Convention Eucharist Sermon
The Right Reverend Mary Adelia McLeod
Ninth Bishop of Vermont
[Download MS Word file of sermon]

It’s wonderful being with you again, seeing familiar faces and being reminded of the time we spent together. It is also an honor to be here as you close out your 175th celebration, and to be preaching here in Trinity, Rutland where Bishop Hopkins gave his first convention address. By the way, Elizabeth Allison edited a marvelous booklet about the first year of Bishop Hopkins Episcopate. Thank you Elizabeth for your faithfulness and efforts on behalf of the diocese.

When I served as your bishop, I made trips to NY two or three times a month. Those trips are a fading memory except for one. That one was a doozy!

Excited to get back to Rock Point, I left the Episcopal Church Center on a dreary, rainy, late afternoon and hailed a cab and barked, “LaGuardia.” 

The cab driver said, ‘Where LaGuardia?’ in broken English.
‘Take the tunnel’ He said, ‘Where Tunnel?
I said, ‘How long have you been driving a cab?’
He said, ‘Three day,’ grinning widely.
I knew I should get out of that cab, but I didn’t.
We careened through the city with me shouting unheeded directions.
We zoomed into the tunnel.

All of a sudden we began to wobble and bump and the cars smelled of burning rubber - we had a flat tire.
The cabby took the first exit, stopped and looked at the tire.
He came to my window, tapped on it.. ‘You fix tire, Miss?’

I gave him a look previously reserved for my misbehaving children; a look my children would just as soon forget.  My look frightened the man so badly that he skittered to the back of the car. Cowering, he didn’t make eye contact.

I gathered my belongings, got out of the cab and looked at my surroundings.

The intersection held a burned out building, a strip bar, a pool hall and a building with graffiti filled walls. I suddenly realized no cabs would be coming to this neighborhood. I wasn’t about to go into the strip joint or the pool hall to use a phone. I stood there in the rain, wet, cold, bedraggled, scared and bewildered.  It was almost dark and I knew I would not make my flight.

Suddenly, a black Ford Taurus drove up.

A man rolled down his window and said, ‘Ma’am, you should not be standing out here in this neighborhood. Where are you headed?” I told him, “La Guardia.”
 
“Get in. I’ll take you; what airline?”

I carefully looked at him while my brain yelled, “Don’t get into cars with strangers; especially New York City strangers.” His suit coat was tossed on the back seat over his briefcase. He was clean cut in his button down shirt and loosened tie. “Come on”, he said, “I don’t bite.”

I was terrified, but risked getting into the car knowing I had lost my mind, but thinking it is better to be robbed and beaten by one person rather than a gang.

As it turned out, the man had just arrived from a skiing trip at his condo near Stowe. He had made a wrong turn on his way into the city to make a dinner speech.

You may think this story is about me, but it isn’t. We both took a risk. This story is about the stranger who took a wrong turn, saw a human being in distress, and risked being late to the banquet where he was to be the featured speaker. He went out of his way, driving to and from La Guardia in rush hour traffic to help me. He had nothing to gain and expected no reward. He saw me and forgot his needs, making a decision to help me.

Jesus said, “This is my commandment; that you love one another as I have loved you.”

He gave this command in his farewell address, the night before he died; it was that important.

To Tend God’s World – You must love others the same way God loves you.

How does God love you? God looks at you says, “You are wonderful, I love you unconditionally and more fully than you can ever imagine and do you know what you have to do to make sure you always receive this love from me?”

“Nothing. Now pass this along.” Act in the best interest of others. Go out of your way to reach out to someone. Pass God’s love along.

Pass this unselfish love along to the others in your lives; at home, work, school, in the wider world of hurting people – to your significant others, to friends and strangers.

Bishop Hopkins said many things, but one phrase in particular struck me. He said, “A bishop should spend and be spent ”. I would amend that to say all Christians should spend and be spent, pouring out Jesus’ love, emptying ourselves for the sake of others. And this - is risky. Here’s why.

Because God tells us to love someone whether they deserve it or not. This is Agape love. It is love with tenacious ferocity; express it with gentleness.  Love forgives, love is compassionate, and love is total acceptance of another without conditions. Love is patient and doesn’t expect to be rewarded. Love is possible only if you resolve to do it, because agape love is an action, love is an act of the will, not a feeling. Love is an action that gives value to the other, it is reaching out to improve or help the life of the other. The stranger who picked me up made a deliberate choice to help me; he had no feeling for me – he didn’t know me. Loving is giving yourself away to others for their sake, expecting nothing in return. The kind of love Jesus asks us to have for others takes a decision of our free will, a commitment to act for the good of another. Loving that way, Loving as Jesus loves us is a risky business.

And what would the world look like if we choose to surrender to God and tend God’s world with a risky love?  
These words by artist Judy Chicago give a clue.            

“And then all that has divided us will merge
         and then compassion will be wedded to power
and then softness will come to a world that is harsh and unkind
and then both men and women will be gentle
         and then both women and men will be strong
and then no person will be subject to another's will
         and then all will be rich and free and varied
and then the greed of some will give way to the needs of many
and then all will share equally in the earth's abundance
and then all will care for the sick and the weak and the old
and then all will nurse the young
and then all will cherish life's creatures
and then all will live in harmony with each other and the earth
and then everywhere will be called [the Garden of] Eden once again.”