That We All May Be One

Epiphany 3C. Trinity Cathedral.

An unaccustomed hush fell over the Nazarene synagogue as the young Jew rose from his place and made his way forward to read the Scriptures.  Could this really be the son of Joseph? This mature man who been absent from their midst over these last years, whom they had last seen as a young adult working in the carpenter shop?

Yes, this was the one. No mistaking the confidence with which he unrolled the scroll and began to read.  No mistaking the clarity with which he read about bringing good news to the poor…about releasing captives…and restoring sight to the blind…about freeing the oppressed…about being accepted and loved by the Lord.

But it was what happened after the reading that excited them.  No…disturbed them!  He rolled up the scroll, carefully and reverently, handed it to the one who responsibility it was to put it away, and returned to his place.  But there was unfinished business here. Everyone could feel it.

Even though normally the Sabbath service would have continued at this point with prayers and singing, it was as though everyone was waiting for the other shoe to fall…as though something else needed to be said.  And so, he said it. Slowly and carefully. “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

It’s hard to imagine just what Jesus’ neighbors and kinfolk would have made of that statement.  Luke’s gospel tells us that at first they spoke well of him and found his words “gracious.”  But that, after he explained himself still further, their acceptance turned into rejection and their pleasure to wrath.  Which led Jesus to say, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown.” Or, as one New Testament scholar translates it, “The truth is, no prophet is welcome on his home turf!”

Well, whatever his original hearers understood him to say, I think we know enough today to be quite certain what it meant. “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” means that Jesus Christ was the enfleshment – the incarnation – of Isaiah’s prophecy.  In Jesus Christ, the world was to see good news preached to poor people…those who were in bondage unshackled…the blind given sight…and those who were downtrodden given their freedom for the first time.  Jesus of Nazareth was the incarnation…the manifestation…the very epiphany of that long-hoped for prophecy!

And, whether you believe it or not, so are we to be! We are to bring good news to the poor and light to those in darkness.  We are to liberate the bound ones and the crushed ones!  Whether it’s in Haiti or right here in the Hilltop neighborhood. Oh no, not me, you say!  I don’t have the power to do all that!  No, not alone. But together, we are the inheritors of that prophetic tradition which goes back to Isaiah and beyond.

And we are members of a Church which is described in today’s Epistle as being the very Body of Christ! And “just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.  For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body – Jews or Greeks, slaves or free – and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.  Indeed the Body does not consist of one member but of many.” (I Corinthians 12:12-14)

Yet, no matter how passionately St. Paul pleads for unity in the Body of Christ, the primary reason we have failed at our prophetic task of being a light to the nations, over the centuries, is that, almost from the beginning, we have been riddled with dis-unity!

From the factionalism of the church in Corinth to the political wranglings of the 11^th century which split apart the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox to the explosion of the 16^th century Reformation to the short-sighted breakaway groups weakening every denomination today (including The Episcopal Church) we have crippled the Body of Jesus Christ in this world, withholding our gifts from one another…and that is our great sin.

This week we are observing the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.  Every year, from January 18 until January 25, every major Christian communion in the world prays for the unity of the Church.  I encourage you to join in those prayers.

Pray for our dialogues with the Roman Catholics which, however stressed they are today, have showed so much progress over the years.  Pray for our full communion relationship with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. And for our interim Eucharistic sharing partners – the Moravian Church and the United Methodists.  Pray for the seven downtown churches right here in our own neighborhood and our united efforts in the PUNCH program.

Pray for church unity, not only because it is the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, but because it was for the unity of the Church that Christ himself prayed – on the night before he died, according to John’s Gospel.  He said, “Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one…that they all may be one…so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” (John 17:11, 21).

That’s the reason for church unity.  Not to create some mega-institution, but because it is only when we are “one in the Spirit” that we can ever hope to have a cogent and consistent message “that the world may believe.” I see glimpses of that unity today – in some of our ecumenical dialogues, in charismatic and liturgical renewal, in movements like Cursillo and Marriage Encounter where people draw closer to each other as they draw closer to God.  Those glimpses show us that church unity is possible.

