What an amazing day, and what an amazing conclusion to the week! On Friday, our young pirates decided what to do with all the treasure that had flooded into St. Thomas. Each of the six groups took $100 and, guided by Jannie Best, perused the Gifts for Life catalog online. Here's what each group gave:
The Sapphires: 1 duck, 2 mosquito nets, 1 share of a chicken flock, a child’s school lunches
The Doubloons: 1 share of a chicken flock, 1 share of a pig, 3 mosquito nets, a child’s school lunches
The Emeralds: 1 goat, 1 mosquito net, a child’s school lunches
The Pearls: 1 share of a chicken flock, 2 mosquito nets, 1 duck, 1 share of a pig
The Garnets: 3 mosquito nets, 1 duck, 1 share of a pig, a child’s school lunches
The Amethysts: 2 mosquito nets, 1 share of a chicken flock, a child’s school lunches, 1 duck
(By the way, Gifts for Life is a great place to go for birthday and Christmas presents. Don’t you think Uncle Ned would forego the extra necktie if he knew a mom and baby in Tanzania could get adequate medicine and nutrition, or that a family in Haiti could have access to clean drinking water?)
In Chapel, Father Steve told the kids the story of St. Lawrence, a deacon who helped lead the early church through a time of persecution in the 3rd century. When the prefect of Rome demanded that Lawrence surrender all the treasures of the church, he asked the poor to hide all the wealth where it wouldn’t be found. When the day of reckoning came, he brought the poor, crippled and blind before the prefect and announced, “Here are the treasures of the Church! The Church is truly rich, far richer than your emperor.”
In Godly Tales, we explored the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Never have I found a group of people so shocked and offended that anybody would walk right past a person in need. Some of the younger kids struggled to find any logical reason at all for this behavior, until 4-year-old Isla suggested, “Maybe the priest was on his way to a play date, and if he’d stopped to help, he would have missed it.” Now there’s a wise theologian for whom the Bible has become truly relevant. Would you have a better reason for not being a Good Samaritan?
On Sunday at the 10:15 service, we’ll gather as many of the crew back as we can for one final hurrah—and this time, everybody’s invited! We hope to see you there.
Five hundred fifty-two dollars and ninety-one cents? That’s how much money we brought back from the Coinstar, combined with donations in bills and checks so far to our Vacation Bible Camp coin drive!
No sooner had Doug Anderson and I returned from the Coinstar than another parishioner brought in a bunch of coins. Our treasure chest is filling up again! And you can contribute, too. Even after the kids have made their gifts, we at St. Thomas will take whatever comes in through Sunday and channel it toward Gifts for Life. Thank you, everyone!
Day Four of Vacation Bible Camp went just about as smoothly as the first three. The topic today was money: from the Parable of the Great Pearl, in which a merchant sells literally everything he owns for the pearl, to discussion and activities geared toward what we do with our literal treasure. Using materials developed by Share Save Spend specifically for use at our camp, Jannie Best encouraged the children to make a practice of sharing some, saving some, and spending some.
Of course, we also found time for some good old-fashioned fun in the sun. Bubbles are a treasure, too! And we welcomed fabulous musicians Catherine and Natalie Blundell to lead us in Sea Shanties. It's all in a day's work for a group o' pirates who are learning to find the treasure they already have ... and give it away!
You come home from work, take a shower, and are refreshed by the feel of clean skin. Sitting down to a warm meal, you are comforted by a satisfied belly. As the night closes in, you lay your head down, and feel safe between four walls and a roof.
Sadly, not all men are as lucky.
Congregations For The Homeless was founded in 1994 as a crash shelter. It has grown into a transition-to-housing shelter for single, eastside, homeless men. This building-less shelter resides in 12 eastside churches, one per month, Monday through Friday. As one of the original churches, St. Thomas continues to house the shelter during July.
Qualifying for the shelter requires the men not to use drugs or alcohol. They cannot have a felony conviction and have to pass a background check. After their first 30 days, the men must make a commitment to stay or leave. Once they’ve committed, they’re assigned a Life Coach. This person helps them find a job, get into school or receive disability benefits, if applicable.
The volunteer group at St. Thomas has evolved into a rich team, which provides a model of cohesiveness for those at the shelter. Often these men are on the street by themselves, living an isolated life. Parishioner and organizer of the St. Thomas shelter, Beth Zobel, recounted a man saying, “I feel like an animal. I forget I’m human.” Being treated with respect and dignity at the shelter helps these displaced men re-enter society.
