Click here to listen to 'A Letter for Blythe' as read at the 10.00 a.m. Eucharist on Sunday the 28th.
28 June 2015
28 June 2015
Dear Blythe,
Before
you were born, your mother and father had a decision to make that will have an
impact on you for your whole life. They
had to decide what names they were going to give you.
Names
are very important. I remember how my
wife and I pondered the names for our three children who are now young
adults. We wanted names that would link
our children’s stories with the stories of their ancestors. We wanted names that would link them to both
their father’s family and their mother’s family. These decisions were not easy to make,
because we knew how important names are.
Your
parents have chosen to name you Blythe Penelope. These are lovely names as well as unusual
names. Because these are the names that
your Christian sisters and brothers will know you by, you should know something
about the names your parents have chosen.
‘Blythe’
comes from an old Anglo-Saxon word which means ‘joyful’ or
‘light-hearted’. Most people these days
don’t think of Christians as joyful or light-hearted. I think that this is very sad. Following Jesus is meant to be joyful and to
lighten our hearts.
The joy
of following Jesus comes from knowing that Jesus is the sign of God’s deep love
for us and for all whom God has made.
It’s a joy that comes from knowing that everyone on earth is special to
God, even if a person doesn’t believe in God or perhaps is not sure that she or
he is special to God. But what God has
shown us in Jesus is good news for people who are poor and people who are rich,
for men and women, for young and old.
Blythe,
I hope that you are always joyful. Joy
springs from having hope, hope that the problems you face and the problems that
our world face are not God’s last word.
Joy comes when we know, deep in our hearts, that God is working in us
and with us to build a world in which every person is valued. I hope that you will be a ‘blithe spirit’, a
source of joy to your family, to your friends and to the world.
Your
middle name, ‘Penelope’, is also an old name that reaches back to the times of
the ancient Greek civilization. It’s a
name you share with a very special woman, Penelope, the wife of Odysseus, the
Greek hero. Her story is worth telling
here.
Penelope’s
husband, Odysseus, went off on an adventure that took him away from his home
for many, many years. He was gone so
long that most people thought he was dead.
Because they thought he was dead and because Penelope was a beautiful,
intelligent and rich woman, many men wanted to marry her. These men bothered her, showed up in her home
and came to dinner every night.
Penelope,
though, did not want to re-marry. She
never lost hope that Odysseus would return.
So she came up with a plan.
Because it was the custom for women to weave wall hangings, Penelope
began to weave a great tapestry for her home.
She told all the annoying men that she would make her decision when she
finished her tapestry. The men were
satisfied, but they still hung around.
So every night, while everyone was asleep, Penelope would sneak into her
weaving room and undo most of the work she had done that day. That way the work went on and on and on for
years. And so, when Odysseus finally did
return, he discovered his faithful and very smart wife waiting for him.
Blythe
Penelope, I hope that you become as intelligent and beautiful as your
namesake. I hope that you will see
through the schemes that people concoct and that you will work quietly and
patiently to undo those schemes. That’s
one of the things Jesus has asked Christian to do. Our job is to look at the world with the
loving eyes of God and to see where and how some people try to prevent others
from becoming more truly human and from using the gifts that God has given to
each one of us. God expects us to
unravel the schemes that the powerful weave to maintain control over the weak. Unraveling wicked schemes doesn’t always make
Christian popular, but then, Penelope wasn’t popular with the men hanging
around her house.
Blythe
Penelope Sywulych, your name links you to your families as well as express
hopes for your future. It now links you
to the world-wide Christian family. May
you always be joyful. May you always be
patient and resourceful. May you always
bring the gift of your name to the life of the Christian community so that the
world can hear all the names of God’s beloved.
There is
a poem written by Brian Wren that we sometimes sing in church. As I close this letter, I want to share the
first verse of this poem with you.
Bring many names, beautiful and good,
celebrate, in parable and story,
holiness in glory, living, loving God.
Hail and hosanna!
Bring many names!
Today we bring your names to God and God will make them
beautiful and good. Hail and hosanna,
Blythe Penelope, hail and hosanna, beloved child of God.
Always yours in Christ,
Richard+
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