There's A Song in My Heart!

There’s A Song in My Heart

There is a song in my heart this morning. There is a song in all our hearts this morning. We sing a song of gratitude to God for the ministry of Carol Amos, our parish organist and music director. There is a song in our hearts for Paisley Jayde Wilson this morning, as she enters into the community of faith through the sacrament of Baptism.

Those who sing, pray twice as St. Augustine once said more than 1500 years ago. When we sing, there is a melody in our hearts, and there is poetry in the words we use in these grand hymns. If we let them dwell within us, they have the power to change our lives, to heal and to strengthen us, to teach and empower us for God’s mission and ministry in this world.

What are we here for?

What song do you think there is in the heart of God?

Let me suggest a reminder; “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son to the end that all who believe in shouldn't perish but have everlasting life.” ~John 3:16. 

I don’t know about you, but sometimes when I look at the world with all its violence, warfare, terror, bigotry and oppression, I find it anything but lovable. Sometimes when I look at the lives of those I love, it can get discouraging. And when I read the daily papers or watch the news, I think, what a mess!

But not so with God. God loved the world so much that the only begotten was willing to give his life for the whole of it notwithstanding the wickedness of it all.

This is what bring a song to my heart. Because this is nothing less than the song of God. Week after week after week Carol and this choir work diligently to sing these songs so that we too may learn to love the world with all the love with which God loves it. It would be easy to wash our hands of it all. But that not how God works.

This is not how Jesus does things either. This is not how Jesus sees you. To Jesus, you are infinitely precious. We see it in a newborn, don’t we? We see the innocence, the loveliness, and beauty of this brand new child. Our hearts are filled with love, joy and hope aren’t they? 

You would give your life for this child, wouldn’t you? I’d give mine for my children. This is how it is with God. He gave his life for each and every one of us. And no matter how many messes you’ve made, no matter how hopeless it may seem, God never gives up on us, or anyone else for that matter and certainly not for this tired and sinful old world. There’s not a soul on the planet God will give up on.

God is filled with love for it all. And there is a song in my heart because of it. We thank Carol Amos today for her ministry. We baptize Paisley Jayde today and mark her as God’s own child forever. By the way she already is God’s child. She is already forgiven. What this water and this baptism does is that it helps us see what God has already done for her.

If God so loves the world we live in,  what about us? How much do we love this very dangerous and wicked place?

Imagine if you will every single baptized person on the face of this planet, every single congregation, every single denomination, all churches, all synagogues, all mosques…imagine the collective power of all of us when combined.

If we all organize our lives and worship places around the needs of the communities we live in…if every single child of God were to dedicate himself or herself to some form of servant ministry, imagine what that combined effort could accomplish. 

Imagine if we were all on the same page, all pulling in the same direction. For example, one of the most noble symbols for this country is the American eagle. Have you ever seen an eagle soar on the updrafts of a strong canyon wind? How magnificent! Notice it takes both wings for an eagle to soar. In fact, it takes both wings for any bird even to get off the ground and fly, let alone soar.

That’s both wings; the left wing and the right wing. We sometimes forget this one simple and obvious fact of life. Just because we may differ theologically, politically, or on the matter of any other opinion. You’ll never fly, let alone soar, none of us ever will until we come to understand that we are all one in Christ Jesus our Lord. Whether we are Conservative or Liberal, Republican or Democrat, Rich or Poor, Black or White, Male, Female, Gay or Straight…whoever we are we are all of one blood. Blessed Paul the Apostle put it in these magnificent words; "As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus." ~Galatians 3:27 & 28

Until we come to understand this one key fact of the Gospel, we will find ourselves hobbled by the wickedness of divisiveness. Today there is a song in our hearts. One song. Today there is a Baptism in our Church. Today there is One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism, One God and Father of All.

In the Name of the God, the most holy, undivided and everlasting Trinity.

Fr Paul

"A Lantern Unto my Feet"

"Your Word is a Lantern Unto My Feet

and a Light Upon my path"

~Psalm 119:105

This is the way it has been with me all my life.

Somehow among the first things in my life was this sense that God was there; perhaps in here. And moreover, that God had something to say to me; not in words, but in a movement of the heart. I developed an appetite for God.  

And when I heard the scriptures say “Your word is a lantern unto my feet”, I immediately recognized that those words were speaking to me. They spoke to me in moments of tragedy such as when my dad died. They spoke to me in moments of joy such as when, on Christmas morning I came downstairs to see my own first bicycle. 

God has been my companion along the way, always awakening hope both in the scripture and in the breaking of the bread. I loved communion as a child. I still do. Imagine; communion: becoming ONE with God. Imagine coming to the altar rail, and eating just a tiny wafer and sipping just a little wine, and in that moment to taste and to see how good God is. 

So strong was the communion I felt with God that I became a priest of the church and have now served so for over 42 years. 

I also heard the scripture say that Jesus came into the world for the sake of the poor and the outcast, the imprisoned, the sick, the vulnerable and the “least of these”. Therefore the kind of priest I would become would be an activist priest, precisely because I was resolved to become obedient to Jesus’ command to preach the Gospel to all nations; all peoples. 

