Today the Episcopal Church commemorates Conrad Weiser, Witness to Peace and Reconciliation, 1760

                         Antiphon on Psalm 25

Lead 

me 

in 

your 

truth, 

O Lord, and teach me. 

         ----- ***---- 

I knew this was my verse when I read it, but I didn’t have, well the full picture, and THE picture, (which is of St Peter’ Church in Antioch), until I finished reading the Acts reading, pretty near the end of Morning Prayer. I had first looked at the saint of the day and thought Yowzer, that’s way too complicated. But I did it anyway and, in the end, it all fit together!  …. Imagine. :))

Where it fits together is Acts 11 (19-26)  where the disciples are “scattered because of the persecution over Stephen” and go as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch. As they go, and Where they go, they are indeed sharing the Good News, but only with fellowJews. “But among them were some men of Cyprus and Cyrene who, on coming to Antioch, spoke to the Hellenists also, proclaiming the Lord Jesus, The hand of the Lord was with them and a great many became believers and turned to the Lord.  News of this came to the church in Jerusalem and they sent Barnabas to Antioch” to put an end to such foolishness, if past is prologue. But Barnabas himself had a change of heart when he was what was going on. And maybe because of this more inclusive vision, “it was at Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians,” a phrase that I always find strangely moving. 

(Last week when the House of Representatives tried to ban the ban on the sale of Confederate flags on Federal land, a Democratic African American member of the House stood by an image of that flag and proclaimed that if the ideology it represented had prevailed during the Civil War, he would not be standing there today, a free man and a Representative of the people. Similarly, most of us would not be Christians today if the more limited vision of Christianity had prevailed.) 

So now I see where Conrad Weiser fits in., this 18th American born in Germany who ‘worked for peace and reconciliation between the European settlers and the native peoples of Pennsylvania.’  He was given “the gift of diplomacy to understand two different cultures and interpret each to the other with clarity and honesty;” And the collect goes on:  “As we strive to be faithful to our vocation to commend your kingdom, help us to proclaim the Gospel to the many cultures around us, that by your Holy Spirit we may be effective ambassadors of our Savior Jesus Christ.” Which bring us back full circle to

   Lead me in your truth, O Lord, and teach me.