Many years ago now, the Archbishop of Canterbury (who was then Michael Ramsey) was meeting with the Roman Catholic Cardinal Suenens of Brussels.  Before beginning their conversation, they decided to pray together.  They opened the Bible to John 20:26 and these were the words they found: “Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’”

The two bishops felt that this was an invitation from the Lord to continue their dialogue despite apparently closed doors!  They knew in their hearts that God was being true to his Word and that Christ was present with them because they had come together in his name…and around his Word.

Well, Jesus is still true to his word.  And when this crippled and broken Body of Christ is finally put back together again, perhaps we will fulfill Isaiah’s prophecy of preaching Good News to the poor.  Perhaps we will realize Paul’s dream of being one Body with many members.

Perhaps we will once again be able to say – and people believe – that “Today (the) Scripture has been fulfilled…in your hearing.”

Epiphany IIC – Trinity Cathedral.

Today’s Gospel sets forth the third of our Epiphany themes – the visit of the Magi, the Baptism of Jesus, and now the miracle of water into wine at the wedding feast in Cana. Each of these Gospel stories describes a way in which the light of Christ was “manifested,” “epiphanized” into all the world.

Gentile astronomers finding their way to his cradle; the crowds at the River Jordan experiencing his baptism by water and the Holy Spirit; now scores of wedding guests experiencing a miracle of abundance! And the point of each event is summarized in the last line of today’s Gospel: “Jesus…revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.” (John 2:11)

You and I are the successors to those disciples. Today we will have our annual meeting here at Trinity Cathedral taking stock of just how Jesus has revealed his glory to us…and how much we believe in him. And I’m so glad that our Epistle today is from the 12^th chapter of First Corinthians! This has been a favorite passage of mine since I first read it in the original Greek and wrote my Senior Thesis in seminary on “Charismatic Christianity in the Corinthian Church.”

This passage is all about “varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit.”  The little church in Corinth was torn by internal divisions and factions. Some were loyal to Paul, some were followers of an evangelist named Apollos, some gave their allegiance to Peter, others claimed to be the “true Christians” who sought to follow Christ alone! (Sounds sort of like the Christian Church of today, doesn’t it?)

There were people in that church who were wise beyond their years. There were those who seemed to have almost supernatural knowledge.  Some seemed to be able to have faith in God even when everything seemed to be crumbling around them. There were those who had healing ministries, those who were powerful preachers, those who were deeply discerning of God’s will, some who prayed in other tongues and languages and those who seemed to be able to understand those prayers!

Sounds like quite a church, doesn’t it? The problem was…they couldn’t get along with one another! Everyone seemed to think that their gift was the most important one, that they and they alone were the truly “spiritual ones” in the congregation, and they didn’t much want to make room for anyone whose gift, or whose ministry, or whose perception of God’s will differed from their own!

Have you ever been in a church like that?

But Paul would have none of it! And as he began to frame his letter to them, addressing these issues, he points out that “there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is same God who activates all of them in everyone!”  No need for competition here. We need everyone…and everyone’s gifts!

It is the same right here at Trinity Cathedral! I was pleased to see our mission statement printed on the front page of the Report for our Annual Meeting today. It reads:

“The mission of the Parish of Trinity Episcopal Cathedral is to be a ministering community which restores all people to unity with God and each other in Christ.  We carry out this mission as we pray and worship, seek spiritual renewal, preach and teach the Gospel to all ages, nurture individuals and families, reach out in service and evangelize in the name of Christ.”

I was particularly glad to see the phrase “ministering community” because this became our key concept in the Diocese of Iowa during my time as Bishop here from 1988 until the year 2000. The phrase comes from a legendary missionary bishop in the Western part of this country named Wesley Frendsdorff. And Wes used to say that the Church itself is a “ministering community” rather than a “community gathered around a minister.”

That is such an important concept, especially in a “hierarchical” church like The Episcopal Church! Because we honor the historic threefold ordained ministry of bishop, priest, and deacon, it is easy to think that the only minister in the congregation is the priest! And that “ministry” all depends upon him…or her. And nothing could be further from the truth. All of us are ministers by virtue of our Baptism!

And I think you are beginning to understand that here at Trinity Cathedral! The sacramental ministry of this parish is not only exercised by the clergy, but enlarged and expanded by the faithful ministry of Eucharistic ministers who go forth from this place every Sunday.  The liturgy is not just planned and executed by the ordained but by the fine director of our music program and her choirs, the Altar Guild, the acolytes and lay readers.

