Prayer, day 2120: For Diocesan Convention

We raise our voices in praise and song to You,
O God, our Creator and Light.

For our manifold blessings--
community, hope, faith, and love--
we give thanks to You, O Lord.
For all who are gathered as disciples,
seeking to discern your will in our lives,
we give thanks to You, O Lord.
For the Light of Christ,
which uplifts our hearts and minds,
bringing us into communion with You,
we give thanks to You, O Lord.

For all who seek You,
or a deeper knowledge of You,
that your kingdom may be glorified
on Earth as in heaven,
we pray to You, O Lord.
For all who travel this day,
for traveling mercies,
that they be returned to their homes safely,
we pray to You, O Lord.
For wisdom and justice
to be strengthened and restored in our land,
we pray to You, O Lord.
For all who are in danger, sorrow, or any kind of trouble,
that the awning of your mercy shield and shade them,
we pray to You, O Lord.
For those struggling against illness or pain,
that your healing hand may uplift them,
we pray to You O Lord.

Holy One, we pray especially for these,
your servants we now name.

Amen.

Born of the Spirit: Sermon for Pentecost B, May 20, 2018

Unless you have been on silent retreat for the last week, you have probably heard that the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, the Most Rev. Michael Curry, was chosen to preach at the royal wedding of Prince Harry and his American bride, Meghan Markle. Upon hearing the news last week, those Episcopalians who have been blessed to hear this man of God preach reacted with what was, especially for we staid Episcopalians, outright glee. However, those of us who have to try to preach after that amazing sermon know also experienced a slight feeling of dread at the thought of stepping into a pulpit after an amazing message like that.

Sure, there was the frustrating side: trying to explain the proper usage of the word “Episcopal” (an adjective describing an institution) and “Episcopalian” (a stand-alone noun for a person, not a church), that the style to address him is “The Most Rev.” and not just “Reverend.” Then there was the amusement of watching every single place he has ever lived claim him as its own—Chicago, New York, North Carolina—all those newspapers looking for that precious local angle.

And if you were able to hear his sermon, you know that he did not disappoint. If you have not heard his sermon, even if royal weddings are not your thing, I highly recommend you listen to it, or any of his other sermons available on Youtube. Bishop Curry’s preaching is rightfully described as “Spirit-filled.” And yesterday, the world got a taste of it, thanks be to God. His preaching proclaims the gospel boldly in ways that capture the imagination even of those who are unacquainted with religious faith. Consider this: in a nation like the UK, where only 28% of the population expresses a belief in God, his amazing 13-minute sermon about the power of love had not just that nation but the world betraying the same kind of amazement and wonder we saw in our reading from Acts this morning. Yet of the three “persons” of the Trinity, the Spirit is probably the one we talk about the least, especially we Episcopalians.

Something about the Holy Spirit seems… intangible. God the Creator, we get. Jesus Christ the incarnate Son of God, a description which boggles the mind, we even get, because he was one of us, fully human. But the Spirit is a puzzle or a bewilderment.

Maybe it has to do with other names for the Spirit, which include Holy Ghost; Advocate; Helper; Breath of God; Giver of Life or Life-Giver; or Paraclete. Yet the Church itself would not exist without the Spirit, as we see in the words of the Nicene Creed, where discussion of the “Holy, catholic, and apostolic Church” is placed in the section on the Holy Spirit. We always need to remember that the Church was founded after Jesus’s earthly life had ended, not before, becoming the Body of Christ in the world. Today, the Day of Pentecost, is the day we celebrate and remember the Holy Spirit coming to consecrate and commission the Church to proclaim the gospel to the ends of the Earth.

Last week and this week, from the Day of Ascension onward, we have heard Jesus promising to send the Spirit to guide his disciples once Jesus himself ascends into heaven. He promises that we will be filled to overflowing with power to work for the glory of God’s kingdom once the Spirit descends upon us and abides within us. Over the last few weeks, we have heard that phrase repeatedly: “abide in.” We heard it in John 15: “Abide in me as I abide in you…. As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love.” We heard it again, twelve times, actually, in the brief first letter of John, which was our epistle for several weeks. This indwelling of the Spirit of Love was most beautifully expressed in 1 John 4:16: “God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.” 

