Ash Wednesday - Invitation to the Desert

 

Ash Wednesday – Feb. 22, 2023 – St. Mark’s and Church of the Holy Communion

 

From our psalm:  The Lord is full of compassion and mercy, long-suffering and of great goodness.  (Ps. 103.8)

 Today is Ash Wednesday.  This is the day  we turn a corner in our yearly pilgrimage as people of God traveling the way together and, if we look far ahead,  in the distance is the Cross.  His Cross. And, in between, a desert.

 We begin this day with a stark reminder --- Dust thou art  unto dust shalt thou return…

 Here is a story from very early on in ministry.  I was serving as an assistant at a parish, and it was Ash Wednesday… my husband  came to church and brought our then young son to the service  – He was maybe two- and, at that point, our only child .  When it was time for the imposition of ashes, they happened to come to my side of the rail.  I approached them. John was holding our son in his arms. I signed the ashes on my husband’s forehead and began to sign them on our son’s forehead.  At that point, I could not get the words out – dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return…I was overwhelmed in that moment with anguish at the thought of their mortality and it became almost unbearable.  I  did not want to think about the deaths of my beloveds.  And yet, then and now, this is the time we are called to remember that we are dust – and to dust we shall return… and to be mindful as the prayerbook puts it of the shortness and uncertainty of life.

During Lent, we are invited to not only recall our mortality but to draw closer to our Lord and to look at those places in our lives where we have missed the mark – the literal meaning of the Greek word sin – h’amartia –like an arrow missing the target.  And, we are called to look at those times and  places where we have fallen short. St. Paul reminds us that all have sinned and fallen short.  Too, we are invited to contemplate that in us which is broken and in need of healing as well as our own participation in systemic evil and the pain of the world.

And it is hard to get honest about our  own failures of character, our lack of love for our neighbors, our brokenness and all that is in us in desperate need of the healing touch of the one who heals us by his wounds.

Yes, It takes courage to look ourselves in the mirror and, truly, the only way we can do this  - so that it does not become a exercise in unhelpful self-flagellation  - is to approach God knowing that  as we do, he is already holding us in the arms of his mercy, and to form a Lenten intention- offering it to him-  of drawing closer and as we do that, we can trust that our living  God through the Holy Spirit will be at work within us to open our eyes and hearts more deeply to how he is already present with us.  Indeed, closer than a breath.

 The only difficultly is that usually the closer we draw to God, the more clearly we see our own sin.

  I believe that Julian  of Norwich observed this in her Divine revelations of Love - That the closer we draw to the source of a bright  light, the darker and sharper our shadow appears to be. 

 It is only through the never failing compassion and mercy of the Lord – seen so clearly in the face of Jesus - that we can have the confidence to accept the invitation of the Forty Days of Lent…

Think with me about the Forty days and  notice something.. something that can make a difference if we can get it down into our bones.

Noah and his family, stewards of creation, were sheltered in the ark by the mercy of God – while the rains fell and the flood waters swept around them as they floated over a ruined civilization on a desert of water.  And, when they landed, a new age began – the sign of which was a rainbow placed by God.

 Moses, fleeing after he murdered an Egyptian, spent forty years as a shepherd for his father in law Jethro before he encountered the Burning Bush and his call to return to Egypt to lead God’s people out of captivity.  Moses was hidden by the mercy of God from the wrath of the Egyptians and found a new life in the desert..

 The Children of Israel – wandering in the desert for forty years, learned how to become a people and to follow God’s guidance – cloud by day, fire by night. At every turn, and even in radical idolatry, they were  sustained by the mercy of God..  manna in the wilderness and water from the rock – given the Ten Commandments, entered in Covenant, and finally brought  Home.

