The Very Rev. Anthony R. Pompa
April 22, 2012
Sesquicentennial-Central Moravian-Nativity in History
“We Welcome you, because your fathers joined hands
with us around the Cross; because in principles and practice we have many
things in common; because we both desire the same high and holy end.”
The Rev. Edmund deSchweinitz, Good Friday 1865
These words spoken by the Pastor of Central Moravian in a
joint service held here in this space (smaller space then) on Good Friday were
words of welcome as a fledgling congregation of Episcopalians were crossing the
threshold of a holy dream of a new congregation into what would become a
Cathedral of God’s imagination. These
words, spoken by Mr. deSchweinitz, were repeated to us, just an hour ago, by
Pastor Carol Reifinger, of Central Moravian Church, and she standing on the
shoulders of those who have come before, send us now with yet again a blessing,
a blessing that bids us welcome to cross again and anew the threshold’s in our
lives and emerge as a blessed people of faith who gather in this Cathedral of
God’s imagination.
John O’Donahue in his book, “To Bless the Space Between us: A
Book of Blessings”, suggests that the culture of business in which we live
challenges our sense of community and connectedness. He says, “while our
culture is all gloss and pace on the outside, within it is too often haunted
and lost. The commercial edge of so called “progress” has cut away a huge
region of human tissue and webbing that held us in communion with one another. We
are at rise of falling out of belonging. Consequently, we stand before crucial
thresholds in our lives, we have no rituals to protect, encourage, and guide us
as we cross into the unknown.”
A blessing, he reminds us is that which evokes a sense of
warmth and protection, a reminder that no life is lived alone; that each life
is clothed in raiment of spirit that secretly links it to everything else. That
through all things, there is an inner light of providence that can never be
quenched because we are a blessed people connected to one another.
My dear friends: I invite you this day to cross again as our
forbears did the thresholds of our lives into this Cathedral of Imagination. I
invite you to stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before and have found
the words, rituals, the poetry, the songs to connect them And to Be a people of
Blessing!
This time is our time and it is a time of new beginnings. It
is a time of new beginnings because we are a people of new beginnings. This is
our story, its an Easter story. New beginnings at every turn. Let us go as
Blessed into the Cathedral of God’s imagination.
In our of the way places of the heart, Where your thoughts
never think to wander,
This beginning has been quietly forming, Waiting until you
were ready to emerge.
For a long time it has watched your desire, Feeling the
emptiness growing inside you,
Noticing how you willed yourself on, Still unable to leave
what you had outgrown.
It watched you play with the seduction of safety, And the
gray promises of sameness whispered,
Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent, Wondered would
you always live like this.
Then the delight, when your courage kindled, And you stepped
onto new ground,
Your eyes young again with energy and dream, A path of
plenitude opening before you.
Though your destination is not yet clear You can trust the
promise of this opening;
Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning; This is at one
with your life’s desire.
Awaken your spirit of adventure;
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;
Soon you will be home in
a new rhythym,
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.
