The Bishop's Address
Summary
Bishop Mathes addressed the 38th Annual Diocesan Convention on Saturday, February 11, 2012 at the Crowne Plaza. He encouraged listeners to remember that God's mission is not about us and to make no small plans.
Message
The Bishop’s Address
38th Convention of the Diocese of San Diego
February 11, 2012
Disturb us, Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves, when our dreams have come true because we have dreamed too little, when we arrived safely because we sailed too close to the shore.
Disturb us, Lord, when with the abundance of things we possess, we have lost our thirst for the waters of life; when having fallen in love with life; we have ceased to dream of eternity; and in our efforts to build the new earth, we have allowed our vision of the new heaven to dim.
Stir us, Lord, to dare more boldly, to venture on wider seas, where storms will show your mastery; where losing sight of land, we shall find stars. We ask you to push back the horizons of our hopes, and to push us into the future in strength, courage, hope and love as we are fed, as we share and as we go forth from this place to serve you. All this we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen
(Adapted from a prayer by David Hardman, Quoted by Canon Charles Minifie, Cathedral Age, Fall 1985)
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
La gracia y paz de Dios nuestro Padre y Señor Jesucristo a todos ustedes.
The Bishop’s Address is usually something akin to a State of the Union address in which the bishop extols the accomplishments of the diocese in the year just ended and lays out his or her agenda for the coming year. While I feel that we have accomplished wonderful things in our congregations and ministries this year and you all deserve in varying degrees, a big “well done,” I really don’t want us to be looking backwards. In addition, I do not believe this is the time to simply talk about next year and what we’ll do.
As I’ve pondered this moment in our community life and what the spirit may be saying to God’s people, the wisdom of two of my mentors came back to me. I remember my bishop, Bill Persell, when he preached the sermon at my ordination and consecration, needling me just a bit, as he was wont to do, and reminding me on that big day that, “it isn’t about you.” And I think back to an earlier piece of sage advice given to me by a parishioner, by the name of Mark Crane, when I was shepherding my congregation through a major mission plan and capital campaign, said this: “Make no small plans.” Well, both pieces of wisdom apply to us today: this business of church and diocese is not about us; and we are not to make small plans. And so today, what you have before you is no small plan. And what you have before you is really not about us.
There are good biblical principles for both pieces of wisdom and applying them today. As Paul said to the church at Corinth, “For we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake.” (II Cor. 4:5) And, Jesus he certainly didn’t make any small plans when he pulled together an improbable group of followers and gave them his valedictory, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.” (Mt. 28: 19)
Another mentor and wise counselor who I had the privilege of bringing to our clergy conference a few years ago, Kennon Callahan, has rightly pointed out many of the parallels between the first Christian century and the twenty-first. He famously has said of our time, “Welcome. Welcome to the greatest age of mission that the church has ever known.” If this is a bit of hyperbole, it nevertheless challenges us to ask about who we are, what is our mission in a missional age, and what are we gonna do about it. It’s not about us; make no small plans.
In this missional age of opportunity, the time of great tectonic shifts in social, cultural and religious norms and assumptions. Our nation is becoming more culturally, racially and ethnically diverse. The economic and social implications of globalization have only begun to become apparent and they’re daunting, while the effects of climate change and environmental neglect are omnipresent, our response to them is also needed. Our communications tools, they’ve grown exponentially while the discourse in our public square becomes what I can only describe as antediluvian.
For the church, this change in landscape has meant numerical decline and real questions about viability and future form. Robert Putnam and David Campbell have written an immense and important work, American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us comment on increased numbers within the population that have no religious identification, the so-called “nones,”and that’s not spelled n-u-n-s, by the way —this is the fastest growing segment of the population. What Putnam and Campbell tell us is that “religious identity in America has become less inherited and fixed and more chosen and changeable,” (American Grace 2108 out of 13307 on Kindle). Furthermore, while this shift away from religious institutions began gradually in the 1960s, across all parts of the church (Catholic, evangelical, and mainstream), over the last fifteen years, the decline has be precipitous. For us on the inside of the church, it can feel all about us. It can feel like a time to preserve, conserve and protect. And again, as a spiritual discipline, we must remember: it is not about us.
