Poems of Mary Oliver

Mary Oliver (wikipedia) died this week. I have preached on her and have used her poetry for our lenten devotional. These two poems I used in our service today:



As you read this poem, ask yourself a simple question and take some time to ponder it: "How, then, shall I live?" ~ Parker Palmer

When death comes
like the hungry bear in autumn;
when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse
to buy me, and snaps the purse shut;
when death comes
like the measle-pox;
when death comes
like an iceberg between the shoulder blades,
I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering:
what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness?
And therefore I look upon everything
as a brotherhood and a sisterhood,
and I look upon time as no more than an idea,
and I consider eternity as another possibility,
and I think of each life as a flower, as common
as a field daisy, and as singular,
and each name a comfortable music in the mouth,
tending, as all music does, toward silence,
and each body a lion of courage, and something
precious to the earth.
When it's over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.
When it's over, I don't want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument.
I don't want to end up simply having visited the world.

(When Death Comes (by Mary Oliver))
 
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1.

Something came up
out of the dark.
It wasn’t anything I had ever seen before.
It wasn’t an animal
or a flower,
unless it was both.

Something came up out of the water,
a head the size of a cat
but muddy and without ears.
I don’t know what God is.
I don’t know what death is.

But I believe they have between them
some fervent and necessary arrangement.

2.

Sometime
melancholy leaves me breathless…

3.

Water from the heavens! Electricity from the source!
Both of them mad to create something!

The lighting brighter than any flower.
The thunder without a drowsy bone in its body.

4.

Instructions for living a life:
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.

5.
Two or three times in my life I discovered love.
Each time it seemed to solve everything.
Each time it solved a great many things
but not everything.
Yet left me as grateful as if it had indeed, and
thoroughly, solved everything.

6.

God, rest in my heart
and fortify me,
take away my hunger for answers,
let the hours play upon my body

like the hands of my beloved.
Let the cathead appear again—
the smallest of your mysteries,
some wild cousin of my own blood probably—
some cousin of my own wild blood probably,
in the black dinner-bowl of the pond.

7.

Death waits for me, I know it, around
one corner or another.
This doesn’t amuse me.
Neither does it frighten me.

After the rain, I went back into the field of sunflowers.
It was cool, and I was anything but drowsy.
I walked slowly, and listened

to the crazy roots, in the drenched earth, laughing and growing.

(Sometimes by Mary Oliver)

Epiphany 2 Sermon (MLK Weekend)

Almighty God, by the hand of Moses your servant you led your people out of slavery, and made them free at last: Grant that your Church, following the example of your prophet Martin Luther King, may resist oppression in the name of your love, and may secure for all your children the blessed liberty of the Gospel of Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

…now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits... (1 Corinthians 12)

In Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, He talks of the Holy Spirit coming upon the followers of Jesus. In that spirit that rests on us, it is bestowed on each of us as a gift… we call them the gifts of the Spirit.

To one is given through the Spirit:

• the utterance of wisdom
• the utterance of knowledge
• faith
• gifts of healing
• the working of miracles
• prophecy
• discernment of spirits
• various kinds of tongues
• the interpretation of tongues

None of us has all the gifts. But in community like ours, St. Peter’s, there is someone amongst us who has each of these gifts.

It is the same Holy Spirit from whom all these are activated and who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses. And why?

“To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.”

And that is an important statement because these gifts are not meant to puff us up, to act proudly as if one was more important than another. They are given to us for the common good. To build each other up, to tear down the injustices in our society and to help bring about the Kingdom of God, the Beloved Community as the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once put it.

When I think about the spirit and Dr. King, I think about one who was given the gift of prophecy and the discernment of spirits. He discerned where America was and the ills that it faced in our society of racism, poverty and militarism. Issues that still befall us today. In a speech from 1967:

Three major evils—the evil of racism, the evil of poverty, and the evil of war. These are the three things that I want to deal with today. Now let us turn first to the evil of racism. There can be no gainsaying of the fact that racism is still alive all over America. Racial injustice is still the Negro’s burden and America’s shame. And we must face the hard fact that many Americans would like to have a nation which is a democracy for white Americans but simultaneously a dictatorship over black Americans. We must face the fact that we still have much to do in the area of race relations Now to be sure there has been some progress, and I would not want to overlook that…Now let us be sure that we will have to keep the pressure alive. We’ve never made any gain in civil rights without constant, persistent, legal and non-violent pressure. Don’t let anybody make you feel that the problem will work itself out …

And to that he is right. Until we work at it in our lives, in our society, in all the ways it manifests itself in bias, in discrimination, in privilege, racism will continue to haunt us.

