By Lucia Lloyd, St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, Heathsville, VA
My Cup Runneth Over..
Psalms 23:5-6 (KJV)
“Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:
thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.”
Acts 1:15-17, 21-26
On Thursday I went to the Episcopal Church Women’s Open Board Meeting and Eucharist. There were a lot of great things that happened there, but my favorite was the blessing bowl. It was a simple idea. They set out a large bowl and slips of paper, and each person was invited to write down one of their blessings and put it in the bowl. Then at the Eucharist, the priest read some of the blessings before they were presented at the offertory. I immediately thought: ooh, I love this idea, and I want to find a way to do this with the folks at St. Stephen’s!
No names were read, just the blessings themselves. Some of them were very touching. One person wrote about her recovery from addiction. One person wrote “tolerable pain.” One person wrote simply, “alive.” And the blessings that people named more often than any other were their relationships with people: grandchildren, friends, fellow parishioners, fellow churchwomen. Just sitting in the pew hearing these little slips of paper read, it seemed as if the sanctuary was filling with all sorts of wonderful people and wonderful loving relationships, that were such beautiful blessings.
Thursday was Ascension Day, when we celebrate Christ’s return to heaven after the resurrection. As we continue through the book of Acts, we read today what happened right after the ascension. Peter stands up among the disciples and talks about Judas, how he was one of them, how they all did ministry together. The disciples trusted and loved Judas. And when Judas betrayed Jesus, Judas betrayed the disciples too. Peter does not shy away from talking about this betrayal, and even mentions the gory details of Judas’s death, in some verses which our lectionary leaves out. And then Peter goes on to say that the very next task of the brand new church is to find a new disciple to take Judas’s place and preach the resurrection with them. So they look around at all the people who have accompanied them during all the time that Jesus was with them, from the baptism of John until Jesus was taken up from them. And they propose two good candidates: Joseph called Barsabbas, also known as Justus, and Matthias. Then they pray that God will show them which one He has chosen. And they cast lots, and the lot falls on Matthias, and he is added to the eleven apostles.
What I love about this passage is the sense of plenty and possibility. There seems to be a sense that even in the midst of loss and pain, God always gives us plenty of new opportunities to love. God surrounds us with opportunities to love; everywhere we look God has given us people to love. The disciples need to find someone else to love and do ministry with. They do not seem to be fretting over it or agonizing over it or worrying about what could go wrong if they choose the wrong person. They simply propose two people from among the followers of Jesus, and then the pray to God, and then they flip a coin. It’s that easy.
There is a sense that Matthias is a great possibility, and so they’ll be happy if the coin toss goes his way, and there is a sense that Joseph called Barsabbas is another great possibility, and they’ll be happy if the coin toss goes his way too. So they figure they’ll just leave it up to God and not worry about it.
There are certainly relationships in our lives that go awry, and end in loss or pain, just as the disciples’ relationship with Judas ends in loss and pain. But that isn’t the end of the story. God keeps giving us more and more opportunities to love again. God keeps giving us more people to love, more new starts, more chances to do ministry. The main message of today’s sermon is that the opportunities God gives us to love outnumber the losses by an enormous margin. Every day is a new opportunity to love. Every person we interact with is a new opportunity to love. A generous God gives us plenty of opportunities to love and to do ministry. A generous God gives us each other. A generous God gives us bowls overflowing with bless
05/24/09
Note: If you are still confused about how a gay Christian can feel they are 'right' with God I encourage you to read the section of the web site entitled "Gay and Christian? YES!"