 And, Elijah fasted for 40 days as he traveled to the cave on Mt. Horeb – fleeing from King Ahab and Queen Jezebel after he, Elijah, had slain the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel.   And God, in his mercy, met Elijah in that cave on Mt. Horeb—and spoke to him in a small still voice and then sent him to Damascus and into a new chapter…

 And, our Lord Jesus, after his baptism in the River Jordan was led – some accounts say – driven by the Holy Spirit – into the desert where he struggled with the temptations that beset us all and was sustained in that desert and at the end angels came and ministered to him, and he emerged from that desert with clarity of calling and then launched his mission to reclaim and reconcile God’s people.

 For each of these – the Forty days (or years) were both a time of very real trial and testing and also a significant turning point…  and in every instance and throughout the entire time, they were held in the merciful care of our God…

 Just as you, Church, are now…You are entering the desert of the Forty Days – it can be a turning point ..  both for us as individuals and collectively as the faith community, the people of God in this place.  In that desert – don’t be afraid to face into the sin and the brokenness of your life – and, as you do, know that at the same time  you are being held in the merciful, faithful, healing embrace  of our God who not only sustains us but who in Jesus Christ, is our companion every single step of the way.   The desert awaits, may we enter in with courage and hope.  Amen.

 

 

JTCO- 2/22/23

 

 

 

The Baptism of the Lord C -Jan. 9, 2022

 

                        The Baptism of the Lord  C– 2022- St. Mark’s- Charleston- JTCO

I have to confess…..I am finding it difficult to put away the Christmas tree this year.  It’s still up at my house.  I think this is probably because there is a light and warmth to it that I need right now as we make our way through the fog of yet another year of Covid and national disintegration.  Maybe you do too. Permission granted.

There are two parts to the sermon this morning.  The first is a little bit of teaching about the season of Epiphany, and the second part is a look at our Gospel reading to see how it might be speaking to us today.

We marked the beginning of the season on the Day of Epiphany – January 6th – this past week.  That day celebrates the arrival of the Magi, who following a pinpoint star light, finally arrived to worship the newborn king.  The Greek behind the English is epiphania – which means revelation. So, we have just entered a season in the Church of revelation in which each week we have the unfolding of the particular mystery of who that baby born at Bethlehem was and is for us.  And, we are invited to ponder what difference will Christmas make for us this year? What difference the incarnation of our Lord can make. What child is this?  

George Herbert – English priest and poet of the seventeenth century addresses that little one in his poem “Christmas” -He writes -  

  O Thou, whose glorious, yet contracted light,

          Wrapt in night's mantle, stole into a manger 

The Word of God – the Christ - came to us in an almost laser like beam – glorious yet very narrowly focused.  During the season of Epiphany, each week we will get a glimpse as that beam of light expands and gets wider and wider.  This week we see our Lord at his Baptism in which he is proclaimed as the Beloved as he identifies with us and his mission is inaugurated.   In the following weeks, as we walk the year, we see the miracle worker, the one in whom the prophecies are being fulfilled.  We encounter Jesus the teller of truth to the religious power of the day, and the caller of disciples – then and now, Jesus the teacher who discloses the way of true discipleship, and finally , on the Mount of Transfiguration – the one in whom the law and prophets are fulfilled and once again,  he is revealed to be the Beloved.  Each of these Sundays we walk  is a step along the path to be able to understand more deeply who this Jesus is for us and for the world. 

So, may the season of Epiphany this year – which takes us to the end of February when we enter Lent.- may this season be a time of revelation for each of you.  So that -  to paraphrase what St. Paul says in Ephesians -  (my paraphrase)   the eyes of your heart might be filled with the light of understanding – of revelation -  so that you might know deep down in your bones, the hope which is yours and to which you have been called. (Eph. 1.18) 

And now, to the gospel for today  in which Luke tells us about the Baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan.

      John the Baptist had been preaching and baptizing for a while in the region around the Jordan River and people really responded to him – wondering if he were the messiah.  He straightened them out pretty quickly – I baptize with water for repentance but, one is coming who will baptize with the Holy Sprit and fire… NO I am not the Messiah but he is close at hand…

John’s baptism was a baptism of cleansing and repentance and getting ready – he was cleaning house and none too gently.

