The Nativity of John the Baptist. Wednesday, June 24, 2002

                         ________________________________Psalm 98:1_

 Sing 

 to 

 the 

 Lord 

 a new 

  song,

   for he has done wonderful things.

I got a call about church yesterday: “We’re going to clean out the big vestment closet tomorrow: it’s going to be a long time before we share vestments again and before we need chalice bearers. Why don’t you go down and take home an alb and a cassock and surplice that fit you.” 

So I went down. How many times have I been in the quiet of that vesting room? How many times have I been there vesting with a whole parade of people through the years, old and young, for Sunday morning Eucharists and vigil services, episcopal visitations, baptisms, funerals, clergy transitions, all of us celebrating and mourning together All these 40 years. It began for me almost inadvertently - growing up female in the church, I thought my place was in the kitchen (sacristy) and when I came to San Diego I did altar guild and flowers. And then one day the acolyte didn’t show up and the priest said, “Go suit up.” Which I did and the rest is history.  And suddenly here I was on the other side of that. And I Was bereft. I felt in freefall. "Suddenly all that sheltererd me is gone."  Again. All we have is God. Luckily, all we need is God. But sometimes that is cold comfort and there is no way through but through. 
It was true for Jesus. It is true tofay. 

This morning I sat down to do Morning Prayer for this feast that changes the history of the world, this tiny linchpin between the old age and the new born to a barren woman, the birth of the “prophet of the Most High,” 

 Here’s my verse - the antiphon on the first psalm of the day, 82. “All  the foundations of the earth are shaken.”  But I had no image to go with it and no place to satrt. “No,” God whispered, “Read on”   I jumped willy-nilly, past all the pain and the process to the Benedictus.  “No,” came the whisper " Go back to the beginning.: you left off at the second psalm.”  Start there,” God whispered. 

I once heard at the AA meeting, 

which is all about “new life spring-

ing up all green an gorgeous in 

the midst of loss,

        “Things are not going to be all right. 

              Things are all right right now.” 

Sing to the Lord a new song.