Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Sermon from 5/2/2010
Easter 5—May 2, 2010
Rite 13 Ceremony
The Rev. Ellen Tillotson
Trinity Episcopal Church, Torrington CT
St. Francis de Sales was once approached by a disciple who said to him, “Sir, you speak so much about the love of God, but you never tell us how to achieve it. Won’t you tell me how one comes to love God?”
St. Francis replied, “There is only one way and that is to love Him.” “But you don’t understand my
question. What I asked was, ‘How do you engender this love of God?’” And Francis said, “By loving Him.” Once again the pupil came back with the same question. “But what steps do you take? Just what do you do in order to come into the possession of this love?” And all St. Francis said was, “You begin by loving and you go on loving and loving teaches you how to love. And the more you love, the more you learn to love.”
—Elizabeth O’Connor in The Eighth Day of Creation (Waco, Texas: Word Books, 1971), p. 67.
What was it, do you suppose, that made Christianity so compelling in its early years? A marginal movement started in a backwater of the Roman empire, a sect proclaiming that their leader was crucified and raised, the most ignoble of deaths and the unlikeliest of outcomes sewn together—what was it that cause Christianity to spread and the number of its followers to mushroom? A few dozen at the death of Jesus, a group on the fringe of Judaism, by the year 400, it was the foremost religion of the Empire.
We know now that it wasn’t by the gifted preaching of the apostles that Christianity grew, even though the Bible portrays them as baptizing dozens at a clip after a sermon in the marketplace. Nor was it the healings. It wasn’t even, as many of us sometimes teach, Constantine’s conversion and making Christianity the official religion of the emperor, as before that happened, Christianity already was the faith of ten percent of the population, a critical mass. Sociologist Rodney Stark believes that Christianity grew through relationships, one person to another. First among family groups, then among women who converted their spouses—Christianity treated women and men alike, giving women a greater social status with Christianity than they knew in Roman society. It provided a “better, happier, more secure way of life” for its adherents. “When epidemics struck, Christians, unlike those in the pagan culture, would care for the sick and t eh dying. Whereas the gods of the pagans were indifferent—and impotent[[the Christians proclaimed a God who cared.
“And then, Christians lived this faith in god by loving one another. In this way, Stark says, the Christians ‘revitalized’ the Roman Empire.
“Drawn like moths to light, converts came to Jesus Christ and discovered the New Creation.” (Synthesis)
Christianity spread because the lifestyle of its followers made it compelling to their friends and neighbors. The joy they showed, and the inner serenity, the service of one another and of the sick and dying among them drew others. Christians living out the commandment of Jesus to love drew converts to the faith, and there they discovered a more powerful and meaningful life than they or anyone could have imagined.
And this wasn’t merely love as a ‘good feeling’. It wasn’t kindly thoughts or good intentions unfulfilled. This was love the way that Jesus showed it and talked about it to his followers, the kind he said they should show and by which they would know him present among them. This was real, costly, go-out-of-your-way love. Sacrificial. Asking something of us—our time, our effort, our resources, our ‘bother’ so that another may live and thrive. It is the kind of love that is so difficult that only the grace of God makes it possible even to attempt.
It’s about being gentle with one another, and compassionate because we are all in the same struggling human boat in this life. It means reaching out when you are secure and when you are not, to those who are hurting. It means seeing every other person, every one, as a precious child of God, and conforming our lives to the notion that service is more to be desired than status or power.
This Christian love is also about calling out one another’s best, helping each other to use our talents and our gifts for the sake of Christ’s work in the world, not to waste them or to use them primarily for our own ends, or to build ourselves up in the eyes of others.
What made them grow from a few hundred to the most influential group of people throughout the world and in all time so far is the quality of their lives lived—for others, for service, for love. When Christians cause a scandal it is because we don’t live up to the high calling of Jesus’ commandment to us to love and serve others. It is when we mistake the faith for a set of ideas and forget that it is, first, a renewed and conscious relationship with God and with Jesus who taught and showed us the measure of God’s love for this world on a cross of shame.
