135thDiocesan Convention Sermon – 2018
Exodus 19:3-8; Psalm 92; 1 Peter 4:7-11; Matthew 13:44-53
February 9, 2018
Grace be to you and peace from the One who is, and who was and who is to come (Rev. 1:4)
Thank you, Bp. Skirving, for inviting me to preach at this 135th Diocesan Convention.
It’s an honor to share this time with my brothers and sisters in Christ and my clergy colleagues.
I want to take a few minutes to give thanks for, to appreciate, to name
some of the good things going on amongst us.
I hope this will be somewhat of a dialogue.
As I name things aloud,
I hope you all will give thanks for the good things taking place in your congregations,
and that we’ll have them gathered in our minds and hearts
as we offer prayers and break bread together.
Here is some good news I’ve gathered:
One deanery sees as its first challenge, people getting to know one another.
They have a big catered social event with entertainment.
They look for ways that resources can be shared among the congregations in the deanery.
They form a Disaster Response Committee made up of reps from each church
and their planis shared with the rest of the diocese.
As another deanery began to meet regularly,their outreach reps from each church got together
and planned five projects to involve the Episcopalians in that deanery:
And then they all got together and worshipped and had dinner on the grounds
with the bishop that Sunday afternoon.
Another deanery has called in a consultant
to help them make long-range plans for their future together.
Coastal churches are alert to their growing populations
andcreating new worship opportunities for summer vacationers.
There is a large corporate church that is organizing a Black River rebuild.
Another large downtown church brings in well-known speakers and authors
that are ecumenically relevant and otherwise not available to medium and small sized churches.
Another church’s women’s group has learned about human trafficking
and is taking steps to provide volunteers and assistance to a local agency.
Another parish has brought local leaders together to address the opioid crisis.
Some congregations are being helped by the diocese
in regards to how they can help with legal resources and stability
for Spanish-speaking families who are fearful of detainment and deportation.
There are the other things that we are so used to that we don’t think much about them –
weekly collections for food pantries and animal shelters, clothing collections,
and the individuals who give an hour or so each week
to volunteer somewhere in their community –
thethoughtful calls, the loving-kindnesses and daily prayers of the faithful.
I wondered what to share about St. Paul’s, Wilmington.
And I could tell some good news about growth and new energy.
But there is a moment from this past weekend I’ll lift up.
We had a woman from Raleigh visit us one Sunday
because she was in Wilmington taking care of her sister who was terminally ill.
She said her sister had a few months to live
and that she would worship with us when she was in town.
But, the sister died unexpectedly
the week after this woman’s first visit to St. Paul’s.
Her Episcopal priest in Raleigh assured her
that it was okay to call me and ask if I would do the service.
And so she asked me if I could go to the mortuary they had chosento officiate at a service there.
I met with the family at the home of the woman who had died.
She was only 61 and had two daughters who were in their late twenties.
It was obvious once we began to talk that the attendance would be large
and that this family needed some sense that God and the Church were there for them.
The woman had been an active Roman Catholic,
But, according to her family, had not received much ministry from her church during her illness.
Then, the family was told that if that church did the service,
they and anyone attending who is not Roman Catholic,
would not be allowed to receive communion.
So they had opted to have the service at the funeral home.
I found myself saying,
“Don’t you want to have the service at St. Paul’s ?
And, don’t you want Holy Communion?”
By asking this question I was obligating our funeral guild
to welcome these strangers and provide a reception for 150 people.
The organist and a soloist from the church had to prepare.
The altar guild and flower guild had to get going on preparations.
Servers and ushers had to be assigned.
Anextra bulletin would have to be produced that week.
And as soon as these plans got put into motion,
one of our own, a beloved member of St. Paul’s died.
His funeral was to be on Friday.
This woman no one knew – her funeral was to be on Saturday.
The reason I tell you this story
isbecause of something that caught my eye at the two receptions.
During the reception on FridayI saw a member of the hospitality team leaning in
toward the big table in the center of the hall.
She was looking to see if more food needed to be brought out.
Her eyes were scanning the table and the look on her face was gracious.
She cared about what she was doing.
She was ministering to the wife and family of our beloved member who had died.
The next day, Saturday, at the reception where there were no church members
but a room full of strangers – the daughters’ friends, family from out of town,
the many friends of this woman –
this woman who had been so full of life and had died too soon -
I saw a different person tending the big table in the center of the hall.
And I saw the same look.
One of hospitality and grace.
Of someone who was really engaged in something meaningful.