Things were very quiet here on Thursday morning. There wasn’t a soul around here. I went into the church and the silence was breathtaking. I noticed the architecture, the stained glass windows, the appointments in the building at the altar, the pulpit, the lectern. I admired the wood work and thought of those whose skill and artistry created this marvel of a place in which to worship. They created a place where we could actually sense, touch and feel holy things and be in the presence of the holy itself.

I thought of the literature of the Prayer Book and the Bible. Oh and the music; how I love the music of the church. I will confess to you I also love other kinds of music. I loved the pop stuff of the 50’s. But then I discovered classical music when I lived in Toronto. The Toronto Symphony Orchestra came to our school one day and played The Peer Gynt Suite #1 by Edvard Grieg; Morning Mood, the Death of Ase, Anitra’s Dance, and in the Hall of the Mountain King. It was as if my life changed. I came home and told my step father about this amazing experience and he said; “Listen to this!” He found his old recording of Rimsky Korsakov’s “Sheherazade”. I was hooked.

I loved music. Church music, pop music, classical music. Now this will date me but I attended any performance I could at Massey Hall to hear the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. At the time the TSO was conducted by a young up and coming genius; Seiji Ozawa, who later went on to become the music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. 

I had season tickets to the BSO and the Boston Bruins. My tastes in life have always been rather eclectic. I loved music. I loved sports. I played goal and defense for a neighborhood team when I lived in Toronto and enjoyed mixing it up with the others. I had a low center of gravity even then so being on defense gave me some advantages other players didn’t have, and I have to confess that body contact sport had a satisfaction all of its own.

But here is the funny thing; for me it is all of a piece. This beautiful sacred space, the literature, the music, the sounds of life, the sport of it is all part of what I believe God wants for us to enjoy. 

Oh and then I heard Pablo Cassals and Yitzak Pearlman and so many others. I heard Ella Fitzgerald, met Earl “Fatha” Hines, Sonny Terry and Brownie MaGee. Then of course, I learned the joy of Irish folk music and the beat, as they say went on.

All this creativity, all this struggle for justice for the poor and marginalized for me was of a piece. It all brought to me the Joy of Jesus. “Your word is a lantern unto my feet and a light upon my path”. 

It is thus that when I return to my rest at night I can say “thank you” and when I awaken in the morning I can say “lets see what we can get into today”. For in it all and through it all is my Divine Companion. 

The Gospel lesson tells us that a sower went out to sow. And yes some seed fell along the path and the birds came and ate it up. To be sure, not everything in my life bears fruit, neither does it in yours. Some falls on the rock and just doesn’t take root. God knows that’s true with me. Some of those seeds get choked off by weeds, and by the cares and anxieties of life. I can relate to that and so can you. But for the most part, that seed falls on good ground and bears fruit; some a hundred fold, fifty fold, or thirty fold.

I do not know how to compute the contribution I’ve made to this world. Neither can you. But this I know. The seed has fallen on good ground in our hearts and here we are to seek that lantern that lights our way through our lives; that lantern that brings us wisdom, delights our hears, guides our pathway, and brings us peace and joy. 

This lantern challenges us along time and again to become active agents of God’s goodness in a world where there is so much human need. Is there not something we can do to alleviate the suffering of so many in this world. Yes, there is. That is why we are here; to bring peace with justice where we can achieve it.

And when all breaks down in violence and conflict, we are then even all more dedicated to the ministry we were given in the first place; the ministry of reconciliation. To be sure this is the most difficult and challenging of all our ministries. And some of us know how dangerous and difficult it is to impose ourselves in the middle between waring factions, but there can be no alternative but to dig in and do it!

Three Israeli teens die and a Palestinian teen is then burned to death in an unending cycle of reprisal after reprisal in a land where a tooth of a tooth is the prevailing ethic. Not far away in Syria and Iraq a new and emerging group of extremists loosely categorized as ISIS have emerged to the right of al Qaeda. How would you like to be in the midst of bringing peace to that land? And among those peoples?

Much like the rivalry between the two nations born in Rebecca’s womb; the rivalry between Jacob and Esau, from nation to family contest and conflict are a reality that will always be a part of the landscape we live in.

Actually that would be no more difficult than bringing a reconciling presence between The President of these United States and Tea Party activists.

When I hear; “Your word is a lantern unto my feet and a light upon my path” I’m realistic enough to know that there are those intractable imponderables that I will not resolve in my lifetime, but that will not stop or prevent me from giving it my best efforts, not will it prevent me from living my life with all the joy of Jesus.

Jesus put himself into the heart of the conflict and then he died upon the cross for these sins of ours these sins in which so many innocents die. He died in innocence. Jesus is the Word of God incarnate,as John's Gospel puts it; "And the Word of God became Flesh and we beheld his Glory full of Grace and Truth."

This is why we follow him. He has sent us into the world to bring his love into history. He is a "Lantern unto my feet and a Light upon my path"

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Fr Paul.