I always have to smile when I hear our First Lesson today from the Acts of the Apostles. I smile because, 24 years ago, this was the weekend when the Diocese of Iowa met in Convention to elect their 8^th Bishop. I was one of four finalists and, during the week, I had awaited Saturday’s phone call from Convention with real anticipation and no little anxiety, I can tell you!

 Of course, I had to prepare a sermon for that Sunday in my parish, St. Mark’s inCocoa,Florida. And what Lesson confronted me when I started the preparation, but our First Lesson today — The story of those early Apostles selecting a new member to join their ranks and replace the traitor, Judas. They discussed the matter and prayed, and finally “cast lots” (rolled the dice!)… and the text says, “The lot fell on Matthias.” Of course, there were two candidates in that selection process, Matthias and a man called Joseph Barsabbas, also known as Justus.

 We know that Matthias went on to become an Apostle and tradition says that he was eventually martyred for his faith. We don’t know anything about what happened to poor old Justus. But, as I prepared my sermon for that Sunday, trying to ready myself (and my congregation) for whatever might happen in Iowa’s election, I sort of felt like both of those early Christians. So I actually prepared two sermons – one from the perspective of Matthias (the “winner” in that apostolic election) and one from the point of view of Justus (the supposed “loser!).

 Fortunately, I was able to preach the Matthias sermon because I was elected Bishop of Iowa on the fourth ballot. But what I had come to understand was, it was going to be OK either way! If I was elected, if the “lot fell on me” I was off to a new adventure in ministry. If someone else was elected I got to stay in a wonderful parish with people I had come to know and love over the last nine years, and stay in the diocese I grew up in and in which I had so many friends and colleagues. I kept thinking of the words of Julian of Norwich (a 14^th century English mystic) – “All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things, shall be well!”

 I’m not sure those earliest Christians, written about in the Book of Acts, would have that same confidence during the time we are observing in the Church Calendar today. Last Thursday was the Feast of the Ascension, the day on which Jesus’ physical presence was withdrawn from the apostles. He had told them to return toJerusalemand to wait for a new gift he was going to give them. He had prayed for them in the words of today’s Gospel, he had promised them that new gift, but they had almost no idea what he was talking about.

 It would only be on the Day of Pentecost (which we will celebrate next Sunday) that they would receive the Gift of the Holy Spirit and be transformed from timid, frightened followers of Jesus into bold and committed Apostles who were to take the message of Jesus all over the Mediterranean world! But, on a day like today – poised between Ascension and Pentecost – they must have wondered if all things would indeed “be well” for them…and for the Church.

 That sort of sounds like the position many of us are in today in The Episcopal Church. We are Christians at a time in history facing enormous change. And we don’t know quite what to expect. A scholar named Phyllis Tickle has written a book called “The Great Emergence” in which she points out that historically, about every 500 years, the Church has undergone a huge, transformative change — Change which unsettled everyone and shook the faith of many as to whether the future of the Church was secure or not.

 In roughly the year 500 Europewas entering the so-called Dark Ages when many would wonder if even Western civilization, let alone the Christian Church, would survive. Five hundred years later, in the year 1052 the Eastern Orthodox Churches split away from the Roman Catholic Church in what came to be known as “The Great Schism.” And in the 16^th century, 500 years later,  the Catholic Church itself blew apart as Protestant Christianity was born in the Reformation. Many believe we are in a similar situation today.

 Old certainties are being challenged. New perspectives and approaches are confronting us. And we’re not quite sure what the future will bring. Lest you think this is only happening in The Episcopal Church, let me assure you (as one who spent nearly a decade as ecumenical officer, working with Roman Catholics, the Orthodox, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Methodists and many others), exactly the same thing is happening to them. So…what do we do?

 Well, I’ve always loved the image in today’s Psalm. The Psalmist is trying to describe the people of God as opposed to “the wicked” who he says, “will not stand upright when judgment comes…(for) the way of the wicked is doomed.” (Psalm 1:5-6). God’s people, on the other hand, “are like trees planted by streams of water, bearing fruit in due season, with leaves that do not wither; everything they do shall prosper.” (Psalm 1:3).

 The Psalmist is saying that we need to be like trees, planted along a rushing brook. Our roots need to go deep and be well grounded. But our branches and leaves need to be green and flexible, to be able to sway in the breeze and turn toward the sun. In a time of rapid change like this, as Christians, we need to be even more deeply committed to the basics of our faith, and to our spiritual disciplines of daily prayer and Bible study, weekly Eucharist, and perhaps an annual retreat or experience of ongoing adult education in our Christian faith.