Today we celebrate Rite 13, a ceremony of passage for (6? 7?) young people as a part of our Journey to Adulthood program here at Trinity. We pledge our support of them in this wondrous and difficult time of adolescence. We pledge our support of their parents as they navigate these waters with their children. We offer our supportive love by volunteering as leaders and shepherds in this program, by supporting them as they move toward the pilgrimage that is the capstone of their experience, by making room among all the programs and ministries of Trinity Church, for their growth in the faith, for their persons. It is one of my favorite days in our church life, as we watch these young people whom we have known all their born days and then some join us as adults and friends—companions equal to us in our walk as Christian people. We celebrate their gifts today, and pledge to help those gifts find expression in our life together. In love, we pledge to help them change the world for Jesus’ sake and in his name.
I often say that the great gift that teenagers have to offer us all is their keen sense of justice and their low tolerance of hypocrisy. They can tell from across the room if your actions match your words, and they aren’t shy about letting you know when you’ve let them down. But they are also good at forgiveness, at caring for one another without negative judgment; they are masters of the second chance, the new start. It’s why I have loved working with teens since the time I was a teen.
Rhythms of Grace
Caring for the community
A new commandment I give to you, Jesus said, not a suggestion, not an idea for a better life, a commandment by which you will show that you are my followers. It’s the one law set in stone, for Jesus. Love. Active, other-serving, pride-destroying, difficult, costly, glorious love. Going the second mile, offering the other cheek, putting our needs subservient to those of others, learning to honor those whom the world puts aside or even punishes. Love as a verb—in the doing, never resting, always seeking the good of the other. The world will know we are Christians by the love we share here and, most of all, the love we show to those outside these doors. Love. AMEN
Rite 13 Ceremony
The Rev. Ellen Tillotson
Trinity Episcopal Church, Torrington CT
St. Francis de Sales was once approached by a disciple who said to him, “Sir, you speak so much about the love of God, but you never tell us how to achieve it. Won’t you tell me how one comes to love God?”
St. Francis replied, “There is only one way and that is to love Him.” “But you don’t understand my
question. What I asked was, ‘How do you engender this love of God?’” And Francis said, “By loving Him.” Once again the pupil came back with the same question. “But what steps do you take? Just what do you do in order to come into the possession of this love?” And all St. Francis said was, “You begin by loving and you go on loving and loving teaches you how to love. And the more you love, the more you learn to love.”
—Elizabeth O’Connor in The Eighth Day of Creation (Waco, Texas: Word Books, 1971), p. 67.
What was it, do you suppose, that made Christianity so compelling in its early years? A marginal movement started in a backwater of the Roman empire, a sect proclaiming that their leader was crucified and raised, the most ignoble of deaths and the unlikeliest of outcomes sewn together—what was it that cause Christianity to spread and the number of its followers to mushroom? A few dozen at the death of Jesus, a group on the fringe of Judaism, by the year 400, it was the foremost religion of the Empire.
We know now that it wasn’t by the gifted preaching of the apostles that Christianity grew, even though the Bible portrays them as baptizing dozens at a clip after a sermon in the marketplace. Nor was it the healings. It wasn’t even, as many of us sometimes teach, Constantine’s conversion and making Christianity the official religion of the emperor, as before that happened, Christianity already was the faith of ten percent of the population, a critical mass. Sociologist Rodney Stark believes that Christianity grew through relationships, one person to another. First among family groups, then among women who converted their spouses—Christianity treated women and men alike, giving women a greater social status with Christianity than they knew in Roman society. It provided a “better, happier, more secure way of life” for its adherents. “When epidemics struck, Christians, unlike those in the pagan culture, would care for the sick and t eh dying. Whereas the gods of the pagans were indifferent—and impotent[[the Christians proclaimed a God who cared.
“And then, Christians lived this faith in god by loving one another. In this way, Stark says, the Christians ‘revitalized’ the Roman Empire.
“Drawn like moths to light, converts came to Jesus Christ and discovered the New Creation.” (Synthesis)
Christianity spread because the lifestyle of its followers made it compelling to their friends and neighbors. The joy they showed, and the inner serenity, the service of one another and of the sick and dying among them drew others. Christians living out the commandment of Jesus to love drew converts to the faith, and there they discovered a more powerful and meaningful life than they or anyone could have imagined.
