Flipping the Tires of Life

 

Rev. Molly F. James, PhD
DFMS Noonday Prayer
Commemoration of Anna Alexander
September 24, 2020

May God’s Word be spoken. May God’s Word be heard. May that point us to the living Word who is Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

‘Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.’

Oh, what a good Scripture for today. I think this might be a good Scripture for our pandemic season. I think we are all weary and carrying heavy burdens. We are carrying heavy burdens for lots of reasons. We are living in the midst of the realities of COVID and systemic racism. We are in the midst of political division, of uncertainty about how the election will go. And then there are the personal burdens we are carrying because of the challenges we are dealing with in our home lives or in our extended family. We are all carrying them and there are days where the burdens can feel unbearably heavy.

And so we need this Scripture today. And we need the story of the life of Anna Alexander. If you don’t know about Anna, I commend her story to you. She was the first African-American woman ordained to the diaconate in The Episcopal Church. She was ordained in 1907 in the Diocese of Georgia. Despite numerous challenges, she did tremendous work to serve the poor and needy and to promote education in the communities she served. No doubt she carried many burdens. Particularly because the successor to her ordaining bishop did not provide financial support to her community and excluded African-Americans from Church governance. But she persevered. She just kept going and building community.

I bet Anna had her days of frustration. Her days of wishing things were different. She lived through droughts and the Great Depression. She knew what it was to have dreams and plans thwarted by forces beyond her control. She was faced with the choice we all are in the face of seemingly insurmountable difficulties. We can choose to give up. We can throw in the towel and say never mind. But here is the thing. If we are tempted to do that, if we feel like there is no way forward, then I think we have lost our focus, lost our center.

As many of you know, I have been re-reading the Book of Joy (a record of a week of conversation between Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama). In that book, they note that “Despair turns us inward. Hope sends us into the arms of others.” That’s the crux of it. If we feel ourselves going down the road of despair, it is because we have turned too far inward. Hope is a communal activity. We find it together. Anna found it because she did not work alone. Her ministry was not solitary. She was in community, working with and empowering others. That is why she could choose perseverance over defeat.

And that is the truth at the heart of our Gospel today. We do not journey alone. We are invited to share our burdens. With Christ, and with those who manifest God’s presence in our lives. All of a sudden things which seemed impossible no longer are, because we are not trying to do them all by ourselves. Let me offer a tangible example from my experience at CrossFit. In pre-pandemic times when we could do collaborative workouts, we would flip tires. These are not your average tires. They are enormous tractor tires or tires from heavy equipment. They weigh hundreds of pounds. Alone there would be no chance of budging it an inch. But put three of us together on the tire and suddenly we can flip the tire over and over again down the alley.

So, if you are currently staring at an enormous “tire” in your life or in some other way feeling overburdened right now, may I suggest taking inspiration from our Scriptures and from Deacon Anna. Do not despair. Do not give up. Instead, reach out. Connect more deeply with Christ. Ask for help from your companions on the way. Together we can do so much more. Hope and joy are found in the blessings of collaboration and teamwork.

These are challenging times. No doubt about it. And we can take comfort and strength from remembering that we do not journey alone. God is with us. In Spirit and in the very tangible form of colleagues, friends, and family members whose presence and wisdom bring light and love to life for us each and every day. Amen.