Grant us, Lord, not to be anxious about earthly things, but to love things heavenly; and even now, while we are placed among things that are passing away, to hold fast to those that shall endure; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. As I was taking a walk with my dog, Abbey, I came across them. Standing as sentinels guarding the gate of a former time. The church I am presently serving as Rector in the Interim, in conjunction with the school attached to the church, has recently torn down a building next to the church to make room for something new. I have watched with fascination as the building has come down, bit by bit, piece by piece. Somehow it has seemed so sad to me to see this building that, at one time, stood new and proud on this spot, is now old and dying. It all seemed to be finished but the back hoe kept digging. I wondered what they could possibly be doing when one by one they were unearthed and placed along the fence. Pillars of the foundation pulled from the place where they have born the weight of this structure for lo these many years. When my dog saw them she began to bark at them supposing that they were giant soldiers guarding the door of the church. When I saw them I immediately thought of them as pillars of change. Our lives are always in transition. Sometimes we have more of a sense of it than others, but, literally our body, our surroundings and the people around us are being born, living and dying. We become aware of this when a good friend or family member dies, we move from one residence to another or our church, school or place of business changes leaders. Not only do we become anxious the organization (family, school, business) becomes anxious as well. In our anxious state our tendency is to regress, fear that our whole world is changing too fast and we might be overcome. The only difficulty with that natural tendency is that the more things to which we attempt to grasp the more thing s elude our grip and the anxiety builds and the more anxious and fearful we become. Grant us, Lord, not to be anxious about earthly things, but to love things heavenly; and even now, while we are placed among things that are passing away, to hold fast to those that shall endure. There are those things in our life that dont pass away. The love that we have shared with each other, the faith in and the love of Christ. St. Paul tells us that of faith, hope and love it is only love that shall abide. The trouble is that we associate things with those we love that we share. When I remember my mother and father I think about their small house in which they invested much of their energy and their life. When I am missing them I sometimes have this unrealistic idea that I would buy this house in which I could live out the rest of my days. Currently, my husband and his brother are planning to remodel the houses their parents left to them. Really, it would be cheaper to raise, at least one of the houses, and build a new structure. Yet, the houses, themselves, are part of the experience of summers spent away from the cares of school, the stress of ordinary life and the love and strength of a great family. Therefore ….. we are remodeling them. These structures will remind us that we, also, need to carry forth this legacy of love and strength as the generations continue. Our family has come a long way to even consider remodeling these structures in order that we can leave our legacy to our children. We all are keenly aware this isnt about the buildings -- it is about honoring that which has endured--the love of family, great-grandparents, grandparents, parents and children. So often, though, we react to change in the same way a snake reacts to a sudden movement in its environment. The anger and reaction that we have to change can even surprise ourselves, unless we stop, reflect and wonder about the root of our reaction. The root of our reaction is, of course, death. Ultimately, change means physical death for all of us. When we are no longer changing we are dead. To change is to live and to live is to change. When change happens around us we wonder if this change means death to us. Yet, as humans we can overcome our fear and as faithful people of God we can claim victory over our fear. Death no longer has power over us and we are free to examine the change and determine if it is a good thing, a neutral thing or something we wish to resist. Instead of knee jerk reacting to the change we can respond faithfully to it. The Vicar of Dibly is one of my favorite TV sitcoms from the BBC. In one of the shows two people are talking about the woman vicar that was foisted upon them and the value of change. The first says, Change can be good. Look at stoplights—if they didn’t change we’d be in a real mess. The second says: Yes, but change can be bad. Take gravity, if that changed we’d all be lost, now, wouldn’t we? The first responds by saying: Well, then, I guess there is good change and there is bad change.
Posted on: Mon, 22 Sep 2014 23:13:35 +0000
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