I
spent the summer of 1980 in Fort Wayne, Indiana as a seminary intern at Trinity
Episcopal Church where my cousin, Cory Randall, was Rector. Cory felt that it was important that I get to
know the whole Episcopal community in Fort Wayne, so I spent time in other
congregations in the area. I met many
people, was offered gracious hospitality by many and learned a great deal about
parish ministry.
When
I returned to my seminary to begin my final year, I had some financial concerns
that I had kept to myself. When I went
to the book store to purchase the books for the fall term, my financial anxiety
rose significantly. It seemed that every
professor wanted us to buy five or more books, each a hardback edition of three
to four hundred pages. I collected the
books and went to the counter to have the staff record my purchases on my
student account. After a while I stopped
watching the cash register, my despair growing with each bell-like tone.
After
every book had been entered and the necessary information recorded, I asked the
staff person, ‘Well, how bad is it?’
‘You owe nothing,’ she said.
‘Nothing,’ I stammered.
‘Nothing,’ she replied, ‘your course books and any other books you think
you need are being paid for by an anonymous donor in Fort Wayne.’ This donor has remained unknown to me to this
day despite some subtle attempts on my part to ferret out her or his identity. He or she is unknown but not forgotten almost
thirty-five years later.
Each
year on the 28th of October the Anglican Church of Canada remembers
Saints Simon and Jude, two men who are named among the twelve apostles in every
list found in the Gospels. Despite this
role in the life of the early community, they remain fundamentally unknown to
us.
According
to the Gospels Simon was a member of the Zealots, a movement that many people
today might consider a terrorist movement.
The Zealots sought by guerilla warfare to hasten the coming of the
Messiah. What I want to know is why
Simon left the Zealots behind to join Jesus?
We have no record of his ‘conversion’ and in these days of ‘radicalization’
Simon’s story would be a gift.
Poor
Jude had the misfortune to share the same first name as Judas Iscariot. As a consequence later Christian tradition
invoked Judas as the patron saint of lost and hopeless causes. I still remember, as a boy, reading
classified ads thanking Saint Jude for aiding the petitioner in finding
something that was lost or healing someone with a life-threatening illness. What was it like to share the name of the one
who betrayed Jesus? We do not know.
Simon
and Jude are unknown to us but we have not forgotten them. Each time their feast day rolls around we
have the opportunity not only to remember them but to remember all those
nameless and unknown people who have shaped our lives as we seek to follow the
way of Jesus. I give thanks for all the ‘unknown’
people who have contributed to the life of Saint Faith’s, some whose names are
forgotten, some whose names are so deeply buried in our archives that it would
take some time to recover them. But they
are not forgotten, especially as we draw near to the Church’s great celebration
of the unknown saints.
Pause
today and remember. Hold before God the memory
of all those, known and unknown, who have guided you, shaped you, embraced you,
emboldened you. Remember and be
thankful.