Charlotte Collins Reed
Christ Church Episcopal
October 31, 2021
26 Proper B
Truth in preaching requires that I tell you that the
following is a story I have told before.
But I believe it bears repeating.
In 2019, I took the course Learning from London through
Bexley Seabury Seminary where I served on the board at the time. The course met in London and looked at a
variety of churches, large and small, and the many different ways they found to
be the church in their varied contexts.
This course was immensely helpful to me as we navigated how to be the
church during a global pandemic.
On the Sunday during the course, I was assigned to worship
at St. James, Piccadilly in London. I
was delighted by my assignment as I had been to St. James on a previous trip and
this is the church where I would worship if I lived in London. The church was quite full on this June
Sunday, which was the first surprise.
The music was good and the sermon was quite fine. But the big surprise came after the offertory
when the priest invited the entire congregation to gather with her around the
altar. Clearly this was before Covid and
social distancing. About 200 people and
a couple of dogs gathered around the altar in a completely disorganized mass of
people. Once the bread and wine had been
blessed, I expected to be invited back to our seats to be called forward to
receive communion. But no. Communion was going to be distributed to the
mass of people gathered at the altar.
This looked to me like a recipe for chaos at best. How was communion going to be distributed in
a timely and efficient manner to a great crowd of people? There were no ushers in sight to help and no
movement toward forming a line. And yet,
the bread and the wine were distributed, everyone was fed, and the process was
quite smooth. Why? Because each person was only concerned that
everyone else be fed. No one was
concerned that they receive. They knew there was enough and their turn would
come. Every person’s primary concern was
everyone else.
I think about that experience when I hear the scribe ask
Jesus “Which commandment is first of all?”
Jesus’ reply is “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the
Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all
your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is
this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment
greater than these.” Jesus is quoting
the Shema, the ancient Jewish prayer that comes from the book of Deuteronomy. Perhaps because Jesus was simply asked about
the greatest commandment, he does not include the rest of the words from Deuteronomy
which are “Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart.
Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when
you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. Bind them as a sign on your
hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, and write them on the doorposts
of your house and on your gates.” In
other words, make these words a part of the very fabric of your being.
In the Diocese of Ohio, one of our taglines is Love God.
Love your neighbor. Change the world. The
first two of those imperatives come directly from Jesus mouth this
morning. But change the world? Seriously?
I believe that is a rather tall order whether for us as individuals or
for us as a church. How are we supposed to
change the world?
The vestry wrestled with a similar passage at our meeting
Tuesday night. Our Bible study passage
was Philippians 4:8 “Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is
honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever
is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of
praise, think about these things.” This
passage, too, is about how we treat our neighbor. Our question was “how do we model these words
in our church and in our community?” Jesus
and Paul are both telling us that how we live and treat each other
matters. The vestry talked about the
negativity in our Hudson community and how hard and yet necessary it is to keep
ourselves from getting sucked into that negativity. Jesus does not call us to agree with
everyone. Jesus calls us to love God and
love our neighbor as ourselves, to live in ways that are true, honorable, just,
and pure.
The reading from Ruth, in which Ruth pledges to stay with her
mother-in-law Naomi, is an example of this kind of love. Her words are beautiful “Where you go, I will
go; Where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God
my God. Where you die, I will die—there will I be buried.” Ruth’s love and devotion to Naomi actually does
change the world. By following Naomi,
Ruth meets Boaz. Ruth and Boaz have a
son Obed. Obed is the ancestor of Jesus.
Our Interfaith Election Day Prayer Vigil is one way we at
Christ Church along with our brothers and sisters at Temple Beth Shalom and
First Congregational Church are trying to live as people who love our neighbors
as ourselves even when we disagree. Our
prayers at the gazebo on Tuesday are not for any particular result to the
election, but for the peace and unity of our community so that we as the
community of Hudson better model loving our neighbors as ourselves. When we each work to love our neighbors, even
those with whom we disagree, we may not change the world, but we will change
our community.
Love God. Love your
neighbor. Change the world. Perhaps “Change the world” is not a third
imperative, but is what happens when we love God with all our heart, soul,
mind, and strength and love our neighbors as ourselves. Perhaps “Change the world” is what happens
when we all put the needs of others ahead of our own needs, wants, and desires. Perhaps “Change the world” is what happens
when we write the words of Jesus on our hearts, teach them to our children, and
make them a part of the fabric of our being.
Perhaps the only way to change the world is to start with ourselves.
Amen.
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