Sermon

June 26, 2005

A Sermon Preached at St. Stephen’s on June 26, 2005, by the Rev. Cork Tarplee

The movie “Finding Neverland” is about the remarkable success of playwright J. M. Barrie and about the real-life sorrows that led him to touch so many deep places in our psyches in the story of Peter Pan. In one scene, the threatened death of the fairy Tinkerbell parallels the impending death of Barrie ’s friend and the parallel gives even deeper pathos to that moment in which Peter Pan tells the audience that Tinkerbell can live if children will believe in fairies. “Clap your hands” Peter urges the actors on stage, “Clap your hands if you believe in fairies!” And as the actors begin to clap, the audience joins in the applause, as they have for decades every time this production has been staged. I don’t know what happened when you saw the movie, but when I did, even the audience in the movie theater joined in. “Clap your hands if you believe in fairies,” said Peter, and we all clapped like our hearts would break if we did not.

The applause is more than a tribute to the power of fantasy to touch the human soul, it is a witness to the fact that human beings are creatures of faith. It is not so much that we need to believe in something, but that we can’t help ourselves when it comes to believing: we will believe in something. If we have nothing more important to believe in we will believe in wealth, in national supremacy, in fame, or status, or the good life—modern American life is full of myths to believe in. Christianity, I think, offers us something more than these myths to believe in. Jesus gives us a chance to place our beliefs in something higher and deeper. In Christ we have a chance to believe in compassion, forgiveness, justice and humility.

The group of people who are called together by belief in these things is known as the Church. Churches are imperfect reflections of our beliefs, but from time to time we succeed in acting out our beliefs and become in fact a community of compassion, forgiveness, justice and humility. Whenever we do this, we fulfill the belief Jesus stated in this morning’s Gospel: when we give up wealth and supremacy, status and comfort for his sake, we find out what living is really about. Then we welcome one another and in welcoming one another we welcome God. Then even the simplest act of compassion is holy. “Whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones,” has a heavenly reward Jesus tells us.

William Willimon describes a moment in which he experienced what the Church is supposed to be about. He took a group of college students from a religion class on a field trip to Canada to visit a l’Arche community—one of those Christian group living communities in which severely handicapped people and non-handicapped people live and work together. On Sunday during their visit they attended the local church with Daulton, one of the community’s most severely handicapped members. Daulton was a 30-year old paraplegic with severe mental disabilities. After the service, the priest welcomed the visitors and said, “we are so blessed to have Daulton as a part of this congregation.” Willimon agreed, but asked her why she thought that. Her answer was “In the silence of his wheelchair, Daulton reminds us that something as simple as going forward for the Eucharist is an act of incredible faith. Daulton knows more about the mystery of communion than everyone else in this church combined. Daulton loves Jesus and Jesus loves Daulton; the rest of us are missing the point. The rest of us are the disabled ones.”

This morning we baptize two infants into this community of faith. They remind us that our job is to be a people of welcome—to welcome the little ones into God’s household. More than that, they should remind us to be true to the welcome we have all received: to welcome the poor, the sick, the disabled, the lonely and those who have been rejected and marginalized. It is only by extending our circle of compassion, justice, forgiveness and humility that we can be true to the love of Christ.

If fairies in Peter Pan represent the completely winsome power of ordinary and humble “little ones” to do tremendous good in the world, then Peter was right to urge us to “Clap your hands if you believe in them.” If we believe in compassion, forgiveness, justice and humility, then those qualities can come alive in the world we live in. If you believe in the love of Jesus, you should clap your hands…

--Clap your hands around a pan of food and take it to a soup kitchen to feed God’s hungry people.

--Clap your hands around a banner that says “St. Stephen’s Church Welcomes You” and carry it in the Gay Pride parade…

--Clap your hands around those of someone in the hospital, someone who is hurting and lonely, and just stay there for a while with hands clasped around each other…

--Clap your hands around babies and bring them up in a community of love, showing them by your example what it means to welcome everyone into the fellowship of God’s love.

If you believe in the love of Jesus, clap your hands. AMEN