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Psalm 95:1-7 Venite

¹ O come, let us sing to the Lord;
   let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! 
² Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
   let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! 
³ For the Lord is a great God,
   and a great King above all gods. 
⁴ In his hand are the depths of the earth;
   the heights of the mountains are his also. 
⁵ The sea is his, for he made it,
   and the dry land, which his hands have formed. 
⁶ O come, let us worship and bow down,
   let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker! 
⁷ For he is our God,
   and we are the people of his pasture,
   and the sheep of his hand. 

Psalm 100 Jubilate

¹ Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth. 
²   Worship the Lord with gladness;
   come into his presence with singing. 
³ Know that the Lord is God.
   It is he that made us, and we are his;
   we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. 
⁴ Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
   and his courts with praise.
   Give thanks to him, bless his name. 
⁵ For the Lord is good;
   his steadfast love endures for ever,
   and his faithfulness to all generations.

Have you ever thought about Old Friends from your youth, these two Canticles are my Old Friends. They were there every Sunday from 1^st grade until my 24^th year of life. At St George’s Church in Manhattan for Sunday School and then into my years at their Summer Camp, Morning Prayer was the Sunday worship. These two Canticles in addition to The General Thanksgiving, various Collects and my favorite, Prayer of St Chrysostom ,were how we worshipped. Holy Communion as it was called in the 1952 Prayer Book was  celebrated on the first Sunday of the month and at Christmas and Easter. This is what I thought was the normal.

It wasn’t until I went to college, in my junior year, when I joined the Canterbury Club ( EPISCOPAL) that Communion was worshipped every Thursday morning at 8 , that I saw something different from my Normal. Not only was it totally different, but we had Father Davis as our Chaplain. I had never called any minister Father, ours were called Mr. our sometimes referred to by their first name. The service was HIGH CHURCH. I was used to St Georges, which I later found out , was LOW CHURCH. In my Senior year I was asked to be the President of the club, and I asked why me? I was told it had to be a male. So I went along with it. I later found out that the Long Island diocese was one of the last to allow women priests.

This brings me to the present at Holy Apostles where we have found a home. I still miss my Old Friends and I hope that some day in the future I will see them. But until then I give you my request that if you haven’t looked at the Prayer Book’s first pages and Morning Prayer, give it a look see, it takes only ten minutes to read through it and then look at Evening Prayer, which at St George’s Camp was called Vespers , every Sunday, you may also find them as New Friends !!!

¹ Corinthians 9:16-27 

¹⁶If I proclaim the gospel, this gives me no ground for boasting, for an obligation is laid on me, and woe betide me if I do not proclaim the gospel! ¹⁷For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward; but if not of my own will, I am entrusted with a commission. ¹⁸What then is my reward? Just this: that in my proclamation I may make the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my rights in the gospel.

¹⁹ For though I am free with respect to all, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I might win more of them. ²⁰To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though I myself am not under the law) so that I might win those under the law. ²¹To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law) so that I might win those outside the law. ²²To the weak I became weak, so that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, so that I might by any means save some. ²³I do it all for the sake of the gospel, so that I may share in its blessings.

²⁴ Do you not know that in a race the runners all compete, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win it. ²⁵Athletes exercise self-control in all things; they do it to receive a perishable garland, but we an imperishable one. ²⁶So I do not run aimlessly, nor do I box as though beating the air; ²⁷but I punish my body and enslave it, so that after proclaiming to others I myself should not be disqualified. 

Religion is a new addition to my adult life. While I’ve felt a yearning for it for a few years now, I hadn’t explored the curiosity I was feeling until I came to a service at Holy Apostles last October. Since then, I have loved the sense of wholeness and community that the church provides.
 
New experiences not only bring new joys, but new challenges. When I’m asked at work about my weekend, I never include the church service I went to. When I tell my friends that I joined a church, they’re mostly confused. It not only feels anachronistic, but in direct opposition to modern life. I see the cross-over in the gospel and progressive politics, which is something that I find exciting, and want to talk about and share. But I’m not exactly sure how to verbalize it, especially without seeming pushy like a proselytizer and risking not being taken seriously.
 
Becoming a religious liberal, rather than a secular one, feels like wearing a wool sweater without an undershirt. It’s itchy. I know first-hand how affirming and justice-oriented the church can be. But on most days, I still have more questions than answers. How then am I supposed to answer the call of this scripture and “proclaim the gospel”? This seems like a big ask right now! Not only do I feel like an inadequate messenger (I don’t even own a Bible!), but in this hectic time it seems easier to feel abandoned, rather than enveloped, by God.
 