Now, if you look at your readings leaflet, you will see that some verses have been left out.   These are an aside from Luke which  tell us about how John had publicly called out  King Herod for taking and marrying his brother’s wife – while the brother was still alive!  This was something that scandalized people then and probably still would.  Herod responded by arresting John and tossing him in prison.  Then, Luke brings us back to Jesus and tells us about a particular time when many people had been baptized, presumably by John,  and Jesus was also baptized.   Notice,  after his baptism, Jesus was praying – and three things happened.

First, the heavens were opened.  Secondly, the Holy Spirit descended upon him in a bodily form – something looking like a dove. And, third,  and a voice came from heaven which said   “You are my Son – the Beloved, with you I am well pleased.”

What can we make of Jesus’ baptism?  Why did he do it?  The sinless one did not need cleansing from sin and did not need to repent.  Luke doesn’t give us clues about his motivation which is probably good thing . It seems to me that if we want to try to get at this,  it might be fruitful to work backwards – that is, whatever the reason was– that action gave the Father great joy – “with you I am well pleased.” 

The act of being baptized also resulted in the pouring out of the Holy Spirit – in the form of something that looked like a dove.. Now recall- the witness of the Bible and the Church down through time is that the Holy Spirit is always given for a purpose, if you will, to empower a mission.  So, Jesus in his baptism – going down into  the waters of the Jordan River – embraced his mission to humankind-  indeed to the entire creation.  

The dove is a detail we don’t want to miss either- think about where else we have seen a dove – do you remember?  Noah’s ark which floated over the waters.   And, the signal that the new beginning was at hand was the dove which had been  sent out and returned with a olive twig in its beak. The dove represented a new beginning.. peace between God and humankind – and a new covenant with Noah that God would never again destroy the inhabitants of the earth.  So, don’t; miss the dove.

Continuing back – the heavens opened.  What did Jesus see?

The heavenly throne room? Angels and archangels?  Or, was it an outside-of-time glimpse of his role in bringing about shalom- his great mission of redemption and reconciliation .  This moment foreshadows what will happen on the Mount of Transfiguration.

I wonder if you’ve every had a glimpse like this.  Recently daughter Ana and I, on a little pre-Christmas trip,  visited a place in the mountains which had a very low lying cloud cover.  It was gray, drizzly, foggy and a little depressing… and then we took a train ride up the side of a mountain.  At one point, we emerged above the cloud cover and the fog  and sky was suddenly brilliant cobalt blue, the sun was shining, the colors were vivid and we all simultaneously said “ahhhhh.” Yes, life below was one reality but the true reality could be glimpsed with a higher perspective. Now we did have to come back down the mountain – back down in to the fog and rain – but somehow it was much more bearable because we had seen the  reality of what lay just above.  Perhaps, something like this was Jesus’ experience as well.

Now to his Baptism in the waters of the River Jordan…

 For ancient peoples (as well as for many contemporary folk), water represented  primordial chaos and death.   In dreams and art, it may represent the subconscious life we and all of creation live.  It was thought that its depths were inhabited by evil spirits, and it represented the very real possibility of death.   Remember in the creation account, we hear ”In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.”  

Anyone who spends time on the water knows that it requires respect.  The Jordan is clear, it’s not just a shallow trickle.  In some places, it reaches a width of over sixty feet and a depth of nearly seventeen feet.  It is thought that Jesus was baptized near the place where the Jordan flows out from Bethany into the Sea of Galilee.  So, at that place,  it would have been quite deep with a very strong current.  

When Jesus went down into the water of Baptism, he was voluntarily, symbolically giving himself over to death in total identification with our human experience.  And instead of emerging cleansed from sin, the sinless one emerged carrying the full weight of the broken beauty of being human and estranged from God.

