Sermons
"Angels all Around."
Gracious God may we be open to your words in our midst.
In your Holy Name we pray.
Amen.
I have a theory
that too many angels
in a scripture passage
can make it seem
fantastical and far away
-interesting for the people
to whom the angels appeared
-but relatively useless
for those of us in the here and now.
That, of course,
would be the trouble with
this morning's passage.
Joseph-having learned in a dream
-from an angel
-that the woman to whom he was engaged was pregnant
through the power of the holy spirit
-wisely and graciously
decided not to divorce Mary.
That same Joseph then learns
months later
in another dream
from another Angel
that he must
wake Mary and the baby
and they must with haste
flee to Egypt
so as to avoid
Jesus being executed by Herod.
And then
yet one more time
an Angel visits Joseph
and gives him
the "all clear" signal to return to Palestine.
This is a man who says
not a single word in all of scripture,
And this is a man
who gets as many visits from Angels
as Mary,
the shepherds
and the Magi combined.
Can you imagine for a moment
having a faith deep enough-
- strong enough to use it to save others
- Öto love-to involve oneself
- so deeply to the point of performing
- what amounts to miracles
- - miracles of connection and love.
Can you imagine that
-or is it just stuff of the bible
-part and parcel of holy people's lives
from long ago?
I used to think so-
I too used to think that all the miracles
seemed to happen 2000 years ago-
with very few going on these days.
And then-well then in a moment of grace-
I stopped and thought about
what I see day in and day outÖ
I think of a parishioner
and her weekly visits with her father-in-law
driving in from the country
taking him to mass-
connecting-being there.
I think of Nina
moving half-way across the country
relinquishing all that was familiar
just to be with her granddaughter.
And Byron
bringing his mom to Chicago
to be with him in her last days
and of his mother
willing to leave all that she has known
-all that was familiar to be with her
only beloved son in her last months.
Then there's Judy-
quitting her job to be with her mom-and her aunt.
And Nan
making a significant part of her life's work
caring for and being with her mom
as she died and then her father.
I think of me moving to be with Susan.
Not because I was some noble altruistic person
but because I had risked being in love
-being partnered with Susan
meant that I had the opportunity
to risk moving and changing.
I think of the parents
-who have sacrificed so much for their children
to have the best possible place to learn.
I think of Robert who risked the intimacy
of loving his lover until the end
and then some.
Of Mary
adopting an elderly woman in the hospital
-a woman she'd never seen before
and being the one
to care for her
and make executive decisions for her
-purely because she fell in love.
I think of Margot and Ruth
-caring for some amazing teenagers in this place.
I think of the ones
who are intimately connected to their parents
even though their parents are
frail, flawed, and fragile
-people who have at different points
let them down and yet they go back
and start all over again-one more time.
I think of Susan
leaving her beloved life in the city
to return to the suburbs,
to nurse her mother after her mom had a stroke.
I think of my parents
with my younger brother Sean
-unable to let him hit "bottom"-
refusing to throw him out-
in fear that he will die-and then what
-the child they longed for-
prayed for and adopted would be gone
and- that for them
cannot be-so long as they both shall breathe.
I think of the parents I have known
who have sat in my office and
desperately tried to figure out
how to connect with their teenage child.
Loving more than they could say or know.
I think of Lisa sitting with her mom as the end drew near and then being
there at the
very end.
I think of John and
his weekly visits to Ilse,
a parishioner in a nursing home,
weekly visits that have spanned more than three years.
I think of the vigil
Amy and her siblings kept as
her father was dying
and then how they did it all over again
just six months later
as her step-mother slowly died
in the very same hospital.
Of that love-that hope of intimacy
-that enables us to change
our entire life for another.
Not just about couples and lovers
and parents but sons and daughters
and friends and strangers
-any and each of us who risks-loving.
How much do you love?
Is it enough to leave it all and run away.
To run to Egypt in the middle of the night?
Is it enough
to let go of what you know
to save another --- to be with another?
With all those angelic appearances
and nary a word from his mouth
it's easy to discount Joseph
as simply a plaster character
in crËche scene;
a stick figure
being manipulated from above.
And yet I believe that it is
not so much
his fear or awe of angels that motivates him
-rather it is his deep and abiding,
fierce and formidable
love for Mary and the child.
It is his love for Mary,
his connection and devotion
to Mary and to Jesus
that enables him to embrace dreams
and violate convention
and flee from his homeland-
all to keep the ones he loves safe.
How much will you risk
to love, to care and to endure?
Like Joseph-we are called to do just that
-it is our call on earth.
Raymond Carver in one of his pieces
put this call more succinctly than I ever could.
He writes,
"And did you get what
you wanted from this life, even so?"
I did.
And what did you want?
To call myself beloved, to feel myself
beloved on the earth."
Like Joseph we are all called
to love and to care and to be loved.
That is God's message from the Angels above. Amen.