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God is Not Finished with Us Yet

2012-01-22T18:14:00.000-05:00

Sermon preached on the 3rd Sunday after the Epiphany, January 22, 2012, at the Church of St. Luke & St. Simon Cyrene (Annual Meeting of the parish): Jonah 3:1-5, 10; 1 Corinthians 7:29-31; Mark 1:14-20

“TheEpiscopal Church is dying.”

Ihave been an active member of the Episcopal Church since 1979 and for almostall that time I have heard this Jonah-like doomsday prediction. It is like Pauldelivering the hard message to the Corinthians: “The present form of this world is passing away.” Prepare yourself, because it is all coming toan end. Is that all we can do as achurch, is prepare to die?

Iblame no one for making this prediction because the numbers are grim. When I was born in 1961, the Episcopal Churchhad 3.6 million members. I joined a 2.8million member Church in 1979. Today, weare members of a 1.9 million member church. Not good. Not good at all.

Weare not alone, of course. Mainline Protestant Christianity from us to theSouthern Baptists is in this same decline, as is the Roman Catholic Church insome parts of the country, including this one.

Thecircumstances that brought us to this place are legion. Some of them are ourfault. Many of them are not. Any oneanswer is too easy, including that those mega-churches are the ones beingsuccessful these days. The only thing they have succeeded in doing is soakingup our people. The fastest growingreligious segment of the United States is actually “none of the above,” whichmeans not practicing at all. Thepercentage is approaching 40% of the adult population, up from something like15% in the 1970’s.

Itis important that we know these numbers so that we do not bury our heads in thesand. We should not pretend thateverything is going to be all right. Noone could possibly say that about the mainline church with any honesty.

Havingsaid that, though, I do not believe the Episcopal Church is dying. To believe that, I would have to believe thateither God has abandoned us or we have abandoned God, and I do not believeeither of those things.

Theremay be another way of looking at all this, and, therefore, of reacting toit. Take Paul’s pronouncement that “thepresent form of this world is passing away.” That sounds like nothing but bad news. It sounds like we should hunker down, protect ourselves, and wait forthe worst.

Butwhat if Paul is telling good news, not bad? What if it is good news thatthe present form of the world ispassing away? After all, who among us issatisfied with the present form of the world? Who among us does not wish for the kingdom of God to come on earth as itis in heaven, for which we pray almost every time we pray?

Sowhat if the decline of the Episcopal Church is good news? I don’t mean that it is not painful orthreatening. But what if it is also good news?

Isaid a moment ago that I could believe neither that God had abandoned us northat we have abandoned God. So if God isstill with us, what is God up to? That’sthe positive question we should be asking.

Idid not come up with this thought on my own. I came to it in conversation with an Anglican Church of Canada priestnamed Alan Roxburgh. It is his beliefthat churches like ours are not dying, but the way we have practiced being thechurch is. He says[1]

We keep looking for ways to turnit around. What program will work? What resource? What needs in the community do we need tomeet in order to get people to come into our church? The underlying assumption to all theseanxious attempts to turn it around is that all we need to do is find a way forpeople to know how wonderful we are and they will start coming to church againand they will put money in the plate and we will be whole again.

It’s never going to happen.

Thisdecline, Roxburgh says, is a gift from God. It is forcing us to stop clinging to an old way of being church in whichwe could assume that most people agreed with us and that they needed to be partof us to be good Americans, if not simply good people. We either let go of thinkinglike that or we do die.

Roxburghsays,

It’s never going to happen. ButGod never gives up. The Holy Spirit is messing with us, unraveling the churchbecause the Spirit is not done with us yet. What is happening to us is an invitation by God to become a verydifferent church. We have [for instance]created clergy whose focus is the church, and who only know how to make thechurch run reasonably well, talk church talk, and ask church questions. There’s a point in the Book of Ezekiel whereGod says to Ezekiel the prophet/priest, “Stop looking for me in the Temple. I’mnot stuck there anymore and you need to join me where I am.”[2]

God is out there in the worldahead of us. This is a gift fromGod. How will we learn to live in thisnew reality that we do not have control of God in our churches, but God isloose in the world and our job is to follow? And in order to follow, the most important thing we have to give up isour control of who we call “the stranger,” or “the strange,” or “theother.” In fact, we need to take up themantle of the stranger and go out into the world and dare to be different.

“Thetime is fulfilled,” Jesus says, “and the kingdom of God has come near; repent,and believe the good news.”

Inour time this is not the message of the church to the world. It is the messageof the world to the church, a message and an invitation from God.

Iam wildly hopeful because of these thoughts. God is doing something with us. But, of course, we are free, so we must decide to cooperate. What does that mean? Many, many things. I suspect the change weare called to is deep. It does not mean,I think, that we are called to give up everything, although I may be wrongabout that. I am an Episcopalian, so I believe the tradition is a gift to us aswell. But what are we to do, forinstance, with buildings built to say to the world, “God is in here, you mustcome in here to meet him,” when we are really trying to say exactly theopposite thing?

Thereis no simple, easy answer, no single program that we can run that will fix us,no person who is smart enough or charismatic enough to turn it around. There is only us, together. And I think these things are true:

· We need tostop wringing our hands and being anxiously reactive to what is happening tous, and claim what is still true: God iswith us and has a purpose for us. God isnot finished with us yet.

· TheEpiscopal Church has a lot of baggage and changing it is like turning anaircraft carrier. But at our heart is afaithfulness and a way of engaging the world that is holy and it is a very fineway of delivering the good news. I lovethis tradition and believe with all my heart it is worth passing on.

· We areperfectly capable of repentance, of change, of re-thinking, we just have to bewilling to take risks. That does notmean throwing common sense to the wind, but it does mean opening ourselves toGabriel’s message that all things are possible with God. A for instance—it is a common notion herethat there is not much we can do to change this 19^th centurybuilding for the betterment of our mission in the 21^st century. Andyet, at least three times in the history of this congregation, we have doneprecisely that.

In short, Jesus is still saying,“Follow me.” We are still being called. There is life in us yet. We are being changed for the glory of God. God is not finished with us yet.

[1]The quotes in this sermon from Alan Roxburgh are from notes taken during hispresentation on November 7-9, 2011 at the semi-annual meeting of the Church inMetropolitan Areas. They are not exactquotes. Roxburgh’s website is www.roxburghmissionalnet.com.

[2]This takes place in chapters 9, 10 and 11 of Ezekiel. Ezekiel was a priest before he was called tobe a prophet, and was one of the first taken into exile in Babylon in 597 b.c.e.

Where did you get that T-shirt?

2012-01-08T20:45:00.000-05:00

You can now purchase clothing and other merchandise with the new parish logo from our CafePress store. You can chose your favorite logo color from among over a dozen options. The congregation will receive 10% of the purchase price. Additional products will be added in the future. Please contact John Clinton Bradley if you have any suggestions or questions.

Check out our Christmas ad in the City Newspaper!

2011-12-24T13:21:00.001-05:00

The Ember Days: Praying for the Ministry of the Church

2011-12-16T09:37:00.001-05:00

Friday, December 16, 2011

Today is one of the Winter Ember Days. The Ember Days happen near the transition from one season to another four times a year. They developed as times of penitential prayer at these seasonal changes in a society which was largely rural and agricultural. The impulse was simply to offer to God the work of the season ahead, beseeching God's blessing. They date back to at least the 5th century.

No one knows exactly why, but from their beginning they were also thought of as appropriate times for ordination. So today, if you look in our Prayer Book for prayers for this day, you will find them as prayers "For Ministry," and, of course, in our day we know that means the ministry of all baptized people, not just the ordained.

Nevertheless, this is a good time to pause and pray for the ordained among us, for those preparing for ordination, and for the continued raising up of people for the ordained ministry.

So I ask your prayers for our Bishop, Prince, as well as our retired bishops, Jack and William.
And I ask your prayers for myself, for John, our deacon, Mary Ann, the rector of St. Stephen's, and for the other clergy who are part of our community: Sandy Cordingley, Phil Schaefer, Peter Peters, Carolyn Lumbard, and Dennis Wienk.
And I ask your prayers for Cheryl Frank, who is in the process of applying to be a postulant for ordination, having been nominated by myself and your Vestry.
And I ask your prayers for Michael Laver, who is in the discernment process, working with a committee of folks from both Two Saints and St. Stephen's.

Thanks, and I will pray for you and your ministry, too.
Michael

St. Lucy's Day: In the Middle of Advent, Looking for the Light

2011-12-13T08:41:00.002-05:00

Today is special in our house this year because we have our own "Lucy," the dachshund who joined our household back in February. But Lucy has always been a favorite saint of mine. I've never known exactly why. It has been sort of an intuitive thing, but it may be clearer this year.

Lucy's name means "light," and it is no accident her feast day is on December 13. In the old Gregorian Calendar, this was the shortest day of the year. After today, even though we have a lot of winter yet to come, the light begins to take back the night. So, especially in northern Europe, this was a very important day, a day of hope.

In Scandinavia today, children will bring their parents breakfast in bed, some of them (carefully!) wearing a wreath of lighted candles (I suppose most of them are electric by now). Last night they will have written "Lussi" on their doors and hung a picture of the saint. In ancient times, this was to announce to the demons of winter and the night that their brief reign was over. "Lucy fires" are lit this evening as another sign that the light is triumphing over the darkness.

Lucy is my companion, I guess, whenever I am looking for the light. Here, in the Middle of Advent, feeling oh so far behind, not sure when I'm going to have time to Christmas shop, feeling more unprepared for the liturgical celebrations ahead than I have for a long time, I have need of Lucy's light to help me see the One who is coming, whether I am ready or not, and he is coming with Good News.

The Occupation of God?

2011-12-12T19:34:00.002-05:00

Sermon preached at the Church of St. Luke & St. Simon Cyrene on the 3rd Sunday of Advent, December 11, 2011: Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11; John 1:6-8, 19-28

This took place in Bethany acrossthe Jordan where John was baptizing.

Iwonder if we could think of John’s setting up camp to prophesy and preach andbaptize as a kind of first century “Occupy” movement. “Occupy Bethany,” or “Occupy the Jordan.”

Isee similarities. John was not out theredoing his thing with anyone’s permission or authority. He didn’t seem to careabout authority at all, except perhaps for how it was abused. He certainly was not fond of either thepolitical or religious leadership of his day. He had choice words for both,words that eventually got him murdered by King Herod II, with a little helpfrom Salome and her devious mother.

Hisgeneral message was that something was not right about how people were livingtheir lives and he warned that change—repentance, he called it—was absolutelyvital for the future of a society that lived up to the ideals of its founders(not to mention God).

Iwill confess that I am not as knowledgeable about the Occupy movement as Ishould be. This fall has not leantitself to my exploring a new thing. ButI am intrigued by it and generally supportive of it. Furthermore, I suspect Jesus is too. The Occupy folks make me wonder, which isalways a good thing. Mostly I wonderwhat it means to believe passionately that the widening gulf between the richand the poor in this country and around the world is nearing crisisproportions.[1] Orperhaps we’re already at the crisis point and that’s what the Occupy folks wantus to wrap our minds around.

Ialso wonder, however, what many of us do with the dilemma we are in. Many of us, like it or not, have a dependencyon Wall Street. Our 401(k)s or 403(b)sdo. The endowment of this parish, andour diocese, and the Episcopal Church certainly does. So if we support the Occupy Movement, are webiting the hand that feeds us? Do weneed to find a different way to be fed? Or does the hand that feeds us simply need some radical reform?[2] These are all important questions—vitallyimportant, and as people of faith, we ought to be having conversation aboutthem. Again, I suspect Jesus wants us todo so.

Ialso wonder how the church relates to Occupy. I received the newsletters from a couple ofour churches in the diocese recently that had fashioned a graphic that said,“Occupy the pews of your Episcopal Church.” Clever, but I don’t like it. Atleast I don’t like it unless I know those parishes are also having deepconversation about the issues raised by the Occupy Movement. I checked—they’re not. It seems to me this is just another exampleof the church exploiting others for its own benefit. It’s another reason for a group of people whoare largely alienated from the church and highly mistrustful of it to remain so. It’s not helpful at all.

Ilike some of what Brian McLaren[3] iswriting about the Occupy Movement and Christian faith. In a blog post near the beginning of the movement,he admits that he is kind of uncomfortable with the word “occupy.” It soundsaggressive to him. But he says this in reflection after he spent a day withsome Occupiers.

Aswe walked along, I kept thinking about Jesus' use of the term "kingdom ofGod." …. Like "occupy," kingdom of God” was a dangerous term fora nonviolent movement. It borrowed the language of the Roman Empire whose pax was maintained by slavery, militarism,public torture, and frequent executions (i.e., crucifixion). It was overtlyprovocative—bursting out of the private sphere of spirituality into the publicworld of kings, lords, and laws. It threw down a gauntlet before the powersthat be, challenging their legitimacy with a higher authority.

IfI had been around, I would have counseled Jesus against using the term.

[Likewith the choice of the word “occupy”] I'm glad I wasn't consulted. It's ratherobvious now that Jesus knew what he was doing. "The occupation of God hasbegun" might inspire the same fear and hope among people today as"the Kingdom of God is at hand" inspired in the first century.[4]

“Theoccupation of God has begun.” I like that. And I think the prophet Isaiah would have liked it.

The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me tobring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaimliberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year ofthe Lord’s favor.

That “year of favor” of whichIsaiah speaks is the biblical “Year of Jubilee.” Every fifty years Israel wasto set things right economically. All propertyreturned to its ancestral owners, all Israelite slaves freed, slavery being howthe poor got used by the rich in those days.

Jesuswas so fond of this message that he used it as his inaugural sermon at thesynagogue in his hometown,[5] astory we hear every St. Luke’s Day.

Thisgood news for the underdogs announced, indeed, the occupation of God. “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in yourhearing,” he said about this passage from Isaiah. Jesus himself was the occupation of God, ifyou think about it. Maybe more on thatChristmas Eve.

Whetheror not you agree with the tactics of the Occupy Movement, you have to admit asa Christian, that the gross inequality in this country that has ballooned overthe last decade has to be addressed. Dowe really believe as followers of Jesus that it is the inherent right for thosewho are rich to get as rich as they possibly can even if it means that the poorget poorer, the unemployed stay unemployed, and the vast majority of childrenin this country lose any hope at all of anything approaching the “Americandream?”

Aquote from a book of Advent meditations that I am using says it very nicely:

Like it or not, the moral economyof God is not predicated on the necessity of poverty for most and riches forsome.[6]

Weneed to talk about this, and we need to take action, even if it is not exactlythe kind of action of the Occupy Movement. Or maybe it is. But I amabsolutely confident in this: Jesus wants us to do something.

[1] In2009, total US household wealth was held 63.5% by the top 5% of the citizenry(35.6% by the top 1%). The bottom 80%held 12.8%. Median net worth in 2007 was$143,600 for white Americans, $9,300 for Black Americans, $9,100 for HispanicAmericans. Between 1979 and 2009 , thetop 5% of Americans saw their real incomes increase 72.7%. The bottom 20% shrunk 7.4%.

[2] Ina 60 Minutes interview on December11, 2011, President Obama pointed out that, unfortunately, very little thatanybody did to cause the 2007-2008 crash was illegal.

[3] www.brianmclaren.net

[4]From a blog, “Why I’m joining the occupation,” http://www.patheos.com/Resources/Additional-Resources/Joining-the-Occupation-Brian-McLaren-10-20-2011.html

[5]Luke 4:14-21.

[6]Barbara Cawthorne Crafton, Let EveryHeart Prepare (Morehouse, 1998), p. 29.

Advent Begins: The End is Near

2011-11-28T17:29:00.001-05:00

There is probably not anything more un-Episcopalian than standing on a street corner proclaiming that the end is near. Unlike in some Christian circles, the end times is not a significant topic of conversation among us. To be perfectly honest, I am not particularly unhappy about that fact.

Yet here we are at the beginning of Advent and, at least at the beginning of this season, we are asked to reflect on what we mean when we say "Christ will come again." I said yesterday at the Eucharist that we read "end time" texts from the Bible and assume the news they bring is bad. Jesus is coming back and this time he's angry. We say every week in the Nicene Creed, "He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead..." No matter which way you try to spin it, judgment sounds painful. Do any of us not have aspects of our lives that will be judged harshly? I suspect not.

When St. Paul considers this reality in the eighth chapter of Romans he realizes something very important. He says

Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ?

His answer is, "Nothing." The one who will be our judge is first our lover, the one who prays for us always, whose life was an offering which took in the life of the whole world. Our judgment will result in our freedom. We have nothing of which to be afraid.

We sang a contemporary Advent hymn at the end of the late Service yesterday which can have the last word (the second verse):

Can it be that from our endings, new beginnings you create?
Life from death, and from our rendings, realms of wholeness generate?
Take our fears, then, Lord, and turn them into hopes for life anew:
Fading light and dying season sing their Glorias to you.
Dean W. Nelson (b. 1944) (from Wonder, Love and Praise, #721)

Takin' It To The Streets: Highlights From Our 80th Diocesan Convention

2011-11-13T12:59:00.001-05:00

by John Clinton Bradley, Lay Delegate

Bishop Barbara Harris preaching from Two Saints' pulpit.

The 80th convention of the Diocese of Rochester took place on November 11-12. It began on Friday afternoon with a procession from the Hyatt to St. Luke and St. Simon Cyrene. Our sanctuary was filled (overflowing into the balconies) for the convention Eucharist. The Rt. Rev. Barbara Harris, the first female bishop in The Episcopal Church, preached--urging the church to re-vision itself as a movement rather than an institution.

Back at the Hyatt, we perused exhibits about ministries occurring in each of the six districts of the diocese. Our parish showed a Right On School display.

Later Friday evening, delegates enjoyed an informal dinner with entertainment provided by each district. The Rochester district was well represented by Harmonically Yours from St. Stephen's.

Formal business sessions were conducted on Saturday. We cast ballots for several offices. The Rev. Mary Ann Brody was elected to the Disciplinary Board.

We also voted on ten resolutions. Dr. Marilyn Wienk, chair of the Public Policy Committee, introduced Resolution G, which called for the withdrawal of all American troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2012. The resolution was initially defeated, but was later reconsidered and amended to call for a withdrawal of troops as soon as possible. The amended resolution passed.

Bishop Prince Singh gave his annual "state of the diocese" address--calling for us to become "authentic spiritual activists."

Chris Cleveland, vice-chair of Diocesan Council, presented the report of council. The proposed 2012 diocesan budget proved to be somewhat controversial. Several delegates expressed concern about how the decision was made to eliminate the diocesan youth missioner position. A significant minority of no votes were voiced to the budget.

Two task forces are working on crucial diocesan financial concerns. The first is addressing the apportionment formula by which parishes financially support the diocese. The second is evaluating the supplemental health insurance benefit the diocese provides to retired clergy and their spouses.

The rector was appointed to three committees for the coming year--Nominations, Constitution & Canons, and Resolutions. He will chair the Resolutions Committee.

My modest contribution to convention was to edit a video of greetings from other bishops--including Bill Burrill, Jack McKelvey, Gayle Harris, and Steve Lane. Most of the clips in it were shot by Bishop Prince Singh on his iPhone while attending the House of Bishops meeting in Quito, Ecuador, last September.

It has been my privilege to serve as one of your lay delegates to convention during the past three years. (Our other two lay delegates are Sharon Nelson and Walt Kannapel.) I am not standing for re-election because I believe that other members of our parish should have the opportunity to take part in regional assemblies and diocesan convention. I encourage you to consider offering yourself for this post.

