Rogation Sunday (Fr. Guiliano)

“During the night Paul had a vision: there stood a man of Macedonia pleading with him and saying, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us.’”

This is a remarkable moment in the Acts of Apostles. St Paul has been going about his missionary work for some time. He has journeyed more than once from the city of Antioch in Syria, tracing a line around part of the eastern Mediterranean, and visiting places like Cyprus, or the cities of southern and central Anatolia: Perga in Pamphylia, Antioch in Pisidia, Iconium and Lystra and Derbe. He’s faced obstacles, he’s had more than a few new traveling companions, he’s preached many times, he’s taken part in the first council of the Church. 

But now he’s in Troas and he has been called to cross the sea, like Odysseus setting out on his epic many years journey. But, while that ancient Greek hero sought his home, Paul sought something different, to serve the will of God, to preach the Gospel where it was needed. A “man of Macedonia pleaded with him in a vision…. ‘Come…help us.’”

It feels like an appropriate lesson for my first Sunday: not that I’ve had a supernatural vision like Paul, but I have crossed a wider sea, the Atlantic, and I am here to serve the will of God. No man or woman of Champaign appeared to me in a dream, but I do believe the Holy Spirit has been at work, leading me here, guiding me, guiding us all, and preparing us for the future. As our collect said, God is working. God has prepared for those who love him “such good things”. They surpass our human understanding; they are discerned, they are seen spiritually, and today we seek from God the gifts of his Spirit that we might receive those good things properly: “pour into our hearts such love towards you, that we, loving you in all things and above all things, may obtain your promises, which exceed all that we can desire…”

Do you believe this? Do you believe in God’s guidance? Do you believe in his grace? Do you trust that he is at work within you, pouring love into your heart? Do you dare believe that God really is at work in the world, preparing good things (good things) for you?

It might seem hard to believe at times. Many of us wander through life feeling like we are alone. Many of us struggle to see what God is doing. The world can seem full of evil, polluted by dark deeds, troubled by movements of people and nations that threaten all we hold dear. This is the rhetoric we hear in the media every day. Those people threaten all we hold dear.

How can someone believe in God in a world like this? How can someone trust that God is preparing such ‘good things’ as surpass our understanding? I’ve heard those questions before; I’ve asked them before. 

Let me point you to a few reasons for faith on this Rogation Sunday, a few reasons from the world itself, from the Scriptures, from our holy tradition.

To begin with, look at the world. This world sustains us. Day by day it unfolds its blessings. It is, by nature, full of fruits that nourish us and, by human labour and ingenuity, it abounds more gloriously year by year, even in the face of difficulty or climate change. The life-giving potential of the earth is not exhausted; we enjoy its power in our daily bread, in our drink, in numerous delights of the field, forest, sky, and sea finding their way to our tables. And we live. 

Beyond this, there are glories in God’s creation that can stir the most stubborn heart to praise and thanksgiving. To use the words of the hymn: Every little flower that opens, each little bird that sings … the purple-headed mountains…the sunset, the mornings. How great is God Almighty! We can see his invisible power and beauty through this visible creation, this world full of grace. Yes, the world gives reasons to believe in God, to believe that he makes “such good things” as surpass our understanding. Just look around you.

This teaching is also a constant touchstone within the Scriptures. Whether it is the Book of Genesis, presenting us with the divine voice making the world and calling it good, or it is the Revelation to John, showing us a holy city coming down out of heaven, we are granted a vision of this good God (this good God) acting on our behalf whenever we open the book and turn its pages. And if the testimony of prophets and apostles were not enough to convince us, our Lord Jesus himself has assured us of this very truth. In the Gospel today, he assures us that he is with us, that the Father and the Holy Spirit, the whole Trinity, is with us, that we are taught and guided, that we have his peace. 

Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid, he says. “I am preparing good things for you.” 
Hear his voice, when he says this. Remember it, cherish it. It gives reasons for faith and trust.

And what about our tradition? Does it suggest that God is at work, preparing good things for those who love him? Most definitely. Let me tell you the story of Jackson Kemper. Jackson was born in Pleasant Valley New York in 1789. He was educated at Colombia, graduated valedictorian, and ordained as a deacon and then priest in his 20s. He served with Bishop William White at Christ Church in Philadelphia. He could have stayed on the East Coast; there were opportunities there for a smart and faithful minister. But in 1835 he became the first missionary bishop of the Episcopal Church, and he set out for the frontier. At one point, he was responsible for most of the Midwest: explicitly, Missouri and Indiana, but he also worked in Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas, and even Illinois. 

Let me tell you: Frontier life was not easy in 1835; Kemper had more than his share of hardship. It might have seemed like a fool’s errand. Not everything worked out for him. He had to trust that God was preparing ‘such good things’ as surpassed his understanding. And, you know what? God did. 

When Jackson set out, there were no dioceses in the Midwest. By the time he died in 1870, there were many. There were few congregations; they met mostly in storefronts and houses. By the time he died, hundreds of churches had been built. He founded Nashotah House in 1842, which still serves its original purpose of educating clergy. These good things came to pass. They did not exist when Jackson set out. He had to believe there was a new world coming, greater than the one that surrounded him, a new world in which the Gospel seeds he was sowing would come to fruition, a new world that God would bring into being. We may imagine him praying the collect we prayed today: or more accurately, we know he did, since it was in his prayer book. O God, you have prepared for those who love you such good things as pass our understanding, pour into our hearts such love towards you…that we may obtain your promises… 

Jackson believed in God; he believed in his goodness; and his life stands as a testimony to us today still, another reason for faith. 
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Let me leave you with some final questions. What good things are you expecting? What good things has God prepared for us who love him? For us, in this church today? We don’t know yet. But we will find out together.