today in your hearing

Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer. Amen.

When he spoke at the dedication of the new national cemetery on the battleground that was Gettysburg, Stephen Douglas spoke for two hours. He was quite dynamic – but he did not have to follow the Gettysburg Address. Abraham Lincoln spoke second.

Well, I knew that next week I would be following Herbert O’Driscoll. But what I had not figured out was that this week I would be following … Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of the Living God, the Incarnate Word: the Logos through whom all things came into being.

And here is what he had to say, and what he did. He came home to Nazareth. His fame had begun to spread – because of what he had done at Capernaum. For now, though, he was home – it should be all right. And so as he was used to doing he stood up in the synagogue at Nazareth to read – and somebody handed him Isaiah. Okay. Read it, in Hebrew, and then interpret it into a language the people understand – in this case, Aramaic.

He reads the proclamation of the year of Jubilee, the year when God sets everything right. Everything that had been turned upside down, every inequity, every injustice – all those things would be made right. Everybody is looking at him. They expect an interpretation – along the lines of a translation or a paraphrase: this is what it means. Sort of like the story in the first reading, when Ezra brought the Torah into the assembly. Somebody gives voice to the word of God; somebody interprets it so the people can grasp its meaning.

What does he do? He sits down. Like a teacher. Like a rabbi. He sits down and he tells them what it means, all right. It means this:

It is all true. It is all coming true – right here, right now, as we speak. The good news is being brought to the poor, release is being proclaimed to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind; the year of the Lords’ favor – Jubilee year – is being proclaimed. You heard it was happening all around and now it is happening to you, here – in these very words I speak to you now.

So he begins to teach. And that is a tough act to follow. Following Jesus is always tough.

For he was just like us – disclaimer: except without sin – he was just like us. He could have stepped aside, gone another way. He could have taken any of several opportunities to bail out – but he never did. So to follow him – that is a very big, very tough calling.

And he calls all of us, each of us, to do it.

What we have to do the job with are the gifts he gives us – including the spiritual gifts that help build up the body of Christ, and the members of the body all working together - and what we see are the fruits of that common work, love, joy, peace, patience, forbearance, mercy: all the things that come into being because we follow Jesus.

We all have different gifts, different roles – like different parts of the body, where each member has its function and purpose and its own peculiar beauty. We give differently.

Through each of us the Spirit shows in the world – and all of us are together showing the world what it means to be the body of Christ. Now, now that he is gone from us – ascended into heaven – we are the body of Christ visible to and active in the world.

Where is God in this? God is in hearts and hands and minds. God is in the suffering and in the caring. God is in the generous great deeds and small acts. God is in the beginnings and the ends we create, we make, and we manifest in the world.

What kind of gifts? One may be as simple as generosity or as difficult as peace making.

Once in high school when I was pretty new to the gospels I read in them that if I were taking a gift to offer at the altar but had a dispute with my brother I should set the gift down, go to my brother and settle that dispute, then bring my gift. So I did.

‘Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.’ (Matthew 5:23-24)

There was some quarrel, some problem – and we usually had ended up shouting, in earlier days – but this time I went to him and asked, what’s wrong? And I listened. And there was peace.

The fruit of the spirit that evening was peace. And it continued to grow. I remember that my mother told me she had been worried about me, that I had gone off the deep end, but that now she could see that something good was happening – there in the family.

So my memory of the last few months of high school was that in the end of the evening it was peaceful – the sound I heard as I went to sleep was classical music, as my brother practiced his guitar.

Simple – not easy, but simple: go and talk to him. Be reconciled. Then – come.

The fruits of the Spirit are many and we see them in the small ways – and the great.

There was an earthquake in 1989 – centered near Loma Prieta, in the Santa Cruz Mountains. It was the end of a busy day, 5:04 P.M. In downtown San Francisco the buildings shook. File cabinets cascaded. Piles of copy paper tottered. The whole place shook – for hundreds of miles up and down the coast. When it stopped, after 17 seconds, there was quiet.

Around our office, a publishing company, various things were happening. In the customer service area, the vice president got manager to a safe place under a sturdy table. She was still shaking. In the marketing department one high-heeled shoe was tipped over in the middle of the hallway. In my memory it was still rocking; its owner had dropped it in a hurry. Back in the reception area, people gathered around the elevator doors.

The phone rang. “I’d like to order a book.”

“I’m sorry, but we have just had a major earthquake. We regret that we cannot you’re your order directly. Perhaps your local bookseller or a regional supplier could help you.”

“It’s just one book!”

Down five flights of stairs – or up two, to check on other folks: they were all right. Soon people were offering co-workers rides home. In those few minutes, I saw different gifts at work – generosity, caring, even humor (that deadpan phone conversation). At home the cats were big-eyed, the lights burning – no power outages. In the morning the channel 2 news crew looked like they’d been up all night. They had. They looked grim. You could sit and watch – and start looking grim yourself, feeling like a victim – or do what my neighbors did: go and volunteer down at the Red Cross. Now, I’m not sure what a theologian and an economist could do down there – probably not run the numbers or expound the poetics of biblical narrative – but they had other gifts to give, and they gave.

What I learned from that was that giving – actively helping – in some small way, makes you part of the solution, part of the power for change. You might “only” be able to do some one seemingly small thing – but in that moment you may give something great.

The kingdom of God is built step-by-step and stone by stone. The steps are the steps of mercy, of grace, of forgiveness, gentleness, mercy, kindness, patience, and peace – the steps are the gifts given and the fruits of the Spirit. The stones are the living stones of the people of God, as they are built up into the living house of God.

As we contemplate what we can do to help the people of Haiti, far away and yet near to our hearts, we know that right now is not the time to get on a plane and go help out – not unless you are trained and experienced in disaster relief work and your agency send you. It is time to give – if you can, what you can – and to pray. It is time also as always to look after the other suffering or needy people in the world, near or far.

And it is time to give the little gifts of kindness and peace, of listening and of care, that go into the building of the house of God. It will always be time for that.

Lord, make us instruments of your peace.

Where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. Grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.

Almighty God, who hast promised to hear the petitions of those who ask in thy Son's Name: We beseech thee mercifully to incline thine ear to us who have now made our prayers and supplications unto thee; and grant that those things which we have faithfully asked according to thy will, may effectually be obtained, to the relief of our necessity, and to the setting forth of thy glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Lord, hear the prayers of your people; and what we have asked faithfully, grant that we may obtain effectually, to the relief of our necessity, and to the shining forth of your glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

O God, our heavenly Father, whose glory fills the whole creation, and whose presence we find wherever we go: Preserve those who travel, in particular relief workers and refugees, Nedi Rivera and Bob Moore as they journey east into retirement, and Herbert and Paula O’Driscoll, as they sail south to us; surround them with your loving care; protect them from every danger; and bring them in safety to their journey's end; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

JRL+

Saint Alban's Church, Edmonds, Wash.,