Each By Name (Midweek Message)

Fr. Tony’s Midweek Message

Each by Name

May 1, 2018

I am writing this from a family vacation in Southern Utah.  On Sunday, Elena and I went to Church in Cedar City, at St. Jude’s Episcopal Church.  Cedar City has much in common with Ashland:  home to the Southern Utah University and the Utah Shakespeare Festival (Ashland hosts Southern Oregon University and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival).  St. Jude’s is located a couple of blocks from their Shakespeare Theaters, has a large labyrinth (in a mosaic in their main worship space), and hosts an annual Elizabethan Prayer Book Holy Communion Service.  But there are many differences:  St. Jude’s has a modern church not a historical heritage site church, their Elizabethan Service includes a proper after-service English tea with an actor playing HRH Elizabeth I as hostess (!), and their congregation is much smaller.  Obviously, Southern Utah is not Southern Oregon, and though both cities center in the arts and have the progressive politics this implies, the scale of what passes for center is far to the right in Cedar City as compared with Ashland.   The priest there is bi-vocational, also serving as a university professor.  

Being here in Southern Utah, surrounded by the amazing and stunning scenery of red, red sandstone and gigantic canyons and cliffs, has made me think a little of my own Mormon roots.  Elena and I became Episcopalians years ago intentionally, because of what the Episcopal Church offered.  But we left Mormonism on somewhat good terms, striving hard to keep our kind and precious relationships and friendships with people who remain devout in that tradition.  But being here reminded me of a story from my Mormon youth. 

It comes from the diary of Joseph Millet, a Mormon pioneer to this very part of Southern Utah, Brigham Young’s so-called “Dixie Mission” created to produce cotton and wine.   In his diary, Millet tells of an experience of helping a neighbor that happened in 1871: 

“…one of my children came in and said that Brother Newton Hall’s folks were out of bread.  Had none that day.  I put … our flour in sack to send up to [them].  Just then, [he] came in.  Says I, “…[H]ow are you out for flour?”  “Brother Millet, we have none.”  “Well, … there is some in that sack.  I have divided and was going to send it to you.  Your children told mine that you were out.”  Brother Hall began to cry.  Said he had tried others.  Could not get any. Went to the cedars and prayed … and the Lord told him to go to Joseph Millett.  “Well, … you needn’t bring this back if the Lord sent you for it.  You don’t owe me for it.”  You can’t tell me how it made me feel to know that the Lord knew there was such a person as Joseph Millett.”  (as recounted in Eugene England. "Great Books or True Religion," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 9:4 [Winter 1974] 36-49). 

 

"Went to the cedars and prayed."  Joy at knowing "the Lord knew there was such a person as" me.   Here in a glimpse is how the Gospel works in our lives. 

I was once told that something I had done was a direct answer to someone’s prayer. And I have seen the love and support of others as a direct answer to my prayers on occasion.  I suspect that all of you have had similar experiences.   God knows us and loves us all.  We realize this great truth more and more as we act as God’s hands in the word, loving, and serving, and sacrificing ourselves for others.   It’s all about faith, trust, hanging in there, loving others, and never giving up.  

The Sunday Collect from two Sundays ago said that Jesus knows us and calls us each by name.  I am sure our Lord is not challenged as I and some other priests are—when asked to give a blessing or say a prayer, our memories seize up and we find we must ask someone we know all too well what their name is before proceeding.  Jesus knows us each by name, and does not forget.   What joy to know we are his hands of blessing in the world. 

Grace and Peace. 

Fr. Tony+

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