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| THE SECOND SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST 29 May, 2005 The Rev. Robert C. Granfeldt |
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We have not one but three observances to take note of, today, so with a bit of
patience from all of you, I thought I’d do something special, this morning, and preach
three sermons instead of the usual one.
This weekend is, of course, Memorial Day weekend, and tomorrow we’ll be parading in
honor of all those brave men and women who, over the past two and a quarter
centuries, have given their lives, first, to establish, and then to defend, this nation. A
daring sacrifice that goes on, today!
Today on our liturgical calendar is the second Sunday after Pentecost, the first Sunday
of what is technically called, “ordinary time” – that long period of about half the year
when, rather than tracking the great events of salvation history, from creation to
Resurrection, we look more closely at that great question I’ve quoted so often; that is,
given those events, “How shall we then live,” in response to God’s grace?
The third observance of the day is not so apparent as the others, as it’s very new:
today being also – as the Sunday nearest to last Thursday’s Commemoration of St.
Augustine, the first Archbishop of Canterbury – Anglican Communion Sunday; the day
the Anglican Consultative Council set aside in 2002 as the occasion on which we are
asked, especially, to pray for this Anglican Communion of ours, and to honor its
existence and its meaning! A Communion of 38 provinces and 6 other jurisdictions – a
total of 44 bodies comprising one tradition! We are asked, today to pray for the whole
communion and its constituent provinces and Churches; for the Anglican Consultative
Council; for the Rev’d. Canob Kenneth Kearon, Secretary General; for the Staff of the
Anglican Communion Office, in London; and, of course, for the successor to St.
Augustine, the Most Reverend and Right Honorable Rowan Williams, Archbishop of
Canterbury!
The irony of the Situation is that the Council established the observance in 2002 – and
just about one year later, the Communion we celebrate began threatening to blow
itself apart! Ironic, certainly, and sad! And it gives us one more thing to pray for on this
day: that this great and vital communion of over 80 million Christians might find some
way to continue to honor amongst ourselves Christ’s prayer that we all may be one!
Three very different observances, today. But it occurred to me, yesterday, as I thought
about them that they do bear one thing in common: All touch on the reality of people
dieing for what they believe in; all involve people being WILLING to die for what they
believe in.
The answer given by Christians to the question, “how shall we then live?” has often
been, from the beginning, “by dieing!” Jesus, himself did it. Tradition tells us all of the
Apostles did it. And through centuries of Roman Persecution, many more!
We don’t often think about it, I believe, but the dieing didn’t end when Constantine
ended the persecution of Christians. It has gone on through all the centuries, since! It
goes on, today!
And it goes on within our own Anglican Communion. As I thought about these things, a
name popped into my mind that I hadn’t heard or thought of for many years. The name
of a man who was one of my heroes in the early days of my life as an Anglican: Bishop
of the Province – later the Diocese – of Iran!
The Anglican Church has been in Iran since the 17th Century – initially just to serve the
English officials, military, traders and businessmen, but later growing into an
indigenous Church.
Dehqani Tafti became the first Iranian bishop if Iran in 1961. The Church was small, but
alive – thriving, in fact – until the revolution of 1978 through 1980. It was early in 1980
that the Iranis tried to assassinate him and his wife – and it was not much later when
their son was killed. Dehqani Tafti was out of the country with his wife, leading a
conference when it happened, and, being advised it was to dangerous to return, he
never went back – living in exile and retiring as Bishop of Iran in 1990!
It was and is dangerous to be a Christian in Iran…, and in Iraq…, and in Indonesia…,
and in Myanmar, and in much of the Muslim world.
It is dangerous to be a Christian in parts of Nigeria, the Congo, Zimbabwe, and Uganda.
It is dangerous to be a Christian anywhere in the Sudan!
But you know something? It’s dangerous to be a Muslim in much of Europe…, in parts
of France and England – and even in the United States. It’s Dangerous to be a Muslim
in much of Africa, in most of India, in parts of China, in much of Russia and in a number
of the former soviet states.
It’s dangerous too, though, to be a Hindu in Pakistan, in any Muslim state, in much of
China, and, at times, in California!
And it’s dangerous to be a Jew in much of the world – even, and still, in Europe!
I think that perhaps the world’s greatest irony is that we, like people all around the
world and throughout the ages, have honored our dead, honored those who have
given their lives for their nation, their home and family, their freedom, and their faith –
and rightly so! – while those whom we have killed, and those who have killed us, have
been honored by their own families, nations and faiths – and, from their own point of
view – rightly so!
And perhaps the world’s greatest SINS are that far too many of those who have been
willing to die for their cause have been even more willing to kill for it, and that far too
many leaders of this world have been all to eager to send out their young people to
both kill and be killed!
And perhaps the world’s greatest tragedy is that there have been too few Jesus-of-
Nazareths in the world – Jesus who would not allow his lieutenant, Peter, to take up
the sword even to save Jesus’ own life. Too few Gautama Buddha’s in the world. Too
few Mahatma Gandhi’s. Too few Martin Luther King’s.
Too few people who would rather die than kill!
These are heavy thoughts for a holiday weekend, I know – but they are my thoughts,
and I share them with you on this day.
We honor our courageous fallen on this weekend – whether they be the martyrs of the
Church through the ages, the martyrs of our own Anglican Communion, still falling,
today, or the valiant men and women who have fought and died, yesterday and today,
for this country and what, at its best, it stands for.
And we honor them most and best as we make our prayer that someday wars will cease
through all the world – and that the peace of God that passes all understanding might
someday fill the hearts of all humankind; and someday soon!
In Jesus Christ’s Name. Amen.
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| Calvary Episcopal Church, Rockdale |
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