The Very Rev. Anthony R. Pompa
“Therefore let
us concern ourselves with heavenly things, not human ones, and like peregrini
(pilgrims) always sigh for our homeland, long for our homeland, which is the
resurrection.” St. Columbanus of Bangor,
5th century
Well, hello! If
you are visiting with us today, please know that today is a day when we both
welcome The Rev. Kim Rowles, as our new associate for family formation
ministry, and my own return from a three month sabbatical time. We are
delighted that Kim is among us and look forward to her sharing her considerable
gifts for ministry.
I return to you
from a sabbatical time to share with you an overwhelming sense of gratitude. If
I had to boil down in one simple statement the heart of my discovery on this
sabbatical time, it would be gratitude. I am overwhelmed by God’s goodness and
grace in my life, in my relationships, and in this vocation of witnessing to
Christ that I share with you! I am most grateful to you for your prayers and
for your continued witness to Christ while I was away.
The week before
I returned to the Cathedral, I asked those closest to me (my family) what they
thought folks at the Cathedral would like to hear from me upon my first
opportunity to preach. I asked if folks would want to hear a sermon or just
stories about my sabbatical time. They replied rather quickly, “stories about
your sabbatical time, who wants to hear another sermon?” Well, today I hope to share
a few stories about my sabbatical time and as I do perhaps you will also have a
sermon worthy of holy reception.
The scriptures
today have a solid theme. It can be summed up by saying that we human beings
consistently struggle and strive to find truth and meaning about our lives
through our labors, our relationships, and those things we seek to put our
trust in. We human beings consistently do so by placing our trust in those
things the world has to offer. We labor hard seeking security, possessions, the
safety of shelter, food, recognition, and achievement of successes. We
sometimes acquire material things, money, possessions, in the hope of security
and comfort and with an authentic desire to provide for those we love best in
the generations that follow us. We sometimes see our relationships and behave
in them in ways that also bring definition to who we are, or value to who we
are. All of this at face value, authentic, and part of the human experience.
The scriptures however remind us of the deeper, sometimes mysterious and hidden
truths about meaning, authenticity, trust, and value that can only be found in
the spiritual realm, a much larger picture. The scriptures today warn and
remind us that we too often will place our trust in worldly things to bring
this meaning and security, missing the bigger picture of eternal truths that
might lead us to life beyond our understanding. The writer of Ecclesiastes for
example tells us that “everything under the Sun” is actually vanity of all
vanities. That is those gathering material things for definitions of safety and
success, those believing the end game is pass such things on to a generation
that may have no appreciation of such things, and hoping to find eternal
security and truth in such acts is in VAIN.
Jesus in the
parable he tells of the man who has fallen into the trap of reaping more and
more as if it would guarantee happiness, meaning, and truth for his life,
builds bigger barns that are at the end of the day, just bigger barns, when God
Himself is hoping for so much more of this man’s life.
The scriptures
of course provoke us to look beyond our earthly needs and strive for deeper
heavenly treasures that open pathways to spiritual riches by “seeing the world”
a different way, a way that is far less concerned about our looking to the
world to satisfy our needs, but rather looking to “heavenly things” to open our
hearts to meet the world’s needs on a spiritual level.
A story now if
you will from my sabbatical time that I hope will invite your own reflection as
you think about what is at play in the scriptures today. Some of you know that
I was fortunate to be a guest and spiritual companion with Dr. Esther DeWaal,
author and speaker on the topic of Celtic Spirituality. My time with Esther
reminded me of the great Celtic pilgrims whose spiritual yearnings gave birth
to the monastic movement in Scotland, Wales, England, and Europe, bringing a
spirit of revival and the spread of Christian principles throughout these
lands.
These pilgrims,
like the authors of our scriptures today, too considered the endeavor of human
beings seeking truth, to be found not in worldly gratification and discovery,
but on a spiritual realm. These pilgrims influenced by the monastic lives of
the dessert Fathers in the first century after Jesus death and resurrection,
left all they knew of worldly comforts and securities. They hopped in rickety
boats and began a journey across an unknown sea from Ireland to the coastlands
of Wales, Scotland, and England. They departed on what they called “Peregrinatio”,
that is holy pilgrimage with a mission of discovering spiritual truths they
knew they would not find in worldly things. St. Columbanus of Bangor, one of
these early “peregrini” and founder of the monastic order in Bangor Wales,
invited fellow pilgrims with these words,
“Let us
depart as peregrini (Pilgrims) in a spirit of hospitas mundi, that is as guests
of the world, in search of One’s resurrection, the peregrini to heaven, the
true home and let us not get entangled with earthly things but fill our minds
with heavenly and spiritual things- making our song, “when shall I come and
appear before the face of my God”.
It was in this
spirit of “peregrini” that I perhaps discovered a bit of insight about my own
struggles with the themes we find in our scriptures today of missing perhaps
some heavenly opportunity by looking to the world to satisfy my human needs. I
will explain.
