Restoration of Dignity - Christmas II--Year C--January 3, 2010 - The Reverend David R. Williams

God in Trinity, Creator, Savior, Giver of life and truth, reveal the possibilities within us that we may attain to the fullness of our humanity.  Amen.

“O God, who wonderfully created, and yet more wonderfully restored, the dignity of human nature…” we pray in this morning’s Collect.

Our dignity, created and more wonderfully restored….

How do we describe our dignity?  “How’s your dignity today, David?”  That is not a routine question of greeting, is it? 

Let’s stop and consider. My dignity?

There are times, however, when, like a lightbulb being sparked, we recognize just what the prayer is talking about. 

A pastor is visiting parishioners in a retirement community.  In the skilled nursing area of the community, most residents are able to look after themselves. With limitations and support, these residents are able to get around.

The pastor comes to one room where there is a commotion and a voice calling for help – an elderly man has fallen in the bathroom and is jammed between the washbasin and the toilet.  He is in considerable pain and even greater distress from shock.

Later, the pastor reflects on his realization that greatest pain of all for this man--well-known as a precise, disciplined, gentleman who cherishes his dignity – must be the utter loss of dignity. It was a poignant scene, the pastor says, common to any of us in such a situation.

How many times have we heard from friends who have undergone surgery, cancer treatments, broken limbs or any hospitalization. “You have to leave your dignity at the door.”

So what is dignity?  Dignity is hard to define.  There seems to be a mix of ingredients: a sprinkle of vanity and pride, but mainly a sense of worth, being in control of my life, well-being, independence if not importance.  Maybe we are not as aware of “dignity” when things are zipping along with routine ups and downs. But that sense of self certainly comes to light when we find ourselves vulnerable and frail, broken from a fall or an unforeseen setback such as job layoff, death of a loved one, break-up of a marriage. In time of trouble, I am even more determined to stand straight, breathe deep, head up.  “I’ll be all right.  I am getting there. These things take time.”  Within my soul, I hurt. I feel uncertain, even embarrassed, and my anxiety sometimes just washes over me.

The aging process is probably the most common challenges to dignity.  I pulled an old birthday card out from the loose paper in one of my desk drawers: “There are three ages of man,” the cover of the card reads in a quote from the renowned Catholic Cardinal Francis Spellman. “Youth, Middle Age, and ‘You’re Looking Wonderful Today.’”

Many of us are “looking wonderful today.” This sense of community offers a bit of reassurance, maybe even a restoration of dignity!

But dignity is not just for the mature. I recall my days as a soccer coach of a team of wee little ones.  The children would race onto the field at game time, most of the kids wanting to do one thing – go for the soccer ball and kick it.  We would have twenty-two kids from both teams all knotted up together, each trying to kick the same soccer ball. There were always two or three kids who realized that the intention of the game is, in fact, to move the ball toward and into a goal at the end of the field (which goal was not important). 

I can recall a little girl coming up to me during one of the games.  She looked up at me and said, “Coach David, I kicked the ball!” 

My attention was distracted for a moment as I watched the wad of children fruitlessly trying to get the soccer ball in just any direction. Then I realized, David, this little girl’s dignity had been restored!  She had never been able to kick the ball in a game.  The more aggressive guys and little girls always got in front of her. 

“Coach David, I kicked the ball.’

“O God, who wonderfully created and yet more wonderfully restored, the dignity of human nature….”

We all have our vulnerabilities. Some of us are shorter than others; some are heavier; some are bald; some are confined to wheel chairs; some of us have white or gray hair; some of us feel we are too young, some have aching backs; some of us have money resources and worry; others of us have far less money resources and worry; some of us feel that we are different from everybody else. 

We all breathe in, we hold our heads high, we hold onto our dignity with the resources of faith, love for those we trust, inner strength mustered by sheer will.

One of the greatest and most profound gifts of this Christmas season is awareness of our dignity, wonderfully created. We also are gifted with the awareness of Incarnation: God is present and, through Him, we are even restored. Dignity can be recovered, what is lost may be found, what is bruised may be healed, what is wounded may be made whole.

“Christ destined us for adoption as his children,” the evangelist Paul writes. He addresses not only the people of Ephesus, but the many church communities of those early days not long after Jesus walked the earth.  Paul is primarily writing to Gentiles – the new folks feeling out of sorts with this fabulous story centered on a Jewish rabbi.  The Gentiles are outsiders feeling little or no dignity in the Jewish temple.

“With all wisdom and insight Christ has made known to us the mystery of his will.  We have obtained an inheritance…the pledge of inheritance toward redemption, forgiveness, liberation, as God’s own people,” Paul says in respectful tone to this growing community of God-fearing, God-loving people.

Today, the second Sunday of Christmas, we begin a new calendar year.  We celebrate the commissioning of a new vestry.  In coming weeks, new identities will take shape as Holy Comforter moving the ball forward in your new chapter.

A headline this past week in the New York Times challenged my dignity: “Thinking Hard About Retirement…and Death.” 

Well gee, let’s postpone the latter – the former is challenging enough!

Questions float around the pews of Holy Comforter: Who will be our Interim Rector?  Who will be on the Search committee?  Who will be our new Rector in a year or so? We are vulnerable. 

As your vestry is commissioned today, Holy Comforter’s leadership will be clocked-in immediately--and surely doing the work of Christmas. You are people of the Incarnation. Care for one another, celebrating your Creator and treasure your God-given dignity. Where there is hurt, soothe. Where there is need, restore. Where there is goodness, give thanks.

“O God, who wonderfully created, and yet more wonderfully restored, the dignity of human nature: Grant that we may share the divine life of him who humbled himself to share our humanity, your son Jesus Christ.”  Amen.