The second evil that I want to deal with is the evil of poverty. Like a monstrous octopus it spreads its nagging prehensile tentacles into cities and hamlets and villages all over our nation. Now there is nothing new about poverty. It’s been with us for years and centuries. What is new at this point though, is that we now have the resources, we now have the skills, we now have the techniques to get rid of poverty. And the question is whether our nation has the will …

There once was a war on poverty. And yet poverty continues. We have people working full time jobs getting food from food banks. What is the will of this nation? Too often I think we have lost our sense of community because we are so caught up individual lives and individual identity that the common good does not exist unless there is something in it for me. This is a profoundly unchristian idea.

Now I want to deal with the third evil that constitutes the dilemma of our nation and the world. And that is the evil of war. Somehow these three evils are tied together. The triple evils of racism, economic exploitation, and militarism. The great problem and the great challenge facing mankind today is to get rid of war… We have left ourselves as a nation morally and politically isolated in the world.

We follow under the banner of the Prince of Peace. Jesus taught us to love one another as he loved us. He taught us to fight against the sin we ourselves do in our world. To often we have turned to make war so we don’t have to deal with the realities of our own lives and the sin we do. War should always be the least and last solution to our problems. And our military should never be the number one thing in our budget. We have made war profitable at the expense of our lives.

For those who are telling me to keep my mouth shut, I can’t do that. I’m against segregation at lunch counters, and I’m not going to segregate my moral concerns. And we must know on some positions, cowardice asks the question, “Is it safe?” Expediency asks the question, “Is it politic?” Vanity asks the question, “Is it popular?” But conscience asks the question, “Is it right?” And there’re times when you must take a stand that is neither safe nor politic nor popular, but you must do it because it is right. (from here)

And of course, his positions made him unpopular with many in our country. Such hate would ultimately take his life on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis just a year later.

But his prophetic words and his discernment of America still ring true. And his mantle has been passed to us to do what is right.

Over the centuries men have sought to discover the highest good. This has been the chief quest of ethical philosophy. This was one of the big questions of Greek philosophy...What is the summon bonum of life? I think I have an answer America. I think I have discovered the highest good. It is love. This principle stands at the center of the cosmos. As John says, "God is love." He who loves is a participant in the being of God. He who hates does not know God. (from here)

The Rev. Dr Martin Lither, King, Jr. preached those words in 1956. His life and his preaching focused on love, even as his challenged America to live better so that everyone could experience liberty and justice for all.

Let us in 2019, do what is right, do the hard work to combat racism poverty & war, to live into God’s love, and share that with America so all can have that liberty and justice for all. Amen.

Baptism of Jesus Sermon

O holy God, help us see ourselves as you see us—beautiful and beloved. In moments when we feel that we are not enough, surround us with your love and remind us that we are yours. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

And a voice came from heaven,

“You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” (NRSV)

I wonder how Jesus felt as he walked to the River Jordan and his cousin John.  He was baptized just as so many were around him. Then he came out of those baptismal waters and the voice of love rained upon him.

For the voice from heaven he heard is addressed to him: “You are my Son, the beloved; with you I am well pleased.” Baptism give us our identity with God.  It reminded Jesus and it teaches us who we are – God’s beloved children – and of the promise of God’s unconditional love.

In a time when our identity is often challenged: we often change jobs and careers, most of us have lived in different residences rather that living in a single town or community, fewer families remain together and often spread out over long distances – there is a desire to understand who we are.

As our foundation, baptism reminds us that we discover who we are in relation to whose we are, that is God’s beloved children, and nothing changes that truth for us. We belong to God’s family, and the water and oil of baptism is a sign of that grace, that gift.

“The great struggle of the Christian life is to take God’s name for us, to believe we are beloved and to believe that is enough.” - Rachel Held Evans (author and Episcopalian)

In the prophet Isaiah, we hear that we are God’s chosen ones, in whom God’s soul delights; who call us each by name.  It is God who has known us, as Psalm 139 says, God created our inmost parts; knit us together in our mothers’ wombs. From which we give thanks because we are marvelously made; God’s works are wonderful, and we know it well.

And there was a voice from heaven:

“You are my Son, whom I dearly love; in you I find happiness.” (CEB)

We all enjoy to hear someone say to us, “Thank you.  You did well.  You have made me happy.  I love you.”  Today, Jesus hears those words from his Father in heaven — and, in the waters of our own baptisms, God speaks those same words to us.  We are the beloved of God; God claims us as his own. 

