St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church, Owings Mills MD
May 21, 2023
Rogation Sunday
Deuteronomy 11:10-15
Psalm 147:1-13
Romans 8:18-25
Mark 4:26-32
Holy Weaving
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!
This past Thursday morning, a faithful little band of parishioners gathered in the Old School Building for Morning Prayer.
We do this every week, but this particular Thursday was different because, in our modest but beautiful way, we were observing one of the great feasts of the church year: Ascension Day.
Set forty days after Easter, on Ascension Day we remember that the Risen Christ entered heaven.
This is one part of our faith that troubles a lot of modern people – a line in the Creed that many of us try to say without giving it too much thought. After all, unlike people two thousand years ago, we have a pretty good idea of what’s up there.
On the other hand, over and over, science has shown that reality is way more complex and downright weirder than we had thought – in the universe things are not always as they seem, and there’s so much we just don’t know.
Anyway, setting aside our modern skepticism, the Ascension is both beautiful and important:
Our brother Jesus – not just his spirit, but his body – has entered heaven.
Among other things, the Ascension reminds us that the here and now – the physical world, all of it, very much including our flesh and blood, is of infinite and eternal value – beloved by God.
This should not come as news to us because God’s love for the world runs through our entire tradition.
At the beginning, God declared the creation to be good – not just good but very good.
And God sent Jesus into the world not to condemn the world but because God loves the world and wants to save it – all of it.
God wants to restore and renew the world – not just once but over and over again.
Many of us have experienced this holy restoration and renewal in our own lives – times when all hope seems to be lost and yet we find unexpected grace and strength and love.
And if we take the time to look around, we can see that God has woven restoration and renewal right into the fabric of creation.
For example, you may remember that about a month ago there was a frightening and destructive wildfire over at Soldier’s Delight, a nature preserve not far from here. The fire forced neighbors to evacuate their homes for a time, a fire that required the skill and courage of many firefighters to extinguish.
There was a lot of initial sadness and concern about the loss of wildlife, but did you see what happened almost immediately? Native plants and grasses began to sprout. God’s renewal and restoration is now well underway.
Just one example of how God has woven restoration and renewal right into the fabric of creation.
Today we are celebrating Rogation Sunday – the name comes from a Latin word meaning “to ask.” On Rogation days, we ask God to bless our land – and we get reminded that we are called not to rule over the earth but to care for it – to be good stewards of all that has been entrusted to us.
God has woven restoration and renewal right into the fabric of creation.
And God invites us to assist with this holy weaving.
And, even when creation has taken a beating by our pollution and neglect, if we do our part as God’s assistant weavers, well, the results are just astonishing.
Like, just a couple of weeks ago, there was a story in the paper that otters have been seen frolicking in the increasingly clean Jones Falls, near Mt. Washington, within the Baltimore city limits.
Otters!
This wonderful return of the otters didn’t just happen, of course – it’s the result of people – including some of our people - fighting the good fight to clean the streams that flow into the falls, to address toxic runoff, to work as God’s assistant weavers, renewing and restoring creation.
The other day, I read about an amazing park in Berlin, Germany that perfectly illustrates this holy partnership between God and us.
After a once busy rail yard was abandoned, hundreds of species of plants and animals, including many that were endangered, moved right in. This renewal on what must have been heavily polluted land was totally unplanned, which has made it biologically diverse and amazingly successful.
And now, people care for this spontaneous park. They’ve constructed elevated walkways so that visitors can enjoy the beauty of the park without disturbing the plants and animals that thrive there.
God has woven restoration and renewal right into the fabric of creation. And God invites us to assist with this holy weaving.
In my nearly two years here, I seem to have developed a reputation as someone who likes the church to be busy.
I prefer “active,” but I’ll own that.
But when I first realized all that we had packed into today – Rogation Sunday, the Baptism of young Charles Joseph Worthington, the recognition of our graduates (over 20 of them!), and the opportunity for some of our lay leaders to add their signatures to the book that has been signed by leaders of this church stretching all the way back to the 1700’s, and this evening the choir and I are going to Blakehurst to offer a Vespers service – when I realized all that we had packed into today, well, even I thought that maybe we were overdoing it!
But as I reflected on all this wonderful activity, I thought, you know, there is a whole lot of holy weaving going on here at St. Thomas’.
The people of this church have always cared for this land but in recent years we’ve been even more intentional about looking at our environmental impact and taken steps - like planting trees - toward being better stewards – small steps, maybe, but we know that God specializes in starting as small as a mustard seed and growing something amazing.
Baptism is the sacrament of renewal. The way we do it here is very elegant and refined but make no mistake, in the water of Baptism, Charles will go down to the depths and rise again, starting out on a new life with Christ, invited by God to be an assistant weaver, and guided by all of us along the way.
And, whatever their age and no matter what degree they’ve earned, graduates are meant to use their learning not just to better themselves to but to serve others, doing their part, with God’s help, to weave back together what has been ripped apart by suffering, ignorance, and greed.
And music – does anything renew our hearts better than beautiful music sung by people with faith and love and so much talent?
And our leaders – we are incredibly blessed by generous, dedicated, and wise leaders – our leaders have signed up to do some serious weaving here at St. Thomas’ – weaving together our increasingly diverse strands, helping to create an even stronger fabric, strong enough to endure whatever the future may bring.
My goodness – this is a lot – but I hear God speaking through all of it.
Because God loves the world.
God has woven restoration and renewal right into the fabric of creation. And God invites Charles, and all of us, to assist with this holy weaving.
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Amen.
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