 Deeply rooted, firmly planted, we can then afford to be open and flexible about what God may be doing in the life of the Church. Not every new development or trend is of God, certainly, but our God is a God of change and a God of the future, so we need to be open to what that God may be doing in our day. Very few of us find change easy. But it is also true to say that whatever is not growing and changing is probably in the process of dying.

 But our confidence is this: Jesus promised us that the gates of hell will not prevail against his church. And our Gospel today reminds us that he is continuing to pray for us. He says, “I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours…Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one…As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sakes, I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.”

 That’s what Jesus prayed for the Apostles. That’s what he is praying for us. And that is why we can be confident along with Julian of Norwich that “all shall be well…all shall be well…and all manner of things…shall be well!”

 You have probably heard that the Greeks had at least three ways to describe love – Eros is used when referring to romantic or sexual love. Philia is used when referring to friendship or sisterly/brotherly love. But when Agape is used it is describing the kind of love God has for us. The essence of Agape love is self-sacrifice. Agape is love which is of God and from God; the God whose very nature is love.

 The simplest, and perhaps clearest, definition of God comes from the author of our Epistle today, but in another part of his First Letter. In chapter 4, verse 8,St. John says simply “God is love.” And, once again, the Greek word he wrote, and which we translate into English as love, is Agape. What John is saying there is that God does not merely love; God is love itself. Everything God does flows from love.

 But it’s not a sappy, sentimental kind of love like we often hear portrayed. God loves because it is God’s very nature and the expression of God’s being. God loves the unlovable and the unlovely – us! – not because we deserve to be loved but because it is God’s very nature to do so.

Our Lessons today are very clear about how this works. In the Gospel Jesus says, “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love.” (John 15:9)

 The love that flows from God’s very nature was experienced by Jesus. He loved his disciples with that kind of unselfish love. And he encourages them to abide in that love; to remain in that love. More than that, he tells them “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” So they are not only to love Jesus, they are to love one another. And how are they to love? With the same kind of self-sacrificing love that Jesus had for them. “No one has greater love than this,” Jesus said, “to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

 On Thursday May 3, a priest and a staff person at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church inEllicott City,Maryland, were doing what they did nearly every day. They were involved in feeding the homeless poor from their church’s food pantry. Apparently they had to tell a 56 year old man named Douglas Jones that he would have to limit his visits to the food pantry because he had been there so often and they had to make sure they had enough to feed others as well.

 The man became belligerent when told that. He produced a handgun, shot and killed the parish administrator, Brenda Brewington, pivoted and fired at the priest, Mary-Marguerite Kohn (who later died of her injuries in the local hospital), and finally turned the gun on himself in the woods nearby. The parish, the Diocese of Maryland, and indeed all of us in The Episcopal Church who heard about this over the internet, on Facebook, and in the news, were simply stunned by it.

All of us who have been engaged over the years, in ministry to the least and the lost, the poor and the mentally unstable, know – in our heart of hearts – that this kind of thing can happen at any moment. And yet, still the shock is there.

Last Sunday, Fr. Kirk Kubicek preached these words from St. Peter’s pulpit to a grieving congregation: “Brenda and Mary-Marguerite were doing the Lord’s work. They were serving the Lord directly. ‘When I was hungry, you fed me.’ Like every day of the week, Brenda was leading a profoundly hungry person to the Food Pantry. In a matter of just a few moments it was all over. We will never understand it. We will never understand it no matter how many reports come out of the Howard County Police Department, who have served us all faithfully and well, we will never understand it.”

 “But we do understand this. We come from love, we return to love, and love is all around us. Brenda and Mary-Marguerite have returned home. They have returned to the heart of Love, the eternal center of God’s very Being. Their time with us magnified the sense of God’s love being all around us every moment we spent in their presence…and now they have returned home to the heart of God’s love…..”

 “…We come from love, we return to love, and love is all around us. If we want to know what ‘love all around’ looks like,” said Fr. Kubicek, “just look around. As I look back over the events of the past few days, I see a people who came together Thursday and Friday nights to affirm our faith in the Risen Christ.”

 “I see a diocese that stops its business and takes the time to pray and reflect on our mutual trauma and loss. I see an avalanche of messages from all around the world offering prayers and support on our St. Peter’s Facebook page. I see a community of people called St. Peter’s who know what it means to surround one another with love.  And I still see two women who were and continue to be exemplars to us of what it means to abide with Christ…”  

 Actually, I learned on Friday that the Diocese of Maryland has offered forgiveness and even to conduct a funeral service for Douglas Jones believing that this homeless man, was, in some ways, as much a victim as anyone else. Bishop Sutton cited the example of that wonderful Amish community inPennsylvaniawho, a few years ago, forgave the man who fatally shot five school girls in 2006.

