20th Sunday after Pentecost-The Rev. Melanie Lemburg
20th Sunday after Pentecost-Proper 24A
October 18, 2020
This past week, as Fran and I sat
outside in the mild temperatures giving out communion, I remarked about all the
butterflies I had seen around on the church campus lately—all different colors
and sizes. She said, “Did you know the
yellow ones only live 24 hours?” I expressed
my surprise, and she said, “Yes, just think about it. They live their whole lives in just one day:
they are born they mate and have children; they fly around; they eat; and then
they die. All in a single day. It’s kind of sad if you think about it.” And she was right, but I also realized that
their impermanence made them that much more beautiful.
As I was giving out communion this week,
I asked many of you how you were doing, if you were ready to come back to
church. Of course, there were as many
different answers as there are different people in this church, but I was
struck by a theme that I heard from some of our older members. They talked about the impermanence of the
current situation, about their faith that it wouldn’t go on forever. They said they’d been so careful for so many
months, and they didn’t want to do anything to compromise that carefulness at
this present moment.
I was also grateful to see some Facebook
memories this past week. Kelly Bianco
shared pictures from 4 years ago when the church fed the neighborhood after Hurricane
Matthew, and I also got to see beautiful pictures capturing all the energy and
fun of our fist CAST event this time last year.
It was helpful for me to see those joyful memories alongside the reminders
from some of our more seasoned parishioners about the impermanence of this
present season coupled with those yellow butterflies who seem to be everywhere,
now that I have eyes to look for them. I
have been deeply grateful for those gifts in my life this week.
Also, this past week, I listened to a
podcast while walking. It’s called 10 Percent
Happier with journalist Dan Harris.
Harris, an anchor for a major network, had a panic attack while on live
tv, and so he started a meditation practice and now uses the podcast platform
to interview people who talk about how we can be happier. The episode I listened to is titled What’s
the point of joy right now? and the guest Harris interviewed is James Baraz,
who is the author of the book Awakening Joy and is a practicing
Buddhist.
In the podcast, Baraz spends a lot of
time talking about mindfulness and how we can have “an equipment of mind to
disarm all hostility.” This means paying
attention to how things feel. For
example, if you’re in the middle of a generous act, think to yourself, “I’m
being generous now.” And it’s not to try
to get attention for being generous from other people but rather it is to
notice how good it feels for generosity to move through this being. Because whatever one ponders upon, that will
become the frequency of the mind.
Baraz
quotes a friend of his who likes to say, “The brain is like Teflon for positive
experiences and Velcro for negative ones.”
And then he goes on to elaborate:
“It takes some training to be on the look out for the good and not only
notice it but to be present for it mindfully not just as a thought ‘Oh, this is
a good moment. I’m happy now.’ But actually to be mindful in your body. So instead of knowing ‘Oh, I’m feeling good
right now,’ to notice ‘Oh, this is what it feels like to feel good.’ And just with a few moments of turning your
attention to that, so that there is a visceral experience, is tremendously powerful. And that’s what we [need to] do over a course
of time.” We have the power to cultivate an “equipment of mind” to overcome
negativity and hostility by focusing on positive experiences, even cultivating
them, and paying attention to how our bodies and souls feel when we have them. And
the more we do it, the easier it gets.
So, what does all this have to do with
any of the readings today? In the letter
of Paul to the Thessalonians, we see Paul using the standard opening of this
time. This is the oldest of Paul’s
letter’s, probably the oldest book of the New Testament. And what does it start with? What does Paul start with? “We always give
thanks to God for all of you…” Paul
starts with gratitude. Paul, who is away
from these people he loves, is writing to them to encourage them; he has caused
great suffering upon others in his life, and he will know great suffering. And yet he starts with gratitude.
Today, we are kicking off the 2021
Annual Giving Campaign. It is titled Sheltering
St. Thomas: Giving in Gratitude, and
it is our hope that this campaign will be a love-letter to you, this church,
about all the ways we are grateful for each other. We want to focus on gratitude as a spiritual
practice and to invite everyone to tap into your own gratitude for the mission and
ministry of St. Thomas—whether that is gratitude for the past, the present, or
the good things that we know are to come in the future. Beginning today and continuing through
November 22nd, you will hear reflections from different parishioners on social
media and our website right after this service.
(We’ll also send out the links in our weekly emails.) Today, you will hear from our Senior Warden
and his wife about the gratitude for St. Thomas in this present impermanent moment
and in the past. After you listen to
them, I invite you to begin reflecting on your own gratitude for the mission
and ministry of this church.
This past week, I discovered a prayer
written by Ted Loder in his book Guerrillas of Grace. I’ll read the whole prayer through and then
share with you the line that especially struck me.
I
Need to Breathe Deeply – Oct. 14, 2020
Eternal
Friend,
grant
me an ease
to
breathe deeply of this moment,
this
light,
this
miracle of now.
Beneath
the din and fury
of
great movements
and
harsh news
and
urgent crises,
make
me attentive still
to
good news,
to
small occasions,
and
the grace of what is possible
for
me to be,
to
do,
to
give,
to
receive,
that
I may miss neither my neighbor’s gift
nor
my enemy’s need.
Precious
Lord,
grant
me
a
sense of humor
that
adds perspective to compassion,
gratitude
that
adds persistence to courage,
quietness
of spirit
that
adds irrepressibility to hope,
openness
of mind
that
adds surprise to joy;
that
with gladness of heart
I
may link arm and aim
with
the One who saw signs of your kingdom
in
salt and yeast,
pearls
and seeds,
travelers
and tax collectors,
sowers
and harlots,
foreigners
and fishermen,
and
open my eyes with these signs
and
my ears with the summons
to
follow to something more
of
justice and joy.[i]
This
week, I invite you to join me in looking out for your “gratitude that adds
persistence to courage” and to pay attention to the good in your life and in
the world around you.
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