The teaching is not all done by clergy, but by dedicated lay people who teach young folks and adults about the Bible and the Christian faith.

Pastoral care is not only the care given to you by the pastors, but by a team of pastoral care givers and pastoral visitors as well as our Parish Nurse. Prayer is not the sole possession of your priests – there is a Men’s Prayer group and the Hildegards and a professed Brother who prays with and for us three times a day in this Cathedral church.

And you don’t pay your priest to do outreach for you! You’re involved in PUNCH – People Uniting Neighbors and Churches (seeking to transform the challenged neighborhood in which we find ourselves). And the Salvation Army dinners, and the Angel Food Ministry, Positive Parenting, and so many, many more. No doubt I have left lots of things out.

But these activities – these ministries – do indicate to me that you desire to be a “ministering community” rather than simply a “community gathered around A minister!”

And I’m so grateful for that.

But, of course, we could be doing so much more. With more of you involved, with more of you really being good stewards by tithing or giving sacrificially and not simply relying on whatever endowment we have left, there is no telling what kind of impact we could make for Jesus Christ in this community. No telling!

So, join us for the Annual Meeting later this morning and let’s make a new beginning together in this still-new-year. And don’t every forget that…

“…there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone…All are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses!” (I Corinthians 12)

First Sunday After Epiphany 2010 Trinity Cathedral.

Each year, there are three main themes which mark the beginning of the Epiphany season – the arrival of the Magi  to greet the child Jesus (which we celebrated last Wednesday night with a beautiful Epiphany Evensong and Children’s Pageant); the Baptism of Christ (which we observe today); and his first miracle at the wedding in Cana of Galilee (which will be our Gospel reading for next Sunday).

Obviously, you and I were baptized because Jesus was! He joined the crowds seeking repentance and a new life under John the Baptist’s teaching at the Jordan River. Although we are not told that the 12 disciples were ever baptized, we do know (from  the Gospel of John and the Book of Acts) that they baptized others – many others! – and it seems strange that they would have done that, and avoided baptism themselves!

Certainly, down through the centuries, the Christian church has seen this “washing with water” as the primary initiation ceremony for new Christians. Our Prayer Book says that “Holy Baptism is full initiation by water and the Holy Spirit into Christ’s Body, the Church.  The bond which God establishes in Baptism is indissoluble.” (BCP 299) Cannot be dissolved!

Although the essential action – the washing with water in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit –has remained the same over the years, Baptism has been done in lots of ways: full immersion under the water in rivers or large pools; pouring of water into baptismal fonts; even the “sprinkling” of a tiny bit of water in some cases! (Not my favorite method, I have to admit…but we recognize them all as “valid.”)

The kind of preparation we do for Baptism these days is pretty tame compared to the year-long Catechumenate program of the early Church (although there are attempts today to revive that custom). In The Episcopal Church we have at least sought to restore Baptism to its ancient and primary place in the context of the Eucharist on Sunday mornings so that the whole Community can be involved, rather than “privately” in the back of the church on a Saturday afternoon.

We even encourage Baptisms to be done on special Sundays: for example, this Sunday (when we commemorate Christ’s Baptism); at the Easter Vigil; on the Day of Pentecost; All Saints’ Sunday; and on the occasion of the Bishop’s Visit in order to re-connect Baptism to the ministry of those first Apostles’. So, baptism is offered officially every few months throughout the year.

But I believe the greatest single advance in the recapturing of the ancient centrality of the Sacrament of Baptism has been the restoration of the so-called “Baptismal Covenant” which we will use today in place of the Creed. This question and answer recitation is probably the way our Creeds developed in the first place, as the early Church sought to summarize what Christians were asked to believe, and how they were to behave, once they became part of the Body of Christ through Baptism.

Candidates were first invited to renounce “the world, the flesh, and the devil” (phrased a little differently today: we renounce “the evil powers of this world, Satan and all the spiritual forces of wickedness, and sinful desires!).  We are then invited to make some positive promises – to accept Jesus Christ as Savior, to put our whole trust in his grace and love, to promise to follow and obey him as Lord.

Then follows the Baptismal Covenant beginning with the earliest Christian Creed – the Apostles’ Creed. This statement of belief (and its successor, the Nicene Creed) attempts to preserve for us what the early Church came to believe about the Triune God and about God’s work of Creation, Redemption, and Sanctification.

