We Are a Reconciling People
Back in the early 70’s, I was the Associate Priest here at Christ Church working with the then Rector, Dick George. Dick and I were more than colleagues, we were also good friends. Dick was pretty generous with his authority and shared most of his ministry with me right down the line.
So, it came as a surprise to me one morning, when he called me into his office and took on an air that clearly demonstrated his “I’m the Boss” authority. He told me a member of the congregation, who wanted to be anonymous, came to him with a complaint about me. The parishioner apparently was upset that I was serving communion with dirty finger nails. And the parishioner asked Dick, “What are you going to do about that?”
Because of our close and often kidding relationship I wasn’t sure how serious Dick was. Well, he was definitely serious!
So, I listened. I was embarrassed, and obviously unaware that I wasn’t paying attention to the condition of my finger nails.
Feeling appropriately reprimanded and foolish, I vowed to have the cleanest finger nails ever to be found on the hands of any young, aspiring cleric. Consequently, to this day, I check and clean my finger nails at least twice a day.
I mention this somewhat trivial episode because it has all the elements of moving from a situation where there is discomfort and division to a place of reconciliation, which is the theme of this morning’s lessons.
This is the last Sunday of the Church year. Next Sunday we begin the cycle of the Church’s season with Advent. We call this last Sunday, Christ the King Sunday which sums up the Jesus Story with the proclamation that Christ now reigns eternal and therefore in Christ, ALL THINGS are in good order, which is to say that ALL THINGS have been RECONCILED.
In the prayer before the lessons we prayed that God would “restore all things” and would “grant that the divided peoples of the earth” might “be freed and brought together under God’s most gracious rule.”
In today’s Old Testament lesson, Jeremiah claims that in the days to come, “Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety.”
In the Epistle Paul claims that in Christ, “God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things.”
The Gospel crucifixion scene is a bit of a contrast compared to the good-news tone of the earlier lessons. I’m guessing the reason this lesson is included is that Jesus forgives his persecutors, and in his promise to the repentant thief, Jesus hints that all those who wish it, will in fact be “with Him in Paradise.” So here is another story of reconciliation.
We are all keenly aware that our world and our nation are in critical need of reconciliation and healing.
Too often we feel stuck and at a loss on how to reconcile our divisions.
Near the end of our Episcopal Book of Common Prayer there is a section called The Catechism, or An Outline of the Faith which attempts to define the basic tenants of our Episcopal tradition. In it we read that the essential ministry of the faithful is, and I quote, “to carry on Christ’s work of reconciliation in the world….”
So, at the very heart of being an Episcopalian is this ministry of reconciliation.
I want to go back to my finger nail cleaning episode. In it, Fr. George was the reconciling agent. Instead of dismissing the concerned parishioner’s concern, he acted. He confronted me and as a result I took the complaint seriously; and for the following forty-five or so years of my life, have maintained fairly clean figure nails. Reconciliation accomplished!
The challenge in doing reconciliation ministry is that it is uncomfortable.
It usually means challenging our (or someone else’s) behavior. It could even mean challenging the indifferent behavior of an entire culture.
I expect you have heard the story of the fellow who in seeing hundreds of starfish marooned on the sand after a tide had gone out, began to throw a few of the starfish back into the ocean.
A colleague challenged him and said that he was wasting his time; to which the star-thrower retorted, “it wasn’t a waist for the starfish I just threw in.”
Last August, a 15 year old High School student from Sweden began spending her school days outside the Swedish parliament to call for stronger action on global warming by holding up a sign saying (in Swedish) "School strike for the climate." Soon, other students engaged in similar protests in their own communities. Together, they organized a school climate strike movement under the name Fridays for Future. All this eventuated in Greta Thunberg addressing the September 2019 United Nations Climate Change Conference in New York.
Soon afterward student strikes took place every week somewhere in the world. To date there have been 56, coordinated multi-city protests often involving over one million students each. Consequently, Greta’s protests have become the largest ever recorded in world history.
Greta Thonburg’s words at the United Nations this year were prophetic. Her presentation sounded more like an Old Testament prophet than a 20th century high school student.
With raw emotion and a very adult like composure she challenged our world’s leaders by saying…
“How dare you? You have stolen my dreams, and my childhood, with your empty words. This is all wrong. I shouldn’t be up here…. People are suffering.
People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is money, and fairy tales of eternal economic growth.
How dare you? How dare you pretend that this can be solved with just ‘business as usual’ and some technical solutions? You are failing us. The eyes of all future generations are upon you. We will not let you get away with this. Right here, right now is where we draw the line.”
Powerful words, which were broadcast world-wide. Have Greta’s impactful words, or the demonstration of millions of high schoolers and adults around the world actually changed anything? Hard to tell.
George Bernard Shaw once said that “the worst sin to our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them.”
Carl Menninger of the famed Menninger Institute in Topeka, Kansas, wrote that, America’s greatest sin was the sin of indifference.
Anthropologist, Margaret Mead famously quipped, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
Real and lasting institutional change is difficult. Changing the behavior of one individual is not the same as changing the attitudes and behaviors of millions. And yet it has happened and continues to happen.
Working together in community, with determination, fortitude and persistence can bring reconciliation and lasting change.
Just look at the short 86-year history of our own Christ Church. Christ Church began with nine couples in 1931. Since then Christ Church has grown into a healthy and vibrant community of many hundreds of people. Over the years Christ Church members have helped initiate three strategic social institutions in Milwaukee: Neighborhood House, Our Next Generation and Sojourner’s Truth House. Fifty years ago, Christ Church established a mission church in Brown Deer. We have helped sustain Nashotah House Seminary and St. John’s on the Lake.
Together we have been a fountain of reconciliation in ways that would have been impossible acting as individuals.
This morning after the 9:30 service, we will again have the opportunity to serve as a sustaining and reconciling force in Milwaukee, and in national and international agencies that minister to the needs and wounds of others.
Our 2nd annual Gifts of Hope – Alternative Giving program in the Great Hall has 25 tables with local agency representatives telling their stories of healing and reconciliation. They will offer you a chance to support them financially or perhaps as a volunteer.
We are a people who are not afraid to take risks, we are a reconciling, healing people. That’s just who we are. Let’s keep this Christ Church tradition alive and get involved. It’s in our DNA!
I look forward to seeing you in the Great Hall after the service.
Amen