Unless and until we hear the voice from heaven claiming that we are cherished by a God who is “well-pleased” with us, we will never be able to truly cherish anyone or believe that we are their beloved as well.  The voice of God — our creator —speaks to all of us in the sacrament of Baptism; the Spirit of God descends upon us, enabling us to give to others the love God joyfully gives to us.  

How do we do this? Let me tell you one of my favorite stories…

Two friends are having lunch at a local restaurant when one woman is distracted by a scene two tables over.

"What's the matter?" her friend asks. "See that couple over there? We're sharing the same waiter except they're being so demanding that he barely has time for anyone else. Look at how they turn up their noses at everything he brings them."

"Maybe their order just isn't to their liking." "No, that's not it at all. I was a waitress in college and I know the game. They're just trying to berate that kid into a free lunch."

Just then, they watch as the manager walks over to the table and stands next to the waiter. The couple complains loudly about the food and service. The manager takes the check from the waiter and motions him away. "See what I mean?" the woman says.

The embarrassed waiter comes over to the women's table. "Is there anything else I can get you?" he asks, his eyes downcast as he places the check on the table between the two women.

The former waitress snatches the check before her friend can even look at it and pulls out several bills from her purse. She hands everything to the waiter.

"Keep the change."

"But ma'am, that's . . ."

She takes the young man's hand and squeezes it. She looks him in the eye and says, "I know the kind of afternoon you're having. You're a terrific waiter. And you've earned every dime of this. So don't argue with an old lady who's been there." [From The Other Ninety Percent by Robert K. Cooper.]

That’s how you treat another as a beloved in God’s creation.

And along with the Spirit, a voice:

“You are my Son, chosen and marked by my love, pride of my life.” (Message)

Take a moment.  Listen to those words. You are God’s chosen, marked by God’s love…

Today, Isabella will be baptized. She will become part of the Body of Christ. And through the Beloved, Jesus, she too will become marked by love. It is grace.

A grace we all have experienced in our own baptisms.

O baptized friends, today let us live out of this holy water, taking that love out with us, so that others can know that they too are dearly loved and that in them we find happiness. Amen.

A Prayer for Connecticut

As the new legislature begins, with a new governor, it is time for us to pray for our state:

Almighty God our heavenly Father, send down upon those who hold office in this State of Connecticut the spirit of wisdom, charity, and justice; that with steadfast purpose they may faithfully serve in their offices to promote the well-being of all people; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Heavenly Father, in your Word you have given us a vision of that holy City to which the nations of the world bring their glory: Behold and visit, we pray, this state. Renew the ties of mutual regard which form our civic life. Send us honest and able leaders. Enable us to eliminate poverty, prejudice, and oppression, that peace may prevail with righteousness, and justice with order, and that men and women from different cultures and with differing talents may find with one another the fulfillment of their humanity; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Epiphany Sermon

Jesus, light of the world, let your bright star stand over the place where the poor have to live; lead our sages to wisdom and our rulers to reverence. Amen. (NZPB)

There is a story told in India: “In one very poor district, there are no lights in the streets and in very few of the houses because of the expense of oil. But, as in all areas of India, there is a temple, frequented by the poor. The structure is primitive, with a huge brass chandelier that hangs from the roof and has spaces for one hundred small lamps. These spaces are empty until those who come to pray and worship arrive.

“Each worshipper comes from home carrying a lamp through the darkened streets and then places the lamp in the chandelier. Slowly the darkened temple begins to glow with light that builds and grows stronger. The empty places are noted and those who are missing are sought out after the service, questioned, given care or words of comfort, or challenged. Their light is necessary for all to worship.”

I love that image. For we too must bring our light with us to worship here and Each of our lights is needed to brighten our service. If we do not shine brightly, our church, like that of the Indian temple, will remain darker than it could be.

The feast of the Epiphany invites us to not only follow the star with the magi and find Jesus in our Bethlehem. For the magi found the Holy Family, and offered their gifts. We too must share our gifts, to add our light to the church and to the world.

"Just trying to be a light, trying to help out the best way I can," he said.

No money can make up for the loss of a child, but NFL star DeAndre Hopkins says he hopes the donation of his playoff game check to the family of Jazmine Barnes will show how much the community supports them. The star Houston Texans receiver told CNN that he is not trying to get credit.... "Just trying to be a light, trying to help out the best way I can," he said. (CNN)

To be a light is what we are all called to be.

