The Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost

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The Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 20), September 19, 2004
St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, West Valley City, UT

When Fr. Lee first mentioned stewardship in his sermon last week, my first thoughts were not of money, rather, the gifts God has given me and how I have, or have not used them. Of course one of the gifts is money. Without the talents provided by God I would not be able to perform my daily duties at the place I work. But there are other gifts I have received; three of which Id like to talk about today.

The date was October 25, 1971. My wife Betsy and I were living in Philly with our daughter Lizanne and our extended family close by. I was called at work and told she had to go the hospital to deliver our second child. Our son Daniel Joseph Herron was born that day. Unfortunately it was discovered that night he had Hyland Membrane Disease. Danny died the next day, October 26, 1971.

Up to this point in my life I had been a very sociable drinker, and I do mean I was sociable. I was sociable at every bar in the neighborhood, as well as everyones house. When Danny died, I crossed the bridge between being a sociable drinker and alcoholism. Ya see, back in 1971, it was okay for a man to drown his sorrows in a bottle of Rum or Scotch, but we were not permitted to cry. It was not until years later than I met another man who also lost a child to an infant disease, that I felt understood. You see, during my bereavement no one asked me how I was doing. They would ask me how Betsy was doing, or theyd said Im young enough to father other children, but they never asked about my feelings, or if I needed to talk or anything else.

On January 1, 1976 Betsy and I were at the Spectrum in Philly. I had been there many times to watch the Flyers play hockey or the 76ers play basketball, but never for a Catholic Charismatic Mass. So here I was up in the cheap seats, as usual, watching and listening to these Charismatic wackos, or so I thought at the time, doing their thing. After I had received Eucharist I came back to my seat and it happened. I had studied Christianity for more than 12 years, but all that knowledge was in my head, not in my heart. Christ melted my heart, which in time had become stone and replace it with a heart of flesh, and I understood for the first time in my life, that he died for me. He came to this earth for me. He lived his life for me. He did all that he did for me. For me, as an individual. Regardless if I wanted it or not. Regardless if I deserved it or not. He still did it for me. Now, being the good drunk that I was I went home afterward and celebrated by having a few beers. But, on August 17, 1976 I became a friend of Bill W. and have not had a drink since.

In the beginning, didnt I read those three words somewhere? In the beginning of my talk I stated Id talk about three of the many gifts God has given me and here they are:

If I were to hand anyone here a check for a million dollars, and after Betsy stopped beating the tar out of me for writing a bogus check, how much would that check be worth? As long as you have it in your hand, purse or pocket, NOTHING. It's a useless piece of paper until you use it. By me talking about the death of our son, about my years in a bottle, and the love that our God has bestowed upon me, my family and every other human being that has ever lived, I have time, after time, taken that check out of my pocket and put it to use.

How have I done this? In a few parishes I have begun bereavement groups. I have talked to countless people about alcohol a drug abuse, and I have spoken to thousands of the love that God has given each of us. I have taught classes on Scriptures and Religious Education on a variety of levels, and I stutter worse than you can possibly begin to believe. But thats a story for another Sunday.

We might say to ourselves, I cant talk to people like that. Or, I dont have the ability to share, or Ive never had those tragedies. Well, let me tell you about one person who did reach out to me during me time of grief. My brother-in-law Jack Walsh called me a day or so after Danny had died and told me he had two tickets for the Flyers. Now Jack and I had never gone to a Flyers game together before, nor since. But by taking me to that game, which by the way the Flyers beat the Canadians 5-3, he showed me in his way, he did care. And that me friends is something each and every one of us can do. We can care.

We might not have money, we might not have talent, but we can care, we can reach out to one another in love.

There have been many times in my life when I have heard something, or experienced something and I knew right away I would never forget that. A teacher of mine who later became a close friend once said in a Christian Anthropology class that I was in, You are the only you that has even been. Wouldnt it be a shame if you werent the best you, you could be?