Advent II, Year B
The Rev. Nigel Taber-Hamilton, Rector
One of my professors for the Pastoral Leadership Program is Dr. Le Xuan Hy - "Hy" is his first name - spelt "H Y", not to be confused with "H E"! Hy is Vietnamese, and he was born in South Vietnam sometime in the mid-sixties, so English isn't his first language - he speaks it with an accent.
Hy's father became a Roman Catholic before Hy was born, so Hy's a cradle Catholic. Hy is a wonderful, gentle thoughtful man.
On Wednesday he told me the story of his escape, a story he first told to the Pacific Northwest Province of the Society of Jesus - the Jesuits - at one of their convocations a few years ago. "I told it," he said to me, "because I couldn't think what I could say that a bunch of Jesuits would think interesting!"
He left Saigon on April 29, 1975. If you don't remember that day let me describe one image and you will instantly recognize it: a Huey helicopter sitting on the roof of what is often claimed to be Saigon's US Embassy.
North Vietnamese forces had approached Saigon much more quickly than anyone had expected, and there was a rush to escape. He was told to pack a suitcase in literally 5 minutes and get out.
"What do you choose?" he asked, reflectively. "Out of all the things that make up your life, what do you choose to take with you, knowing you'll never return."
They rushed to one of the evacuation sites. There were several areas where helicopters were due to leave, but just as they got to the doorway someone yelled, "that's it" and closed the door.
Hy and his father and mother saw down the corridor another group and headed that way - it was a group of orphans with one adult. The adult called out names to make sure everyone was there. Hy's father said "drop your suitcase and join those kids".
Hy mingled with the kids, using the names he'd heard called out so as to appear to be part of the group.
And so he made it out of Vietnam.
After the Jesuit Convocation he was talking to the Superior of the Jesuit Province and wondered to him what he wondered to me: what on earth could he have said that would be of interest to Jesuits.
And he Superior laughed and said: "most of my priests don't even know what's in their pre-Vatican II "suitcases", let alone be able to leave them behind!"
And, of course, that's where Hy's story stops being just a story about a fortuitous escape and becomes more - enters into the realm of metaphor - two metaphors, in fact, for how we live our own lives.
As we journey through this period of preparation for the coming of a Savior the invitation of Advent now calls to us, and Hy's suitcase provides a vehicle for reflection on that invitation, and poses us two questions:
- If we are to continue our pilgrim's journey what must we choose to pack in our suitcases? What is so important we cannot let it go? And,
- What might we be carrying around with us that we will have leave behind if we want to go through the door to God's freedom?
These are both big questions! In a sense - no, not just "in a sense', in reality! - these are the questions of our lives as people of faith. It is not for me to answer these questions for you - listen to the readings, ask yourself what Jesus says that's absolutely central without which faith is not faith, and you'll be on the right track.
This season is the time to ask those questions, because this season - more, almost, than any other - is a season that reminds us we live in a time of constant change.
Of course, we have always lived in a time of constant change, but until fairly recently the change has been slow enough that we have mostly been able to manage it - we have, mostly, been given enough time to adapt such that we can deal with it. We might not have liked it, of course! But we could come to terms with it. And we have done so, often, without really recognizing that this is what we have done, except in retrospect.
We look back, and say "Oh look, this or that has changed, and I guess it's okay".
We are now living in a time where change is so massive, and is happening so quickly, that we can no longer deal with it in a leisurely way. We can no longer be casual. We can no longer allow ourselves the luxury of ignoring it for a while until we're ready.
And we can no longer live in a state of denial about change, or seek to subvert it in some way, believing that we can prevent it from happening.
This is especially true in religious communities! Because we are so closely tied to the past - the long, distant past - it's easy to think we can control change and prevent it's effects from reaching us.
This is where another metaphor comes in: re-arranging the deck-chairs on the Titanic after it's hit the iceberg!
In this day and age we have to be intentional when it comes to change. We have to ask the big questions. We have to go beyond simply responding to the surface behaviors we see around us and go deeper.
There is always loss in change. How we deal with the loss we will all experience will tell the tale of how we adapt to new futures as a community.
And some of us will experience more loss than others. Those who left the Episcopal Church over the loss of the 1928 Book of Common Prayer did so primarily for two reasons, I believe: firstly they experienced an enormous sense of loss over something that gave them their identity as Christians; and, secondly, the Church as a whole did a really bad job of helping them deal with that loss in ways that were life-giving. Of course, I also believe the Episcopal Church as a whole didn't even realize that they could help, nor how to go about it. Nevertheless, the unacknowledged loss, and the failure to help, led to leavings.
How we help each other deal with the loss we will all experience, and especially how we will help those who are experiencing loss at levels that they, alone, cannot bear, is really what bearing one another's burdens is about. This is the ministry we share with Jesus, and it's really what Jesus means when he talks about being compassionate as our Heavenly Father is compassionate.
So! Time to do some packing! Time to decide what to keep and what to leave behind. Time to think about what the future holds, and how we are all to enter that future, together, holding each other up, bearing each other's burdens, in Christ's name. Amen.
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