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Geography of Light

1/22/2017

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Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali. Matthew 4:12-13

For many people, reading the Bible is a struggle – not the least because there are names and places unknown to us. Not only are they on the other side of the world, and far removed from us in time, but we can’t even pronounce them! We have no frame of reference for these places and people and events. And so we get discouraged, put off, because it all seems so strange. How can we possibly connect to them? Part of our challenge, then, is to both not let ourselves be dissuaded, and to make an effort to learn some of the geography, some of the people, the way God’s story in the Bible hangs together.

We see that in this morning’s Gospel: we know who Jesus is, “John” refers to John the Baptist, we know Galilee, we may even know where Nazareth is. But Capernaum, Zebulun and Naphtali? What the heck? Zebulun and Naphtali were the names of two of ancient twelve tribes of Israel. When the land was divided up between the tribes (presumably in the 13th century BC), each area was named for one of the tribes. The region for Zebulun and Napthali formed part of what was later called Galilee, especially along the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. And Capernaum was a bustling fishing town on the northern shore, much bigger than the village of Nazareth, 20 miles to the southwest.

Now if all this sounds like a geography lesson, it is. It was important for Matthew, as he told Jesus’ story, to connect it back to the Hebrew Scriptures; specifically, to what Isaiah had to say to and about that region: “the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned." This is the place from which Jesus launched his public ministry – the hinterlands, a place of oppression from larger surrounding powers – whether Assyrian or Babylonian or Roman, not the center of Jewish worship and government. In other words, a very unlikely place to find the Messiah if one was looking for him, to find the dawning of God’s great light. Geography, in God’s big story, is always important.

So, what about us, what about our geography? There is a school of thought that says churches get planted where God wants them to be – and planted is an intentional word, because planting a church is not just about building a building. It’s about gathering and growing a congregation, a body of people who are committed to following Jesus, to worshiping together, to making the Kingdom of God a reality in their own time and place, to ordering their lives and their life together as a reflection of God’s purposes for the world and their community, to be part of God’s light to the world. The word for church in the New Testament is ekklesia, “called out” – it’s where we get our word ecclesiastical. The church is the body of people, the Body of Christ, who have been called by God out of their secular and civic lives to be transformed by the love of God in Christ, and then sent back into that same community to be agents of God’s healing, love, blessing, goodness, light, and transformation.

So we can ask the question again: what about us, what about our geography? Prior to 1906, the intersection where All Saints’ stands was remarkably similar to what it is now, at least in way the roads were laid out. If you look at some of the old photos you can see that. Long Hill Road has been here since the 18th century, and diagonally across the intersection from us was both a blacksmith shop and an old coaching inn, where extra horses used to be added to coaches before going down the hill into Basking Ridge. Old Forge Road was lined with summer bungalows going down to the river. The road to the station ran past the Millington School House, and eventually to a Main Street that is no longer there, and the Acme Harrow factory and its workers’ houses. And Church Road was a private carriage track, which served the homes of the Nash and Nishwitz families, and the Millington Field Club. A busy crossroads, even then. And when a group of people decided, after a number of years of worshipping in Basking Ridge and holding Sunday School classes in homes and in the school building, to see if an Episcopal church could be planted in Millington, this was the spot that seemed good to them and to the Holy Spirit. The land was given by the daughters of the Nishwitz family, but why here and not another location? I don’t know.

Perhaps this crossroads was deemed central, and a reasonable walking distance for families on both sides of Long Hill. What I do know is that since 1906, when the building was consecrated, All Saints’ has served its neighborhood and community. The specific shapes of some of the ministries has changed over the years. Even the buildings have been expanded, modified, repurposed in some ways, but continuing to house our worship, to shelter those who come seeking solace and peace, to provide space for our ministries and the community beyond our crossroads; to be a light of God’s love.