Greetings to Our 80th Convention

2011-11-12T10:40:00.001-05:00

John Clinton Bradley edited this video for diocesan convention. Most of the clips in it were shot by Bishop Prince Singh on his iPhone while attending the House of Bishops meeting in Quito, Ecuador, last September.

http://youtu.be/yn1ulLA6dq4

All Hallow's Eve

2011-10-31T13:45:00.001-04:00

By the Rev. Michael W. Hopkins

Most people love Hallowe'en, or at least they did when they were kids. Some Christians are "opposed" to it because of its pagan roots, and its supposed origin in worship of the Devil. To participate in it is to participate in "occultist" activity.

Well, here we have a problem. Christian tradition, especially its worship (including the liturgical calendar), has deep roots in two sources: the Jewish tradition of the time of the apostles and pagan practices throughout the ages. Christians have a long, long history of adopting and adapting pagan practices. All Saints' Day is a case in point. Many northern European cultures had a day at this time of the year (often considered the first day of the new year) when the dead were said to communicate with the living. Christians' ongoing relationship with the dead (what we call the communion of saints) meant that it naturally gravitated toward these celebrations even if it could not adopt all of the practices associated with it. Voila, All Saints Day.

Dressing up in costumes is fun. Of course, we want to avoid costumes that are racist, or that promote violence. Those are contrary to our values. Halloween is not a day off from upholding the dignity of every human being.

Hallowe'en and All Saints may be a very good time to have a conversation with young people about evil and death, since we do seem to dance around its edges as part of our celebration. How can that conversation go? Lots of ways, but here are three basic talking points:

We participate in evil when we choose to do injustice, choose not to make peace (reconciliation), and when we refuse to love our neighbor as ourselves (and that includes not loving ourselves).
We all do these things from time to time and God is always ready to forgive us if we can be honest about what we have done.
Jesus came to struggle against evil and death and they appeared to win when he died on the cross. But he did not stay dead. He came back from the dead to proclaim that evil and death had been defeated once and for all. Any power they have after he was raised is temporary.

If you have this conversation, you just might get a question about the devil, and even hell. Is there really a devil? Is there a real hell?

Good luck. This is tricky ground. It is easy just to say "No, we don't believe in these things," but that is too simple an answer. Here's my answer.

I don't know if there is a real devil. I do know that there is real evil in the world and that I am often tempted to participate in it. I also have experienced evil that could not be explained simply by human will (someone choosing to do bad). We do not know where this evil comes from so sometimes we speak about the devil, or Satan, as its source, giving evil a name and a place (hell). Whether or there is a Satan or a Hell, we know this: Jesus has conquered them. At Easter we sing about Jesus smashing the gates of hell so that no one has to stay there any longer.

There are lots of things in this world to be afraid of, lots and lots and lots and lots. And it is OK to be afraid of them. But they cannot take you away from God. When you were baptized, the priest put oil on your head, made the sign of the cross and said, "Nicole, you are sealed by the Holy Spirit in Baptism and marked as Christ's own for ever." You are chosen by God. You are a saint. Nothing can change that, that's how strong God's love is.

Mutual Obedience: Listening to Love

2011-10-23T16:30:00.000-04:00

Sermon preached at the Church of St. Luke & St. Simon Cyrene on the 19th Sunday after Pentecost: Matthew 22:34-46

A lawyer asked Jesus a questionto test him, “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?”

I’venever been sure just what the test was. There was only one answer Jesus could have given, only one thing hewould have said. He said what, as aJewish man, was on his lips at least twice a day. Deuteronomy 6:4-5 (JPS translation).

Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart andwith all your soul and with all your might.

Itwas and is called the Shema, from thefirst word in Hebrew translated “hear” or “listen.” Over the centuries it became the beatingheart of Judaism. It is what is writtenon a tiny scroll inside the mezuzahon Jewish doorways and in the tefillin,boxes held in the hand and worn on the forehead during morning and eveningprayers. If Jews have anything like acreed, this is it.

Thereis nothing else Jesus could have said. It was as natural to him as breathing. Perhaps the lawyer was testing to see how far Jesus would stray from thetradition. He did not stray an inch,well, maybe an inch, because he did two things to the Shema.

Firstof all he changed a word. Deuteronomy6:5 says that you shall love God with all your heart, soul, and might. Jesus says

You shall love the Lord your Godwith all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.

Scholarsdo not seem to make a big deal about this change. I think it’s huge. Love God with your mind! What a concept. God does not want me to turnoff my brain in order to love him, God wants me to turn it on.

Andthen Jesus does another thing. He couplesthe Shema with something that hadnever (so far as we know) been coupled with it before. He said,

And a second is like it: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

That is Leviticus 19:18. Jesus equates the two, and in doing so, turnsthe worship of the One God on its head. You cannot be said to love God without loving your neighbor. Justice and spirituality are inseparablylinked by Jesus here. Many of hisfollowers, right up to this day, have sought to tear them back apart.

ButJesus said, “Be devoted to God and bedevoted to your neighbor.” Everythingelse has to be understood in the light of this double love.

Butwhat does it mean? What does it mean tolove God? What does it mean to love neighbor? The Benedictine monastic tradition has an answer that reaches back tothe beginning of the Shema. “Shema!”“Hear!” “Listen!”

TheRule of St. Benedict in fact begins with this word.

Listen carefully, my child, to myinstructions, and attend to them the ear of your heart.[1]

That’s a lovely metaphor, “the ear of yourheart.” Benedict goes on

This is advice from one who lovesyou; welcome it and faithfully put it into practice. The labor of obediencewill bring you back to God…

Obedienceis not our favorite word, but it is, perhaps, the fundamental vow ofmonastics. For us, “obedience” tends tomean doing what you are told, and we do not always like to be told what todo. I include myself in that we, ask anybishop I have served with.

Butto monastics, “obedience” means something different. Obedience is fundamentally the commitment tolisten. And that is literally what theword means. The root Latin word of theEnglish word “obey” is “audire,” tohear, or to listen.

Formonastics this obedience is due not only to whomever is in authority over them,it is also due one another. Benedictwrites in chapter 71 of his rule:

Obedience is a blessing to beshown by all, not only to the prioress or the abbot, but also to one another,since we know that it is by this way of obedience that we go to God.[2]

Benedict entitles this chapter “mutualobedience.”

Ihave found over twenty-one years of preparing couples for marriage that themost important skill I need to check on and help with is listening. Virtually all of these couples thought asthey were preparing for “the big day” that their love would last for ever. It will not, I tell them, if you do not veryintentionally listen to each other.

Listening,as Benedict and Jesus have shown us, is a fundamental building block of love,which is what I think Benedict would say mutual obedience is. Mutual obedience is love.

Weare entering a few weeks of listening, and I hope that in doing so, our lovefor one another will increase. Membersof the Vestry are visiting members of the parish. Their primary purpose is to listen. They willhave questions, but ultimately even they are not all that important. They are there to listen.

Nowall of us have trouble listening, especially in this day and age when we aresurrounded by noise and stimulation and hurrying. To listen you have to be quiet, you have tobe focused, and you have to be patient. All these Vestry members will not get listening right all the time. Feel free gently to coax them back on thepath.

Weare also entering a conversation about worship. There will be sessions nextweekend and again on November 13. We aregoing to exercise the discipline of listening in those sessions. We are going to practice what Benedict callsmutual obedience.

Itmay very well be that both in the Vestry visits and our Worship Conversations,that some hard things will need to be said. That’s perfectly fine. We cannotclaim that we have re-established Eden here at 17 South Fitzhugh Street. But as there is an obedience in listeningthere is also an obedience in telling. We must remember that we are speaking to the ear of someone’s heart. I can disagree with something that is goingon. I can even be downright unhappy about. But I need to voice that disagreement in a way that can be heard, whichmeans I don’t get to set aside compassion just because I am unhappy.

Here's the starting point: Weall love God. We have different ways of expressing it, although our common wayis this Eucharist. I believe we all lovethis community as well, and want what is best for it. Let us over the next month listen to oneanother, let us be mutually obedient to one another, let us love one another,as we are loved by our good God.

[1]From the translation of Sister Joan Chittester, O.S.B. in The Rule of Benedict: Insight for the Ages (Crossroad, 1992), p.19.

[2]Ibid., p. 176.

We're featured in the current edition of the diocesan magazine...

2011-10-22T11:50:00.002-04:00

Click here to read the PDF.

Carpe diem octavum

2011-10-07T08:55:00.000-04:00

Sermon preached on the 16th Sunday after Pentecost at the Church of St. Luke & St. Simon Cyrene: Philippians 3:4b-14

Yesterdaywas the seventh anniversary of our ministry together. Today I begin my eighthyear as your rector.

AsI was thinking about this particular anniversary it came to me that this is aparticularly important one. In theBible, seven is an important number, beginning with the seven days ofcreation. After that almost any time thenumber seven appears in the Bible something about God’s continuing creativityis going on. God is doing something inorder that something new or astonishing can happen.

Someexamples: In the Hebrew Scriptures,there are seven days to the feast of Passover, and the Year of Jubilee—theforgiveness of debts and return of land—is seven times seven years. In the New Testament, seven basketfuls offood are gathered after the miracle of the loaves and fishes, the first deaconsnumber seven, and the Book of Revelation is full of sevens.

AsChristianity develops, there are seven sacraments, seven deadly sins, and sevenjoys and sorrows of Mary.

Moreimportant to me is not so much these sevens, but what happens next: eight. Eight is not an important biblical number, exceptin that Jewish males are circumcised on the eighth day of their birth.

Butthe number eight does come up in the writings of several of the early churchfathers. Christian worship—thecelebration of the Eucharist—gradually moves from Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath,the seventh day, to Sunday, the day of the resurrection, or, as it came to becalled, the Lord’s Day.

Sundayis the first day of the week, of course, but that is not what these earlywriters called it. They called theLord’s Day, “the Eighth Day.” They said,for one, that the first day was the day of creation. The eighth day was the dayof the new creation. The eighth day waswhen things really began. The eighth day, if you will, was the first day of therest of your life.

Thinkof it in terms of circumcision on the eighth day. A Jewish male is not given aname until that day (we call the remembrance of Jesus’ circumcision, “Holy NameDay”). On the eighth day, a Jewishmale’s identity is sealed, both as a Jew and as an individual.

OK,so this fits into some thinking I have long had. For the last thirty years, the average lengthof service for a rector has gradually been decreasing. It is now a little under seven years. I was in my first parish twice that long andI have become an advocate (with many others) for the return of longer tenures,perhaps not the 40+ years of Dr. Winnie at St. Luke’s, but certainly more thanseven years.

Ithink it takes seven years for a priest and congregation to really come to knoweach other well, to trust and love each other, establish a corporate identity,and truly be ready to take on some hard stuff.

IfI am right, then we are at that place. In some ways we are now ready to do the work we are being called to do.

Whichis not to say that we have not been working hard together. We have. But really tackling the hard stuff, messingwith the potential of a real reshaping of this parish for the future? We’ve talked about it; we’ve glimpsed it;we’ve done some good preliminary work, but we have a long way to go.

SoI am here to say to you today, let us seize the eighth day. Carpediem octavum!

Or, in the words of Paul thismorning from Philippians, in my paraphrase, “Let us press on to make the powerof the resurrection our own, because we live in the confidence of who we are,brought together and sealed in relationship by Christ himself.”

Or,in the words of an old folk song that became an anthem of the civil rightsmovement, “Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on.”

Carpe diem octavum! Let us seize the eighth day! Let us presson! Keep your eyes on the prize!

Afterseven years I still cannot tell you exactly where we are going. I’ve spent alot of time and energy over the last seven years trying to figure that out, butI have pretty much decided that is not my job. That is something we must discern together, with the confidence that Godis our companion.

Thereare four things right now of which I am sure.

Firstof all, I am sure that our mission statement holds true as a statement of whowe are and what our values are.

Together,as people of God, in companionship with Jesus, and empowered by the Holy Spirit,we are called to be…Ahealing place for souls…A school for justice…And a welcome table for all.

Second,I remain convinced that the way we express these values together is insacrificial acts of hospitality, generosity, and compassion. Hospitality is still Job One. And what is another word for “hospitality?Justice.

Thosetwo things are work we have done and must continue to do. Now here are three things for the eighthday.

First,I am going to get personally involved with children and youth ministryhere. I want to play a more active rolein the spiritual lives of our young people. I will need help and I ask you to ask yourself, how can I help make thisa better place for our children and youth? Let me know the answer! My firststep: I have invited young person in sixth grade or up to supper at my housefor some fun, getting to know each other and dreaming.

Second,I am going to convene a conversation about our worship. It is time to do someevaluation and to ponder ideas of what works and what doesn’t work with youngpeople (here I’m talking twenty and thirty somethings) in other settings. I hope as part of this conversation we willtalk about this space and the challenges it brings us. I willbe producing a resource for the conversation which will be in your hands byOctober 16^th, and which will include dates and times for the conversation—therewill probably be several opportunities to try to catch as many people aspossible.

Third,your Stewardship Committee and Vestry have decided to do an “Every MemberVisit” as part of our stewardship emphasis this fall. Each of you will be offered a visit by aVestry member and a partner. The primarypurpose of the visit is relationship building, and giving each member of thecongregation an opportunity to have a “one on one” conversation with a member ofthe Vestry.

Wehope those conversations will be hopeful ones. “How do we continue to move into a thriving future?” The conversation will not be primarily aboutmoney unless you want it to be. You willbe given a pledge card, and you will be invited by the Vestry member to joinhim or her in sacrificial generosity to the parish. You will not be asked to hold out your armfor a proper twisting.

Aswe have begun to plan for this Every Member Visit, and as I worked on thissermon this week, I found myself renewing the excitement with which I came hereseven years ago. I opened my firstsermon to you from 2004. It wasn’t half bad! Here’s the last sentence:

In all that we do in the monthsand years ahead, let us remember Jesus Christ raised from the dead, let us givethanks to God for God is good, and let us build, in the power of the HolySpirit, a community of love and hope which is good news to and for the world.

Ithink we have been doing that, with fits and starts, joys and sorrows, gooddecisions and bad ones, the arrival of some very fine people and the departureof others. We have not been perfect, butwe have, for the most part, been faithful.

Athriving community of love and hope still lies in our vision. In seven years we have built a relationshipthat is strong. Now let us seize the eighth day, the day of new creation, newidentity and renewed purpose. Let us press on and keep our eyes on theprize! Carpe diem octavum!

Blessing of the Animals 2011

2011-10-02T08:42:00.004-04:00

Father Michael tells Lucy's story...

http://youtu.be/k5_RJ7OUg6g

A Bishop on the Firing Line

2011-09-12T11:00:00.000-04:00

Bishop Walter Righter died yesterday at the age of 87. He was best known for having been accused of heresy in 1995 by ten other bishops for having knowingly ordained a non-celibate gay man, Barry Stopfel, in the Diocese of Newark where he was serving as Assistant Bishop. Walter liked to quote former Presiding Bishop John Hines, "A bishop's job is to keep his church family on the firing line of the world's most desperate needs and to learn to accept the exquisite penalty of such an exposed position." When his moment came, Walter stood on that line and accepted the penalty.

Walter was a kind, grandfatherly-type of man who was also tough as nails. He had been Bishop of Iowa for many years (1972-1988) before he went to assist in Newark. I didn't know him then, but I suspect he was a natural in that mid-western, rural setting. There was nothing pretentious about Walter. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie, visited the Diocese of Iowa in 1981, and Walter managed to convince him to pick up a piglet and pretend to give it a kiss.

Walter's trial was a watershed moment for the church. Conservatives were frustrated that they had not been able to get General Convention to stop the ordination of openly lesbian and gay people, so they decided to turn to the seldom used ecclesiastical court system. The previous charge of heresy against a bishop had been made in 1923. The court that convened ruled that there was no basis for a charge, that the "core doctrine" of the church was not in question, and so a trial never actually happened. The hearing in Wilmington, Delaware in 1996 was a dramatic moment, however. I was privileged to be present. Interestingly enough, it was the first time I met Bishop Jack McKelvey, then the new Bishop Suffragan of Newark, and Walter's chaplain for the trial.

To me, Walter was the epitome of the change that occurred in the Episcopal Church in the 1980's and 1990's. He was no trained theologian or biblical scholar (which is not to say he wasn't a very smart and shrewd man). He was no new-fangled, elitist liberal who was trying to make over the church into his own image. He was just an honest, everyday Christian and Episcopalian, who loved serving Jesus. And in that service he learned that inclusion trumps exclusion every time. He knew love and faith and hope when he saw it, and could not deny it based on a couple verses of scripture.

I loved Walter Righter and I am proud that John and I counted him and his faithful wife Nancy as friends. Rest in peace and rise in glory, Walter. Enjoy the feast at the welcome table.

Certainty is Still Killing Us

2011-09-11T18:51:00.002-04:00

Sermon preached on September 11, 2011 at the Church of St. Luke & St. Simon Cyrene. A shorter version of the sermon was preached at Christ Church, Rochester at Evensong on September 10.

One of the things I did when I was on vacation in August was clean out my files at home. Thirty years of accumulated paper. Frightening. But I found some old jewels, of course, which was worth the time.

Twenty-five years ago, in 1986, I went to a conference at Kanuga Conference Center in North Carolina. It was called “Convivencia,” a Spanish word meaning “co-existence.” Its sub-title was “Learning to Think Globally and Act Locally.” I went mostly because Verna Dozier was going to be there and it was there, in fact, that I began to be gifted with her friendship.

I don’t remember much about the conference, but in my old file on it was an article we had been given to read that had been published earlier that year. Its title was “Alternative to Terrorism: Siding with the World’s Poor.”

I sat on my office floor and stared at that article for the longest time. We knew about terrorism in 1986. It didn’t just fly out of the sky in 2001. Or blast its way onto the scene in 1998 with the embassy bombings in Africa. I know that shouldn’t amaze me, but it does. It’s like in my mind—and probably in some of yours—the word “terrorism” had never been uttered before September 11, 2001.

In fact, the article begins,

It is astonishing how quickly we’ve begun to accept terrorism as a permanent part of the international landscape. Astonishing because there is a fairly painless (and fairly obvious) alternative.[1]

The alternative the writer had in mind was smarter and more just foreign aid policies. It’s a well-argued piece and I think the writer was probably correct, but nobody took him up on his ideas. That’s not what I want to talk about this morning, though. I just wanted to share the revelation in that moment of discovery that there was a time before 9-11 that led up to it, and that there were alternative ways to negotiate our place in the world, alternatives that we did not take. Today I want to talk about an alternative we people of faith need to take for the future.

John suggested to me Friday that he wasn’t sure about coming to church today. He didn’t want “to re-live all that.” We still have grief and anger and anxiety to work through in this country in regards to 9-11; our work there is not done. I don’t know about for you, but for me I know what John was talking about. Remembering that day brings up emotions that are still amazingly raw. Perhaps I will never shake the horror of not knowing where my spouse was and being unable to communicate with him. All I knew was that the Pentagon was between me and where he was headed for work that day, and rumors abounded of bombs in other places in Washington, DC, including the subway on which he traveled. And I spent all day long with people in the same situation. In horror of what was happening to other people and might be happening to you Maybe you never get over that.

I am relatively sure that if Jesus were to give us advice today on how to move forward, he would say something like what we just heard him say from the cross, “Forgive them.” Or even worse, his most radical commandment of all: “Love your enemies” (Matthew 5:44).

I imagine that many of us have a reaction to those words, especially in relation to 9-11, similar to the man who asked Jesus what more he had to do to win eternal life. Jesus said, “Sell all you have and give to the poor and follow me.” We are told, “But when he heard this, he became sad; for he was very rich.” The man could not live up to Jesus’ demand that he let go of what controlled and defined his life (Matthew 19:16-30, Mark 10:17-31, Luke 18:18-25).

