New Ark United Church of Christ, Newark, DE
May 17, 2015
I’ve
started making a habit of having lunch at Klondike Kate’s on Wednesdays. It’s half-price sandwiches and salads. I sit
at the bar, so as not to take up a table.
The bartender, Andy, always wears Red Sox cap, so of course we struck up
a conversation. He’s from the Boston
area and still has a touch of the accent.
It turns out his wife is from Danbury, CT, so he knows where Monroe is,
my former town.
A
couple of Wednesdays ago I came in for lunch as usual. I chat up Andy about the changes going on at
the empty Mojo Main down the street. I
say, “It’s going to be a craft beer hub, with over a hundred different kinds of
beer. I saw an article about it this
morning in the News Journal”.
A gentleman sitting a few
feet away says, “That’s me. That’s me
and my partner. We’re doing that.” Andy turns toward him, “Really? What a coincidence.” The man, whose name is Jim, says, “Yeah. Hey, nice Red Sox cap. You from the Boston area?”
Andy says, “Yeah. You?”
“Yeah, I’m from Taunton.” I pipe
up, “I know where Taunton is.” Andy
gestures toward me and says, “Yeah, her too.”
“Oh yeah? Where?” “Marshfield”.
“Oh yeah. Actually, I’m from
Raynham but usually nobody knows where that is.” By the way, both Taunton and Raynham are not
far away from Rehoboth…Massachusetts, that is.
I’ve been reading the teaser messages on the marquee in front of Mojo, intended to generate interest in what’s coming next. They’ve certainly worked their magic with me. One in particular, though, I wanted to take issue with, and as luck would have it, I was face-to-face with one of the guys who was responsible. “Hey, you know that sign you had that read ‘Remember the cantina in Empires Strikes? Nothing like that.’ The cantina wasn’t in Empires Strikes Back; it was in the original movie.” “Hah!” Jim said. “That was my partner. I’m gonna text him right now and tell him.”
What are the odds? I just happened to see the article. Jim probably came into Kate’s to check out
the competition. And yet it’s moments
like those that make us wonder, and we cue the theme song from The Twilight Zone.
Then there are the
stories that can make the hair rise on the back of the neck. In the New York Times this past Friday: Two
women, strangers to each other, enrolled at Columbia University, sign up for
the same writing class. When they went
through the introductions around the table, they discovered that they are
sisters, given up for adoption over thirty years ago. “You are members of one body, and
individually, members of one another.”
In the mechanical,
Newtonian universe, there is a reason for everything, there is cause and
effect. But in the quantum universe, in
the subatomic realm, the same laws do not apply. Light can exist as a particle or a wave. Water can exist as vapor, liquid, or solid
and yet it is still the same molecule—H2O.
Barbara Brown Taylor, in
her book of essays entitled The Luminous Web, recounts an exchange between the physicists Richard Feynman and John
Wheeler as they discussed string theory.
Wheeler exclaimed, “Feynman, I know why all electrons have the same
charge and same mass!” “Why?” Feynman
asked. “Because they are all the same
electron!” Wheeler replied.[i]
What if what appears as
diversity is really oneness, wholeness?
We all may behave differently, but at the deepest level we are the same
substance. And when we make the
conscious effort to associate with one another, despite, even because of our
differences, we create connections and relationships—we begin to witness
inklings of this unity. We become aware
that we are not so much building a body, but that we were already a part of the
one body. And when we make promises to
each other and join in covenant, we become part of the body’s healing.
And so it is with what
has become known as the Village at this church.
Though perhaps it may have been a tacit covenant, through the common
bond of parenthood and childhood, you were the architects and citizens of a
village—a network of parents and children and many others in which everyone looks
out for everyone else, shares responsibility and wisdom, play and
learning. You were and continue to be an
incarnation of God’s love—what we call in churchy language, the Body of Christ.
In that Body, there are
no strangers. Recall that weekend about
a year and a half ago when we first met each other. My daughters were worried that the ‘kids
down here’ wouldn’t accept a pair of geeky sisters. The youth group here wondered if a couple of
preacher’s kids would get along with a geeky group of teens. Surprise!
You all made room for each other, opened wide the way into the Village,
because that’s what you do when connections are made, when oneness recognizes
oneness.
[Confirmand names]—you are the Body of Christ, and individually, members of one another
and each of us. Each of you is a
likeness, an image of God, which calls us to see the sacred in all life. As you have grown, I hope you have witnessed
this image of God within you and these village people. We who have watched you grow—it was and is our
sacred and glad calling to help you realize that image of God within you and
allow it to unfold in your life. As you
continue to grow, you too will be given opportunities to help others realize
the image of God within them, that their lives are sacred and worthy and just
as precious as yours. This can be hard
work—making those connections, building relationships. But it will be your healing as well as theirs;
your joy as well as theirs. You are
builders of the next Village, the next incarnation of God’s love, and so be
true to that image of God within you.
It not only takes a
village to raise our children; it will take a village to heal our planet—one
village at a time. A village where we
are one Body, and individually, members of one another. A village where we all realize the image of
God within us and within everything living thing. We all everyone must share the burden. We all everyone will share the joy. We are village people. We are Church.
Amen.
Amen.
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