St. Charles' Episcopal Church – St. Charles, IL

The Third Sunday of Lent – Lent 3 – Year C

Sunday March 11, 2007 

Exodus 3:1-15 -- Psalm 103 -- I Corinthians 10:1-13 -- Luke 13:1-9

Rev. William R. Nesbit, Jr.

In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.

At Seabury-Western, my alma mater, hanging over the fireplace in Seabury Lounge, there is a nearly life size photograph of a gnarly, wizened old man in cassock, surplice, and stole. His face has been darkened by a life out of doors. His eyes seem to follow you as you move around the room. If you read the small sign next to the photograph you will find that his name is Enmegahbow and he was the first American Indian to be ordained to the Episcopal priesthood in 1867. It was Enmegahbow who would accompany Bp. Whipple, the famous missionary bishop, to the Lakota Sioux, as translator and agent in the Indian lands of the upper Midwest. It was Enmegahbow who would invite James Lloyd Breck to the wilds of Minnesota to start a mission at Gull Lake and eventually found Seabury Divinity School, a seminary for Native Americans and one of the progenitors of Seabury-Western Theological Seminary. Enmegahbow was a good Christian, a man of peace, and a man of two worlds. His faith would be tested many times in his life. His story is wonderfully similar to another man of God who was also a man of two worlds: Moses.

To that end, I have a Story. Since Enmegahbow is an Indian, this is an Indian story, but don't let that fool you. This story is no more about Indians, than the parable of the fig tree is about gardening. Among other things, this story is a story that reminds us that God speaks to us all the time, if we have the patience to listen. Listen to God and to each other.

