Sermon for May 20, 2014
~ 10:00 Healing Service
Feast Day of Alcuin,
Deacon and Abbot of Tours, 804
The Rev. Vicki K.
Hesse
St. Philip’s In The
Hills Parish, Tucson, AZ
For online access
to the readings click
I speak to you in
the name of One God:
Creator, Christ and
Holy Spirit. Amen
Today
we commemorate Alcuin,
Deacon
and Abbot of Tours in 7th / 8th century.
Of
all the things –
this
man was credited with inventing
the
first known question mark.
Yes,
according to author Lynne Truss
then-Roman
Emperor Charlemagne invited Alcuin
to
design a system of grammar aids
for
readers.[1]
It’s
important to know that Alcuin was raised – formed, really, with quite a
lineage.
He
was educated at the Cathedral School of York under Abp. Egbert,
who
was, himself a student of Bede (author and scholar of The Ecclesiastical History of
the English People giving him the title "The Father of English
History".)
Well,
this formation created in Alcuin
a
well-spring of gifts
from
which he was able to serve as “prime” minister
to
then-Emperor Charlemagne.
Alcuin
drew inspiration from his own formation
for
the school he would lead at the Frankish,
or
western European, court.
Alcuin
developed a system of disciplines,
including
the “trivium” and the “quadrivium”.
Like
our “reading, writing and ‘rithmetic,”
he
defined minimum schooling on three subjects:
grammar,
logic and rhetoric.
Once
a student gained proficiency in these three,
Alcuin’s
system established
the
next four subjects to learn:
arithmetic,
geometry, music and astronomy.
These
seven subject make up the core of education
in
the liberal arts.
Alcuin was formed from a very early age
in a way that gave him insight
to how others might also be formed.
Alcuin’s intellectual insight provided
gifts for his community – and for ours,
still, today –
for the raising up of the body of Christ.
He showed us about offering his gifts to
others.
Alcuin
was not only intellectually gifted,
he
was deeply religious.
In
767, Alcuin became a deacon in the church.
He
was never ordained as a priest and
lived
his life as a monk.
During
the reformation under Charlemagne,
Alcuin
was influential in developing
many
of the Collects we have today,
including
the Collect for Purity
at
the beginning of the Holy Eucharist.
“Almighty
God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are
hid…”
I
think that it was because of how Alcuin applied
his
education to reforming the religion
that
the lectionary texts offer Ecclesiasticus today.
These
verses define how wisdom is manifest:
He seeks out the
wisdom of all the ancients,
and is concerned
with prophecies;
he preserves the
sayings of the famous
and penetrates the
subtleties of parables;
he seeks out the
hidden meanings of proverbs
and is at home with
the obscurities of parables.
He serves among the
great
and appears before
rulers;
and
the last line,
His memory will not
disappear,
and his name will
live through all generations.
This
reading certainly profiles Alcuin.
Have
you ever known someone so wise,
so
able to integrate sayings of great people
and
illuminate hidden meanings
of
events in your life?
Maybe
this was a parent, or a teacher, or a therapist?
pause
While
working as a chaplain in a hospital,
we
encountered people of different faith traditions
and
some of no faith tradition.
One
of the first principles we learned was
“…
each individual has a source of inner wisdom
from
which they can draw
to
make meaning of their current situation…”
In
other words, our role as chaplain was not
to
explain what this meant for the person.
Our
role was simply to mid-wife
the
person’s own truth to the situation.
In
so doing,
we
respected the wisdom of that person’s
formation
and education –
and
their language to make sense of their needs.
In
our gospel reading today,
we
hear from Matthew
the
closing lines from a chapter
chock-full
of Jesus’ “the kingdom of heaven is like…” parables.
"Have you
understood all this?" They answered, "Yes."
And he said to
them, "Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of
heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is
new and what is old."
In
other words,
Jesus said that understanding
is
not an optional element of discipleship.
Understanding,
wisdom, is essential
to
living a whole hearted life.
Jesus asks the disciples
to apply those lessons,
to
the kingdom of heaven which is here on earth – right now.
Jesus affirms the
disciples’ Jewish past
(of
scripture, tradition, perspectives)
and
invites them to hold that
with
the knowledge of Christ’s coming to the world.
The
good news is that God’s “new” grace
makes
“old” knowledge a real treasure.
So
what about us?
You
came today seeking healing for
something,
someone
or
some situation in your life.
AND
you have deep life experiences, given by God, that when added to your knowledge
of scripture,
your
love of tradition and your perspective on life
it
constitute deep wisdom in your own right.
What
happens when you add Christ’s love to that?
Today,
Alcuin invites you, and me,
to
harmonize our “old” formed wisdom
with
the “new” grace of Jesus.
The
good news is that
God
empowers us to use
our
inner wisdom and our clear truth
to
find healing and wholeness in our life.
God’s
love for us is everlasting,
from
our earliest formation as children
until
our own last words.
For
today, know that
God
is with you and me throughout the
uncertainties
and confusions of our time,
as
God was with Alcuin.
Amen
===================================
Thomas
Merton wrote this prayer
that
offers some insight to this depth of faith, his balance of wisdom, humility and
hope:
“My
Lord God, I have no idea where I am going.
I
do not see the road ahead of me.
I
cannot know for certain where it will end.
Nor
do I really know myself,
and
the fact that I think that I am following your will
does
not mean that I am actually doing so.
But
I believe that the desire to please you
does
in fact please you.
And
I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.
I
hope that I will never do anything
apart
from that desire.
And
I know that if I do this
you
will lead me by the right road
though
I may know nothing about it.
Therefore
will I trust you always
though
I may seem to be lost
and
in the shadow of death.
I
will not fear, for you are ever with me,
and
you will never leave me to face my perils alone.”
― Thomas Merton, Thoughts in Solitude
― Thomas Merton, Thoughts in Solitude
No comments:
Post a Comment