 No dear friends, the Agape love which you and I – as Christians – are called to share is not some sappy, sentimental kind of love we so often hear portrayed. The essence of Agape love is self-sacrifice. The kind of love we see – most clearly – on the Cross. But which we also, so often, see in some followers of the Crucified One.  Hear again some words from this morning’s Gospel. Familiar words. But this time, try to hear them as the friends and fellow parishioners at St. Peter’s Church will hear them this morning. Hear them through the experience of Brenda…and Mary Marguerite:

 Jesus said to his disciples, “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love…this is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for ones’ friends…”

 I know a lot of people today who have trouble with this “good shepherd image.” First of all, it can be a little “schmaltzy.” The first parish I served inCentral Floridahad a so-called “Good Shepherd” window over the high altar. It was a poorly done, contemporary piece and members of my youth group used to say that it depicted sheep “with eyes like a man!” Now, there are some wonderful artistic representations of “the Good Shepherd” – but for every one of those there are hundreds of schmaltzy ones. And I’ll bet you’ve seen a few!

 Secondly, most of us have little experience with real sheep or real shepherds in our day. We don’t know, firsthand, the difficulty of the job or the dangers they faced in Jesus’ time…and, in some places, still do. But, finally, most of us just don’t particularly like to see ourselves as sheep! They may look pretty cute and cuddly from a distance, but if you’ve ever been near a flock, you don’t want to inhale too deeply! And suffice it to say, if there were IQ tests for animals, the sheep would not be among the brightest bulbs in the batch!

 So, how do we redeem this “Good Shepherd image?” Well, visiting here at St. Benedict’s this morning, I couldn’t help but think of your patron saint as another model of a “good shepherd” who is at least a little closer in time and space to us today, particularly through his legacy. I’m sure you’ve heard your share of sermons on the life of Benedict, belonging as you do to this parish, and you know that he lived in the sixth century and is sometimes called “the Father of Western Monasticism.” Benedict’s disciples founded monasteries all overEuropewhich became centers of learning, health care, justice, and the arts.

 Benedict is also the patron saint ofEuropebecause some would argue that those monasteries helped preserve Western Civilization through the so-called Dark Ages. The “Rule of St Benedict” which he wrote to give gentle guidance to his monks and nuns established the foundation for modern human rights because in these communities, each person was to be treated with respect and honor and dignity. These monasteries valued learning, good manners, discipline and self respect.

 As Christians in the Anglican tradition, we are almost unconscious heirs of this Benedictine tradition because so many of our cathedrals and parish churches in England are built quite literally upon the foundation of ancient Benedictine monasteries and the spirituality fostered there has crept into our generous, liturgical, common sense, “via media” way of living out the Christian life. Anglicans really are “Benedictine” in our core.

 Trying to be a good shepherd to his flock as Jesus was, St. Benedict devised a fairly simple, eminently practical Rule for his monks and nuns to live by – at least by the standards of other religious orders of his time in history which were pretty strict. The modern day monks of the Episcopal Society of St. John the Evangelist in Cambridge MA have actually written a contemporary commentary on that ancient Rule, explaining how Benedict’s principles can be a guide, really, for any Christian community today – from a family to a parish church to a diocese and beyond. It’s a beautifully written series of meditations on the Rule.

 The three distinctive vows taken by Benedictine monastics are actually something I’d like to commend to our confirmands today…and really to all of us who are renewing our baptismal covenant on this occasion. In Latin these vows are “stabilitas”…”obedientia”…and “conversio morum.” And, in English – stability…obedience…and conversion of life.

 Stability means being rooted and grounded. The Benedictine monk or nun promises to stay committed to his or her monastic community for life. We need that kind of commitment in this fast changing society and world today. We need that kind of commitment in our marriages…in our parishes….and in our denominations. It often seems these days that very few people are willing to persevere. When things get rough, people bail out. So many today seem to be on a constant search for the flawless partner or the ideal church or the perfect denomination – as if any of these things exist! Stability means that we find God and happiness right where we are, and that we don’t always have dash around after every trend or fashion or new idea.

