In my sermon yesterday, I mentioned a mosaic in the church of San Vitale, Ravenna. The two mosaics to which I alluded show the Emperor Justinian and Empress Theodora bringing forward the elements for communion. Here is Theodora:
Here is Justinian:
Here’s an image from an early Christian (4th century?) sarcophagus (tomb), showing them wearing Phrygian caps
The gospel for Wednesday in the second week of Advent was Matthew 11:28-30: “Come to me all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
The lesson from the Hebrew Bible was taken from Isaiah 40 and included these familiar words: “but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”
These lessons remind us that one of the themes in Messianic expectation in the Judaism of Jesus’ day was the image of the Sabbath rest. The idea of the Sabbath is one of the great gifts of the Hebrew people to human culture. The fact that we get weekends off, that we even have the notion of a week, is the product of Judaism. In Genesis, God’s creation ends with the creation of the Sabbath; indeed it is correct to say that the Sabbath completes or perfects creation.
The notion of the Sabbath rest permeates Biblical tradition. It wasn’t just for humans. The commandment to keep the Sabbath holy mentioned livestock, slaves and aliens. Sabbath rest extended to the land as well: every seventh year all of the land was to lie fallow, to rest and recover.
While we have retained the notion of days off on the weekend, there is very little in the contemporary weekend that has anything to do with Sabbath rest. Indeed, Advent may be the least restful season of the year. Not just because of the swirl of holiday activity. The scriptural lessons are full of warnings about staying awake and being watchful.
Still, the notion of rest is important this season and for our understanding of the Christian life. Perhaps Augustine said it best, “My heart was restless until it found its rest in you.”
Once again, the world of Anglicanism has made it into the mainstream media. Finally all of the talk about a new province for North America has moved from the drawing board into the construction phase. You can read about it in all of the usual places. Remember as you read that things move very slowly (if at all) in the Anglican Communion and it is clear that there is little interest from the Archbishop of Canterbury to expedite matters.
Given the deep divisions among those who ware trying to create this new province, one wonders whether they will be able to pull it off. To name only one matter of deep disagreement: the ordination of women.
Meanwhile, we will continue to do the work of the church.
There are a lot of websites that offer Advent meditations and resources. One of the best comes from the Episcopal Diocese of Washington. There is an advent calendar, with links to interviews, meditations and the Daily Office. You can access it here.
We had quite an exciting morning on the first Sunday of Advent yesterday. As I arrived to prepare for the 9:00 service, I noticed one bank of lights in the sanctuary was out. I did a little investigation and discovered that there were power outages all over the building. We learned that there was a downed power line and prepared for a less than brightly illuminated service. Just after the completion of the reading from the Hebrew Bible, all of the lights went out. The church remained in darkness for the rest of the service.
As we worshipped, my eyes were drawn to the only artificial light in the sanctuary–the altar candles and the advent wreath. One of the themes of Advent is darkness and light. Tom spoke of that in his sermon, about the symbolism of lighting another candle each week as the days grow shorter. The flames from the candles were a reminder of the audacity of our faith and our longing for the coming of the Incarnation.
The internet is wonderful! I mentioned in service this morning one of my favorite epitaphs in a Boston graveyard. But I got several of the details wrong. First, it was in the Copps Hill burial ground. Second, the phrase I remembered was not the end of the epitaph. But you get the idea. Here’s the whole of it:
Here lyes the mortal part of William Clark, Esq. An Eminent Merchant of this Town and an Honourable Counsellor for this Province Who Distinguished Himself as a Faithful and Affectionate Friend a Fair and generous Trader Loyal to his Prince Yet always zealous for the Freedom of his Country A Despiser of Sorry Persons and little Actions, An Enemy to Priestcraft and Enthusiasm, Ready to relieve and Help the Wretched, A Lover of Good Men of Various Denominations, and a Reverent Worshipper of the Deity.
I didn’t do more research than that. I know it’s eighteenth century, and from the details, it probably derives from the colonial period (“loyal to his prince” suggests pre-revolutionary). But it does provide some interesting religious info: an enemy to Priestcraft suggests he wasn’t Anglican/Episcopalian, the mention of Enthusiasm implies he rejected the Great Awakening (i.e., Methodism), and “a Reverent Worshipper of the Deity” implies that he was moving toward Unitarianism, or at least Deism, as were many in the eighteenth century, Thomas Jefferson, for example.
