Telling Stories at St Judes the Apostles, Cupertino Ca

Today I had the lovely privilege to be able to preach at Saint Jude's in Cupertino Ca.  Gorgeous day, Gorgeous people! Well here are a few pictures and a video of my sermon and then the written copy of it.  Happy Sunday!

Story Telling 

Creator God,

We thank you life,

And for happiness,

And compassion,

We acknowledge you as the author of all of our stories

And we give you praise.

Amen

Good morning, today I would like to talk about stories.  Telling stories, receiving stories, what role do stories play in your life.  My name is Maurice Dyer I am a missionary of this diocese, Ive just finished up my first year working in South Africa, apart of the Episcopal church’s missionary program, the young adult service corp.

I was in a small town in the eastern cape of the country called Grahamstown.  This is a very small town of stark contrasts, when standing in the town center, you could be in any small town, anywhere in the Us.  There’s a grocery store, city hall, police officers giving out parking tickets.

Ive gotten one, and let me tell you, paying off a ticket runs a whole lot smoother over there than it does here.  In and out of the traffic department in 5 minutes, still had to pay an arm and a leg though, but I think that part of getting a ticket is universal. 

Back to the stark contrasts of living in Grahamstown, standing in the city center, which is in a bowl with surrounding hills, look to your immediate left and right, and you would see private schools where kids wear very nice suit and tie uniforms or if you look the other way you see one of the best colleges in the country, Rhodes University. But if you take a step back and look up towards those hillsides, you see hundreds and hundreds of brightly colored dwelling places.  If you look up that way you look up into what is called the township, the part of town where the majority of people live.  Its not where you’ll see the money, or where you will  see opportunity or access.

But you will see thousands and thousands of people who are trying to get by.  Trying to feed themselves, trying to feed their families.  It’s a tough life up there, not one that I think many of us could flourish in.  its not a life that many people who live there can flourish in. 

But people do, I know them, Im friends with them.  But for an overwhelming majority of folks who live there, life is very simple.  They aren’t worried about luxuries or distractions.  They are focused on needs.  Needs verses wants.  A battle I’m sure most of us have had to deal with, at some point in our lives, to one degree or another. 

While I was living in Grahamstown, I stayed at a monastery.  Talk about living a simplistic life. I found that there.  It’s a different kind of life than what I was talking about earlier.  But living a simple life based around praise and worship.  5 times a day, starting at 6am you can hear chapel bells. 

Summoning you.  You walk in, and you sit down, and you’re there in that moment, im not worried about whats happening on facebook or checking my phone or day dreaming about what tasks I need to accomplish in the rest of my day. In that moment you are, I am, where I am. 

The majority of the services done at the monastery are in song.  Did you know that choirs originate out of monastic communities?  From there it pervaded into the rest of the church body, that’s why, early choral music, and a lot of choral music today is religiously inspired.

 But while we are in the chapel we stand in community with each other, singing in one unified voice.  Let me tell you there is nothing more beautiful than hearing the Lord’s Prayer sung in harmony. No matter what issues I’m going through, when I am singing that Lord’s Prayer in harmony, all is well.

  Now, I had my voice part; I liked to take the high parts, cuz I like to sing in falsetto, hit everybody with those beyonce notes. 

And after chapel where I spent the majority of my days, like most of us, is at my job,  I worked at the holy cross school.  This is the school that was started by the brother monks, and is located on the same property as the monastery.

 It’s a small school, kindergarten through 3^rd grade, with about 14 kids in each class. The school in its current capacity has been around for the last 4 years. 

Being that it is a small, and a new school, the teachers and the staff are very involved with the kids, their lives, and in there physical and mental growth. 

My role in the school was a jack-of-all-trades, anything from being the permanent substitute teacher to the librarian.  I often joke with the schools principle Kary, that my resume after having that job would be stacked, because Ive got experience working with kids, running an office and because we managed our own modest budget, I now have experience in high, finance.  

But the real story is the kids.  These kids are phenomenal.  Never in my life have I met such strong souls.  Most of the children come from surrounding farms.  Farms that are really run like plantations.  With a white land owner and all the other people of color having very little in the way of ownership over their homes and the spaces that they use. 