 Obedience is a word most of us aren’t very fond of either! But the root of the word “obey’ means simply “to listen.” True obedience means listening to others and responding to their needs. The obedient person is always alert to the spoken and unspoken needs of those around them. Obedience builds peace and understanding in communities. We need to listen to God, listen to the Scriptures, and listen deeply to the voice of the Holy Spirit within us and listen to each other. That’s really what it means to be obedient in the Benedictine sense.

 And, finally, conversion of life. This is not the same thing as a dramatic religious conversion like Paul had on the way toDamascus. It’s a way of looking at life that is creative, hopeful, and positive. The person who seeks conversion of life is always looking for a new way to see life. It sees possibilities, not problems and is always seeking to convert the difficulties of life into opportunities for growth. (By the way, I found those definitions in a fine article by Dwight Longenecker entitled “Benedict the Balanced.” He provides a way to live a balanced, and holy, life.)

 So, stability…obedience…conversion of life. Three ways through which St. Benedict sought to be a good shepherd to his people. (1)To be rooted and grounded and committed in our relationships. (2)To listen to God and to the needs of God’s people around us. (3) And always to look for possibilities, not problems.

 I think that’s what a Good Shepherd looks like today. Surely Jesus of Nazareth exhibited all of these qualities in his life. Let me offer once again our Collect for today with special intention that we may begin to live these vows in our lives as well. Let us pray: “O God, whose Son Jesus is the good shepherd of your people: Grant that when we hear his voice, we may know him, who calls us each by name, and follow where he leads; who with you and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.”

It’s a joy to be with all of you today at St. Michael and All Angels! Two verses from today’s Gospel reading: “But Thomas (who was called the Twin) one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, ‘We have seen the Lord.’ But he said to them, ‘Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”

 So, as this morning’s Gospel reading reminds us,St. Thomas– the Apostle – had a problem with Easter! He had a problem believing, and relating to the fact, that Jesus had been raised from the dead. And I suspect that some of you, if you are honest, also have a problem with Easter. You too may have a problem believing, and relating to the fact, that Jesus has been raised from the dead.

 And that’s understandable! It’s easy to understand why many people have a problem with Easter. First of all, like Thomas, we often see Easter from the wrong side. We’re on the “outside” looking in, so to speak. We see, first of all, the deep darkness of the Empty Tomb. We experience the Absence of Christ, before we experience his Presence. Thomas missed the apostles’ first encounter with the Risen Christ because he wasn’t “in church” that Sunday! He wasn’t with the rest of the apostles when Jesus appeared to them.

 We don’t know why Thomas wasn’t there on Easter evening, but he wasn’t and so he missed the encounter. He was on the outside, looking in. And it’s very difficult to understand something you haven’t personally encountered. It’s the same with us. If you’re not part of the Christian community, it’s pretty difficult to understand what Christians are talking about with respect to Easter and the Resurrection.

 Secondly, we may have no personal experience to tie Easter to. It’s easy to relate to Christmas – everybody loves babies…and birthdays! We can relate to the birth of Jesus. And we can relate to Ash Wednesday and Lent because, deep down, we all know that we are sinners and that we stand in need of repentance and forgiveness. Our Jewish brothers and sisters explore similar themes on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. Muslims do something similar during Ramadan. And so do many other religions.

 We can understand, and relate to, Good Friday, because most of us have experienced death. The death of a parent or grandparent or loved one…even a beloved pet. We know something about death and loss. We’ve experienced it. But Resurrection! Only Jesus has experienced that, and come back to tell us about it.

 So, because so many people – likeSt. Thomas– have a problem with Easter, we sometimes trivialize it. Because we have a hard time relating to Easter, we surround it with something familiar, something predictable – like the cycles of nature…and flowers…and eggs…and springtime…and, God help us, the Easter bunny! A chocolate Easter bunny, no doubt!

 And yet, you know, there is an experience that each of us had had that relates to Easter. It’s called – Birth! It’s called “being born.”

 Jesus’ tomb was a dark, confined space from which – Scripture tells us – he was expelled by a Force quite beyond his control. That’s why we really shouldn’t say “Jesus rose from the dead” but should say instead, “Jesus was raised from the dead.” Jesus didn’t raise himself. It was God the Father – by the power of the Holy Spirit – who raised the dead and buried Jesus from the tomb, from that dark and confined space. A Force quite beyond his control.

 But our mother’s womb was also a dark and confined space from which you and I were expelled, long ago,  by forces quite beyond our control as well! And the life we experienced right after being born must have been about as different from the life we experienced in the womb as the Risen Life Jesus experienced on the other side of the grave must have been. The womb and the tomb… Birth and Resurrection…are similar experiences.

