“Welcome, Bishop, to the right place at the right time.”
This unexpected greeting as I walked through the sanctuary at Trinity, Iowa City, prior to the service proved to be quite the mantra for the visit. I used it in
my sermon introduction and it was used by Trinity leaders during their
presentations at the Annual Meeting that followed the service. Ben Webb, the
beloved Interim rector, was completing his duties there and next week the
congregation is preparing to welcome their new Rector, Lauren Lyon from Kansas
City. Lauren is no stranger to Iowa having lived her early years in Des Moines.
Change was very much in the air as the Annual meeting
addressed the changeover of staff members, including the long-time Children and
Youth director, Meg Wagner, who is in her penultimate year of Seminary and
anticipates being ordained to the transitional diaconate in December as she
completes her studies through the distance-learning program at EDS by June
2015. I rarely get to witness the internal life of a parish at such a juncture,
especially on the regular visitation schedule, which follows a rotation across
the years. Truly, I was at the right place and at the right time.
Falling on the Annual Meeting also meant that I presided at
the one-and-only Eucharist of the day, and not the usual three that greet me at
other times. I still think that since the Bishop’s visitation happens once
every eighteen months or so, it really is not a routine Sunday and perhaps
there is merit in calling for a single gathering of the whole congregation for
one unifying act of Thanksgiving or Eucharist.
It really was a joyous time. Clearly the time with Ben had
been a fulfilling one and one in which people had continued to enjoy being part
of God’s mission. Trinity, Iowa City, has always been a source of Diocesan
leadership—members serving on almost every Diocesan commission and board. And
so it was good to give thanks as part of the annual reports. With the showing
of the Diocesan strategic plan presentation at the meeting, I was able to
follow up with mention of anticipated work by Ben in providing assistance with
the development and renewal of leaders with which the presentation opens. I
further and at more length addressed the on-going conversation and activity
across the Diocese on ministry among young adults. I reiterated the Board of
Director’s procedure for gathering information for the next budget phase, which
is now on the website.
Two keys to this process will be the first meeting of the Young Adult Ministry
Development Team (YAMDT) in Grinnell on February 22nd, and the Indaba
process, which the Board will promote at the spring Chapter meetings. I was
glad to announce that current chaplain Raisin Horn, who also chaired the Annual
Meeting brilliantly, would be serving on the YAMDT.
Weather forced Donna and me to leave before the lunch put on
by Trinity’s youth as a fund-raiser for their pilgrimage in 2015. They hope to
go abroad, possibly to the Diocese of Brechin or to Spain to walk the Via
Campanella. I must say that is a pilgrimage I have wanted to undertake since I
learned of it. Maybe they will take their bishop along with them.
Finally the Stewardship Chair, Joe Murray, gave an excellent
presentation on the state of the finances at Trinity and how a good situation
can become an even more secure one if each pledger decided to increase their
pledge by 5-10% (or $25 for a $500 annual pledge or $50 for a $ 1000 annual
pledge). He invited them to simply think of why they are thankful for God in
their lives through Trinity and consider an appropriate increase. His goal was
5% but as he added, “Some can’t increase right now, and so others might
consider giving 10%.” It was simple, it was gentle and it had the backing of a
business professor’s acumen with data. Of course, I invited him to consider serving
the Diocese, adding his name to Trinity's long line of leaders.
Sermon at Trinity, Iowa City, 26 January 2014
Epiphany 3 (Isaiah 9: 1-4; 1 Corinthians 1: 10-18; Matthew
4: 12-23)
As I walked into the sanctuary this morning, someone thanked
me for being “at the right place, at the right time.” I was not quite sure what
that meant but I am glad to be here and share in this moment of transition, as
you say goodbye to Ben and hello to Lauren, your new Rector.
I don’t know about you, but there are certain moments in
epic film that grip my imagination and don’t seem to let go. One of those for
me came in the movie Gandhi as he
prepares to leave his living compound and set off on his long walk to the sea
to make salt. Suddenly the time is right, and he sets out at a striking pace,
walking stick in hand and stringing his followers out. Others join along the
way and a movement grows behind him.
There is a similar feel about the Gospel this morning.
John’s arrest stirs something in Jesus; and He leaves home setting out first
for Capernaum on a journey that will carry Him eventually to Jerusalem. Jesus
strikes out, proclaiming as He goes that, “The Kingdom of God has come near.”
The light is shining where people were sitting in darkness, just as the prophet
foretold. Jesus marched forward–calling, teaching, preaching the Good News. And
curing—healing the sick and infirm. And as He advanced, a movement followed
behind Him.
I would hope that is an image that captures Ben’s mind as he
sets out to establish the Center for Regenerative Society; that as he goes,
there will be movement that forms behind him and with him. Similarly, for
Lauren, that she comes among you and as she leads you forward, a movement
begins.
Movement is a key word these days in Church circles. We talk
a lot about movements, what we now seek to brand as “The Missionary Society of
The Episcopal Church.” We are seeking to recapture the thrust of our original
name, “The Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society.” In the middle of all this
is a desire to be on the move, not static, reaching out, not waiting, a process
and a movement for God’s mission. Processes take on new shapes and forms as
they advance. This is not a time for us to stand still, but to be on the march,
creating attention as we go.
There may be several mission concerns that impact you right
now; but the one I wish to highlight for us all is that of Christian Unity. It
is certainly central to our readings from Paul to the Corinthians today and its
prominence in my mind comes from the fact that we are just coming out of the
Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, which spans the Confession of Peter on
January 18th and the Conversion of Paul on January 25th.