And it struck me that among these faithful,
essentially working a double shift of liturgy and hospitality,
effort and intentionality were being put forth for old friend and new stranger alike.
And we hear God saying
I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.
It is not about us knowing enough to love God.
It is about God knowing us and loving us still.
And so the God who knows and loves says,
You shall be for me a priestly kingdom.
From 1st Peter:
Therefore be serious and discipline yourselves.
Maintain constant love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins.
Be hospitable to one another without complaining.
Serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received.
Whoever speaks must do so as one speaking the very words of God;
whoever serves must do so with the strength that God supplies,
And then our theme for this convention –
a verse we will surely have memorized by the time we go home!
Every scribe who is a disciple for the Kingdom of Heaven
is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure
what is new and what is old.
One New Testament commentary says this section and its parables are about
makingthe obvious new and the new obvious.
To take what is so familiar and opening our eyes to see God using it in new ways.
And to see what is unfamiliar, even perhaps scandalous, to us
And discovering God’s work there, too.
It’s about discovering what is new in the old and becomingfamiliar with what is new.
Love your neighbor – obvious – how it is new in our global society?
Heal the sick – obvious – how it is new with the complexities of medical ethics?
Care for the widows, the elders– obvious – How will we do that given the statistics
that show the quickly growing percentage of people in the United States over 65?
My experience of life and of faith
had always begun with the old and moved toward the new.
My reality was made of layers of gathered experience
and with each new day, each new challenge,
I was taught to reach back into my resources
and bring forward what I needed to meet the new.
The future was an unknown, uncharted horizon.
This scribe made a disciple for the Kingdom of Heaven
went forward to meet the future and shape it with measured caution.
I took a course on JurgenMoltmann that changed this altogether.
I learned in a way that I had not understood before
that because of the resurrection,
the new creation Paul writes about isn’t just a figure of speech.
Not only has our past been redeemed,
butbecause Christ died and rose all creation is redeemed and that includes the future!
Sothe future isn’t a blank slate.
It is God’s futureredeemed creation unfolding before us.
What’s coming up next, what’s waiting for our attention, our imagination and action
is guaranteed to be a wondrous experience of the power of God’s love
that has won the struggle over death, and trampled down injustice.
And it is coming toward us, waiting to be discovered and ushered in by us,
the Church.
History is not rolling ahead and making the future.
rather, the promise-filled future creates the ‘undertow’ which ‘makes’ history.
A hope-filled future is not forged by our own success or failure at each turn.
It is already accomplished by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
We are a messianic people.
To be messianic means to be not content with things as they are
but to be intent that what has not yet happened today can happen tomorrow
because we know that what approaches is bound to be filled promise.
The kingdom of priests
The scribe trained for God’s realm,
The master of the household who has access to the treasures
We are they.
When we come to realize that God knows us and calls us by name,
we are all a holy priesthood who with open minds, open hearts, and open wills,
who worship God, and ‘presence’ God in the beauty of holiness.
through the liturgy of our lives we make God’s presence known
each and every day through the future that we welcome.
We may not all know Hebrew and Greek
but we are scribes of the Living Wordas it breaks forth new every morning.
While we may wonder about the sufficiency of our resources
weare members of God’s household, friends/no longer servants, Jesus says.
And we who live in the presence of the One who was and is and is to come,
we have open to us a storehouse of treasures – new and old.
The First Lesson:Exodus 19:3-8
3 Then Moses went up to God; the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the Israelites: 4 You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. 5 Now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples. Indeed, the whole earth is mine, 6 but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the Israelites.”
7 So Moses came, summoned the elders of the people, and set before them all these words that the Lord had commanded him. 8 The people all answered as one: “Everything that the Lord has spoken we will do.” Moses reported the words of the people to the Lord.
The Second Lesson: 1 Peter 4:7-11
7The end of all things is near;[a]therefore be serious and discipline yourselves for the sake of your prayers.8Above all, maintain constant love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins.9Be hospitable to one another without complaining.10Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received.11Whoever speaks must do so as one speaking the very words of God; whoever serves must do so with the strength that God supplies, so that God may be glorified in all things through Jesus Christ. To him belong the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.[New Revised Standard Version]
The Gospel Lesson: Matthew 13:44-53
44“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
45“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls;46on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.
47“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind;48when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the bad.49So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous50and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
51“Have you understood all this?” They answered, “Yes.”52And he said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.”53When Jesus had finished these parables, he left that place.