I think I’ve written about what it’s like to wear a clerical collar around town. Veteran priests have warned me that a collar could cause difficulty in certain situations. I’m sure it does, but I’ve yet to experience that. Instead, wearing a collar has opened doors and led to fascinating conversations. Early this summer, for example, I was in the Home Depot buying something on my way home from the church and an employee came up to me and asked me to pray for him. We spent a few minutes talking about the things that were troubling him, and then, right there in the parking lot, we prayed.
Last night, we went to a restaurant downtown after the service. I was starved, so I didn’t take the time to change clothes. We had a lovely meal and a great time. Our server treated us like royalty and we chatted about the wine, pork belly, and all sorts of things. Eventually the conversation turned to church. I identified myself as an Episcopal priest and our server shared with us his story. As a teen he was an active member of a small parish in our diocese and he spoke with great emotion and affection for that experience. That church was open and loving, and the rector’s door was always open to a teenager who was trying to figure things out. Most memorable of all was the youth group’s outing to an AC/DC concert. He’s not a member of an Episcopal church now. Of course I invited him to our services. Perhaps we will see him one day.
We came away from that encounter curiously reassured about what we do in the church. Oh, I know, all of the church growth gurus and consultants would label this man “unchurched” but from what he shared of his life last night, he’s pretty together. I’m guessing when he’s ready to look for a church he will look first at an Episcopal parish. My prayer is that when he does, he will find one as open and loving as the one he holds in his memory. In the meantime if he approaches all of his tables with the grace and sensitivity that he did ours last night, he is already a witness to the love of Christ.
In spite of getting started late (around Memorial Day) and being in the midst of drought, our garden is remarkably productive. As of last week (July 21) we had shared over 200 pounds of produce with the Hispanic Ministry at St. Francis. That’s amazing. So far, the harvest has been squash, beans, peppers, but the tomatoes are beginning to ripen. More than ten people are involved in caring for the garden and harvesting. What a wonderful gift to St. James, and to the community.
I’ll share a couple of photos of the produce
This was taken early in the season
This picture shows last week’s haul
The bishops have been meeting all week and there has already been a great deal of speculation in the press and blogosphere. I encourage you to read the reports of the “blogging bishops.” They are often informative and full of insight into what it’s like to be meeting with 600 other bishops from across the world. The cultural, socio-economic, and even religious differences are vast, but it seems that people are talking to one another.
Of course the press sensationalizes. Thus we heard about the bishops of Sudan condemning The Episcopal Church for consecrating Bishop Robinson. What we didn’t hear in the press is that the deep ties between the Anglican Church in the Sudan and the Episcopal Church are strong and that many Sudanese bishops reassured their American colleagues of the importance of those relationships.
There is also a great deal in the press about the Windsor Continuation Group, with the screaming headlines across England: Anglicans to institute the Inquisition! The report of that group was met with considerable skepticism and will hardly be accepted as it stands.
The bishops marched in London on behalf of the Millennium Development Goals, and then they had tea with the Queen at Buckingham Palace.
It will probably get interesting later this week when the Bishops’ discussion groups finally take up the issues of sexuality and authority. Stay tuned!
This past Sunday was the culmination of another incredibly busy week at St. James. I thought things were supposed to slow down in the summer! We had at least six visitors at the early service–hardy souls! Among them were a couple from Kansas. They were in town for a church and synagogue librarian conference. That in itself raises all sorts of interesting questions.
After the service, they made sure to meet me. She was carrying a book in her hand. They introduced themselves, saying they were from Lawrence, KS (home of the University of Kansas). The book she gave to me was one that had found itself into their church’s library, but had a bookplate identifying it as property of St. James, Greenville.
It wasn’t very old, having been printed in 2000, but I am very curious how it got from here to there. Any ideas?
By the way, I’ve been wondering about the usefulness of church libraries. Ours at St. James seems to be used primarily as a meeting room. Few of the books circulate and most of them are decades old. I remember when I was a child reading many of the books in our church library. There were lots for young readers, but they were carefully censored. Even the Laura Ingalls Wilder books had all the dirty words like “gee” and “gosh” carefully blacked out.