And this wasn’t merely love as a ‘good feeling’. It wasn’t kindly thoughts or good intentions unfulfilled. This was love the way that Jesus showed it and talked about it to his followers, the kind he said they should show and by which they would know him present among them. This was real, costly, go-out-of-your-way love. Sacrificial. Asking something of us—our time, our effort, our resources, our ‘bother’ so that another may live and thrive. It is the kind of love that is so difficult that only the grace of God makes it possible even to attempt.
It’s about being gentle with one another, and compassionate because we are all in the same struggling human boat in this life. It means reaching out when you are secure and when you are not, to those who are hurting. It means seeing every other person, every one, as a precious child of God, and conforming our lives to the notion that service is more to be desired than status or power.
This Christian love is also about calling out one another’s best, helping each other to use our talents and our gifts for the sake of Christ’s work in the world, not to waste them or to use them primarily for our own ends, or to build ourselves up in the eyes of others.
What made them grow from a few hundred to the most influential group of people throughout the world and in all time so far is the quality of their lives lived—for others, for service, for love. When Christians cause a scandal it is because we don’t live up to the high calling of Jesus’ commandment to us to love and serve others. It is when we mistake the faith for a set of ideas and forget that it is, first, a renewed and conscious relationship with God and with Jesus who taught and showed us the measure of God’s love for this world on a cross of shame.
Today we celebrate Rite 13, a ceremony of passage for (6? 7?) young people as a part of our Journey to Adulthood program here at Trinity. We pledge our support of them in this wondrous and difficult time of adolescence. We pledge our support of their parents as they navigate these waters with their children. We offer our supportive love by volunteering as leaders and shepherds in this program, by supporting them as they move toward the pilgrimage that is the capstone of their experience, by making room among all the programs and ministries of Trinity Church, for their growth in the faith, for their persons. It is one of my favorite days in our church life, as we watch these young people whom we have known all their born days and then some join us as adults and friends—companions equal to us in our walk as Christian people. We celebrate their gifts today, and pledge to help those gifts find expression in our life together. In love, we pledge to help them change the world for Jesus’ sake and in his name.
I often say that the great gift that teenagers have to offer us all is their keen sense of justice and their low tolerance of hypocrisy. They can tell from across the room if your actions match your words, and they aren’t shy about letting you know when you’ve let them down. But they are also good at forgiveness, at caring for one another without negative judgment; they are masters of the second chance, the new start. It’s why I have loved working with teens since the time I was a teen.
Rhythms of Grace
Caring for the community
A new commandment I give to you, Jesus said, not a suggestion, not an idea for a better life, a commandment by which you will show that you are my followers. It’s the one law set in stone, for Jesus. Love. Active, other-serving, pride-destroying, difficult, costly, glorious love. Going the second mile, offering the other cheek, putting our needs subservient to those of others, learning to honor those whom the world puts aside or even punishes. Love as a verb—in the doing, never resting, always seeking the good of the other. The world will know we are Christians by the love we share here and, most of all, the love we show to those outside these doors. Love. AMEN
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Memo from Memphis—Tuesday, August 04, 2009
After our fairly eventful and amazingly long trip (four hours in the Charlotte airport), by now we are well at home at St. Columba Conference Center in Northwest Memphis. We’ve been to church on Sunday (where Ellen saw one of the three people she knows in Memphis,) been swimming at the center a couple of times, experienced the National Civil Rights Museum and Beale St., prayed at night in our lodge and prayed in Elmwood Cemetery around the grave of the Martyrs of Memphis. We were disappointed in Mud Island, which claimed to be a water park and delighted at the water slide on the conference center property—home made.
All in all, memories are being made, community deepened (hard to think these kids could get to be better friends, but they are.) There are some challenges—heat indices of more than 100 degrees—high, high humidity with sun and temps in the 90s, the inevitable rub of personalities one against another. But pilgrimage does its work, and it certainly is doing that here.
We’re grateful for all the help getting here, and for the hospitality of this place. We are grateful for the kind folks of Memphis, who talk to us, laugh at us and instruct us, gently, with their thoughts about our voiced questions and strong opinions. Most of everyone’s spending money has been spent (for which the chaperones are grateful) and several of us are learning to cook. Parents, they are even cleaning up, without having to be reminded much!
