| Acts 16: 16 – 40 At 4:30 in the morning on Sunday June 28th, 1992 I got out of bed in Apple Valley, California and put on my running togs, as it was my custom to run most mornings, and on Sundays, with first Mass at 8am; I had to rise earlier than usual. I loved my desert runs up Kamana Road, to where all pretensions to civilization fell away, and one could race out onto the Mojave (mind the rattlesnakes) as the sun crested over the mountains, the coyotes howled, and the dawn-stars faded. My New-Balance shoes were laced and I was considering a cup of pre-run java when a puzzling roar came like unleashed kettle-drums from the local symphony, crescendo-like through the tumbleweeds and cactus, and…bam; at 4:57 in the morning the Landers earthquake hit Apple Valley. The epicenter was only 50 miles away, magnitude 7.3, the largest quake to hit California in over 120 years. The floor rolled around like an old vinyl record on an unrepaired turntable, and the house thrust up and down…ice in a martini vial; shaken-not-stirred. Forever. Time is relative: Einstein instructed. I walked about the house, checked for burst water pipes, turned off gas, and went for my run. The desert that morning had released scents captive for decades, uncracked seed-pods, wrecked badger-dens, ripped granite. I kept a faster pace than on some days, breathed deeply; reveled in a sort-of freedom afoot. |
| St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church had suffered no damage that I could assess, and so the Holy Eucharist was celebrated at 8 in the morning, petitioning succor for those in distress, and offering gratitude for all that had not befallen, though, in truth, many homes had liquidated, roads had shattered and families had been severed. There was work to be done in weeks and months ahead. Through good and ill, the daily worship of the Church goes on, all around the world, Bangladeshis interceding for Southern Californians; and conversely, as need arises, Californians for Bangladeshis, Mexicans for Italians. Need is constant. Nothing stops Christian gatherings. Nothing stops the Liturgical Cycle. I have always approved of Daily Mass, though I’ve never had sufficient clergy staff so as to have had discretion to offer daily Mass for the parishes in which I have served….though I’ve not given up on St. Paul’s. COVID-19 has changed my thinking…not about daily Mass, but about public Eucharist and how it must be responsibly offered. We’ve put public worship on tether, dammit. This is not supposed to happen. I am a discontented priest. Yet, we have followed science and God and have done right and well. We ought to be proud of right choices taken. Pandemics are hard broncos to ride. They buck and toss have taught us when it is better not to mount the mustang. Pandemics humble us…throw us into the dirt of the arena. I don’t give much thought to Daily Mass these days. Written daily reflections are one thing St. Paul’s puts on offer, and the Epistle, and virtual Sunday Eucharist. Special offerings, such as the video / musical YouTube tribute we gave to our pueblo was on such feint, which (I hope) you’ve seen elsewhere. We pray, many of us, the Offices of the Church in the privacy of our prayer spaces. Some iteration of Holy Eucharist on the campus lawn might become a reasonable answer to our quite reasonably self-imposed virus restrictions in months ahead. I give a great deal of thought about Common Prayer, about the Book of Common Prayer, and about individual personal devotion, and how God weaves that together into a shared tapestry we now see too-up-close, the patterns binding us, but the warp and weave of Turkish Hereke not yet visible…visible to God afar, and to us in the future, as we see how our devotions have woven us together. On June 28th 1992 we proceeded with 8am Holy Eucharist; and Earle Summers, in his late 80s; charming, funny, bright and a devout man, widowed from his beloved Edna; how he went to the lectern, and, with customary dignity, proclaimed the Hebrew Scripture lesson from Ezekiel 34:11-16. He gave full voice, as he so well did. Precisely then the magnitude 6.5 Big Bear Quake struck, 3 hours and 26 minutes after my morning run, and the 7.3 Landers Quake. Many in the congregation had already lost their homes, and most were already under their pews. Earle Summers, despite my directives, paid me no mine,“Earle! Get under a pew right now!” Earle was undaunted. He had a message to proclaim; and so we heard the Scripture proclaimed to us apocalyptically: “I will seek out my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places to which they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness.” Having today read our chapter from the 16th chapter of the Book of Acts, you now know that Paul and Silas have been trolled by a slave girl with a spirit of divination who has, profiting her