The shelter provides three meals daily, a place to sleep and a shower. As not all churches are equipped with showers, Congregations For The Homeless has a mobile shower they bring on site. Unfortunately, this is not without its problems, caused by the faulty equipment of the mobile shower.
In addition, our old and overtaxed kitchen equipment broke down in some recent heat waves. The refrigeration units couldn’t match its demands, and the shelter faced the threat of losing expensive food. Thankfully, the St. Thomas School graciously agreed to share its kitchen space.
Zobel is excited about the New Parish Life center. The building will give the men a proper shower, provide a separate space for snoring sleepers, and grant all residence greater sense of privacy. An updated kitchen will ensure donated food doesn’t spoil. Through our on campus mission work, men are reminded they are children of God, as they continue to be treated with grace and humanity.
Today at Vacation Bible Camp, we learned about compost. We got “down and dirty” as we discussed the seemingly yucky stuff that actually promotes growth. And we considered that there might be parallels to compost in our own lives.
Our parable today was the Parable of the Sower. As we discussed the seeds that landed on the path, on the rocks, on the thorns, and on good soil, we realized that not all seeds in challenging situations die. In fact, the birds sometimes do seeds a favor by eating them and then—er—depositing them elsewhere later, along with a generous helping of compost. Sometimes these seeds grow after all. So you never know how long it will be, or how much it will have to go through, before a seed that was sown finally begins to grow.
Father Lex was on for Chapel today, and he explored with the kids what their gifts and talents are. These are certainly treasures we already have—and they are treasures we can give away freely.It was percussion day in the music workshop, with Paul Johnson ably rallying the kids to explore their inner beat. (Paul is the director of the St. Thomas Youth Ensemble, which may well have a long list of new recruits now!) And across the street in Medina Park, the two-legged race brought friends together—literally.
We’re having a fabulous week. Please continue to keep the campers and staff in your prayers, that the seeds planted this week may contribute greatly to the harvest of God’s Kingdom.
Tuesday saw our young pirates not only planting seeds in the ground, but also watering them. They learned about our snazzy new rain barrel, only to learn in the next breath that we cannot use such water to grow vegetables because of the pollutants it picks up from flowing over roof tiles. The rain barrel will be useful for watering plants and grass, but not for raising food.
So the kids then had to troop across the campus to get water from another source and carry it back, bringing to mind images of rural villagers walking for miles to bring back buckets of water from a well for planting and cooking. We’re not very familiar with this routine in our culture, yet it is at the heart of life for millions of people the world over. And while some people may have access to safe water, most do not. We didn’t have time to show this video to the kids, but I commend it to all of you to watch at home.
Theologically, we tied the day’s activities to the Parable of the Good Shepherd. Josh Hosler led the kids through this parable in Godly Play form, and Mary Friedlander explored it in another way during Chapel time by reminding the kids, “You have everything you need.” What a fitting way for “Granny Mary” to celebrate her 84th birthday—right here among the St. Thomas children she has loved spending time with for decades!
John Danforth served as a Republican Senator from Missouri from 1976-1995. During his distinguished career, he was known for firm political convictions spoken with a voice of reason and civility. What you may not know is that in addition to being a lawyer, a member of the Senate, and US Ambassador to the United Nations, Danforth is also an Episcopal priest, completing theological studies at Yale at the same time he was finishing law school. Following his retirement from active political life, Sen. Danforth has engaged in the work of peacemaking on several different fronts. As a priest, he presided at the funeral of President Reagan which was held at the National Cathedral. Danforth recently preached the Commencement sermon at my seminary, The Seminary of the Southwest (Episcopal) in Austin. In his sermon, he cast a vision of the Episcopal Church as a body uniquely suited to engage in the critical work of healing and reconciliation in our deeply wounded body politic. He said:
In today's Gospel, the Pharisees locked people out when they should have been binding them into God's kingdom. In the Epistle, Paul was willing to embrace conflicting religious practices for the sake of the Gospel.
The model suggested by each lesson is of a church that invites, brings in and holds together all sorts of people with all kinds of differences. It is a church for just the project Peggy Noonan has in mind.