That same Spirit abided completely in Jesus, and after his ascension, it is sent to abide within each of us, if we will welcome it. And elsewhere John’s gospel we are assured that it is through the sacraments of the Church that we can experience the Holy Spirit as Jesus and disciples experienced it, for John 6:56 promises, “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them.”

In his book, Crazy Christians: A Call to Follow Jesus, Bishop Curry spoke of Pentecost Day as a day of the power of collaboration and community, when the power of the Holy Spirit seized each one of those disciples and made it possible for the gospel of Jesus, the gospel of the power of love, to be heard and understood by all people—to abide in all people as a living presence. Bishop Curry wrote, “The story of Pentecost… speaks of barriers being bridged and divisions being overcome. On Pentecost, people heard the gospel of Jesus. And as they heard the gospel, barriers came tumbling down, bridges arose, and the new humanity in Christ began to emerge."(1) It is clear that when that Spirit is present and abiding in a community, barriers and divisions are broken, and bridges and community is built and made strong through planting within us the love of Jesus Christ, who scorns no one who seeks him, but instead embraces them regardless of any category we might us to differentiate one person from another.

The gospel of Jesus is meant to bring us together. It is never to be used to divide, to hurt, or to wound another. Rather, through the power of the Holy Spirit, we abide in each other, we abide in truth and integrity, we abide in God.

In another of his books, Following the Way of Jesus, Bishop Curry recalls the words of an illustrious former archbishop of Canterbury, William Temple, who served for far too short a time during World War II. Archbishop Temple once said that telling anyone to live like Jesus is useless. We fallible fallen people can’t do it. EXCEPT through the power of the Spirit of Christ. Bishop Curry then continued, “When the Spirit that lived so fully in Jesus inhabits us, then we have a chance to live like him. That’s precisely what happened to the early followers of Jesus’s way. They began to look like Jesus. Folk in Antioch saw them and nicknamed them 'little Christs.'”(2) And they, and we, are able to look and act like Jesus, flawed and hesitant as we all sometimes are, through the power of the Holy Spirit that we remember especially on this Pentecost Day.

The same Spirit who moved over the waters at creation, as our psalm reminds us: You send forth your Spirit, and all things are created; and so you renew the face of the earth. The Spirit who breathed life into all living things, and into all humanity at the birth of humanity. The same Spirit who is still active in creation, as our psalm reminds us in the present tense as well as the past. The same Spirit that descended upon Jesus as he arose from the waters of baptism to begin his earthly ministry of making God’s Love visible in human form. That then filled him with the power to speak words of healing, justice, and redemption into the most bereaved and wounded places that still exist in people throughout the centuries—all by the power of the Holy Spirit.

And as we saw in our reading from Acts today, that same Holy Spirit was able to transform Peter from a faithless companion who would not even admit to knowing Jesus on the night of Jesus’s arrest, to a fearless preacher driven out into the street and boldly proclaiming in the open air the full truth of Christ’s life without any concern for the consequences. In our gospel today, Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit as the Advocate, and Paul reminds us of this also. The same Spirit who alights upon Jesus’s disciples is the one that intercedes for us, helping us in our weakness, our faithlessness and even despair, we hear in the Epistle to the Romans. The Spirit who hovers over us with her regenerative, healing presence when we are so troubled we don’t even know how to pray, as Paul assured the newborn church in Rome.

But that Spirit is more than an Advocate. It is the living presence of Christ within our hearts, the embodiment of the love and grace of God that seeks to claim us and renew us, body and soul. While during much of his earthly ministry Jesus directs his attention toward his own people, with some notable exceptions, when the Spirit empowers the disciples, the first thing we see is that the Spirit equips them to take their message beyond the boundaries of Jerusalem. Once those disciples pour out into the streets with their tongues of fire, we see the Spirit do something very interesting: it gives each disciple the ability to speak in a different language.

In doing this, the Spirit reminds us that diversity, not uniformity, is a strength, even a gift from God. And that’s a reminder we could all use today. Reminding us that, no matter what language we speak, in Christ we speak of love, redemption, and transformation not just of ourselves but of the whole world. It is the Spirit who draws us together as the Beloved Community, a community that is consecrated and charged by the Spirit to offer ourselves, souls and bodies, as witnesses and embodiments of God’s mercy, truth, and grace for the life of the world.

