Cooley Dickinson and Rockridge. He was a member of the Northampton Elk’s club, the Eagle’s club and the Lion’s club, the Northampton Bay State Association and the St. Patrick's Association, the Northampton Historical Society, the Northampton Historical Commission, and the Northampton Disability commission…honestly the list goes on and on. In fact, it seems Rodney was a member of pretty much everything in Northampton (his obit went on for 3 pages!) … everything except First Churches.

So when I got the call from the funeral home that he had put down our church as his church and asked for me to officiate at his funeral, I was a little surprised. Mike at Ahearn was talking to me like I knew Rodney and I said, “Mike, I may be the only person in Northampton who has no idea who this guy is.” But when he mentioned the Clark connection, I thought back to Priscilla Pike’s funeral 4 years ago and remembered how beautifully she was eulogized by a former student who I now know was Rodney.

Priscilla, as you some of you know, worked her whole career at the Clark School along with her dear friend Marge Magner. Clark was a boarding school back then that took in deaf children when they were very, very young, so they could learn to lip read and function fully in the hearing world.

This meant that people like Marge and Pris were less like staff and much more like family for those little kids. So much so that Pris and Marge actually brought their students to church. I imagine Rodney sat through more than one  service here at First Churches and, being such an active resident of Northampton, would have known about the different ways we serve our community.

But honestly, I think it was the faith of Pris and Marge, a faith that encouraged them to welcome and love and raise children like Rodney, that stuck with him; stuck with him so much that when it came time to fill in the form at the funeral home and decide who they should call to do his funeral, he chose their church. Thanks to Pris and Marge, Rodney knew that member or not, he was always welcome here at First Churches.

And my friends that shouldn’t be extraordinary, but I think it is. An extravagant welcome should be the default of every church, but you and I both know that a church which truly and unconditionally welcomes all no matter who they are, who they love, or where they are on their life’s journey- even if it is at the very, very end of that journey - a church like that is as rare as it is precious.

First Churches is precious.

I don’t think I’m the only one here who is still sometimes amazed, not just that a church like ours exists, but that we get to be a part of it.

Because really, how many of us have been wounded by the Church in the broadest sense? I’m talking Big C Church, the Church in general? Yeah.

How many of us felt at some point like we had to walk away or, even worse, were ushered out of the Church in no uncertain terms because of our questions or our politics, our callings or our convictions, our gender or our orientation? (Me too. And I’m sorry. Sorry for them and sorry for us.)

Given our history, our experience, our identity, (I mean I’m a woman for heaven’s sake, standing up here in a collar!) it’s amazing that some of us are here at all and equally amazing that we get to be here together. Like the apostle Paul, we are some of the least likely people you’d expect to find sitting or singing or preaching or serving in church on a Sunday morning.

And yet here we are, heirs to a mystery we can scarce contain or comprehend. The mystery that we are loved, forgiven and welcomed by God because the truth is that everyone is loved, forgiven, and welcomed by God. That’s the gospel. Period. Full Stop. Not loved, forgiven, or welcome because of anything we’ve done or come to believe. Just loved by God because God is love.  Loved and forgiven because our Creator refuses to let any one of us go.

If you take a look back at the epistle Ann read to us this morning, you’ll see that Paul himself is still blown away by this mystery1. After all, he had been a Pharisee to the Pharisees: a meticulously observant Jew, a ruthless protector of of his faith, and a violent persecutor of anyone who dared water it down with the teachings of Jesus. At the beginning of the book of Acts, Paul was literally hunting down Christians to imprison and kill them.

Paul was a sworn enemy of these followers of Jesus’ because the gospel they were spreading - the good news that God’s love and grace were for all people not just God’s chosen people - was anathema to Paul… until that is, he was blinded by the light of Christ on the road to Damascus.