So the school serves these workers children in the hope to break the cycle of no education, which leads to no agency and really no future beyond the farm. 

But man, these kids, they, have really, seen, some stuff.  In a classroom of 14, seven of them are girls and 5 out of that seven, have experience violent, sexual trauma coming from abuse from an adult living in their community.  And none of the kids are even over 10 years old.  

 I say that at the school we invest in the children. Our time and our love, but we also invest a lot of money into each of them. Taking them to the doctor to get a shot or a check up, or to the dentist to get a cavity filled in.  Or investing to get some of these kids the proper psychological help that they really need, at this crucial time, in their early childhood.  

And granted, not all the children will make it to high school or to college, but our school, is a foundation phase school, and we believe that when the children leave the holy cross school, they will be able to count and have a strong foundation in reading and writing not only in English, but more importantly in their home language Xhosa. 

Xhosa It’s a beautiful language, ill share with you a tongue twister that I learned from the kids.  Its about a skunk who travels through green grasses and gets its throat cut. Kinda morbid but 5 and 6 year olds taught it to me so listen, Iqaqa lizi qiqa qiqa.  It really is a powerful language.

Anyway, We are talking about stories, and South Africa like most other places in the world has issues around story telling.  Who can and can’t tell them, whose stories we will listen to and affirm and validate.

  I know we all, have experiences, when talking with people, where we find that one person, who likes to over talk us and wont let us get out a word, or finish a thought.  And we know how that makes us feel, frustrated, not listened to, not important.

Imagine that feeling ten fold. Where its not just you as a individual who feel invalidated but as a people, as a cultural or ethnic group, when your collective narrative as a people is ignored and marginalized. Story telling right, that’s, what we are talking about!

 Well south Africa like the US. Has issues around race.  We lack the language to express ourselves when race comes up; we lack overall the capacity to understand different experiences from our collective own, because people, are afraid of other people.  Some times with good reason, sometimes needlessly.  And because we all lack the ability to share our stories with one another we will remain this way. 

In todays gospel reading it says just like every Sunday, love our neighbor as ourselves, because love is fulfilling the law. What’s some major ways you can show someone that you love them? Taking the time, to listen to them, taking the time, to speak with them, just taking the time. 

I will only be in the states until the beginning of October when ill go back to south Africa for my second year as a missionary.  I am going to take up a new post with the Institutte for the healing of memories. This is an institute based around healing and reconciliation of the past and the present. 

I will be doing work with their youth programs, the aim of these programs are to educate, young folks, about the past.  Having the understanding, that in order, for young people, or anyone for that matter, to be able to respond sensitively, and relevantly to the impact, of past suffering, they must be knowledgeable about the history of segregation and oppression.  

There are also workshops that I will be involved with for the general public, adults, that are centered around what we’ve talked about here today, story telling, and using the power of stories, to open up spaces, for us to develop the language that is needed for authentic healing. 

There is a saying that I learned in South Africa, As long as the lion doesn’t have a story teller, the story of the hunter will always glorify the hunter. .. What being a missionary is about, What the institute represents is telling stories of the lion and being a platfor to hear and share stories.  Because the more we hear stories that are different from our own, we start to see a fuller image of all that god is in all of god’s creativity and diversity and love and compassion.

This, is very worthy work that is being done, and as we talked about earlier we show love through presence and time and a sharing of our resources. 

We are not all called, to do the same thing, and to be frank, we cant all just do one thing.  We have to support each other using the gifts that god has blessed us with.  God is blessing me with time, and youthful energy and a passion for this work. Ahh Im just on fire.  God may have placed in your heart a passion for this work but not the time or the ability to travel to do it. However, God may have provided you with the means to support this ministry financially.  I have to raise $8,000 to support me while I am back in SA.

My monthly stipend to support my self, my medical care, my plane ticket is where the initial monies will go to.  I pray that something I said really sticks with you and ignites a flame, not only in your heart, but, under your booty. The time is now, support work that will make a difference. 

As I conclude I would like to leave you with a saying, from the late great Nelson Mandela. For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.

Amen