Sermon, 5/9/2021. Measuring Up: A Class Reunion in 2021

6 Easter

Psalm 98; Acts 10:41 – 48; I John 5:1 – 6; John 15:9 – 17

This is my commandment, that you love one another.  Jn. 15: 12

It may not (perhaps, even should not) come as a surprise to any of you that at this time of the year my mind turns to commencements.  After all, aside from a few forays into the institutional church as priest-associate or interim rector during brief vacancies, my entire life—from kindergarten to the first of many retirements—has been spent in academic environments.  And at graduation ceremonies we expect to hear a valedictory speech.  As we are this Sixth Sunday in Easter only days away from observing the Feast of the Ascension, the day on which Jesus takes leave of his disciples, so it is that we hear in St. John’s gospel the conclusion of what I have come to call Jesus’ Valedictory.  Today, we are treated to the concluding personal appeal of that speech.  All that is missing is the applause!

I recall having subjected you on previous occasions to a lengthy explanation of the evolution of the word “fare well,” from the Latin “valere,” a greeting voiced upon departing.  And from the Latin, of course, we have “valedictory” and “valedictorian.”  I repeat myself here not.  Rather, I venture to imagine us back on campus for Reunion, in pre-Covid-19 days a standard feature on most collegiate campuses.  During reunions we greet old friends/classmates and become acquainted with spouses and partners.  We recount, often with embellishment, our activities of years since our commencement. In listening to others, we have the opportunity to hear how they have measured up, and they in turn evaluate how well we have maximized that which we learned from our teachers, our professors, our mentors.  We also, at reunions, secretly reevaluate our own selves.

We are Christians, and because we self-identify as Christians, it is fitting, is it not, to see just how truthfully and accurately we have taken to heart Jesus’ valedictory appeal that we love one another?  To do that I offer to you today my reflections which have three parts.  And, oh, how I truly wish I could sit and have an in-person discussion.

I. Preface/Background: Story of the Ring Parable from Nathan the Wise by Gottfried Lessing.  This is the longest of the three parts.

II. The New Commandment: “that you love one another.”  How do we evaluate that closing appeal of Jesus’ valedictory speech?

III. My observations regarding possibilities at St. James, as we emerge from the dark days of the coronavirus pandemic, anticipating the hard work ahead for different ministries here in Teele Square, while holding fast to the Good News in a changed environment.  What form or forms can the new normal take?

I. Nathan The Wise / Nathan der Weise, a story, set in drama form, written in the Enlightenment by the German, Gottfried Lessing.

The setting for this drama is the Middle Ages, at the height of the Crusades, when Christians knights from Europe ostensibly sought to liberate the Holy Land/Palestine from Moslem rule.  A Christian knight sires a child, a girl, but must leave her in the care of Nathan, the Jewish leader, who rears the girl as a Christian.  In the course of time, Saladin the Moslem ruler, in need of funds to defend his land, is forced to go to Nathan to seek a loan.  In order not to have to repay the loan, the Moslem leader poses a question to Nathan, whose answer will determine whether Saladin gets to avoid not only payment of interest, but of repayment altogether. 

And what is the Moslem Saladin’s question to Nathan the Jew: Which is the true religion? Judaism, Christianity or Islam? Nathan the Wise tells the parable of a ring that is so endowed with such power by the Creator God, as to make the owner/wearer beloved of all, fair, just, courageous, helpful to the poor.  The ring was always to be passed down to the oldest son.  Over time, a man has three sons whom he loves equally and, thus, cannot decide which son should inherit the ring upon his demise.  Going secretly to a jeweler, the father has fashioned from the original ring two additional and identical rings, such that even he, the father, cannot distinguish among them.  The father summons each son privily, gives the son a ring and his blessing.  Each son receives The Ring, believing that he, and he only, had received the coveted Item.  Upon the father’s death, each sought to claim the rights bestowed upon the wearer.

The three brothers accuse each other before a judge, who reminds them of the attributes bestowed upon the wearer.  The judgment of the Solomon-like judge: not to declare which is the authentic ring, but to charge the three brothers to live out the mandate, so that perhaps a future judge, wiser than he, will be able to distinguish.  Saladin, also a religious man like Nathan, is so moved by the tale that he praises Nathan the Wise and gives him his due.  Love is the essential element of the ring.  That was the Enlightenment, a period in history, in which learned people sought to find common ground, since the major religions of the world held LOVE as its central tenet.