Remember that light we talked about last week, the light Madeleine L’Engle describes as “so lovely people want with all their hearts to know the source of it?”  Paul was blinded by that light, blinded by the mystery of a love that is so wide and long and high and deep, we cannot fathom it with our minds. We can only welcome it into our hearts and then do our best to share it with others.

After his come to Jesus experience on the road to Damascus, where Paul experienced the light of Christ’s love and forgiveness first hand, even and in spite of all he had done, Paul spent the rest of his life spreading the good news of God’s unconditional love to all.  And here, here in his letter to the Ephesians, he prays for all of us in the church to do the same. He prays that we would be rooted in this love, that we would ground ourselves in this love, and then go forth as he did to let everyone know that this love is for them too.

That’s the work of the church. That’s job # 1 for the body of Christ. Our job is to let people know they are loved, forgiven, and welcome in the heart of God.

I want you to take a moment to not just think with your mind but feel with your heart, what it means to be part of a church that hasn’t forgotten that. Think of the welcome, the grace, and the love you and others have encountered here. Pause and just feel for a moment what First Churches means to you.

I mean how good is it that we get to be a part of a church where everyone is welcome to worship, to serve, and to be fed at this table be they a friend, a member, a believer, or a seeker?

How beautiful is it that a place exists where you can experience peace and then work for peace, a place where you can find ways to serve and people to serve alongside?

How remarkable is it that we are a church where breakfast is served on Fridays and marches are planned on Sundays, a church where music is sung and prayers are offered throughout the week, a church where children are loved, elders are honored, and we have a place where we can conspire together for the good of all.

Take a moment to think about what all this means to you… and now consider what it could mean to your neighbors who might not even know that a church like this exists.

Our stewardship theme this year is widening our welcome. I know when we hear that word stewardship our minds go right to the idea of how much we can pledge to support the church, but this year’s campaign is about so much more than raising money. It’s about living more and more fully into the true mission of this church and what has been and should be the true mission of the Church as a whole…the mission to reach everyone with the good news that God really does love the whole world and to live in such a way that they feel that love as strongly as we do.

Your pledges will enable us to widen our welcome, but so will your words….any words of invitation you share out in the world that let people know they will find a God who loves them here.

You may feel like the least likely evangelist, but you know what? So did Paul.

You may feel like your gifts won’t amount to all that much in the scheme of things, but I can assure you that every gift matters because where your treasure is, there will your heart be also and this campaign is as much about your commitment to the mission as it is about whatever you can financially contribute to that mission.

Think back to Marge and Pris. Two ordinary women who worked their whole lives at the Clark School for the deaf. They would not have considered themselves either great philanthropists or skilled evangelists. But they loved and they loved well. They loved their church and they loved the children in their care. Those two women faithfully supported the church while they were alive and left gifts to the church when they died. The truth is, if it were not for their generosity in the years leading up to Covid, there would not have been enough money to cover both my salary and the mortgage.

But remember this as well: they didn’t just help keep our doors open and our ministry strong, they invited their students to come through those doors and experience this ministry for themselves. Because of their loving welcome, one of those students knew he could call on the pastor of First Churches to see him off at the end of his life, and because of their generous gifts, I was here to answer that call.

Friends, we may feel like the least likely people to be here or carry on the mission of this church, but if God could use Paul and Pris and Marge, God can and will use us. Now is the time to spread the good news and widen our welcome so all will know just how wide and long and high and deep is the love of God for all.

Rooted in love, may you give as you are able and invite others as you feel led. Thank you. God bless you. And may God continue to bless our church. Amen.

Footnotes

1 There is much debate amongst scholars as to whether or not Paul wrote this letter. The earlier manuscripts leave the sender and recipient blank, leading scholars to believe that this was more of an open letter that could be modified and sent to any church. I think this is good news for modern churches, because we can receive it as written for us in that spirit. This doesn’t mean it isn’t scripture. It means that the early church felt there was real worth and wisdom here and circulated it so widely that it was eventually included in the canon and attributed to Paul as a letter he wrote to the church in Ephesus.