We know clearly how much our front-lawn Rummage Sale is a benefit and a neighborhood fiesta every fall. And when we held a bake sale and hotdog sale on the same lawn on this past Election Day while voters came to the Parish House, and had the church open for prayer, we showed up for the community on a day filled with a variety of emotions and uncertainty. Nearly every night of the week there is some meeting or activity going on in the Parish House or the Church Undercroft that is not a parish-based event, but benefits our neighbors. We send parishioners out from here to work with Family Promise homeless shelter, to supply the food pantry at St. John’s in Dover, and some local families. And we welcome our friends in the Christian Community as they worship in our buildings, and partner with us in hospitality to Vets from Lyons and from Long Hill – all forms of bearing the light of Christ.

This not to say, “Hooray for us” as much as it is to recognize that God still has mission and ministry, work, for us to do – the Church at the crossroads. It is always a work in progress; it is always an experiment that we try, then reflect on and evaluate (the failures as well as the successes). It is always a process of listening to the Holy Spirit in the voices of our neighbors, in the words of Scripture and liturgy, in the “still, small voice” of our own heart and mind.

The work of God’s kingdom continues, and we are called to it as much as Peter and Andrew were, as much as James and John were. As we are “fishers for people,” we are sent into our neighborhoods and communities offering a word of hope, an expression of love, a hand of reconciliation, an encouragement of peace, a blessing of friendship, a prayer of healing, an invitation to this body of worship and service, a welcome in this place as we stand together in God presence and grace.

This is our geography; this is where the light shines in the darkness. This is where God has planted us for the sake our neighbors, our corner of God’s Kingdom. Let us, like Peter and Andrew, James and John, follow with eagerness and haste on the adventure Jesus continues to call us to.

Let us pray in these words, written by Bishop Thomas Ken in the 17th century:
O God,
make the doors of this house wide enough
to receive all who need human love
and fellowship, and a heavenly Father’s care;
and narrow enough to shut out
all envy, pride and strife.
Make its threshold smooth enough
to be no stumbling block to children,
nor to straying feet,
but rugged enough
to turn back the tempter’s power:
O God,
make the doors of this house
the gateway to your eternal kingdom. Amen.

Victoria Geer McGrath
All Saints’ Church, Millington, NJ
Third Sunday after Epiphany
January 22, 2017


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Begin By Abiding

1/15/2017

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When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, "What are you looking for?" They said to him, "Rabbi" (which translated means Teacher), "where are you staying?" He said to them, "Come and see." They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about four o'clock in the afternoon. John 1:38-39

We all know and remember when personal life-changing events happened – when you met the love of your life, when a parent died, when your child was born. We also remember when we heard the news of world changing events – when Pearl harbor was bombed, when Kennedy was shot, when the World Trade Center was attacked and collapsed. Momentous, life-changing events.

What about the first time you encountered the love and grace of God, and knew it for what it is? What about the first time you said “yes” to following Jesus? In the evangelical tradition, that is a pretty standard question. Most evangelical Christians are able to remember clearly when they accepted the over-flowing grace of God, and committed themselves in faith and gratitude to following Jesus. It becomes an important anchor in their story of faith, as they give witness to the way God has worked in their lives.

For Christians from a more main-line Protestant tradition, or from a Catholic or Orthodox tradition, that question can be harder to answer, because many of us grew up in the faith, and so we can’t really remember a time when we did not know and love the Lord. Or we may have come to faith gradually, bit by bit, and it is only by looking in the rear-view mirror that we can see how far we have traveled in our faith. We don’t always have that bright line marking a before and after.

But I hope all of us can identify one or several times when we have experienced a major spiritual growth spurt, a fresh out-pouring of the Spirit, a new clarity about Jesus and his claim on your life, a spiritual awakening. Take a minute and see if you can remember such a time.

This morning’s Gospel is all about meeting Jesus for the first time, and the impact it had.

In John’s version, this meeting takes place the day after Jesus had gone to the river to be baptized by John the Baptist. The Gospel writer doesn’t tell us about that event; it happens off-stage, and we only hear about it afterward. John and some of his disciples are out in public and John sees Jesus coming toward them and points him out to the disciples: “Look, that’s the guy I was telling you about; he’s the One who is God’s Passover Lamb, the Anointed One. I know it because I saw the Holy Spirit come down on him in the shape of a dove, and God told me that’s who he is.”

It happened again the next day with Andrew and another of John’s followers. Jesus was passing by and the two disciples followed. When Jesus heard them, he stopped and asked them: “What do you want? What do you seek? What are you longing for?” And they asked Jesus where he was staying – but that word is about more than just a lodging place. The word really is about abiding – enduring, being rooted in, being steadfast. They wanted to know what gave Jesus his grounding, the roots of his being. And his answer to them was: Come and see; come and find out for yourself; an invitation to enter into relationship with Jesus, to learn from and be transformed by him. And Andrew and the other disciple remember very clearly when this momentous thing happened to them – four o-clock in the afternoon. From that point on, everything began to be different for them. That was their bright line.

But even as they crossed the threshold of the Kingdom of God being inaugurated in their midst, they did not just sit tight, pleased with their own spiritual awakening, their own up-close-and-personal moment with God’s Messiah. Andrew went off to find his brother Simon, so that he, too could come and meet Jesus. And in very short order Jesus changed his name to Cephas (in Greek), Peter (in English) – meaning “the rock,” you might his name was changed to Rocky.

And that happens so often throughout the Biblical story. Someone has an encounter with God, a deep and life-changing experience, and God changes their name, their identity - an outward sign of the inner reality that the Spirit of God is bringing to fruition in that person’s life. And we know from the Gospel record that Andrew and Peter and the other disciples would abide with Jesus for the three years of his public ministry, which gave them a grounding and a preparation for their mission that was launched when the Holy Spirit was given to them at Pentecost, after the astounding events of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection.

That’s the way Christian life works – for all of us. Jesus calls us to abide with him, to put down roots through prayer, and Scripture, and worship, and song. Jesus asks us to stay close, to learn from him, to watch and listen. But eventually, we get sent out – first for a test-drive, and then for longer runs, on more difficult terrain, sometimes in bad weather, sometimes with a great deal of urgency. Our life of service to others and the world in Christ’s Name is always fueled by the Holy Spirit. Our work on behalf of the Kingdom of God is driven and shaped by what we have learned, and absorbed, and internalized by our prayer, and study, and reflection. And eventually we get to that place where we need to return, rest, abide once again, if we are to be ready to be sent out on the next mission, the next errand for God.

Today is the birthday of someone who knew all about being on a mission for God: Martin Luther King, jr. His birthday is January 15th, and for the last 20+ years it has been set aside as a federal holiday – not just to remember the life and work and witness of Dr. King, but to inspire Americans from all racial and ethnic backgrounds, from all walks of life, to work for the ongoing justice and equity of our national life.

But where do those values come from in the first place? The Declaration of Independence states: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.” But where did Jefferson get it? In reality, the truth of equality comes from God, from knowing - as we read in Genesis- that we have all been made in the image of God, that human nature was designed to reflect the divine capacity for goodness, for love, for relationship, for co-creating with God. And if each person - male and female – has these God-given attributes, then wealth, or rank, or race, or status, or gender cannot change or take away the dignity and value of any person. Dr. King knew this, lived this, and his study of Scripture, theology, and history deepened his conviction.

We each have a mission for God. It may not be as dramatic as Martin Luther King’s; we may not always be clear on what that mission is. And it will change and develop over time. But our mission for God is always grounded, fed, watered, supplied by our ability to abide in Christ, to put down deep roots with Jesus so that we may draw strength, knowledge, wisdom, healing, joy, and power to do that which we are called to do: to proclaim the Good news of God in Christ in word and action, as the Spirit leads us.

Let us pray in the words from the hymn “Lift every voice and sing”, written by James Weldon Johnson in 1899, that became known as the anthem of the Civil Rights movement:

God of our weary years,
God of our silent tears,
Thou who hast brought us thus far on the way;
Thou who has by Thy might
Led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee,
Lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee,
Shadowed beneath Thy hand, may we forever stand,
True to our God, true to our native land. Amen.

Victoria Geer McGrath
All Saints’ Church, Millington, N
Second Sunday after Epiphany
January 15, 2017

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All Saints' Episcopal Church

 15 Basking Ridge Road, Millington NJ 07946    phone: (908) 647-0067    email: allstsmill@hotmail.com