My observation is that Americans are still very angry and even more anxious and, unfortunately we are taking it out mostly on each other, mostly across political divides. I am not surprised by this anxiety and anger. It isn’t just about 9-11, of course. It’s about a world that is changing faster than most people can keep up with. So many of the old certainties are disappearing. Anger and anxiety are natural in a climate like the one in which we now live, and nobody has a right to tell people they shouldn’t be angry or anxious.

But somebody has to tell them there is an alternative. There is another way. And Christians ought to be first in line doing this work. It is our charter. We do not exist for any other reason. But we have been timid. A large portion of us have capitulated to the mood altogether and are constantly reinforcing it, playing the role of civil religion. Of course, God wants America to be the most powerful nation on earth. That is God’s destiny for us. Others of us know the right answer. We can hear Jesus say, “Love your enemies,” but we also know how deeply unpopular that would be as an action plan, so we are quiet.

Our timidity has not served us well, however. The decline in the mainline Protestant denominations in the decade after 9-11 was significant. The Episcopal Church was average. Our Average Sunday Attendance declined 19% between 2000 and 2009. Remember how our churches were full in the days following 9-11? Did anyone notice? They didn’t come back.

We don’t have to be timid, however. We Christians certainly know the way out of anxiety and anger. It is forgiveness. It is reconciliation. It is the hardest work of all, “Love your enemies.”

For me the biggest single refutation of the belief that this is a Christian nation is the fact that none of our leaders is capable of saying any of these words. And yet they are the words of Jesus, and he meant them for these hard times. We don’t get a pass because 9-11 was so horrific. Reconciliation must be the work we do in response. Vengeance is not an option for Christian people.

I believe that with all my heart, but, I confess, I could be wrong. And I say that because if we are called to fight an enemy in order for this reconciliation to happen, it is this: certainty. The enemy is certainty. Now that may sound like a very strange thing for a religious leader to say, but I will say it. The enemy is certainty. Faith and certainty are not the same thing, in fact, they are really opposites if you think about it. Faith always entails risk. Faith always encompasses mystery that remains stubbornly unresolved.

In my office cleaning I also ran across an article I had torn out of a Newsweek, dated May 23, 2005. It was an opinion piece by George Will. Now I’m pretty sure I have never quoted George Will in a sermon, even though he is a fellow Episcopalian. But this was an extraordinary piece of writing. It was entitled, “The Oddness of Everything.” Here is how he ends the piece:

The greatest threat to civility—and ultimately to civilization—is an excess of certitude. The world is much menaced just now by people who think that the world and their duties in it are clear and simple. They are certain that they know what—who—created the universe and what this creator wants them to do to make our little speck in the universe perfect, even if extreme measures—even violence—are required.

America is currently awash in an unpleasant surplus of clanging, clashing certitudes. That is why there is a rhetorical bitterness absurdly disproportionate to our real differences. It has been well said that the spirit of liberty is the spirit of not being too sure you are right. One way to immunize ourselves against misplaced certitude is to contemplate—even to savor—the unfathomable strangeness of everything, including ourselves.

We people of faith know what to do—with no chip of certitude on our shoulder, we are called to love, forgive and reconcile. It’s time we were about that work in as loud a way as possible.

And who knows. If we start being who we really are and doing what we are really called to do we might experience the paradox of, yes, being very unpopular, but also being incredibly attractive.

[1] From an article printed in a long defunct newsletter called New Options, the editor of which was Mark Satin, who presumably is the author of the piece.

Episcopal Rochester Urban Ministry 9/11 Remembrance

2011-09-07T19:40:00.000-04:00

Living with War And God's Dream of Peace
9/11 Vigil Vesper Service

All are welcome to join in solemn observance of the 10th anniversary of the violence of September 11, 2001.

Saturday, September 10th at 6 p.m.

Christ Episcopal Church
141 East Avenue, Rochester

Speakers: The Rev. Michael W. Hopkins, Church of St. Luke & St. Simon Cyrene and Ms. Fatima Bawany, Islamic Center of Rochester.

"Aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you." 2 Corinthians: 13:11

And I mean to be one too

2011-08-26T11:54:00.003-04:00

On Wednesday evening Dr. Pamela Chinnis died. I fear that many Episcopalians do not know who she is, which is a tragedy. She was one of the great shapers of the Episcopal Church in the late 20th century.

Pam was the first woman elected as President of the House of Deputies of the General Convention of the Episcopal Church. She served the Conventions of 1991, 1994 and 1997. This may seem like not a very big accomplishment in the 1990's, but remember that women were not seated as deputies to General Convention until 1967. That means six Conventions later, one of them is elected President (she was elected at the end of the Convention in 1988). She had served as Vice-president of the House in 1985 and 1988.

In the late 1960's, Pam and others emerged as strong voices promoting the ordination of women. Several of these came out of the Diocese of Washington, where Pam was a member of the Church of the Epiphany (To prove it's a small church, her rector of many years was Edgar Romig, who was best-buddy to John Harmon in World War II. Edgar's brother, David, was pastor of Downtown Presbyterian for many years). I was fortunate to know many of these women: besides Pam, Verna Dozier, and Sally Buckley (there were others--my apologies for not remembering names well this morning). Pam was President of the Episcopal Church Women in 1976 when the ordination vote occurred and insured that organization's strong support.

To say Pam was a faithful Christian and Episcopalian is to make a vast understatement. She was gracious beyond the telling, but she also had a backbone of steel. She was supportive of lesbian and gay people in the church long before that was popular, and her commitment to our full inclusion never wavered. She was extraordinarily well thought of among African-American Episcopalians and was one of the primary encouragers of the House of Bishops to do its work on racism that resulted in the Pastoral Letter of 1994, "The Sin of Racism."

I submit that when the history is properly told on the late 20th century Episcopal Church, which may take yet another twenty years or so, Pam Chinnis will be found to have been one of the guiding lights, equal to any bishop or other ordained person who might be named, including her beloved friend and colleague, Presiding Bishop Edmond Browning (with whom she is pictured above). I pray that the remembrance of her life and deeds will not fade away, so that she may be for generations to come one of whom it is said and sung, "They were all of them saints of God--and I mean, God helping, to be one to."

Faithful Servant, Faithful Friend

2011-08-19T15:05:00.002-04:00

The Rev. Dr. Cynthia Gilliatt died Tuesday, August 16 at the age of 67. She was Associate Professor of English at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia, where she had taught since at least 1984. She was also a faithful servant to the church and a faithful colleague and friend to me and to many, many others.

I served with Cynthia on the Board of Integrity USA 2000-2003, although I had known her many years before then. She was a faithful priest and baptized Christian who happened to be a lesbian when it was a very difficult time in the Diocese of Virginia (much less the larger church) to be so. She was always an activist, but always loyal. I believe in as much as she encouraged that paradoxical spirit in others, the Diocese of Virginia has been able to move remarkably far forward. As one who has always served in dioceses where it was relatively easy to be openly gay, she is one of my heroes.

Cynthia had a wonderful wit and she loved golf just a little less than she loved Jesus. She will be missed. When the history of the inclusion of lgbt people in the Episcopal Church is written, her name should be written in gold.

Some Facts & Thoughts About Marriage

2011-07-26T18:48:00.002-04:00

Some Facts and Thoughts about Marriage

The Very Rev. Michael W. Hopkins July 17, 2011 A Work in Progress

What is the Biblical Witness?

Male/Female pairings in contract/covenant are certainly supported by both Testaments, although the norm is multiple wives, which is never clearly disallowed (except for bishops!).
Prohibition of adultery one of the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:14). Men could divorce a wife for any reason by the time of Jesus. Women could not initiate divorce. Jesus forbids divorce except in cases of adultery (Mark 10:2-9) and seems to support monogamy (as most Jews had done by his time).
Wedding imagery has some importance in the New Testament: the Wedding at Cana as the setting for Jesus’ first miracle (John 2), Jesus identified as the bridegroom (Matthew 25), Jesus’ words about divorce (Matthew 19), the image of Christ and the Church (Ephesians 5) and the husband awaiting his bride in Revelation (19:7, 9).
Instructions for husbands and wives in Ephesians 5 and Colossians

What Happens at “the Celebration and Blessing of a Marriage”?

Two people are marrying each other. The priest is primary witness of the marriage, but it is not correct to say that the priest is “marrying” the couple.
The priest pronounces a blessing on the marriage, which in no way is required to make the marriage valid.
All this is done in the context of a “normal” Liturgy of the Word and Eucharist (ideally).
The priest also provides a service to the state and to the couple by signing their marriage license, thus making the marriage legal. In New York State, religious leaders may preside at weddings and sign marriage licenses. There is no mechanism for their certification.

What does it mean for two people to marry each other?

In the church’s language they are making a covenant with one another and with God. The terms of this covenant are contained in the vows. The Prayer Book also says that there are three purposes for this covenant: Mutual joy, Help & Comfort, Procreation (Generativity).
The 1928 Book of Common Prayer gave no purpose for marriage in the rite, but the earliest Prayer Books cited (in order): Procreation of Children, a Remedy for sin and to avoid fornication, and mutual help and comfort.
I tend to talk about fidelity, mutuality and service.
In the language of the state, the couple is making a legal contract that accords them a series of benefits.

What are the potential obstacles to marrying two men or two women?

In terms of the Bible and the Church’s tradition, one has to take the stance that revelation is continuing with the lead of the Holy Spirit.
The Marriage rite in the Prayer Book uses male/female language and says “Christian Marriage is a solemn and public covenant between a man and a woman in the presence of God.” (p. 422).
The Canons of the Church say “Holy Matrimony is a physical and spiritual union of a man and a woman” [I.18.2(b)].
A resolution of the 2009 General Convention, however, says, “That bishops, particularly those in dioceses within civil jurisdictions where same-gender marriage, civil unions, or domestic partnerships are legal, may provide generous pastoral response to meet the needs of members of this Church.”
The Prayer Book also says “For special days of fasting or thanksgiving, appointed by civil or Church authority, and for other special occasions for which no service or prayer has been provided in this Book, the bishop may set forth such forms as are fitting to the occasion” (p. 13).
A rite for the Blessing of Same-sex Unions will be considered by the 2012 General Convention. This is being prepared by the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music. Their work will have no bearing, however, on the definition of marriage.

What are some positive reasons for the church to marry couples of the same-sex?

The Episcopal Church has been on a forty year long journey with lesbian and gay people, who most people recognize, have always been members of the Church. In particular, we have been witness to their relationships and can testify that they are marriages in every sense of the word except for their common gender.
Christian response to outsiders in the early life of the church are instructive. The Ethiopian Eunuch asks, “What is there to prevent me from being Baptized?” (Acts 8:26-40) Peter accepts Cornelius, a Gentile, as a full member of the faith. “Who was I to hinder God?” (Acts 10 & 11).
We have come to believe that the difference between homosexual and heterosexual is not a difference between “unnatural and natural” or “sinful and holy” or “dysfunctional and normal.” The distinction is much more like the distinctions made by Paul in Galatians 3:27-28. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people are capable of holiness in just the same way that heterosexual people are.

Do we believe marriage is a sacrament?

Marriage is “another sacramental rite.” In our tradition it is proper to call only Baptism and the Eucharist “sacraments.” Marriage as a “sacramental rite” flows primarily out of the vocational aspect of Baptism.

What is required of the Clergy concerning Marriage?

First of all, the Canons make it clear that no clergyperson is bound to preside at any marriage (I.18.4).
Criteria must be met: one member of the couple must be baptized, there be no coercion, that both parties may legally be married and understand marriage to be lifelong (a “Declaration of Intent” must be signed to this end).
Pre-marital counseling must be done.
At least thirty days must pass.
There must be two witnesses.

What about divorce?

The Canons say “When marital unity is imperiled by dissension, it shall be the duty, when possible, of either or both parties, before taking legal action, to lay the matter before a Member of the Clergy; and it shall be the duty of such member of the Clergy to act first to protect and promote the physical and emotional safety of those involved, and only then, if it be possible, to labor that the parties may be reconciled.” (I.19.1)
Re-marriage is allowed when there has been a legal annulment or divorce and the Bishop has passed judgment on the marital status as well. Nearly all second marriages are granted no matter what the cause of the divorce. Written evidence of annulment or divorce must be obtained.

What is going on culturally in a marriage?

Ah, now there’s the question!

Happy 194th Birthday!

2011-07-14T08:33:00.003-04:00

Today, July 14, 2011 is the 194th anniversary of the founding of St. Luke's. By happy chance, at Morning Prayer this morning, among the hymns suggested by Marion Hatchett in his liturgical index to the Hymnal 1982 was 533, "How wondrous and great thy works, god of praise!" This text was written by Bishop Henry U. Onderdonk.

If we think of the founding of the parish, we naturally think of Col. Nathaniel Rochester. Henry Onderdonk deserves remembrance as well. Onderdonk was the priest sent by Bishop John Henry Hobart to assist Rochester and the many others who wished to found a parish in Rochesterville. At the time, Onderdonk was the Rector of St. John's Church, Canandaigua.

Onderdonk was an interesting figure in the early life of the Episcopal Church. He espoused "high church" views. In his day, "high church views" meant a valuing of the tradition of the church, worship strictly according to the Prayer Book, an an emphasis on the leadership of the ordained, in particular, bishops. It was opposed to the "low church" view which emphasized the principals of the reformation, especially those of John Calvin.

Onderdonk was elected assistant bishop of the Diocese of Pennsylvania in 1827. His election was vehemently protested by a group of a low church sympathizers from Pennsylvania and elsewhere whose candidate had narrowly lost. It was, I believe, the first official protest of the election of a bishop in the Episcopal Church. The ten points of the protest and the response of the consecrators denying the objection can be found at http://anglicanhistory.org/usa/huonderdonk/decision1827.html. Rochester figured in all this because the protesters produced copies of letters by which Dr. Onderdonk appeared to be interfering in the election of a rector for St. Luke's.

Onderdonk was consecrated and eventually became the Bishop of Pennsylvania in 1836, but his detractors never let up. In 1844 he was accused of alcoholism and he was suspended from the ministry by the House of Bishops. They reinstated him in 1856, two years before his death. The veracity of the charge against him has always been in doubt.

Ironically, Onderdonk's brother, Benjamin, was Bishop of New York from 1830-1861, so our bishop until the creation of the Diocese of Western New York in 1839.

Just some interesting historical tidbits!

How wondrous and great thy works, God of praise!

How just, King of saints, and true are they ways!

O who shall not fear thee, and honor thy Name?

Thou only, art holy, thou only, supreme.

To nations of earth thy light shall be shown;

their worship and vows shall come to thy throne:

thy truth and they judgment shall spread all abroad,

till earth's every people confess thee their God.

(this is a paraphrase of "The Song of the Redeemed," Canticle 19 in the Prayer Book, which is Revelation 15:3-4)

Annual Rochester Pride Parade

2011-07-01T19:02:00.001-04:00

JOIN US SATURDAY JULY 16

for the

ANNUAL ROCHESTER PRIDE PARADE

BRING YOUR CHURCH BANNERS AND YOUR FRIENDS

New 2011 Diocesan Pride T Shirts at D. House 16 July

1 pm Gather at Diocesan House – 935 East Ave – Plenty of Parking

1:45 pm to Parade Assembly Site – Argyle & Brunswick (between Park & East)

2 pm All Welcome Street Eucharist

3 pm Parade Steps Off (Route: Park – Goodman – College @ 1.5 Miles)

(Diocesan sponsoring via Oasis Rochester, our LGBT Ministry)

RSVP at http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=141430779264475

Questions: Rev Kit Tobin kitt_789@yahoo.com 607 377 7467

Redefinition is the Church's Business

2011-06-25T09:29:00.002-04:00

Equal Marriage in New York

Some thoughts from the Rector

It will come as no surprise that I am thrilled by last night's vote and the swift action of the governor to sign the Equal Marriage Act. As a native New Yorker who is gay, this is beyond anything I thought I would ever see in my lifetime. To think that in 30 days John and I will be without a doubt legally married in this state (having been married last year in Canada) is indescribable. I keep remembering being a teenager endlessly wrestling about my sense of self in despair. To think we are closer to a day when that will no longer have to happen (at least no more than it does for any teenager) takes my breath away.

I am struck by the loud cries over the past few days and weeks about the state "redefining" marriage, this, of course, largely from religious leaders. A statement from the Roman Catholic bishops in New York last night decried that the state government had changed “radically and forever humanity’s historic understanding of marriage.” That is, frankly, just so much rhetoric. The "understanding" of marriage has been evolving from the beginning, the chief record of which is the Bible itself. Search for a single "definition" of marriage in the biblical record and you will search in vain. You will find various understandings at various times and in various cultural settings, including Jesus' own. The church has even chosen over time not to follow Jesus' understanding, allowing for divorce (or that Roman Catholic divorce-by-another-name, annulment) in virtually every circumstance. One could argue that allowing for divorce changed the "understanding" or "definition" of marriage far more than allowing the partners to be of the same gender.

The church's job, in "the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit," is constantly to be the agent of the new thing the prophets taught us God is always doing. That means "redefinition" is in our portfolio. It's the business we are in.

What does this new thing mean for us at Two Saints? That somewhat remains to be seen. I have no desire as a clergyperson to exercise the exemption the new law grants me (an exemption I had no need of to begin with since I have never had to marry anyone I didn't want to), and my assumption is that this parish joins me in that sentiment (we will have a conversation about this at our next Vestry meeting). The religious examptions, are, in my opinion, an evangelical disaster. Christians yet again appear to be enshrining their prejudices into law.

I will certainly be urging our Bishop to exercise the right given him by the last General Convention to provide a "generous pastoral response" in regards to the marriage of same-sex couples where it is legal. This fairly vague language has been interpreted in several different ways in the different dioceses in the jurisdictions that have equal marriage. It is a difficult issue because the Book of Common Prayer and our Canons both currently speak of marriage in exclusively heterosexual terms, and changing that as an entire church has very dim short-term prospects. Hopefully the Task Force Bishop Singh is appointing will work quickly and the Bishop put out guidelines as soon as possible.

I am reminded of something the then Lutheran Bishop of the Washington Metro Area said to our Diocesan Convention in Washington many years ago. "Progressives in the Church need to remember that God never changes; traditionalists need to remember that God is always doing a new thing." I think this paradox is true today. In terms of marriage, it has, in fact, not changed, and we have, in fact, done a new thing.

The stained glass at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church...

2011-06-25T07:40:00.000-04:00

...depicts the Apostles' Creed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_ZJf4hqKYU

Thriving In The City

2011-06-16T23:55:00.000-04:00

http://youtu.be/pXUBxwvg-Ss

The installation of the Very Rev. Michael W. Hopkins as Dean of Rochester & the Rev. Dr. Cynthia Rasmussen as “Episcopal Catalyst for Urban Ministry” by the Rt. Rev. Prince Singh at Ascension Episcopal Church on 16 Jun 2011.

Rochester Monroe District Minutes For May 12, 2011

2011-05-17T08:26:00.000-04:00

Church of the Ascension

The May 12, 2011 meeting of the Rochester Monroe District was held at the Church of the Ascension with 38 people present.

Call to Order: The meeting was called to order at 7:03 p.m. by Warden Gary Gocek.

Opening: The Very Rev. Lance Robbins opened the meeting with prayer. Members of Ascension shared the news of a new rector having been selected. They had also prepared refreshments for the group.

Minutes and Agenda: Minutes were accepted with a correction to spelling of Gary Gocek’s last name. The agenda was amended to include Old Business.

Old Business: Oral and written grant reports were provided for the following grants: St. Mark’s and St. John’s, Grace Church, St Thomas and Two Saints, St John’s, St. Paul’s. and St. George’s.

