Acts 21: 1–18
John 13: 13–35
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Spirit of the living God, fall fresh on us. Amen.
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Glory be to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
World without end. Amen.
If you are a cradle Episcopalian of a certain age, these words will
sound as familiar to you as your own name. For these were the
words the congregation repeated at the end of the psalm in every service
of Morning Prayer – which, in those days, was our only Sunday
service most Sundays of the month. So these were some of the words
of faith I learned as a young child. They told me about a God I
could depend on no matter what else might be happening in my
world. They helped to form the bedrock of my faith. Until,
of course, in the 1970’s the Episcopal Church rewrote the Book of
Common Prayer – and these words weren’t heard nearly so
often in our services – because from that time on we would have
Holy Communion on Sunday instead of Morning Prayer. And when you
offer Holy Communion in a service, you leave out that response to the
Psalm.
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Some people in the Episcopal Church got really angry when the Church
changed these — and many other words — in our Sunday
services. They didn’t mind taking Communion every Sunday,
but they missed the words of the old Morning Prayer service, words that
had helped them form their faith, words that had become as
familiar as their own names. And they didn’t want those
words to change. In fact, they didn’t want much of anything
to change.
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They were just like Peter on the roof of that house in Joppa when the
Lord told him to rise up and eat those strange animals, those
non–Kosher animals in the sheet that descended in his vision
from heaven. “Lord,” Peter protested, “I’ve
never eaten non–Kosher! And since it’s your
Law that prohibits eating these creatures, I’m not about to
start.” So the voice of the Lord, coming down from heaven,
had to repeat the new instructions a few more times before Peter finally
got the message and quit arguing. And, of course, the message
wasn’t just about the wide variety of foods Peter now was to
eat. The message was about the wide variety of people — all
sorts and conditions of people — that Peter and the other
disciples were now to receive into
fellowship . . . because the Lord loved
them all.
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It was actually the same message Jesus had been trying to give his
disciples that last night before he died – that night he gently
washed their feet and fed them bread and wine, his Body and his
Blood. “Love one another as I have loved you,” he told
them – “warts and all. Remember — I loved you
before you cleaned up your act. I accepted you, dirty feet
and all. Now – you go out and accept others in the very same
way. Hold the doors of my Church wide open – so many more
can come in. Better yet, hold the doors of your hearts wide
open – and accept everyone.”
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This is the message the brand–new Church finally received. Of
course, Peter had to argue with the elders in Jerusalem for a while
before they finally accepted the change orders he had just received
from the Lord. For they too wanted to say, “This is not the
way we do things. This is not our tradition.” But just
like Peter, they did, finally, get the message. They did, finally,
open their doors to all who came, honestly seeking. Gentile and
Jew. Rich and poor. Men and women. Slave and
free. Young and old. They did, finally, understand –
God’s love knows no limits.
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And I too finally accepted the changes in the 1979 Book of Common
Prayer. Truth to tell, I still prefer the liturgy of Rite I to the
liturgy of Rite II. Those old words still roll off my tongue
today as easily as they did when I was a child.
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But it wasn’t well–turned words and phrases that brought me
into the Episcopal Church. Rather, it was the love I experienced
in that church as a child and adolescent. It was the kindly love
of our Rector, Don Mayberry, who took time out of his busy schedule one
day to answer the anxious question of a seven–year–
old – about whether God would allow cats in
heaven . . . because if He
didn’t, I wasn’t sure I wanted to go there. It was the
patient love of a Sunday School teacher, Fred Stowe, who listened to
my questions about faith and saw something in me no one else had
seen — as he chose me to take the part of the priest in our
end–of–year service – though the Episcopal Church would
not ordain women to the priesthood for many more years. And last
but not least, it was Laura Jacobsen, the Sunday School teacher of the
four and five–year old class – whose loving example told me
what a Christian really was.
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Laura entered my life soon after I was confirmed. We had been
told that after our Confirmation we were to choose some area of the
church where we could serve on a regular basis. Some chose the
Junior Choir. Others chose to assist the Altar Guild. And I
chose to help Laura Jacobsen, who needed some help with the four and
five–year–old class. This wasn’t a predictable
choice, for Laura was the wife of the church sexton, Jonas
Jacobsen. In a well–heeled church where most of the women
wore well-–cut tweed suits and mink stoles, Laura wore flowered
cotton house dresses. We drove expensive cars; I’m not
sure Jonas and Laura even owned a car. We had large houses;
Jonas and Laura lived in an apartment above the Parish Hall. But
her smile was warm and genuine — and she was unfailingly kind,
unfailingly gracious, to one and all, no matter what their age, no matter
what their social standing. Somehow, in her, the love of Christ
became a reality — a reality I’ve never forgotten. And
in the Bible stories she told to the children I learned – or
maybe re̫learned — a lot of my faith.
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I guess it was the love that finally won me over — God’s
love through people like Don Mayberry, Fred Stowe and Laura
Jacobsen. But isn’t that always the way in our
faith? It’s not about the words we say.
It’s not about the foods we eat or choose not to eat. And,
certainly, it’s not about the clothes we wear or the car we drive
or the house we live in. It’s about the love of God that
shines through people who know him.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
As it was in the Beginning, is now and ever shall be
World without end. Amen.
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