Join members of the Nanticoke Indian Association for a presentation on tribal dance Friday, November 15 at 7:30pm at The Lewes Presbyterian Church Hall, 133 Kings Highway in Lewes.
Walking in Prayer for the future of the Lakota and the Land by members of the Cheyenne River Episcopal Missioin and Youth from St. Peter's Episcopal Church, Lewes, De., together with Lakota and South Dakota youth, June 11-18, 2014
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Nanticoke Indian presentation
Cynthia Campbell pointed out this event in Lewes, which we ought to attend if we can!
This is an event sponsored by the Lewes Historical Society.
Join members of the Nanticoke Indian Association for a presentation on tribal dance Friday, November 15 at 7:30pm at The Lewes Presbyterian Church Hall, 133 Kings Highway in Lewes.
- See more at: http://www.historiclewes.org/events/november-speaker-series-nanticoke-people#sthash.bRD9Niab.dpuf
- See more at: http://www.historiclewes.org/events/november-speaker-series-nanticoke-people#sthash.bRD9Niab.dpuf
Join members of the Nanticoke Indian Association for a presentation on tribal dance Friday, November 15 at 7:30pm at The Lewes Presbyterian Church Hall, 133 Kings Highway in Lewes.
National Museum of the American Indian: Lakota ways
Cynthia Campbell points us to the following: The National Museum of the American Indian, and in particular to this blog entry, " A song for the Horse Nation: Remembering Lakota Ways.
The NMAI blog has lots of interesting materials. Go check them out!
The Rev. Robert Two Bulls on Native American Spirituality
Sunday, November 3, 2013
The Saints and the Stars: A Sermon
The Saints and the Stars:
A sermon by Mark Harris,
St. Peter’s Church, Lewes,
November 3rd, 2013.
To God alone be glory.
The Gospel today involves a
man named Zacchaeus. His story is told with some familiarity. He may have been notable for being in the
wrong profession – collecting taxes – but he was also known for being short,
clever, happy and enthusiastic. When the story is over what we really know is
that Zacchaeus is clearly “one of
us.” A regular paid up sinner with a
story.
Zacchaeus is remembered,
remembered as long as the Gospels are read and the stories told. "Remember Zacchaeus?" We will ask. And people
will nod. “He was the short guy who climbed a sycamore tree to see Jesus go
by.” “He was glad to have Jesus invite himself in.” We will remember as long as the stories from
the Gospels are told.
In terms of the point of the
story, however, Zacchaeus is not the point. The point of this story is that
Jesus engages the sinners of the world, and that Jesus seeks us all out and
saves the lost (read you and me.)
Apparently, if we invite him
in, Jesus will come.
If we invite him in, Jesus
will come.
That’s it. That’s the point.
And that’s the sermon.
But of course there is more,
for we are a story telling people.
We still have Zacchaeus. We do remember him. We remember him and so
many others who have been the conduit for God’s grace and presence in our
lives.
We remember people who knew
the presence of God, who knew the Jesus who invited himself into their lives
and hearts, and they accepted.
What we say about Zacchaeus
and so many others, others we know or who are nameless, is that they are the
Saints of God, they are those who made their home with Jesus. Many of them are
people of no account, poor, poor in spirit, beaten up by life, beating up on
life, beaten down.
Some are just plain ordinary
people. That is, most of the people we call saints are people just like you and
me. What they share is that God’s grace, a grace we know in Jesus Christ, was
with and in them.
I want to talk for a moment
about the saints.
As I just suggested, most
saints are regular paid up sinners who live by the Grace of God mostly as they
know that grace in Jesus Christ. They
are everywhere. The Saints are a strange lot, not all are proper people, not
all are even “good” people, some are not Christian in practice. But they live in Grace and reflect that grace.
Take a moment and think of
someone you know who has left a mark on your life, a mark for the better, and
has now died. Not your mother or father – too close, not Jesus or Paul, too big
– but someone, an aunt or a teacher or a
friend, someone – a Zacchaeus, someone – someone, a regular paid up sinner, who has been a Saint for you, a source of
God’s grace in your life.
Think on that person for a
moment. Try to picture that person, if you can.
OK… Now as I start from over
here on the right and move across to the left, say the name of that person out
loud. Ready? Say the name loud enough to
be heard by all of us, and maybe by the Saints as well.
Let’s do it again, but this
time quite loudly, calling out their names.