New Business:

Creation Week Camp: The Rev David Grant Smith and Ms Linda Raide presented a report on the camp, its activities, and funding. They hope to have 80 campers this summer and are seeking support from local parishes, individuals, and other donations to offset the cost of $535.00 per child as children are asked to pay a fee of $275.00 if they are able. Campers are not turned away if the cannot pay. Registration packets have already been sent to parishes and more forms were made available at the meeting.

The following resolution was approved: Be it resolved that the following amounts be allocated to the following parishes for the stated programs:

St. Mark’s and St. John’s for Godly Play items for New Christian Resource Center. $900.00
St. Mark’s and St. John’s, Dorothy Barnes, Rochester District Youth Missioner, Transformers, Meeting Eye to Eye, Community Garden $750.00
St Mark’s, Penn Yan Creation Week Camp Scholarship Fund $1000.00
Total: $2,650.00

Small Group Discussion was tabled.

Announcements:

The Very Rev. Michael Hopkins stated that the installation of himself as the Rochester Dean, and The Rev. Cindy Rasmussen in her role in urban ministry will be on June 16, 2011 at 7p.m. at the Church of the Ascension by the Rt. Rev. Prince Singh

The Very Rev Lance Robbins announced that June 26, 2011 would the Diocesan Day at Sea Breeze with a Eucharist at 9 a.m. with a day a Sea Breeze to follow. More information is on the Diocesan web site and will be sent to parishes. The Bishop is urging clergy participation.

There will be a Stewardship Conference on September 17 from 9 – noon at Hobart William Smith College in Geneva.

Mr. Padraic Collins-Boher said that Christ Church, Rochester is a club pass venue for the Jazz Festival from June 10 -18. Volunteer Ushers are needed from 5:15 – 10:30 for the 6:45 and 8:45 performances. On June 12 there will be a Jazz Mass for the 11 a.m. service

Ms Sarah reported that the Diocesan Council is working on congregation redevelopment and a new grant process for diocesan grants. She also stated that there are numerous openings for clergy and lay members to serve on a variety of commissions and Diocesan Council. Monroe District clergy and lay representatives for Diocesan Council will be elected at the October meeting.

The next Rochester Monroe District Meeting will be at St. Luke’s, Fairport. The date will be determined by the Diocese as that will be the pre-convention meeting.

Submitted by,

Sharon Del Vecchio Therkildsen

Rochester Monroe District Secretary

Agenda For May 12th District Meeting

2011-05-05T19:01:00.002-04:00

Rochester Monroe District Meeting

Thursday, May 12, 2011

7:00 – 9:00 PM

Church of the Ascension

2 Riverside Street, Rochester, NY 14613

Agenda

Call to Order: Warden Gary Gocek (5 minutes)

Welcome and Opening Prayer: Clergy/ Members of Ascension (10 minutes)

Acceptance of Minutes and Approval of Agenda: Warden Gary Gocek

(5 minutes)

Old Business: None

New Business:

Creation Camp – The Rev. David Smith ( 20 minutes)
Grants – Warden Gary Gocek (15 minutes )
Small Group Discussions: The Very Rev. Lance Robbins (20 minutes)
- Radical Hospitality
- Creative Mission
- Passionate Spirituality

Sharing Small Group Ideas: The Very Rev. Lance Robbins (20 minutes)

Announcements: Warden Gary Gocek (10 minutes)

Compline:

Adjourn:

Next Meeting: TBA

Minutes From February 10th District Meeting

2011-05-05T19:00:00.001-04:00

Rochester Monroe District Minutes

February 10, 2011

Christ Church, Pittsford

The February 10, 2011 meeting of the Rochester Monroe District was held at Christ Church, Pittsford with 53 people present.

Opening:

The meeting was called to order at 7:04 p.m. by Warden Bonnie Hallman-Dye.

The Rev. Winifred Collin opened the meeting with prayer and introduced Rev. Chris Streeter, thanking him for providing the refreshments. She then introduced Pam Burch, the head of outreach, who spoke about the Faith in Action network. There are numerous examples of faith in action throughout our area. Pam invited further communication by contacting her through email at pburch@rochester.rr.com

Minutes and Agenda

The minutes of the December 9, 2010 meeting were accepted and the agenda was approved.

Old Business:

Gary Goeck was elected by acclamation to fulfill the term of Neil Houghton as Warden of the Monroe District. The term expires in December 2011.

New Business:

Public Policy: A presentation was made by Bob Crystal of the Public Policy Committee.

On April 30, 2011 the 10^th Annual Public Policy Luncheon for Parish Contacts will be held at St. Michael’s in Geneseo. David Cay Johnson will be the luncheon speaker on topic “Biblically Based budgeting: What do our taxes pay for?”

Each parish was asked to do something for Public Policy Sunday in considering the church’s place in the public policy forum. Several examples were shared.

The following resolution was approved:

February 10, 2011 Be it Resolved that the warden, delegates, and clergy of the Rochester Monroe district thanks Mr. Neil Houghton for his outstanding leadership and many years of service to us.

We have grown in our sense of service and true leadership under his guidance as well as in our knowledge of diocesan ministries. We are deeply grateful for you and appreciate your work and presence with us.

It is with deep regret that we accept your resignation. May God continue to support and guide you in your future ministries with us and to the wider church.

New Delegates Orientation: The deans and wardens asked delegates to share their thoughts and insights with new delegates and alternates.
Review of the Grant Process: Warden Gary Gocek presented an overview of the grant application process and funding criteria. Canon Julie Cicora spoke to the Diocesan grant process.
Book Discussion: The Very Rev. Cynthia Rasmussen facilitated the discussion of chapters 4-6 of I Refuse to Lead a Dying Church. Small group insights were shared around the need for balance, a broadening of the focus of outreach, and seeking the movement of the Spirit.

Announcements:

Anti-racism training has been mandated by the national church and diocese for all those in leadership roles. Registration materials were sent to clergy, delegates, and parish offices with the Rochester Monroe District December Minutes.
Two Saints offers a noon service. All are welcome.
There is a Synod Gathering for Province 2 on May 5and 6. Links are on the Diocesan website.
The Episcopal Church Foundation is planning to rebuild the cathedral in Haiti – there are ways for individuals and parishes to become involved.
Everyone is asked to update their information for the diocesan data base if you have not already completed the form online or hard copy.
Diocesan Grant applications have been emailed to parishes, delegates, and clergy.
Please note the correct email for The Very Rev Lance Robbins: lrobbins3714@aol.com
Next Meeting: Thursday May 12, 2011 at the Church of the Ascension., 2 Riverside St. Rochester.
Pre – Convention Meeting date will be set by the diocese. The meeting will be held at St. Luke’s, Fairport.

Compline: The Rev. Chris Streeter led the group in closing prayer.

Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 9:00 p.m.

Submitted by,

Sharon Del Vecchio Therkildsen

Rochester Monroe District Secretary.

The Experience of the Risen Jesus: Solidarity, Forgiveness and Community

2011-04-30T18:26:00.003-04:00

Sermon preached on Easter Day, April 24, 2011 at the Church of St. Luke & St. Simon Cyrene: John 20:1-18

I began Lent by asking the question, “What is your relationship to Jesus?” Along the way since then I’ve put the question a couple of different ways. “What does it mean to have a relationship with Jesus?” “How can you have a relationship with Jesus?”

I’m going to summarize what I had to say each week in a sentence:

Baptism has already put us into a relationship with Jesus, whether we are conscious of it or not, a relationship that Jesus wants to have with us.

In reading the story of Nicodemus and Jesus from John 3, we learned that it is OK to come to Jesus “by night,” that is, it is OK to come to Jesus in our anxiety, fear, or doubt.

The story of the man born blind and Jesus in John 9 showed us that we are worthy of relationship with Jesus, and the greatest sin may actually be excluding people from God’s fellowship.

The story of Jesus’ raising of Lazarus in John 11, taught us a difficult, but ultimately hopeful, truth: we have to die in order to be in relationship with Jesus. We have to let go of our control over everything in our lives and let Jesus give it back to us as a resurrected gift.

Finally, last Sunday, in having to come to terms with Jesus’ passion and death, we found Jesus showing us a God who is in absolute solidarity with us.

Now this morning, this glorious morning. Perhaps it dawned on some of you who have heard that sermon series, “Oh, the Jesus to whom I have to relate is the risen Jesus.” What does that mean? Lots of things, but I’ll stick with three.

The Gospel writer John’s Easter story was only half read this morning. We’ll read the second half next Sunday. In the second half of the story one reality of the risen Jesus comes to the fore: he remains wounded, the marks of the nails in his hands and feet and the gaping wound in his side. Why is this important and what does it have to do with our relationship with Jesus?

It means that the risen Jesus is still one of us and still in absolute solidarity with our woundedness. Humanity was not a disguise that God took on for thirty-three years and then shed as soon as he died. God and humanity are one eternally. Jesus and we are one, period. And it’s not just our woundedness with which Jesus is in solidarity. He is also in solidarity with our joy. As St. Irenaeus said in the 2^nd century, “The glory of God is the human person fully alive.”

Second, Jesus is in relationship with us as the embodiment of forgiveness. He greets Mary Magdalene with compassion, but also asks her to tell “my brothers.” He means the disciples, of course, at this point eleven of them, all who had turned tail and run. What the Jewish and Roman authorities did to him was bad enough, but he had also been betrayed, denied and deserted by those he loved.

And next week in the second half of John’s Easter story we will see that when Jesus comes among them his first words are not “where were you?” or “How could you betray me?” but “Peace be with you. God wants to send you just as he sent me. I give you a share of God, the Holy Spirit, to do this work. And your greatest power is forgiveness.” (John 20:19-23, my translation)

Oh, ho! You say. Here is finally the bait and switch. The risen Jesus comes to us as forgiveness and that means we’re going to have to be given a list of our sins.

I think the word “forgiveness” had a much bigger meaning to Jesus than we normally attach to it. We think of sins as breaking the law, either the state’s law or God’s law. Forgiveness for Jesus is about relationship, it is a step toward reconciliation and liberation. I’m going to say something now that may be heretical, so cover your ears if you don’t want to hear it.

I do not think that Jesus much cares about our sins. What he cares about is whether or not we’re ready to leave behind whatever keeps us from relationship with him, and accept his forgiveness, which is to accept his acceptance.

Third, Jesus knows our name. That doesn’t seem like much, but it is a big, big deal. Everyone of you knows the feeling of walking into a group of people who know you, but no one can remember your name. Intended or not, it is an act of radical inhospitality.

I had a bishop once, James Montgomery of Chicago, who was legendary about remembering people’s names. As someone in the ordination process, I traveled with him to a few parish visitations. Everywhere we went he knew almost everyone’s name, and in some cases their children’s names and where they now lived. “Fran, how is Susie doing at Penn State?” It was amazing. And his successor, Frank Griswold, had a bad time of it at first, because he simply could not do that, which meant that many people experienced him as “cold.”

Jesus is like Bishop Montgomery (he would be embarrassed to hear me say that). He knows your name and he is interested in your life. He is sometimes portrayed as the cold, aloof judge, certainly not someone you would have a drink with. But in fact he is someone you would have a drink with, and probably many. You can talk to him easily and conversationally (even if cannot see him, by the way).

So the risen Jesus is in absolute solidarity with our humanity, including our woundedness. The risen Jesus is the very embodiment of forgiveness. The risen Jesus knows our names.

I had a powerful experience of this once; it was my introduction to the Risen Jesus who is solidarity, forgiveness and community. I hope none of you will be put off by it. But it’s time I told it because it was a fundamental part of my faith journey. I don’t think I’ve ever told this story to my family, or parts of it even to John!

Six weeks into my first year of seminary, a long, long time ago, I accepted an invitation to have dinner with the seminary musician. He had a house down a little from the student housing. He was young, but wise beyond his years. By the time I left the house to walk home, my life had changed irrevocably. I knew I was gay. I knew I had always been gay. For the first time my life made sense. It was thrilling, and I was terrified.

I walked up the hill to the student housing with a sense of presence beside me. Could I dare believe it was Jesus? I went not to my room, but to a friend’s. I began to tell him my story. “Wait,” he said, “I’ll be right back.” After about 15-20 minutes he came back, but he wasn’t alone. He had brought with him five other gay students, some of whom I was surprised to see.

Then I told my story, not just what happened at the musician’s house, but at least the previous ten years of struggling with this thing. And Jesus was there in solidarity with my humanity as it was in that moment Jesus was there to reach out to me in forgiveness and unconditional love. Jesus was there in healing community. I have rarely felt the presence of Jesus more strongly than I did that night.

There would be rough days ahead, but I left that room with a fundamental peace in my heart about who I was. I left resurrected.

Now that was a “coming out” story but that was not why I told it. I told it because it was a Jesus story from my life. And I bet you have one too. I bet you have a resurrection story. A story about a time when you knew God was with you in a time of trial. A story about how you were sure you could never forgive someone, but you did, or you did something that you thought you would never be forgiven for, and you were. A story about how you accepted something about yourself. A story about how a community of mutual respect and dignity in some way saved your life.

Give thanks for those stories, and the people who are in them who were a gift from God, and don’t be afraid to tell that story to someone else who needs encouragement to look for their own resurrection story.

And don’t forget the real message of today:

The Glory of God is a human being fully alive.

Let us be fully alive together.

The Night of Liberation

2011-04-25T14:05:00.002-04:00

Sermon preached at St. Stephen's Church at the Great Vigil of Easter: Exodus 14:10-31; 15:20-21; Matthew 28:1-10

Back in chapter five of Exodus, after having been convinced by God that this is what he was called to do, Moses, with Aaron at his side, met Pharaoh, and said, “Yahweh, the God of Israel, has a message for you. He says, ‘Let my people go.’”

And Pharaoh replied, as Pharaohs do, “Who is this Yahweh, that I should pay any attention to him? I do not know this Yahweh and I will not let Israel go.”

For nine chapters of the Book of Exodus this struggle goes on. Yahweh vs. Pharaoh. Yahweh shows his power in plagues, extraordinary displays of divine power. The Nile and all Egypt’s water with it turned to blood. Frogs that cover the land. Gnats as thick as the dust of the earth, then flies. A deadly pestilence among Egypt’s livestock. Festering boils on humans and animals. Hail heavy enough to kill. Locusts. A “darkness that could be felt” (probably a dust storm). And finally, the death of all the firstborn of Egypt, that “passes over” the homes of the Israelites because of blood spread on the doorposts and the lintel.

Finally Pharaoh relents. He summons Moses and Aaron and says, “Get up and go, go far away from me and my people. Take your flocks, whatever you want, but just go! Go be with Yahweh, and ask him to send a blessing on me.” It seems as if freedom has been won.

But once they had gone Pharaoh and his officials changed their mind, and Yahweh, it is said, “hardened their hearts.” And so we come to this confrontation at the Sea of Reeds. The Israelites panic and do what panicked people do—they find someone to blame and attack their leader. They say the kinds of things people say in the stupidity that grows out of the midst of their anxiety. “We would rather be slaves again!” This was never our idea in the first place. You made us do this, Barack (I mean, Moses).

Speaking of stupidity, you would think that a pillar of cloud and a divided sea would be enough for the Egyptians to decide that perhaps this pursuit was not such a good idea. But people who are consumed by anger and think they are superior and right never think clearly. And the Egyptians are drowned.

In some ways it is not a very nice story. It doesn’t portray a very nice God, however, who uses plagues, indiscriminate murder and mass drowning to get his way. But if we spend too much time dwelling on these unpleasant things, we can get caught up in a kind of fundamentalism, obsessing about the literal details of the story. Something far bigger is going on here, something very powerful, and we should not miss it.

Yahweh, the God of Israel, who we know also as the God of Jesus Christ, is on the side of freedom. Liberation is the name of Yahweh’s game. In Yahweh’s world there is no place for oppression.

It is sad if we hear that announcement and do not think much of it. In the ancient world a God who was on the side of the oppressed was unheard of. Gods were oppressors by their very nature. To relate to them meant to try to find ways to please them so that they would oppress somebody else and not you.

The whole rest of what we call the Old Testament is the story of Israel’s wrestling with this radical reality of their God. They got it wrong a lot. They themselves slipped into being oppressors from time to time. They had particular trouble with the rich oppressing the poor. Attempting to follow the Liberating God was confusing at best.

Into that confusion came Jesus. And Jesus revealed this Liberating God anew, and his revelation was so clear that we came to understand that he was the Liberating God incarnate, in the flesh. Brian McLaren quotes the Quaker scholar Elton Trueblood, “The historic Christian doctrine of the divinity of Christ does not simply mean that Jesus is like God. It means that God is like Jesus.”[1]

You may be wondering by now what all this has to do with Easter. Easter is the Christian Passover. In some ways it is unfortunate that in English we call this holy day “Easter,” which comes from the name of an old Germanic goddess whose month of celebration fell at this time of the year. Most of the rest of the world calls today some form of the word pascha, which is the Greek form of the Hebrew word pesach or “Passover.” See we call this celebration by the same name that Jews call their celebration of the Exodus.

“Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us,” we frequently say or sing at the breaking of the bread, quoting St. Paul. What is this “Passover?”

It is first and foremost the Passover from death to life proclaimed in the story of the resurrection. But that Passover is not just about Jesus. It is about us. It is the pattern for our living and the pattern of our hope, a pattern that we cannot effect by ourselves, but which we trust God to effect in us.

It is the pattern of liberation, of justice and reconciliation. Brokenness, injustice, violence, division, sin, despair, and, yes, death do not have the last word. We are stubborn in this belief. When everything is lost we still trust God, as we say in the Burial Office, “Yet even at the grave we make our song, Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.”

Tonight we celebrate the fact that you and I know this Liberating God. And we more than know him. He is liberating us even as we speak. We have been united with Jesus in a death like his. That’s the bad news. God didn’t make death go away. But the good news is that he used it to do what he does best: to liberate us. For if we are united to Jesus in a death like his, then surely we are also united to him in a resurrection like his.

Why is this night different from all other nights? Because it is the night of our liberation.

[1] Quoted in Brian McLaren, A New Kind of Christianity (2010), p. 114. There is no citation.

Thinking about Rochester Schools

2011-04-19T15:46:00.003-04:00

I've been puzzling ever since I heard the news yesterday that our City Schools' Superintendent, Jean-Claude Brizzard, is leaving to head the Chicago school system. There cannot possibly be a person in this city who is surprised, and there are a whole lot of us who have been assuming that this was going to happen sooner rather than later for the last couple of years (Dr. Brizzard started in November 2007).

There are, of course, those who think the best possible thing has happened with his departure and others who are horrified that he has left in the middle of a reform process. I tend to be toward the latter, but I have many friends in the former camp for whom I have a great deal of respect. Life will, of course, go on. He wasn't the Messiah. Nor will his successor be, no matter how hard we look.

Not knowing what to think overall, I do have four thoughts:

1. We need to look for a new superintendent who is as committed to Rochester as he or she is to city school statistics. We need someone who loves or learns to love this city as much as we do. We do not need yet another someone who is going to start a process and not finish it just because a bigger carrot got dangled in front of them.

2. Our School Board is dysfunctional. Those folks need to do some good old fashioned team building. Respect needs to be the first word people think of when they thing of the school board members' relationship with one another and with the superintendent (and vica versa).

3. We need to ask ourselves if large school districts like this can really work anymore, at least the way they are currently configured. Institutions are changing rapidly in this world of ours. There has to be a better way to do this that puts more power to teach and administer to teachers, principals and parents.

4. Adversarial routes to change are neither helpful nor effective. Yes, sometimes you have to stand up for what you believe, but as soon as you have done that you have to put out your hand and be ready to work together, even with people with whom you disagree. I am a die-hard union supporter, but the teacher's union here needs to take a good, long, hard look at its leadership. Now would be a good time for a change.

