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Sermon August 12, 2018
The Rev. Rebecca S. Myers, LSW
The Church of the Nativity and St. Stephen’s
Twelfth Sunday After Pentecost, Proper 14, track 1
//lectionarypage.net/YearB_RCL/Pentecost/BProp14_RCL.html
So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another. Ephesians 4:25
Please be seated.
Last week, I took my grandchildren to visit our good friends in Syracuse, New York. I wanted to not only see our friends and some family who live nearby, but also this time I wanted to take the children to Ithaca. My parents met at Cornell University and when my children were small, we lived in campus housing for a year while I also attended Cornell University. I wanted to show my grandchildren where we lived, not only for the history and legacy of this place in our family, but also because during the 1981-82 school year when I attended Cornell, we lived next door to the actor, Jimmy Smits!
I also remembered that on the way from Syracuse to Ithaca, we could stop in Auburn, New York. This is the town where Harriet Tubman and her family lived after the Civil War. She is buried there. I stumbled upon this fact by accident during the year I lived in Ithaca. I found a way to go to visit my grandparents, who lived in Fulton, NY, and not go on the highway or through Syracuse. I called it the back way – a two-lane road that was rarely crowded with traffic. That back road went through Auburn and it was on those trips, I noticed the historical markers saying that Harriet Tubman had lived there and also William Seward.
I only knew William Seward from “Seward’s Folly,” his support for the purchase of what is now the State of Alaska. William Seward was President Lincoln’s Secretary of State. He was an abolitionist. After the Civil War, he encouraged Harriet Tubman to live in Auburn and sold her some property for a home.
I have been enamored of Harriet Tubman since I was a child and still am amazed by her. Just the thought of walking from Maryland to Canada without a map to follow and while being chased by slave owners and bounty hunters is often more than I can fathom doing. She was also a Scout for the Union army and a nurse during the Civil War.
In Auburn, she noticed that as people aged, there was nowhere for them to go when they couldn’t take care of themselves, so she purchased land and built a home for the aged. There was also an infirmary on the property. It is this home for the aged that is currently open to the public and there are plans for more restoration of the property.
The caretaker and docent tells the story of Ms. Tubman’s life with drama and excitement, making the history come alive. The cemetery, unlike in 1982, is well marked and you can now find the Tubman grave fairly easily.
I first visited this property 36 years ago and I loved taking the next generation on this pilgrimage. Yes, a pilgrimage, because Harriet Tubman was a courageous, truthtelling woman and a model of the Christian life.
As I thought about the readings we heard today, I especially honed in on the Ephesians passage. Paul gives us good advice for living in Christian community. There is so much to be said about each sentence in this reading.
Today I want to focus on telling the truth. I’m sure most of us were taught to tell the truth by our parents. I bet most of us heard, if you tell the truth, you may still get in trouble, but you’ll get in worse trouble if you lie. Yet, telling the truth can be challenging.
Our church met in General Convention in July. This is something that happens every three years. General Convention is a gathering of two houses of policy-makers, so to speak. The Bishops form one house and clergy and lay delegates form another house. All business follows a particular order of being introduced and voted on by both houses. In many respects it mimics our form of government in the United States, which isn’t all that unusual, once you realize our Episcopal Church governance was formed by some of the same people who helped form the new government of the United States.
General Conventions are places where we as a larger church struggle to tell the truth. To tell the truth about our world. To tell the truth about our church. During the most recent convention, the delegates and Bishops affirmed and deepened our foci from the 2015 Convention: Care of Creation, Racial Reconciliation, and Evangelism. You can find video presentations from Convention online (https://livestream.com/accounts/12656718/events/8143605) and I also believe we should view and discuss them together as part of Parlor People presentations.
At the October convention of our Diocese, where Bill Rohm will represent us, we will be asked to adopt resolutions in these three areas, which will charge us as parishes to participate in addressing care of creation, racial reconciliation, and evangelism.
While we need to think about these areas in more depth, there are already some things happening. We have an active Environmental Stewardship Committee, so I think we are positioned well when it comes to this item. This past week, Kay Cramer, chair of the Committee reported to Vestry that the church had lowered its use of fuel oil last winter by 40%! That is a significant lowering of our carbon footprint. I know some of you took actions to lower your own carbon footprints. Some of you turned in the pledge form. I hope more of you will do so.
And Jane Hoover reported that our produce from our garden, along with some donated produce totaled 123 pounds taken to the Perry County Food Bank this past week. You should see the buckets of beans and tomatoes that Jane, Darlene and I picked yesterday!
I am involved in the Diocesan Committee to address racism/foster racial reconciliation. Our church has hosted many of the meetings of this group. We are a good location for people coming from various parts of the Diocese. We also host meetings of the Newport Anti-Racism League (NARL). The next meeting is August 21, and we are planning to go to the new movie, BlacKkKlansman. If you’d like to join us, let me know.
There will be an Undoing Racism workshop sponsored by the Diocese in Harrisburg in November. It is 2 ½ days, probably Thursday evening through Saturday. If you are interested in attending, please let me know.
I also hope we can donate some of our GTO funds to the Diocese for this work.
Evangelism, I think for us, is more subtle and maybe we need to up our work there. Evangelism is simply telling the story about how our lives are different, individually and in our parish, because we are Christian…because we follow Jesus Christ. It is how we are different in our everyday lives because we follow Jesus Christ. It’s telling our story of love and inviting anyone who wants to come join us to do so. We have heard some of each others’ stories. We know how powerful it is to hear how God works in our life together.
Be prepared to hear the truth, especially in these three areas, throughout our life together for awhile. Be prepared to join together and work together.
Amen