 I think that’s where all that talk in the New Testament about being “born again” comes from. Becoming a Christian, and accepting the Resurrection of Jesus, is in fact like being “born again!”

It’s what our Collect, or Prayer for Today, was getting at: We prayed, “Almighty and everlasting God, who in the Paschal mystery established the new covenant of reconciliation: Grant that all who have been REBORN into the fellowship of Christ’s Body may show forth in their lives what they profess by their faith…”

 You and I have been born from the womb of our mothers, where we were sustained by embryonic water and nurtured by her own body and blood which we shared. We have also been re-born through baptismal water and are now nurtured by the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist which we share with one another. One day, we shall be born yet again from the darkness of death into the Risen Life of God which we will also share. Our personal Easter is being born into the Presence of God whom we cannot see now, but one day will see – face to face! As Jesus said to Thomas, “Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet have come to believe.”

 I hope that you who are to be confirmed today have come to the point in your lives where you believe that. I hope all of you have come to believe in the Resurrection this Easter. For the Easter miracle is, in some ways, no more miraculous – and no less miraculous – than the miracle of birth and life itself. And, because of Easter, life has triumphed over death for ever!

 There was a 20^th century Welsh poet named Dylan Thomas who once wrote a poem about death which stated that we should not “go gently into that good night”…that we should rage against it as against “the dying of the light.” We know that is not true. And that, when our time comes, we can indeed “go gently into that good night” for it is not the Dying but the dawning of the Light.

 I hope you have come to believe that this Easter. And my prayer for you comes in the form of an Easter Blessing, written by David Adams:

 The Lord of the empty tomb

The conqueror of gloom

Come to you

 The Lord in the garden walking

The Lord to Mary talking

Come to you

 The Lord in the Upper Room

Dispelling fear and doom

Come to you

 The Lord on the road to Emmaus

The Lord giving hope to Thomas\

Come to you

 The Lord appearing on the shore

Giving us life for ever more

Come to you

 FOR, THE LORD IS RISEN! HE IS RISEN INDEED! ALLELUIA!

 First of all, she was a young person. Most scholars think she may have been sixteen years old or so when all this began to happen to her. Adolescence and young adulthood are formative times for us, as we grow up. A time of differentiating ourselves from our families of origin, thinking about what we will do with our lives, beginning to see ourselves in relationship with the wider world. That’s why our ministry to, and with, young people is so important in the life of the Church.

Lots of people make their decisions about a life of faith during those teenage or college age years and the Episcopal Church – for reasons I’ll mention later – is well positioned to be there for those young people at that critical time in their lives. That’s why it’s so important to incorporate our young people, as best we can, into the life of the parish. Listen to their hopes and dreams and expectations of the Church. And try to include them in decisions which may affect our church’s future.

The second thing to note about Mary’s story is that God initiated the relationship with her. Luke’s Gospel tells us that “in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town inGalilee calledNazareth…and he came to her and said ‘Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.’” (Luke 1:26, 28). Although we sometimes talk about ourselves as “seeking God” or “finding God,” it’s really more accurate to say that God is seeking, or looking for, us. God finds us rather than us finding God.

 Our seeking or finding God really has more to do with opening ourselves to recognize that God is already there, and always has been, than it is “discovering” a God who somehow prefers to be hidden. One of our intercessory prayers in the Prayer Book tries to hold this process together when we “…ask your prayers for all who seek God, or a deeper knowledge of him. Pray that they may find and be found by him.” God is always the initiator of the relationship!

 But Mary, like many of us, did not come into a relationship with God easily, or without struggle. The text says that “…she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.” (1:29). There must have even been some fear there because the angel says, “Do not be afraid, Mary…” (1:30). Fear is not an uncommon response when we first start thinking about coming into a relationship with God.

 Who is this awesome Creator of the universe? What is this God like? What does God want of me? Will I be worthy? Am I going to be asked to do something “holy” (like, become a missionary or something?) Am I going to have to change the way I live my life? Am I going to become weird? Some kind of “religious fanatic?”

 Well, Mary is indeed asked to do something great for God. But first she is assured that she is perfectly acceptable to God “just as she is.” “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.” (1:30). The most real thing about God is that we do not have to be afraid.. The most real thing about God, according to one of our Psalms, is that God is “gracious and full of compassion, long suffering and of great kindness.” (Psalm 103:8)

 And apparently that assurance gives Mary the courage to continue to ask questions, “How can this be…” (1:34) she asks the angel. And, of course, who she’s really asking is God? One of the things I always have to convince people of is that it is OK to question God! That’s one of the treasures of the Episcopal Church. It is a church in which it is OK to ask questions, and even to have doubts. And to be open and honest about that, instead of pretending.