The other thing I would say is that I hope this spurs further community involvement, although I am not entirely sure what that would like and would love to be part of a group of people who seriously thought about it. A lot of us are involved in putting band-aids on the system--a very necessary and important thing right now. But what about changing the system?

Just some thoughts. Oh, and by the way, I know Chicago pretty well having lived there for three years. Good luck, Dr. Brizzard. You're going to need it. You thought Rochester was tough?

Holy Week and Anti-semitism

2011-04-18T13:42:00.002-04:00

Something that hangs over our observance of Holy Week as Christians is the Anti-semitism that has been associated with ever since the writing of the Gospels. Through the centuries Holy Week, particularly God Friday, was a prime time for violence directed at Jews. It was though to be perfectly acceptable for Christians to continue to punish the "Christ killers." Matthew's Gospel supported this by the people responding to Pilate, "His blood be on us and on our children!" Those of you who were in church yesterday know that we skipped over that verse.

John's Gospel is the worst offender, however, and we read it every Good Friday. At Two Saints and St. Stephen's we use an edited version recommended by a Roman Catholic website (which, unfortunately I can no longer find). I do not think anything is lost by the editing.

I think it is important for us Christians to remember some things: First and foremost, Jesus was a Jew, an observant one. All the disciples were Jews. St. Paul was a Jew. And for all of them, Jesus included, their religious sensibilities were thoroughly Jewish. Jesus, it is fairly clear, had no intention other than a reformed Judaism. He certainly did not intend to start a new religion. Neither did St. Paul, even though he would break open Judaism through the acceptance of the Gentiles. Our sacramental rites all have Jewish roots, as does our way of daily communal prayer. Judaism is at the heart of Christianity, even if Christianity has developed in some very distinct ways.

Passover begins at sundown today. It doesn't always coincide with Holy Week. Perhaps we should take this advantage and reach out to our Jewish brothers and sisters, wish them a happy Passover and, if it feels right, an expression of regret or even repentance of the horrible Christian past of hatred directed at them. It may not seem an urgent thing to do, but remember, the Holocaust happened only 75 years ago. It is still within the lifetime of many and so its memory is still fresh, freshly painful.

The God We Need

2011-04-17T18:18:00.001-04:00

Sermon preached on Palm/Passion Sunday at the Church of St. Luke & St. Simon Cyrene: Philippians 2:5-11, Matthew 26:14--27:66

Jesus: You will all become deserters because of me this night…But after I am raised up, I will go ahead of you to Galilee. Peter: I will never desert you. Jesus: Tonight you will deny me three times. Peter: I will not deny you. And so said all the disciples. (Matthew 26:31-35)

I’ve been talking during Lent about what it means to be in relationship with Jesus. Last week, in answer to the specific question, “How can we be in relationship with Jesus,” I said, simply, that we have to die. Not die at the end of our days on earth, but die to all those things in our life that keep us from relationship with God, with Jesus.

It ends up that the chief thing we have to die to is our need for God, or for Jesus, not to die. But we have to die to the God we want so that God can be the God he wants to be for us.

That is what is going on with the disciples—Peter and the others—in the story of Jesus’ passion and death. Three times they have been told that Jesus will suffer, be murdered, but then be raised on the third day. But that is not the Messiah they want, so they refuse to listen. And here Jesus, I think in a grand act of compassion, lets them know that they will all desert him. But listen, he says, it will be all right. It will not be your fault. It will happen because of me. Don’t worry, I will be raised and I will meet you back home in Galilee.

They don’t hear him. Their denial is deep. I will never desert you. I will never deny you. And Mathew tells us not just the leader Peter says this, but so say they all. I believe this denial of theirs was not just about miscalculating their own reaction to Jesus’ death. It was a denial of that death altogether. I’m not going to deny you because we are going to get through this like we have gotten through everything else, because you, after all, are the Messiah. And the Messiah is strong. How could the Messiah be vulnerable and still be the Messiah?

This has remained a stumbling block for followers of Jesus ever since. It messes up our idea of who God is for Jesus to suffer, to refuse to defend himself, and to passively accept death. We do not want this kind of vulnerability from our God. Our God is a mighty God!

Mighty in weakness, is, however, the God we get. Mighty in vulnerability and suffering. Mighty in death.

The God that God wants to be for us is the God of utter solidarity with us. “And being found in human form, he humbled himself,” Paul says to the Philippians, “and became obedient even to death—death on a cross.” Only then could he be highly exalted and become one to worship and confess for the glory of God.

Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection, it has been said from the beginning served to take away our sins. I believe that is true, but I also believe it was far, far bigger than that. In Jesus’ passion and death God took upon himself the passion and death of the world. There is no situation so bleak, so horrible, so wrong, so seemingly hopeless, or so mundane where God cannot be found. God is not above it all, above all the world’s suffering and pain and, yes, sin. Jesus showed us God in the midst of all of it, ready to reconcile, ready to love, and ready to be our resurrection.

When I first came into the church, I really had no idea what the cross meant. I knew it was a symbol of Christianity and a popular piece of jewelry. I was taught that the cross was the great symbol of human sin and the lengths to which God has gone to overcome it. As I have been a priest who attempts by the grace of God to minister to those in pain, and as I have been a believer who has found himself flat on his back in the valley of the shadow of death, again, I think it is about so much more. The cross is about so much more.

The cross for me is a symbol of God’s absolute solidarity with us, a solidarity driven by a love I can barely understand and barely accept because it turns my whole world upside down every day. Nothing is as it seems—even the most horrific suffering and death, and even our most infinite capacity to desert and deny--because faith, hope and love have been proven to be incapable of defeat.

The cross is a constant reminder that our God, the God we know in Jesus Christ, is not the God we want, but is the God we need.

You're Invited To The Rector's 50th Birthday Party!

2011-03-18T17:14:00.004-04:00

When: Saturday, April 30, 2011, 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM

Where: St. Paul's Episcopal Church [Parish Hall]

25 Westminster Rd [at East Ave]

Rochester, NY

RSVP: John Clinton Bradley

585-313-1059
johnclint@me.com
www.socializr.com/event/johnclint/michaels50th

The Very Rev. Michael Hopkins invites his family, friends, parishioners, and colleagues to celebrate this milestone birthday with him. This is an "open house" style of event--so feel free to attend for all or part of the time as your schedule allows. If you can, please bring finger foods to share. In lieu of gifts, Michael asks that contributions be made to Integrity's Hopkins Fund for Global Mission.

Michael Hopkins Discusses Right On School & Two Saints

2011-03-06T13:22:00.001-05:00

Watch this video of Michael speaking at yesterday's LIFT Rochester brunch in honor of the Right On School...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-V5XuK9uBXg

You can also view photos from the event at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?id=174750379235060&aid=38588

The Clear Instruction of the Word of God

2011-02-20T17:11:00.001-05:00

Sermon preached at the Church of St. Luke & St. Simon Cyrene on the 7th Sunday after the Epiphany, also the Feast of Frederick Douglass: Leviticus 19:1-2, 9-18; Matthew 5:38-48

You may have noticed that Frederick Douglass’ observations about “Prejudice and the Church” were of the church in the North. He found the same prejudice here as he had experienced in the South.

If Frederick Douglass is now the “hero of the day” for Episcopalians, we have an anti-hero too, a contemporary of Douglass’ named John Henry Hopkins, who was actually an Episcopalian. In 1861, on the brink of the Civil War, Hopkins published a pamphlet entitled, “A Scriptural, Ecclesiastical and Historical View of Slavery.”[1] It was paid attention to because Hopkins was one of the senior bishops in our church, and, in fact, would soon become our presiding bishop.

In his pamphlet Hopkins defended the institution of slavery, although he admitted to welcoming its gradual abolition. Among other things, he wrote

I have no more to add with respect to this most popular dogma of human equality, and shall therefore dismiss it, as fallacious in itself, and only mischievous in its tendency….Happily it forms no part of our Constitution or our laws. It never was intended to apply to the question of negro slavery. And it can never be so applied without a total perversion of its historical meaning, and an absolute contrariety to all the facts of humanity, and the clear instruction of the Word of God.[2]

If I gave you three guesses as to where Hopkins was the bishop, I bet you would be wrong. Hopkins was not the bishop of a southern diocese. He was the Bishop of Vermont. Growing up I was taught that we northerners’ hands were clean compared to the evils perpetrated by the south. I was taught incorrectly.

For our purposes there is a vitally important question: How did the church get from Jesus repeating the teaching of Leviticus, “love your neighbor as yourself” to the belief that human equality was contrary to the clear instruction of the Word of God and little white girls running away from Communion lest they receive it with a black child?

Why is this is a vitally important question for us to grapple with? It is because the church has been the teacher and purveyor of prejudice of all kinds for centuries, for the vast majority of its life. And we are not by any means over it. A Professor of New Testament at an Episcopal seminary in 1999 refused to receive Communion with me because my lifestyle was so degrading I was allowing myself to be “less than human.” Does that sound familiar?

By the way, I’m still talking about evangelism here [as I have been throughout Epiphany]. This is an evangelical problem for us. The church’s history of prejudice, judgment and hypocrisy keep untold numbers from even considering church membership. We are often told that this is the most religious country in the world, and perhaps it is. Yet a recent Hartford Seminary study found that on any given Sunday only 20% of Americans are in church. Now to be fair, on any given Sunday, half the active members of a church will be at worship, so we could generously estimate that 40% of Americans are active church members. That is still less than half. Why is that so? I believe it is largely because of the church’s reputation. And, in a sense, Frederick Douglass is still right, the grand cause is slavery.

So what happened to the church?

I allow my friend and mentor, Dr. Verna Dozier to suggest what happened. Dr. Dozier was an African-American lay scholar of the Bible and advocate for the place of lay people in the church.

In her book, The Dream of God: A Call to Return, Verna writes of God’s dream for the creation and its rejection by God’s people. She believes the people of God have had three great falls. The first is what everyone things of as the fall, the mythical story of Adam and Eve, a fall, she says, “in eternity.”

In the first fall, I usurped the place of God. There is no God. There is only I. There is no Other. There is only I. We became lonely, separated, fearful, human beings. Not the good world God created.[3]

The second great fall was the desire of Israel for a King. Verna writes

On the second try, God offered the chosen people a way of life that would testify to a new possibility for human life, absolute trust in God, but the chosen people said, no, we want to be like all the nations. We don’t want to live in the uncertainty of the risk that God will raise up leaders when we need them. We want the security of systems and dynasties and human order.[4]

The third fall Verna conjectures happened in the life of the early church.

I have always considered the third fall, the third time the people of God chose the kingdoms of this world instead of the kingdom of God, to be in the fourth century, when, in the words of an optimistic church historian, “the Church subdued the State.” I have always thought exactly the opposite—it was the state that subdued the church. The effect of the third fall was to make accommodation the mode of the people of God.[5]

The church lived for its first three hundred years as an underground movement, at various times actually in hiding for fear of vicious persecution in the Roman Empire. They were dangerous and stressful days to be a Christian. It was the era of the martyrs.

Yet the church grew by leaps and bounds. Why? No doubt the message of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus touched many with the hope they needed in a dangerous world. But there is plenty of evidence that just as attractive were the ways that Christian people formed communities and lived together—in ways radically different from the world around them. Despite what Bishop Hopkins thought, these communities were characterized by the practice of radical equality and hospitality and generosity. Very significantly, as Paul wrote of these communities, there “was no slave or free.”[6] Slaves became Christians in droves during the first three centuries of the church’s life.

Then along came the Emperor Constantine. Constantine was faced with an aging, crumbling empire. He needed a new unifying force. He found it, but the church has not been the same since.

The story is that Constantine had a dream before a battle. A cross loomed before him emblazened by the sun. And he saw the Greek words ev toutoi nika, “by this be victorious.” The words are oftened rendered in Latin, in hoc signo vinces, “in this sign conquer.” IHS began to be put on crosses. It still is. Some say it stand for the first three letters of “Jesus” in Greek, and it does, but that is not how it began.

In 313, Constantine made Christianity legal in the Roman Empire. In the ensuing years it effectively became the state religion. And that is when, As Verna Dozier says, the church turned to “accommodation” as its chief mode of operation.

Now there are certainly instances in the church’s life since Constantine that it has bravely challenged the state and the culture. Its behavior, however, has overwhelmingly been quite the opposite. The church has allowed itself to baptize the status quo, including the unequal treatment of human beings leading to the outright abuse of some. And it usually found justification for this behavior somewhere in the Bible, even in the Gospels. A favorite verse of Christian slaveowners came from Jesus’ own lips:

That slave who knew what his master wanted, but did not prepare himself or do what was wanted, will receive a severe beating.[7]

Frederick Douglass speaks of one of his masters, that he would recite this verse while beating a slave.[8] Indeed, this master experienced a conversion while Douglass was his slave, but Douglass says

If it had any effect on his character, it made him to have been a much worse man after his conversion than before. Prior to his conversion, he relied upon his own depravity to shield and sustain him in his savage barbarity; but after hi conversion, he found religious sanction and support for his slaveholding cruelty.[9]

There are two challenges here as we seek to proclaim the good news by word and example. The first is this history, which is carried on by some of our fellow Christians. Very few if any of them support slavery and this kind of cruelty, but plenty of them still traffic in prejudice and judgment as well as being virtual agent of the state, espousing what can only be seen as a kind of civil religion. And the biggest problem is that those folks tend to control the media, which means that folks who otherwise might be attracted to Christianity believe it is in their best self interest to stay home on Sunday morning.

Second of all, it should be clear to us from the last 50 years that a completely independent Christian voice, espousing absolute human equality, is perhaps not the most popular option. It should be no surprise that the decline of mainline Protestantism—including our own church—began when large numbers of our clergy in particular—embraced the civil rights movement. Episcopal Church membership peaked in 1964, and has headed down ever since. Then there was Prayer Book revision and women’s ordination in the mid-1970’s, the first woman bishop in 1989, the bishop’s of the church finally call racism a sin in 1994 and anti-racism training begins, the explosion of openly gay and lesbian clergy in the 1990’s and the first openly gay bishop in 2003. Down, down, down, down, down.

Which may mean that we are actually in a hopeful place, despite the fact that our smaller size is causing us financial and property-related pain. We are clearer, however, about who we are. We are closer to being tools of no one but the Lord Jesus Christ and his Gospel. We can be about the work of building the beloved community unfettered.

We need to be able to say two things in our evangelism—our proclamation to the world: We, the Church, for too many generations too number, sinned, supporting and committing atrocities that were an absolute betrayal of the One we claimed to follow. But we, the Church, are waking up, we are trying to make right what was done wrong, and an absolute commitment to the dignity of each and every human being and their right to live in justice and peace is our renewed creed, what we believe is the clear instruction of the Word of God.

Let us together be a living example of this new life, no matter what the cost.

[1] Available as a Google Book at http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id=S1ZEtrmbPRwC&dq=A+Scriptural,+Ecclesiastical,+and+Historical+View+of+Slavery&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=lq1ATez_K9&sig=yPYUmEj2jHSzZve_80x_UYzDtKQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=4&ct=result#v=onepage&q&f=false

[2] Ibid., pp. 28-29. Hopkins name may be familiar to many because of his son, John Henry Hopkins, Jr., the writer of the popular hymns “We three kings of orient are” and “I sing a song of the saints of God.”

[3] Verna J. Dozier, The Dream of God: A Call to Return (Cowley, 1991), p. 61.

[4] Ibid., p. 71.

[5] Ibid., p. 72.

[6] Galatians 3:28.

[7] Luke 12:47.

[8] In Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, A New Critical Edition by Angela Y. Davis, (City Lights Books, 2010), p.p. 169-170.

[9] Ibid., p. 168.

My Church is a Miracle

2011-02-14T16:56:00.002-05:00

Sermon preached on Absalom Jones' Day at the Church of St. Luke & St. Simon Cyrene, February 13, 2011: Ephesians 2:13-20

For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us.

Two stories.

Wednesday morning I was at a meeting of the city Episcopal clergy with the Bishop and the Canons. Sandy was there with me. The topic of race came up, in terms of our evangelical prospects in the city.

One of the clergy at the table is actually an African-American, the Rev. Deborah Brown, the Diocesan Youth Missioner, new priest and fairly new Episcopalian. One of my esteemed colleagues asked Deborah, “Well why did you become an Episcopalian? What drew you to the Episcopal Church?” She thought a moment and said what many Episcopalians say, “The liturgy. I love the worship of this church.”

Perfectly good answer. I myself have given it many times. But I wondered at the time if there wasn’t something deeper. What about the liturgy? What does it do to you that keeps you coming back?”

At some point in that conversation, I said, “You know, I think a lot of Two Sainters who are African-American might be somewhat puzzled by that question, especially if they knew they were being asked as an African-American. I think some of them would say—I hope they would say—‘Because it’s my church.’”

What I think I was getting at is my belief that one of the reasons the Episcopal Church stays a predominantly white church—87% was the statistic I saw the other day—is that white Episcopalians have a tendency to always treat black Episcopalians as “the other,” as somehow being an odd presence. It’s like we see a black person in an Episcopal Church and think to ourselves, “What’s that Baptist doing in here?” That’s what they naturally are, isn’t it?

Let’s leave that wherever it deserves to be left and move on to story number two.

I was at a meeting of the Rochester and Monroe Districts of the Diocese on Thursday. Walt Kannapel and John Bradley were there as well. We’ve done a somewhat different thing and read a book together and have been discussing it for a couple meetings.

I was in a small group talking about part of the book. Walter happened to be in it as well. One of the clergy in the group asked us, “What do you love about your church? What are you passionate about? What do you want to tell others about your church?” Every person who answered said the same thing, “the community” or “the people.”

That’s not a surprising answer at all. I’m willing to bet it is what at least a majority of you would say if you someone asked you that question. And it’s a good answer.

I was sitting there wondering what I was going to say. As it turns out we never got around to me so I was let off the hook. But I’ve been puzzling about it ever since. I could easily say “the people,” and I would be telling the truth. But something else was weighing on me. There’s more than that. We have to dig a little deeper. What about this people? Is it just because they’re nice, you have a lot of friends among them? Or is there more than that?

With those things rattling around in my head, something told me that John Harmon might have something helpful to say about all this. John’s daughters privileged me with the gift of copies of John’s writings, most from the 1960’s. And it worked. The voice must have been the Holy Spirit.

It turns out that this passage from Ephesians was very important to John in those days, along with a couple of other similar passages from Paul’s letters. John was convinced that perhaps the most significant part of the Christian message was that God has already made peace among us. We are already one. This message, he said, was the antidote needed by both the church and the world. Here’s how he began an essay in 1967. You will, of course, excuse him the sexist language.

I have discovered no other way to deal with any issue of human existence in God’s world then to begin with the shape God has already given life. For me the Gospel says that there is now a peace among men—a solidarity, a fraternity, and interdependence that makes truly human life possible. In spite of all the horrible violence of brother against brother, this unity exists. It is this, in fact, that makes the rupturing of life so horrible in its effects, because it occurs among brothers who are bound together in their very being, rather than among strangers or enemies who have no deep, mutual ties.

This unity is at the heart of the whole Biblical revelation. It is also the gift…that we celebrate continuously in the Eucharist.[1]

In God’s dream, John is saying, in God’s reality in which he has enabled us to live, there are no strangers. There literally is, as St. Paul says in Galatians (3:28), “…no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.”

That unity is not something we have to create. It is something that is. It is something in which we are called to participate.

John bemoaned the fact that in the church of his day that message was almost totally obscured by the realities of the make-up of most churches. The church he saw, by and large, witnessed to segregation not peace. He used, and I do too, the word “peace” rather than “integration” for a couple reasons. “Integration” is not a biblical word or a biblical value. And it has the connotation, as most of you well know, of assuming that you will become like me. The new “we” in a situation of “integration” usually looks like whoever was in power to begin with.