owners, been busy affirming that Silas and Paul are prophets of the Most High God. Persons of diminished character might have been pleased by such accolades from the peanut-gallery. Silas and Paul are not the least pleased. She is operating under false pretense, and they recognize her venality. This scenario is not unfamiliar to us in the 21st Century. Many will say anything at all if it serves their masters, if it pleases the peanut-gallery. Sufficient approximation of fact will be offered so as to evite the critical skills of the credulous. This is all the venal require…credulity…gullibility, sufficient so as to keep the line of profit flowing. Along come disruptors in the persons of Silas and Paul. The money line is threatened. Margins fall, and, well, there must be firings, decommissions, arrests. blame and beatings with rods for those who have so disturbed the city and its commerce with uncomfortable truth. Many narratives surround our present quarantine. There are various ways to reinforce one’s existing views. Take a peak beyond your established narrative. A look over the walls we have built for ourselves is not always pleasant. One must hoist oneself up to see over one’s established line of site. One hasn’t been to the moral gym for a while, and this may not even be possible. One may rather trail slave-girls and their masters down blind alleys. This is easier…diverting even…from the hard-work of hard thought. Silas and Paul become popular with the Philippians in this Roman enclave, in the first instance because they gain the advocacy of an influential and powerful woman, Lydia of Thyatira. A woman willing to found a Church, and a woman willing to stand up to the owners of slave-girls. Lydia of Thyatira is businesswoman who understands legitimate profit, who probably paid her taxes, and who does not easily suffer fools. May we have more strong women among us. In the second place, Silas and Paul submit to flogging and prison when they confront powerful economic interests. They submit to abuse in that moment. They successfully resist in the long-game. May we have those who discern well how to confront endemic injustice. In the third place, because God acts for Silas and Paul and the early Church by earthquake, and though released as their chains fall, Silas and Paul express tangible solidarity with the jailer, and with all those oppressed, who will forfeit life if they flee the prison. They stay with the jailer. This does not go un-noticed. He and his household are baptized. May we learn how to advocate for the oppressed who have no sufficient advocates. In the fourth place, by showing solidarity with the oppressed, the oppressed show solidarity with Silas and Paul, and all of that household (conversion being a community event) are baptized in the middle of an un-nerving night, at any point in which economic and political interests might well have put them all to death. A grounded community of Faith is born. May we learn how to accept those who align with the dictum that the Truth shall make us free. Finally, Paul humiliates the self-interested, financially-motivated oppressors. It is illegal to have beaten and condemned Roman citizens. Paul insists that a legitimate authority advocate for him, and as unlikely as this is to occur in an unjust world, his case is carried forward to legitimate civil courts. He humiliates those who would leverage personal mendacity and ill-gotten wealth. Paul wins in court. Paul requires that tawdry folk of no character come to the prison, ritually apologize, and carry he and Silas out of the prison, and release them. May we exercise judgment upon the vile when the day of judgment falls to our discernment. It is not beyond imagination that the mendacious and the avaricious in our day might yet be held to justice with residual strength to hold to accountability those perverse in the exercise of economic self-interest, political turpitude, a lying spirit, false divinization, and willingness to act as poor masters. Let us pray. Grace and peace, The Reverend Canon George F. Woodward III FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE “Grant, O God, that your holy and life-giving Spirit may so move ever human hear, and especially the hearts of those who rule in the governance of this hemisphere, that barriers which divide us may crumble, suspicions disappear, and hatreds cease; and that our divisions being healed, we may live in justice and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.” The Book Of Common Prayer, page 823 Previous Reflections may be found on the parish website StPaulSMA.com under ‘Blogs’ here. YouTube postings are available here. Previous editions of THE EPISTLE can be found here. |
| St. Paul’s Anglican Church Calzada del Cardo, 6 Centro 37700, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico 415.121.3424 www.StPaulSMA.com |