6th Sunday of Easter,
Year A
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Turn, Turn, Turn
The Rev. Rebekah Bokros Hatch, St. Aidan’s Episcopal Church, Alpharetta, Ga.
Perhaps you know what I’m talking about when I speak of the soundtrack
of our lives. I believe that each of us has one – a set of tunes
that we could set out like a timeline. From the lullabies we
remember being sung to us as small children; to the earliest songs we
learned to sing; to the first “popular” song we fell in love with; to
the song that was playing when we fell in love for the first time; to
the songs we teach our own children… the list goes on and on.
One of the songs on my soundtrack of life comes from an album that my
parents subjected me to as a young child: Arlo Guthrie and Pete Seeger
sang together on an album called Precious Friend. The last song
on the album is a rendition of Amazing Grace sung by Arlo. He
sings the first couple verses as we know them, but then he launches
into a story of how the song was written. He talks about a man
who was the captain of a slave ship, on his way to America. And,
mid-voyage, the captain turns the ship around, and writes the words to
Amazing Grace. Now, we know that the captain was John Newton,
and who knows if it all happened so dramatically. It is true
that Newton converted to Christianity, recognized his hand in
perpetuating the atrocity of slavery, and gave up his part in the
slave trade. “Any man who can turn around is a friend of mine,”
he says.
This morning, we hear from a man who turned around. Just last
week, we found Saul participating in stoning Stephen to death.
This week – after leaving out the drama that unfolds in nearly 10
chapters – we find Paul, speaking to a gathered group of Greeks, about
the poetic virtues of God.
Did I mention that we have missed 10 chapters? A good deal has
happened in those 10 chapters. Certainly more of the
evangelizing, and the baptizing and the Spirit alighting on whole
regions of people, and more and more people being brought to know the
good news of Christ… and blah, blah, blah. But, also apostles
have been commissioned and have begun to travel farther and wider in
an attempt to bring more of the world into the fold of the Gospel.
Philip has his encounter with the Ethiopian eunuch – whose name we
never learn – where we get to see two men, two seekers, engaged in
conversation about scripture. James, the brother of John, is
killed. Peter is imprisoned, and then released. Herod dies.
Paul and Barnabas set about their ministry together. Lydia
becomes an important character in the life of the early church – one
of few women named in Scripture, certainly in the New Testament.
Paul and Silas are imprisoned and then released. And, oh, Paul
is converted. Saul, the persecutor of Christians; the upholder
of the state status quo, heads down the road to Damascus and
encounters Christ. And he turns around – well, not physically,
but he converts, turns to a new way of life.
And, now, in chapter 17 of the Acts of the Apostles, he is speaking to
the people about God. Something, at this point, that he is just
starting to get used to. Of course, we know Paul best for his
composition of letters to the church communities springing up, so we
know that he gets used to this role.
You know, its difficult to turn around. For those of us that
have tried, intentionally to turn around, to do something different,
you know how hard it is – to leave behind a way of doing things that
is engrained in all that we are and turn to a new and different way,
is challenging. But, then there are the moments of conversion
that happen without doing much at all. After reading Fast Food
Nation, Tony & I completely gave up fast food. There was no
titrating down; no “last favorite meal”; just the end of it.
After visiting a processing plant for chickens, I stopped eating
chicken. Just like I had never eaten the stuff in my life.
No big adjustment. No wringing of hands. Just done.
After hearing at the altar one Sunday morning as I received Christ’s
body into my hands and hearing, “Jesus loves you, my friend,” the
skepticism that had been my guard against faith fell away, and I
became a self-proclaimed Christian. Done.
Turning around. Whether its individuals, or groups; nations or
families – it can be difficult, but it can happen
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” This blessedly
haunting line from John’s Gospel this morning. These words of
Jesus’ bring me right back to the days leading up to Easter; to the
service we shared together on Maundy Thursday, where our feet were
washed by one another as we showed, at least in symbol, our desire to
love one another, as Christ commands us.
It is in loving Christ and one another that we all have this power to
turn. It is in loving Christ and one another that we can make
bold and prophetic changes that bring about great things. It is
in loving Christ and one another that moves us to a place where the
scales fall away, and we can see.
But love is different than kindness, isn’t it? Loving one
another doesn’t necessarily mean we’re following Emily Post’s
guidelines for etiquette. One of the great temptations of the
church, though, is that kindness often gets mistaken for love.
When, in fact, loving one another is much more difficult, if not only
because it draws us into deeper relationship with one another, upping
the risk factor in being with one another.
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” Paul’s story of
conversion couldn’t have made it any clearer – it is through
encountering Christ and with the support of the community of the
faithful that we are capable of turning around. Loving Christ
and loving one another means being open to a new way; a different way;
a more life-giving way. Sometimes we guard ourselves from that,
unwilling to let go of our myriad comforts. But, sometimes we,
like Paul, just walk right into the new way, forgetting almost in an
instant, the old ways.
And, so we gather together, in the name of Christ, walking along the
road, knowing that we will meet him and be changed. Knowing that
we love him and one another, and that we will turn around to a new
way. In the name of Christ. Amen.
©
The Rev. Rebekah Bokros Hatch.
All Rights reserved.