When you and I were baptized, we were joined to him in the fullness of his death and life. Remember,  St Paul says - in the 6th chapter of Romans -  “do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too, might walk in newness of life.  For, if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” 

The baptismal call is to die to our former life and to no longer live as “casually connected consumers ” of the product called Church  or the product called Life  but rather that we might  become resilient disciples transformed by the grace and mercy of the cross -  so that whether we are in fog or above the clouds, we might know the truth of who Jesus Christ is and who we are.

and also, that we might live forever with him and living in him and he in us…  so that we might receive the same Holy Spirit  - both for guidance and for empowerment  to carry on God’s mighty mission and so that we too might realize -deeply- that each of us is God’s beloved – you are, you know- Beloved.  Try looking the mirror tonight and saying that to yourself- God loves me and I am his Beloved.  

In just a moment, we will affirm our Baptismal Covenant. Listen deeply as you do this and, when we finish, hear the word of the Lord to you today.  You are my Beloved… In you I am well pleased.  AMEN.

Epiphany 3A 2023 - Follow

 Epiphany 3A – Jan. 22, 2023- St. Mark’s Episcopal Church – Charleston, SC

Have you experienced this ?   Waking up in the dark, disoriented, at home or away,  and what’s the first thing you do?  For me, it’s getting oriented to where I am by looking for  a nearby light: clock, watch, phone, nightlight.. When I see the light, then I know where I am.  Has this happened to  you?

In our gospel reading from Matthew this morning , he quotes the prophet Isaiah, as he tells us about the beginning of the public ministry of Jesus –

“The people who sat in darkness who sat in darkness have seen a great light – and those who sat in the region and shadow of death, light has dawned…”

(do you recall that we read this on Christmas Eve?)

I want to take a little time to sketch out some of the background…

Matthew sees the beginning of Jesus ministry as the dawn of a new day after a very long night of darkness. St. John would say, “the light shines in the darkness.” For  Isaiah, that darkness was the Babylonia captivity and, for Jesus, that darkness probably was the Roman occupation as well as separation from God.

So, here is Jesus, fresh from his baptism and followed by the temptation in the desert, and his public ministry as an itinerant, that is, wandering rabbi launches..

Sometimes we get the impression that Jesus was an illiterate  country bumpkin with little to no formal education.  That does not appear to be the case. The Jewish people took the religious education of their children very seriously and especially during and after the exile period.  Schools were attached to the synagogues and there were three levels of education…with everyone being required to complete the first two…The Pirke Avot, a writing from the Mishnah which is a compilation of Jewish ethical teachings, describes it this way…

First level:  Between 5 and 9, one begins a study of the Torah – lots of memorization – Boys and girls

Second level:  Between 10 and 13 – the study of the other writing – prophets, psalms, wisdom, and more..  upon completion of this stage, a participation in the first Passover – definitely boys – maybe girls depending upon the community..

This is where formal religious education ended for most people…

The third level – at fifteen-  engaged with a study of the Talmud…if the young person was wealthy or recognized as particularly gifted.. because this was age when young men were expected to learn a trade, to get married at eighteen and by twenty to pursue that trade, and by thirty to be in full vigor and mastery…in other words, they needed to be self-supporting…[1]

And, if they were not self-supporting, someone had to underwrite them..

Jesus most certainly completed the first two levels and more than likely the third… he definitely spoke Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek ..and perhaps some Latin.  His third level of education had probably been underwritten by his home synagogue.

After completing his training, it appears that he  followed John the Baptist – an itinerant teacher – prophet  for a time, was baptized by him and then he drawn into  the desert for a time and testing and discernment about his own ministry.  He emerged to begin his own ministry as an itinerant rabbi..

In our age of mass communication, our religious teachers are not normally itinerant - but in Jesus’ day, it was the norm…” “

Dr.  Shmuel Safrai,  an Israeli university professor, and author, writes there were hundreds and perhaps thousands of such rabbis circulating in the land of Israel in Jesus’ day. These rabbis did not hesitate to travel to the smallest of the villages or the most remote parts of the land. They would often conduct their classes in the village square or out under a tree (Safrai, ibid, 965) [2].. In some instances, classes would be conducted in someone’s home. Often these classes were small. The rabbis did not hesitate to teach as few as four or five students. According to custom, one could not charge for teaching the Scriptures, so the itinerant rabbi was dependent upon the hospitality and generosity of the community. Many rabbis carried their food with them – a pouch of meal and a few olives. From such they subsisted, not wanting to be a burden to their host. The rabbi’s stay in the community might last from only a few days to weeks, or even months. However, for the long term student (“disciple”), learning from a rabbi meant traveling, since the rabbi was always moving from place to place. If one wanted to learn from a rabbi, one had to “follow after him.”

