Living in a Time of Anxiety (Poems & Prayer)

 

“Into the Darkest Hour” by Madeleine L’Engle

It was a time like this,
War & tumult of war,
a horror in the air.
Hungry yawned the abyss —
and yet there came the star
and the child most wonderfully there.

It was time like this
of fear & lust for power,
license & greed and blight —
and yet the Prince of bliss
came into the darkest hour
in quiet & silent light.

And in a time like this
how celebrate his birth
when all things fall apart?
Ah! wonderful it is
with no room on the earth
the stable is our heart.

"The Peace of Wild Things" by Wendell Berry

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

A Collect for Peace

O God, the author of peace and lover of concord, to know you is eternal life and to serve you is perfect freedom: Defend us, your humble servants, in all assaults of our enemies; that we, surely trusting in your defense, may not fear the power of any adversaries; through the might of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

from the American Cathedral in Paris

So many friends and colleagues have written in the last 18 hours expressing support, promising their prayers, and asking what they could do. I cannot tell you how incredibly important this has been to all of us at the American Cathedral. It is a very fearful time, and we are still bewildered and unsure. Knowing we have prayers coming from around the world, that we have a cloud of witnesses, and that we are so inextricably connected in the Body of Christ makes all the difference.

What can you do? First of all, I ask your prayers:

• for the victims, those who died and those wounded
• for their families
• for all those who have helped and are helping
• for all who protect us
• for the city of Paris, and especially our Cathedral community
• for all those whose anger, fear and hatred lead them to commit such acts
• for hope, for light in the darkness, and for peace

Secondly, I urge you to give some serious thought to next steps. Your expressions of support are strong and genuine – but where do they go? We have all held each other up before – after the Charlie Hebdo shootings, for instance, and after 9/11 – and shared a strong sense of unity. I’m not sure where I am going with this; I only mean that our prayers must lead us to action. Here in France I suspect there will be very, very strong anti-Muslim sentiment, and one thing we must do is stand with our Muslim brothers and sisters, and foster conversation and understanding.

I think we also need to work harder to care for the flood of refugees fleeing terror in their own countries – work for immediate care and for political solutions. You will need to find your own mission in the US, but I know that it must involve continued dedication and commitment to making justice and making peace, and being a light in the darkness.

Thank you again, my brothers and sisters.


The Very Rev. Lucinda Laird
Dean, The American Cathedral in Paris
November 14, 2015

(Thank you to Episcopal Cafe for originally posting this.)

#PrayforParis #PrayforBeruit #Pray

Prayers from the Church of England

Compassionate God and Father of all,
we are horrified at violence
in so many parts of the world (especially Paris & Beirut).
It seems that none are safe, and some are terrified.

Hold back the hands that kill and maim;
turn around the hearts that hate.
Grant instead your strong Spirit of Peace -
peace that passes our understanding
but changes lives,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen

God of Hope,
we come to you in shock and grief and confusion of heart.
Help us to find peace in the knowledge
of your loving mercy to all your children,
and give us light to guide us out of our darkness
into the assurance of your love,
In Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

Merciful God,
hear the cries of our grief,
for you know the anguish of our hearts.
It is beyond our understanding
and more than we can bear.

We pray that justice may be done
and that we may treasure the memory of their lives
more than the manner of their death.
For Christ's sake. Amen.

© Archbishops' Council 2015

Veterans Day Prayer

O God of peace,
we pray for those who have served our nation,
who laid down their lives
to protect and defend our freedom...

We pray for those who have fought,
whose spirits and bodies are scarred by war
and whose nights are haunted by memories
too painful for the light of day...

We pray for those who serve us now,
especially for those in harm's way:
shield them from danger
and bring them home,
soon...

Turn the hearts and minds
of our leaders and our enemies
to the work of justice and a harvest of peace...

May the peace you left us,
the peace you gave us,
be the peace that sustains,
the peace that saves us.

O Lord Jesus, hear our prayer
for our Veterans & their families,
for those who heard the call and serve today
and for a lasting peace in our country & world!
Amen.

(slightly adapted from the Concord Pastor)

Sermon: November 8

Take our lips, O Lord, and speak through them; Take our minds and think through them; Take our hearts and set them on fire, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Last week I spoke about the saints, some of those saints are still on our pillars. How they paid forward the generous gift they had from God by giving away their lives to what God called them to do. As we are part of the Body of Christ with those saints, may we follow their lead and pay it forward.

Consider the words of Jesus today from the Gospel of Mark:

Teaching in the temple, Jesus said, "Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets! They devour widows' houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers…

It’s not about appearances but so often, that is how we judge. We look to the external, but God looks deeper…

But after watching a widow throw in two small copper pennies (the widow’s mite), Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had…"

Appearance alone, the widow paid little, but she paid more deeply that the rich. If we only look at appearances, we often miss the unsung heroes, those without whom, events would not have shaped up the way they were. Sometimes, it’s the least likely, whom we need to remember and honor.

As we remember our veterans this Wednesday, I want to introduce you to Augusta Chiwy (pronounced CHEE-wee). She died in August at her home near Brussels, Belgium. She was 94 years old.

Most of us have never heard of Augusta Chiwy. But she was one of the true heroines of World War II. Countless American soldiers who were wounded in the Battle of the Bulge owe their lives to her. She appears briefly in Stephen Ambrose's book Band of Brothers. British military historian Martin King traced her to her retirement home and documented her story in his book The Forgotten Nurse.