What we have made is a kind
of prayer for all the Saints….In the mighty wind of names called out it has
become a prayer of gratitude for all those who have given us a sense of God’s
grace and presence.
Several weeks ago Nathalie
Willard and I visited the Cheyenne River Lakota Reservation in South Dakota,
where we were given a star quilt .
Gift giving is an important
part of Lakota life, and one of the understandings of such gift giving is that
“the gift always moves.” Receiving a
gift means you also must take responsibility for giving it to someone else when
the occasion arises.
In their better moments, for
the Lakota, wealth is not measured by how much you have, but in how much you
give. So giving the quilt away is a source of much pleasure. Giving makes one a
truly rich person.
When we returned Nathalie and
I asked the St. Peter’s High School youth who to give it to. We all first decided to give it to Jeffery
our Rector, but then the young people asked him to give it to the older Godly
Play kids use it to sit on for their story time. They did this, and after
several weeks Mende George, our family and youth minister, has now passed it on
back to Fr. Jeff, who has placed it as the altar frontal for All Saints Sunday
(that’s this Sunday) and for the next while.
Star Quilts are made in
different communities. We have another over in the parish house that is Amish
made.
The Star Quilt has many
meanings for the Lakota, but one of them comes from the fact that the stars
hold a fascination for the Lakota, just as they did for the people of ancient
Israel.
In some of the stories the stars are the
ancestors, the saints, who are always looking down on us and blessing us. In
others the star in the Star Quilt is the bright morning star, a promise of
blessing for the future.
So sometimes the star quilt
reminds us that our loved ones, our ancestors are all around us, and we are
wrapped in them. At others we recall that the stars are also the number of those
who are the children of Abraham, and later the number of the people of God, a
swelling number like the stars in heaven. So the stars are both reminder and
promise – reminder of the ancestors and promise of the future.
It is fitting then that we
hang the quilt here to remind us of All the Saints. Maybe somewhere in that star pattern there is
Zacchaeus, my aunt Sarah, your cousin John, and David who didn’t come back from
the war, and that lovely woman you met once on a plane trip, and the nurse at
the hospital who was kind to you at three in the morning, on and on… Saints of
God, just like you and me.
And they are joined by all
those in the graveyard whose stories are still told, and by children in the
Sunday School who sit on the quilt and who make fantastic drawings, and on and
on.
And maybe we will wrap
ourselves in the Saints of God, and be Saints too. And there will be so many of
us, that we will be numbered like the stars.
It is fitting that we hang
the quilt to remind us that it is indeed more blessed to give than to receive.
The quilt is a blessing to us, yes, but the greater blessing is what it evokes
– a memory of all the ancestors have given us, and all that we have to give to
future generations. The hope that the Lakota have is ours as well – we hope
that the saints that have gone before and the saints that will come will bless
us in this moment.
The quilt is also a
remembrance that we too must view our stewardship as a matter of holding in
trust only for the purposes of giving it away. The gift always moves. We are
the richer for our generosity.
That is why stewardship is
not about getting funds for the work of the Church, but is about giving gifts
that always move. The purpose of
stewardship is to find new ways of giving it all away. We give away our possessions and receive
riches beyond measure.
But in the end the Star Quilt
is mostly a means of blessing. When we are wrapped in the stars – the ancestors
and the ones to come, we know we have been sought out and found, and that Jesus,
God with us, has asked to come be with us. And with him all the saints, past,
present and future.
Zacchaeus knew that. The
saints in your life know that. You know that. I know that.
It is enough.
Amen.
Thursday, October 10, 2013
Our Hope and Vision for this Holy Walk:
A Holy Walk by members of the Cheyenne River Episcopal Church and youth from St. Peter's Episcopal Church, Lewes, De., together with Lakota and South Dakota youth, June 11-18, 2014
To walk and pray for:
The walk will be 40 miles, visiting churches along the Moreau River, from Blackfoot to On the Tree.
Our objectives:
To walk and pray for:
- The health and well being of the people of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe
- The restoration of the land and its creatures.
- A path to deeper faith.
The walk will be 40 miles, visiting churches along the Moreau River, from Blackfoot to On the Tree.
Our objectives:
- From walking the land and in companionship with all whom we meet, to begin to learn the way of the Lakota
- To experience and hear the way Lakota spirituality has been held and honored by Lakota Christians
- To learn about ourselves and our fellow Episcopalians on the Cheyenne River Reservation.
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