Our own small corner of the world.

       Did you hear about Anna Ellison Butler Alexander?  Probably not. She didn't get the hype that John the Baptist got but they were both rebels and had a message ahead of their time, perhaps they have a message for all time.

        Anna was born in 1865 to recently emancipated slaves in US Georgia. She was educated, far ahead of others of her time. In 1907 she became the first (and only) African-American deaconess in the Episcopal Church. Anna started a school in Georgia and fostered a sense of learning in her students undoubtedly starting generations of youth towards a good education and better lives.  Anna was a real rebel and a real hero. 

       John the Baptist, based on today's readings was not merely announcing the coming of the Savior.  He was a pretty strong voice in his own right and had a sternly worded message that he didn't get from Jesus but that Jesus himself could have easily have said. John we remember, Anna not so much.  Which one has made a larger impact?  I guess many will say John. I don't think we really should compare each other in that way but rest assured that Anna has made a truly significant contribution to the faith, to the black community and to our entire nation however unsung.

         Many, many years ago I volunteered in several positions. I volunteered in a nursing home when I was in high school. In college I volunteered as a helper in a real to life mental institution. Not a home for independent living, it was a lock'm up highly medicated patient ward with people that suffered with serious mental illness. I enjoyed both 'jobs' enormously.  Just going back many years, I was raising my two children and I lamented to myself that I could no longer volunteer the way I had. I could no longer make that contribution. My time was pretty much sliced and diced into neat if not so tidy portions.  My time was spent with the more mundane things in life like laundry, cooking, cleaning, driving the kids to sports, chorus and the like. And of course, just being there for the kids.  It was around that time that I heard of a thing called the 'domestic church'.  I realized that I wasn't able to change the world or serve by volunteering but I could spend by time, energies and love changing a small portion of the world by loving, witnessing and caring for my family. What impact have I had?  I could judge that I believe I have done a good job. I could elaborate but to what real point.  The fact is that we often do not know the impact of our lives and our love. I believe the impact can be exponential without our ever knowing it.

       I don't think that Anna had any concept of the change and bright future she offered probably thousands, now millions, of peoples lives by her example and life.  People who love and serve never do it for money even if it does come their way. Love, service and fostering positive outcomes for humanity always cone from the heart, faith in motion and not condescending, arrogant and hypocritical preaching.  Love is really simple and powerful.

      I exhort all of us to live lives of love as powerfully and as effectively as we can, even our little portion of the world, whatever that is, wherever that is. God's  love will do the rest.  Great changes are afoot, do your simple part in faith, love and hope. You may never know what the impact will be precisely but you will effect change. In faith. In love.

     

Luke 1:1-4, 3:1-14

Since many have undertaken to set down an orderly account of the events that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed on to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word, I too decided, after investigating everything carefully from the very first, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus,so that you may know the truth concerning the things about which you have been instructed. 

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah,
‘The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
“Prepare the way of the Lord,
   make his paths straight. 
Every valley shall be filled,
   and every mountain and hill shall be made low,
and the crooked shall be made straight,
   and the rough ways made smooth; 
and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” ’

 John said to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, ‘You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits worthy of repentance. Do not begin to say to yourselves, “We have Abraham as our ancestor”; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the axe is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.’

 And the crowds asked him, ‘What then should we do?’ In reply he said to them, ‘Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.’ Even tax-collectors came to be baptized, and they asked him, ‘Teacher, what should we do?’ He said to them, ‘Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you.’ Soldiers also asked him, ‘And we, what should we do?’ He said to them, ‘Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages.’