The final five questions of the Baptismal Covenant are attempts to summarize the kind of ascetical, moral, and ethical life Christians were being asked to live:

1. To follow the teaching of the apostles, to share in the Eucharist, and to pray.
2. To resist evil but when we do sin, to ask forgiveness and return to God.
3. To share the Gospel of God’s love by our words and our deeds.
4. To love our neighbors as ourselves by looking for Christ in all people.
5. And finally, to work for justice and peace in this world…and to start by, ourselves, respecting the dignity of every, single human being – since all are created in the image of God!

Well, as I say, since the adoption of the 1979 edition of the Book of Common Prayer, these vows and promises (which are really very ancient) have been recited hundreds of thousands of times by Episcopalians across this church. And I think it has transformed the way we see ourselves, and the way many of us look at the Church and the world.

So I want us to use these baptismal vows and promises at least on the five times each year when baptisms are being celebrated across the Church and certainly whenever we have baptisms and confirmations scheduled here. It’s a way of remembering, not only that we are the community of the baptized, but just what we are expected to believe and to practice as part of this community.

And it’s a way of living out what we prayed for in this morning’s Collect:

Father in heaven, who at the baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan proclaimed him your beloved Son and anointed him with the Holy Spirit:  Grant that all who are baptized into his name may keep the covenant they have made, and boldly confess him as Lord and Savior; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.

Advent 3C – Trinity Cathedral.

I said last Sunday that I believe John the Baptist had a two-fold ministry as he sought to “prepare the way” for Jesus. He was both an evangelist and a prophet. Last week I spoke of John’s evangelism. Today I want to speak of his prophecy. First of all, it may be important to remind you that prophecy in the Bible has little, or nothing, to do with foretelling the future. The Old Testament prophets only predict the future in the sense that they often say “If you do this, thus and so will happen.” Or, “if you do not do this, you can expect the following results!”

So, looking back at it through the lens of history, we can see that consequences often followed certain actions or inactions and it looks as though the prophets were predicting specific results. They weren’t. They were not “foretelling,” they were “forth-telling.” Telling forth, or speaking out, in God’s Name.  And so it is that in today’s Gospel, John the Baptist thunders, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” (Luke 3).

And even though Luke generalizes the message by addressing it to “the crowds that came out to be baptized by him,” we know from the other Gospels that John’s primary audience were the Pharisees, the Sadducees and the scribes. They were the ones who would have been most likely to say, “Why are you calling us a ‘brood of vipers?’ We’re descendents of Abraham!” John assures them that “God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham!”  The point was not whether they were descendents of Abraham, but were they living like descendents of Abraham?

A tree is not judged by its roots, but by its fruit (Caird, St. Luke, page 73) so John says, “Even now the axe is lying at the root of the trees; every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”

He then goes on tell them what “good fruit” looks like! To share clothing and food with those who have none. To be honest in your business dealings. Not to be violent. And look who he’s talking to! Tax collectors who, of course, were not IRS agents in those days, but Jews who had sold out to the Roman government and collected exorbitant taxes from their fellow Jews, often pocketing the difference.  The soldiers John addresses are not “regular army,” Roman soldiers. They were paid mercenaries who were body guards for the tax collectors.

It’s so important to remember, when we hear fiery words from the prophets of either Old or New Testaments that these prophets were speaking on behalf of an oppressed people! The Jews had been enslaved in Egypt and, centuries later, carried off into Exile in Babylon! The prophet Zephaniah, in our First Lesson today, was just beginning to see his people return from that Exile and so was able to say, “I will deal with all your oppressors at that time.  And I will save the lame and gather the outcast, and I will change their shame into praise and renown in all the earth.” (Zephaniah 3). Yet, by John the Baptist’s time, another oppressor had arisen. Roman armies occupied what we now call The Holy Land, and the Jews were at their mercy.

John the Baptist’s vision was one of world-wide and imminent judgment. The woodsman was ready to raise his axe for the first stroke, the Palestinian farmer ready to toss crushed stalks of wheat into the air with his wooden shovel so that the heavier grain could fall to the ground, while the lighter chaff was blown by the wind, later to be gathered and burned. One mightier than John was coming to inaugurate that judgment with the fire of the Holy Spirit. And John the Baptist knew he was not worthy to untie that one’s sandals. “The coming crisis would see the mighty overthrow of ancient wrong, the settling of accounts on the basis of strict justice.” (Caird, ibid).