The same Holy Spirit who alights upon Jesus’s disciples, then and now, is the one whom we ask to consecrate the bread and wine and ourselves every time we gather around the altar in thanksgiving and communion, as we are reminded that we abide in Christ and in each other through the love of God manifested through the power of the Holy Spirit. This is the same Spirit who at the end of worship sends us out into the world, just like those disciples on Pentecost, to carry of the work and healing of Jesus into a beautiful, hurting world. In the words of hymn 504, “Come, Holy Ghost our souls inspire, and lighten with celestial fire….”

Come Holy Spirit, kindle the holy fire of love within us, and lead us into deeper wisdom and faith, that we may dedicate our lives to God. May we embrace the power of the Holy Spirit to reveal the truth of God’s love and grace in our lives, and go out into the world like those disciples, our hair on fire, rejoicing as we proclaim the wonders of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Amen.


Preached at Calvary Episcopal Church, Louisiana, MO, at 10 am, and St. John's Episcopal Church, Eolia, MO, at 2 pm, on May 20, 2018.

Readings:

Acts 2:1-21

Psalm 104:25-35, 37

Romans 8:22-27

John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15

References:
(1) The Most Rev. Michael B. Curry, Crazy Christians: A Call to Follow Jesus, 2013, Kindle locations 846-848.
(2) The Most Rev. Michael B. Curry, Following the Way of Jesus: Volume 6 in the Church’s Teachings for a Changing World series, 2017, chapter 1, location 143 of 1178.

Prayer 1631: at the close of EYE17

The Missouri delegation (minus one) after the closing Eucharist of EYE17,
on the stage in front of an Episcopal flag that flew at Standing Rock.

Lord God, who creates and sustains the world,
we rise and center ourselves in You in gratitude.
We praise your ongoing creation, Lord,
in the world and in ourselves,
amazed by your love in our lives.

Thank you for your abundant grace
in drawing us together in community,
bound together through love of God.
Let us continue on the pilgrim road
walking gently upon the earth
and alongside each other in peace.

Send us out, Merciful One,
afire with the Holy Spirit,
to proclaim your truth with joy,
living into your dream of peace for us.

Let us now depart filled with Christ's light
carried forward by manifold mercies
safely to arrive at home.
Extend the awning of your compassion
over all whose hope is in You,
especially those we now name.

Amen.

Prayer for the 175th Diocesan Convention

We thank You, Loving One, for the gifts You have given us in your generosity and everlasting love for us.
For the blessing of this new day, that we use it to the glory and worship of your Name, we thank You, O God.
For the blessing of our talents and abilities, for we all can do something in service of You, we thank You, O God.
For the blessing of friends and loved ones, and for those we will meet today to see your face before us, we thank You, O God.
We lay our prayers and petitions before your altar, O Loving One, for You uphold us always.
For those who are to be ordained as deacons in your church: Kevin, Nancy, Jerre, Rebecca, Chester, and Deborah;
Grant us the wisdom to seek your will, not ours, in all we do.
Grant us the will to fight for the weak, the outcast, the poor, and the lowly.
Let us seek always to hear the better angels of our nature & fulfill your command to establish justice and peace.
Grant us the strength to meet our challenges and trials with grace and perseverance, and rejoice in our blessings always. Amen.

Crusty Old Dean and the 2013 General Ordination Exams

One of my favorite things to do as I get a little more involved in twitter (now doing my own feed and the one for my church, because, you know, as a mom, daughter, teacher, and church-junkie I don't have enough in my life) is reading some of the hilarious things that trend.

Sometimes, I just shake my head at some of the strange topics that bloom  from the collective need twitteristas have to get some attention (hey, not pointing the finger except at myself).

Right now one of the trending topics among we of the Episcopalian variety has been about General Ordination Exams. So far, Crusty Old Dean (already someone whom I find wildly entertaining and informative) has the best post that has been tweeted.

So, if there's anyone out there, I am asking you to consider reading this post: http://crustyoldean.blogspot.com/2013/01/blogging-goes-question-1-wtf-out-of-gate.html. It had me laughing to myself with a nice soupcon of "there-but-for-the-grace-of-God-go-I." As someone who has seen AP US history exam questions that simply defy all reason, I could certainly relate to this post on a variety of levels.

Thanks, Crusty Old Dean.