Attaching oneself to a rabbi was like a graduate course.. sort of like a traveling seminary

The idea was that you were drawn to them and asked them to take you on..and you walked with them and followed them – learning interpretation , seeing how they blessed their food, how they applied Torah to everyday life  and at the end of your time with them – two or three years , you would begin to gather your own disciples..and launch your own ministry.

Now… consider our reading this morning, normally the way you’d attach yourself to a rabbi, was you’d get interested in their teaching and then ask to follow them..

What’s interesting here, in Matthew,  is that Jesus does not wait for the wealthy and gifted to seek him out- instead he recruited some very unlikely folks…

And in that final verse – we have a summary of what Jesus and his disciples did –

He taught, he proclaimed, he healed…is this not a good job description for the Church?

 

Three questions

1.   So, to us.. Jesus Christ our resurrected Lord is still the light in the darkness – the fixed point to which we can orient ourselves –

What is darkness under which you are sitting?  No matter how dark it is… the light of Christ is shining.. ask him to help you see it…..

2.  By virtue of our baptism, we are called to be his disciple – can we learn to follow? We need Jesus to be our savior but are we willing to follow him as our Lord?

How hard it is for us to follow—

And how fearful we are of putting our trust in a leaders who prove unworthy of that trust—and there is no doubt that people will let us down..but there is one who will never let us down and that is Jesus Christ..

So, second question – how can we learn to follow? 

by studying his words, his teaching, and his actions—

in prayer – by saying directly in prayer – Lord, I am willing to follow where you lead.. forming that intention  and then learning how to get attuned to the interior leading of the Holy Spirt.. and to pray – thy will be done..

by being in the presence of others who love Jesus and who seek to follow him and usually we can find them at Church– by keeping good company..

and finally,  how are you doing with fishing for people?   The call to catch people for the kingdom did not die with Peter and Andrew, James and John – it is our call too… and this can seem sometimes like a heavy – I was afraid that if I really let Go get a hold of me , I’d start preaching like the Beaufort Street Preachers.. practically assaulting people with the gospel..

No,  if you are willing, God will use every bit of who you are and your life experience to teach, proclaim or heal… in ways we cannot anticipate..

Here’s a true story about how God uses every bit of our life experience to be able to connect with others… that from the Rev. Courtney Ellis – a Presbyterian pastor –

She writes that she was in high school, their chorus teacher made them learn to sing Silent Night in German…she and the other students thought it was ridiculous and complained bitterly about it…

Fast forward ten years. She is ordained and conducting a Christmas service in a nursing home.. some resident had walked in and others were rolled in.  She went around and greeted people  noticed one man in a wheel chair who was very unengaged and asked about him, “O that’s Arlo, he’s non verbal.”  They went on with the service and at the end they sang Silent Night in English – she noticed his lips were moving and she leaned over and heard him say “Stille Nacht” – she repeated it back and then began singing Silent Night to him in the German language that she had learned so many years before.. He sang along – every word.  

She said, I realize now that God had me learn Silent Night in German just for Arlo. 

When it comes to being a fisher for people, God does not waste any of our experience… but will use it all to connect so that we can be hold up the light of Christ to those who are sitting in darkness -

So, on this day… if you are sitting in the darkness, look for the light of Christ – it’s there – the light shines and the darkness cannot overcome it..

And on this day, hear anew your own call to follow Jesus Christ..  “Follow Me”

And on this day, be willing to be the light for another…

 May we be faithful to this in our own time…  Amen.

