[Propertalk] St Alban's Day - 1

[Robert P Morrison]

This is our patronal festival weekend, so this is on the Propers for
St Alban's Feast.
Bob

	THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF ST. ALBAN, ALBANY THE FEAST OF ST. ALBAN
(transf.)

	WISDOM OF SOLOMON 3:1-9 26rd JUNE, 2016

	1 JOHN 3:13-16 PSALM 31:1-5

	MATTHEW 10:34-42

	 Deacon Senitila McKinley wrote from the coast a couple of weeks ago,

	 “This is a funny.
 “Someone came into the DaNoble House (in Waldport. The Hou If
it’s beense provides support for children and adults in improving
literacy. This person came in) a week ago. Wanted money, a Taxi and a
Motel room for the night. Since I did not have any of the above, I was
called a FB. I don't mean Face Book.
 “Yesterday while cooking breakfast, this person came in needing
food and money and I remembered. First I wanted to remind this person
that I was the FB, and need to leave. For a moment I was having a hard
time, and I was busy fixing breakfast for the others.
 “At the end I made and served this person the best breakfast ever. 
 “No thank you in return.
 “It is not easy to live Love, and it sure feels good to overcome my
little evil spirit. So, thank you, Jesus for being my Boss!”
 Deacon Senitila ended, “Let’s go out, out, out of our way to be
kind today.’

	 Good Deacons DO tell us what we should be doing! This is their
vocation, this is their cross!

	 But what does it mean “to be kind”? Kind? Really?

	 Just for the heck of it, I Googled it. Did you know that “_To Be
Kind”_ is the thirteenth studio album by American experimental [1]
band Swans [2], released on May 12, 2014”? 1 In case you’re
interested, one critic wrote, “… as the name suggests, _To Be
Kind_ does feature a quality hitherto [3] rare in Swans: that of
tenderness.” 2

	 Digging a little deeper, I found that “to be kind” is to be
“affectionate [4]. amiable [5], charitable [6], considerate [7],
cordial [8], courteous [9], friendly [10], gentle [11], gracious [12],
humane [13]”, 3 among forty synonyms. Oh, and “eleemosynary
[14]”. You can look that one up!

	 The writer of the letter to the Christians in Ephesus was trying to
help as well as correct the Christian families there. He or she wrote,
“be kind and compassionate to one another.” It sounds good –
until you remember how cantankerous and isolationist there people
could be. It seems that it didn’t really matter where Christians
were being formed in their faith, the biggest problem they faced was
relationships. They had such a difficult time getting on with one
another that it makes me wonder what sort of a witness they were
giving to the rest of the city.

	 The role of the Christian was and remains so radically different
from most other religions. The role of the Christian, as defined at
the end of Matthew’s Gospel, is to reach out – to teach, to
preach, and only then to baptise. In other words, each of us had to
take care of the physical and emotional needs of everyone, leading by
example, healing by standing with the person. The kindness and the
compassion which we’re called to share, both by the writer of the
epistle and by the deacons of the church, is our way of making Christ
present to everyone, no matter what they call us or how they behave.

	 Will this be easy? What’s been your experience to date? If it’s
been anything like mine, it’s been interesting. Certainly, it’s
been challenging. But, so far, my head hasn’t been on the block,
which is more than could be said for Alban.

	 What an amazing character he was. We know so little that’s
established fact. Most of it’s legend, although practically every
legend, every tradition, is based on at least some facts.

	 It sounds as if he was an ordinary villager. Probably he looked out
for his neighbours, watching the kids to be sure that they were safe.
More than likely he helped keep the sheep from wandering off. But, of
all things, I’m sure he was barely distinguishable from anyone else.
Maybe it was known only to God why that priest ducked into Alban’s
cottage that day. Maybe Alban thought little of himself, never saw
himself as any better or any worse than the others Just your average
Caratacos. Until God touched him, that is, came into hi home and sat
down at his fire on one of those typical British June days and tried
to get dry and warm again.

	 The thing is, it could have been anyone in the village. It could
have been Cynbel next door, or Maedoc across the field, or even Ninian
who lived on the outskirts. But it was into Alban’s home that the
priest burst.

	 Was he ready? Had Alban swept out the floor? Did he have stew
started over the fire? Was he in the habit of having company and so
wasn’t phased by the priest’s arrival?

	 Who knows? It’s one of those incredibly awkward questions that
falls to each of us. When someone shouts out on the street for help;
when someone is being bullied, or belittled, or threatened; when
someone collapses outside our home; when someone – well, when
someone has any sort of a need and ours is the closest home, we are
the closest person – are we ready? Or, to go back to the question
raised by Deacon Senitila’s comment, what DOES it mean to be kind?
How do we summon up the fruits of the Spirit in our lives so that they
become second nature – this gentleness, this self-control, this love
of which the writer of our epistle talked this morning?

	 

Links:
------
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experimental_music
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swans_(band)
[3] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hitherto
[4] http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/affectionate
[5] http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/amiable
[6] http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/charitable
[7] http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/considerate
[8] http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/cordial
[9] http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/courteous
[10] http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/friendly
[11] http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/gentle
[12] http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/gracious
[13] http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/humane
[14] http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/eleemosynary

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