The Rev. Dr. Roger Douglas
St. Margaret's Episcopal Church & School
Maria Montessori, the founder of a system of education, has been quoted as saying, "What children hear, they forget, what children see, they rarely remember, but what they do, they become." You may not have been able to hear the gospel reading very clearly; you may not have been able to see everybody standing, but you have done, acted out, participated in, what is the essence of the church. You listened in community, listened to God’s story or to quote Gebhart Ebling, "You have just participated in a word event." And, so God willing, you have had a taste of what the church is all about.
The book of Acts, from which was read earlier, with it’s picture of the early church, can be in the least, a little discouraging at the first worship service, which the Book of Acts is about, we read that the church gathers, a spirit descends upon us like tons of fire and the whole building seems to rumble and it’s only a little before 10. What an early service that was, and further on in the Book of Acts, we read that Peter preaches a spectacular short sermon. And three thousand people come forward to be baptized and then we read about people speaking about God in many tongues and everyone understood them. WOW!! They are all together of one heart, there was no dissention, no conflict, and the place was filled, was completely filled with love. Over flowing with the spirit of Christ, and on top of this; 3000 people came to be baptized.
Now, you lay this picture along side the church where we live, the church where often we can’t find enough volunteers for our outreach projects. We’re constantly searching for money to make some badly needed repairs. People sometimes withdraw if their wishes are ignored. You lay that along side the church that grew by 3000 people in one day, the church where people come from all over the world and everybody understands each other and you look at the two churches side by side and ours doesn’t look too good in comparison. Well, maybe you’re saying, "Douglas you are being unfair in making a comparison with the church in Acts, we’ve been at this for some two thousand years and after such a length of time, you’re bound to get a bit forgetful or tired or sloppy. After all, we did pack the place on Easter." But the surprising thing is that God really expects all of this to really happen the way it happened in the Book of Acts. God expects the spirit of Easter to last all year round. God expects us to hear each other no matter what voice we use, no matter if we use the voice of anger, the voice of pleading, or the voice of questioning, or the voice of a stranger. God expects us to hear persons who speak in their own tongues, the mighty words of God. What then is the secret? How can we possibly hear each other when we are such a mixed bag of people? When there are so many voices around us clamoring to be heard, when there are so many strangers here among us.
The secret, I believe, is learning to listen by God’s grace in a very special way. Learning to listen to our hearts and not our heads. Our heads tell us that we are different. Our heads analyze, compartmentalize the differences, different accents, different personalities, different ways of going about things, our heads are what separate us. In our heads their seems to be a little voice and that little voice seems to say to us, we are unique, we are special, we are different. Our heads are what makes us aware of the differences. The different backgrounds, the different stories, the different understandings of what is fake, the different understandings of what is real, the different understandings of what is good. When we listen with our heads, we become convinced that my story is better than your story. My truths is closer to ultimate truth than yours, my belief is more orthodox than yours. My language is more correct than yours. But then again, if we listen with our hearts, we find it carries a dangerous message, the message of solidarity.
The heart tells us that we are all connected, the words themselves are not important when we listen with our hearts, differences seem to melt away and the words we speak may be different, but the melody is the same. And the melody is what tells us that we belong together.
Let me share an incident that happened several years ago, which I think gives us a clue as to how we might begin to listen with the heart. Several years ago, I was trying to learn Spanish with very little success. So, someone loaned me some tapes. It was kind of Spanish soap opera of a family. And the producers of these tapes, wisely said in the preface, "Don’t worry if don’t know the vocabulary, just allow the story of the family to carry you." I was skeptical of this approach, but as I was drawn into this family’s trials and tribulations I understood much of what was said. The characters became real despite my limited Spanish, I began to understand what was happening. I think in a very small way, this points us in the direction of listening with the heart. This is a clue to the process. One other clue. In the Jewish faith there’s a word that expresses this process beautifully. And the word is called "kavana." When a person comes up to a Rabbi, and I can’t understand my neighbor, I can’t get along with certain people. The Rabbi, instead of arguing with him, suggests that he try kavana — that he see the person through the eyes of the heart. And this was the secret of the early church. The worshipers came from all over the world, but they were able to be of one heart. Kavana. Seeing each other through the heart.
We’re here celebrating the birthday of the church and after we’re going to have a cake outside, so I hope you’ll come there and we participate in a word event. Did you hear what was read? Could you respond with feeling? Praise to thee oh Lord Christ. Or was there just a babble of people speaking in many tongues? Were you able, were you able, to listen with the heart instead of the head. That’s the real question for those of us who call ourselves the church.
I wonder, have I been too idealistic about the early church? Should we look at the poor old church of ours with rose colored glasses? No. I believe holding up a picture of the early church as our goal here at St. Margaret’s can be done without deceiving ourselves about the grubby realities, I sincerely believe, we can do this by allowing the power of God to work through us. I believe Jesus Christ wants us to practice "kavana"1, Wants us to be a church like the one described in the Book of Acts. A church that begins by adding 3000 people in its midst. A church that has members from all parts of the world and those members have the ability to communicate. On this wonderful birthday day, my prayer is, "May the risen Christ bring about this reality. May we find ourselves to be of one heart, even if we are not of the same mind? That we find "kavana" as we reach out to each other ." Amen.
1"Kavana" or "Kavanah" is the Hebrew word for intention and speaks to our desire to empower individuals to listen to their heart.
"Kavanah". The word means direction, intention, or devotion, and the idea behind praying with kavanah is that you set the direction of your thinking toward God, and toward praying the memorized prayer "with all your heart". A person who has kavanah focuses his entire being on prayer, and is undistracted by the chaos around him. He may have said the same prayer a thousand times, but his mind is sunk so deeply into the words that he is experiencing new insights and feelings from them today that he has never experienced before.
In synagogues, above the ark that holds the Torah scrolls, there is often a plaque that says, "Know before whom you stand." That is just what it means to have kavanah in prayer - to have a sense of standing in the presence of God, to know that you are addressing the sovereign Lord of the universe.
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