If there is anything like “turning the corner” in Lent, it must be the Fourth Sunday. That is when we switch from the first Lenten preface which reminds us of the “need to live no longer for ourselves but for Him who died and rose again” to the second Lenten preface that looks forward to the Paschal Feast and to “come to the fullness of grace which You (God) have prepared for those who love You.” Along with the anticipation is the prospect of new members through baptism, and in some circumstances those to be newly empowered by the Spirit in confirmation or reaffirmation.
Even the Revival appropriately takes a break as we focus on the most significant liturgies of our Church Year. I am always taken back to my time in Romania when we would be fully occupied with the liturgies of the Orthodox Church throughout Holy Week. I invite you to set aside extra time to be present at every gathering offered within your congregation, and even visit other churches if our own opportunities are limited.
This is also a time for us to consider the buds of new ministry that are beginning to appear. More than three hundred of you have signed on to the Faith in Action Facebook page that Wendy Abrahamson has started. You may have noticed that the Episcopal Church Executive Council has approved three different funding grants for the Diocese of Iowa - to seed the stewardship of the earth venture called Creation Stewards; to discern the possibility of creating a racial reconciliation community in Iowa City; and to launch a Hispanic Mission in the western part of the state in partnership with the ELCA West Synod.
And what about the new urgings for mission that are being prompted by the Spirit out of your Lenten discipline? There is always room for God’s blossoming imagination; and the more chaos and confusion that surrounds us in society, the greater invitation we have to find our clarity and steadfastness in God. Go deeper is always the divine urging to anxiety and polarization. For it is in the depths of focused silence or reflective reading and conversation or in sacramental experience that we find that outpouring of love by which the Spirit casts out fear.
Holy Week is about humanity at its worst – facing innocent goodness and destroying it so that it might stop seeing through us and exposing our true nature. And God at God’s truest – walking in the midst of our cruelty knowing that after we have done our worst, there still remains life, and love and forgiveness and reconciliation. It is as though God says “Is that all you have got?” And then, to quote a recent citation I heard from Austin Farrer, “God takes my head between His hands, and turns my face to His, and though I struggle they do not let go until God has smiled me into smiling and that is the forgiveness of God”.
As Presiding Bishop Michael Curry reminded us at the March House of Bishops – (Iowa’s own) evangelist Billy Sunday once said, “If the Episcopal Church ever wakes up, look out Satan.” Every Easter is an invitation to awaken to new life, and perhaps this one more than ever. In Revival 2017 we have set our course upon asking God to awaken us. We are one fifth along the way. And yes, we dare say, “Watch out!”
In the peace and love of Christ,
+ Alan
The Rt. Rev. Alan Scarfe, Bishop of Iowa
