St. Paul’s Church in
Bergen & Church of the Incarnation, Jersey City
January 1, 2019
The Feast of the Holy
Name
Numbers 6:22-27
Psalm 8
Galatians 4:4-7
Luke 2:15-21
We Matter
Happy
New Year, everyone!
It’s
no secret that I like living in the city – that, in fact, I like living in this
city.
I’m
sure part of why I like living here so much is because it’s where I’ve lived
most of my life – these are the streets and neighborhoods I know so well.
But
setting aside my lifelong familiarity, I also like that I can walk so many
places – that I don’t really have to drive very much, unless I’m toting
groceries or giving someone a lift.
I
love to walk the streets (usually) and see all of the different people – all
different kinds of people going about their business.
I
love to see all the different stores and restaurants and the old buildings and
the new buildings.
To
be honest, I even love just walking up or down our little stretch of Duncan
Avenue, where I almost always run into a parishioner or a neighbor.
It
might be Diane taking her little dog Phoebe out for a walk or Walter or Laura
or Bob or Doug or Jim, hanging out in front of their building – or it might be
a quick hello to the firefighters taking a smoke break outside the house or
getting ready for a shift change.
Or
it might be Vanessa hard at work at her other job across the street.
You
know, when I make my way up or down our beautiful street, I often think that
this doesn’t feel like a big, impersonal city at all.
No, if we’re open to it, our little
neighborhood feels more like a kind and caring village.
Now, that doesn’t
mean we don’t have our problems.
Of course, there’s
the hassle of finding a parking spot and the crummy public transportation that
often makes getting around – including getting to church – so difficult.
And, whenever you
bring so many people and so many different kinds of people together, we are
inevitably going to occasionally bump into each other, misunderstand each
other, get on each other’s nerves.
There’s the real
fear of getting priced out of our beautiful neighborhood.
There are the
so-called “porch pirates,” thieves brazenly walking up to our doors and
stealing our parcels.
And, there’s
something else that you might not think about unless you’ve spent a lot of time
out in the country: because of all the light pollution around here, we are not
really able to see very many stars in the night sky.
Oh, we can see
some of the brightest stars and some of the planets and the moon, of course,
but we can’t really do what people have been doing on clear nights since there
have been people – gaze at night sky filled with stars and marvel and wonder
about the vastness of it all.
That’s definitely
a loss, but thanks to modern technology and the space program, we are able to
see farther and clearer into space than any ancient person could have ever
imagined.
I’m sure we’ve all
seen some of the amazing pictures taken by the Hubble Space Telescope – and, in
fact, just last night an American spacecraft called New Horizons visited a
small world on the outskirts of the solar system, four billion miles from earth
– the farthest place we’ve ever been.
But, out of all
the amazing discoveries and images, the one that I find most moving is the one
called “Earthrise,” a photo taken fifty years ago, a photo taken by an
astronaut on the moon, a photo of the earth as it rose on the lunar horizon.
There’s our
beautiful blue earth with its swirling clouds, just a small orb of life sailing
in the vastness of space.
The famous picture
made us appreciate the beauty of our world in a way that we hadn’t before - and
it also gave us a sense of our place in the size and time of the universe.
We are so small, and
our lives are so brief, that, really, we barely exist at all, right?
But, here we are,
just for the briefest moment – here we are, able to greet one another on the
street – here we are, able to enjoy good food and drink – here we are, able to
make music and tell stories and build spaceships – here we are, able to hold
the hand of another – here we are, able to open our hearts and our doors to
those in need.
Here we are.
And, we matter.
We matter.
And, the best news
of all – and even after all this time the still surprising and sometimes hard
to believe news, the heart of our faith and our tradition is that - despite our
tininess and the shortness of our lives - we matter to God.
As the psalmist
asked God, “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon
and the stars you have set in their courses, what is man that you should be
mindful of him?”
The psalmist asked
that question, knowing the amazing answer – knowing that somehow, despite our
tininess and the shortness of our lives, despite all the ways we fall short,
despite everything, we matter to God.
We matter.
And, we matter so
much that over and over God has reached out to us, revealing God’s Self as much
as we could handle, until finally, God joined us on this tiny blue orb in space
– in some sense limiting God’s Self to a human body and soul – becoming totally
vulnerable, placing total trust in a Jewish peasant girl and her fiancée.
God took on a
human name – and even submitted to human rituals like circumcision.
Why?
Because, we
matter.
And, we matter so
much that even when we did our worst to Jesus of Nazareth – even when we do our
worst to each other – even when we do our worst to ourselves – even when we do our
worst to our beautiful planet – even after all of that God still doesn’t
give up on us – instead, God does what God always does, out of death bring new
life.
We matter.
You know, today is
a day when we often take stock of the past and look ahead to the future – a
time for resolutions.
So, I’d like to
make a suggestion:
Remember that this
little ball of life – this little neighborhood where we live together – it
matters.
And, whatever
we’ve done or haven’t done, despite all of our problems and challenges, we
matter.
We all matter to
God.
And, we should all
matter to one another.
I hope we all have
a wonderful new year together.
Amen.
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