My Faith My Life:A Place for Episcopal Teens and Their Mentors

May the words of my mouth, and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Strength and our Redeemer. Amen.

“I, John, saw a new heaven and a new earth.”

While Libby* and I sat together last week to start piecing together themes for my sermon, I must admit that I was both excited to share my remarkable experiences at Esperanza, the middle school for Latina girls, with you, and a bit clueless about how on earth I was going to relate them to today’s scriptures. It is not every day that a seventeen-year-old high school senior is asked to compare her personal encounters with the Bible’s teachings for an English assignment. However, I quickly landed on that one sentence in John’s proclamation from Revelation: “I, John, saw a new heaven and a new earth.” Soon enough, the connections began popping up all over the place!

On my first trip to Esperanza to volunteer one winter afternoon, I thought to myself, “Now what am I getting myself into?!” Esperanza’s website describes the academy as a “tuition-free middle school…for economically disadvantaged girls in the fifth through eighth grades from Lawrence, Massachusetts.” I understood these words in my head, but the place, itself, was marked by a series of unknowns: an unknown location, unknown people, an unknown reputation…the list goes on. Sure, I had heard promising things about Esperanza from Libby and a couple others from the area, but I still had my suspicions.

On that first day, I was greeted by forty beaming faces and wide-eyed expressions, immediately welcoming me into their precious environment. One of the many confident, well-spoken and poised students was more than eager to give me a tour of the brand-new school she and her friends are so proud of. As I explored the modern, technologically sound facilities, I couldn’t help but marvel at the sincere level of dignity and optimism present in every corner of the bustling school. The bright decorations in each of the girls’ cubbies showed off their recent classroom projects and the scattered books on the floor of the library room revealed continued learning outside of the classroom. Not one student or faculty member passed by without saying a quick “Hi! Nice to meet you!” in the hallways. I instantly knew that this was a place where I could make a difference, and where I could experience a difference myself.

Too often, people see mission opportunities as ways in which we, the workers, can offer our services to others in need. But that model, in which the participants are either “givers” or “receivers” all of the time, sometimes is not a very fulfilling one. In that kind of mission model, the “givers” can get tired; they never have a chance to rest and receive. The “receivers” can get tired, as well. (After all, who likes to be on the receiving end of a gift all of the time?) Esperanza, on the other hand, presents a new and different kind of mission model—one in which we who go to volunteer and those who study both take turns giving and receiving. In my view, this is just the sort of place John was talking about when he described the new Jerusalem in Revelation—the “new heaven and the new earth” that God is creating.

The “holy city” that I speak of fosters the growth of a more complete mission, that which establishes a “perfect love” between everyone, all of God’s peoples, from beginning to end, from Alpha to Omega. Perfect love involves risk, sacrifice, time and commitment to achieve the maximum feelings of accomplishment. If one is not willing to take chances, to step out of the box or to invite change into his or her daily routine, then this perfect love will never be reached. In the new Jerusalem, there should be no finite givers and takers, but rather two equal parties, giving of their ideas and receiving the other into their own lives. The elimination of a superior party and the creation of an evenly balanced relationship based on an unending generosity establish the conditions needed for perfect love.

How, then, does Esperanza Academy epitomize God’s “new Jerusalem”? Because it shows that there is generosity flowing from every side. First, I think of the courage it took me to agree to teach lessons. Though I had always wanted to start young children off on cello lessons, I had no prior experience teaching at any level. Then I count the numerous hours I spent driving up to Lawrence every Monday afternoon through rush-hour traffic, sitting in a stuffy copy room with only a beat-up, old, donated cello for equipment, and trekking through snow flurries all the way home just to do it all over again the next week. I spent Sunday evenings preparing a lesson plan, writing out Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star on manuscript paper and making endless photocopies. At times I sacrificed social events or just treasured free time to teach, and I braved nasty winter colds (I even brought a tissue box one week!) in order to fulfill my commitment to my students.

So I gave up a lot. But the girls at Esperanza gave just as much as I did to make this project work. Like I said earlier, the girls opened their doors to me with welcoming hearts, not knowing who I was or what I would be doing there. They sacrificed their “Exploratory Time” every Monday to have lessons with me, giving up their opportunities to learn such things as knitting, drama and guitar. Not only this, but my students even gave up their fun time each day of the week to practice, something even I didn’t expect of them!

The effects of a perfect love include incredible feelings that are almost intangible until experienced for oneself. I gradually found this out during my time at Esperanza, noticing a new, fulfilled sensation in myself that I had never felt before with other mission work. The bond that envelops a perfect love originates from the sacrifices and commitments BOTH parties have made in search of a common goal. Most importantly, one must take risks in order to achieve a perfect love, one thing that I have learned incredibly well from going to Esperanza. My students have taught me how vital it truly is to make goals, stay optimistic, reach out to unknown environments and take advantage of any given opportunity wholeheartedly. The motivation, drive and utter joy I see in the girls’ eyes each and every week serves as constant inspiration to stretch beyond my comfort zone in every facet of my daily life.

I cannot conclude until I share one more story with you that underscores the way I feel every time I drive home from Lawrence after teaching lessons. Upon my first visit to Esperanza, I finished my tour and went back to the gym where the students and their teachers were eating dinner. As I took out my cello, the raucous noise of forty middle-school girls quickly turned into a dull roar, and then finally an expectant silence. (How’s that for my nerves, huh?) I was introduced as the new cello teacher, and then I played a little piece for them. After one second of suspense, the girls broke into wild applause and desperately asked questions like, “How old were you when you started cello?” and “Is it easy?!” I think we both watched in awe, them at me as a cool, teenage role model, and me at them as an incredibly welcoming and encouraging family. The highlight of this visit, however, was the last question, which I got to ask: “Now who wants to play cello?” Every single hand in that gymnasium shot up like a rocket. That willingness to reach out and experiment with so many new opportunities is the foundation of Esperanza Academy.

Now that I have shared my stories with you, I challenge you to look for an example of John’s new Jerusalem in your surroundings. What kind of place would that holy city look like to you? Where do you think you could make a difference in somebody’s life, and they in yours? I invite you to search for the place that you will feel the effects of a more perfect love, just like I have been so lucky to do at Esperanza. Once you allow yourself to take that first risk, the fulfillment of God’s perfect love is just waiting around the corner for you to experience. Perhaps this love will serve, as our lesson from Revelations suggests, as the “gift from the spring of the water of life” to all in need, including ourselves.

In the Name of God, who creates opportunities for perfect love in mission every day, if on we will look for and recognize them. Amen.

Allyson  is an active member in her the church-- singing in the choir, acolyting, and playing cello or saxophone. Emmanuel is a small church (80-90 on Sunday am) but had six graduating seniors this year, including Allyson. Emmanuel will miss the saxophone quartet comprised of Allyson, two other seniors, and an older musician

*Libby Berman is the interim priest at Emmanuel, and Esperanza is a middle school for Latina girls that recently started as an outreach of the Episcopal Church in Massachusetts.