We Episcopalians are especially well positioned for this project. It's our tradition. We are the middle way. We reject extremes. We do not insist on doctrinal purity. We allow a variety of beliefs in our common prayer. We welcome all to our altars. We boast of being inclusive. The Episcopal church is in the business of holding things together. Some might think we are too broad a church, too open to differences in belief. But in the work of holding things together, our breadth is our strength, not our weakness.
What then should be our next steps? How do we go about the work of holding together a fractured country? The first step might be consciously to adopt reconciliation as the ministry of the Episcopal Church. If that's our work let's say so, and let's keep it in the front of our minds.
And let's make it clear that we are respectful of a variety of political opinions, even if we disagree with them. Some evangelical churches have done the opposite. You may have read a book called The Big Sort by Bill Bishop. If not, I commend it to you. It's about the segmentation of America into like minded communities and how some churches foster segmentation. It describes niche churches where members cluster together according to politics, reinforcing each others opinions. A predictor of how people will vote is where they worship. If we are serious about being inclusive, we must resist being a niche church that is identified with only one part of the political spectrum.
Here's a link to the full text of Senator Danforth's excellent sermon.
What do you think? Can the Church serve as an agent of healing and reconciliation in what is becoming an increasingly toxic public square? How might we at St Thomas serve as agents of reconciliation? Can we ourselves extend charity, civility, and respect to those whose political views differ from ours? Can we hold our own political views with sufficient humility to listen to and perhaps even learn from others? As we approach another election season, it seems to me that the manner in which we conduct our political conversations is at least as important as any particular policy issue. How we treat each other may shape our future more profoundly than who wins this or that election.
As if there weren’t enough of a flurry of activity at St. Thomas already, along comes Vacation Bible Camp, a week-long day camp for kids ages 4-10. We have 94 children registered this year—a new record in St. Thomas’ recorded history! Among them are kids from a dozen different congregations, and a good number from no congregation at all. Our homemade theme this year is “Where Your Treasure Is …” And that seems like a good excuse for us all to talk like pirates. Arrr!
Throughout Monday morning, six groups of kids rotated among six different stations. In Patsy Regalia’s “Th’Bounty” station, children painted their own treasure chests. In “Ye Olde Chapel,” they watched a Veggie Tales video called Lyle, the Kindly Viking. In “Sea Shanties,” Charles Rus and Sunni Bannon taught them an original song called “Where Your Treasure Is.” In "Godly Tales," Josh Hosler explored the idea of parables and introduced the Parable of the Mustard Seed. On "Treasure Island," all sorts of get-to-know-ya games were the order of the day. In Jannie Best’s "Gifts for Life" station, the kids planted seeds that they will tend throughout the week and bring home. And in Vital Vittles, Kim Malcolm and her snack crew fed our pirates well.
We welcome your donation of spare change at any time this week. Bring it to St. Thomas and look for the giant treasure chest, or leave it with Josh. At the end of the week, we will make a purchase from Episcopal Relief and Development's Gifts for Life catalog.
The Saint Thomas parking lot was deserted when I pulled in Monday night, July 14th. It was 6:50 and I had a parish committee meeting in 10 minutes. I left my car among the empty spots and went into the parish conference room to visit with committee members.
Unable to stay for the entire meeting, I made a quiet exit around 8:30. As I left the conference room I could hear the noise coming from the Great Hall. Being nosey like I am, I went to inspect what was going on. The kitchen was packed with volunteers from Holy Cross of Redmond. They had come to prepare dinner for our ministry work with Congregation For The Homeless. The hall was full homeless men sitting around tables, and eating dinner. Among the men were various Saint Thomas parishioners, who had come to socialize with our guests.
Outside the Parish Close teemed with people gathered in small groups. The largest cluster huddled around a table with a coffee urn. Still more people gathered in the sanctuary. The campus hummed at full capacity.
Where were all these people from, I wondered? It was then I realized AA’s Monday chapter was gathering at the parish. The crowds in the Sanctuary and the Close was the overflow of AA members migrating to accommodate our July guests.
I stood wishing I had a video camera to show other parishioners how fully utilized the parish is. Then of course I remembered one of the last things in the world our AA chapter would want is their photo taken. Similarly, the homeless guests were deserving of privacy as well.
Off to my next meeting, I walked into the parking lot and saw the Al-Anon sign. I only dared to wonder, what corner of campus was not in use?