On Christmas morning, a single mom and her two sons, ages 14 and 12, boarded a plane in Atlanta. They were heading to San Diego to spend Christmas with friends.

Another single mother boarded the same flight, wrangling two small boys, ages 2 and 3. The older boy was wearing a ”halo” neck brace to immobilize his head and spine. They took their seats two rows behind the first family. The younger child sat on her lap, and the boy in the halo took the middle seat — next to a man with a look of unmitigated dread. Both toddlers immediately started screaming. The boy in the halo wanted no part of the seat belt and the other didn’t want to sit on his mother’s lap.

The first mom knew what the toddlers’ mom was going through. Once the plane was in the air, she got up and offered her seat to the ashen-faced man near the window. He looked spectacularly relieved. She took his place and offered the mom an extra pair of hands. For the next four hours she read Dr. Seuss, walked up and down the aisle with the boys, amused them with hand puppets, changed diapers, doled out Goldfish crackers and bottles.

During the last hour of the flight, both children were asleep, and the two moms had a chance to talk. The second mom asked the first mom about her sons’ father. She told her about the divorce and a new relationship that was faltering. “And your sons – Where is their father?” she asked gingerly.

The toddlers’ mom spoke softly: “Six months ago, my husband was killed in a car accident. I was at home with the baby, and my older son” — she pointed to the three-year-old with the halo — “was airlifted in critical condition from the scene. He had a broken neck and severe internal injuries. It was touch and go for a while. He still has a ways to go.”

She went on to explain that she was on leave from Delta and was now trying to sort out the next moves for her and her boys. For now, she was taking them to see her family in California. She smiled wistfully. “You never know how quickly life can change. The life you plan . . . ” Her voice trailed off as she smiled at the sleeping child in her lap.

The first mom writes of that Christmas: “I had intended to be the generous one that morning. My gift to her was an extra pair of hands to wrangle spirited toddlers trapped on a plane. But her gift to me was of the Magi order. It was the gift of perspective, of being able to step back and appreciate what I have, however frustrating . . . thanks to that stranger on a plane, I discovered I had more patience and appreciation in me.”  [From “The Magi at 40,000 feet” by Laura Wilkinson Sinton, The New York Times, December 22, 2011.]

On our individual journeys through this life, we discover those stars that help us find our way; we meet “magi” whose wisdom and grace help us discern our course; we realize the gift of God’s presence in the Bethlehem of our own hearts.

Every one of our lives is a journey of discovery, of growing in wisdom and grace, of finding God. Like the magi’s search for the Messiah-king, like the meeting of the two moms on a 757 one Christmas morning, our own everyday odyssey is a journey of faith, a constant search for meaning, for purpose, for the things of God that, often unnoticed and unappreciated, are part of every human experience.

The Gospel of the Epiphany challenges us to fix our journey on the “star” that leads us to embrace a perspective of gratitude and humility that leads us to find the love of God in our midst. And once we find it, to share that light, that love with the world. Amen.

Epiphany: Blessing of Chalk

Today the Church celebrates the Feast of the Epiphany, which marks the end of the twelve days of Christmas each year on January 6. Epiphany is a Greek word meaning “manifestation” or “appearing.” At the Feast of the Epiphany, we celebrate Jesus being made manifest or appearing as Christ. The most widely celebrated manifestation of Christ on this feast day, and the one that has been historically celebrated by Christian churches in the West, is Jesus revealed as Christ to the (three) Magi, from the East, who followed the Star of Bethlehem at Jesus’ birth.

ORDER FOR THE BLESSING OF CHALK

V. Our help is the name of the Lord:
R. The maker of heaven and earth.
V. The Lord shall watch over your going out and your coming in:
R. From this time forth for evermore.
V. The Lord be with you.
R. And also with you.

Let us pray. Loving God, bless this chalk which you have created, that it may be helpful to your people; and grant that through the invocation of your most Holy Name all who use it in faith to write upon the doors of their homes the names of your saints, Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar, may receive health of body and protection of soul for all who dwell in or visit their home; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

THE BLESSING OF HOMES AT EPIPHANYTIDE

The initials (C M B) remind us of the legendary names of the Magi – Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar – and also stand for the Latin motto: Christus mansionem benedicat, “May Christ bless this house.” In the Book of Exodus, the Israelites marked their doors with blood so that the Lord would pass over their homes; but in this ritual, we mark our doors with chalk as a sign that we have invited God’s presence and blessing into our homes.