So I never call this parish “integrated.” I don’t really like to label it at all. If I have time, I’d rather tell the story of the coming together. And sometimes in the diocese I do call this a parish with an African-American majority, which is about reminding people that not everyone in this Diocese looks like everybody else.

But I like the language John suggests (and it was St. Paul’s idea in the first place). This is a parish where all sorts of people are at peace with one another. I think that honors the fact that we have different identities. I don’t think in all his talk of being one Paul ever meant that individual identities would somehow disappear into some great unified human goo—like the old way of talking about this country being a “melting pot.”

No, we’re different. That’s part of our creation and our experience. It’s how God made us. But God also made us to know that our separate identities do not make us strangers or enemies. We are one: in faith, in flesh and blood, in spirit, in the love of God. We worship a God, the Book of Acts says, who “shows no partiality.”[2]

To me this is the great gift of this parish. This parish is a grand experiment in living out the primary message: we are all already one. I know that it was not forged easily twenty-two years ago. There was a whole lot of pain and fear at the table. There had to have been. Can you trust merging with a parish where you could not have worshipped within your own lifetime? I can’t imagine how difficult that was.

But here we are. It is true that what I love about this place is the people. And you and I should tell people that much more than we do (Aha! I did make it to evangelism this morning!). But we should say a little more.

My church is a miracle. We are black and white, male and female, gay and straight, old and young, church members since Jesus was a teenager and others who are still trying to figure out just what is going on. We sing songs that our ancestors have been singing for hundreds of years with a magnificent organ and we have discovered drums and even the occasional guitar and brass jazz band. And the miracle happens when we all come to the Table and get fed with the same bread and wine and we are renewed in the fact that God loves each and every one of us exactly the same. And some Sundays you can look around the room and see all the different faces and wonder how this thing holds together, and then you know how, because you can cut the respect and dignity and love with a knife.

I suppose that if Absalom Jones walked into this place he would be surprised and he might, to be honest, wonder if something had been lost in the leaving behind of a “black church,” but I have to believe in the end he would be pleased and proud, because he could no doubt see the things I just described. And John Harmon? This place brought tears to his eyes whenever we talked about it during his last year, because this is what he had been talking about all along.

Jesus proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to you who were near; for through him we all have access to God. That means you are no longer strangers and aliens. You are citizens, saints and members of the household of God of which Jesus Christ is the cornerstone.[3]

[1] John J. Harmon, “Human Solidarity, Parochial Imbalance and Urban Mission,” manuscript of what became a chapter in Renewing the Parish, Divine Word Publications, 1967.

[2] Acts 10:34.

[3] My paraphrase of Ephesians 2:17-20.

Evangelism: the Proclamation of Joy

2011-01-24T17:52:00.002-05:00

Sermon preached at the Church of St. Luke & St. Simon Cyrene on the 3rd Sunday after the Epiphany (January 23, 2011), which was also the Sunday of the Annual Meeting of the parish: Isaiah 9:1-4; Matthew 4:12-23

There will be no gloom for those who were in anguish….You have multiplied the nation, you have increased its joy…

Many of you will remember Cuthbert, the dog with which John and I moved to Rochester. For those of you who never met him, Cuthbert was a good size black and white mutt—probably a mix of black lab and border collie. In our 12 years together, Cuthbert taught me many things. In fact, God taught me many things through him.

One warm, sunny day in Maryland, I had taken Cuthbert to work with me as I did almost every day. I let him loose to run in the chapel cemetery, which was, I think, his favorite place in the whole world. There were plenty of squirrels and rabbits to chase. Thank God he never caught any of them. Of course, I never thought there was any danger that he would.

I went in the parish hall to check my messages and make a couple phone calls. Then I went back out to get him. I stood near the edge of the cemetery and called his name. No response. I figured he must have wandered across the street to the post office. The chapel was on this short dead end street on one side of the road, and the post office was the only thing on the other side. Cuthbert was welcome there and known by most of the patrons. But he wasn’t there.

I called again. Nothing. I called again with my “Dad is annoyed” voice. Ah, there he was on the far end of the cemetery bounding towards me. He’s got something in his mouth. It looks like a rock. Why is the fool running around with a rock in his mouth?

He reached me and dumped the rock at my feet and looked up at me with great anticipation. Only it wasn’t a rock. Cuthbert had caught himself a turtle. I picked it up and the turtle looked way more annoyed than I had been.

And then I looked back at Cuthbert and he was shaking with pure delight. It was alive and he had caught it and Dad was pleased. It was like the moment when his whole dog life had been fulfilled.

So Cuthbert taught me that what is important in life is not what you catch, but how much delight you take in it afterwards.

The great Orthodox theologian of the 20^th century, Alexander Schmemann once wrote, “From its very beginning Christianity has been the proclamation of joy.” He went on to say

Without the proclamation of this joy Christianity is incomprehensible. It is only as joy that the Church was victorious in the world, and it lost the world when it lost that joy, and ceased to be a credible witness to it. Of all the accusations against Christians, the most terrible one was uttered by Nietzsche when he said that Christians had no joy.[1]

I have been asking you to wrestle with our calling to evangelism, expressed in our baptismal covenant as the promise “to proclaim by word and example the good news of God in Christ.”[2] I have been trying to give us some new language to think about what evangelism is, because so much of what we think when we hear that word seems foreign and negative to us.

Two weeks ago I suggested that we are called to be the sacrament of Jesus for the world. Last week I talked about evangelism as the call to join and help build the beloved community of which Martin Luther King, Jr. frequently spoke, the same reality that Jesus called the Kingdom of God.

Today I am offering you the notion that evangelism is at its very heart the proclamation of joy.

What is this joy? I do not think it can simply be equated with happiness, although it might be happiness sometimes. I think one of the gifts of Christianity to the world is the teaching that it is possible to be sad and joyful at the same time.

The most obvious manifestation of this setting aside one another of sadness and joy comes in our burial service. It is summed up through some words we borrowed from the Orthodox, although we unfortunately left out a few words. Here’s the Orthodox version:

Yet even at the grave [through our tears] we make our song: Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.[3]

Joy is about confidence in the fact that we are God’s beloved, that, in the words of St. Paul, “Nothing can separate us from the love of God,”[4] or in the words of our baptismal rite, “You are sealed by the Holy Spirit in Baptism and marked as Christ’s own for ever.”[5]

Schmemann calls the Eucharist, “the sacrament of joy.” What we do here week by week is the means we have to return to our true joy again and again. We have to do it so often because life shakes our confidence in God’s unconditional love over and over. Our joy is constantly tested. But here, together, we can find it again. Sometimes as an individual in this assembly, when I’m having a bad time of it, I can’t get that confidence back. It’s going to take longer than that. But I have the next best thing, I have the comfort and hope that your return to joy gives away. And that, too, is an act of evangelism.

It’s the Annual Meeting so I am expected to say something about this parish and its future. I think I only have to say that the one thing above all others that we cannot let go of is our joy, our delight in God, our delight in the gift of life, our delight in the gift of one another, our delight in God’s call to do justice in the world.

Obviously I don’t get to visit other churches much, but I’ve been in enough to know by the end of the service whether or not this was a place I could return to joy. Is this a place where delight finds a home? This community of faith is, I believe, one of those places. I more than believe it, I have experienced it. I was devastated by an illness whose primary effect was the removal of joy from my life. Doctors and medication and therapists and taking better care of myself were all part of my healing. But here is where I returned to joy. With you. At this Table.

As your rector, I long for the day when I can stand up here and say, “We do not have to worry about our future any more.” My suspicion is that I will never get to say that. But despite the challenges we will continue to face, I believe that if we keep returning to our joy we will still be around to meet those challenges. If we ever are infected with despair as a community, it will mean our end.

It is not about what you catch but how much delight you take in it afterwards.

Let us pray that as new people come among us (and let us pray first of all that that they will), they will be able to see that we may not be the biggest or flashiest church in town, but we have caught something, the love of God, and we are delighting in it because we know that no one can ever take that love or our joy away from us.

[1] “The Proclamation of Joy: An Orthodox View,” in The Living Pulpit, October-December 1996, p. 8. The article is an excerpt from Schmemann’s book For the Life of the World.

[2] The Book of Common Prayer, p. 305.

[3] The Book of Common Prayer version is on page 499.

[4] Romans 8:39.

[5] BCP, p. 308.

Counsel for a Priest, Counsel for a Christian

2011-01-10T17:42:00.002-05:00

Today is the anniversary of my ordination to the priesthood (1990) and I was reading from an old favorite: Michael Ramsay's The Christian Priest Today. Ramsay was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1961 to 1974. The book is a collection of addresses and retreat meditations on the priesthood.

At the end of the chapter called "Divine Humility" he gives "a few counsels for the struggle which will be before you." They strike me as good counsel not only for a priest but for any Christian. They are a description of how any Christian might rest in humility. Here they are, edited:

Thank God, often and always. Thank God, carefully and wonderingly, for your continued privileges and for every experience of his goodness. Thankfulness is a soil in which pride does not easily grow.

Take care about confession of your sins. As time passes the habit of being critical about people and things grows more than each of us may realize.

Be ready to accept humiliations. They can hurt terribly, but they help you to be humble. There can be the trivial humiliations. Accept them. There can be the bigger humiliations: some cherished plan misfires, or some injustice is done to you, or some slight or affront, or some sorrow, or some trouble caused by a mistake of your own. All these can be so many chances to be a little nearer to our humble crucified Lord.

Do not worry about status. There is only one status that our Lord bids us be concerned with, and that is the status of proximity to himself.

Use your sense of humour. Laugh about things, laugh at the absurdities of life, laugh about yourself, and about your own absurdity. We are all of us infinitesimally small and ludicrous creatures within God's universe. You have to be serious, but never be solemn, because if you are solemn about anything there is the risk of becoming solemn about yourself.

Friday in Advent 4 (December 24)

2010-12-24T09:33:00.003-05:00

Revelation 22:12-17, 21

v. 17: The Spirit and the bride say, "Come." And let everyone who hears say, "Come." And let everyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift.

Here we are. As the sun goes down today, we begin our Christmas celebration. How are you entering this time? How have you prepared to hear the news of glory for God and peace on the earth? Who are you today to welcome the baby of Bethlehem to the world again?

If you're like me your preparation has been spotty. I love Advent and I try to use the time to get ready in a way that is different from much of what is going on around me. But this Advent the distractions have been many. I was away the first week of Advent which put me behind on all the things that have to be done at church this time of year. A so far mysteriously painful right foot and right hip has kept me limping most of the season. I have not had any desire to buy gifts this year, which is a must in my family. So I'm sitting here this morning feeling something of a failure.

As is often my experience, though, that may be precisely where God wants me to be, or it is at least the place where God can do something with me. It is probably massively counter-productive that I want Advent to be a time for me to prepare a mansion for the baby to find waiting for him in my heart, and all that he wants and needs is a cowshed. Imagine last Sunday's Collect of the Day re-written:

Purify our conscience, O Lord, by your daily visitation: that your Son Jesus Christ, at his coming, may find in us a cowshed prepared for himself...

I like that. I hear good news in that.

The reading from Revelation this morning suggests I really need only two things today to be ready to celebrate: a willingness to "come," that is, I think, show up; and thirst. I think I can do those things. I think you can too. The companionship and the water that will meet these needs are both free.

Thursday in Advent 4

2010-12-23T09:30:00.003-05:00

Revelation 21:22--22:5

vv. 22:1-2 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the lamb through the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.

The Bible begins and ends in a garden. The Bible begins and ends in Paradise. The Bible begins and ends on earth. These are obvious truths if you read the first three chapters of Genesis and the last three chapters of Revelation. Yet we miss the point all the time. We insist on speaking of "heaven." Yet the Bible ends speaking of a renewed earth in eternity, not some ethereal heaven. The eternal purpose of God is not to destroy the creation. It is to fulfill it. The tree of life stands at the center of the garden at the beginning and at the end. And it is for healing. The great wound caused by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the original garden is healed. That tree is no longer at the center of the garden, only the tree of life is.

The Incarnation in which we believe, God becoming flesh--truly human and truly divine, the ultimate wedding of heaven and earth in a human being, is a great proclamation of this truth--God loves the creation, and not as something to observe, but to participate in. Revelation 21:3: And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "See, the home of God is among mortals, he will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them."

That's what we heard the angel tell Joseph last Sunday: this child will be "Emmanuel," which means "God with us." Not God cheering us on from the sidelines, but God with us in the game.

Are you ready to celebrate this amazing news?

Wednesday in Advent 4

2010-12-22T16:43:00.002-05:00

Revelation 21:9-21
vv. 10-11 And in the spirit [the angel] carried me away to a great, high mountain and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God. It has the glory of God and a radiance like a very rare jewel, like jasper, clear as crystal.

Our reading today is a description of the holy city. It is a marvelous sight for the imagination: crystal and gold and twelve precious jewels making up its foundation. It is "foursquare," with three gates on each side. The description is meant in every way to say, "perfection."

"The golden streets of heaven" is not an image that us progressive Christians take much stock in anymore. But it meant something to our ancestors, especially our African-American ancestors in slavery. They sang of the city often:

Oh! What a beautiful city...Twelve gates to the city, Hallelujah!
Three gates ina the East, three gates ina the West, three gates in the north, and three gates ina the South, making it twelve gates-a to the city, a-Hallelujah! (LEVAS II, #10)

For people who have nothing, the vision of golden streets on which they can walk, which have been made for them, means a great deal. Maybe that was an ultimately unhelpful vision of "pie in the sky," but I neither think that was its intention nor its effect. Its effect was hope, hope that could be born out of nothing and hope that could outlast anything.

It also should be a vision for change, earthly change. The city, after all, was seen by John not staying in heaven, but descending to earth. The hymnwriter Walter Russell Bowie wrote these words in 1910:

Give us, O God, the strength to build the city that hath stood too long a dream,
whose laws are love, whose crown is servanthood,
and where the sun that shineth is God's grace for human good.

Already in the mind of God that city riseth fair:
lo, how its splendor challenges the souls that greatly dare--
yea, bids us seize the whole of life and build its glory there. (The Hymnal 1982, #583)

Tuesday in Advent 4 (St. Thomas' Day)

2010-12-21T15:02:00.002-05:00

John 20:24-29
vv. 27-28: Then Jesus said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe." Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!"

[From Eugene Peterson's The Jesus Way: A Conversation on the Ways that Jesus is the Way, 2007, p. 242].

"A week later, the disciples were together again. This time Thomas was with them....And then Jesus was among them again. Thomas was all eyes. Jesus was gracious to him, and offered the 'evidence' of the holes in his hand and the gash in his side. And then the prayer burst from Thomas: 'My Lord and my God!'

"Thomas' prayer keeps us ready for what comes next; it keeps us alert to the Jesus who rules our life as Lord and commands our worship as God when we are least expecting it. Following Jesus is not a skill we acquire so that we can be useful to the kingdom. Following Jesus is not a privilege we are let into so that the kingdom can be useful to us. It is obedience ('my Lord!'). And it is worship ('my God!').

"No matter how much we know, we don't know enough to know what Jesus is going to do next. And no matter how familiar we are with the traditions and customs and privileges that go with being on God's side, we aren't familiar enough to know how Jesus fits into it.

No religious skills that any of us acquire will ever produce resurrection, and no spiritual strategies that we work out will ever produce resurrection. Following Jesus doesn't get us where we want to go. It gets us to where Jesus goes, where we meet him in resurrection surprise: 'My Lord and my God!'"

Monday in Advent 4

2010-12-20T13:21:00.002-05:00

Revelation 20:1-10

v. 6: Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection. Over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him a thousand years.

Our last week of Advent we read from the last three chapters of the Book of Revelation. Chapter 20 foresees the final defeat of Satan and the thousand year reign of Christ and the martyrs. Chapter 21 through the beginning of chapter 22 is the vision of the New Jerusalem. The end of chapter 22 is the epilogue to the book.

The "blessed and holy" above are the martyrs, whom John sees will be raised first in order to join Christ in his thousand year reign, during which time Satan is imprisoned. The original context of the Book of Revelation was probably the persecution of Christians during the reign of the Emperor Domitian (ruled 81-96).

Martyrdom is not something we contemplate often. For us it is something of the distant past. Martyrdom does go on, however, and we should be aware of it. Christians in Iraq are currently in the news suffering from persecution. Christians in Pakistan, many of them Anglicans, are also under great stress. John and my friend Ugandan retired bishop Christopher Senyonjo saw martyrdom up close and personal when his archbishop Janani Luwum was murdered during the reign of Idi Amin in that country. In conversation with him it is clear that facing the possibility of death for one's faith gives it a different quality, a different intensity. Hence the intensity of the Book of Revelation, which seems so strange to us.

Of course, we should live in a world where martyrdom is simply not possible. There should be no martyrs of any religious tradition. But we do not yet live in that world. It seems completely counter-intuitive to this season, but one of its questions is, "Would I die for this baby born in Bethlehem? Would I die for the peace on earth that is his purpose? For the justice that is required for it to be?" I may thank God that I do not have to, but that does not mean that I should not be prepared to answer the question.

Saturday in Advent 3

2010-12-18T09:49:00.002-05:00

Jude 17-25

vv. 20-21 But you, beloved, build yourselves up on your most holy faith; pray in the Holy Spirit; keep yourselves in the love of God; look forward to the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.

The Epistle of Jude claims to have been written by one of Jesus' brothers, which would also have made him a brother of James of Jerusalem, the leader of the church their after Jesus' departure. It is not clear at all to whom this short letter is written. The community, however, is clearly experiencing conflict over some rival teaching that has come into it. Paul seems to have run into this teaching as well, which basically held that since grace has saved us, we are free to do whatever we want. Jude vigorously denounces this philosophy.

The two verses quoted above are Jude's simple outline for following the Christian faith. Depend on your faith (and by this he would have meant the faith handed down to you from the apostles). Pray, listening for the Spirit (and not your own voice, which could lead you astray). Rest assured of God's love. Look forward, trusting ever in the mercy of Jesus that will lead you to eternal life. It's not a bad outline at all.

Our outline along these lines is the Baptismal Covenant: Continue in what the apostles taught us and told us to do. Keep turning back to God whenever you stray away. Proclaim that relationship with God in Christ is good news. Look to serve Christ in all people, which is what it means to love your neighbor as yourself. Keep the struggle for justice, peace and the dignity of all people alive.

This is the faith of the babe to be born. This is what it means for the incarnation of God to continue in his people, you and me.

Thursday in Advent 3

2010-12-16T15:22:00.002-05:00

2 Peter 2:10b-16
It's hard to pick a verse from this passage. The angry diatribe that began yesterday is in full swing today. "Accursed children!" the writer calls those he is railing against.

I share with you today, rather than my own thoughts, some from the Rev. Dr. John Polkinghorne, a priest of the Church of England and a physicist, who has written extensively on science and faith. He also has a little book of Advent & Christmas meditations. Here are some words he has to say about judgment:

Judgment is not imposed arbitrarily from without, but we experience it from within because it centers on our reaction to reality, our response to the way that things truly are. Confronted with reality--including the reality of who we are and what we have done--we can either turn towards the light, accepting the painful fact of evil done as the first step through which we may begin to be changed and conformed to the holy reality of God's will; or we can turn away from the light into the darkness of ourselves, as we cling to the delusion that there is nothing really the matter with us.

Understood in this way as an opening up to the truth, judgment is a hopeful word. Reality may be painful, and we may only be able to bear a little of it at a time, but facing it is the only possible route to true fulfillment. There is no future in illusion.

