single persons, people
of all races and families
of every kind.
Sunday
Service:
Holy Eucharist
at 9:30 am
Child care is available
Church of Our
Saviour
191 Flanagan Way (Rt 153) Secaucus, NJ 07094
Tel: 201-863-1449
Fax: 201-863-1474
Mark A. Lewis,
Vicar
MLewis@secaucus.org
Dorothy Fowlkes
Pastoral Associate
This page revised 27
May 01
http://www.secaucus.org/
oursaviour
The Church of
Our Saviour
in the Town of Secaucus, New Jersey
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Knowing who
we are
Reflections on the
lessons
for the Seventh Sunday of Eastertide, 27 May 2001
By The Rev. Mark A. Lewis, Vicar
I Samuel 12:19-24 / Psalm 47
Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20 / John 17:20-26
Our Saviour People don't come to church for travelogues, or -- even more certainly -- for amateur political science. So, I'll remember this is a sermon. But, I have just come back from a memorable trip. For me the experience of a lifetime. A week in Havana. And one of the things I learned to my surprise -- among many other such things -- is how happy the people there seem to be.
I was born not long before the U.S. embargo there began. I have been raised my whole life to believe that people living there might just as well be serving life sentences in prison. And, they do live under a government that I hope I never have to put up with. Plus, I have been raised to feel sorry for people who "don't have the things we have". And anyone visiting Cuba will instantly notice how very, very little the people there have -- in their homes, on their backs, in their bellies.
It's all true, what I was told all those years. But what nobody told me is how resilient and buoyant the human spirit can be under terrible circumstances. I talked to dozens of Cuban people -- some of them I chatted with every day I was there -- and I never once heard any of them speak of politics or of Castro or of any hostility toward our country. That's not who they are. They're Cubans first, and that makes them happy. Politics and economics seem to take a way-back seat. They know who they are.
When we come to church and listen to readings from to the Bible Sunday after Sunday, we hear stories about people who know who they are. From the earliest times in the Old Testament the Israelites had a strong sense of identity. Their race made for a strong bond. Having a religion unlike that of any of their neighbors confirmed it. In the New Testament, when gentiles joined Jews in a community they began to call "the church," there was another strong bond. The gospel writers and Paul in his letters talk about people who were fused into "one body". And that "one body was further galvanized by outside opposition to these new believers, forcing an even greater awareness of who they were and what they were about.
The animosity against Christians came from different directions: the Roman Empire, which wanted only the official religion of the emperor worship practiced. And on the other hand the majority of Jews were outraged. They thought that their religion was being adulterated by this upstart sect who let non-Jews join on an equal footing with everyone else.
It is not easy to be Christians in this country now. The spirit of the age is individualistic; each of us is on our own. Some of us grew up in small towns -- here or in another country. Others of us grew up in neighborhoods in large cities. Quite a few of us grew up right here in this neighborhood. Now you know a few other families, your children's friends, the people you work with, but making close friendships is not easy. Connection and purpose are in short supply these days. It's not easy to keep a handle on who we are and what we're here for.
But when we gather to worship and break bread together on Sundays, we can make contact with a bond among us that is different from any other. If, God forbid, we should experience some tragedy here in our little group -- the kind of tragedy we hear about daily -- that made us all pull together suddenly (I don't even want to start listing possible examples) I am confident we would immediately see in a clear new light what kind of a community we have. We'd get a suddenly clearer picture of who we are. I'm thinking of articles I read in the paper about churches, schools, towns who have to deal with a terrible accident, or crime, or challenge. And when they do, it comes to light that the all speak the same language in ways they took for granted before. For us, we would have our own language of faith about mysterious happenings and life and death. We would not need too many words. The faith in God that has sustained us up till now would be the bond among us, the cement, that would help us survive this awful horror. I believe that -- under even very terrible circumstances -- we would be people who know who we are.
Today's readings talk about that to me. Maybe because I've been away from here for a little while and I think about you when I'm not around. The reading from the Revelation to John uses very fanciful language and talks about how we all wear a kind of uniform: White robes. And all "have a right" to the "Tree of Life". It's all about being baptized into one fellowship and sharing the symbolic bread and wine of Eucharist that feeds our life together, reminds us who we are. In plainer talk -- but still not exactly simple language -- Jesus talked about people who know who they are as he was about to part from his friends at the Last Supper. His words are in the form of a prayer to God: "I have given my friends the glory you gave me, Father. Let them be one as you and I are one. Let me live in them as you live in me. Let them be one so that the whole world may know that you love them as you love me." That is who we are. People who are connected as closely to each other as Jesus is to God.
When you live that kind of life, so many other smaller things fall into the background. So many things become possible. So many threats just don't pack the wallop they once did. There's something that keeps the Cuban people happy under some pretty terrible circumstances. Something that makes Christians bold enough to stick together and move forward toward the kingdom of God. That something is knowing who we are.
-- Mark Lewis
Your comments or questions are welcome MLewis@secaucus.org.
Links to additional "Reflections on Lessons" may be found at the bottom of the Sunday web page.
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