That We All May Be One

Great to be back at the House of Bishops! Can’t remember starting off quite so quickly or intensely!  “Back in the day,” we used to sort of “ease” into the heavy stuff.

After a challenging address by the PB to “show up” in the various challenging venues of today’s world, we had a report from a committee on changes in governance of The Episcopal Church, concerns about the new Title IV Canon revisions (clergy discipline), a report from the committee on same gender blessings, and from a group looking at devising a process for the “reconciliation or dissolution of a pastoral relationship between a bishop and a diocese!”

Wow! For the new bishops: welcome to your new role!

There was also a discussion about the appropriateness of “tweets” and “blogs” from this House. There is a real tension between using the technology we are all becoming used to, and the confidentiality of the House and particularly sending out electronic communication quoting specific people when, in fact, we are simply partway through a discussion and may have reached no conclusions.

It’s a real issue and I intend to be sensitive to how I “blog” here. Certainly, I do not intend to fire off half-baked ideas in the midst of ongoing discussion. But I do think it appropriate to send out this kind of summary as our days unfold.

We shall see…

Lent 1A. Trinity Cathedral. Every year, on this First Sunday of Lent, we have the Gospel account of Jesus’ Temptations in the wilderness. It makes perfect sense because, as we prepare to enter our 40 period of prayer and fasting, we will want to remember why Christians do this every year. We fast and pray because our Lord did, and our deepest desire is to live our lives in “imitation of Christ!”

But it’s a bit of a stretch for most of us to see ourselves tempted as he was during those 40 days. Confronted directly by the Evil One and tempted to turn stones into bread, to throw himself down from the pinnacle of the temple, to worship the devil himself in exchange for all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. I don’t believe any of us are tempted like that!

Oh, we have our own temptations…often related to power or sex or money and Jesus’ responses to his tempter are still instructive for us: We don’t live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Don’t put the Lord your God to the test. Worship the Lord your God and serve only him. Those responses will stand us in good stead however we’re tested.

But I think often our temptations today are, more likely, ones of apathy. We’re often tempted just not to care very much. Not to care about spending time with our God in prayer and learning more by reading the Bible or other spiritual literature. Not to care about getting ourselves to church except maybe once a month or so because we’re so busy or so tired. Not to care much about inviting our friends or neighbors to church or to church activities.

But more important than any of these: not to care about making some kind of a difference in this world for God!  The traditional spiritual practices for Christians during Lent, our Presiding Bishop reminded us this week in her Lenten message, are prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. And we have a God-given opportunity this Lent not only to learn more about prayer in our Wednesday night classes, to meditate during our Wednesday Noonday organ recitals, and to exercise our spiritual muscles by fasting, by “giving something up for Lent,” but we also have an opportunity literally to “give alms to the poor.”

The Diocese of Iowa and Trinity Cathedral, challenged by our Sunday School and Youth Group, have joined the “Rebuild Our Church in Haiti” campaign to rebuild Holy Trinity Cathedral in Port-au-Prince so there will always be a place people can go during times of trouble. When the January 2010 earthquake hit Haiti, people turned to our church. They knew they would find help there even though nearly all the church buildings, including Holy Trinity Cathedral were reduced to rubble. The Bishop, other clergy and Cathedral staff, offered what food and water they had. They handed out tents until all the tents were gone.

You may, or may not, know that Haiti has the numerically largest diocese of The Episcopal Church. It is home to nearly 100,000 Episcopalians with 97 parishes and 200 schools. In 2008 the Diocese celebrated over 200 baptisms and 700 confirmations. Per capita income there is about $480 a year!

Bishop Zache Duracin, whom I have known for over 20 years, along with the clergy and people of his diocese “have been rising to meet their extraordinary challenges in amazing and inspiring ways,” according to Bishop Pierre Whalon, who visited Haiti recently. “For the past year, volunteers from all over the world have streamed there to help, and money has been collected and wisely spent. Help for all Haitians to recover has come not only through the world’s governments, but more importantly through many non-governmental actors like Episcopal Relief and Development and Caritas.”

“But now the rebuilding needs to start.  The Episcopalians of Haiti are starting at their heart in Port-au-Prince, the (Holy Trinity) cathedral complex, so they can gather the strength to rebuild the remaining 80 percent of their physical assets lost in the 2010 earthquake. Rebuilding the (cathedral) complex will not only give a new spiritual center for Haiti, it will also put back the music school with its orchestra, a trade school, a K through 12 school, and an institute for handicapped children…Just this alone will give the entire capital (city) a shot in the arm.” (Whalon)

As your Announcement Bulletin indicates today, we plan to participate in this campaign starting today and running through Sunday May 29. Our Sunday School children will put coins and bills into a jar each Sunday and there will be a display table and jar in the Great Hall for each of us to give what we can in that way. There are envelopes in the pews in case you would like to make a contribution by checks made out to Trinity Cathedral and marked “for Haiti.” That way we can keep a record of your contribution.

