Wednesday's Word: Unknown (29 October 2014)

         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 28^th 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.