 God gave us minds to think as well as hearts to love, and most people whose faith endures over the course of a long lifetime have many times questioned God, even been angry with God…and certainly had to wrestle with periods of doubt. That’s really how our faith becomes strong. As long as we are willing to really engage the questions and to do the work necessary to look for answers. You aren’t the first one to wrestle with this particular question in the life of faith. Others have walked this path before you. Be open to their wisdom as you seek answers for yourself.

 Which brings Mary to her final steps in this spiritual pilgrimage (abbreviated perhaps by Luke’s telling of the story, but which may have unfolded over some time). She is assured that “the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you…” (1:35). In other words, God is indeed asking you to do a great thing. Literally to bear God’s Son into the world. But you will not have to do it alone. God will be with you along the way, and God will give you the strength to bear what you have to bear, and to do what you have to do. That’s apparently what Mary needed to hear for she is now able to say: “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” (1:38). Mary’s “fiat”…Let it be.

 And that’s really what you and I are being asked to say today. These confirmands and those to be received into this church, yes, but also each one of us who will today renew the vows of our baptism. Some of us have walked the way of Mary, in one way or other – we may have begun our walk as a younger person…we may have had times when we lost our way, questioning God or our own worthiness or our own faith…we have all had many questions of God…and some of us still do.

But the fact that we are here today means that, somewhere along the way, God has drawn us here. God’s Holy Spirit has “overshadowed” our lives in some way. And we are beginning to believe that, like Mary, we too are being asked to “carry Christ into the world,” to bring him to birth…in our own lives and in the lives of others.

 All that remains is for us to say, with Mary, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” (Pause) And that’s what we are going to do…right now!

It is always humbling and encouraging to hear colleagues in the House take leadership and provide meditations and sermons at these meetings. This time Tom Shaw spoke of spiritual discipline; Michael Curry on the proclamation of the Gospel; Porter Taylor on pastoral care; Katharine Jefferts Schori on governance and leadership; Julio Holguin on mission.

In each case, these bishops wove their own stories, as a kind of personal testimony, into a presentation of their insights on each topic. Deeply moving and powerfully done.

In the “business” sessions, we considered a new canon on accountability for bishops — a canon on the reconciliation or ultimate dissolution of a pastoral relationship between bishop and diocese. This is a long overdue addition based on a similar canon dealing with the relationship of priest and congregation.

We put some restrictions on ourselves in the use of social media in the midst of our meetings. No “tweeting’ or ‘blogging’ in the midst of debates or executive sessions. No use of pictures or direct quotes outside the meeting without expressed written consent of those being photgraphed or quoted. “New occasions teach new duties” with respect to new technology.

We discussed a possible way forward with the proposed Anglican Covenant, particularly with the difficulty it seems to be running into in the Church of England and with Rowan Williams’ announced retirement. There may be a way for us to signal our ongoing commitment to relationships within the Anglican Communion short of either unreservedly endorsing or dismissing the proposed Covenant. We shall see.

With the exception of guidelines for our own internal work as a House of Bishops we, of course, can make no ultimate decisions on these matters on our own. This must wait until General Convention when both Houses are gathered together for the exercise of business. This church values the voices of all her people — lay persons, bishops, priests and deacons.

We made some modest changes in the so-called “Delegated Episcopal Pastoral Oversight” agreement which allows diocesan bishops to invite colleages in to serve as bishop “visitors” to congregations which may be in serious disagreement with the diocesan on some particular matter. There is an attempt here to assure “theological minorities” within the Episcopal Church that they have a valued place within it and that their voices are necessary as part of the life of this church an its ongoing discernment.

In all cases, the conversations and debate were held with a minimum of rancor and a maximum of careful listening and valuing of one another. We have come a long way from the days when some defined the House of Bishops as “dysfunctional.” I am mightily impressed with the younger and newer leadership in the House (including our own diocesan!).

Keep General Convention 2012 in your prayers. July 4 will be here before you know it!

 Contemporary NT scholars like Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan even write about “two processions” coming into Jerusalem that Palm Sunday – one from the east and one from the west. From the west, Roman cavalry and foot soldiers followed Pontius Pilate into the city to make sure there were no violent uprisings inJerusalemduring the Jewish celebration of Passover. And, from the east, a rag tag bunch of pilgrims and peasants cheered as Jesus rode down theMount of Oliveson the back of young donkey. What a contrast! And what an obvious set-up for a conflict of world views!

