography, her editor writes that she was “a civil rights activist before there was activism and a feminist when feminists could not be found” (p. xi).
Late in life, when it became possible, Pauli felt a call to be ordained as an Episcopal priest. She was among the very first, and was the first woman of color, and was ordained on January 8, 1977, when she was in her late 60s. She writes: “Several days before the ordination, I was suddenly seized by an agony of indecision, as though I had been assaulted by an army of demons. The thought that the opponents of women’s ordination might be right and that I might be participating in a monstrous wrong terrified me…. I prayed fervently for some sign that I was doing God’s will” (p. 434). At the ordination ceremony, Pauli was the last to be ordained. At the very moment when the bishop laid his hands on her head, the sun broke through and streams of colored light shined down through the stained glass windows. The audience gasped, and later told Pauli about that moment. She took it as a true sign of God’s will.
The wisdom and perception of God’s will given to us at crucial moments in our lives may not be anywhere near as dramatic as this. But Jesus asks us not to worry and not to be terrified. We are asked to trust that we will be given words and wisdom, in the moment of greatest need. These are, indeed, times of great need, much fear and distress, and much longing for healing. We appear, still, to be living through a continuation of the times of distress that Jesus describes. Yet Jesus says, “I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand…” (Luke 21:15). So, “Do not be terrified”, and “do not be afraid”. The words and the wisdom will be given to us, and have already been given to us. At just the right moment in history, the Word made flesh came to us, and comes to us in the fragile child of Bethelehem, and will come again in righteousness and with healing for our own wounds and for the wounds of the world. In every moment that we receive this gift of grace, we are given the words and wisdom to go gently into the world: renewed, restored, and strengthened to be and to become the Body of Christ.