Sermon on February 2, 2025 for the Feast of the Presentation
“Loving our Neighbor and Becoming Brave“
By: The Very Rev. Pamela Dolan
Video of the sermon here: https://youtu.be/xD_djMrhVAg
Link to Bishop Megan’s letter here.
Sermon text:
I’d like to add just a few words to this message [a pastoral letter sent by the Rt. Rev. Megan Traquair, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Northern California], and hopefully bring us back to our Gospel reading for today. In the 48 hours or so since I first read the Bishop’s letter, I have learned that Episcopal Migration Ministries, one of the most respected and effective ministries of the Episcopal Church, has begun winding down its core operations, according to a letter from Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe.[i] The federal refugee resettlement program was suspended by an Executive Order from President Trump, and without those federal funds there is simply no way for EMM to continue most of its work.
EMM has been a beacon of hope in times of international turmoil and many of us are feeling devasted by this development. As reported by the Episcopal News Service, “EMM’s work was historically rooted in the Presiding Bishop’s Fund for World Relief, which began assisting people from Europe fleeing the Nazis in the 1930s and 1940s.” EMM has provided critical services to fully-vetted refugees in the months after they first arrive in the United States, “including English language and cultural orientation classes, employment services, school enrollment, and initial assistance with housing and transportation.”[ii] It has been a model of public-private partnership, with wide bipartisan support for most of its existence.
As Bishop Megan said, “This is how we love our neighbor.” And, for now, it is ending.
This is all such sobering news. And, of course, it is not just immigrants who are at risk and afraid right now. Scientists who work on climate issues, HIV research, and other fields are feeling targeted. Members of the LGBTQ+ community, especially our trans siblings, are extremely vulnerable as well. And then there is a sad irony in learning about attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion even as we begin the annual commemoration of Black History month.
In the days and months to come, we will need to have hard and honest conversations about how the church should respond to all this. I hope and believe we can do that without rancor or division. We are not always going to be in agreement about every issue, but we can always approach any issue in a spirit of love, compassion, and solidarity. We are one body, bound together by one baptism and one common call to reconciliation and repentance. We are always stronger together.
Today’s Gospel provides us a glimmer, a hint as to how we will get through whatever comes our way, and for many of us it may not look like all that heroic or extraordinary. Every major character in this story, from Joseph and Mary to Simeon and Anna, exhibit the same simple, modest virtue of faithfulness. They show up at the Temple and do what their religious faith has asked them to do, without fanfare or public notice. They are as humble and unassuming as any of us here in this church today, maybe even more so.
In the case of the Holy Family, they are literally too poor to offer a lamb as a ritual sacrifice marking the birth of their son, and so they give the lowly but acceptable offering of two turtledoves instead. Simeon and Anna are both nearing the end of their lives, and have no positions of earthly power or authority, and yet the Spirit of God rests on them and gives them counsel. Anna models faithfulness with her constant prayer and devotion. Simeon models faithfulness by following the Holy Spirit’s lead and not giving up hope; he is rewarded with liberation and peace. All of them did what was expected of them, in humble, consistent, and faithful ways, and are still remembered for it all these many centuries later.
In her book How We Learn to Be Brave,[iii] Bishop Marianne Edgar Budde writes,
“Jesus’ cross was one he took up daily, and so must we. Our acts of daily faithfulness and perseverance are part of a larger arc of courage and resilience through which the power and the grace of God are at work. The stories we tell, and the moments we remember, may be about the decisive moments, but what matters most is how those moments inform the living of each hour.”
The example that always springs to mind for me is the Civil Rights hero Rosa Parks. We remember her for that one decisive moment when she refused to give up her seat on a bus, starting a movement that led to the dismantling of an unjust system of legal segregation. But the story that many of us were told, that Rosa Parks was an old woman who was just too tired that day to do as she was told, is a serious distortion of the truth. As Parks herself wrote in her autobiography,[iv]
“People always say that I didn’t give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn’t true. I was not tired physically, or no more tired than I usually was at the end of a working day. I was not old, although some people have an image of me as being old then. I was forty-two. No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.”
She was also not new to the struggle for liberation. By the time she took her decisive stand in 1955, she had been an active member of the NAACP for twelve years and had been doing the hard, behind-the-scenes work of advancing civil rights, organizing protests, and fighting for women’s rights as well, day in and day that whole time. That is what faithfulness looks like. That is how she learned to be brave. And that is how she loved her neighbor as herself.
In the face of such daunting challenges as oppression, tyranny, and systemic injustice, faithfulness can seem rather a rather quaint and old-fashioned virtue. But there is power in persistence, in showing up, in sticking with one’s commitments, in cultivating courage through small daily acts devotion, discipline, and love. I pray that we will all strive to be as persistent, faithful, and committed as the humble servants of God who came before us, living each hour as a gift and each day as an opportunity to learn to be brave on behalf of others, as we work to build up God’s beloved community in our midst. Amen.
[i] https://www.episcopalchurch.org/publicaffairs/letter-from-episcopal-church-leaders-on-trump-administration-immigration-executive-orders/
[ii] https://episcopalnewsservice.org/2025/01/31/episcopal-migration-ministries-to-end-resettlement-work-lay-off-22-after-trump-halts-refugee-program/
[iii] https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/705987/how-we-learn-to-be-brave-by-mariann-edgar-budde/
[iv] https://www.perfectionlearning.com/rosa-parks-39636-g.html
