Today is one of those Sundays with multiple themes. It is the 6th Sunday of Easter, Rogation Sunday, Memorial Day, and the day we recognize six of our SSEDS students for having completed a course of study about Holy Communion. For some this is their First Communion; for others it marks their deeper understanding of what it means to receive the body and blood of Christ. Yasmin, George, and Marc Ghurani, Jordan and Sebastian Perez, and Jake Lafont and your families — we welcome you today as you become even more connected with this community we know as the Body of Christ. And I also note with great joy that both Sebastian and Jake were baptized back there at our baptismal font. On behalf of the wider community of Christ’s Body we welcome them and today we join with them as they deepen that commitment.
I mentioned several things that are happening today and one might strike an unfamiliar note: Rogation Day. Rogation Days are an ancient custom which has been being observed since the 5th century. Rogation—to ask, as in “interrogate”—we ask God’s blessing of the harvest, of the earth and sea. We remind ourselves that we are the stewards of Creation, neither the authors nor the owners of it. Originally an agricultural observance, it has been broadened and made more inclusive—the crops, the catch of the sea, the fruits of our labors in all their aspects. We are the stewards of Creation.
In the baptismal vows which Sebastian, Jake and all of us took or had taken for us, in our fifth vow we promise to “strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being.” I am quite certain that if the baptismal covenant were to be revised again today this vow would include a commitment to the environment (sort of like we say every morning during Flag Salute here at St. Stephen’s School). Because we now understand more fully that God’s creation includes not only us human beings but everything that, as St. Paul says in today’s passage from the Acts of the Apostles, everything that “lives and moves and has its being in God” — who created and loves not just only us, but everything that is.
So Rogation Sunday, which may have slipped a bit in the things we highlight in the church, Rogation Sunday with its emphasis on all of creation, is something we really need to lift up, proclaim, and pay attention to.
Our students and families at our Day School certainly do. Come on, everyone who has ever been to Flag Salute — you know that pledge: I promise to care for the earth as my home and to respect it at all times by recycling, conserving energy, and saving water. I promise to encourage my friends and family to care for the earth in the same way. And you know what? When we went about planning for and designing the Main Highway Pavilion a few years ago it dawned on us: hey! We all say that pledge every morning. Now it’s time not just to talk the talk but to walk the walk as well. And that building was designed with those principles in mind. It’s a “green” building and has even been recognized and given several awards as such, attaining the Gold LEED level. Rogation Sunday: I promise to care for the earth as my home…
Because we are at a turning point right now, at this time in our life as a human community. We are at a turning point and a time for decision. Do we take on the mantle God has given us to be stewards of all creation or do we say the earth is ours to do what we want with it, exploit it, wear it out, drain it of all its resources regardless of the consequences.
Our Gospel passage today from St. John today also, I believe, has something to say about this. In today’s passage, Jesus is in the process of saying goodbye to his disciples, telling him all the things he wants them to remember before he leaves them. He promises that he will not let them — not let us — be alone because God will send another to be with us: the Holy Spirit, whom Jesus also calls “The Advocate.” And he reminds his disciples — he reminds us — that he expects us to observe his commandment. He basically only gave two commandments: for us to love God with all our heart and soul and mind and to love our neighbor as ourselves.
And who is our neighbor? Is it only other human beings? Or is our neighbor all of the creation that God made? I believe it is the latter. I believe we cannot separate human beings from our environment. I believe we cannot separate humanity from the whole of creation of which we are but one part. I believe that God weeps not only when we are cruel to our human neighbors; I believe that God weeps equally as much when we abuse any portion of that glorious creation which is the handiwork of the Almighty.
So Yasmin, Gregory, Marc, Jordan, Sebastian, and Jake — and all of us, really — as we deepen our commitment to be followers of Jesus Christ, as we accept that symbol of his unconditional love for us which we receive at this communion rail, we also accept his charge to us. If we love him, we follow his commandments — which are remarkably simple: love God, love God’s creation. Remarkably simple, yet something we strive to follow our whole lives.
Today is also the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. No, not go-out-to-all-the-sales weekend or have the neighbors over for a barbeque weekend. Memorial Day weekend. A time when we pause to remember and give thanks to all those who paid the ultimate price so that we can live freely. I think we also owe it to them to protect our world — to insure that this life they gave up their lives to protect and defend will still be here for generations yet to come.
Some of you here today also served in our armed forces — could you please stand up? Thank you for being willing to risk your lives. Elsewhere in St. John’s Gospel Jesus says “greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for a friend.” Thank you to all those who did and thank you also to all of you here who were willing to do so.
As we move closer to Pentecost, the day Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to come among us and to continue to be with us as counselor, advocate, and constant loving companion, let us remember promised his disciples — promised us: “I will not leave you orphaned,” and let us also remember that he gave us the charge: “If you love me you will keep my commandments.” And those commandments are both very simple and a lifelong challenge: love God with all you heart and soul and mind and love your neighbor — love all of creation — as you love yourself. AMEN.