The Church of St.
Paul & Incarnation, Jersey City NJ
March 3, 2019
Year C: The Last
Sunday after the Epiphany
Exodus 34:29-35
Psalm 99
2 Corinthians
3:12-4:2
Luke 9:28-43a
Ora Et Labora
Some
of you know that our new bishop, The Rt. Rev. Carlye Hughes, has been spending
a lot of time getting to know the people of her new diocese and allowing us to
get acquainted with her and her vision for our church.
There
have been several popular “Breaking Bread with the Bishop” events with more to
come, and she has also been meeting individually with each member of the
clergy.
She
came down to Jersey City a few months ago, giving me a strong incentive to finally
clean my office – though to look at it now you’d never know!
It
was a relaxed conversation that lasted for more than an hour.
She
asked me about my background and how things were going here.
She
asked what role I saw myself playing in the diocese.
And
then she asked about my self-care, which, unfortunately, is not always my
strong suit.
But,
I was able to tell her about my long early morning daily walks in the good
weather – and I was able to tell her about the retreat I made last May,
fulfilling a longtime dream of visiting the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky.
I
was feeling pretty self-satisfied about these examples of superb self-care, but
then she said something like, “OK, that was last year. How about this year?
Have you scheduled your next retreat?”
I
stammered a little bit…um…well…uh…no – because to be honest I had thought about
last year’s retreat as checking off an important box in my life, not
necessarily as something that should be an annual event.
Anyway,
after our meeting I did book a retreat for this year, this time not as far away
as Kentucky, but at another monastery in Upstate New York – and I’m already
looking forward to it very much.
If
you know anything about monks and monasteries you know that the twin pillars of
their lives are what is called in Latin, “Ora et Labora.”
Prayer
and work.
In
the case of the monks I visited in Kentucky, they spend their days and their
nights gathering frequently in their chapel for prayer – eight different
services every weekday – the first at 3:15 in the morning and the last at 7:30
at night.
So, monks get to
bed early.
And the monks
spend the rest of their time working to keep up the monastery and especially
producing the products they sell to pay the bills, which in the case of the
monastery in Kentucky includes making chocolate fudge.
So,
on top of the natural beauty and holiness of that place, there’s also the smell
of chocolate wafting through the air.
Not
bad at all!
Ora
et Labora.
Prayer
and work.
We
tend to think of prayer and work as two different things, but the idea for the
monks – and for us - is that over time prayer and work get woven together so
that eventually you can no longer tell where one begins and the other ends.
Prayer
and work and work and prayer.
Among
other things, Jesus was very much a man of prayer.
The
Gospels remember him praying while surrounded by his disciples and other people
and they also record him going off by himself for a while, climbing up a
mountain, to spend some time in prayer.
But,
as the author of our Lenten book says, the mountains of Israel aren’t all that
tall – Jesus doesn’t go very far – and, maybe to his disappointment, he’s
usually found pretty easily by the people who go looking for him.
So,
in today’s gospel lesson, Jesus and his closest disciples – Peter, James, and
John, went up on the mountain to pray – and there they have a most powerful
spiritual experience – a glimpse of Easter – a taste of Resurrection - as the
face of Jesus is transformed and his clothes are dazzling white.
And
then, as if that weren’t enough, Moses and Elijah appear – two figures from Israel’s
past - figures who were believed to have been taken up into heaven.
No
surprise, Peter doesn’t want this moment to end and so he suggests that they
build dwellings for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah – but before Jesus can respond to
that the cloud appears and they hear the voice from heaven:
“This
is my Son, my Chosen; Listen to him!”
After
all of this, after what we call the Transfiguration, there are no words – and
notice there’s no further discussion about Peter’s suggestion of staying on the
mountain.
No,
instead, Jesus and his friends come back down off of the mountain, back to the
large crowd gathered and waiting - and Jesus gets right back to work.
Prayer
and work and work and prayer.
There’s
yet another desperate parent – a father – who begs Jesus to heal his son, his
only child.
Jesus’
disciples had tried to heal the boy but had failed and Jesus seems irritated by
this – maybe he wishes he were still up on the mountain with Moses and Elijah –
or maybe he knows that the disciples aren’t working and praying as hard as they
should - but he heals the boy and the crowd is astounded at “the greatness of
God.”
Jesus
is a man of prayer, but more than that, he is the supreme example of someone
for whom prayer and work are woven together, woven so closely that we can’t
tell where one begins and the other ends.
Ora
et labora.
Prayer
and work and work and prayer.
And,
today it’s not just monks who are called to this way of life – we are all
called to prayer and work and work and prayer.
Easier
said than done, right?
But,
as we begin Lent on Wednesday, more important than giving up chocolate or
skipping meat on Fridays, the most important thing we can do – the best
self-care we can do - is to set aside even just a little bit of time for
prayer.
(And,
yes, I’m preaching to myself at least as much as I’m preaching to you!)
We
don’t need the perfect time and place – we don’t need a mountain or even a hill
and we certainly don’t need a monastery, as nice as those places are.
Instead, as Jesus
says, we can just close the door to our room and spend a few minutes with God –
as the author of our Lenten book says, keeping it simple, keeping it short,
keeping it frequent, and keeping it real.
And, the more we
do that, we’ll find that our prayer and our work will become woven together –
prayer and our job – prayer and going to school – prayer and going to the
supermarket – prayer and spending time with family and friends – prayer and the
ministries we do here together.
Our prayer and our
work will be woven together – and we will all be astounded at the greatness of
God.
Prayer and work.
Ora et Labora.
Amen.
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