One-who-stands-before-his-people, a certain man of the Ottawa tribe, married an Ottawa woman and she conceived and bore a son. The son was beautiful to behold and the joy of her heart, and the Ottawa woman named him One-who-stands-before-his-people. Now the tribe was encamped at that time in the great land of Ontario near the white village of Peterborough. As the son grew in stature he came to the attention of a white medicine man. This man persuaded the Ottawa parents to allow him to come home to be raised along with the medicine man's other three sons. The medicine man called the boy John Johnson. John was a very shrewd boy and in three moons he had learned the speech and writing of the white man. One day the white medicine man told him of the Great Spirit of the white man and how the son of the Great Spirit had come down from heaven and dwelt among the people. John thought it strange that the Great Spirit should come down from heaven. And so he went out to a hill to sit and think about it. As the sun set the boy stayed up to watch as the sky darkened and one by one the stars appeared. But soon, a cloud rising out of the west blotted out the stars and a great thunderstorm came. The rain fell and a mighty wind shook the trees. John Johnson saw the strength of the Great Spirit and was afraid. He fled the village of the white man and returned to the Ottawa encampment. Sometime after that, when John Johnson had grown up and married, he went for a walk in the white village with his wife, Iron-Sky-Woman, who had been given the Christian name Charlotte. One of the white men of that village insulted his wife and John knocked the man down and held him while Charlotte gave the man a sound beating. When it was over, John was frightened and fled the village with his family, escaping to the south. He arrived in the land of the Ojibwa and sat down by a lake that is called "place of the little gulls." Though a stranger, he quickly endeared himself to the people living there and before the year was out he had joined their tribe. Now it was winter, the time of contemplation, and John was alone by the Great River seeking a vision. The sun had gone down, but the moon was full and shown brightly on the snow covered forest. The night was very still and the water sang to John as he waited. A wolf appeared suddenly in the river in front of him, and the silver moonlight blazed in the rippling water about the wolf's feet. And the wolf said, "One-who-stands-before-his-people! One-who-stands-before-his-people!" And the man replied, "Here I am." The breath of the wolf smoked as it continued, "I am the Great Spirit of your fathers. The Great Spirit of the Ottawa and the Ojibwa. The Great Spirit of the red man and the white. The Great Mystery of all people." And One-who-stands-before-his-people was again afraid and hid his face so he would not have to look at the Great Spirit. The Great Spirit continued, "I have marked the plight of My red children and have heeded their outcry because of the white man; yes, I am mindful of their sufferings. I have come down to rescue them from the tyranny of the white man. Come, therefore, I will send you to the white men and you will free them all from their tyranny." And One-who-stands-before-his-people said to the Great Spirit, "Who am I that you would send me to the white man?" And the wolf snorted as the Great Spirit replied, "I will be with you, that shall be your sign that it was I who sent you. And when the people are freed, you shall all worship the Great Spirit rightly."Then One-who-stands-before-his-people said to the Great Spirit, "When I come to the Ojibwa and Sioux and say, 'the Great Spirit has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' what shall I say to them?" And the wolf yipped impatiently as the Great Spirit said, "I am who I am. Tell them, 'Wakan Tanka has sent me to you.'" And the Great Spirit said further to One-who-stands-before-his-people, "Thus you shall say to the people, 'I am the Great Spirit of your fathers, the Great Spirit of the Ojibwa and the Sioux, the Great Mystery of the rainbow people. I have taken note of you, and what is being done to you and I have declared: I will take you out of the misery you suffer from the white man.'"But One-who-stands-before-his-people spoke up and said, "What if they do not believe me? I have been long among the white men and some may say I have left the path of the red man." And the wolf leapt from the river and landed on the bank in front of him. The huge animal gave a great shake and the water droplets flashed like white sparks in the moonlight as Wakan Tanka replied, "What is that in your hand?" And he replied, "A stone." He said, "Drop it on the ground." And he dropped it and it became a turtle with a hoop inscribed on the back of its shell. Moonlight flared in the eyes of the great wolf as Wakan Tanka said, "Pick it up." -- One-who-stands-before-his-people grasped the shell of the turtle and it became a stone again. -- "that they will believe that Wakan Tanka, the Great Spirit, did appear to you."But One-who-stands-before-his-people spoke up again and said, "Please, O Great Spirit, I have never been a man of words, either in times past or since you have spoken to me. When speaking the words of the white man my tongue is tied in knots." And the teeth of the wolf flashed in the darkness as a low growl rumbled deep in it's throat. Wakan Tanka replied, "Who is it that gives man speech, or makes him deaf or dumb, seeing or blind? Is it not I the Great Spirit?" And One-who-stands-before-his-people was afraid again and he said, "Please, O Great Spirit, make someone else your agent!" And then Wakan Tanka became angry. And the great wolf hunched as if to spring, with hackles bristling and bared teeth and bright eyes blazing in the light of the full moon. A wind hissed through the pine trees near the river and time stood still as One-who-stands-before-his-people waited. "I will send you a white brother, one I know speaks readily. Even now he is setting out to meet you, and he will be happy to see you. You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth--I will be with you and with him as you speak, and tell both of you what to do--and he shall speak for you to the people."The great wolf turned and leapt into the river with a great splash, casting a shower of silver sparks into the sky before disappearing. Five hundred miles to the south in the community of Nashota House, a man checked the gear in his wagon for the last time. He planned on leaving the following morning at first light and wanted to make sure that all is in order before retiring. As he moved from the stable to the dormitory he heard the mournful cry of a wolf in the distance. He stops in the frosty air and looks up at the full moon. His name is Dr. James Lloyd Breck and he is leaving in the morning on a journey to St. Paul, Minnesota where he is planning on starting a new mission. Back in the north, on the shores of Gull Lake, Enmegahbow (One-who-stands-before-his-people) returns to his wigwam to tell his wife that he will be making a journey south in the spring, to the great village of St. Paul. He will be bringing his son with him in hopes of finding someone to teach him. Iron-Sky-Woman asks, "Do you know anyone in St. Paul?" As the howl of a wolf echoes through the night, Enmegahbow replies, "I will when I see him."