Our Youth Group will be sponsoring a couple of special fund raising events to support this effort and we may even have a final festive meal at the end of the campaign late in May to wrap things up. Each brick to rebuild Holy Trinity Cathedral costs $10. Obviously, that means $100 would buy 10 bricks, $500 fifty bricks, and $1,000 100 bricks. The Diocese of Iowa has set a goal of $50,000 to be raised over these next 12 weeks.

It’s interesting to me that, in our recent parish survey, amidst all the concerns about the internal life of our congregation, among the top five priorities for people under 35 years old and for those over 65 years old was to “develop ministries that work toward healing those broken by life circumstances.” It is hard for me to imagine people more “broken by life circumstances” than our sister and brother Episcopalians in the Diocese of Haiti. We have, of course, been moved in recent weeks and even hours by more devastating earthquakes in New Zealand and now Japan. Relief efforts will need to be mounted there too, but at least there is an economic base in those countries, and the per capita income more than $480 a year!

And it is hard for me to imagine a simpler and more direct way for us to respond to the people of Haiti than by generously supporting this “brick by brick” campaign to “Rebuild our Church” there.” So, as you pray and fast this Lent – pray for Haiti and fast in order to give. There is no reason to give in to the temptation to apathy.

We can, dear friends, make a difference! Will you help?

Occasionally – not very often, but occasionally –- the proper Lessons for a particular Sunday fit together so well, with one building upon another, that a very clear, consistent point is made. Not many complex thoughts, but one central teaching that we can all take home with us. This Sunday we have such Lessons, and the Collect, or prayer, for today even provides a kind of outline to take us there.

A few minutes ago we prayed, “Most loving Father, whose will it is for us to give thanks for all things, to fear nothing but the loss of you, and to cast all our care on you who care for us…” The prophet Isaiah might have written that prayer and his words today are full of thanksgiving to the God who had rescued his people from Exile:

“Thus says the Lord: In a time of favor I have answered you, on a day of salvation I have helped you; I have kept you and given you as a covenant to the people, to establish the land, to apportion the desolate heritages…” (Isaiah 49) For Isaiah, the bringing of his people home from the long Exile in Babylon was just as great a miracle as their original delivery from slavery in Egypt.

They were to be brought out of the darkness of prison, fed along the way, and shielded from wind and sun just as their ancestors had been all those centuries ago in the desert. They were to be restored once again to the “Promised Land.” Even though they had feared that their God had forgotten them in their time of Exile, Isaiah writes, “Can a woman forget her nursing child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands.” (Isaiah 49:15-16a)

Again, in the words of the Collect, Isaiah wanted them to “give thanks for all things, to fear nothing but the loss of God, and to cast all their care on God who certainly was showing that he cared for them!’ The Psalmist today shows us what it looks like to “cast all our care on God.” It looks like a child in the arms of a loving Mother:

“O Lord, I am not proud; I have no haughty looks/ I do not occupy myself with great matters/ or with things that are too hard for me/ But I still my soul and make it quiet/ like a child upon its mother’s breast/ my soul is quieted within me/ O Israel, wait upon the Lord, from this time forth for evermore.” (Psalm 131) Israel had waited on God in Exile, and God had delivered them…once again!

Today’s Collect goes on to say, “Preserve us from faithless fears and worldly anxieties, that no clouds of this mortal life may hide from us the light of that love which is immortal, and which you have manifested to us in your Son Jesus Christ…”

In today’s Epistle, St. Paul would have had every good reason to be filled with “faithless fears and worldly anxieties.” He was in a big fight with the church he had founded in Corinth. There were factions in the church. Some people were accusing Paul of not being very strong or effective as an apostle. They were even wondering if they should continue to follow him or turn to someone else. So Paul writes to them:

“Think of us in this way, as servants of Christ and stewards of God’s mysteries. Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found trustworthy. But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. I do not even judge myself….it is the Lord who judges me.” (I Corinthians 4:1-4)

Paul was kept free from “faithless fears and worldly anxieties” by recognizing that he was not trying to please every member in the church at Corinth. He was trying to please God. And his confidence was that God loved him with a love which was immortal…and that no hassle, no conflict, no “clouds of this mortal life” could take from him that love which was able to save his soul.

Paul had learned that lesson from a Great Teacher from whom we heard in this morning’s Gospel, “Therefore, I tell you,” Jesus said, “ do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear.  Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing…And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to the span of your life?”

