“You mean to tell me they changed the
Hymnal too?!??”
That was my friend Christopher’s
response. I had just showed him something he hadn’t seen before: The Hymnal
1982.
And just before that, he’d shown me his beloved copy of … Hymnal 1940. I kind of laughed at
him. And called him Rip Van Christopher. It had been so long since he’d been to
church that he ‘missed the memo’ on all the changes after the adoption of the
1979 prayer book.
Rip Van… was actually kind of
appropriate. Just imagine how Christopher would have felt if he’d gone to
sleep, beloved prayer book and hymnal in hand, in 1770 or so, and woke up in
1790.
AAAGGH!
The response was shock – anguish – even disgust.
Certainly disorientation.
Not immediately – but once they got to
the prayers of the people. And the prayer for the king was replaced by a prayer
for the president. President? What’s that? Some kind of meeting facilitator?
Is there a whiteboard in the house? Some group-process newsprint? What is going
on!!?
Change happens from time to time. Even in
the church.
Once at another parish we had a visiting
preacher who reminded us of the things that last – and made a helpful
statement. First: the things that last. He pointed out the font. The water of
baptism. That’s one. I held up the chrism for sealing the new convert as Christ’s
own forever. That’s two. He talked about the bread and the wine, the
sacramental elements of the Eucharist. Three and four. And, he said, we have
each other – and the Holy Spirit. As long as we have those things, we will be
okay. Sigh of relief from the congregation.
Sigh of relief, for they were very
anxious, and somewhat angry. They’d be proud to throw tea into the harbor – but
woe on he who suggests a change to the – oh, god, can’t say it – building.
But every once in awhile there comes a
time of change. Even to the hymnal. Or –
In the summer of 1776 the pastor of
Christ Church, Philadelphia, I am told, got the news from down the street, from
the building now called Independence Hall:
“When
in the Course of human events…”
And so he took out his pen and his prayer
book and found the places in the prayers where the sovereign and the royal
family were mentioned, and he struck out “king” and wrote “president”… so I am
told.
What a shock it would have been to a man
reared on the prayer book of 1662 – and its strong foundation in an established
church of England. And now only just over a hundred years later, with the
memory of King Charles’ head and the ghost of Bonnie Prince Charlie thought
safely laid to rest, there was an upheaval – a revolution.
From now on, no established church at all
– not yours or mine.
We can only imagine …
… Imagine a world when something new was
coming into being, and something old was lost.
Maybe it isn’t that hard after all. Not
this week.
Sometimes we lose something precious –
and sometimes, when we realize what we are going to say good-bye to, we are
glad to see it go. It could be a practice – or it could be an attitude. It
could be a prejudice. Or an unexamined presumption.
No matter.
Time to let it go.
In times of great change, we can be
mourners of the past or midwives of the future.
That is what the preacher said to us that
day five years and more ago, in another parish.
We are in the midst of change. All our
lives.
Sometimes like my friend Christopher the
change comes as a shock, the cherished object suddenly an heirloom of a past. A
past we hardly knew as past.
Disbelief? Comic incredulity on our faces…
but it’s gone.
How are we to live now?
Imagine him coming home, the son of Mary,
coming home to Nazareth. We all know him, the carpenter. We know his brothers –
name four – and his sisters. We know the little house where he grew up, the
stone across the door, the Roman pavement out front where he’d play in the
street, as a little boy. And now he says the world is about to change. He, of
all people.
Where did he get all this?
What he says to us is worse yet –
outrageous!
Repent – and repent means turning. Change
your ways.
This repentance will not be televised, or
announced in the town square. It will begin within you.
It will go beyond you. It will gather
thousands to riverbank and hillside. To hear him of all people proclaim the
good news.
Good news, my friends, is not always
welcome.
That is certainly the case with Jesus,
that day in his hometown.
He even wisecracked – in response to
their incredulity – with the commonplace, a prophet is not without honor except
in his own country.
And he had brought the message home. They
did not know him as a prophet. They did not know him as a messenger of God.
They knew him as a little boy. And as a man handy with his hands.
But now those hands were at other work
than carpentry. They healed the sick with a touch. They cast out demons. They
carried the good news with them of the coming of the kingdom of God.
It goes beyond “strike out king and write
president”. There is more going on than replacing one George (the Third) with
another (Washington). It is a whole new way of being.
Strike out self and write Messiah. Strike
out empire and write Shalom. Strike out sin and judgment and write love and
grace.
War – and write peace.
Forgiveness. Reconciliation. Acceptance –
and welcome – of the stranger, and of yourself.
Where there was no trust – most of the
people of Nazareth that day Jesus came home – there was no healing. Only where
there was trust – where people believed in him enough to come to him – did
Jesus do any healing work that day. From there, however, he went on – and took
disciples, students, with him.
We know that to them he gave authority –
and they carried on the work in his name.
Out there in the villages they found
belief, and trust, and hope – not everywhere – and they brought healing, cast
out fear, and said the words of hope, and of change.
Change – turn – repent. And believe. And
know that the kingdom has come among you.
Peace be with you. Shalom.
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_transcript.html
https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-worship/worship/book-of-common-prayer/the-order-for-morning-prayer.aspx
http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bcp/1789/BCP_1789.htm
Lord God Almighty, in whose Name the founders of
this country won liberty for themselves and for us, and lit the torch of
freedom for nations then unborn: Grant that we and all the people of
this land may have grace to maintain our liberties in righteousness and
peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and
the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Book of Common Prayer, 1979)
"... thy kingdom come..."
http://stalbansedmonds.org/worship/ click on: Herbert O’Driscoll – 10:30 Service January 31, 2010
"Repentance is turning."--Mary Herring.
"Repentance is turning."--Mary Herring.
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