What the students of religion and the demographics teach us is that this mission field is a veritable treasure trove of people who have no connection to a faith community. They further show us that the vast majority of these “nones” believe in God and consider themselves spiritual. Our dilemma is that they are either indifferent to the church as they perceive us or they have sometimes justified negative perceptions of us. Again, drawing on Putnam and Campbell, these new nones report that they became “unaffiliated at least in part because they think of religious people, us, as hypocritical, judgmental or insincere,” (American Grace 2053 out of 13307 on Kindle). And so we remember that, it is not about us; it is clearly about them, and what we must proclaim to them and how we must serve with them. And so if this is our mission field, and Jesus has given us the call to make disciples of all—no small plan—what are we going to do about it?
Malcolm Gladwell talks of organizations and movements reaching a tipping point in his seminal work by the same name. Whether in product development, education, or in politics, and I would say, in our faith tradition, Gladwell suggests that a few individuals appropriately connected, with a message or product with what he defines as the stickiness factor can literally tip over the edge and become viral. I sense that we are at that potential tipping point as a diocesan community. Over the last few years, we have weathered some challenges and yet we’ve grown stronger if not numerically, certainly in our spirit, our connectedness, and in our passion, focus and identity. We continue even to this day and this hour, to do the good work of connecting that Gladwell suggests is a crucial part of going viral. And that identity and focus is clearly before you in the mission and vision statements proposed for adoption today. The Episcopal Diocese of San Diego is a missionary community that dares to follow Jesus Christ in his life of fearless love for the world. Grounded in God’s mission, we cast a vision: Undeterred by borders or barriers, we are pilgrims with Jesus in relentlessly searching for others to know, to befriend, and to invite them to Christ’s Eucharistic table of reconciliation and sacrificial love.
As you have no doubt noticed in the opening slide show yesterday, the banner, and the worship cover today, Jesus’ fearless love is at the center of community, at the center of our diocese—our being, our life together, and our mission. I am going to suggest that this fearless love of Jesus has just the stickiness factor that we need to do our mission. It is this love that draws us together, restores us to right relationship with God and each other. It is this fearless love that we share in and show forth. It is love that overcomes all borders and boundaries and barriers. It is perfect love that casts out all fear.
As a community of the beloved, as fearless lovers, we are poised to cascade over that tipping point. The strands that are coming together on this day will change how we are as a people of God. I pray that they will make us more a community of fearless love—a people who gather around the Eucharist table, but then move from that table, to be a people who are Eucharist to the world. We become what we eat, the body of Christ. And as the body, we are Jesus’ life in the world around us. We are Christ’s presence. Truly, it is not about us.
Our mission plan follows this bold statement of mission and vision. It is, at the core, moving us to a new place as a missional church. This plan is what Reggie McNeal, in his book Missional Renaissance calls, “going missional.” He says this: in his judgment, going missional requires three shifts in our thinking and our behavior:
- Going from internal to external in terms of ministry focus
- From program development to people development in terms of core activity
- From church-based to kingdom-based in terms of leadership agenda (that’s what Bishop Douglas was talking about).
As a community that transcends borders and barriers, we relentlessly strive to know, to befriend the other, the stranger, and bring them to Christ’s Eucharistic table of reconciliation and sacrificial love. Again, it is not about us…it’s about them; it is about fearless love, Christ moving through us. And so as you look through this mission plan, you’re gonna see a clear focus on externals. You’ll find goals and objectives that drive us to assume that each congregation has a core ministry in the world. You’ll note that our diocese is committed to focusing on poverty, border and immigration, and the military, their families and veterans as these clusters of social issues for which we will gather expertise and movement toward Christ-centered action. You’ll find that our proposed School for Ministry is all about people development: it is about developing leaders, developing spiritual gifts, and developing competencies in core ministries of the church. And while much of our mission plan is focused on building up our congregations, it is to build them up as outposts of the kingdom. Now this is where my imagination begins to run different directions. When you take the 94 to the 5 and head north, you see a veritable tent city with nothing else over their heads. Maybe our next church plant will be in there. Maybe another place will be stopping in San Ysicdro or Imperial County or Calexico. The new church communities in these places need not be built out of two-by-fours and bricks and mortar. They’re gonna be built with sisters and brothers and the people of Christ that dwell within. Where is this church? Wherever two or three are gathered to do God’s mission.
