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Lent; Yr. C, March 10, 2013
Joshua
5:9-12; Psalm 32; 2 Corinthians 5:16-21; Luke 15:11b-32
Sermon
preached at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church
Almost two weeks ago, Charlie,
Bonnie, David and I presented at a meeting of the Congregational Development
Partnership Committee, CDPC for short.
Charlie did a fabulous job of putting together the presentation. First, he told everyone a little about our
history. He talked about our financial
situation and building, how we have worked to maintain it and the asset it is
to us. Then David talked about the many
ministries going on here, in and through our building, as a result of this
congregation’s presence in the city.
It was a wonderful story to watch unfold, a story that they had never
heard. Bonnie had the job of explaining
how we’ve been able to do all we’ve done with our often tenuous
financial status. Here’s how Charlie articulated it for
us.
We’ve done it:
·
With a committed core of faithful Episcopalians
willing to accept the risks and rewards that come from heeding Jesus’
proclamation that the “Lord will provide”
·
With the support and encouragement of clergy who
are willing to walk in the footsteps of the Lord
·
With the support and engagement of our partners
in faith in the community that we serve, many of whom make monthly payments to
help support the cost of the building.
·
With a covenant relationship with St. Luke &
St. Simon Cyrene Church that allows us to share in worship, fellowship and
mission in the city
·
With financial support of the Diocese
This was a powerful statement of
faith.
After
we finished our formal presentation, we spent about forty-five minutes in
conversation with the committee. They
asked a lot of questions and we did our best to answer them. One of the best lines came from Bonnie, in
response to a question about whether we had any idea what kind of fund raiser
we were going to do to raise the $1,000 that is projected in our 2013 budget. The four of us looked at one another, and
shook our heads. I laughed and said, “no
idea.” “Typically someone has an idea
and we do a dinner or something like that and it ends up bringing in about
$1,000”, Charlie offered. Then Bonnie
chimed in. “We’ve had a deficit budget
almost every year I’ve been a member at St. Stephen’s, and it always seems to
work out. We don’t always know how, but
it does.” She stopped for a moment and
then said, “Well, I don’t think God really started the fire.” Everyone looked up as she continued, “but
several years ago a church in the neighborhood had a fire and they needed a place to hold services, so they rented
space from us. It balanced our budget.” God provides.
Our
history is not unlike that of the Israelites.
The Israelites wandered for forty years.
They underwent circumcision together and healed from those wounds as a
community. They learned what it was to
walk in faith, depending on manna from heaven to appear every morning and water
to be brought forth from stone. They
knew what it was to create sacred spaces and to walk on holy ground, to thrive in
the desert where they were planted. And
when the time was right, they were be ready to live as a faithful people in
that promised land.
With Joshua at
Gilgal, they eat the Passover meal and for the first time, they ate from the
land. God has rolled away from them the disgrace of Egypt. No longer were they slaves. They had made the
journey. They were free people, freed
for God.
We have also been made free. We have also made a journey together. Haven’t we known pain and struggle? Haven’t we lived through the anxiety of the
possibility of death? Didn’t this parish make the decision to
stay when you could have fled? Didn’t you make the decision to spend your
endowment for the sake of inclusion and God’s work? Didn’t you consciously put your future
into the hands of God and trust in manna, perhaps wondering what might arrive
to fill the gap, or cover a deficit? Weren’t you the ones who were often
surprised by possibilities that could never have been imagined before they
appeared? Living in faithful expectation
of the abundance that God can provide, remembering that God’s compassion is far greater than our
own? Yes, you are.
I don’t think God caused the fire either,
but God was in that. God is the master
of transformation. God takes an
impulsive young man, who runs through his inheritance like water through a
sieve, and leads him back home. God
takes a potentially troubled reunion and turns it into a party.
One church burns, and another opens
its doors to them. A new church is
built, and another is saved from closing its doors. God takes strangers and makes them
neighbors. Life out of death is God’s specialty. Believe it or not, there are some who would
have chosen death rather than welcome those from a different church into their
worship space. St. Stephen’s has been willing to risk; willing
to learn from mistakes and failures; willing to believe in God’s unwavering love and abundance. In fact, we’ve counted on it.
We have been planted in an abundant
field. We can survive off of the produce
of this land, but it might mean thinking a little differently than we have in
the past. This is a neighborhood filled
with passion. People with a passion for
preserving the white church down the street, with passion for the return of
School 16 to Post Avenue, with passion for creating historic districts in the
SW that could benefit homeowners and draw people to our neighborhoods, with passion
for the education of our young people, with passion for the families of those who
are incarcerated. It’s all here …within a few miles of our church
home. New journeys to take in faith.
Joshua and the Israelites are
standing ready to enter into a new life.
The prodigal son and his father are reunited. Their lives are beginning anew. We stand on the shoulders of those from St.
Stephen’s who have gone before us.
Every generation has stood at the threshold of a new day looking across
at the promised land and wondering if they would ever reach it. Bonnie loves to tell the story of one annual
meeting, when the treasurer stood before the congregation and said, “I think we finally got this turkey
turned around.” Meaning, our
financial worries are finally over!
Truth is, I think there will always be financial hurdles to challenge
us, because this church believes in mission.
Our history shows that we do not hoard our wealth, St. Stephen’s uses it, not foolishly like the
young son, but thoughtfully, intentionally.
I don’t know what the CDPC will decide
about our application. We have done what
we could. The story we told was
true. It was an honest and clear picture
of who we are and where we stand. They
have nine other churches to listen to.
Like us, each of them has a story.
Each of them stands at the river entering into a new process. God is with them. God is with us. God is there calling us forward in hope. We cannot see the future, but that’s okay. Do not be afraid. Trust in God. Denise Levertov writes[1],
As swimmers dare
to lie
face to the sky
and water bears them,
as hawks rest upon air
and air sustains them,
so would I learn to
attain
free fall,
and float
into Creator
Spirit's deep embrace,
knowing no effort earns
that all-surrounding
grace.
We are freed for God by Christ’s love.
Amen.
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