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Sermon December 24, 2020
The Rev. Rebecca S. Myers,
The Church of the Nativity and St. Stephen’s
Christmas Eve
http://lectionarypage.net/YearABC_RCL/Christmas/ChrsDay2_RCL.html
Video: https://youtu.be/L6FMMTHDM9E The first 1/2 hour is hymn sing. Sermon at 50 minutes.
But when the goodness and loving-kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy, through the water of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit. This Spirit he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Titus 3:4-7
Recently an article about a church fire caught my eye. It was a fire at Middle Collegiate Church in New York City. There are a number of “Collegiate” churches in the city and I often walked by them when I was attending seminary. I thought the name was odd – Collegiate. Collegiate comes from the Old English word, collegial. You may have heard of Marble Collegiate Church on Fifth Avenue because Norman Vincent Peale was the minister there for decades.
These Collegiate churches trace their history back to the Dutch Church and were started in 1628. They are one of the oldest continuous worshipping churches in the United States. There are various locations and buildings throughout New York City. They are currently co-affiliated with the United Church of Christ and the Reformed Church in America.
Middle Collegiate is located in the East Village and is known for its activism. One of their seven ministers carries the title of Executive Minister for Justice, Education and Movement Building. They are a large multi-racial congregation.
Their building is also a landmark. It was built in 1892 and houses a collection of more than a dozen artificially-lit Tiffany windows, including aa large Tiffany skylight dome in their social hall. Their tower bell, which was cast in Amsterdam is known as New York’s Liberty Bell, having rung on July 4, 1776 and at the inauguration and death of every president of the country, as well as other important occasions.
The church is right next door to an old townhome, which in 1874 was bought by Quaker prison reformers, known as the Women’s Prison Association or WPA. The WPA continues to operate throughout the City, providing housing and services for women in a variety of challenging circumstances.
Middle Collegiate has been involved in supporting the services in the townhome next door to them for their entire history.
But on Saturday, December 5, a devastating fire occurred at Middle Collegiate Church. It blew out those beautiful Tiffany windows and only the shell of the church is left standing. Whether the NY Liberty Bell is still operable is not yet known. The bell tower was not destroyed.
The fire also threatened the Hopper House next door, where 22 women were being housed. The women were promptly evacuated from their home, some still in their pajamas. They were watching the fire and standing in the freezing rain. They had rushed out of their house with nothing but the clothes on their backs.
Arrangements were made to get the women to another of the organization’s shelters so they could be warm and safe. It soon became clear the women wouldn’t be able to return to their home, because of water and smoke damage from the church fire.
Church members rushed to the fire scene. Their urgency was not about the destruction of their beautiful worship space, it was for the women living next door.
The church members realized the women could not return to their home. They found out where the women were and prior to going to that location, they went shopping and bought 22 tubes of toothpaste and 22 toothbrushes and 22 bottles of hand sanitizer.
When they got to the location where the women were waiting, they saw a sad-looking crowd of faces. The church members asked who wanted to go shopping and then took carload after carload shopping for necessities. Some of their credit cards were flagged for fraud from the buying spree. They’d get one unflagged just in time to use it when another card got flagged. Ultimately, the church’s funds will reimburse for the costs. Church members also posted what they were doing and were able to receive numerous cash donations and pleas to people in the neighborhood and politicians garnered numerous donations of clothing, toiletries and money.
One of the church members involved said, “We take it very seriously: Love thy neighbor as yourself. Actually, I think at Middle, we think ‘Love your neighbor sometimes more than you love yourself’…. It’s not just saying, ‘This is what I have for you,’ but saying ‘What do you need from us?’”
But when the goodness and loving-kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we had done…. This Spirit is poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior…
This newborn baby whose birth we remember this night is the goodness and loving-kindness of God. The man Jesus he became showed us love and mercy. Jesus showed us how deep love and deep mercy give us amazing life. The Spirit is poured out on us now.
The church members at Middle Collegiate demonstrate what most of us know as followers of Jesus Christ. Yes, our worship spaces are beautiful and they are not the most important thing in our faith life. We know that from this past year when we haven’t been able to gather like we did before the pandemic.
Yet, we continued to love each other, to worship God, to love our neighbors, whether it was in our Giving To Others funds or our gifts to the residents of the Commons and Gardens or the cribs we collected and gave to Join Hands for babies who had none or our collection of school supplies and Christmas gifts for Perry County children or our offer to house a person in the immigration system.
This good and loving-kind God continually shows us love and mercy and we respond, whether we have a building or not, whether we can gather in person or not.
Now, that’s love…that’s Christmas.
Amen
https://www.middlechurch.org/our-story
