5-5-20 Sermon Notes “The Gift of Presence”
I got to see my mom face-to-masked-face the other day for the first time in several weeks. Although I talk to her by phone frequently, I think it did both of us a world of good to actually be “present” with each other…in the same room! We had a nice visit (from across the room), and re-connected.
Knowing that Mother’s Day was coming up, I asked my mom what I always ask… “What do you want for Mother’s Day?” And she answered the same as always. Something like, “There is nothing I really need. Anything is fine…it’s enough that we just get to be together.” The gift of presence…I understand that. It is precious, and sometimes difficult to come by, especially in a time of quarantine and social distancing.
I won’t be able to be in the same room with her or with you this Sunday, but I want to wish everyone a Happy Mother’s Day. In honor of my mom, and my wife – and all the other great moms – I want to share with you one of my favorite poems from one of my favorite poets.
The Lanyard
BILLY COLLINS
The other day I was ricocheting slowly
off the blue walls of this room,
moving as if underwater from typewriter to piano,
from bookshelf to an envelope lying on the floor,
when I found myself in the L section of the dictionary
where my eyes fell upon the word lanyard.

No cookie nibbled by a French novelist
could send one into the past more suddenly—
a past where I sat at a workbench at a camp
by a deep Adirondack lake
learning how to braid long thin plastic strips
into a lanyard, a gift for my mother.

I had never seen anyone use a lanyard
or wear one, if that’s what you did with them,
but that did not keep me from crossing
strand over strand again and again
until I had made a boxy
red and white lanyard for my mother.

She gave me life and milk from her breasts,
and I gave her a lanyard.
She nursed me in many a sick room,
lifted spoons of medicine to my lips,
laid cold face-cloths on my forehead,
and then led me out into the airy light

and taught me to walk and swim,
and I, in turn, presented her with a lanyard.
Here are thousands of meals, she said,
and here is clothing and a good education.
And here is your lanyard, I replied,
which I made with a little help from a counselor.

Here is a breathing body and a beating heart,
strong legs, bones and teeth,
and two clear eyes to read the world, she whispered,
and here, I said, is the lanyard I made at camp.
And here, I wish to say to her now,
is a smaller gift—not the worn truth

that you can never repay your mother,
but the rueful admission that when she took
the two-tone lanyard from my hand,
I was as sure as a boy could be
that this useless, worthless thing I wove
out of boredom would be enough to make us even. (The Trouble With Poetry, Billy Collins, 2005)

The gift of presence is really like saying, “I’m giving you me…(and maybe a lanyard)…I hope it is enough. This Sunday I will be talking about the gift of presence as it relates to the Gospel reading for May 10th. It’s from John 14: 1-14.
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. 4 And you know the way to the place where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. 12 Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it. (John 14: 1-14 NRSV)
Jesus loved his disciples like a good mother loves her children… so much that he let them know that even when the day came that he was not physically in the same room with them, he would have them in his heart, and through the Holy Spirit, would be with them always. Always! And he would be preparing a place just for them…in anticipation of the day when they could be present with each other in the Father’s big, big house.
The honor of your “virtual” presence is requested this Sunday – Mother’s Day – by livestream or Facebook Live…at 9:00 a.m. or at 11:00 a.m.
Grace and peace,
Pastor Sam