MaryAnn Purtill. Luke 10: July 22, 2007

Transcription

1 MaryAnn Purtill South Church July 22, 2007 Genesis 18:1-10a Luke 10:38-42 Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame. "Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" Do you hear the promise in this poem? It is such a beautiful poem of invitation and promise. The title is The New Colossus. You might recognize it by its last stanza. It is the poem written for the Statue of Liberty. Can you just imagine how inviting this poem sounded to a people hoping for a better life in America? Is it any wonder they arrived by the thousands to seek the promise of this golden land. I LOVE this poem. I just absolutely love this poem, because it reminds me so much of my father and my grandparents, and their individual stories of immigration to the United States. It reminds me of the promises they carried in their hearts as they left all they had know and arrived to a new country, seeking to build a better future. It is about an open armed world wide welcome that encourages millions of people, to seek a better life, to seek a out a promise.

2 It is not that my parent s stories are unique or much different from any other immigrants but their stories are the ones I know. As a young person I always loved to hear these stories being told. I loved it when my family gathered, which was often, and it was inevitable that these stories would begin. It never took long before someone, usually my father would kick off an immigration story, and then everyone would begin to tell their story. Now I realize that it is in these ancestor stories that the real beginning of my own story is being told. Just like we have heard this morning the story of God s visiting Abraham and Sarah and we know this story to be the ancestry future of our Christian religion, I know my parent s immigration story is the sacred beginning of my own future. So for me the immigration stories are as sacred as the biblical text. I remember vividly not so much what they told as HOW they told the stories. Okay, being Italian and all there were a lot of hand gesture and very expressive language. And the hand gestures in the Italian language have a lot of meaning so, as a listener you had to watch as much as listen. But I always remember how they made a point of spending very little time on the leaving Italy part basically just saying they left Italy and war torn Europe, got on a boat and came to New York. And basically that was the extent of the details for the beginning of the journey. I mean, they did not dwell at all on what they were leaving. It s like they made the decision to leave Italy, and Batta Bing Batta Boom they are in New York! From hearing them talk you would think the voyage was a matter of hours instead of days at sea. I can remember asking my grandmother but what about where you left in Italy? Who was there with you, what was the voyage like. She d say, Marianina, weeza nunga talka bout leava Italy, Nowa, weeza talka bout coming, listna up. So I listened, and I finally realized their stories, like so many immigrant stories, are not about what was being given up, but rather what they were coming to. The story was not about looking

3 back but about looking forward. It was more about their needs and wants for a better life, their hopes for a more promising future. The immigration stores are always stories of arrival! The Statue of Liberty was and still is that world wide welcoming physical symbol of hope and promise. It was to my parents, it remains that today. I was amazed to find out that the Statue of Liberty was not at all originally conceived as a symbol of promise but only became so after the poem reinvented the statue s purpose into one of a welcoming mother, a symbol of hope to the outcasts and downtrodden of the world. The highlight of every immigration story always came when they began to tell in their own words their first sight of The Statue of Liberty because this signified their arrival to their new home. Now at this point the story does slow down and you finally get details. Now comes all the minute details about where they were standing, what time of day it was, who was with them, what they were wearing. For them, and for me, the real story begins here, with the arrival. The point of arrival in any immigration story is a sacred point in the story. The arrival point is where the future starts talking. With the arrival, came all the promises and the hopes for a future. For my father and grandparents, arriving to the Statue of Liberty signified God s making good on God s promise for a new beginning, and a new life. The story takes on a real life as I am told how they came with almost nothing to live on. How they brought only what they could carry, and with almost no money to live on, they were forced to find whatever work they could. The real story begins with the struggles it took to take the promise and make it into a reality that could become a future for their families. When I hear that part of the story I realize the blind faith it must have taken to just meet each new day. But to hear them talk you understood it did not matter because they had a promise in their heart and they were