Standing among the cars and staring at the buzzing parish, I realized I had no clue where my car was! In 90 minutes the parking lot had transformed into a sea of vehicles. I found a lot of white cars, but none of them were mine. There were cars from Holy Cross, the homeless men, my fellow parishioners, AA members, and Al-Anon members. Suddenly the desert was no more. I was very thankful for electronic locks.
I left the crowded parking lot wishing other parishioners could have seen the outreach within our parish walls.
I've been writing a lot about our El Salvador pilgrims. But did you know we have pilgrims from our diocese in the Holy Land right now? Bishop Greg Rickel is with them, and he's been updating us on his own blog. His most recent post includes a YouTube clip of a baptism the group celebrated in the Sea of Galilee.
Sermon preached at St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Medina, WA, by the Rev. Lex Breckinridge, Rector, on the Eighth Sunday after Pentecost, July 18, 2010: Mass on the Grass
Here are some of our El Salvador pilgrims posing after their staggering loss in the Bishop's Cup 2010! (That's my understanding, at least.) Pictured, from the left, are Kathryn Jones, three Salvadoran youth whose names I haven't learned yet, Lily Moodey, Rachel Best, and Brigitte Ashley.
This is the first photo I've been able to procure from this year's trip. After the pilgrims arrive home tomorrow night, no doubt, we'll be inundated with many more. Thank you, Edgardo Mendoza, for posting this on your Facebook page!
Have you taken the time to really look at the stained glass windows at Saint Thomas? You’ll find pictures of Saints, intricately designed leaves, and beautiful flowers. I took a long look the other day at the West Window in the Sanctuary. The sun was cutting through the glass as my eyes moved from date to date, with each date marking a mile stone in the church’s growth.
The top panel of the West Window is dated 1943. There are seven small people around the table and an adult. It memorializes the first church school held in Medina, in October of that year. As, the small group grew, holding church services in people’s homes became increasingly difficult.
Colin Radford, son of Jean and Fenton Radford, remembered how his father found a solution to the parishioner’s problem. Fenton found a small building up near North Bend. Having previously barged their house to Medina, moving this building didn’t pose a problem. Colin recounted the way they, “took big timbers and greased them up with stinky black grease. They would slide the (building) up onto the shore with pulleys. There they would set them on post and beam.” This was the way the church came to be housed in a small building on the corner of 84th NE and NE 12th.
The West Window’s second panel, dated 1948, commemorates the building’s arrival and the year St. Thomas was incorporated as a parish. Dated 1953, the third panel represents the first unit of the church building.
The final panel has a purple cross and fleur-de-lis with the date 1957. It was in September of this year the first services were held in our “daughter” churches, St. Margaret’s Church and the Church of Resurrection.
This morning I chatted on Facebook with Noah Bullock. Noah is the director of Cristosal, a U.S.-based organization that supports the work of the Episcopal Church in El Salvador. I met him three years ago on my first El Salvador pilgrimage.
Noah says our pilgrims are doing fine. Last Saturday, they played against Episcopal youth and young adults in the "Bishop's Cup" futbol tournament and got their ... er ... rumps kicked.
On Monday and Tuesday, the pilgrims helped build 40 meters of road in Izalco. And today they're headed out to El Carmen to help repair storm damage to a bridge.
Noah said he'd let the pilgrims know we love them and are excited to see them home tomorrow night.
Also in the last couple days, I've reestablished contact with some of the Salvadoran young adults we met in 2007, including Edgardo Mendoza and Azucena Alvarez. (Edgardo is on the left in the red shirt, in a photo from our 2007 pilgrimage.) Both are now Facebook friends of mine.
Through them I discovered a Facebook page called Juventud Anglicana de El Salvador. Edgardo tells me that photos from the Bishop's Cup will be posted there soon.
Today our El Salvador pilgrims are slated to travel to Izalco to work with members of the Episcopal congregation of San Marcos. On our 2008 pilgrimage, we also visited Izalco, so four youth and one adult are making a return pilgrimage today. Doubtless they will see many of the same people they saw then and also play with many of the same kids—now two years older. And once again, our pilgrims will work on repairing the fragile road into the village.
As we pray for our pilgrims today, I’d like to post a piece by high school senior Lily Moodey. She was on the 2008 pilgrimage and wrote this piece afterward. I’m excited to hear from her what it was like to return to Izalco two years later. Here’s Lily:
Before this trip, when I thought of a road, I thought of people in orange suits and hard hats, big cement mixers, and detour signs. In fact, on our way to the airport a small stretch of 405 was closed for repair, and my family and I grumbled as we had to find an alternate route. These were the pictures that rolled through my mind as we prepared to help the community of San Marcos repair their road.