But John, the Gospel writer we are following today, for his own purposes, has this event happen early in Jesus’ ministry. His gospel has Jesus going toJerusalemseveral times during the course of his three year public ministry rather than only once at its conclusion. And John is interested, not so much in the conflict between Jesus and the Roman government as he was between Jesus and his own religion’s leaders!

 A complete outsider to the power structure of the Temple, Jesus issues a challenge to the authority of the Templeitself that quite literally shakes it to its foundations. By throwing the money changers out of the Temple,  and letting loose the sacrificial animals, he throws the mechanics of Templeworship into chaos, disrupting the temple system during one its most significant feasts so that neither tithes nor sacrifices could be offered that day. The implication is that Jesus is claiming authority to challenge the supremacy of the Templebecause his whole life bears testimony to the power of God in the world. The Kingship, the Reign, the Sovereignty not of theTemple, but of God alone!

 Now, none of this should be interpreted as meaning that Jesus was advocating the superiority of some new religion called Christianity over the old religion, Judaism. Jesus was an observant Jewish male who traveled to Jerusalemregularly for the major holy days. Jesus taught and observed the Ten Commandments we had as our First Reading this morning. No, Jesus’ challenge was to the authority of a dominant religious institution in Judaism – the Temple and temple worship – not because he’s anti-Jewish – but because he stands in the long line of Hebrew prophets like Amos and Jeremiah who challenged a religious system so embedded in its own rules and practices that it is no longer open to a fresh revelation from God. (see New Interpreter’s Bible; Volume 9, page 545)

 And that, dear friends, is where all this begins to apply to us!

We hear a lot today about people, and not only younger people, describing themselves as “spiritual but not religious.” For many of them that means that they believe in God, may admire the figure of Jesus, pray from time to time, and believe in some kind of life after death. But they are not terribly interested in what we sometimes call “the institutional church.”

 They perceive us as being hopelessly out of touch with the contemporary world they live in. They shake their heads at our “church wars” over changing liturgies or the ordination of women, or the place of gays and lesbians in the church. And they wonder why we spend so much of our time, money and energy on maintaining church buildings and church governance structures that don’t seem to have very much to do with Jesus or with his primary message to the world!

 Well, there may be a certain simplicity, or even naivete, in that kind of critique. Very few movements can survive, over time, without a certain institutionalization. You need some kind of structure to pass the message on from generation to generation. But, if we are going to take the message of Jesus in this morning’s Gospel seriously, we need to recognize that he is challenging – not only the Temple-centered Judaism of his day – but the “over institutionalization” of the contemporary church…in our day!

 Over the last 65 years or so, we in The Episcopal Church (and most other mainline denominations) have built up some pretty elaborate structures of diocesan and national church bureaucracies and staffs that we can simply no longer afford. We have pretty strict rules and regulations about how worship is to be conducted in an Episcopal Church. And we have an amazingly complicated process through which men and women have to move in order to be ordained. All of these things are being questioned and are, in some sense, up for grabs today.

 I don’t think we have any idea what the Church will be like 50 years from now, or certainly by the year 2100. I know it will look very different from the Church we live in today. And we can either be fearful of that kind of change, and resist it with all our might. Or, we can be open and flexible to see indeed “what the Spirit is saying to the churches” in our time. We have to be willing ask ourselves where and when the status quo of religious practice has become frozen, and therefore closed to the possibility of reformation, change and renewal. The great danger is that we in the contemporary church, like the leaders of the religious establishment in Jesus’ day, will fall into the trap of confusing the authority of our own institutions with the authority of God.

 During these 40 days of Lent when we journey with Jesus in the wilderness, I invite you to be open to embrace whatever it is that God is up to in our day. I invite you to join us in this season of discernment – for surely not everything that is “new,” or claims to be of God, is of God. But I do believe God is calling us into a kind of new reformation in our day. And if we are to be faithful to that calling, it will require us to be open, to travel light, but to ground ourselves ever more deeply in prayer, study, and mission.

Because, as long as we are grounded in God, we need have no fear of changing times or changing circumstances. For it is God alone that we serve. God is our rock…and our salvation!

 Well, let’s see – eradicating poverty and hunger…achieving universal primary education…promoting gender equality and empowering women…reducing child mortality….improving maternal health…combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases…ensuring environmental sustainability…and developing a global partnership for development.