As a one-time Ecumenical Officer for the Diocese of Los Angeles, I am
embarrassed how, as a bishop, this week of prayer has come so quickly upon me
that I have not planned anything for us as a Diocese throughout my time here.
Movement for the unity of the Christian Church therefore
might be a good destination. Did you notice the week that has just passed?
Behind these two great awakenings of the Church—that of Peter and of Paul—the
Church fell in line after Christ’s ascension and the Spirit’s coming. A
movement began that took the Gospel to the heart of Western civilization in
Rome and from there along its trade routes and infrastructure to the ends of
the known world.
Yet very early on, cracks were appearing and affecting the
Church even as it advanced strongly. People were forgetting the agency character
of the Apostles’ call—that they were only agents of Christ and not Christ
Himself. Personal attachments and personal admirations began to occur and
preferences appeared: “I am of Apollos, I am of Paul; I am Cephas, Peter,” and
of course there are always the purists who claim “I am of Christ.”
Of course we have advanced the divisive tendency to the
level of the scandal of denominations; and even within denominational
allegiance to certain local expressions of faith over others, or one pastor
over another.
Reeling in the ropes of division from where we stand today
is an enormous task—but someone has to set off to the sea, the ocean of unity!
On the eve of new leadership, what movement will you embrace
as the people of God at Trinity, Iowa City? The apostle Paul could not control
the reactivity of the Corinthian Christians. All he could do was seek to remind
them of the foundation of their faith.
“In whom were you all baptized? Paul, Peter or Apollos? No,
your baptism was in Christ’s Name! Who was crucified for you? Paul, Peter,
Apollos? No, we preach Christ crucified.” I remember standing up in the House
of Bishops after Bishop Bob Duncan had lamented, as he was accustomed to doing,
that there were irreconcilable differences between him and his fellow bishops.
“It is in Christ that we are reconciled,” I said. “There are never irreconcilable
differences that affect our essential relationship. Christ brings us both
together and holds our hands, even as we might be tweaking our thumbs on our
noses at each other behind His back.”
Of course we have done much worse to each other than thumb
our noses. We have killed each other, banished each other, doomed each other to
our mutual hells. Yet we are not baptized Lutheran or Catholic or Anglican, but
in Christ and therefore Christian. And we must start our journey from there. I
am glad always to confirm and receive as marks of people owning their place in
the “fellowship of this Communion.” If walking into The Episcopal Church helps
a person inch along closer to Christ than where they have been up to now—including
ironically moving away from divisiveness—then I am glad to welcome them. When a
baptized person seeks to own the faith into which they were brought at an
earlier age through confirmation, I am honored to seek the Spirit’s commissioning
upon them.
But deep down, I want to welcome them into a Church fading
away in terms of its peculiarities, moving on the road towards Oneness that is
our sole identity in Jesus Christ. I want to welcome them into a Church seeking
to be turned inside out by the Spirit of God—calling out in the words of John
the Baptist, “I must decrease that Christ might increase.”
Our divisions have always gotten in the way, giving people a
chance to fall in with one group over another and feel, no matter how they protest
otherwise, that one (their group) is more suitable than the other. In the
meantime there is teaching to be done; curing and healing to be done; good news
to be preached; and to whom? Not merely ourselves, but chiefly to those beyond
us.
When I visited a couple of Iowa Seminarians at Sewanee last
October, the Dean gave me a small monograph of talks by William Du Bose. Du
Bose had great ecumenical vision and he was writing more than a century ago. I
quoted him extensively in an Iowa
Connections piece, and want to do so again here.
He wrote: “All the new things, all the modern isms of
Christianity that have life in them, and many of them have (i.e. attract
people, make sense to them, inspire them), all these things are but broken
fragments of the Truth that is Christ and who is ever the Same. While our sects
and parties live by the truth that is in them and that is vital to them, they
are but too apt to live also in deadly competition with other truths as true as
they are; and so in fatal detriment to the whole and the wholeness of truth.
“The course of truth and of life, with beings such as we are
(finite, sinful, always partially sighted), can never move centrally or evenly,
wholly and together. It is always one-sided or has some part of it that is in
motion or action, and that too often is a way to increase misunderstanding and
resistance of other parts. There is always fault on both sides. The principle
of competition, of antagonism, divisive, separatist, of hateful, hating and
deadly competition has been prevailing in Christianity just as much as in our
earthly life and business. The times are changing (Note: he wrote this more
than a century ago), and the call, the appeal comes to us from every source and
direction—come to us as Christians to show us the way, the better way among
ourselves, in our relations with one another, of love and mutual understanding,
and peaceful and fruitful cooperation.”
He further asked: “How deeply and sincerely are we working
and praying and laboring to be at one, and to be one with God and Christ and
all their living and saving presence and operation in our universal humanity?”
These are cutting and challenging words. The movement to
embrace Christ’s unity has to begin somewhere. Why cannot this be the right
time and the right place? Why not here and now? Why not with you and why not
with me?
Too late for this sermon’s preparation I came across a book
entitled Paradoxy whose thesis was
that our very differences are in fact God’s way of helping us grow into the
fullness of Truth and need to be received as such rather than as occasions for
conflict. I am sorry that I came upon it so late to be able to use it more
fully, and I am not sure how the argument plays out, but it will be a reading
source for next week!
Surprise your new Rector as she comes in the front door.
Even as she is getting ready to settle in, greet her, catch her by the elbow
and turn her around to head back outside, and say “Welcome; we are on the move.
Thank you for coming with us as we move out with the message that the Kingdom
of Heaven is here.” Let us go together to do the work of proclaiming Good News
to the poor, curing, teaching, and calling on the move, as we seek to become
One Church, One People in Christ, and One Movement. Amen.