II. The New Commandment: Love One Another

Let us go even further back in history, prior to the Enlightenment, to a time that has direct bearing on our own situation 2021.  There was, of course, the older Mosaic Ten Commandments.  However, Jesus gave his disciples an updated, more succinct rendition of them in the Summary of the Law: Hear, O Israel! You shall love God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind.  This is the first and great commandment.  And the Second is like unto it: you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

On Ash Wednesday, we hear a new, a third, commandment, repeated in today’s gospel.  Given to his closest followers: That you love one another.  But are they really “new” commandments?  Are they not variations on a theme, as it were?  A good pedagogue, a good teacher is aware that instructions must often be repeated, using a related vocabulary, using different images.  The central and unchangeable essence is L O V E.   And the best teachers always ask the question how one should manifest the precept, citing examples of his own.

The imposition of ashes gives a clear outward and visible sign, so that we know, at least for one day, who is a Christian.  That is the easy part of being Christian.  A more demanding dictum to the Christian is: a Christian is a servant, e.g., at the Seder Jesus washes the feet of his disciples.  And in John’s gospel, we learn further that upon graduation we are no longer servants, but friends.  We have attained a new and different status.

So, how have we Christians faired since hearing Jesus’ valedictory address?  Did not the judge in the Ring Parable speak to love?  But where was the love which Jesus declared as central, when we examine the behavior of Christians in:
a. The Crusades

b. The Inquisition

c. The Thirty Years War

d. The enslavement of free people who were transported, against their will, from their native land to other nations for the benefit of those nations, nations that described themselves as “Christian.”

e. Further separation since the Reformation into our modern times: 1) story

of the disciplinary action against clergy who dare literally to extend a hand to other Christian ministers not of the same denomination or 2) to open their church doors to those whose sexual identity or social and political worldview does not match our own

f. The separation of children from parents at our borders

The commandment to love God is an easy one to fulfill, as God is invisible to us and out of mind, even as we pray.  To love neighbor is slightly more problematic, yet nevertheless achievable, if we limit the understanding  of “neighbor” to folks who live close by, and who look and think, as do we.   When I reflect on this last “new” commandment given us by Jesus, to love one another, it becomes perhaps the most difficult of all to actualize.  I think of the Rich Young Man or the property owner who had more silos built, in which to store his grain, rather than share it with others.  I think of those with whom JC ate and drank and lived life.  I think of the Beatitude and the judgment found in them.  It is clear to me the following: The “new” commandment is without borders.  Is Reunion a time for truth-telling, or should be avoid it completely, waiting out another five years?

III. My observation and hope for St. James

This brings me to part three of my reflections on this Sixth Sunday in Easter, the Sunday before the Ascension.  To be a follower of Jesus is, on the one hand, to be a servant people.  No one desires growth in attendance and permanent membership in our parish more than do I.  Admittedly, the coronavirus pandemic has put us to the test, and the test is not over, and nor will it be, when we announce that our doors are again open.  What form that new ministry will take, especially as we think programmatically, I cannot predict. 

Because we have been isolated even from each other, we who have rejoiced and mourned and rebuilt with each other over years—and I am still relatively speaking new—I venture to remind you, and myself, that I am the ordained one, but you are all the ministers.  Because we have been isolated from each other, we will have to get to know each other anew.  New members, who claim no need for the rituals and rules of an institution, will come because they will see in you and hear from you of the ways in which we address the challenge “to love one another.” 

Forget not that in pre-Covid-19 days, you are involved in many forms of ministry which to the eye appear to wear secular garb: helping those who are trying to master the not so easy English language, aiding those in distress because of economic difficulty caused by Covid-19, providing space for those who are working through and away from addictions, while at the same time not only praying for, but also visiting those members who have served this place over decades, but find themselves now physically incapable of attending.  It is also possible that those who had stepped aside and away from St. James, as it were, may feel moved to return.  However, also for them the Love must be seen and experienced.

This is only the beginning.  There will be tiring times, difficult times, but in the end rewarding times.  You are capable of even greater things, and I look forward to the day when Broadway and Clarendon are lined with automobiles up to the farthest corner.  I look forward to the day when the denizens of Somerville can say, “I know who the Christians are not by the ash on their foreheads, but rather by their love”, the point made by that fictional judge in the Ring Parable so long ago, as well as by the One whose resurrection we celebrate and whose “new” commandment urges us on: Love one another, as I have loved you.   What a joyous REUNION that would be!  AMEN 

NOTE: Two interpretations of Nathan the Wise are available here: