I was asked to do the sermon at Grace Episcopal Church in Anderson, SC, for their Global Missions Sunday yesterday. It was a wonderful event, complete with a food festival with samples from 13 different countries (including Haiti!). My sermon is below.
4/19/2015
Sermon for Grace Episcopal Anderson, SC
Good
morning! It’s wonderful to be here at Grace, another amazing parish in this diocese
that I get to visit while back in the U.S. this month. For most of you who
haven’t yet met me, my name is Alan Yarborough, and I am currently living and
working as a Young Adult Service Corps missionary for the Episcopal Church in Cange,
Haiti. Cange is a small town in the Central Plateau of Haiti about two hours
north of Port-au-Prince and about two hours from the nearest beach. It’s an
isolated community located on a mountaintop surrounded by clear evidence of
deforestation, lack of access to health care, and limited economic means. It’s
also where I have made my home for the past two years.
Some if not
all of you know that the Diocese of Upper South Carolina has had a relationship
with the small town of Cange for around 35 years. This parish has had a
significant role in the ministry, most recently in supporting the Cange parish
mission in a town called Bois Joly. Some of you may have even visited Cange and
have seen it for yourself. It is as a part of that relationship that I am here
today to discuss this ministry in this service, during the Sunday school time
at 10, and this evening with the youth group.
But before I
get into the meat of my sermon, I want to begin with a disclaimer.
There’s a
great commercial on TV right now—it’s one of those Above the Influence
commercials. There are some teens sitting at a table in a diner, and one young
man gets asked a couple of questions on topics from partying to alcohol to
sharing private information via telephone. Each time he opens his mouth to
respond, there’s a second mouth inside of his own that speaks on his behalf
clearly in a different voice. It’s a bit of a grotesque, surreal image of
another mouth inside his own—two sets of teeth two sets of lips. But it’s the
one clearly not his own that does the speaking. The tag line of the commercial
is, “speak for yourself, live above the influence,” meaning, don’t give into
peer pressure and let others speak for you. It’s a great ad.
This ad gives
me a visual for another instance where one may speak for another, except in
what I’m thinking, the primary speaker’s voice is being overshadowed by someone
else speaking for them—and it is beyond their control. In effect, though the
person is capable of speaking for themselves, unlike our character in the commercial,
their voice is nevertheless being robbed by others.
I am here
today in part to talk on behalf of Haitians. It could be very easy for me to
put words in the mouths of the Haitians that I know, and others who I do not,
in a sense diminishing their power over their own thoughts, words and actions.
But I pray, because I am aware of this risk, that I speak to you today in
conversation with our Haitian brothers and sisters rather than speaking for
them. I also pray that the words that you hear, the conversations that follow,
and the questions you may have of me, may be a part of a conversation with one
another, and not speaking in place of another.
Last week,
the theme of this disclaimer actually came up in the Gospel reading from John. In that reading, we know
that most of the disciples have had a chance to see Jesus risen firsthand,
except Thomas. When Thomas, who was absent from the others, reunites with the
disciples, they all tell him the Lord is risen! But Thomas, speaking up for
himself, says, “wait wait wait, I know YOU are saying you have seen the risen
Lord, but I myself have not seen him and will not believe until I do with my
own eyes.”
Jesus then
comes along and shows Thomas the truth and the light. He shows Thomas the marks
in his body so he can proclaim the good news himself.
Today, in
the reading from Luke, we have another account, this time without special
mention of Thomas, of Jesus revealing himself to the disciples so that the
disciples can be witnesses themselves that the Lord is risen. Jesus does so not
simply by speaking, but by accepting their food and eating in their presence.
I tend to
think the church’s objective, as an institution, is in part to carry forward
this witness, because you and I have not had the chance to see Jesus ourselves.
But I think we each can find Jesus in the relationships, the outreach, the
healing and the prayer. Through the work of the church, the work of other
Christians following the example of Jesus, we can see with our own eyes and
then speak with our own words that Jesus has risen among us.
At least,
that’s what I can say about my experience in Cange. Let me tell you a bit about Cange. Almost 60 years ago, the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built a hydroelectric dam that flooded a valley
filled with agriculture and farming families that were forced to the mountain
tops and lost their means of living. Twenty years later, a Haitian-Episcopal
priest Father Fritz Lafontant began a mission in Cange called Parish Bon
Sauveur, and met Bishop Beckham of Upper South Carolina, beginning the 35 year
ministry that thrives today.
Right now, I
live in Cange, which started as a squatter settlement of internally displace
refugees and is now a town of 3,400 people. In Cange is a hospital, the first
site of Partners in Health, now an international health organization. Bobby,
who was born and grew up in Cange, works in that hospital now as a certified
physician.
In Cange is an Episcopal school that is currently providing an
education to 1,369 students from all across the Central Plateau. Lucien, who
graduated in the second graduating class at the school, is now the director of
the secondary school and instrumental in its future success.
In Cange is a
high-class, treated water system designed, built and currently supported by the
Clemson Engineers for Developing Countries group led by David Vaughn, a
parishioner from Holy Trinity in Clemson.
In Cange are young professionals,
graduates from the CFFL vocational school, working on new construction projects
including a sanitary biodigester toilet for the school and a new marketplace
for the community to spur economic development and improve safety.
I believe
Jesus has risen, because while translating for a rural medical clinic with
American and Haitian medical team members, I saw inspiring initiative of
doctors, support staff and community health workers like Dr. Harry Morse,
Victoria Jolibois, and Menius St. Jean.
I believe
Jesus has risen, because while assisting the process for relocating the Cange
marketplace, I saw the relationship between Cange and the regional government
grow, developing the accountability between the town members and their
representatives.
I believe
Jesus has risen, because I have sat in long and difficult meetings with leaders
here in EDUSC to discuss how we move forward with this ministry while facing
economic difficulties here and in Cange only to see a widening of the relationship
beyond where it has been before.
I believe
Jesus has risen, because I have watched high school age youth in Cange start
organizations to call for more female visibility and opportunity in education
and sports, to lead initiatives to fight deforestation, and to call for
increased attention to the formation of Haiti’s children so that tomorrow their
society will be stronger than today.
But what
about you? I’m up here putting images and experiences in your mind about the
reality of Cange and the relationship with the Episcopal Church in Upper South
Carolina and why that is proof to me that Jesus has risen. You don’t have to
take my word for it, in fact some of you may already be wanting more proof for
yourself. I think you know how to find it.
Now, it may
seem at first glance that I’m doing a broad call for you to travel to Cange,
which, if you’re now thinking about it, I strongly recommend you do. But what I’m
really asking of you is to simply get engaged—if you aren’t already—or to
deepen your engagement—if you already are—with the relationship between this
diocese and Cange.
There are so
many different ways of being in relationship with each other here in South
Carolina and with those in Haiti. Jesus is shining his light through each one
of us so that we may illuminate his truth and the way forward toward a more
united kingdom. Much of that light can be shined simply by breaking bread, or
being present, with one another, as Jesus did with the disciples in today’s
Gospel. I truly believe, for it has been my experience, that if you become
engaged with this relationship, you will see for yourself that the Lord has
risen and you will eliminate your doubt. Don’t just take my word for it. Come
be a witness yourself.
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