There are, of course, many more stories to tell, but some of them, anyway are under the category of “What happens on pilgrimage stays on pilgrimage!” And in our hearts.
All in all, memories are being made, community deepened (hard to think these kids could get to be better friends, but they are.) There are some challenges—heat indices of more than 100 degrees—high, high humidity with sun and temps in the 90s, the inevitable rub of personalities one against another. But pilgrimage does its work, and it certainly is doing that here.
We’re grateful for all the help getting here, and for the hospitality of this place. We are grateful for the kind folks of Memphis, who talk to us, laugh at us and instruct us, gently, with their thoughts about our voiced questions and strong opinions. Most of everyone’s spending money has been spent (for which the chaperones are grateful) and several of us are learning to cook. Parents, they are even cleaning up, without having to be reminded much!
There are, of course, many more stories to tell, but some of them, anyway are under the category of “What happens on pilgrimage stays on pilgrimage!” And in our hearts.
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Morning en route to Memphis
Morning en route to Memphis
Well, we're negotiating the first change-up of the trip, the first among many if this is a typical journey. Sitting in Bradley airport with four excited/sleepy teens. Our flight is delayed and they have had to rebook us out of Charlotte, so instead of a 1:50 arrival we are looking at a 6:30 one. Somehow we will get these kids fed tonight and start to sketch out the rest of the week. They look great in their purple Team Trinity Torrington T-shirts.
"Sometimes when I'm falling, flying, tumbling into turmoil I say, Oh, this is what she means--she means we're bouncing into Graceland..."
Well, we're negotiating the first change-up of the trip, the first among many if this is a typical journey. Sitting in Bradley airport with four excited/sleepy teens. Our flight is delayed and they have had to rebook us out of Charlotte, so instead of a 1:50 arrival we are looking at a 6:30 one. Somehow we will get these kids fed tonight and start to sketch out the rest of the week. They look great in their purple Team Trinity Torrington T-shirts.
"Sometimes when I'm falling, flying, tumbling into turmoil I say, Oh, this is what she means--she means we're bouncing into Graceland..."
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Rumors of our death are greatly exaggerated
I'm reminded in all of this of the remarks of a now-long-deceased bishop to the wife of the Rector who went to him to complain that she was being beaten by her husband and asked for help for their family. She was told that, if she were a better wife it wouldn't be happening and, anyway, it was her duty to stay in the relationship and make it work even if it wasn't.
Stephen Bates may be my new hero. (read the long artile)
Stephen Bates may be my new hero. (read the long artile)
articles in England--pro and con
To see this story with its related links on the guardian.co.uk site, go to
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2009/jul/16/episcopal-anglican-communion-gay
The Anglican church's crumbling foundations
The Episcopal church's decision on gay clergy may well signal the end of the
Anglican communion as we know it
Stephen Bates
Thursday July 16 2009
guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2009/jul/16/episcopal-anglican-communion-gay
There have been many predictions of dawning schism in the worldwide Anglican
communion over the last six years ? as the Guardian's former religious affairs
correspondent I wrote some of them myself ? but the decision of the US Episcopal
church to affirm its belief that gays, lesbians and transgendered folk are
eligible to be considered for ordination may indeed mark a watershed.
Behind the studiously constructed words of resolution DO25, passed by the
church's triennial general convention in Anaheim, perhaps better known to the
secular world as the home of Disneyland, lies the potential for a Christian
milestone that may ultimately rank the Los Angeles suburb alongside the Council
of Nicaea, the Synod of Whitby, or the Edict of Nantes. Or possibly not.
On the face of it, and perhaps in the depth of it as well, the resolution simply
states the Americans' belief that God has called and may call such individuals
to any ordained ministry within its portals. It does not, technically, end the
moratorium the church agreed at its last convention three years ago not to elect
any more gay bishops, following its experiment with the consecration of Gene
Robinson, a partnered, gay, clergyman, as bishop of New Hampshire in 2003. It
just signals that it may do so, just as Christian churches including our own
dear CofE have done, knowingly if discreetly, for centuries.
