August 14, 2016 (full size gallery)
Catherine was away on a silent retreat so she invited our new regional deacon Ed Jones to preach today and Elizabeth Heimbach to be the officiant. Ed is well known as a newspaper editor for 48 years and his work in the church both at St. George’s and on the region and diocesan level. He is currently working as secretary of the Diocese of Virginia. He is also a deacon who has served St. Mary’s Colonial beach and has been promoted to regional deacon for Region One. This is a new position and we were the first to take advantage of this capacity.
We had 32. Ed brought his wife Peggy. Eunice was the lector and Elizabeth was the officiant during the Morning Prayer service. The weather has been hot for the last 3 days, with the heat index reading 100+.
In church news, the six Angel corbels have been renovated. See this story
Also undergoing work is the Parish House. The Parish House has been painted at one coat in the back. They fixed 2 sills in the back which were not stable and one on the side needs to be fixed. The carpenter is coming next week for repairs on the river side. The sign in the front of the church is down to be taken to Richmond for repairs since the lettering has been deteriorating.
The readings for this Sunday have Jesus demanding an active role in God’s kingdom from his disciples, not a passive role. Our reading from Hebrews describes this active perseverance through the description of the lives of the "great cloud of witnesses."
This is not easy. The readings recognize a connection between speaking out for God and making enemies. In Jeremiah , God denounces those false prophets who tell lies in God’s name. The author of Hebrews urges believers to accept hardship as a divine aid to discipline. There are no guarantees that the faithful will thrive. They may be the objects of persecution and violence, but even in adverse situations, their hearts and minds are focused on God’s realm. This may minimize the emotional impact of persecution. Jesus warns that his ministry will bring a time of spiritual crisis.
Jesus encourages us to live into the truth, even in the face of division. This doesn’t mean to live in a state of self-righteousness but rather in the grace of his love for all people at all times, putting value on human relationships over the value of the demands of cultural "gods." This can cause conflict because it is cultural folly, a stumbling block to the worldly wise creating even more pressure to conform or to be "relevant."
Relevance is not the goal when the present culture is counter to God’s will for the world. Focusing on "being relevant" is passive and continues to sweep down the cultural stream watering down the liberation of the Gospel in our lives. Jesus wants us to live boldly in faith speaking the truth in love, counter to the culture that robs us and the world of the abundance of life found in his unconditional love.
But don’t be confused. Jesus is not urging us to be irrelevant, either. Jesus is urging us to stand in the fire in the face of conflict and division, listening and responding with grace that is counter to cultural values but relevant to the lives of those we encounter.
There is another division that Jesus brings, too. That is the internal division within our own hearts. It is the purifying flame that separates us from those things that keep us from living into God’s kingdom presence now. This purifying division within us gives us strength to be better stewards of our resources utilizing them for God’s kingdom benefit in the world.
The Gospel points to a large question – What does the Holy Fire need to burn and divide out of your heart for you to live more completely into God’s kingdom now?
Ed’s sermon made the following points:
1 Jesus calls us to love one another no matter what we do. Jesus was called to fix relationships between God and God’s people and change the world. We have to continue that work. He quoted Bishop Curry – to transform the nightmare that we often face in this work to the dream that God intended it to be. We have to witness the Gospel in difficult situations. He quoted Mary Thorpe at the Diocese in that broken relationships are like broken porcelain tea cups – you need the right glue.
He recalled Kate Braestrup at St. George’s who was chaplain to the game wardens in Maine. There was a situation where a shooter had killed people. She was there and saw them bringing out the body bags. The killer was also killed but she specifically went to his bag, touched it and prayed for his soul. She was not condoning violence but doing Jesus mission. That may not have been the popular thing to do.
2 Ed lamented the current world, a time of division between people, political polarization where we are having difficult communicating There is a greater sense of urgency to witness to the world. Jesus found a similar thing in dealing with status quos in his time in trying to create a new world order. Jesus message was to work not by might but by forgiveness, not fear but courage, not by power but humility.
3 Two points that he stressed –
A. There is a big difference between being comforted and being comfortable. We come to church to be spiritually refueled through prayer and communion. It is God’s refueling station to take our work into the world. This is our launch pad for a greater sense of work to be done. We are just starting here.
B. He reaffirmed that Christianity is radical – it’s all about change and that is radical. The mission is simple – love God and love our neighbors all of them not some of them, even those who have done terrible things or we don’t agree politically. He quoted Bishop Shannon who said agreement is over rated. We can learn the most from those who are different with us
4 In summary he read a passage from Martin Luther King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail
"There was a time when the church was very powerful–in the time when the early Christians rejoiced at being deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society…
"But the judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If today’s church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century. Every day I /meet young people whose disappointment with the church has turned into outright disgust."