But in the two days we spent in the community, my definition of a road changed drastically. I learned that for these people, the road is their lifeline to the rest of the country, the only way they can get resources up and down the hill. The importance of this rocky dirt road was reflected in the participation of the community, especially the kids. As I struggled to navigate my wheelbarrow around the rocks, little ten-year-olds were dashing around barefoot, with no gloves and loads twice the size of mine.
I challenged one of the little boys I met, Santo Ricardo, to race me to the area we were patching up. I immediately tripped, hit my front wheel on a rock, and dumped all the dirt at my feet as Santo Ricardo teased me, laughing. It was then that I realized they didn’t need us to repair their road; they could do it themselves. It was just us being there that made the difference.
I saw this again when they told us we wouldn’t get to help pour the cement. I was disappointed, but when I learned the value of the cement, I realized that they couldn’t risk us wasting it. I was amazed to learn that the average income for a family in that community is four dollars a day, while a bag of cement costs six dollars. We were to use four bags that day, so the cement they were pouring was worth six days of work!
It was humbling to think that while I had always thought of myself as perfectly capable, I couldn’t be trusted with something this valuable. Instead, I moved lots of dirt and smoothed out the road to prepare for the pour. And on my breaks, I got to play with the kids, and our endless games of tag were definitely a highlight of the trip for me, even though I could never catch them and got plenty of laughs and stares from the people living there.
It was disappointing to see the rain come down in sheets as we pulled out, washing away some of our work. But as we waved goodbye to our new friends, I knew that our time in San Marcos was not wasted. This trip changed my perspective on many things, but you can be sure I will never look at a road the same way again.
I just came from the airport. The 2010 St. Thomas El Salvador pilgrims are getting on their plane as I write. They look a little bleary-eyed from getting up early, but they are all there, and they're on their way! I will write more in a couple days about their planned itinerary. In the meantime, feel free to browse the report from our previous El Salvador pilgrimage in 2008.
From left to right, our pilgrims include the Rev. Jo Beecher (vicar of La Iglesia de la Resurreccion in Mt. Vernon), Michaela Clouse, Matt Lanier, Sam Wang, Will Bush, Adam Breunig, Brigitte Ashley, Ben Reed, Lily Moodey, Rachel Best, Adam Rynd, Siena Brown, and Kathryn Jones. They will return next Thursday, July 15.
Please pray for our pilgrims as they set off to forge strong connections with Episcopalians in El Salvador!
A man raised a plastic fork to his mouth in the Saint Thomas Parish Life Center and chocolate cake crumbs spilled back onto his small paper plate. He skewered another piece with a still shaking hand, scraping with it a pink rose petal of frosting and he looked up and smiled. “(AA) is saving my marriage. It is saving me,” he said. The meetings at Saint Thomas give him the support to change and the safety to be open about his addiction. “I’ve been sober six months,” he said with resolution, “and my wife is part of Al-Anon.”
AA (Alcoholics Anonyms) has been meeting at Saint Thomas for more then 50 years. The 12-step program is centered around acknowledging and accepting problems, realizing God is in their lives and making a conscious change. It’s structure and support has helped members begin and maintain a sober life. Al-Anon was created because it became clear alcoholism does not just affect the alcoholic. It wreaks havoc in the lives of alcoholics family members and friends. The support system Al-Anon provides has saved marriages, families and friendships.
Just minutes before entering the AA meeting, the Great Hall was described by long time AA member Mary Jo D., as a place which emanated “sanctuary.” Days prior, my heels had clacked across the empty linoleum, but upon entering I found the space filled. It buzzed with greetings, smiles, hugs and laughter. The same warmth I feel from the Saint Thomas parishioners seemed to be in the very breath of those who came up to me again and again. “Thank you for being here,” they said. “Thank you for all Saint Thomas has done for us,” they beamed. “This saved my life,” I heard over and over. The members described their AA group as their family, and the spoke of Saint Thomas as being their home. Mary Jo D. plays golf at the Overlake Golf Course bordering the church. From the green she can see the tops of the steeple. “I look at it,” she smiled, “and it brings me peace.”