 Those sound suspiciously close to Gospel values, if you ask me, particularly when you take into consideration the fact that Jesus’ primary message in the Gospels was not about how individuals could go to heaven, but about establishing the Kingdom of God here on earth! In Mark’s brief account of Jesus’ temptations in the wilderness which we read today on this First Sunday of Lent, he did not spend a lot of time on the specifics of those temptations, but concludes the story by summarizing the essence of Jesus’ message (which was essentially the same as John the Baptist before him and the Hebrew prophets down through the ages:)

 “Jesus came toGalilee, proclaiming the good news of God and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and thekingdomofGodhas come near, repent, and believe in that good news!” (Mark1:15). The good news, for Jesus, was that God was king and Caesar was not! The good news for Jesus was that it was not necessary to wait around for some distant future when God’s reign and God’s sovereignty would be established. That time had come! And it was time to turn around, acknowledge that fact, and begin to live as though it was true! The time is fulfilled….thekingdomofGodhas come near…repent…and believe that good news!

 And how are we to live, now that the Kingdom has dawned in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus? Well, we are to work to eradicate poverty and hunger – because Jesus once saw to it that 4,000 people were fed because (he said), “I have compassion for the crowd.” (Mark 8:2)

 We are to commit to make universal primary education available to the children of the world – because Jesus once said “Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that thekingdomofGod(really) belongs.” (Mark10:14)

 We are to empower women – because Jesus did! The way he treated women (radical in his day!), the fact that they were among his closest followers, the fact that they were the primary witnesses to the Resurrection all speak to the appropriateness of that endeavor for Christians and for the Christian Church!

 We are to work to reduce child mortality — because Jesus was once confronted with a young boy with a terrible, debilitating illness. “How long has this been happening to him,” he asked the father. “From childhood,” the man answered, “It has often cast him into the fire and water, to destroy him; but if you are able to do anything, have pity on us and help us.” Mark says “the boy was like a corpse, so that most of them said, ‘He is dead’ but Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he was able to stand,” (Mark 9: 21 passim)

 We are to improve maternal health – because Jesus once healed a woman who had been hemorrhaging for twelve years (perhaps since the day of her first-born’s delivery). “If I but touch his clothes,” she said, I will be made well. Immediately her hemorrhage stopped; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease.” (Mark 5:28-29)

 We are to commit to combating HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases because if there is one thing that is absolutely clear from the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ life, it is that he was a healer! He never turned away anyone who sought healing. And he never asked how they got sick!

 We are to ensure environmental sustainability because Jesus came from farming country in northernPalestine. He loved the land, using the cycles of planting and harvesting in so many of his parables. And he came to love the sea – making sure his fishermen friends always hauled in a great catch (even after they had left their nets…to follow him). (Mark1:16)

 And, finally, we are to support efforts to partner with our sister and brother Christians, and all people of good will around the world, because it was said, of Jesus, that he made no distinctions among people and once, when a stranger was found casting out demons in his name, Jesus said, “Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. Whoever is not against us is for us.” (Mark 9:39-40)

 Yes, I think the Millennium Development Goals, perhaps first articulated by the United Nations, meet the scriptural test as being faithful to the Gospel message. And the fact that some people find that so hard to believe is more a testimony of our failure to preach the message Jesus sent us out to preach than it does to their ignorance or hardness of heart. For too often, dear friends, our message has been too timid and our God too small for people even to “believe this good news” let alone to “repent.”

 During these forty days of penitence and fasting, I challenge you to do a bit more than giving up chocolate. I know you’re doing some of these things here at Grace Church and in your individual lives, but I challenge you to continue to dream big dreams and to take on at least one of these goals this Lent – either locally or somewhere around the world.

Because…the time is fulfilled…thekingdomofGodhas come near…Repent, and believe in this good news!

Beginning on Ash Wednesday, each day I will receive an email with the day’s suggested carbon-reducing activity ranging from the very simple (eliminating “vampire” electrical use, taking “military showers” and reducing driving speed) to the more challenging and long term (buying local produce, consider getting involved in a community garden).

More information can be obtained by going to www.macucc.org/carbonfast

In years gone by, I would have dismissed this as “trendy” and not sufficiently ascetic for a true catholic such as myself, but this year I’ve been paying more attention to the second Old Testament reading assigned for Ash Wednesday. You know, that uncomfortable one from Isaiah 58 where God says:

“Is not this the fast I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?

Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your homes; when you see the naked to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin?

…then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom like the noonday

…your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in.”

If we are to rebuild the ancient ruins of our cities, raise up a foundation for future generations, repair the breach between Creator and Creation, and restore streets which can sustain life, we had better learn to take better care of “this fragile earth, our island home!

Trendy? “Secular?”

Yeah, just like old Isaiah!

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