It is traditional to write the inscription on the lintel, above the door, but it can be written anywhere near the entrance:

20 + C + M + B + 19

(as you write, say) The three Wise Men, Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar followed the star of God’s Son who became human two thousand and nineteen years ago. May Christ bless our home and remain with us throughout the new year. Amen.

Then say the following prayer:

Visit, O blessed Lord, this home with the gladness of your presence. Bless all who live or visit here with the gift of your love; and grant that we may manifest your love to each other and to all whose lives we touch. May we grow in grace and in the knowledge and love of you; guide, comfort, and strengthen us in peace, O Jesus Christ, now and for ever. Amen.

The chalk blessing prayer is adapted from various traditional sources.

The Desert Mothers

The Desert Mothers were female Christian ascetics living in the desert of Egypt, Palestine, and Syria in the 4th and 5th centuries AD. They typically lived in the monastic communities that began forming during that time, though sometimes they lived as hermits. Other women from that era who influenced the early ascetic or monastic tradition while living outside the desert are also described as Desert Mothers.

The Desert Fathers are much more well known because most of the early lives of the saints "were written by men for a male monastic audience" the occasional stories about the Desert Mothers come from the early Desert Fathers and their biographers. Many desert women had leadership roles within the Christian community. There are several chapters dedicated to the Desert Mothers in the Lausiac History by Palladius, who mentions 2,975 women living in the desert. Other sources include the various stories told over the years about the lives of saints of that era, traditionally called vitae ("life"). The lives of twelve female desert saints are described in Book I of Vitae Patrum (Lives of the Fathers).

The Desert Mothers were known as ammas ("spiritual mothers"), comparable to the Desert Fathers (abbas), due to the respect they earned as spiritual teachers and directors. One of the most well known Desert Mothers was Amma Syncletica of Alexandria, who had twenty-seven sayings attributed to her in the Apophthegmata Patrum, or Sayings of the Desert Fathers. Two other ammas, Theodora of Alexandria and Amma Sarah of the Desert, also had sayings in that book.

According to written accounts, Amma Syncletica might have been born around AD270, since she is said to have lived to her eighties in about AD350, to wealthy parents in Alexandria and was well educated, including an early study of the writings of Desert Father Evagrius Ponticus. After the death of her parents, she sold everything she had and gave the money to the poor. Moving outside the city with her blind sister, she lived as a hermit among the tombs outside of Alexandria. Gradually a community of women ascetics grew up around her, who she served as their spiritual mother. Even though she was an ascetic and hermit, Syncletica taught moderation, and that asceticism was not an end in itself.

Theodora of Alexandria was the amma of a monastic community of women near Alexandria. Prior to that, she had fled to the desert disguised as a man and joined a community of monks. She was sought out by many of the Desert Fathers for advicereportedly Bishop Theophilus of Alexandria came to her for counsel.

Sarah of the Desert's sayings indicate that she was a hermit living by a river for sixty years. Her sharp replies to some of the old men who challenged her show a distinctly strong personality. According to one story, two male anchorites visited her in the desert and decided, "Let's humiliate this old woman." They said to her, "Be careful not to become conceited thinking to yourself: "Look how anchorites are coming to see me, a mere woman." She replied, "According to nature I am a woman, but not according to my thoughts."

Sayings:

Amma Sarah said, "If I prayed God that all people should approve of my conduct, I should find myself a penitent at the door of each one, but I shall rather pray that my heart may be pure toward all."

Amma Syncletica said, "In the beginning there are a great many battles and a good deal of suffering for those who are advancing towards God and afterwards, ineffable joy. It is like those who wish to light a fire; at first they are choked by the smoke and cry, and by this means obtain what they seek... so we must also kindle the divine fire in ourselves through tears and hard work."

Amma Syncletica said, "There are many who live in the mountains and behave as if they were in the town; they are wasting their time. It is possible to be a solitary in one's mind while living in a crowd; and it is possible for those who are solitaries to live in the crowd of their own thoughts."

Amma Theodora said that neither asceticism, nor vigils, nor any kind of suffering are able to save. Only true humility can do that. There was a hermit who was able to banish the demons. And he asked them: "What makes you go away? Is it fasting?" They replied: "We do not eat or drink." "Is it vigils?" They said: "We do not sleep." "Then what power sends you away?" They replied: "Nothing can overcome us except humility alone." Amma Theodora said: "Do you see how humility is victorious over the demons?"

From: http://www.missionstclare.com/english/January/morning/05m.html