John 3:16

Lent 4, Mothering Sunday                                                                                 March 18, 2012  

                                                                      John 3:16

     I wanted to offer you a homily this morning about the scriptures.  I wanted to offer a homily that celebrates the relationship of our three parishes.  I wanted to offer a homily that reflects on the proposed liturgies for blessing Holy Unions that have been just released.  But none of those homilies would find their way to paper.  Finally after supper last night I understood that the words we need to hold between us today relate not to biblical scholarship, or reflections on the eschatological mission of the church or on any other wonderful developments in our Episcopal Church this week. Instead I want to say a few words about the practice of being the beloved community, the practice of living into our vocation as ministers of hope and courage in the face of danger and uncertainly.  

     This has been a difficult couple of weeks.  One of Trinity’s energetic and recently retired dear ones was in church one day and admitted to Valley Regional Hospital the next.  After days of tests they sent him off to DHMC where more tests were ordered  to identify what is wrong with his heart and what exactly they are going to do about it.  Every couple of days there has been a slightly different twist to the story.   With all the technology available at our world class trauma center the physicians didn’t know what was really going on inside this frail human body until Friday afternoon when they looked and did not like what they observed.   And now they regroup and consider options but still the medical plans are still unclear.  This isn’t fair.  This isn’t logical.  This isn’t  the way retirement is supposed to be.  And this isn’t of God.    But what is of God is what you are doing for each other.

     In this week of frightening uncertainty amid the unpredictability of life you dear ones have been instruments of God’s love.  You have been community.  Pouring out your prayers and your presence.  You dear ones have shown up.   It’s a long drive when your back is hurting but you went.  Its tempting to watch from afar because this vulnerability is just so close to home.  It could happen in any of our households and that is scary.  But you didn’t hold them at a distance.  You didn’t let them go.  You kept calling, you kept showing up.  This family has been surrounded by prayer and visits and offers to care for the dog.    They know that God loves them because they have seen Holy Love reflected in your faces. 

      The Gospel of John doesn’t include a scene in the upper room on the night Jesus was betrayed where he breaks bread and blesses wine and serves his followers.  Instead the fourth Gospel describes Jesus wrapping a towel around his waist and getting on his knees and washing his friends’ tired, dirty, smelly feet.  Jesus shows them how to be community. They are loving community when they let their vulnerability be seen.  They are community when they let a brother, a sister, minister to them in practical ways.  They are community when they get down on the floor and gently massage the place that is aching even when it hurts their knees.  They are community when they show up in prayer and in humble service.

      It is no small thing to patiently and persistently love those in desperate need.  And yet such love is the reason that the church just might survive.  We are called not to belong to a church but to be church.  In the end it won’t be our buildings, it won’t be our music, it won’t be our lovely prayers that will survive.  Its only small brave acts of love that will prevail. 

     Day in and day out, day after day after day, our practice of beloved community is indeed a sign that God’s work is truly becoming our own.   Let it be.