It’s a busy weekend here in Philadelphia. There is a Taylor Swift concert at Lincoln Field, starting at 6:30 tonight. At 3:30 this afternoon, the 76ers will play the Boston Celtics in the tense final game of the National Basketball Association Conference Semifinals. Fortunately that’s taking place in Boston, but I imagine, if the cheers and groans coming from my neighborhood during Game Six were any indication, that that will be an occasion for many home parties and some very crowded bars. Remember, though, today is Mother’s Day, so unless you spent thousands of dollars getting your mom tickets to Taylor Swift, you’re going to have to find a way to celebrate with her in plenty of time before you slip out to the bar to watch the game. Unless she’s a big Sixers fan, in which case your work is done. Good luck celebrating Mother’s Day in a restaurant, though. Restaurants are always crowded, but this year it should be especially tough to get a reservation because it’s also Alumni Weekend at Penn, and commencement is tomorrow. So everybody’s relatives have come to town and they are all looking for brunch just as you are. Oh and by the way, President Biden will be coming to town to see his granddaughter graduate. He’s no Taylor Swift but I imagine the traffic will be backed up for miles tomorrow.
So as I say, there is a lot going on right now in Philadelphia. In fact, given so much excitement, it’s especially good to see you all in church. And lest you think we might be outdone by the City, let me hasten to assure you that the church has a very full calendar today, too. We’ll have less nail-biting tension than the 76ers, but much better music than the concert at Lincoln Field. We in the church are celebrating the Sixth Sunday of Easter today, and also observing Rogation Sunday. And then of course the Feast of the Ascension is this coming Thursday. So, in the busy spirit of this weekend, let’s think about them all together.
Rogation Days began in the fifth century, in what is now France. The practice started as a form of penitence and supplication for protection from natural disasters, and it took place over the three days leading up to Ascension Thursday. We still ask for protection from natural disasters, as well as praying in thanksgiving for the good things of the earth, and for a blessing on crops, and for seasonable weather and sufficient rain. Our procession at the end of Mass today out to the garden for prayer and song and blessing is an echo of the impressive village and parish processions that lasted for hours and included all sorts of interesting traditions we won’t summarize here. Our Sunday observance comes in anticipation of our Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday Masses at which prayers will be offered respectively for fruitful seasons, for commerce and industry, and for the stewardship of creation. The name “Rogation” comes from the Latin verb “rogare,” to ask or ask for, as in “interrogate” (to ask questions) or even “arrogant” (asking for too much, or taking too much for oneself).
So Rogation Sunday is a day of asking and of blessing, of giving thanks for and of pledging stewardship of the good earth. It’s penitential in the sense that we are reminded that we are very small in the face of all of created nature, and now in modern days in the crucial sense that we have exploited and squandered so much of what God has given us. You’ll feel it, most likely, when we process out to the garden, and pray the litany, and sing: this is a day that is calling us back into relationship with creation, back into balance, back into the love and the sustenance and the beauty and the goodness that surround us as we live in God’s world. Back to being creatures who depend on God.
And that return to relationship has everything to do with the instructions Jesus gives his disciples in John’s Gospel: “In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.”
We don’t normally suggest that Jesus is speaking of the natural world here, but the calendar and the lectionary are inviting us to make that connection. We are asked to love one another and to know ourselves as living in Christ who lives in us and in the one he calls Father. We are asked to keep his commandments and to love him and to know ourselves as loved by the Father. Jesus promises to reveal himself to us, to come to us, not to leave us abandoned in our lives on this earth.
We see him everywhere, even while the world sees him not at all. We live with a deep assurance of the presence of God. We live in the Spirit that Jesus will send. And this coming Thursday, when we remember the bodily ascension of Jesus to heaven, we are asked to understand that this spiritual communion is also profoundly material. The resurrected body of Jesus ascends, and we live here on earth, but in his Spirit. And we learn to know God in our bodies, in the world that doesn’t see him, in the love that unites us to all people and all of creation. He promises to show himself to us, here in the world where we live.
And so of course we give thanks. Of course we turn to him for protection, knowing that our own strength is not the power that created the heavens and the earth. Of course we look to the world God made and we find signs of God everywhere, signs that turn us around and remind us what our true needs are, our true pleasures, our true desires. This garden in which we live, this garden that we neglect, is the very assurance of God’s love. And the life of the blessed Trinity, the life that Christ makes present to us, is calling to us in every bud and every bird, as well as in the terrifying storms and in the sheer vastness of creation. Living in the spirit of the risen and ascended Lord, everything is an invitation. Beauty itself is penitential in that it calls us to turn back. Penitence is beautiful in that it opens our eyes to the real desires and the real joys that God has made for us. So of course we ask God for protection and sustenance. Of course we pledge ourselves to be loving inhabitants of God’s world.
I want to close with the words of the seventeenth century writer and priest, Thomas Traherne, who knew better than most that God was calling to us, calling us to return to the joys of right relationship in the good things of the earth. Here are a few words from his astonishing book called Centuries of Meditations:
God is Love, [says Traherne] and you are His object. You are created to be His Love: and He is yours. He is happy in you, when you are happy: as parents in their children. He is afflicted in all your afflictions. And whosoever toucheth you, toucheth the apple of His eye. Will not you be happy in all His enjoyments? He feeleth in you; will not you feel in Him? He hath obliged you to love Him. And if you love Him, you must of necessity be Heir of the World, for you are happy in Him. All His praises are your joys, all His enjoyments are your treasures, all His pleasures are your enjoyments. In God you are crowned, in God you are concerned. In Him you feel, in Him you live, and move, and have your being, in Him you are blessed. Whatsoever therefore serveth Him; serveth you and in Him you inherit all things. *
In him we inherit all things. So, happy Mother’s Day. Go 76ers. Water your gardens. Work for the good of the earth. Pray. And don’t forget: Wednesday is election day.
*(https://www.ccel.org/ccel/traherne/centuries.i_1.html Meditation 52)
Preached by Mother Nora Johnson
May 14, 2023
Saint Mark’s Church, Philadelphia