“Therefore do not worry,..for it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matthew 6:25 passim)

So…what is the “one central point” made by all our Lessons today? The teaching, or message, the Church wants you to take home this week? Listen again to the Collect:

“Most loving Father, whose will it is for us to give thanks for all things, to fear nothing but the loss of you, and to cast all our care on you who care for us: Preserve us from faithless fears and worldly anxieties, that no clouds of this mortal life may hide from us the light of that love which is immortal, and which you have manifested to us in your Son Jesus Christ our Lord…”

In other words: God loves you with a love that will never end…a love that will not let you go! Be thankful for that love! And don’t worry so much! Don’t let the cares and occupations of you life overwhelm you. Give them to God…and see how much better he handles them than you do!

In other words: Strive first for the kingdom of God and its righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well!

As you heard on the Feast of the Epiphany and again in last Sunday’s sermon, this is a season of Light in which we remember that the Light of Christ is to shine forth into all the world. The Greek word “epiphany” means just that – a “shining forth.” But just how is that to happen? How is Christ’s Light “manifested” in the world today?

Well, I think our Collect – or Prayer – for today makes is very clear. Just a few moments ago we prayed “Almighty God, who Son our Savior Jesus Christ is the light of the world: Grant that your people, illumined by your Word and Sacraments, may shine with the radiance of Christ’s glory, that he may be known, worshipped, and obeyed to the ends of the earth…”

If Jesus Christ is to be known in this world, it is up to us – Christ’s people – to get the job done. You’ll notice that the prayer does not say that only the “clergy, illumined by your Word and Sacraments, may shine with the radiance of Christ’s glory.” It asks that all of you, the people, may shine with his glory.

As excited as I am about the Search Process for a new Dean here, and as happy as I am about the good response to the recent survey, I always worry – in a moment like this – that too much emphasis will be placed on getting the “perfect Dean” who will somehow magically fix all that is wrong with this congregation.

Expectations that, as soon as the new Dean arrives, attendance will double, young families will magically appear streaming through our doors, and Trinity Cathedral will begin making the kind of impact in this community that will draw new members and increased commitment from current ones…Don’t hold your breath!

That is, don’t hold your breath for the next Dean to make all this happen alone. What we are praying for each Sunday is that God will guide the search committee and vestry to choose a Dean for this Cathedral “that we may receive a faithful pastor, who will care for your people, and equip us for our ministries…” That’s really about all a priest can do – and it’s plenty:

Be a person full of faith (which means full of trust in the grace and power of God); be a person who cannot only care for, but actually come to love, the people of this parish.  Be a person who can provide leadership, but also recognize that the Church is at her strongest when it is shared leadership – clergy and lay people; dean and vestry praying together to discern God’s yearning for this congregation and working together to carry that out.

So, in this morning’s Collect, we prayed that we might be ‘illumined by God’s Word and Sacraments.” Buddhists speak of their form of salvation as “enlightenment.” And we Christians have our own form of “enlightenment.” We get enlightened as we hear and read God’s Word in the Scriptures and as we receive the Sacraments of the New Covenant. At the very least that means being here on Sunday mornings to hear the Scriptures read and preached upon and to receive the very Being and Life of Christ into ourselves in the Holy Eucharist. If we do that, the Collect assures us, we will begin to “shine” with the radiance of Christ’s glory. I don’t know that that means a physical shining (although I have seen people so filled with the Spirit of God that they seem almost to glow). But it does mean that we can begin to reflect the Light of Christ in the way we live our lives, outside these doors, 24/7 as we say today.

If our lives gradually begin to take on the qualities of the life of Christ, believe me, people will notice. St. Paul writes in today’s Epistle “I give thanks to my God…that…you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind – just as the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you – so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift…” (I Corinthians 1)

If your speech and your knowledge gradually begin to reflect Jesus’ words and his wisdom, believe me, people will notice!  And then, the Collect says, he will begin to “be known, worshipped and obeyed to the ends of the earth.” We see that kind of progression beginning already in today’s Gospel:

First, John the Baptist encounters Jesus in his own life – he becomes “enlightened.” Then, he points this same Jesus out to two of his friends – “Look, here is the Lamb of God” – and they begin to follow him. One of those friends was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, and he passes the word along to him: “We have found the Messiah.” He brings his brother to Jesus and, as they say, “the rest in history.” “You are Simon, son of John. You are to be called Cephas!” (John 1:29-42) – the Rock.

