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Commencement Homily: May 13, 2017
The Rev. Dr. George Wiley, BKSM Faculty and Canon Pastor, Diocese of Kansas

Commemoration of Frances Perkins, May 13
Psalm 37:27–31
Deuteronomy 15:7–11
Ephesians 4:25–5:2
Luke 9:10–17

Thank you, graduates, for the invitation to give this homily. I am most honored.

AND: we being a school and all, for today’s homily only, we have visual aids.

This just in: archaeologists recently unearthed a moldy scroll of of the Book of Genesis from the sands of Egypt. This document contains a surprising variant reading of Genesis 12:1. You probably know this passage as, “Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.’” This is the verse, of course, that begins the story of God’s call to Abram. The variant text, however, reads, “Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to Topeka, yea verily, even unto Bethany Place, Upton Hall, and Grace Cathedral. If you want a lower bunk, arrive early!’”

I’ll bet you haven’t heard about the political fractures dividing Americans. Oh, you have? Then I’ll bet you’re hoping I won’t remind you about them. Well….
  • Urban versus rural
  • Coastal versus heartland
  • Elites versus populists
  • [hold up cards]  
    Blue versus red

Today we observe the commemoration of Frances Perkins, and it’s hard to consider her life without plunging into the political divisions of our day. She was a blue-state lady: raised in Boston, degrees from Mt. Holyoke and Columbia, an advocate for working people, secretary of labor in a Democrat administration, and faculty member at Cornell. East Coast, urban.

[hold up blue card]  
Blue is her color. Or is it?

According to the web site of the Frances Perkins Center, Frances’s parents grew up in small towns in Maine. They were not Boston Brahmins. The family operated a brickyard, and her father farmed the rocky soil. Times got hard, and he moved the family to Boston, and that’s where Frances was born. The family called her Fanny. They  then moved to Worcester, MA, and set up a paper-goods business. Family ancestors fought in the Revolutionary War. She was a descendant of patriots and staunch Republicans. So: humble rural origins, small business owners in the family tree.

[hold up red card] 
Red???

Now to complicate things even more, let me add some information about Frances that’s harder to classify.
  • According to the Perkins Center, she was raised on “the Yankee values that were the core of that heritage – frugality, ingenuity, tenacity and self-reliance.”

And from Holy Women, Holy Men:
  • “As a young adult she discovered the Episcopal Church.”
  • She depended on “her faith, her life of prayer, and the guidance of her church for the support she needed” in public service.
  • “During her time as Secretary of Labor, she would take time away from her duties on a monthly basis and make ... retreat[s] with the All Saints’ Sisters of the Poor.”

[hold up both cards]
What color are frugality, ingenuity, and tenacity? What color are faith and prayer?
The lectionary readings provided for Frances’ day strike me as also color-ambiguous.
  • From Deuteronomy: “If there is among you anyone in need, a member of your community ... do not be hard-hearted or tight-fisted toward your needy neighbor. You should rather open your hand, willingly lending enough to meet the need, whatever it may be.”
  • From Psalm 37: “The righteous are always generous in their lending, and their children shall be a blessing.”
  • From Luke: “And all ate and were filled.”

What color is opening your wallet to lend or give?

What color is God’s miraculous generosity at a meal beside the Sea of Galilee?


What color is baptism?

What color is diakonia?

What color is priesthood?

If as Christians we’re asking “Which side is right?” we’re asking the wrong question!

The question to ask is rather, How can we live out the words of today’s Epistle reading?
  • “We are members of one another.”
  • “Put away from you all bitterness and wrath ... and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.”

Friends, how we Christians treat each other is the main thing. How we treat each other is the main thing. How we treat each other is a powerful way for us to bear witness to the Gospel. A divided society needs that witness.

And isn’t BKSM a microcosm of this society? Maybe not coastal versus heartland, although Dean Don spent time in California, but rural versus urban, elites versus populists, red versus blue. That’s us! The student body!

When Frances Perkins’ parents were young, our country was divided. Our ancestors were moving toward civil war. In fact, people then were more bitterly divided than we are. My benchmark for polarization is May 22, 1856, the day that U.S. Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina walked from the House of Representatives into the Senate chamber and approached the desk of Republican Senator Charles Sumner. Without warning, Brooks raised his cane in the air and beat Sumner into unconsciousness. So polarization is not new. Brooks’ story offers an occasion to remember the prayer for the unity of the church: “Give us grace seriously to lay to heart the great dangers we are in by our unhappy divisions.” The great dangers we are in.

I know it’s asking a lot to say it’s not about which side is right, it’s about how Christians treat each other. I know it’s so easy to slide into us versus them thinking. I deal with this in myself pretty much  every day. In my prayer time, it seems that God puts before me, again and again, my temptation to think and speak snarky. Truly, we need the help of God with us in Jesus Christ.

Graduates: Congratulations. I love you, I wish you well, I thank God for your faith and hard work and, yes, your stubbornness. God go with you, now and always.

Address:
Bishop Kemper School for Ministry
701 SW 8th Avenue
Topeka, KS 66603

Address for Tuition Payments/Donations:
The Rev, Fran Wheeler
14519 S. Kaw Dr.

Olathe, KS 66062


The Bishop Kemper School for Ministry is a collaborative venture of the Episcopal Dioceses of Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, West Missouri, Nebraska and Western Kansas.
BKSM also partners with the Central States Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
BKSM offers classes and programs to educate people for church leadership in both lay and ordained vocations.