My routine with
Esther was to study and read in the morning, reflect aloud over coffee mid-morning,
and being sent in the afternoon by Esther to discover holy places, pray, and
reflect. One afternoon, Esther fitted me in a pair of boots and sent me into
the three streams that run and join on her property. She sent me with the
reminder that in Celtic spirituality, water is a powerful symbol. Streams are
symbols of purity and eternity. In ancient Celtic spirituality, holy shrines
were created in places where streams and springs flowed from the earth. Where
streams join together, two forces of eternity coming together, this would be
exceptional, but where three streams flowed together, this was a holy of holy
place. I was instructed to put my feet in the streams, in each stream, to “pay
attention” to all that around me, the feel and flow of the waters, and to
follow the streams to the places of their joinings and in this case of their
branching off again, and to “follow” where I felt led.
It was standing
in these streams in full communion with the power, majesty, and beauty of my
surroundings, literally “in conversation” with all of creation that I came in
communion with a voice for reflection, particularly as in regards to the themes
in our scriptures today.
Again, I hope as
I share this you might resonate and reflect on your own lives where such themes
might be at play. First, the voice, “why do I labor so hard?” Why do I spend my
mornings into nights laboring at trying to get things “right”, get things done.
Of course we are supposed to work hard, but “why?” What was I expecting,
needing, hoping for, and to what or whom was I looking to get these things
from?
Then I realized
much of my labor, my need to work so hard, “get things” right (whether they are
“right” or not is a whole other conversation) to do them well, with
expectations that those around me would do the same, perhaps was coming from a
place of “worldly” resolve. To be honest, I realize that I had come to a place
where I didn’t want the “world” to believe that I could fail! What if the world
would decide that professionally, I wasn’t all that effective, all that good at
what I do? What would that mean for who I am, what I am about? This response on “earthly or worldly” terms
of course has no reward that lives in eternal things, eternal like the streams
I was standing in. My behavior and the internal script that comes with this is
distant from the spiritual heart of peregrini, which is to discover the truth
of my being and the home of resurrection. The truth that God knew me before I
was born, that a fear of failure is woven in earthly definitions of success and
leads to behaviors and beliefs that are life-threatening not just to me but to
those around me, as opposed to life-giving.
The second
insight I had those days standing in those streams that have been flowing for
generations and generations. I am one of those folks who is approaching 50. I
know some of you have been there, for some its far away, and some are there
with me now. It may not seem old, but for me on some level it’s a big deal. My
kids are at that age, entering teenage years and adulthood, where my role as
lover and parent is shifting. I am keenly aware at least that their physical
presence in my household is coming near its natural end. Somehow standing in
that stream I became aware again that internally and probably behaviorally, I
was looking at my relationship with my children through worldly eyes. That
script goes like this. I have a very short amount of time left with my
children! I must give them everything they need, provide everything they need.
I must love them well and deeply so that they will always know of that love,
right now! I must share all the wisdom I have right now, so that I can fill
them up forever.
Then the voice
came again. “Tony, don’t you believe in the promises that have been made? Don’t
you believe what you have been preaching half your life, really, that love is
eternal! Forever, and ever! You have an eternity to love your children and to
be loved by them, an eternity!”
Like a trip to
Target with a list of things I feared would not be in stock, I realized I was
carrying anxiety and fear defined by worldly things that was interfering with
the way I was enjoying the richness of loving those closest to me! The Celtic
pilgrims journey begs me, begs us to “not get entangled in earthly things”, but
to “set our eyes upon “heavenly things” seeking our homeland, which is
resurrection, that is eternal things! To live with our eyes set upon “heavenly things”
and not hoping to find our meaning, reward, comfort, trust from a world which
cannot deliver, means we can be free of the despairing and love in ways that
flows as powerfully as the streams my feet were set upon that day.
I said to my son
a few days before returning from my sabbatical, “perhaps I should return to
work!” He said to me, “good idea Dad,
after all you are the bread maker”. He meant of course to say bread winner,
which by the way his mother can rightly argue with as she joins me so
faithfully in “winning the bread” in our home. But I think I like what he said
better, yes, bread maker.
I found a slice
of heavenly bread- standing in the streams of eternity- where my ancestors both
blood and spiritual stood-generations of faith, wisdom, labor, Love, Truth
descending upon me in the flow of these gentle eternal streams! My children will know of this toil, this
love, this care, and find meaning in eternal things promised by God and handed
down for generations,- and their children will know it EVEN when they are not
aware of it!
So people of
Bethlehem, of this Cathedral, House of Bread, shall we make some bread together?
Bread from heaven, life-giving bread, where we hand over our fears and
anxieties and set our eyes on “heavenly things”?
Shall we set ourselves
upon a vocation of “peregrinatio”, asking God to show us who we are and who we
are to be?
Let’s make some
bread, life-giving bread, and set ourselves upon a vocation of peregrini-
setting our eyes on heavenly things and asking God to show us who we are and
who we are to be?
“Therefore let
us concern ourselves with heavenly things, not human ones, and like peregrini
always sigh for our homeland, long for our homeland.” St. Columbanus
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