4 determined to make good on it. They would talk about the lack of work and in the next breath they would say oh but we were all in it together we all helped each other through it, no one was alone. And they would always talk about the many and varied friendships that were formed during those early days as immigrants.. My grandfather would tell me it did not matter if you were Italian, Irish, Polish or Jewish.. We were all immigrants, we were all in it together, and we did what we could to help each other. My grandmother lived in an apartment house that had only one kitchen. Though six families lived in the apartment house they all had to share this one kitchen. So, she said that each evening everyone would gather in the kitchen and each family offered up what it could to what would become a community evening meal, and this is how they lived from day to day until she and my grandfather could afford an apartment with its own kitchen. For me the story is like the original feeding of the 5,000! Everyone gathered and everyone offered what they could the result is that everyone was fed for at least one more day. I cannot speak for everyone but I can tell you that my parents and my grandparents made good on their promise from God! It s really not all that different from the Genesis story is it? I mean, Abraham and Sarah are basically immigrants. Off they go into the desert seeking to make a future by whatever means they have. And it s not like they have a physical structure like the Statue of Liberty to welcome them to a new place full of promise and hope to say Hey yea, you ve arrived alleluia!. What do they get? They get three strangers who show up out of the blue whom they first have to feed before they get any kind of promise. But what they do have is faith lots and lots of faith. And just like the world wide welcoming beacon of the Statue of Liberty that greeted the immigrants, Abraham runs to meet his friends, to personally greet them, and to welcome them with equal measures

5 of hospitality! There is absolutely no hesitation from him. He jumps right up and immediately begins to engage with them. I imagine handshakes and hugs for each one. Abraham is like the Statue of Liberty! He is that symbol of hope, and promise! Just as there wasn t any shortage of hope in the hearts of the immigrants when they heard about the promise of the Statue of Liberty, there is not any shortage of faith in the promise God gives to Abraham and Sarah! The promise is so faith filled with hope that at the time it sounds preposterous! But isn t that the mystery and wonder of our God? I read the Genesis story of these three people arriving to Abraham and Sarah and I cannot help but think of a reunion. I think of that meeting time in the desert, under the tree, as that time that God is thinking okay, it is time to bring something new into the world so why not try bringing together God s people as a sign of promise for the world. So, I think of the three people arriving as all coming from different places, but arriving TOGETHER! Just like the immigrants came from different cultures and religions but arrived together, these three arrive in tandem. I like to think of the three friends arriving as each coming from a different place and each one carried with them a special blessing. Each is bringing a piece of information that puts together the whole story. It like a church pot luck. No one is told what to bring but when we have it all together it s a complete meal. I like to think of each one bringing their own special gift of blessing to be offered as part of the promise that God is making to Abraham and Sarah. That is how I see God s promise to Abraham and Sarah. I see this as a faith statement from God. It is a faith filled promise for God s people to unite and join together to build a faith filled world! And Abraham and Sarah run to meet this promise!

6 The world still needs symbols of promise and hope. We will always need symbols that point us in the direction of making a future, seeking peace, and justice. Where do we find those symbols? Where do we go to seek the promises for hope, peace, and justice. I ll tell you I don t think we have to go very far. We can start by looking at our own church. The church is that physical symbol of promise for hope and peace and justice. What other purpose does the church have but to be a symbol of promise? It is not a question of can we be it? The question is more how do we do it? This is a basic evolutionary question for the church through all time. Today s symbols of promise begin and belong with the church. Not just the Christian church either. What God promised to Abraham was not just a religion and a church. God promised a people! God s plan goes well beyond just a single religion and church. God is expecting and promising for there to be a people, a whole world community of believers, willing to arrive together to find a way to work together for the promise of hope, to bring peace and justice into the world. Just this past Thursday I and a twenty five other people gathered right down the street at 21 Loomis Street in Hartford. Some of you were there with me. South Church has embarked on this mission with our local Habitat for Humanity. It is the first habitat home built with the combined resources and efforts of congregations from the three Abrahamic faith traditions, Jewish, Islam, and Christian. When I got there I found a very physical symbol of promise. When I got there twenty or so people from three different religions traditions were already hard at work building a wall. They had been there since 7:45 am, working together, sweating together, laughing together, and building together. The sense of unity and community among this work group was awesome! And I tell you, everyone there, everyone involved knew they were part of a greater whole.

7 I watched as the front wall of the house was erected. At least 20 people joined to help raise the first wall of the house, and from where I stood all you could see were hands! There were big hands and small hands, brown hands, white hands. There were Jewish hands, Muslim hands, Christian hands! There were many, many hands to raise that wall. I was overwhelmed by what I was experiencing in seeing these many hands at work. And I was reminded again of how good it is when God brings God s people together in re union. I was so overwhelmed I could not help but yell out ALLELUIA! It felt so good to see a physical symbol of God s promise fulfilled right here in our own back yard! I am going to keep yelling ALLELUIA! Every time an interfaith house is built, and God s people join hands I am yelling ALLELUIA! I tell you God is still making good on God s promise to unite God s people into a faith filled community! We can read about it in the Genesis story, we can hear about it in the immigration stories, and we know it when we arrive to help build an interfaith house! I offer these words to you O God, as a symbol of promise for the hope of peace and justice to your creation. Bless these words to our hearts. Amen.