Augusta Chiwy was born near the Rwandan border in what is now part of Burundi. Her father was a veterinarian from Belgium; her mother was Congolese. The family moved to Bastogne when she was nine. She planned on becoming a teacher, but turned to nursing when the war began.

When she was 23, Augusta was working as a nurse in a hospital in the Flemish town of Louvain. In December 1944, she was visiting her family at their home in Bastogne, she began to help with the wounded with her uncle who was a doctor. One night, John Prior, a young Army doctor from Vermont, knocked on the door. He was desperate for help. The battle had begun and he was alone in a makeshift medical aid station.

Augusta immediately went to work at the station. At the time, black nurses were not allowed to treat white soldiers - but the doctor got around the regulation by reminding wounded white soldiers that Ms. Chiwy was a volunteer - and added, "You either let her treat you or you die."

During the siege, the station's ambulance driver was killed. Augusta and her friend, Renee Lemaire, put on Army uniforms and drove the ambulance to the front and back. Because they were wearing Army uniforms and not nurses' garb, they could have been shot had the Germans captured them.

The two women combed the battlefield, often coming under enemy fire, to find the wounded in the deep snow. As Ms. Chiwy retrieved soldiers from the front lines, the doctor joked that her five-foot frame enabled her to dodge mortars and heavy machine-gun fire. She replied. "Those Germans must be terrible marksmen."

On December 24, 1944, around 8:30PM, a German bomber dropped a 500-pound shell that landed next door to the aid station. According to a column in a Belgian newspaper, the aid station was demolished. Ms. Lemaire managed to evacuate six soldiers from the burning building, and died while she attempted to save a seventh. Renee and 30 wounded American soldiers died that night. Augusta herself was blown through a wall in another building, but survived.

The siege at Bastogne ended two days later, the day after Christmas, when the Fourth Armored Division broke through. Several hundred American GIs owe their lives to the young nurse who worked at the two aid stations for more than a month.

After the war, Augusta married a Belgian soldier. They had two children. Augusta went on to work in a hospital treating patients with spinal injuries. She rarely spoke of her wartime experiences.

Sixty-seven years after that horrible winter, Ms. Chiwy was honored by the Belgian government. “Men lived and families were reunited due to your efforts,” She said simply, "What I did was very normal. I would have done it for anyone. We are all children of God." [The New York Times, August 25, 2015.]

The quiet dedication and generous service of Augusta Chiwy and women and men like her mirror the "mightiness" of the widow's mite that Jesus exalts in today's Gospel.

In exalting the gift of the poor widow, Jesus wants us to realize that, in the economy of God, numbers are not the true value of giving. It is what we give from our want, not from our extra, that speaks of what we truly value, what good we want to make happen, what we want our lives and world to be.

In the Gospel scheme of things, it is not the measure of the gift but the measure of the love that directs the gift that is great before God. May we pay it forward with such love in our lives, for we are all children of God. Amen.

A Word to the Church - from our new PB!

Presiding Bishop Michael B. Curry
A Word to the Church

God came among us in the person of Jesus of Nazareth to show us the Way. He came to show us the Way to life, the Way to love. He came to show us the Way beyond what often can be the nightmares of our own devisings and into the dream of God’s intending. That’s why, when Jesus called his first followers he did it with the simple words “Follow me.”

“Follow me,” he said, “and I will make you fish for people.”

Follow me and love will show you how to become more than you ever dreamed you could be. Follow me and I will help you change the world from the nightmare it often is into the dream that God intends. Jesus came and started a movement and we are the Episcopal branch of the Jesus movement.

Near the end of Matthew’s Gospel story of the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead, Mary Magdalene and some of the women go to the tomb to anoint his body. When they get there they find that the tomb is empty, the stone has been rolled away and there is no body there. Then they see and hear an angel who says to them, “This Jesus of Nazareth whom you seek, he is not here, he has been raised as he said he would be and he has now gone ahead of you to Galilee. There you will see him. It is in Galilee that the Risen Lord will be found and seen for he has gone ahead of us.”

Galilee.
Which is a way of talking about the world.
Galilee.
In the streets of the city.
Galilee.
In our rural communities.
Galilee in our hospitals.
Galilee in our office places.
Galilee where God’s children live and dwell there.
In Galilee you will meet the living Christ for He has already gone ahead of you.

A few years ago I was in a coffee shop in Raleigh, North Carolina, just a few blocks away from our Diocesan House there. While in line I started a conversation with a gentleman who turned out to be a Mennonite pastor. He had been sent to Raleigh to organize a church in the community on the streets without walls. As we were talking over our coffee, he said something to me that I have not forgotten. He said the Mennonite community asked him to do this because they believed that in this environment in which we live, the church can no longer wait for its congregation to come to it, the church must go where the congregation is.

Now is our time to go. To go into the world to share the good news of God and Jesus Christ. To go into the world and help to be agents and instruments of God’s reconciliation. To go into the world, let the world know that there is a God who loves us, a God who will not let us go, and that that love can set us all free.

This is the Jesus Movement, and we are The Episcopal Church, the Episcopal branch of Jesus’ movement in this world.

God bless you, and keep the faith.

Our New Presiding Bishop

PB Curry's sermon on All Saints Day.

Transcript is here.

News story can be found here.

Go to Galilee (on the New PB) - article

Interactive timeline traces all presiding bishops of The Episcopal Church Roles, duties of presiding bishop have evolved with life of the church