Acts 2:1-21
Psalm 104:25-35,37
Romans 8:14-17
John 14:8-17, 25-27
John
Mason Neale was one of the leading lights of the Oxford Movement, and while
many today know him best as a hymn writer, one of his most lasting influences
was in his revival of religious communities in the Church of England, and by
extension the rest of the Anglican Communion.
The middle of the 19th century was a time of profound social
change in Britain. The industrialization
of the nation which had brought so much wealth and progress, also created extreme
poverty and dislocation. The cities
crowded with people seeking work in the new factories, while the countryside
was left bereft of enough people to work the land and carry out traditional
occupations. Whether in the cities or in
the country the parochial system of the time – unchanged since the Middle Ages
– was simply incapable of meeting people’s needs. John Mason Neale looked around, and asked the
question, “What can be done? What can I do?”
He saw – as he described it – “the miserable inadequacy of…the parochial
system to reach those poor scattered cottages, and huts, those distant farms
and hamlets….It flashed into my mind, ‘If I could have but women to do the
work.’ ” What he proposed was a shocking
solution – to get women involved directly in the work of ministry by founding
in the Church of England a religious community of sisters, whose especial
vocation would be care of the poor, sick and underprivileged. With the help of Miss Ann Gream, who became
one of the order’s first sisters, Neale
established the Society of Saint Margaret. Their work began in the countryside of Sussex
in southern England, but very soon after daughter houses were established in
the larger cities – Aberdeen in 1864, London in 1866 – and in 1873 the Sisters
of St Margaret came to Boston, Massachusetts.
There they too looked around and asked “What can be done? What can we do?” They looked to meet the needs of their new
context, and so they supervised the Children’s Hospital, established a school
of embroidery, a parish school, and a soup kitchen, among many other
ministries. Eventually houses were
established in Montreal in Canada, Washington DC, Newark, NJ, Bracebridge,
Ontario, Lexington, KY and in 1927 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. In each of those places the sisters looked to
see what could be done, what they could bring to the situation to relieve the
plight of the poorest, and to make known God’s love and care. The sisters in Port-au-Prince founded among
other ministries Le Foyer de Note Dame – the hearth of Our Lady – a home for
elderly women who were alone or whose families were unable to fully care for
them. The brutal fact, is that in many
poor families, those who are strong and able to work get the lion’s share of
food and medical care. Needs sometimes
demand that the old and weak get considerably less. The sisters continue this work there, and
much more, to this day.
But
why this story, this history, of the Society of St Margaret? Well, we have a special relationship with the
sisters in Port-au-Prince through our diocesan connection with the diocese of
Haiti, but there is much more to it than that.
The story of the society – its founding and subsequent ministry – has
something powerful to say to us as we celebrate Pentecost, because it
challenges us with the challenge of Pentecost itself: “What can be done? What is to be done? What can I do? What can we
do?” The first followers of Jesus – as
we discussed last week – after his ascension, hid themselves away in the upper
room, willing to pray and wait, but not knowing what to do now as their whole
world changed around them. Like Neale,
they too had an “aha’ moment when the Spirit flashed into them – quite
literally – and they realized what needed to be done, what they had to do; and it
was as shocking in its time as involving women directly in the Church’s ministry
was in Neale’s. They had to leave the
safety of their room, the safety of their defined and delineated identities, go
beyond the social, religious and physical
boundaries of their world and by their words and lives tell the world
the Good News of God’s inclusive love and salvation, “that everyone who calls
on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Acts 2:21) and they did this it by
using any gifts and talents made available to them in he new-found power of the
Holy Spirit. The Acts of the Apostles
tells us that those first Christians shared their goods in common as a sign of
the trust they had in God and the care they had for each other, that the first
apostles went out and healed the sick and delivered people of the distresses
that possessed them, that they spoke boldy about Jesus and the Good News. In short, they continued the ministry of
Jesus: to bring good news to the poor, release to captives, recovery of sight
to the blind and freedom to the oppressed. (cf. Luke
4:18-19) Like every Christian since
then, to do all this they had been equipped by the Holy Spirit, the power of
God active and working; the same spirit active in John Mason Neale, in Ann
Gream and in all the Sisters of St Margaret throughout the world who came after
her. They were gifted with the Spirit in
the form of talents, ablities, experiences which enabled them to make the life
of the Spirit – the life of God – a reality in the world.
In
every age God pours his Holy Spirit among his people, and it is the Spirit that
brings to fulness our inherent gifts and talents, enables us to put into
perspective the time allotted to us here on earth. It is the Spirit who drives us to place these
at the disposal of the work of the Kingdom.
Paul tells the Romans that “when we cry, Abba! Father! it is that very
Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God.” (Romans
8:15b-16) Equally, when we ask
oursleves, “What is to be done? What can
I do?” it is the Spirit driving us
forward to offer the gifts and talents which God himself has given us so we
might further his kingdom, reveal his vision for the world. As we celebrate Pentecost today in this
place, God invites us to be quickened by the Spirit into asking “What is to be
done?” “What can I do.” For some weeks now, we have been considering
how God might be calling us to place at his Church’s disposal our time and
talents. Today we are offered the
opportunity to do just that. The greater
Church invites us to offer something for the work of Foyer de Notre Dame, and
the local Church – our parish – invites us to offer our time and talents for
the building of the kingdom right here in Hanford. These requests today come in the form of an
envelope marked simply, Haiti, and of
a Time and Talents Pledge Card. Each
challenge us and help us respond to the Spirit’s prompting questions: “What is
to be done? What can I do?” There is so much to be done, in our world and
more locally. If we as a parish are to
respnd to it effectively, we must respond first as individuals. What is the Spirit calling you to do. How is the Spirit showing you what you can do?
All we do here at the Church of the Saviour is ultimately for the
revealing of the kingdom, it all matters as we look to showing the world God’s
abiding presence within it.
Perhaps
we will none of us be called to found or join a monastic community, or to walk
the streets preaching the Gospel and healing the sick, or to speak in various
tongues. Nevertheless, each of us who has
been baptized, who has been called, the Spirit urges forward to help realize in
some way the reality of God’s kingdom and vision. The Spirit cries within us – within you –
“What can be done? What can you do?”
How will you respond?
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