 

---

[1] Study Shows Jesus as Rabbi - Bible Scholars  (Professor Shmuel Safrai, in his article, “Education and the Study of the Torah,” 945-970 in Volume Two of The Jewish People of the First Century,)

[2]Ibid.

Myrrh and MIssion

A beautiful meditation ....

                                                           Myrrh and Mission

Myrrh is a mystery to most people. Gold we understand, and we can make a good guess about frankincense. But what is myrrh? And why would anyone give it to a baby?
Myrrh is a fragrant resin produced when certain types of trees receive wounds that penetrate past the bark and into the wood. The resin gathers and hardens into crystals. These crystals can be burned like incense or ground into a powder that can be mixed with creams and liquids. In ancient times, myrrh was used as a beauty aid, for medicinal purposes, in worship, and in burial rites.
We see all of these uses in the Bible. Queen Esther used myrrh in her beauty preparations prior to meeting the Persian king (Esther 2:12). In Mark’s Gospel, Jesus refuses to drink the pain-dulling wine mixed with myrrh before being crucified (Mark 15:23). Myrrh played an important part in religious ritual. In the book of Exodus, God prescribes myrrh as a key ingredient of the oil used to consecrate priests as well as sacred places and things (Exodus 30:23). John’s Gospel recounts that Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes to prepare Jesus’ body for burial (John 19:39). Myrrh was likely one of the spices carried by the women who discovered the empty tomb on Easter morning. Because of these last uses, Eastern Christians name the women and men who prepared Jesus’ body for burial and accompanied him to the tomb as the myrrh-bearers.
The magi’s gift of myrrh captures all these meanings: beauty, healing, holiness, and death. And, in so doing, this gift helps us to understand Jesus’ mission in the world. The magi were searching for a king. The kingdom that Jesus came to announce is a kingdom of beauty, healing, and holiness—a kingdom inaugurated by Jesus’ saving death.
As myrrh originates in the wounds of a tree, the kingdom is born in the water and blood issuing from the wound in Jesus’ side. As a beauty aid, myrrh was renowned for restoring youthful vitality to aging skin. Similarly, in Christ all things are made new, reborn and restored. In his public ministry, Jesus announced the in-breaking of the kingdom with mighty deeds, signs, and wonders. Many of these signs were acts of healing. But these healings went beyond a return to physical health. Jesus healed lepers and the woman with a hemorrhage, ailments that excluded them from participation in the community. Similarly, by raising Jairus’s daughter and the son of the widow of Nain, he restored both them and their families, offering security and a future.
Most profoundly, Jesus’ mission was a call to holiness. Everyone who claims to follow Christ is called to follow his path of holiness. This holiness is not about abandoning a sinful world, but about embracing those in greatest need. Like the myrrh-bearers of the Gospels, we are called to accompany the poor, the outcast, the sick, and the dying, offering comfort and compassion, honoring their dignity as children of God.
Like the wise men and women throughout history who have searched for Jesus, we must ask ourselves: How can we, weak and wounded as we are, become myrrh-bearers to a world desperately in need of beauty, healing, and holiness?

—Mary Elizabeth Sperry


Mary Elizabeth Sperry holds a master’s degree in liturgical studies from the Catholic University of America. She has worked for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops since 1994 and is the author of numerous articles and books, including Scripture in the Parish: A Guide for Catholic Ministry. Visit her blog at maryelizabethsperry.com.

What a world and a time...

What a world and what a time to live.. This morning I am standing at the kitchen sink drinking turmeric tea from India, peeling and eating an orange from Florida, and watching the rain pelt down on the profusely blooming pink camellia in my backyard. How unbelievably rich I am.

Advent Supper Table Thoughts on Joyful Hope

This Advent our family has been using the following blessing form at supper and one line in particular got me thinking.. It goes like this:

Leader:  Maranatha! Come, Lord Jesus!
All:        Maranatha!  Come quickly!

Leader: Blessed are you, Lord God of all creation.
              Blessed are you in the darkness and the light.
              Blessed are you in this food and in our sharing.
              Blessed are you as we wait in joyful hope
              for the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ,

All:       For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours,
              now and forever. Amen.