With work canceled this week, I have instead filled my time with worry. How will my stubborn, elderly father and under-protected nurses like my brother stay healthy? How will people feed their children and pay rent? Will I lose my job? With all this worrying to do, I’ve left texts unanswered and small groups unattended. Amidst all the worry, nothing gets done. This passage, however, is action-oriented. An athlete thinking about the race doesn’t accomplish much. Proclaiming the gospel in this time means stepping outside of my worry, my comfort zone, to help others in dire need, and in doing so “share in [the gospel’s] blessings.”
 
I’m not sure how I’ll do that yet, and I’d love to hear what others are doing.  

Psalm 91  

¹ He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High, *
abides under the shadow of the Almighty.
² He shall say to the Lord,
"You are my refuge and my stronghold, *
my God in whom I put my trust."
³ He shall deliver you from the snare of the hunter *
and from the deadly pestilence.
⁴ He shall cover you with his pinions,
and you shall find refuge under his wings; *
his faithfulness shall be a shield and buckler.
⁵ You shall not be afraid of any terror by night, *
nor of the arrow that flies by day;
⁶ Of the plague that stalks in the darkness, *
nor of the sickness that lays waste at mid-day.
⁷ A thousand shall fall at your side
and ten thousand at your right hand, *
but it shall not come near you.
⁸ Your eyes have only to behold *
to see the reward of the wicked.
⁹ Because you have made the Lord your refuge, *
and the Most High your habitation,
¹⁰ There shall no evil happen to you, *
neither shall any plague come near your dwelling.
¹¹ For he shall give his angels charge over you, *
to keep you in all your ways.
¹² They shall bear you in their hands, *
lest you dash your foot against a stone.
¹³ You shall tread upon the lion and adder; *
you shall trample the young lion and the serpent under your feet.
¹⁴ Because he is bound to me in love,
therefore will I deliver him; *
I will protect him, because he knows my Name.
¹⁵ He shall call upon me, and I will answer him; *
I am with him in trouble;
I will rescue him and bring him to honor.
¹⁶ With long life will I satisfy him, *
and show him my salvation.

I had just spent a week hunkering down and making contingency plans to work from home before the CUNY Chancellor said that everyone was going online because of the Corona Virus. At first it was faculty and students; I was neither, I am considered staff.  However, because I had upper respiratory stuff going on, I wanted to make contingency plans to work from home; my Assistant Director and I met and we began to think about ways to go virtual with the Honors Program I run at Hunter College.   I was not nervous about what was going on, I was only trying to be proactive because I knew that things could change rather fast, and I have many responsible hats I have to wear.  
 
On Saturday when I first read Psalm 91, I froze.  My first response was OMG! God this is happening now!!!  I started to feel anxiety since the Mothers had just announced that we would have church online.  What?  Church online?  Knowing that I would not be singing along with the choir, or shaking hands during ‘the peace’, or even the special Lord’s Prayer when we hold hands with each other, in those beautiful hand-held lines, almost like a bridge to heaven-singing the Lord’s Prayer while looking at the altar and that big majestic stained glass window of Jesus (a moment I always feel God’s presence). I have to admit, I felt a moment of panic. 
 
I re-read Psalm 91 on Sunday after online church (which was not so bad, I thought) and realized that verses 1-6 talked about God giving us refuge and delivering us from “the snare of the hunter and from the deadly pestilence.”  As the weekend passed, I knew that the virus was the snare of the hunter. The more I heard the news, the more I felt compelled to hear it, and the more I would focus on God, prayer and trust in God.   I could not control what was happening, but I could do my best to stay home and look after my parents, take care of myself and my partner and make sure that everyone who lived in my home had the resources they needed to work from home.   I have high wireless connectivity in my building, and my tenants have a guest pass.  One of my tenants set up a google calendar to schedule all of us, so as to not overtax the internet.  How cool?  This would not have happened otherwise, but we learned to figure things out. 
 
Verses 7-14 mirrors what is going on currently.  Yes, there is a virus, and many will succumb to the virus. However, the more you grow in God’s love and share with your community and help each other out, the more things will get better sooner and then we can begin to win the fight with the “snare of the hunter.”  I am opting not to listen to the news obsessively, except to keep informed every day, but I do not want to panic.  Let’s spend our efforts in “self-study,” and looking within.  What is it about what we are doing now, or our eating or our communicating, that we can work on a little harder to change for the better, to serve in God’s calling?  Yoga rules from the Eight Limbs of Yoga call it Svadhyaya, which means to intentionally find self-awareness in all our activities and efforts, even to the point of welcoming and accepting limitations.  By practicing svadhyaya, the desire of worldly objects diminishes and taste for spirituality increases.
 
I look forward to seeing you all in-person soon.  In the meantime, let's practice self-study. God will take care of us. Now we owe it to him, to give back and help others escape from “the snare of the hunter and from the deadly pestilence”.