Five minutes into the meeting the door to the kitchen opened a crack and small boy, with bouncing golden curls slipped through. His face lit up as he ran around the front of the Parish Life Center. Everyone laughed and he giggled all the more, until his father corralled him into a corner and swooped him up into a hug. He was taken back to the nursery, but escaped twice more. It was funny yes, but the escape artist was a clear reminder how necessary childcare is to both AA and Al-Anon members. Parents struggling with addiction and mental strain need these meetings. Without proper childcare their attendance would be nearly impossible. Our expansion of childcare facilities would give AA and Al-Anon the ability to increase this vital help.
The Monday and Friday night meetings at Saint Thomas represent two of the oldest AA groups on the Eastside. Our parish’s role in their success continues to be vital day in and day out. Though many parishioners are not aware of the difference they are making, Saint Thomas’ positive impact continues. In a typical month Saint Thomas is visited more than 1,500 times by AA members with sobriety ranging from one day or week, to nearly 40 years of continuous sobriety. Saint Thomas’ blessing in their lives is nearly immeasurable. AA is excited about the changes coming to the Great Hall and looks forward to its development for both Parish growth and their own.
Perhaps you have noticed some instruments other than organ and piano being played in the services on Sunday. This past week, for example, you heard Will and Mary Bush playing a violin duet. St. Thomas is very fortunate to have many talented people ready and willing to play their instruments in church! I won’t begin to name them, lest I forget someone, but I’d like publicly to say thank you. I know it is much appreciated by everyone.
In addition, I also have a number of unusual instruments that I often like to play Sunday mornings; for example, you may have heard the bowed psaltery on July 4. The ancient Hebrews used a plucked psaltery to accompany the singing of the Psalms, probably improvised. The bowed psaltery was invented in the 1940’s in Ireland. I love to improvise Psalms with it as well.
On July 18 at Mass on the Grass you will heard Gabrielle Kunkel play the steel drum. The modern steel drum was invented in Trinidad also around 1940. Today the drum is constructed from the bottom of a 55 gallon barrel, sunk down in a concave fashion, and tuned with precision.
I also love the melodica, which is basically a foot-long keyboard harmonica. It reminds me of sitting around the campfire in the old west, and it can be really expressive.
From time to time you will also hear the wood drum (tuned), shofar (a real ram’s horn) , autoharp, wooden and metal glockenspiel, recorders (soprano, alto, tenor and bass), ukelin (like the bowed psaltery, but there are also strings to strum to accompany yourself), large Chinese gong, various drums, drum set (thank you Jim Blundell), vibes (thank you Paul Johnson), timpani, and Indian percussion, particularly wrist bands with bells (thank you Fr. David). Would anyone out there enjoy playing some of these with me? I can't do it all alone! Shoot me an email or find me after the service. your musician and liturgist, Charles
We at Saint Thomas can all attest to the beauty of clean air and water. Our sanctuary opens onto a lovely courtyard. Many parishioners have had their wedding pictures taken among the flowers and birds or strolled after a service with a daughter or son. Some of you may have held the hand of a grandchild, while they stuck their nose into a blooming rose and laughed at the tickle from its petals. Cutting back on our carbon fuel emissions, we can help generations to come enjoy the same beautiful settings to worship and pray.
Electric car stations would help us decrease our carbon footprint. Due to the Federal Government’s support of electric cars, the parish has been encouraged to apply for a Federally funded grant to install four electric car-charging stations. Because we offer a Park and Ride during the week we are a prime candidate for a grant from the US Department of Energy. The hardware cost for 4 electric vehicle-charging stations covered by the grant would be roughly $20,000.
Additional installation expenses might cost another $10,000 - $20,000. The installation expenses would need to be funded by the parish. Ten days ago this seemed unattainable. However, recently our Bishop found a donor who would like to match our installation expenses dollar per dollar up to $8,000. If you know a local citizen, parent or friend of Saint Thomas School, someone affiliated with Metro or another governmental or non-profit entity who is dedicated to advancing alternative energy usage, let them know of this unique opportunity to help us move away from our dependence oil based fuel at Saint Thomas.
Despite electric cars being a new and unfamiliar technology for us all, there is strong Department of Energy support to build a network of charging stations in the Bellevue-Redmond area. Each charging station will be fully networked. Smart phones will give drivers directions to the station closest by and alert you if it is currently being used. The government’s encouragement for electric cars is evident by the, $7,500 federal tax credit and exemption from sales tax upon purchase.