The book of meditations is called Living with Hope: A Scientist looks at Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany

Wednesday in Advent 3

2010-12-15T16:41:00.002-05:00

2 Peter 2:1-10a
V. 9 the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment.

Judgment. The writer of 2 Peter is angry, and when we get angry we tend to see the world as right or wrong, good or evil, righteous or unrighteous, godly or depraved.

Many years ago now, before my coming to Rochester, I was invited by a Washington colleague to preach at her celebration of a new ministry in the Diocese of Pittsburgh. She was becoming the rector of one of the minority progressive congregations there. I wondered with her whether this was a good idea or not, going into the lion's den, but she assured me all would be well.

I was vesting when the Bishop arrived, a man by the name of Robert Duncan. I introduced myself. He clearly didn't know who I was. he asked me the usual polite things: parish, bishop, seminary. "Welcome," he said. It occurred to me at that point that my friend had not told him who was preaching that night.

So I began mmy sermon lauding this wonderful parish and their terrific new rector who could bring together such disparate figures from the church as the Bishop of Pittsburgh and the President of Integrity. I smiled at the bishop. He did not smile back. the clergy in the first three rows were in various stages of distress. Off I went into the sermon.

After the service the bishop quickly left and I didn't get to speak to him. (I was with him at an event about a year later and he admitted that he probably would have asked me not to preach). But at the reception afterwards I had a lively conversation with several of the clergy of the diocese. If I recall right, three opened with the same line: "You preached the gospel tonight!" It is, I trust, to my eternal credit that I chose not to be sarcastic that night. I said simply, that's what I try to do, by the grace of God. Clearly I was a puzzle to them.

I started that service under their judgment. Of that I have no doubt. But I didn't turn out as they expected (and perhaps they didn't to me either). What a terrible thing judgment is, which is perhaps why Jesus (who I'll listen to for light years before I'll listen to 2 Peter) asks that we refrain from it.

Rochester Monroe District Minutes

2010-12-14T18:56:00.000-05:00

December 9, 2010
Christ Church, Rochester

The December 9, 2010 Rochester Monroe District Meeting was held at Christ Church, Rochester with 31 people present.

Opening:
The Rev. Ruth Ferguson opened the meeting with prayer at 7:07 p.m.

Padraic Collins-Boher spoke about the numerous outreach ministries at Christ Church along with their affiliation with the Eastman School of Music and as a Jazz Festival venue. He also shared information about the history of the church beginning in the 1800’s.

Minutes:
Warden Bonnie Hallman-Dye chaired the meeting.

The minutes were accepted as read.

Old Business: None

New Business:
1. Patti Blaine, City School Outreach Coordinator and Laura Despard, described two programs at Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. School #9. Patti spoke about the literacy support program. Laura presented a challenge to the group to provide meals for students during school vacations. Discussion and a question/ answer period followed. Information regarding the tutoring and vacation book program is available from Patti at pattiblaine@gmail.com.

More information about A Challenge to Mission is available from Laura Despard at laurades@rochester.rr.com.

2. The Very Rev Lance Robbins initiated a discussion about Prayer Partners. The focus was on the way prayer partners are selected and how much prayer partners communicate with one another. Please forward ideas and suggestions for prayer partner projects or activities to lrobbins@aol.com.

3. The Very Rev. Cynthia Rasmussen led a small group discussion around the first three chapters of I Refuse to Lead a Dying Church. Small groups were asked to discuss one of three topics and decide what activities would be appropriate for their setting. Topics included: life/death; community/isolation; and fun/drudgery. Suggestions were shared among the group.

Cindy is moving forward with setting up a face book page for members to continue the discussion on line.

Chapters 4-6 will be discussed at the February meeting.

4. Neil Houghton’s resignation as Monroe District Warden was accepted with regret. A new warden will be elected in February. Nominations should be forwarded to The Very Rev. Lance Robbins at lrobbins@aol.com

Announcements:
1. Christ Church, Pittsford is offering a service for special needs children and their caregivers on December 19, 2010 at 1 p.m.

2. Carpenter’s Kids are making another two week pilgrimage from August 1- 13. A child can be sponsored for $80.00.

3. A Blue Christmas service will be held at St. Luke’s Brockport at 7 p.m. on December 16, 2010.

4. On January 29, 2011 at 3 p.m. there will be a benefit for Rural Migrant Ministries at Epiphany Gates. There is also a celebration of Rev. Don Hill’s 40th anniversary of his ordination.

5. Two Saints is offering an Advent Quiet Day from 2-4 p.m. and Evensong at 4 p.m.

6. Next Meeting:
February 10, 2011
Christ Church
36 S. Main Street, Pittsford
7 p.m.

Submitted by,
Sharon Del Vecchio Therkildsen
Rochester Monroe District Secretary

Tuesday in Advent 3

2010-12-14T15:57:00.003-05:00

2 Peter 1:12-21
V. 19b You will do well to be attentive to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

Attentive to what? "The prophetic message" (in the first half of the verse) which seems to be Peter's testimony of Jesus' tranfiguration on the mountain, where God was heard to say, "This my Son, my Beloved, with whom I am well pleased" (retold in verses 17-18).

It's a lovely image. Keep God's Beloved before your eyes, shining in a dark place, until the day comes and that same Beloved rises as the morning star.

But it's a long night, and it seems every time I think I see the morning star on the horizon, it slips away, slips away with another act of injustice, another violent death, another hungry child, or another loss of love--be to death or some other way.

That's gloomy, I know, and I have to be careful not to get stuck there, as we all do. But it can also be a joyful place to be, in the dark where the light shines. As John's Gospel says, "the light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it" (John 1:5). Or, as we sing with great joy sometimes, "This little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine!"

We all know the darkness. It is unavoidable. The question is, how can we help keep the light shining, keep waiting for the dawn and the morning star?

Monday in Advent 3

2010-12-13T10:20:00.002-05:00

2 Peter 1:1-11

V. 10. Therefore, brothers and sisters, be all the more eager to confirm your call and election, for if you do this, you will never stumble.

This week we are reading from the Second Letter of Peter (I've put a couple notes about this letter at the bottom of this meditation).

"I am called and chosen by God." It sounds arrogant to say this, but the New Testament is clear that I should have confidence that these things are true. They are not a matter for boasting. They do not make me special, at least in the sense of set apart and different from most people. They just are the truth about me and I can and should live my life as if they were true. You should too.

That's what the writer means by "confirm." We "confirm" our call by the way we live our lives, and the writer has listed some attributes for which we should strive in the verses ahead of this: goodness, knowledge (wisdom), self-control, endurance, godliness, mutual affection, and love. Practicing these things do not make us chosen (only God can do that), but they do confirm our being chosen.

At its best, the practice of gift giving at Christmas is a sign, a token, of mutual affection and love. Ideally, the gift is given expecting nothing in return. The old saying that it is "the thought that counts" is true. At its worst, gift giving at this time of year can be used (and taken) as a sign of being chosen. The size or the quantity of the gift measures the size or the quantity of love. If I don't get a gift from someone than they obviously don't care about me. We can do terrible tings to ourselves and others by these kinds of thoughts.

Let us give gifts as a sign of our simple affection for another, no strings attached. And let each of us remember, "I am called and chosen by God" no matter what.

About 2 Peter: The Second Letter of Peter clearly comes from the second generation of Christians, so someone has obviously written it as a testament in Peter's name, a practice that was not uncommon in those days. The letter wrestles with Christianity's immersion in Greek culture. Some were arguing for some radical changes in ethical standards and in the way the second coming was understood in order for Christian faith to be more palatable to the surrounding culture. The writer of 2 Peter does give some ground, using some of the language of Greek culture, but is basically warning that the apostolic teaching cannot be changed. Christians will continue to have this debate about faith vs. culture right up through the present time.

Saturday in Advent 2

2010-12-11T14:35:00.002-05:00

2 Thessalonians 3:6-18
V. 13: Brothers and sisters, do not be weary in doing what is right.

In this case, Paul was talking about his instructions for the Thessalonians in regard to work and idleness. Many of the Thessalonians had apparently come to believe that either the Lord had already come or his coming was in process. So why work? Paul is quite harsh with them: "Anyone unwilling to work should not eat."

It has always been interesting to me that we don't have much of a theology of work. Somehow, for many if not most of us, our vocational life has become about us, not about God. This can even happen to clergy. I can't expound a theology of work here, but I can say that I think it has to do with participating in God's ongoing creation--being a continual co-creator with God. It also has something to do with the relationship of the individual to the community where some important balances have to be maintained. And it also has to do with "not growing weary of doing right."

How is your work a work for God? I suspect that's a daunting question for some of you, but remember "work for God" does not mean "work for the church." It means "work for the creation."

Friday in Advent 2

2010-12-10T19:11:00.002-05:00

2 Thessalonians 2:13--3:5

v. 3:5 May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.

Sorry I missed yesterday. The day got rolling and never stopped. Today hasn't been much better. Oh, it must be Advent with Christmas looming on the horizon. All the better reason for a quiet afternoon tomorrow at church and then the Messiah at the RPO in the evening.

I suspect that God is pretty much always trying to "direct" our hearts--keep them going in the right direction. I also suspect that for God this is something trying to get my cat to come when I call her. She will do it just often enough for me to live in hope, but, truth to tell, most of the time she will not even acknowledge my presence when I say her name.

Truth is, I don't think God has much more luck directing our hearts. He needs our help. We actually have to decide to pay attention. That is Advent's most basic message to us. Pay attention or you will miss God. Pay attention or you will miss the life that God wants to make with you.

Wednesday in Advent 2

2010-12-08T15:27:00.002-05:00

2 Thessalonians 1:1-12

Vv. 6-8 For it is indeed just of God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to give relief to the afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.

Personally, I could live without Second Thessalonians in the Canon of Scripture. I don't think it offers much positive and there is plenty negative, like the verses quoted above. Scholars have long debated whether or not Paul really wrote this letter, in part because the verses above sound like Paul on steroids.

I have trouble with notions of "the vengeance of God." I think it is making God in our image. Vengeance is our thing, not God's. I believe if nothing else the cross proved that. Are there things that make God angry? Of course. I certainly hope so. If God is not angry at the extent of poverty in a city such as ours, for instance, than I do not really want to have anything to do with that God. But God has taught us through the vulnerability of the cross how to turn our anger into passion--the passion of transformative love.

Do I hope there will come a day when my enemies will get what they deserve? Most days, yes. But "the angel of my better nature" tells me that in Christ Jesus what they "deserve" is a chance at being reconciled to God, and therefore to all they have harmed, even at the end (I'll get the same chance, and so will you). I've known a few of them who are likely to say "no thanks." That will be their choice. Do they then get the vengeance and the fire? I think what they get is the death they already have and seem to want to keep having.

Perhaps I can be grateful that there are passages like this that help me to confront my own need for vengeance and vindication, and to remind me that my vindication was won long, long ago outside the walls of Jerusalem, and because of the act of the man Jesus on the cross, I need not seek vengeance ever again.

Tuesday in Advent 2

2010-12-07T14:35:00.002-05:00

1 Thessalonians 5:12-28
Vv. 16-18: Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

I find these words at the same time comforting and daunting. They comfort in that they are something to aspire to, and they are "the will of God." They are daunting because I have never been able to get there. Always--without ceasing--in all circumstances. No matter how hard I try it just doesn't happen.

I think Paul would say, "Of course not." Our job is not to do these things, but to embrace that they are already being done in and through us. He will say as much in his letter to the Romans (8:26): Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.

Is it good for us to be joyful, grateful and praying always as much as we can? Absolutely. But even better for us to tap into the core of joy and gratitude and prayer that is God's life in us. That fire burns no matter what the circumstances of our lives.

Monday in Advent 2 (St. Nicholas)

2010-12-06T11:28:00.002-05:00

1 Thessalonians 5:1-11

Vv. 9-11 For God has destined us not for wrath but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep we may live with him. Therefore encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing.

It is nice to hear in this season of Advent where the message is "Keep awake!" "Be prepared!" Paul's encouragement "whether we are awake or asleep we may live with him." So I can get some sleep as well! I can, perhaps, let my guard down, because, as they say, Jesus always has my back.

So many non-church people I meet are so convinced that judgment and wrath are really the only things the church is about. I try to tell them the opposite, that Christianity is primarily about encouragement and joy. By and large they don't buy it. I'm not enough of a witness to break through years of belief that the opposite is true. And I find that most of these folks have found elsewhere to get the encouragement and joy they need. It is certainly possible to find it elsewhere, although we may legitimately question whether it will have the resilience to deal with the time of trial, including death.

We can only show folk like this that we mean what we say by the way we live our lives, of course, which means not hiding our light (our encouragement and joy) under a bushel basket. So who, during this season when we celebrate the light, needs a little of that light shown on them? Who among us, near us needs some encouragement, some joy? Let us be that for others as Christ is for us.

Collect for St. Nicholas' Day:

Almighty God, in your love you gave your servant Nicholas of Myra a perpetual name for deeds of kindness both on land and sea: Grant, we pray, that your Church may never cease to work for the happiness of children, the safety of sailors, the relief of the poor, and the help of those tossed by tempests of doubt or grief; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Saturday in Advent 1

2010-12-06T11:27:00.000-05:00

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

Vv. 13-14 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died.

Arguably, this may be the most important passage in the whole of the Bible about death. Clearly the Thessalonians were troubled by it. They mourned their dead. They were unsure what happened to them. At this point in time the pressing question was probably, “What happens to those who die before the Lord comes again?”

It’s important to note here that Paul does not say, “Do not grieve.” No one could ask that of us, although I have found over the years that many people try to stamp out grief as quickly as possible. “There, there. Don’t cry,” an aunt told 11 year old me when my grandmother died. She meant well, but I needed to cry (even more, I needed someone to talk to me, but that’s another story). We need to teach our children that grief is OK, sadness is OK. We also, of course, need to teach them about hope. There is a qualitative difference between grief with hope and grief without hope. That is what Paul is telling the Thessalonians.

While I’m on this topic let me say a word about closure (which, I know, many of you have heard about before from me). I do not believe in “closure,” in fact, I think it is a terrible thing to try to foist on someone. Obviously, because of our hope, our grief matures over time, and if it doesn’t we need to seek some help (in which there is no shame whatsoever). But one of the glories of Christian faith is that we don’t ever have to let go of relationship with anybody. We call it the communion of saints. Does our relationship change with someone after they have died? Of course. Does it end? Absolutely not. Is it OK to feel occasional sadness or grief even years after their death? Of course it is. I’m 49 years old and still occasionally shed a tear or two for my grandmother, whom I still miss very much. But I know she is still with me “with the angels and archangels and all the company of heaven” when we gather at the Altar. Therein lies my hope, which ever keeps me from despair.

Friday in Advent 1

2010-12-06T11:26:00.002-05:00

1 Thessalonians 4:1-12

V. 9 Now concerning love of the brothers and sisters, you do not need to have anyone write to you, for you yourselves have been [God-taught] to love one another.

I changed “taught by God” to “God-taught” in order to point out that Paul uses a very odd word here. In fact, most scholars believe3 he invented the word. In Greek the word is theodidaktoi, a compound word combining the Greek words for “God” and “to teach.” What did he mean by this?

It makes me think of a prophecy of Jeremiah, in chapter 34: “No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord.” This comes after God declares that he is about to make a new covenant with Israel, a covenant that writes the law on their hearts. It also makes me think of what Jesus says about the Spirit in John’s Gospel, chapter 16: “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth.” He says this after he declares that there are many things he cannot reveal to them yet.

All of us need to be taught, and not just when we are young. The process of learning from another, whether formally or informally, is essential to our continued growth as human beings, much less as Christians. But Jesus, in a sense, declared us all teachers, since each one of us has an equal share of the Spirit. Not all can give “head” knowledge, but all can teach in the spirit, out of our own relationship with and experience of God.

The Thessalonians have apparently asked a question about loving one another. We have no way of knowing what that question was. The answer, Paul says, is within and among you; you can know it, indeed you already know it, as you exercise the gift of God’s love. He does go on to give some advice, but he has first placed the authority for answering the question in the Thessalonian community.

Thursday in Advent 1

2010-12-06T11:26:00.001-05:00

1 Thessalonians 3:1-13

v. 13 And may he so strengthen your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.

The notion that I might have to be blameless when Jesus comes, or when I stand before God s judgment, scares the hell out of me. I don t think, by my own strength, that it s going to happen. be blameless, that is. And I ve only met a handful of people in my life who I thought stood a chance of actually doing it. In the past this led to notions that one had to die shriven, having made a last confession. To die unshriven meant either eternal torment in hell or a very long time in purgatory getting cleaned up.

Of course, the reality is that we cannot make ourselves blameless. Perfection is not something that human beings can do, and when they try they often end up doing damage to themselves or others. I take as my icon of the final judgment the parable in Luke that we heard a few weeks ago of the rich man and Lazarus. The rich man, who believes he is blameless before God is not justified, Jesus says. Lazarus, who knows he is not blameless and probably never will be, is.

If meeting God face to face means being reminded of all the ways I have fallen short I hope only that I remember the one thing I need to do, and it isn t try to explain myself or pretend that I was better than I was. What I need to do is point to Jesus, who will be there. He is my only hope. In relationship with him I am blameless and will be received as a beloved child come home.

Tuesday in Advent 1

2010-12-06T11:24:00.000-05:00

1 Thessalonians 2:1-12

v. 7b-8 But we were gentle among you, like a nurse tenderly caring for her own children. So deeply do we care for you that we are determined to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you have become very dear to us.

This is not the picture we often have in our minds of St. Paul. Most of us, if asked to describe him, would probably do so in much harsher language than this. We would certainly not use words like gentle, tender, and deeply caring. Yet clearly the side of Paul put forward here was a reality. And how does it change our mind about him if we think that it is this side of him that predominated? Personally, over the years I have become a great lover of St. Paul. I love him most for how he wears his heart on his sleeve, as he does in this passage. Of course, this tendency is more difficult in other passages, where he can, in fact, be quite harsh. We all have our moments. Clearly here he is dealing with a community for whom he has great affection.

I actually think this passage has something to do with evangelism. The model for how we evangelize an individual is not a sort of forensic, Tell them the gospel and let them decide where they stand. It is, rather, the deep caring of which Paul speaks, that offers first and foremost our own selves, that builds a relationship that both sides can say has been very dear to us. Then out of that relationship can come words of good news and an invitation into caring community. And then, if the invitation is taken, the relationship must continue, even deepen.

Among the people who are here in California working on the SCLM project is the Rev. Dr. Ellen Wondra, former priest associate at Two Saints. She sends her greetings and her deep affection. She is still in Evanston, where she moved in 2004 to teach at Seabury-Western. I have been trying to catch her up on Two Saints. It s a reminder of how much has happened in 6 years!

Today, November 30, is the Feast of St. Andrew the Apostle, brother of St. Peter, patron saint of Scotland. The Collect of the Day also speaks of evangelism:

Almighty God, who gave such grace to your apostle Andrew that he readily obeyed the call of your Son Jesus Christ, and brought his brother with him: Give us, who are called by your holy Word, grace to follow him without delay, and to bring those near to us into his gracious presence; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Monday in Advent 1

2010-12-06T11:18:00.001-05:00

1 Thessalonians 1:1-10

Vv. 2-3 We always give thanks to God for all of you and mention you in our prayers, constantly remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor or love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

As I read these words on the plane this morning I couldn't help but think of you, about whom I cam easily say these words. I was especially struck by the word "remembering." Memory is a powerful thing, one of God's greatest gifts. Here Paul treats it as a form of prayer, and perhaps it is fundamental to all prayer--and hope.

Remember me today and I'll remember you and together our memories will keep the fire of hope burning.

