The Bishop's Sermon
St. Dunstan's Episcopal Church
Ephesians 4: 1-6
John 17: 6a, 15-23
Come Holy Spirit: Touch our minds and think with them, touch our lips and speak with them and touch our hearts and set them on fire with love for you. AMEN.
I.
Earlier this week, my staff was gathered for lunch over pizza and the conversation shifted to remembrances of our own confirmation and the preparation that we received before being confirmed. I recalled how our preparation was all about memorization. There was a point system: two points for the Lord's Prayer, three for the Nicene Creed, another three for the Apostle's Creed, and so one. As I recalled, you needed to receive twenty-five points to be confirmed. If you received thirty points, you got a special prize. Some one asked, "What was the prize?" to which a supportive and loving member of my staff replied, "You get to be a bishop!" I got thirty points!
In some respects the road to becoming your bishop was informed by that confirmation class, my confirmation, and many other moments along the pilgrimage of faith. As I reflected on Paul's words to the Ephesians, I found myself reflecting on my own journey and ours together,
With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all. Ephesians 4: 2-6
These words are spoken responsively every time we celebrate a baptism or a confirmation. They are foundational to our understanding of how we are related as a church. They speak to the core of what it means to be in relationship to each other and the Triune God whom we worship, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Each of us comes to this place of believing and conversion to Christ.
II.
For myself, the walk of faith took me through memorization and points and confirmation to the Mountains of New Mexico, where in the midst of snow capped peaks and wilderness I was confronted literally on a rocky outcropping with the Cross of Christ erected by the Truchas Indians. And during that same summer, a young woman, who taught me horseback riding also gave me my first Bible and told me of Jesus in her life, gave me the gift of a personal relationship with Jesus as my Lord and Savior. And then in college, singing Evensong with our University Choir, I sensed a particular and personal call to the ordained ministry: a ministry of care, loving and serving.
And so at age twenty-three and newly married, I went to Virginia Seminary. And so like memorizing things to be confirmed, I began a rather mechanical process of preparing to serve Christ in the church. But as my first year ended, something happened. Something happened on a plane on the way from Dallas to Toronto. A fire started. The plane landed but half of those on board had perished including my father. I was devastated. I had only recently begun repairing the relationship that had all but ended when he left my mother for another woman. Here I was feeling a great deal of pity, unable to pay my tuition, and all alone.
In these situations, anger and resentment can force out love, even the love of God. I went to my bishop with my anger. Trust me when I tell you that people do that a lot with bishops! I said to Bishop Sanders that the church simply was not there for me. I had been abandoned by the church and for that matter God. Where was the church?
My bishop was and is a wise man. He listened and then he asked me to tell my story completely. He then played back my story recalling all the places that I had been loved and cared for: Jocelyn and Frank caring for the dogs when we left in the middle of the night when my father died; Grace, Glenn, and William traveling a thousand miles to come to the funeral; the people of the diocese who had called and written. the list went on. He then simply asked two questions: "Isn't this the church?" "Isn't God present in them?" Here is "one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all."
IV.
I tell you this about me because I am convinced that I am not alone in my failure from time to time in missing the presence of God and the blessings of our fellowship as the church, that wonderful and sacred mystery. I believe that Jesus Christ is Lord. Jesus Christ is above all and through all and in all.
We will spend much of our time thinking today about the church. We will see where it is broken and imperfect. We will talk about Windsor, and Gene Robinson. We will see budgets and numbers. We will commission leaders. We will pray and we will sing. We will be the church today. I am mindful of the words of the great neo-orthodox theologian, Karl Barth who once wrote,
The church "may become beggar, it may act like a shopkeeper, it may make itself a harlot, as has happened and still does happen, yet it is always the bride of Jesus."
And so, acknowledging our failings, we will strive to lead a life worthy of the calling to which we have been called "with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."
V.
On November 13, 2004, our lives merged together when you called me through election to be your bishop. At my ordination, you and I made promises to each other and to God to be the church together. There is much in these challenging times that would conspire to derail and distract us. The tempter is very much at work in each of our hearts. However, we must not be deterred. A couple of weeks ago, I received an email from one of you. It was a message of encouragement with some valuable coaching. I was encouraged to focus the mission of our diocese on the message of reconciliation. In part she wrote,
So what if our identity is this mission of reconciliation? I know you've started talking about this, but I mean really pushing it, without ceasing ever, so that the unity message permeates all the times we're not actually gathered. There's an urgency now that means we can't just rely on occasional gatherings and visits to inspire us.
There is urgency for this message. And the reconciliation to which we are called is not some sort of sippy reconciliation of the least common denominator. It is reconciliation under the Lordship of Jesus Christ that asks and endeavors to answer the hardest of questions. It is reconciliation that begins with an overwhelming assumption that it is God who has formed us and brought us together because we are supposed to be His Church in this time and in this place. And it is reconciliation not as an end in and to itself but as a message and witness to the world.
VI.
As we look out into the world, we see division around us. We see failure to be reconciled. We see bone-breaking poverty, wars that destroy life, racism, and sexism. We see places where the love of Jesus Christ can make all things new. Reconciliation within the church and as our gift in Christ to the world is our calling. In my convention address, I will flesh out the road of reconciliation in more detail. As we move towards the Eucharistic table, that symbol and place of our unity in identity and purpose, I simply give you this as our clarion call, WE ARE THE CHURCH OF RECONCILIATION. And in that work let this be our prayer,
Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, union; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. Grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is dying that we are born to eternal life.
In anger, I once asked a bishop, "Where was the church?" In wisdom and peace, he reminded me that the church is God's presence in my life. Here is the church! Let us be the church of reconciliation for each other and the world in this extraordinary age of mission.