2023 Sun Aug 27

What we wear on our hearts should be just as obvious to the world as what we wear on our bodies. Our T shirts may say “Harvard”, but our hearts should say Jesus. Our jeans may say “Levis”, but our hearts should say Jesus.” -Br. James Koester, SSJE

“God wants us to become fully the person he created us to be and not to settle for anything less: to become so alive that when people see us they actually see something of God radiating through us and glorifying God.” – Br. Geoffrey Tristram, Society of Saint John the Evangelist

SSJE is a monastic community of The Episcopal Church & The Anglican Church of Canada.

“St Peters as our rock”

In July of 1833, three of our ancestors here in Port Royal, William Gray, Charles Urquhart and George Fitzhugh, placed an ad in the Virginia Herald for builders.

To Builders— “The Subscribers, Commissioners for building a church in Port Royal, will receive proposals for erecting the same—they would prefer to have the whole work undertaken by a single individual, but will contract for the Brick work separately, if necessary. A hundred thousand Bricks, it is supposed will be about the number required for the church.”

And this church is built of bricks. Bricks, made from the earth itself, are a strong building material, much like rock. In many places in the Old Testament, the rock is a symbol for God.

…Here we are, in a brick church named after St Peter, the man that Jesus called a rock.

And Jesus asks each and every one of us the same question he asked the disciples.  “But who do you say that I am?”

When we are able to answer this question as Peter did, “You, Jesus, are the Messiah, the Son of the living God!” we experience a cosmic shift in our lives. When we recognize that God IS the solid core within us—our inner rock.

We profess our faith every Sunday in the words of the Nicene Creed—our belief in God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

But how do we know when God really is at the center of our lives? Paul provides some help with this question in the passage from the letter to the Romans that we heard today.  We find that rather than being conformed to the world, we are being transformed by the renewing of our minds. And our minds are made new when we can wake up every morning and hand ourselves over to God. “God, please be the rock in my life today, and please help me serve you by serving my neighbors. Please help me to do whatever it is you give me to do today, to your glory.”

Australian Cross-country skier Janine Shepherd hoped for an Olympic medal — until she was hit by a truck during a training bike ride. She shares a powerful story about the human potential for recovery. Her message: you are not your body, and giving up old dreams can allow new ones to soar.

She writes, “The philosopher Lao Tzu once said, “When you let go of what you are, you become what you might be.” I now know that it wasn’t until I let go of who I thought I was that I was able to create a completely new life. It wasn’t until I let go of the life I thought I should have that I was able to embrace the life that was waiting for me. I now know that my real strength never came from my body, and although my physical capabilities have changed dramatically, who I am is unchanged. The pilot light inside of me was still a light, just as it is in each and every one of us.

“I know that I’m not my body, and I also know that you’re not yours. And then it no longer matters what you look like, where you come from, or what you do for a living. All that matters is that we continue to fan the flame of humanity by living our lives as the ultimate creative expression of who we really are, because we are all connected by millions and millions of straws, and it’s time to join those up and to hang on. And if we are to move towards our collective bliss, it’s time we shed our focus on the physical and instead embrace the virtues of the heart.”

This is a wonderful  TED Talk.  Read the transcript  

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a professing Christian who kept the Christian faith alive during the Adolf Hitler’s rule in Germany. At St. Peter’s we read part of Life Together in Adult Ed.

He was implicated in the bomb plot against Hitler in 1944. Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote “Who Am I” just one month before he was executed.

“Who am I? They often tell me I stepped from my cell’s confinement Calmly, cheerfully, firmly, Like a squire from his country-house. Who am I? They often tell me I used to speak to my warders Freely and friendly and clearly, As though it were mine to command. Who am I? They also tell me I bore the days of misfortune Equably, smilingly, proudly, Like one accustomed to win.

“Am I then really all that which other men tell of? Or am I only what I myself know of myself? Restless and longing and sick, like a bird in a cage, Struggling for breath, as though hands were compressing my throat, Yearning for colors, for flowers, for the 88voices of birds, Thirsting for words of kindness, for neighborliness, Tossing in expectation of great events, Powerlessly trembling for friends at an infinite distance, Weary and empty at praying, at thinking, at making, Faint, and ready to say farewell to it all?

“Who am I? This or the other? Am I one person today and tomorrow another? Am I both at once? A hypocrite before others, And before myself a contemptibly woebegone weakling? Or is something within me still like a beaten army, Fleeing in disorder from victory already achieved? Who am I? They mock me, these lonely questions of mine. Whoever I am, Thou knowest, 0 God, I am Thine!”

March 4,1946