Continued Beginnings, Questionable Endings
Feast of the Presentation
February 7, 1988
My standing as a botanist is highly questionable. Oftentimes I am asked in names of desert flowers, I usually smile knowingly and change the subject. There is however, one flower I can recognize, although I haven’t seen it around here it’s called the morning glory A morning glory has a heart-shaped leaves and is funnel-shaped. It comes in a variety of colors. So much for the garden lecture, that’s the extent of my knowledge.
Today I want to focus on the popular term morning glory rather than on the flower, in colloquial speech and morning glory is one who starts out well but fails to finish. It looks like a winner at the beginning, but ends up a loser, who comes smartly off the mark but rarely crosses the final rope. Morning glory people are those who appear to be right when the sun is rising but by midday, they have begun to fade, and by nightfall, they have given up
Beginnings are important, as Paul Buckwalter always reminds us, but for morning glory people, the beginning has a slight relationship to the ending. Let me show you what I mean by telling you of a little boy some years ago in central Europe. He was born at home and when the midwife emerged from the bedroom, she announced all is well except the child seems sickly and quite weak. They baptized him two days later in the local church. His godparents came from a nearby town for the service, and they recall the speculation of whether the little boy would live or what he would become. A minister, a teacher, or a businessman was a few of the choices. The child grew quickly out of the sickly stage and soon was on his way to moving into his potential.
His dad was a local official. As he was strict with the boy but he was also reasonable. Unlike some parents of the village, he never struck the boy in anger, and although he was stern and distant, he was never uncaring. The boy’s mother was a very beautiful woman. She was kind and sensitive and sometimes a bit too indulgent. The boy turned out to be a happy child, although slightly Moody, he did well in grade school, was never a serious disciplinary problem, the teachers remembered him as fun-loving, bright, and cooperative. He was devoted to his mother and his home. He played well with his brothers and sisters, and he loved to draw and often said he wanted to be an artist
When he was in the 4th grade, his parents moved, and he was pulled into a parochial school run by Benedictine monks. The thing that intrigued the youngster most was the daily Chapel; the caller, the liturgy, and the music were magnificent and it made a strong impression on the 10-year-old.
The youngster truly loved to sing, he desperately wanted to sing in the school choir, but he was never good enough to pass the audition. A bit later, with the spending money his parents sent he went out and took private voice lessons until he was good enough to pass. He was finally accepted on the 16th audition when they led him into the choir he wrote This was one of the happiest days of my life. Many years later, he wrote a book referring to his day in the Benedictine school, and he said he enjoyed the silent splendor, the teachings, and the festivals of the church. He thought he might even like to become a priest
the book that was taken from his Mein Kampf. The little boy’s name was Adolf Hitler. Good beginnings, bad outcomes at the time this boy died by his own hand he had murdered 40 million people. Beginnings can be important, but so are endings. As Arnold Bennett, the critic, used to say anyone can write a good first day but how is your second act? It’s not until the curtain comes down that you know whether you’re a success or not
in the church, we have a tendency to focus on the first act we talk a great deal about beginnings. We always place emphasis and beginnings as the principal sacrament, and in the past 20 years, being born again has become a popular term. But rarely do we look at the long haul. It’s an unusual church that focuses on how we live out the journey. By and large, we are interested in entrances, not exits, making converts, not nurturing Locations and what we produce is community that has made good starts but often fails away towards the end.
The problem of the morning glory type of Christian has been a concern of the church from the earliest times period Jesus even mentioned this type of person. You will recall the parable of the sower and the different soils? Some see Jesus said fell upon rock, and as soon as it sprang up, it withers away. Here the morning glory types of people are described to a tea. Those who were baptized, maybe even went to church school, possibly even came to church as adults but in their later years their ardor cooled and their commitment waned
every congregation has a list of these inactive members by whatever name you call them. If its leadership is responsive this list should be seen as its primary mission. It is not enough to focus on the front door where people enter. We dare not overlook the back door where people leave. The problem of the lapse member and the expired faith is real and it is sizable. The challenge to each of us is to be aware of these morning glories in our mist and to reach out and not ignore those who have fallen by the wayside
but what about yourselves? Have you begun to say isn’t it time for younger people to take over? Shouldn’t I put more distance between myself and the front lines? What used to be exciting now seems like drudgery. Burnout is a constant problem in the church particularly among the leadership in the parish
many of us sitting in the pews or in the chancellor will become morning glories in the next few years. It’s hard to sustain commitment and vision as the years move on. A relatively young man who had just been elected assistant Bishop went over to the Bishop of the diocese and said you can count on me to take care of the young priests. The wise Bishop said don’t bother with the young ones take care of the clergy and the middle years. The wise Bishop knew there was destruction at noonday and in the evening. Even the most committed can become morning glories
Beginnings are important, but let’s not forget they are only the place from whence we start. Our gospel lesson is about a beginning the presentation of Jesus in the temple. Here was the Jewish equivalent to baptism. Jesus has brought to the special place in the community and he is presented dedicated and set aside as a child of God. But all who were present realized that this was only the first dark and act in the journey.
Can you just imagine what the New Testament would have been like if Jesus had turned out to be a morning glory? Suppose Jesus had said I’ve being dedicated now I can relax. Suppose his parents had said we’ve done our thing now we’ll simply wait and see what he will choose later in his life
all of which leads me to my favorite becoming story. There once was a young couple who had their first child, and like most new parents, they were terribly concerned over what this child would become. Doctor? Lawyer? Indian chief? They speculated about this for hours. Finally when the child was old enough to sit up and manipulate toys they devised a test. They set before the child of Bible, a copy of the New York Times, a copy of the Wall Street Journal. They decided if he chose the Bible, undoubtedly he would become a preacher. If he chose the New York Times, he probably would be a lawyer. And if he took the Wall Street Journal more than likely he would end up a banker.
The child sat there, looked at all of these items, reached out and simultaneously gathered all of them to himself. His mother exclaimed ohh my goodness, he is going to be an Episcopal clergy person seriously becoming and taking the Longview looking at the end and not simply focusing on the beginning means avoiding the morning glory syndrome
John bunyan, in his dream, saw that from the very gate of heaven there was a way to hell. Life is really not safe until we reach the end of our journey. It is always possible to end up as a morning glory instead of a beautiful person God wants us to be good Christian people what we would declare to you today is that life is not a short spring. It is a marathon race and the rewards of life go to the one long distance runner. Beginnings may be important but endings are crucial pray that we learn to stand firm till the end for God’s grace will sustain us long after our initial energy has waned. The secret of this is so easy to say it’s so hard to do. Trust God and God will uphold you in the long haul. As someone said to me yesterday if we could only learn, relearn, and learn again To let go and let God then all of this would be possible.
Let it be Lord let it be
Amen