News from the Congregation May 15, 2020
“Life is Gift;” Being with God on Zoom?; Sunday Programming (Job Bible Study, Sunday Worship, Coffee Half-Hour, Adult Formation - Daily Office), Education for Ministry, YESS Bible Study, Compline, Poor People's Campaign Digital March, Keith Haring Celebration
Canon Lee
One of the most moving sermons I have ever read was preached by John Claypool just four weeks after the death of his 10-year-old daughter Laura Lue from leukemia. At the time, the Rev. Dr. Claypool was a Southern Baptist minister working in Louisville, KY, though he would eventually convert and become one of the great preachers in the Episcopal Church.
In the sermon, he admits that he is “still much in shock, much at sea, very much broken and by no means fully healed.” But he wants to share a “provisional” answer to his desperate question: How on Earth is he supposed to get on with his life? How is he supposed to process his bitterness, his anger, and his grief, that his daughter fought an 18-month battle with a terrible disease, only to lose her life?
His provisional answer to these impossible questions is that “life is gift, pure, simple, sheer gift.”
This is the answer, he believed, which promised a way out of the darkness.
My prayer for any of us struggling to find our way out of our present darkness is that this provisional answer -- life is gift -- may light our path forward:
And I am here to testify that this is the only way down from the Mountain of Loss. I do not mean to say it makes things easy, for it does not, but at least it makes things bearable when I remember that Laura Lue was a gift, pure and simple, something I neither earned nor deserved nor had a right to, and that the appropriate response to a gift, even when it is taken away, is gratitude that I was ever given her in the first place. This is the discipline I am now trying to learn, even though it is very, very hard…
Therefore, I repeat, do not look to me this morning as any authority on how to conquer the darkness, for I am still very much a broken-hearted brother in the depths of grief. However, if you do want to help me on down the way, I have only this one suggestion: do not counsel me not to question, and do not attempt to give me any total answer. The greatest things you can do is to remind me of two things: that life is gift — every last particle of it, and the way to handle a gift is to be grateful. You can really help me out there if you will remind me of this, just as I hope maybe I may have helped this morning by reminding you.
The Rev. Canon Steven Lee
Canon Pastor and Vicar
THIS SUNDAY, MAY 17
(To access each program on Zoom, click the link in the title.)
10:00 AM - Integrity in Crisis: A Bible Study on Job
Join the Vicar for a series of classes on the Book of Job and learn how this timeless text can address our suffering in this difficult time.
10:00 AM - Digital Sunday School Materials Emailed
11:00 AM - Congregation Watch Party for Cathedral Worship Service
Watch the Cathedral worship service on Zoom with other members of the Congregation.
You can also watch the Cathedral Worship Service
On Facebook: http://facebook.com/StJohnDivineNYC
On the Cathedral website: http://www.stjohndivine.org
12:00 PM - Digital Coffee Half-Hour
Hosted by the Young Episcopalians of Saint Saviour (YESS)
12:30 PM - Adult Formation Class on the Daily Office
Sub Dean Malloy continues his class on the history, theology, and practice of the Daily Office.
WEEKLY CATHEDRAL CONGREGATION PROGRAMS
The Congregation’s recently refreshed website now includes a directory of weekly programs with links to each program’s Zoom, which can be accessed by clicking here. Thanks to Hope Chang for her hard work updating our resources!
Thursday May 21 | 6:30 PM - Education for Ministry
Education for Ministry (EfM) invites you to an open meeting next Thursday. EfM has been a staple of worship and education at St. John the Divine for many years, and has been continuing on Zoom during the pandemic. A distance learning program created and sustained by Sewanee University--the University of the South--EfM was designed for lay people who want to know more about and deepen their faith. It is more than a Bible Study, although classes do read and study scripture as well as contemporary theological works. Please join us on Zoom to get a feeling for who we are, what we do, and how we do it. Our next group will begin this September.
Tuesdays | 6:00PM - YESS Bible Study
Wednesdays | 6:30 PM - Congregation Book Group
Wednesdays | 8:30 PM - Congregation Compline
SERVE
Join members of the Congregation in participating in the Poor People's Campaign Digital March on Washington on June 20. The Campaign is led by the Rev. Dr. William Barber II, who gave an electrifying sermon at the Cathedral last May, calling for a "Moral Pentecost." The Digital March on Washington will highlight the deep structural inequities in our society, which is making the effects of the global pandemic fall disproportionately on working class communities of color.
Register for the March here.
NEWS FROM THE CATHEDRAL
#MuseumFromHome: Keith Haring, "Life of Christ"
In honor of what would have been Keith Haring's 62nd birthday, Cathedral educators video chatted about one of our Cathedral’s most popular pieces: the "Life of Christ" by Keith Haring, the triptych on the altar in the Chapel of Saint Columba. Members of YESS recently discussed this piece of art in their Bible study on the Gospel according to Matthew.
Marsha and Tim
Some of us are getting to know one another better through Zoom connections and virtual church. As Jennifer Allen noted last week, Coffee Hour on Zoom includes something like name tags so we don’t have to struggle to remember each others’ names. Breaking us into random small groups allows people who might not have spoken together in the flesh to get to get to know each other a bit. This is certainly a “glass half full” way of looking at our situation. But the other equally true reality is that not everyone participates in electronic virtual church and meetings and I feel some concern for them. Last week I called a long-time member who has not shown up to any of our virtual church events. We had a lovely conversation. After we checked in on how we were both doing, we had some laughs and expressed pleasure at hearing one another’s voice. I offered to send him the link to various opportunities to join virtually with the rest of the congregation. His response was interesting and inspiring. He says he feels that there is an intimacy to his current situation. No one, he noted, can go into a church, synagogue or mosque to pray these days. It is as though we have been invited to spend quiet time with God. He doesn’t feel lonely and he feels closer to God than ever. Can I say the same?
It is not that I have never sat in stillness with God. I have. But it has always been in response to what my friend calls an invitation. These days I rely on the daily offices to keep me in conversation with God. Is God not reaching out to me otherwise, or am I drowning out His voice with too many words and noises—too much cable news and too many detective stories? Through the daily office, morning and evening, I am keeping up a conversation in company with my beloved church community. I will forever be grateful for the YESS fellowship that started the practice of Zoom daily offices and the Cathedral liturgy department for taking over management of it and expanding the reach of these wonderful half-hour prayer sessions.
Blessings from Tim and Marsha