Putting Jesus at the Center - By Bishop G
Dear Friends:
As we prepare for Thanksgiving, we are on the eve of the last Sunday of our church year, something called the Feast of Christ the King. This feast was established by Pope Pius XI in 1925, just after World War I and the Spanish Flu pandemic had ravaged the world. Hitler had just published Mein Kampf, and his political party was getting stronger. Mussolini became a dictator. Scopes was arrested for teaching Darwin’s Theory of Evolution in Tennessee. As many as 40,000 KKK members marched in Washington. The Klan had 5 million members, making it the largest fraternal organization in the US.
The Pope hoped to hold up the King of Peace, who came to reconcile all things and to serve, not be served. Pius thought the sin of idolatry was at the heart of the world’s problems, and he wanted the church to recenter itself on Jesus. I’m glad the church has this special Sunday. Putting Jesus at the Center of everything certainly makes us ready for Thanksgiving week. Giving thanks is central to our faith. Placing Jesus at the Center of everything, remembering as Christians we live by hope, and in the midst of the world’s hurt, personally and collectively, in the space between hope and hurt, new life begins.
Several years ago, long before I became a bishop, the day before Thanksgiving, I got a phone call from a man named John. He told me he belonged to a church in Jackson, Mississippi. His circumstances sounded true enough, but I could hear my own internal skeptic beginning to rise as I listened. “I have a church home and I want to go home. I don’t have enough money. I don’t have anyone else to ask, so I thought I’d ask the church for help.” We talked about his job, his family, his life here and in Jackson. I found myself getting to know this total stranger.
John told me he had a short-term construction job, but his boss couldn’t pay him. He was giving up, and he wanted to go home to Jackson. “Can you give me money($55) for a one-way, non-refundable bus ticket?” After several emails and some complicated Greyhound logistics, I bought him a bus ticket. He emailed his thanks to me with two pictures: a happy photo of himself and one of his All Saints’ Episcopal Church in Jackson. Somewhere in that brief encounter, I saw Jesus and got a dose of hope myself.
As I thought about that simple encounter, I realized that our faith has taught me that there is no better cure for my self-centered worry than to call someone else who’s lonely. No better medicine for my fear of losing what I have than giving some time to speak or pray with someone in trouble. Many of you know the gifts that come from working with those in prison or from sharing your faith with a stranger.
Jesus invites us to follow, to treat our lives not like they belong to us, but like the gifts that they are, time loaned to us, to serve him. He invites us to give ourselves away. He tells us that what you do each day is of ultimate importance to me. Love given away is love set free from the isolation of our own hearts, and it multiplies. Someone said, “I really only love God as much as I love the person I love the least.”
Then in Matthew’s gospel, Jesus says, “…do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear…Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than them? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?” He goes on, “…your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and all these things will be given to you.”
A wise priest taught me, “All I am and all I have belong to God.” It was her way of saying, our life is a gift from a God who loves us more than we can imagine or deserve. Our task is to share Jesus’ love with the world. May this Thanksgiving be a celebration of our many blessings. I hope I see you at church soon.
Blessings,
Bishop G