Of Communion and Covenant

With General Convention coming up, the topic of the Anglican Covenant is on everyone's minds, it seems. Even though the Church of England itself has shot the thing down pretty resoundingly, I think that the advice from our Scottish friends cited in the recent Episcopal Cafe article is wise. Kelvin over at What's in Kelvin's Head? writes:

I was surprised though recently to hear from American friends who were saying that they thought that the US based Episcopal Church was likely to affirm the first three sections of the Covenant but not the fourth section. The fourth section is the one that deals with discipline – the ability to throw a naughty Province off the councils, networks and committees and what have you that make up the Anglican Communion’s ways of working.
I was surprised because it meant that there were no apparent fears about the first section, and it is that which I think is the more dangerous. This may be because theological statements are sometimes read differently by different people.
In Scotland we used to get people saying that we should affirm the first three sections but not the fourth section only up until the time when we really got down to talking about it. At last year’s General Synod it became apparent that some of us were very troubled by section one – particularly because affirming it would mean that once again we would have to affirm the Thirty-Nine Articles.
Now there are all kinds of reasons why affirming the Thirty-Nine Articles isn’t a good idea. I was on my feet a year ago saying that coming as I do from a city troubled by Catholic-Protestant sectarian tensions, the last thing we need to be doing is affirming once again the anti-catholic Thirty-Nine Articles. And that isn’t even to begin to deal with the things that those articles condemn which some of us hold dear in our worship still.
Now, the US-based Episcopal Church has the Thirty-Nine Articles in its Book of Common Prayer and we in Scotland don’t. (We did for a bit but we don’t affirm them any more). The Americans cope with them, I think, by thinking of them as Historical Documents – things that show us where we have come from but don’t necessarily regard them as things which should guide our faith for today.
Not so the Church of England. Or at least, not so all of the Church of England.
The release this week of a long denunciation of same-sex marriage from the Church of England Evangelical Council should give the Americans pause for thought before they affirm any part of the Covenant which promotes the Thirty-Nine Articles. Anyone reading it will be in no doubt that the Thirty Nine Articles are no mere historical document in some parts of the Church of England. For some, they are the Thirty-Nine Weapons of the Church of England in this long and tiresome culture war in which all the bullets are theological concepts ad all the collateral damage seems to be in terms of souls lost to the church and wholesome relationships between gay folk traduced by the loud, the ignorant and the shallow.
The US based church should make no assumptions at all about the nature in which the documents listed in the first section of the proposed Anglican Covenant are read in other parts of the world.
I remain convinced that we need to say No to the Covenant and say an unequivocal Yes to the Anglican Communion. And that No needs to be a clear and deliberate rejection of all the sections of the Covenant. Our American friends put themselves at some risk from those who would do them harm if they don’t understand this.

This is so well-stated, and it brings up a point I think many of us overlooked in our anger over what seemed at least to me to be an attempt to punish the Episcopal Church for disagreements about human sexuality and what that means for how we treat our brothers and sisters in Christ. Kelvin makes a good point that even removal of the most obviously punitive part of the Anglican Covenant still makes it possible to use any instrument derived from the Covenant as it now is into a punitive weapon of division. 

As Grand Moff Tarkin said to Senator Leia Organa in Star Wars, "You're far too trusting."

Reports of our death have been greatly exaggerated

There has been some interesting discussion while I have been away about the demise of Church, especially the flavor known as Episcopal, around the blogosphere. I was challenged, in a good way, by this discussion over at the Episcopal Cafe, in a discussion of a "manifesto by Crusty Old Dean (aka Tom Ferguson, dean of Bexley Hall). Here is a link to the original post.

But one of the points that has been discussed all over the place is restructuring the Episcopal Church. Crusty Old Dean challenges the idea of restructuring in order to preserve the status quo, and challenges us to think outside the box. I am still digesting this.

But for all of the criticism of some Episcopal parishes as being comfy "clubs" (the word "country" just aches to be inserted there, doesn't it?), I also have to notice that those congregations in American Christendom that are showing phenomenal growth have gotten there exactly by functioning as clubs. I am thinking of those loosely- denominational or non-denominational mega- mini malls for Jesus that sport climbing walls for the kiddies and the prosperity gospel behind toothy grins and viciously shellacked hair. It seems those congregations are reeling them in by focusing on the personal relationship with Jesus over engagement in the world at large. All this in a supposedly "post-Christian" era, too.