But of course the symbolism of the resolution is much more than technical, the
culmination of a six-year split since Robinson's election by his parishioners
and one which has been anticipated with varying degrees of relish by both sides,
especially the conservatives opposed to gay people, ever since. They have
responded characteristically to the convention's vote, although their outrage at
the thought of any accommodation with gay people who might actually want to
belong to their church has been well-honed and practised for years.
As Tom Wright, Bishop of Durham, expostulates in the Times, it gives active
expression to any and every sexual desire. This, as Wright ? a clever if
conceited man ? ought to know, is simply not true. The sort of relationship that
the Episcopalians might sanction is not any old promiscuous or abusive
perversion, but a lifelong, loving commitment between two persons of the sort
you might think the church would welcome and which Wright could find any day of
the week among the currently ordained clergy of the Church of England. In a
church which marries without question promiscuous heterosexuals, sometimes
several times, and blesses pets and nuclear submarines without a qualm, you
might think the expression of mutual commitment, which may or may not have a
sexual element if you are prurient enough to ask, would be welcomed rather than
spurned. After all, the church some time ago accepted the reality of divorce
(its founder Henry VIII was rather keen on the idea) about which the Bible has
much more disobliging things to say than homosexuality.
As it is, this week's Anaheim resolution will probably become the occasion for a
split in the ranks of worldwide Anglicanism, the third largest Christian
denomination. The Americans insist they don't want it and indeed it has almost
exclusively been the church's conservative, largely evangelical, movements and
pressure groups which do and have done all along.
The conservative forces are ready to go and have their organisations and
lobbyists already in place and flexing their muscles, keen to take over the
communion and reshape it in their image ? though, interestingly, the
conservatives are already falling out among themselves, united in what they
oppose rather than what they agree. In England certainly if the conservative
evangelicals get their way the established church will look very different from
the broad, tolerant institution that it has been up till now ? even Tom Wright
might find himself anathematised. Some of them insist that the 17th-century
Reformation did not go far enough and needs to be finished, which may come as a
surprise to the high church Anglo-Catholics with whom they have allied, whose
dearest wish is to reunite with Rome. Perhaps someone should tell them.
If the Americans are shown the door the consequences for worldwide Anglicanism
are incalculable and not just because the wealthy US church largely pays for and
sustains the communion, including in those parts of the world where the church's
mission would not otherwise survive. In the Church of England there are many who
find they have more in common with their American brethren than with the
strident, coercive voices they hear from the conservatives.
All of which leaves poor old Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury and as
such nominal head of the Anglican communion, with a dilemma which has loomed
over his head ever since his enthronement six years ago. Who ultimately to run
with? As he sits lonely and anguished in his study at Lambeth Palace, or heads
off with his bucket and spade to a lonely beach in Wales this summer, he may
wonder whether it has all been worth it.
His tactics of delay, procrastination, conciliation and appeasement ? so often
useful weapons for Anglicanism in the past ? have failed to reconcile the
irreconcilable. Now it may be too late to be firm. As a bishop once said to me:
Rowan's been too damn Christian towards them ? meaning the conservative
splitters ? a verdict that on the whole the archbishop might appreciate, but
which hasn't worked in stemming the rift. Turning the other cheek might be a
virtue, but not necessarily against opponents determined to get their own way.
Time for a prayer?
Stephen Bates was the Guardian's religious affairs correspondent from 2000-2007
and is the author of A Church at War: Anglicans and Homosexuality (Hodder 2005)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2009/jul/16/episcopal-anglican-communion-gay
The Anglican church's crumbling foundations
The Episcopal church's decision on gay clergy may well signal the end of the
Anglican communion as we know it
Stephen Bates
Thursday July 16 2009
guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2009/jul/16/episcopal-anglican-communion-gay
There have been many predictions of dawning schism in the worldwide Anglican
communion over the last six years ? as the Guardian's former religious affairs
correspondent I wrote some of them myself ? but the decision of the US Episcopal
church to affirm its belief that gays, lesbians and transgendered folk are
eligible to be considered for ordination may indeed mark a watershed.