With all these harsh words, it may come as something of a shock for us to come to the last line of today’s Gospel, “So, with many other exhortations, he proclaimed the good news to the people.” Good news? Yes! Not perhaps for the occupying Roman powers-that-be, not for the collaborating tax collectors and the mercenary army. But good news for sure to the poor! To the oppressed! To the last…and the least! For soon, very soon…all would be set right!

So, there are really three themes in John the Baptist’s preaching: fiery prophecy; concern for the poor and the oppressed; and preparing the way for Jesus. I’ve often thought that today’s churches often mirror one or more than one of these theme. Some churches are all about prophetic advocacy – speaking “truth to power” as it is sometimes called, as churches seek to speak out for justice in the marketplace and in the wider community.

Some churches emphasize direct services to the poor. We see examples of this almost daily in our community as the Salvation Army and Churches United and other church-related ministries provide Christmas baskets or Angel tree gifts or provide shelters for the homeless to get out of the cold at night. And some churches major in prayer and praise and in introducing people to Jesus Christ and helping them grow in their relationship with him.

I think The Episcopal Church, at its best, tries to balance all three of these emphases, so dear to John the Baptist’s heart. The Lambeth Conference of Bishops, and the General Convention of our church, has adopted the following “Five Marks of Mission” as a way of defining who we are, and of offering a challenge to us all to balance all three of John’s themes. The five marks are:

1. To proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom
2. To teach, baptize and nurture new believers
3. To respond to human need by loving service
4. To seek to transform unjust structures of society
5. To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth.

In this Advent season, and as we begin together a new year, I would invite you to think about ways we can fulfill all these Marks of Mission together here at Trinity Cathedral.

I think that would make John the Baptist…and Jesus…happy!

Advent 2-C. Trinity Cathedral.

 Because the season of Advent is, among other things, a season of preparation for the festival of Jesus’ birth at Christmas, the two middle Sundays focus on John the Baptist whose life and ministry have always been seen as “preparing the way of the Lord.” Luke tells us that John was fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah as a “voice crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.  Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God’.” (3:4-6)

 Luke is taking a little liberty with the text here because what Isaiah actually wrote was not “a voice crying out in the wilderness: Prepare the way…” but “A voice cries…: ‘in the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord.’” (Isaiah 40:3)  In other words, the voice is not in the wilderness…the people are! And they are hoping that God will make a straight path for them to return from Exile and be restored to their land and to Jerusalem!

 That’s consistent with our First Lesson today from Baruch who is usually understood to be Jeremiah’s personal secretary and scribe. This portion of his book is also talking about the return from Exile in Babylon and he too is confident that after having been carried “away by their enemies…God will bring the (people of Jerusalem) back…carried in glory, as on a royal throne.  For God has ordered that every high mountain and the everlasting hills be made low and the valleys filled up, to make level ground, so that Israel may walk safely in the glory of God.” (Baruch 5:6-7) So this is really about Israel returning from the “wilderness” of Exile in Babylon.  

 But it’s understandable that Luke would focus on a “voice” crying in the wilderness because he knew that’s where John the Baptist lived, and it was from the wilderness that his voice rang out. We don’t know much abut the early life of John. Our canticle today (itself taken from Luke’s Gospel) is the song his father sang in thanksgiving for his birth. It was a hymn of dedication too as Zechariah sings, “You, my child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way.” (Luke 1:76)

 Some scholars believe that John (and perhaps even Jesus himself) may have spent some time with the Essenes in the monastery near the Dead Sea. They too used ritual cleansing and baptisms of repentance symbolizing the forgiveness of sins, and it may be that John adapted that custom of baptism from them for his own  use.  But prophets and mystics, holy men and holy women, have often sought out the desert, the wilderness, as places of preparation and of prayer.