It was the phrase joyful hope that caught my attention.   I cling to hope all right, but often it is not joyful.  The first few nights, I left out the word joyful and now have put it back in.  Is it possible to still have joyful  hope even in in the midst of confusion, depression, loneliness or grief?  Is it possible in the midst of conflict, division,  vitriol in the public square, and the overwhelming amount of pain in the world?   I wonder.  Then, today, remembered this comment from C.S. Lewis on hope..

Hope is one of the Theological virtues. This means that a continual looking forward to the eternal world is not (as some modern people think) a form of escapism or wishful thinking, but one of the things a Christian is meant to do. It does not mean that we are to leave the present world as it is. If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. The Apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished the Slave Trade, all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at Heaven and you will get earth "thrown in": aim at earth and you will get neither.--C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Book III, Chapter 10

The joy of this kind of hope is not, I suspect,  related to a feeling of happiness but rather to trust that God will make it right - is making it right-  even though it is not visible at present. St. Paul did not live to see the Christian faith spread to the corners of the known world.  Could Wilberforce and friends have imagined the degree to which their campaign for human dignity would continue to bear fruit? Perhaps the joy comes in trusting and anticipating that all shall be well.  That, for me , is not a loud joy but a very quiet joy - a flicker in the darkness rather than a brightly burning flame. So, this Advent, I will claim waiting in a quiet Advent hope and trust that, in aiming for heaven,  the joy will come.

A hymn in honor of St. Joseph

        

         Although Advent has just begun, I am looking forward to preaching on Advent 4.  This year in the lectionary, we hear about St. Joseph. In years past I looked for hymns to honor him but found almost nothing.

          Consequently, some years back I composed a simple text - works for both kids and adults-  to go with the tune of  W Zlobie Lezy -  a traditional Polish carol.   My intention was to honor both St. Joseph and my husband John's Polish heritage.  When John and I were first married (and long before seminary and ordination), we attended Christmas Eve Midnight Mass at his home church - The Basilica of St. Stanislaus the Martyr in Chicopee, Ma.  The entirely liturgy, including the hymns, was in Polish.  I remember hearing  W Zlobie Lezy sung by their choir and accompanied by a string quartet.  It was beautiful and left a lasting impression.

           W Zlobie Lezy has an interesting story.  The carol was translated into English by Edith Margaret Gellibrand Reed (1885-1933) and entitled Infant Holy, Infant Lowly.  Reed, a British musician and playwright, found the carol in the hymnal Spiewniczek Piesni Koscieline (published 1908), though the tune itself may date back as far as the thirteenth century. The Polish text could possibly be attributed to Piotr Skarga (1536-1612).

Here is link to the tune with the text of Infant Holy, Infant Lowly.   

Below is the text... feel free to use it with attribution.

Faithful Joseph – for Advent IV – Year A

                        Dedicated to the Glory of God and in thanksgiving for my husband, John A. Olbrych, Jr.

Faithful Joseph, faithful Joseph

Listening to the angel’s voice

Faithful Joseph, Faithful Joseph

Faithful in the painful choice.

To honor Mary and her baby

Who did come to save us all.

Faithful Joseph won’t you help us

Be as faithful as you are.

Dreaming Joseph, Dreaming Joseph

Listening to the Spirit’s call

Dreaming Joseph , Dreaming Joseph

Dreaming, knew he heard God’s call

Listened to the angel’s warning

Saved his family from death’s thrall

Dreaming Joseph won’t you help us

Be a dreamer like you are.

Holy Joseph, holy Joseph

Listening ever for God’s will

Holy Joseph, holy Joseph

Listening through the night so still.

Loving Mary and the baby

Who grew to be our Lord

Holy Joseph, won’t you help us

Be as holy as you are.

Text:  JC Olbrych, 2015

Tune: Traditional polish carol  (W Zlobie Lezy), 13^th c.,   Infant Holy, Infant Lowly

© Jennie Clarkson Olbrych