Behind the studiously constructed words of resolution DO25, passed by the
church's triennial general convention in Anaheim, perhaps better known to the
secular world as the home of Disneyland, lies the potential for a Christian
milestone that may ultimately rank the Los Angeles suburb alongside the Council
of Nicaea, the Synod of Whitby, or the Edict of Nantes. Or possibly not.
On the face of it, and perhaps in the depth of it as well, the resolution simply
states the Americans' belief that God has called and may call such individuals
to any ordained ministry within its portals. It does not, technically, end the
moratorium the church agreed at its last convention three years ago not to elect
any more gay bishops, following its experiment with the consecration of Gene
Robinson, a partnered, gay, clergyman, as bishop of New Hampshire in 2003. It
just signals that it may do so, just as Christian churches including our own
dear CofE have done, knowingly if discreetly, for centuries.
But of course the symbolism of the resolution is much more than technical, the
culmination of a six-year split since Robinson's election by his parishioners
and one which has been anticipated with varying degrees of relish by both sides,
especially the conservatives opposed to gay people, ever since. They have
responded characteristically to the convention's vote, although their outrage at
the thought of any accommodation with gay people who might actually want to
belong to their church has been well-honed and practised for years.
As Tom Wright, Bishop of Durham, expostulates in the Times, it gives active
expression to any and every sexual desire. This, as Wright ? a clever if
conceited man ? ought to know, is simply not true. The sort of relationship that
the Episcopalians might sanction is not any old promiscuous or abusive
perversion, but a lifelong, loving commitment between two persons of the sort
you might think the church would welcome and which Wright could find any day of
the week among the currently ordained clergy of the Church of England. In a
church which marries without question promiscuous heterosexuals, sometimes
several times, and blesses pets and nuclear submarines without a qualm, you
might think the expression of mutual commitment, which may or may not have a
sexual element if you are prurient enough to ask, would be welcomed rather than
spurned. After all, the church some time ago accepted the reality of divorce
(its founder Henry VIII was rather keen on the idea) about which the Bible has
much more disobliging things to say than homosexuality.
As it is, this week's Anaheim resolution will probably become the occasion for a
split in the ranks of worldwide Anglicanism, the third largest Christian
denomination. The Americans insist they don't want it and indeed it has almost
exclusively been the church's conservative, largely evangelical, movements and
pressure groups which do and have done all along.
The conservative forces are ready to go and have their organisations and
lobbyists already in place and flexing their muscles, keen to take over the
communion and reshape it in their image ? though, interestingly, the
conservatives are already falling out among themselves, united in what they
oppose rather than what they agree. In England certainly if the conservative
evangelicals get their way the established church will look very different from
the broad, tolerant institution that it has been up till now ? even Tom Wright
might find himself anathematised. Some of them insist that the 17th-century
Reformation did not go far enough and needs to be finished, which may come as a
surprise to the high church Anglo-Catholics with whom they have allied, whose
dearest wish is to reunite with Rome. Perhaps someone should tell them.
If the Americans are shown the door the consequences for worldwide Anglicanism
are incalculable and not just because the wealthy US church largely pays for and
sustains the communion, including in those parts of the world where the church's
mission would not otherwise survive. In the Church of England there are many who
find they have more in common with their American brethren than with the
strident, coercive voices they hear from the conservatives.
All of which leaves poor old Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury and as
such nominal head of the Anglican communion, with a dilemma which has loomed
over his head ever since his enthronement six years ago. Who ultimately to run
with? As he sits lonely and anguished in his study at Lambeth Palace, or heads
off with his bucket and spade to a lonely beach in Wales this summer, he may
wonder whether it has all been worth it.
His tactics of delay, procrastination, conciliation and appeasement ? so often
useful weapons for Anglicanism in the past ? have failed to reconcile the
irreconcilable. Now it may be too late to be firm. As a bishop once said to me:
Rowan's been too damn Christian towards them ? meaning the conservative
splitters ? a verdict that on the whole the archbishop might appreciate, but
which hasn't worked in stemming the rift. Turning the other cheek might be a
virtue, but not necessarily against opponents determined to get their own way.
Time for a prayer?
Stephen Bates was the Guardian's religious affairs correspondent from 2000-2007
and is the author of A Church at War: Anglicans and Homosexuality (Hodder 2005)
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