Ministries at Two Saints

2010-11-22T11:28:00.003-05:00

Michael Laver has assembled an excellent slide show of ministries at Two Saints...

https://docs.google.com/present/view?id=ddmbg7sh_233gbmjmpg2&autoStart=true&loop=true

What will ensure a future for Two Saints? Gratitude

2010-11-01T16:10:00.003-04:00

Sermon preached at the Church of St. Luke & St. Simon Cyrene on the 23rd Sunday after Pentecost, October 31, 2010: Luke 19:1-10

I don’t think I have ever used a sermon to help make preparation for the visitation of a bishop but, as they say, there’s a first time for everything. For a number of reasons I think this is an important visit, and my prayer is that it be a transforming one, both for us and for him.

What I want to do this morning is to stir up some anticipation, so that next Sunday is sort of like that day when Jesus entered Jericho. A crowd had come out to see him and Luke tells us the story of one man, named Zacchaeus, who was so full of anticipation and the desire to be with Jesus that he climbed a tree, which, being a man of some importance and wealth, is not the kind of thing he would normally have done, but he was short.

And then what happened? Somehow—we’re not told—Jesus knew who he was and noticed him in the tree. The chief tax collector of Jericho! Just the kind of guy Jesus seemed continually to seek out, this Jesus who was known as “a friend of tax collectors and sinners.” Indeed, Jesus says to him right off the bat—I will come and stay at your house today. All the religious people would have raised their eyebrows and stuck up their noses hearing that.

Zacchaeus comes down out of the tree and stands before Jesus. And, despite being in the midst of a now grumpy crowd, hostile to this tax collector they despised, Zacchaeus cannot wait to tell Jesus about his ministry. The text we heard says that Zacchaeus said, “I will give…I will pay back…” as if meeting Jesus has inspired him to do so. But in the Greek text the verbs are actually in the present tense, really “I am giving…I am paying… Something has already changed Zacchaeus’ life and he is eager to tell the Lord about it. And Jesus’ expresses his pleasure, “Salvation today has come to this house.”

My hope for next week is that you will do what Zacchaeus did, and show and tell the bishop your passion for God’s work in and through this community and its ministry. I hope you will tell him how it has changed your life, or how you have watched it change someone else’s life, and found yourself awed and grateful that you have been able to participate in it. There are stories like that in this parish and I want him to hear those stories. And he wants to hear them too. No polite Episcopalian chit chat. It’s not a day for chit chat.

Bishop Prince and I had some good time together on Thursday to plan for this visit. I have said to some of you in the past that it has not been clear to me what he thought about this parish or even, to be perfectly honest, me. I have been afraid that, in terms of me, he has been stuck on my bi-polar illness and, in terms of the parish, he has been unimpressed by how our average attendance and overall number of communicants has dropped the last couple of years, because I know he pays attention to that stuff.

I decided ahead of time that this was a make or break meeting and I was going to put all my cards on the table. I am happy to say he responded well to that kind of honesty. He affirmed my ministry in what I believe were sincere ways and he said he was committed to the future of Two Saints because he believes we are of strategic importance in the Episcopal Church’s ministry in the city.

I was able, then, to testify to him what this place means to me personally. It was an unlikely pairing, you and me; we were both taking a risk and the entry was not easy for either of us. But I have come to feel deeply, deeply loved by you and the feeling is mutual. Despite the challenges that face us, I am deeply committed to the future of this parish, largely because I have experienced the challenging and healing grace of God here and it has changed my life. That is a gift that others deserve to receive.

Those are the kinds of things I hope you will tell Bishop Prince and especially of your life-changing involvement in a ministry here and at St. Stephen’s. He knows the serious challenges of our present. I want him to feel our future.

Now this needs to be a stewardship sermon as well, since I will not be preaching the next two weeks and three weeks from today is our pledge ingathering. In a way, however, this has already been a stewardship sermon because it has been about commitment and gratitude. Stewardship is my commitment to make gratefulness to God the primary attitude by which I chose to see the world and act in it.

What that means is that stewardship is the way I try to live my life. It’s a word for my often feeble but I hope persistent attempt to follow Jesus. Stewardship is not about a pledge card to the church. It is about the choices I make from the time I open my eyes in the morning until the time I close them at night.

One of those decisions is, of course, what I pledge to this church. I make that decision as well as you. I know some of you do not like to pledge. In fact, last year 25% of the active households of this parish did not pledge. It is not one of our healthier numbers. If you don’t pledge, or haven’t for a few years, I ask you with all seriousness to consider doing so.

I ask you not for the sake of the church budget—although we sorely need it to have enough predictability to at least be fair to our employees. But forget about that. Here’s the bottom line: You need—we all need—for the good of our souls, to tell God that we will give to him first and hold ourselves accountable to it. That’s what making a pledge is. It is saying to God, I will not give you what’s left over after I have taken care of myself. That is not how you love me and choose me, so it is not how I am going to love you and choose you.

St. John says in his first letter

We love God, because God first loved us. (1 John 4:19)

I know it’s hard. It is not an easy time. I took a ten percent pay cut last year. I have bills and debts and stresses aplenty. I am not saving for my retirement at the rate I should be. But God and the community through which God comes to me again and again and again is going to keep coming first. It is the least I can do by way of saying thank you.

I have told the bishop and you how much I believe in the future of this parish. If you look at numbers and consider this building it looks very dicey, and, truth to tell, it probably is. What do we have at hand to make a future happen when many signs are to the contrary? Gratitude. Eucharist. Gratitude. That is how we will, in the words of St. Paul, “work out our salvation” (Philippians 2:12).

Next Sunday would be a perfect day for me if I could hear the bishop say as he is walking to the parking lot. “Those people do justice, and they are really grateful. They just might make it.”

Celtic Spirituality: A Pilgrimage to Iona

2010-10-25T17:50:00.003-04:00

Celtic Spirituality:
A Pilgrimage to Iona

The Rev. Michael W. Hopkins, June 2010

Poems, Prayers and Resources

Summer and its days long and slow

A herd of thick-maned horses

The beauty of the word which the Trinity speaks

Beautiful too when old age comes.

I should like a great lake of finest ale

For the King of kings

I should like a table of the choicest food

For the family of heaven

Let the ale be made from the fruits of faith

And the food be forgiving love.

I should welcome the poor to my feast,

For they are God’s children.

I should welcome the sick to my feast,

For they are God’s joy.

Let the poor sit with Jesus at the highest place,

And the sick dance with the angels.

God bless the poor,

God bless the sick;

And bless our human race.

God bless our food,

God bless our drink,

All homes, O God, embrace.

Bless to me, O God,

Each thing mine eye sees;

Bless to me, O God,

Each thing mine ear hears;

Bless to me, O God,

Each odor that goes to my nostrils;

Bless to me, O God,

Each taste that goes to my lips;

Each note that goes to my song,

Each ray that guides my way,

Each thing that I pursue,

Each lure that tempts my will,

The zeal that seeks my living soul,

The Three that seek my heart.

The zeal that seeks my living soul,

The Three that seek my heart.

The guarding of the God of life be upon me;

The guarding of loving Christ be upon me;

The guarding of the Holy Spirit be upon me;

Each step of the way,

To aid me and enfold me,

Each day and night of my life.

Resources

Esther De Waal, the Way of Celtic Prayer

J. Philip Newell, Listening to the Heartbeat of God: A Celtic Spirituality

Herbert O’Driscoll, The Road to Donaguile: A Celtic Spiritual Journey

Peter Tremayne, the Sister Fidelma Mystery Series

Iona Community: www.iona.org.uk

Iona: www.isle-of-iona.com

Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation: www.shalem.org

Wild Goose Publications: www.ionabooks.com

Rochester Monroe District Meeting Minutes

2010-10-18T17:27:00.002-04:00

October 6, 2010
St. George’s

Call to Order: The Rochester Monroe District meeting was called to order at 7:10 p.m. by Warden Bonnie Hallman-Dye with 72 people present. Attendance lists are with the secretary.

Welcome and Opening Prayer: The Rev. Rosemary Lillis welcomed the group and opened the meeting with prayer. Sarah Stoll gave an introduction to the ministries and activities of St. George.

Review Agenda and Minutes of May 20, 2010: The minutes were accepted as read.

Old Business: None

New Business: Members of the Diocesan staff presented information relevant to the Diocesan Convention.

Pre-Convention Agenda:

The Very Rev. Lance Robbins reviewed the tasks and responsibilities of convention delegates referencing the brochure included in the convention packets.
Bishop Prince Singh spoke to the convention theme of, “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.”
Kristy Estey reviewed the registration procedure and layout of the convention areas.
The Rev. Dr. Pete Peters described the workshops that would be offered.
The Rev. Canon Julie Cicora reviewed the worship that would be offered at the convention as well as the program for Friday evening.
The Rev. Deborah Brown, ObJN described the youth activities and the need for youth involvement in attending convention.
Canon Karen Noble Hanson reviewed the budget.
Jim Ernst outlined a number of initiatives around communication.
Warden Bonnie Hallman Dye referenced the materials regarding candidates for Diocesan Offices as well as the resolutions that would be presented at convention

Rochester Monroe District Agenda:

· Two clergy representatives to Diocesan Council were elected by voice vote. Rev. Lucy Alonzo was elected for the Rochester District. Rev Rosemary Lillis was elected for the Monroe District.

· The following Rochester Monroe District grant requests were approved for a total of $4,750.00

o Grace Church, Scottsville $750.00 for a food distribution program that supplies 15 to 24 meals per week with each bag feeding 2-3 people.

o St. Paul’s, Rochester $550.00 for RCSD tutoring program.

o Christ Church, Rochester $325.00 for International Jazz Festival support.

o St. Luke’s Fairport $450.00 for Strong Hospital NICU quilts.

o St. Thomas’, Rochester $800.00 for activities for at risk girls ages 7-9 of Girl Scout Troop 3003

o Church of the Ascension, Rochester $675.00 for Mary and Martha’s Cabinet providing personal care and home cleaning products in conjunction with MEEK.

o St. Stephen’s Rochester $700.00 for audio equipment.

o St Luke’s and St. Simon Cyrene $500.00 for the Spring Music Festival fund raiser for Right on School summer day camp.

Information Items and Announcements:

The Very Rev. Lance Robbins conducted a discussion the possible formation of district discernment groups. More information is needed.
Anti-Racism and Safe Church Training are now available on line.
The Very Rev. Cynthia Rasmussen presented the meeting schedule through May 2011. Rochester Monroe District meetings and locations are as follows:

Thursday , December 9, 2010 at Christ Church, Rochester
Thursday, February 10, 2011 at Christ Church, Pittsford
Thursday, May 12, 2011 at Ascension, Rochester

The Very Rev. Cynthia Rasmussen also suggested adding a book discussion of Paul Nixon’s I Refuse to lead a Dying Church. Books will be ordered through The Good Book Store. Each parish needs to let Cindy know the number of books they need. Chapters 1-3 would be discussed on December 9 and chapters 4-6 on February 10.
Epiphany Gates has a temporary email change: epiphanygates@frontiernet.net.
Incarnation is having a silent auction on October 22 in the Penfield HS cafeteria on Five Mile Line Rd. from 6:30 – 8:00 p.m.
St. Paul’s is offering an Advent Program on December 2, 2010

Compline: The Rev. Rosemary Lillis

Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 9:00 p.m.

Submitted by,

Sharon Del Vecchio Therkildsen
Rochester Monroe District Secretary

This Indestructible Life Together

2010-08-29T18:29:00.000-04:00

Sermon preached by the Rev. Michael W. Hopkins at the Eucharist celebrated in Thanksgiving for the life of the Rev. John Jason Harmon at the Church of St. Luke & St. Simon Cyrene on August 28, 2010: Isaiah 61:1-3; Ephesians 2:14-16 & 3:5-9; Luke 4:16-30

This is a day we have all known was coming sooner rather than later over the last eight months, although we all hoped in our heart of hearts that it would never happen. And for awhile John fed those hopes! His will to live was strong!

Why it was so strong, I believe, was the close attention of his family and friends. In particular hi daughters and their husbands: you literally gave him the life he had over these past few months, making his room at the Church Home a little home, getting him to Starbucks and Church, and just plain loving him. I cannot tell you how many times he said to me how grateful he was for you. I know he told you too. You are all wonderful!

Wonderful! It was one of his favorite words, at least in these last days. What a great word, wonderful. Full of wonder. John was that. I suspect he always was, but he certainly was over the last year. To be in his presence was such an ego boost, because in his presence you were wonderful! It was the kind of blessing we all need.

By any measurement John had a wonderful life. Not free from stress and pain and sorrow, but wonderful, nevertheless, full of wonder.

Wonder even at the evils he had experienced and, in some ways, had come to haunt his life. Over the summer I had the privilege of reading through his papers from approximately 1960-1970, the bulk of the years of his active ordained ministry. Near the end of this time he wrote an essay entitled, “Belsen and Roxbury.” “Belsen” is Bergen-Belsen, the Nazi concentration camp that John had helped liberate at the end of World War II. “Roxbury” had been home for the Harmon family for 18 years, including John’s time as Rector of St. John’s, Roxbury. In those days it was what was called a “ghetto.” John wrote:

It took me a long time to really bring Belsen and Roxbury together in such a way that a message comes through about the Gospel…In time, however, I came to a new understanding. Belsen was not atypical—German only—but prototypical; the German death camps were actually horrible demonstrations of a genocidal disease that is part of all history—yes, even the history of which I am a part. And concerning Roxbury—it became clear that this consistent persecution of human life was not the result of a system going unaccountably wrong, a human mistake repairable in time—but, quite simply, it was meant to be that way. Some of us in this country have to try hard to fail; others are just not permitted to succeed.

By “it was meant to be that way,” John didn’t mean by God. He meant by us. What John had discovered was that there was an insidious intentionality about poverty. He went on to say where God fit into this.

But now, I think, is a time for taking sides; as it has been before in our history. Indeed, it seems to me now, that God has always taken sides; that he has always been on the side of the persecuted and against those who oppress human fulfillment, whether it’s through cultural oppression or racial oppression or religious, or economic or political.

And I can’t help let him finish his thought.

So we have come, I think, to a time of explicit partisanship—partisan theology, partisan prayer, partisan reading of Scripture. Of every action, both corporate and personal, we have to ask bluntly and unequivocally: whose interests does this really serve? And if—as is so often the case—it primarily serves us, our survival, our well-being, then we must shift our course.[1]

Such a call for justice, for deep introspection and radical action may have been written forty years ago, but it is still written for today. And it is precisely what Jesus meant when he said, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing,” and also precisely why his fellow Nazarenes wanted to toss him off a cliff.

It may seem a long way from these passionate words to the gentle wondering of John over the last year. I don’t think so. Not at all. He was simply practicing what he preached in his individual relationships with us. To tell us we were wonderful was to take our side and assure us that God is there too. The good news was ever present in his life, and he wanted it to be ever present in the lives of those around him, especially people of color and gay and lesbian persons.

John ached for the day when he might see humankind realize and live out of what he considered to be God’s greatest gift to us—the fact that the dividing wall between us has already been broken down. The reading from Ephesians was a favorite of his and he came back to it again and again in his writings. In 1964 he wrote about this passage:

The central point is this: God has so fashioned his creation that existence is always, at every point, already mutual and interdependent. This is its primary character. This indestructible life together is the foundation of every moment and structure of life that exhibits the peace of God…[2]

“This indestructible life together.” It was and is Jesus’ vision. It was Paul’s vision. It was John Harmon’s vision.

My last time with John was a week before he died. Our conversation began with the war, as it often did. He told me the story of meeting a man named Edgar Romig at Princeton and then delighted in what he thought was the brand new revelation that I myself had known Edgar Romig, who was a priest colleague of mine in the Diocese of Washington. We reminisced about Edgar for quite some time, and we touched briefly on Belsen. We talked about his daughters and Nicky, and then Two Saints, a place that he thought was, of course, “wonderful” (and it is!).

Then it was time for Communion together, about which his eyes lit up and he had a little renewal in his energy. I read him what had been the second reading on the previous Sunday, from the 11^th chapter of Hebrews where the writer recalls the story of some of the great biblical heroes, and then says

All of these died in faith without having received the promises, but from a distance they saw and greeted them….Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; indeed, he has prepared a city for them. (Hebrews 11:13a, 16b)

I looked up. His eyes were wide. I said, “What do you think, John?” He said, “Wow!” If I had said a word in reply I would have lost it. We shared communion. I said, “Well I’d better go.”

He said, “One more thing.” Have you ever been to Firenze (Florence)? “No,” I said, “I haven’t.” “You must,” he said. “It is the most beautiful city in the world!” “I must take John there someday,” I said. “Promise me you will.” I laughed. “Promise!” he said. “I promise,” I said. “Soon,” he said. “Soon.”

John, like all his ancestors, had never seen the promise for which he dreamed and acted on this earth. But he kept the faith, which he described occasionally as “struggling to believe God.” He struggles no more and he has seen, I believe, a city more grand than his beloved Firenze, a city where no one is ashamed and everyone is truly bound in an indestructible life together.

Thank you, John, for giving us a taste of this life. Thank you God for enabling him to do so. That feeling we had when we were with him—it was the glory of God.

[1] Undated manuscript, “Belsen and Roxbury.” Copies of the Harmon papers can be found at the library of the Episcopal Divinity School, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
[2] “Remarks to a Seminar on Education,” January 30, 1964.

Holy Ground

2010-08-14T12:51:00.001-04:00

Several of you asked for the poem I used at the end of last Sunday's sermon. The full sermon (plus August 1's) is on my blog (go to the parish website and click Michael's Blog).

I will seek no longer for the burning bush;

All bushes are ablaze.

And I will not hasten to depart

From daily grief and gladness

To climb a holy mountain;

Every mountain now is sacred,

Each marketplace, and every home,

All, all are blessed

Since God has pitched a tent among us.

Now on earth are to be found

The footprints of the word made flesh

Who walked with us in wind and rain

And under sun and stars,

In joy and sorrow,

Born of Mary, watched over by Joseph,

Eating and drinking, living and loving.

Dying yet living, the Word is made flesh

And all the earth,

And each of us,

Is holy ground

Where we must slip our sandals off

And walk softly, filled with wonder.

JOIN US TO BELIEVE OUT LOUD!

2010-07-02T19:56:00.003-04:00

The Committee for Gay and Lesbian Ministry invites you to join them for Rochester's LGBT pride parade...

WHEN: SATURDAY, JULY 17, 2010

1 PM Decorate
2 PM Eucharist
3 PM Pride Parade

WHERE: D-HOUSE and the PARK AVE neighborhood.

WHY: Show the world you BELIEVE OUT LOUD that we are all GOD’S BELOVED!

This year’s Pride Parade Celebrates the History of LGBT Inclusion, and the Diocese of Rochester has been leading the way for almost 40 years. Starting with Bishop Spears and carried on by Canon Walt Szymanski, Bishop Burrill, Bishop McKelvey and now under the leadership of Bishop Singh we have led the way.

This year we will once again march and Bishop Singh will join us! Everyone is welcome to help us show that the Episcopal Church Welcomes EVERYONE.

We will gather to decorate at 1 PM at the Diocesan House parking lot (935 East Ave). At 2 PM we will walk to Buckingham Street where we will celebrate a street Eucharist and at 3 PM march down Park Ave and Goodman to end at the Village Gate.

There will be signs to identify our congregations, t-shirts that will be available at a reasonable cost and lots of happy people. Join us for any part or all of the event.

EVERYONE IS WELCOME WHO WANTS TO HELP SEND OUT THE GOOD NEWS:

In the Episcopal Diocese of Rochester
WE BELIEVE OUT LOUD!

RSVP at http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=135039249854652