For me, I am deeply concerned about my place in a society in which the surest path to power is trumpet one's mediocrity as a lure for the votes of everyday folks; in which the politics of jealousy, envy, and division are the easiest ways to rally masses to one's cause; in which self-proclaimed identity is more important than achievement or attitude.

It is obvious that there safe many parts of the Christian message that are out-of-step with the temper of the times. But is that necessarily a bad, or more importantly, permanent, situation?

If I believed that, I would certainly despair.

No, I believe our message is one this world is literally DYING to hear. Is it really so bad to be counter-cultural in times such as these? Yet how can we claim any sort of traction against dwindling membership numbers so that we can get the message of God out into the world that certainly needs it desperately?We just have to find a way to make ourselves heard among the din of the snake-oil salesmen who promise that salvation is to be had through selfishness, that love of self is the path to love of God. We just need to figure out how to do it. But it is obvious that the path to reclaiming the gospel message of love must begin with mission, mission, mission, something with which the Episcopal Church has been historically been quite uncomfortable.

This post is not finished. I put it out there anyway.

Fishing For People

Mark 1:14-20, 3rd Sunday After Epiphany

After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”

 As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” At once they left their nets and followed him.


 When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.

The Episcopal Church is losing members.  This much is certain:

Membership in the Episcopal Church in 2010 was 2,125,012, with 1,951,907 in its domestic dioceses and 173,105 in the non-domestic dioceses, according to a report here. Membership in the church’s domestic dioceses in 2009 was 2,006,343, showing a decrease of 54,436 in 2010.

 What are we to do? Should we do anything?

There has been discussion over at the Episcopal Cafe here on what is non-negotiable-- what we will absolutely not be able to give up in the quest to open ourselves to new growth. There has been debate over the prayer book, the hymn, the liturgy, and a host of other things.

There's been this great post by Bill Carrol on how we should tell our story (And here is the link to his blog-- the link at Episcopal Cafe is not working).

And there's this one by George Clifford about the treasures our Episcopal Church holds.

I wonder if it has ever occurred to the PTB to ask those of us who came to the  Episcopal Church from elsewhere why we came. I mean, there are many in the pews who have made the journey themselves. I sometimes wonder why there continues to exist this divide between "cradle Episcopalians" and... there's not even a term for it. In the back of their minds, do those born into the Episcopal Church consider us "converts?"

Perhaps in a way we are. But regardless, it is usually those who have CHOSEN a church who hold the most devout feelings for that church. I know for me, the Episcopal Church is not a default position but a choice I freely made.

The things that pulled me inexorably to the Episcopal Church were these, in no particular order:
1) The respect for the minds and judgment of the people in the pews to debate and wrangle with questions of faith. We do not have any top-down hierarchy decreeing every little point of theology has to be understood in only one particular way.

2) The liturgy. It revives and inspires the soul. It is based on ancient practice, yes, but it speaks to my modern soul and raises that soul up to praise and worship of the divine creator, mother, father, mystery, eternal love.

3) The music. Some of the most beautiful melodies are found in our hymnal and other hymnals used in my parish.

4) The people. Due to the respect the Episcopal Church holds for those in the pews, you have some of the most wonderful people I have ever met here. Loving, happy people and struggling journeyers, couples and singles and widows and children and old folks and teenagers. All are here. All are welcomed. Women and men are respected equally. Old and young are respected equally.

5. The prayer book. There are so many ways to spend time listening and talking to Almighty God, and many of the most beautiful prayer forms are found right here or in the prayer books of other Churches in the Anglican Communion. Wherever you are you can pray part of the daily office or a prayer and know that there are others all around the world praying the same prayer with you. For whenever two are three are gathered together, Christ is in the midst of them.

6. The willingness of the Church to continue to examine its mission and to reach out to the most marginalized in society. Even when some of those are being marginalized bu others in the Anglican Communion. Especially when some of those are being marginalized by others in the Anglican Communion.

We do need to make clear what we offer. If I didn't believe that our church has so much to offer to so many joyful, thoughtful, prayerful, searching, loving, or hurting souls, I wouldn't be here, because of course, I am all of those things myself.

Cast down your nets.