There is a lot going on this morning: a baptism, confirmation,
and the marking of the end of the ministry with you of your Rector, Torey. In many ways it
is bittersweet. And yet it is an end and a beginning rolled into one. The
baptism and confirmation are both a fruit of the ministry of your Rector, and
at the same time are evidence that God continues to work with you as everyone
moves forward. For in a few moments you will promise to support these persons
in their life in Christ—a statement of upholding the future—even as you say
farewell to a passing present.
Having noted that, I warned and somewhat apologized to the
candidates that Torey’s leaving would be dominating my expressed thoughts
today. At times like this it is easy to be anxious or even to feel sorry for
ourselves. We are facing loss and change, right on the heels of your
extraordinary bravery as a community to say that Church as we have known Church
doesn’t add up; and we need to be flexible. Torey has led you along that path.
I think it has helped stop doomsday thinking that would look to your savings
and predict how long you would survive in the traditional model of being served
by a full-time, seminary-trained priest.
Wonderful as we all may be, that is not what our faith
depends upon. God has brought you someone new to be baptized and a lively
person to be confirmed to emphasize that point.
In fact, as I looked at the readings for today, I initially
saw little that excited me for the occasion. They in fact seemed somewhat “pat”
for our special circumstances; until I looked deeper, and remembered something.
The disciples were in the middle of receiving some rather startling testimony,
as we come upon them in the Gospel. The two men who had been walking home to
Emmaus had encountered a stranger, you recall, on the way. They had, at first,
scoffed at him for seeming quite oblivious about the sad events that had
happened in Jerusalem around Jesus’ crucifixion, but became increasingly
intrigued by his knowledgeable response about Moses and the prophets. Suddenly,
as they were breaking bread together with him, they recognized that the
stranger was in fact the Risen Christ, and had just come hurrying back to
Jerusalem to tell the other disciples. Those who stayed in Jerusalem in turn
were saying how some of them had also seen the Lord when Jesus appeared among
them.
The disciples did not expect the appearance even while some
had experienced the Risen Christ. And so it would happen over the next forty
days that Jesus would pop in and out of their lives, and as they became more
anticipatory about it, they began to hunger for the opportunity to learn from
Him while He was among them. They were in transition, and it became a time for
intense formation.
There was a sense of urgency to have ears that could ear.
They knew something no one else would believe if they dared mention it. “This
Jesus who had been crucified, God had raised from the dead. And they were
witnesses of these things.” This was a precious time—these forty days while
Jesus was with them—and they took to it with great eagerness.
What I am trying to say and I think what the Word of God
selected down the centuries and not specifically for this day is saying is to
remind us that we are not the first and only community of faith to move into
the unknown of transition. The early disciples stood where you stand except
perhaps even more so. Torey speaks of the Jesus the disciples were
transitioning from; and seeks to articulate and model His way of life with us
all. He is not Jesus; and in fact Jesus is not leaving the building with Elvis!
Jesus did leave His disciples but this is where the encouragement of the
readings from Acts and 1 John
come into play. In them we hear the voices of the two leading apostles—Peter
and John—who, like the others, had been left wondering and amazed, perhaps even
afraid, at Jesus’ comings and goings. Yet now they appear as changed men!
Peter has a story to tell—as incredible as it ever was—but
this time he believes it and knows its significance. “This Jesus, whom your
leaders crucified, God has raised from the dead. And through Him there is
forgiveness of sins to all who repent.”
Likewise, John, years later, nevertheless has the same sense
of confidence and assurance. To a very different audience, John reinforces that
his life has become a witness to who Jesus is and how, through Him as Crucified
and Risen, we are all made clean. You can hear the sparkle in their voices.
They know of what they speak and write. Their eyes, I imagine, tell the story
as well as their words.
They were men who had witnessed something extraordinary and
of God. It would drive them to be able to face exile and their own deaths on
Christ’s behalf. By now John was so at one with the Spirit of God that he could
admit his ignorance about the details of the afterlife. He knew that he looked
forward to when we would see Jesus, “whom you do not know.” He added, “We may
not know how we will be—but we will be like Him.” Isn’t that what we are
preparing for when we look around and see one another acting as Jesus with one
another—praying for healing; offering forgiveness and reconciliation;
delivering from oppressive forces; being illuminated by wisdom and insight on
the human condition? We catch glimpses of Jesus in one another, and John says
this will be the ultimate recognition of our own identity when we see Him face
to face. It happens constantly—in and
through and beyond transition.
My daughter is a great believer in self-affirmation. Her
mirror is surrounded by statements of dignity and things to uplift the
self-esteem. She also takes time to reward herself for things we might think
just part of a normal day. One day she gave herself a check mark for announcing
as she looked in the mirror, “Kim, you are awesome!” It is not narcissism, but
a healthy dose of self-esteem bolstering.
John says we should look in the mirror and see Jesus forming
in us, and rejoice. What if we placed 1 John 3: 2 on our mirrors?
Peter and John received their new Rector, but she did not
come in any human form, but in a fiery tongue and a rushing wind. I say that
the Spirit did not come in human form but, in fact, assumed the form of every
one who was in the upper room on the Day of Pentecost. What had been a start
for the disciples has been continuous with us. Today I will affirm for J.T.
that he is sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked as Christ’s own forever. I
think it is time we began to believe or appropriate more directly our belief
that the Spirit is always present to bridge our transitions, and never stops
shaping us into that image in which we will be able to recognize ourselves in
Jesus.
How blessed it would be if your new partner in ministry,
your new rector, fitting perfectly within the material circumstances you can
afford as you agree to work together, found here such a community of the
Spirit. What if, in this place there were a people with an extraordinary story
of how the Risen Christ walks among them as an ongoing reality with or without
a transition of persons? What if the new partner found a people who carried
themselves with a certain gaze of love and confident faith that knowingly
registered that the purpose of God continues with them? What if, such a people
were ones who know that even if they might not be sure of the details of what
lies ahead and how they will be when the ultimate transition comes upon them,
at least are certain that when they see Jesus, they shall be like Him!
Amen