Enjoy the summer and think about whom you know who might like to know about this ecological opportunity at our church home.
sermon preached at St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Medina, WA
by Josh Hosler, Associate for Christian Formation
Independence Day/ July 4, 2010
At the north side of this building you’ll find the entrance to the chapel. It’s a wonderful place to sit and be quiet for a while, as I do for 20 minutes in the middle of each work day. The windows in the Chapel depict, chronologically, important people in the history of the Christian faith, beginning with the Roman Emperor Constantine, continuing with a variety of saints and martyrs, and concluding with a man many consider a living saint: Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
Bishop Tutu was the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town from 1986 to 1996. During that time he was instrumental in bringing down the racist institution of apartheid and helping move South Africa toward reconciliation and healing. On this day, when we are observing our nation’s independence, I’d like to challenge us as Americans to learn at Bishop Tutu’s feet. Especially, I’d like everyone to become familiar with the Bantu word Ubuntu.
Ubuntu is a religious concept. It is difficult to define succinctly, but here are some words from Bishop Tutu that get us into the ballpark:
A person with Ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed.
Ubuntu speaks particularly about the fact that you can't exist as a human being in isolation. It speaks about our interconnectedness. You can't be human all by yourself, and when you have this quality—Ubuntu—you are known for your generosity. We think of ourselves far too frequently as just individuals, separated from one another, whereas you are connected and what you do affects the whole world. When you do well, it spreads out; it is for the whole of humanity.
I have heard the word Ubuntu reduced to the following phrase: “I am what I am because of who we all are as children of God.”
Explaining the implications of Ubuntu, Bishop Tutu also writes:
A self-sufficient human being is subhuman. I have gifts that you do not have, so, consequently, I am unique—you have gifts that I do not have, so you are unique. God has made us so that we will need each other. We are made for a delicate network of interdependence. We see it on a macro level. Not even the most powerful nations in the world can be self-sufficient.
I hear Tutu saying that as much as we might wish to sometimes, we can’t just inhabit our spacious hemisphere as if we didn’t need other countries. And he doesn’t just mean big countries to trade with, like China. He means that we need Cameroon and El Salvador and Croatia and Bangladesh. He means that we need Libya and Iran and North Korea. We all need each other, not necessarily in an economic sense or a geopolitical sense, but in a human sense.
We don’t need to be the best at everything, not even soccer. We don’t need to fool ourselves into believing that no other nation means us harm. But we do need to respect and welcome the gifts that other nations and their cultures share with us. In a country that worships the value of the individual, it can be difficult to move beyond our own self-interest or even our family’s interests. Yet I believe that Ubuntu gets right to the heart of the Gospel.
Our Scripture readings for today are the readings assigned for the observance of Independence Day. These readings guide us to realistic assessment of our nation and a recommitment to its long-term goals. But in the Gospel, Jesus raises the bar so high that we may feel completely inadequate to the task:
I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven … for if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?
I don’t think I’m going far out on a limb when I say that this may be the heart of Jesus’ message to us. It takes the two great commandments—“love God” and “love each other”—and explains the real ramifications. There may be no more difficult text in the entire Bible than the statement, “Love your enemies.” It seems naïve, foolish, and weak. Can’t we just draw a circle of protection around our families and closest friends, and only progress beyond that circle when we’re sure it’s safe to do so?
Well, in the times when we can’t muster the energy to love our enemies, maybe we can at least love those we believe to be of no use to us. Because the fact of the matter is that we do need them. Humans need other humans in order to be truly human: Ubuntu.
I believe the United States of America shows promise in the area of Ubuntu. For instance, when a natural disaster hits anywhere in the world, we don’t calculate whether those who are in danger are of use to us. We rush right in to offer help. That’s a start. But we are also a nation of radical individualists, no matter our political stripe. We work hard to ensure our own safety and the safety of our families, and at the end of the day, we often find that this is all the energy we believe we have. We’ll give money to a good cause. But communal movements like carpooling, pea patches, Congregations for the Homeless—they’re difficult work that seem to restrict our cherished freedom. Most of us are not willing to commit ourselves that deeply to the idea of real community.