 I spent part of my sabbatical some fifteen years ago in the desert, taking two courses at St. George’s College in Jerusalem, one of which was called “the Desert Course.” We spent the better part of a week in three jeeps with a Bedouin guide tracing the ancient pilgrim routes across the Sinai, spending some nights in sleeping bags on the desert floor and other nights in Orthodox monasteries. There is something about the desert!  The silence is profound, especially in the middle of the day when no one or no thing is stirring. And the clarity of the night sky – with no artificial lighting and no pollution – is such that you almost feel you could reach up and touch the moon and the stars!  

 The very fact that you know you could die in a matter of hours without adequate water and shade from the sun makes it very clear how utterly dependent we are on God. I remember once scrambling out of the noonday sun, finding shelter under a huge stone jutting out from the side of a hill, and feeling the temperature drop about 20 degrees just getting out of the sun. It gives a whole new meaning to biblical passages describing God as “the Rock of our salvation!” That desert rock felt like my salvation from the heat!

 So, we’re told that “the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness; and he went into all the region about the Jordan preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sin.” (Luke 3:2-3). That means he lived just east of Jerusalem and north of the Dead Sea. And it was from this place of silence, complete dependence on God, and crystal-clear night skies that he heard the voice of his God, calling him into ministry.

 I think John’s ministry was two-fold really. He was an evangelist and he was a prophet. They’re not the same thing, but they are connected. I want to focus on his role as evangelist this week and perhaps his role as prophet next Sunday.

 John the Baptist was an evangelist because he preached Good News. The good news that God is, that God is in charge, and that God was about to do a new thing – that “all flesh (would soon) see the salvation of God.” (Luke 3:6). He also knew that it was not his role to convert people or to save them. That was up to God. His role was to “prepare the way,” to create an environment in which people could encounter God, and be encountered by God, so that God could do the converting!

 I’ve often thought that this is our task too, as evangelists. We’re not called to convert people. We’re called, as the Church, to “prepare the way,” to create environments in which people today can encounter God, and be encountered by God. So that God can do the converting.

 Maybe you don’t think of yourself as an evangelist. But, as Bishop Scarfe suggested here last Monday night, on St. Andrew’s Day, we’d better start taking our responsibilities as evangelists seriously if we don’t want The Episcopal Church, and other Christian communions like us, to disappear in another generation or two. Our researchers tell us that The Episcopal Church, like other mainline denominations, may be in a state of “systemic decline.” A recent report from our office of Congregational Development in New York says,

“It is easy to look at the unadjusted membership trends for The Episcopal Church and say that the sky is falling.  But to do so would be irresponsible and inaccurate. A more sober look at the statistics (membership and attendance) reveals that we have reached a plateau of sorts – from which we can either slide into a new decline or begin growing again.  The problems facing The Episcopal Church are daunting due to the nature of our main constituency. As long as we are a predominantly white denomination with aging, affluent, highly educated members, growth will be increasingly difficult.

 There is hope, however, because The Episcopal Church is attractive to people brought up in other religious traditions and to unchurched seekers, and statistically The Episcopal Church is the healthiest denomination in the mailine. But it will require more than business as usual to expand into other constituencies (such as new immigrants and the unchurched). It will take new churches and a new openness among our existing parishes. It will take having something to offer newcomers that changes lives. Clearly, we need more vibrant healthy churches. But growing as a denomination will require systemic changes, so that the average losses…might turn into…average gains. Even tiny gains across a denomination of 7,300 churches would produce growth of a kind that we have not seen since 1966.”

 Well, I share all that to convince you that we do indeed need to be evangelists like John the Baptist. It begins by inviting people, our families, friends, neighbors, and co-workers, to share the life of Trinity Cathedral!  It’s not our job to convert these people. That’s the work of the Holy Spirit!  Our job, as evangelists and as congregations, is to create environments and opportunities for the Holy Spirit to do that work of drawing our sisters and brothers into a life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ!

 John the Baptist “prepared the way” for Jesus. He made his path a little more level, the crooked road a little straighter, and the rough places a little smoother for Jesus. Can we do that? Can we make Jesus’ path into the minds and hearts of our families, friends, and neighbors a little easier by the kind of community we build here? By the vibrancy of our worship, the quality of our caring for one another, and by the kind of lives we live?

 Advent is a good time to think about things like that. St. Paul told the Christians in Philippi that he was confident…”that the one who began a good work among (them would) bring it to completion.” (Philippians 1:6). John the Baptist had that same confidence in God.

 I wonder, do we?