Sermon Delivered at Church of the Good Shepherd
Fort Lee, New Jersey
Sunday, September 12, 2021, at 8:00 & 10:00 a.m.
By the Rev. Stephen C. Galleher
Things That Matter(ed)!
“Grant that your Holy Spirit may direct and rule our hearts in all things.” (Collect, Proper 19 )
“For wisdom is a reflection of eternal light, a spotless mirror of the working of God, and an image of his goodness….In every generation she passes into holy souls.” (Wisdom 7:26 passim)
It is indeed a pleasure to be with you good people again, and I look forward to being with you during these fall Sundays into early winter and through the Christmas celebration. These days are so fraught with tragedy, controversy and worry that it’s good to be together to celebrate our lives and to reflect on the events that have the greatest meanings for us.
This is to suggest this morning that we consider for a few minutes that event or those events that we can point to that have had the greatest impact on our lives. What happened to you, who happened to you, that you can say right now has had the most lasting value for you. It may be a fairly minor-sounding thing, like a kind word of solace or advice given you—by a parent, teacher or friend. Or it may be an event you participated in that changed your thinking about things or even over the course your life was set on. Or it may be as simple as something you observed. A painting in a museum, a piece played at a concert or a jazz club, a scene from a movie. Something that, if I were to call on you, you would quite readily share because it is something that is the easiest for you to recall.
It’s amazing, isn’t it, how things on paper, things told us by someone else, do not really register in our hearts until we experience them in some way.
Our lives are shaped by every single event that unfolds before us and that we live through. This truth may be hard to absorb, but not the clearer truth that some events register so profoundly that nothing can ever shake them from our memory.
What this something is I am asking you to consider needn’t be some wise or deep spiritual insight. If it affected you as profoundly as I suggest, then, of course, it is wise and deep for you. It is not like these four monks searching for enlightenment.
Four monks were meditating in a temple when, all of a sudden, the prayer flag on the roof started flapping.
The youngest monk came out of his meditation and said, “Flag is flapping.”
The second, more experienced monk said, “Wind is flapping.”
The third monk, who had been there for more than 20 years, said, “Mind is flapping.”
The fourth monk, who was the eldest, said, “Mouths are flapping!”
So much of our religious talk is like this. Mouths moving, tongues flapping.
Two events in my own life that I’d like to share have been very formative on my character and my gratitude for the people whom God has placed in my life.
Aren’t those beautiful words from the Book of Wisdom read earlier?
The first event occurred when I was in prep school in Virginia. Lonely, homesick, writing letters home threatening to run away. You can imagine how upset my parents were. After months of my cri de coeur, a fifth-grade teacher from a public school in Richmond made the 70-mile trip to Orange, Virginia, just to see me. I’ll never forget it. She walked me around campus. It was a winter day and she spoke of how concerned my parents were about my situation, and she told to me that they (my parents) would take me out of the school and enroll me in public school in Richmond. The teacher pointed out how disruptive that would be for me in the middle of the school year. She also conveyed the message that if I stuck it out, they would not make me return to boarding school the following year. So, I stayed. And I have stayed grateful to this teacher for making that long journey to and from my school. Talk about love. This was love in action.
For wisdom is a reflection of eternal light, a spotless mirror of the working of God, and an image of his goodness….In every generation she passes into holy souls.
The second event is similar in showing what love has meant to me. I was in Episcopal seminary in Alexandria, Virginia, and went out to run an errand late one afternoon. I was driving a Volkswagen Beatle, given me by my father to use while studying abroad for a post-graduate degree. Anyway, I turned left and was obviously unaware of an oncoming car. The car crashed into me, knocking me out briefly. Needless to say, the VW as demolished.
Back in the Seminary dormitory, I called my father to tell him about the accident. I was full of remorse and was apologetic. My father interrupted me and said, “Forget the car, son; I want to know how you are. Are you ok?” This was a man who had underwritten my entire academic life. He had every right, I suppose, to chide me and use those hideous words, “After everything I’ve done for you…” No, his words were, “How are you, son?”
For wisdom is a reflection of eternal light, a spotless mirror of the working of God, and an image of his goodness….In every generation she passes into holy souls.
This is what love is, and I believe this episode, perhaps not so dramatic as you might at first think, has gone a long way in shaping my understanding of a God who loves me unconditionally.
You know, I was discussing the beautiful poetry of the wisdom literature like we read today with a couple of fellow retired clergy this past week, and I asked one of my friends, “How does the love that exists between your lovely wife and you relate to the love of God?” And he replied, “It points to God’s love.” “No,” I rejoined—and I have thought long about what he said. Human love does not point to God’s love, as a road sign points to the center of town. It is God’s love, right here, in our face. The visit from my fifth-grade teacher those many years ago; the words from my father after my auto accident. This was the love of God. Not pointers. The thing itself. A friend used a water analogy. He said his daughter and son-in-law have a summer place on a small bay in Virginia. That bay opens out onto a wider way, and that bay in turn opens into the Chesapeake Bay. Isn’t that a wonderful image about our loves, from the smallest to the largest?
For wisdom/love is a reflection of eternal light, a spotless mirror of the working of God, and an image of his goodness….In every generation she passes into holy souls.
So, these events are just two that I cite that have played a role in my development. I am tempted to say “spiritual development.” But isn’t all growth in wisdom “spiritual development”?
A wonderful little poem that points to the impact a single event in our lives can have was written by Edward Field, a 97-year-old American poet living in Brooklyn:
A Journey
By Edward Field
When he got up that morning everything was different:
He enjoyed the bright spring day
But he did not realize it exactly, he just enjoyed it.
And walking down the street to the railroad station
Past magnolia trees with dying flowers like old socks
It was a long time since he had breathed so simply.
Tears filled his eyes and it felt good
But he held them back
Because men didn’t walk around crying in that town.
Waiting on the platform at the station
The fear came over him of something terrible about to happen:
The train was late and he recited the alphabet to keep hold.
And in its time it came screeching in
And as it went on making its usual stops,
People coming and going, telephone poles passing,
He hid his head behind a newspaper
No longer able to hold back the sobs, and willed his eyes
To follow the rational weavings of the seat fabric.
He didn’t do anything violent as he had imagined.
He cried for a long time, but when he finally quieted down
A place in him that had been closed like a fist was open,
And at the end of the ride he stood up and got off that train:
And through the streets and in all the places he lived in later on
He walked, himself at last, a man among men,
With such radiance that everyone looked up and wondered.
I would love to hear what you are thinking. Perhaps one or two of you will share your stories of moving events like these with me.
Amen.