And to be sure moving from church-based to kingdom-based as we live into the reality of who we are is also gonna happen in the Episcopal Church Center in Ocean Beach. Right now, at the center, over 3,000 service contacts happen a month: AA groups, food distribution, Wednesday and Thursday night dinners, Saturday morning breakfasts, legal assistance, medical checks, and I think my favorite - haircuts for the homeless. It feels like a nudging, or more really a pushing, of the Holy Spirit. We’re taking a simple building in a community where there is much travail and pain and despair and planting our center. It is there that we will have our school for ministry. It is there that the bishop’s staff will work and serve. It is there that we will explore fresh expressions of worship for the twenty-first century. It is there that we will do God’s mission. The old model of planting a congregation first, and then developing a ministry over time is over. What we are doing through the church center is living in reverse: starting ministry and gathering a congregation out of those serving and those being served. I am reminded of the words prayed at every ordination:
…that things which were being cast down are being raised up, and things which had grown old are being made new, and that all things are being brought to their perfection by him through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord…
This is what we are about. This is what our mission plan wants us to do. A new governing structure that is about mission not maintenance, our vision for a new church center, and indeed about the possible capital to fuel much of this transformative work, serving those in need and we may serve and welcome – they’re waiting for us. We need a spirit of teaching. Following the great boundary crosser, Jesus, we have made no small plans. It is not about us; it’s about those we serve in Christ in the world.
This is indeed a great age of mission. I believe that we are being fundamentally faithful about being kingdom builders for this new era. This will require us to cease being the church of the last century and thank you, Paige, for letting us move out of here to the love and become the church of our time. All of those “nones” who have a sense of God and a sense of spiritual things, are out there without any community of faith are eager to join the mission of God even if they do not use that language. They know intuitively, they can taste what I said in the words of this morning’s lesson from Isaiah, God’s mission continues to bring:
good news to the oppressed,
to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and release to the prisoners;
to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor…
That is what they yearn for and we glimpse. Can we join in that mission? (Audience says, “Yes!”) Thank you. This is a mission that we should pursue with all people whether they’re Episcopalian, Christian, whatever, who seek what our presiding bishop simply refers to as shalom: a new creation of reconciliation and restoration. That’s God’s mission. That’s what we’re privileged to participate in. I think after today, we’ll say, God’s mission has a diocese. (Applause.)
Recently another bishop of Chicago, Jeff Lee, preached at the consecration of his canon to the ordinary as bishop of Utah . In the sermon, Bishop Lee told a story that he’d received from Bishop Peter Price, the bishop of Bath and Wells in England. At the time, the Diocese of Bath and Wells was in the midst of an important celebraton: its 1100th anniversary— that sorta puts 38 years in a different light! Bishop Price made what I thought was an inspired choice for this celebration; he walked the boundary of his diocese, trailed along by news reporters looking for a good story. (I thought about doing this on my sabbatical, but then I pictured myself in the desert and decided not to do it.) Bishop Lee asked him what he had learned in the process of walking from town to town and village to village and talking with folks. He said this: “You know, I realized how much time I spend talking only to people inside the church. All we ever talk about is the church. But out there in the pubs and on the street and among the people living in their cars … they didn’t want to talk about the church. They wanted to talk about God.” What would happen if we walked around our neighborhoods, met with school principals, police officers and elected officials and talked to them about God? How would these encounters and discussions affect the course of our participation in God’s mission? WE have made no small plans.
Dear Ones: Welcome to this great age of mission. We have made no small plans. It is not about the church; it is not about us. It is about sharing in and showing forth the fearless love of God in Christ Jesus. In that first century of missional possibility, Jesus gathered together fishermen, tax collectors, zealots, and harlots and sent them on an adventure of proclamation and mission. In this place and time, God has gathered us to be missionaries in a moment of missional possibility. It is not about us, but it is our turn. We have God’s mission; we have a mission plan to live into God’s mission. I don’t know about you but I’m ready. Let’s be on the way. (Applause and standing ovation.)
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