You see how easy it is? See how easy it would be to grow this church? Be here every Sunday morning yourself, and bring your family if you can. Drink deeply of the Word and Sacrament available in this place, day by day and week by week. Become “enlightened” in those encounters with Jesus just as John the Baptist was, and go back outside these doors willing to let your life reflect that “enlightened” consciousness.

Don’t be afraid to speak about your faith, about the God you serve, and about the church you attend which helps you deepen that faith. And be as willing as John and Andrew were to invite your family, friends, and neighbors to join you here on Sundays. You can even offer to give them a ride…or promise to meet them here for services.

Oh, you’ll probably get turned down sometimes. You may even get as discouraged as Isaiah was in today’s First Lesson: “(For) I said, ‘I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and (for) vanity.’”

But, if you listen closely enough to that still, small voice within, you may hear the voice of encouragement – a voice which will say, “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the survivors of Israel; I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.” (Isaiah 49)

It’s too light a think that we should be God’s servants to raise up members of Trinity Cathedral or to restore people to The Episcopal Church. God has given us to be a light to the nations…that his salvation may reach to the ends of the earth!

That, dear friends, is what “Epiphany” is all about!

Joseph wrenched himself from his fitful sleep, drenched in sweat. He hadn’t slept much that night because today was the day he was going to have to tell Mary and her family that the wedding was off. It was a terrible decision to have to make…and one that he really didn’t want…but what else was he to do?

He was a respected member of the community, a craftsman of some skill. People looked up to him even though a few had raised their eyebrows when he fell in love with a much younger woman, not much more than a girl really, and had asked her to marry him. She had shyly said “yes” and filled his heart with joy. But then…

Then…she had told him that she was pregnant. She said that she didn’t really understand how it had all happened, but assured him that she had not been unfaithful. She was so young and had been so sheltered growing up that Joseph could well believe she didn’t understand all that had happened to her. But, happen it had…and she was already beginning to show.

He was sure of one thing: he was not about to humiliate her further. This had to be done as quickly and as quietly as possible. The rabbis would work with him in seeing that it was all done according to the Law. But it was still not going to be easy!

So, he asked to meet with Mary and her family the very next day and tried to get at least a little sleep before what might be the most painful and difficult thing he had ever had to do. But sleep didn’t come easily that night! In one of those “half awake, half asleep’ moments he found himself reliving that last awful conversation he had had with Mary.

She had tried to explain a troubling and confusing night of her own some months ago. Confronted by a messenger from God, like an “angel” she said, who pronounced her blest and said that she was going to conceive and give birth to a son, whom she was to name “Jesus.”  The language used to describe this child sounded an awful lot like what they had all been waiting for! He would be “great and be called the Son of the Most High.”

He was even, according to this messenger, to be “given the throne of David and would reign over the house of Jacob for ever.” There would be “no end to his kingdom.” Well, wasn’t that what they all wanted? Liberation from their Roman oppressors? A restoration of the “glory days” of King David when they were free…

“Free to worship (God) without fear, holy and righteous in his sight all the days of their lives? Hadn’t they all prayed that “the dawn from on high would break upon them…guiding their feet into the way of peace?” Now the angel promised that she would be blest…that the Almighty was to do great things for her.” That, in her, “God had remembered his promise of mercy, the promise he had made to the fathers, to Abraham and his children for ever!” (see Luke 1:46 and following for the above).

Well, Joseph had made her stop right there! It didn’t really make any sense to him and he didn’t want her to humiliate herself even further by lying to him, or making up some fantastic story. He loved her too much for that. Yet, he hadn’t seen her since that conversation.

But he was dreaming about it now. Or living it over again in his mind in those tortured moments when he woke up.  Suddenly he began to think, “But what if it’s all true?”

And he too found himself confronted with this “messenger of light.” “Joseph,” the voice seemed to say, “you are a descendent of David. You know the prophecies…don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife! The child within her is a gift from God! She’ll bear the child, name him Jesus, and he will be the salvation of his people. Remember the prophecy, “Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel.”

“Emmanuel,” Joseph said out loud as he sat up straight on his mat, dripping with sweat, “That means, God is with us!”  And maybe…just maybe…he really is!

So…the day worked out considerably better than Joseph had feared. He splashed water on his face, got dressed, and paced back and forth in his room until dawn arrived and then tried to wait until the time of his appointment with Mary and her parents. He couldn’t wait, of course, but they really didn’t seem to mind when he arrived some two hours early.

Didn’t mind because, they would never even know what he had thought about doing on this particular day. For, instead of breaking the terrible news about a dissolution of their relationship, Joseph was all about making plans for their wedding day. About the joy and celebration of their upcoming marriage. And…about preparation for the birth of their son.

Yes, Mary remembered later, that’s what he called him…”their son!”