I’ve certainly been there: how many of my neighbors do I actually know? Only a few, and they’re the ones who are most similar to me—home buyers instead of home renters. People my own age. People with similar interests. This is not enough to build a sense of community in my neighborhood. And why don’t I go there? Not because I don’t want to, but because I believe I will be biting off more than I can chew. I might have to give up some of my precious independence.
Last Thursday I was pulling dandelions in the front yard when a couple of boys came up on bikes. They said their phone service is about to be cut off, and they were trying to earn money any way they could to keep that from happening. They offered to pull weeds. And I immediately turned them down. Why? Because I didn’t want the inconvenience. I wanted to pull the dandelions myself, for free, and make sure I got out as many roots as I could. I wanted to stay in control.
Five minutes after the boys left, I wished I could call them back. I wasn’t in a rush that day, and I love my work with kids. I could have pulled weeds with the boys, gotten to know my neighbors a little better, and given them a check as well. Why did I resist such a simple attempt at building community? Because I have hypnotized myself into a default mode called, “I don’t have the time or energy for that.”
It’s the same with church. Now, I get paid to be here, so it’s easy for me. And many of us here today are really immersed. But how many of us find ourselves saying, “I’ll get more regular in my church attendance once I get a few other things in my life straightened out”? I imagine that’s the case for some of you out there, and I just happened to catch you on the right Sunday. Church, like any other community, is not a quick fix. It takes time and fortitude.
By extension, it’s the same with the entire world. It is very easy for me to scan the news online every morning, skip over the unpleasant stuff, and move on to the entertainment stories. I have this privilege. I live in a country where I don’t have to live in constant fear that my life will be taken from me, or that something I say will cause me to be incarcerated. This is due to a network of privileges that I enjoy without having earned them. Today is Independence Day, the day on which we celebrate those privileges.
But Ubuntu reminds me that not everyone in the world or even in our own country has this privilege, and that because I inhabit this privileged life, it’s not enough just to enjoy it. I am not an island. I am interdependent. The food I eat was grown by somebody with less privilege than I. It was brought to my grocery store by somebody with less privilege than I. The deck is stacked against many people, like those boys in my neighborhood. This realization saddles me with responsibility I’d rather not have. But the responsibility is mine. I need to learn about the network of interdependence that supports me, and then discover what I can do to give back.
And so I challenge us all—and that includes me!—to become less independent. That’s right. On Independence Day, I’d like us to become less independent and more interdependent. That doesn’t mean surrendering all of our power, but it does mean accepting some inconveniences for the sake of the Gospel.
Bishop Tutu developed the concept of Ubuntu out of a double-sided frustration: frustration with the Western mindset of an identity formed by rugged independence, and frustration with the African paradigm of an identity formed by utter dependence on the community. Neither is healthy. Even as independence leads to economic privilege and unparalleled innovation, it has also led to the breakdown of families, rampant greed, and a diminished understanding of ourselves as members of the planet and children of God. These are some of the reasons why our country has enemies, so we have lots of work to do.
On the other side, while some may glorify the ideal communal life that we see in some African countries, this extreme can lead to a loss of individual identity as one’s person is subsumed within the community’s expectations. It creates a situation in which individual agency is downplayed, making it easy for the privileged few to snatch power and keep it. Just witness the long, sad history of brutal African dictatorships.
Ubuntu balances the extremes. As we participate in community, we become more ourselves, able to differentiate ourselves in a healthy way from the community to which we belong while still being responsible to it. Yes, it takes a lot of energy to sustain Ubuntu. Have you ever felt that you were carrying your family on your shoulders, your company on your shoulders, the world on your shoulders? But Ubuntu offers a vision of a community that can share those burdens, if you’ll only become vulnerable enough to allow that to happen.
I cannot be a Christian in a vacuum. I need the church to remind me who I am. Only through the love of others and through responsibility to them can I truly know myself as unique, powerful, and loved by God. I am not independent, and I am not dependent. I am interdependent. Today, I recommit myself to Ubuntu, to community. I may have to surrender some freedoms along the way, yes. But in the long run, with much time and commitment, that effort will make me freer than I can possibly imagine.
Today is my Interdependence Day. Will it be yours? Amen.
What an amazing day, and what an amazing conclusion to the week! On Friday, our young pirates decided what to do with all the treasure that had flooded into St. Thomas. Each of the six groups took $100 and, guided by Jannie Best, perused the Gifts for Life catalog online. Here's what each group gave:
