All of us as vital as the one light we move through…These beautiful words from the Inaugural Poet, Richard Blanco, are a great reminder that each of us is vital as we move through the one light and our one life.
It reminds me of St. Paul’s words to us this morning…
For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body--Jews or Greeks, slaves or free--and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many.In God’s spirit we are baptized into one body, but we are each vital individual members of this body as we live in and move through that one Spirit! St. Paul goes on to tell us what this means:
As it is, there are many members, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you.” If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.We are all on this journey together, we need each other, we rejoice with one another, we suffer with one another.
As we said good bye to our two oldest members this past year, we sorrowed with their loved ones. As we welcomed new members into our parish, when we baptized a new baby, when we came together at our Apple festival, we rejoiced together.
Such is the life of a parish family. We come together for the best of times and we come together at the worst of times. We enjoy a fish meal together or a casual moment at coffee hour & we get together to pray, to knit scarves & prayer shawls, & donate books to help heal hearts that are broken and sorrowing.
Our parish has reflected the light and love of God some 211 years now in Monroe and we are gathered here this morning because we are proud of our past as we live into the present moment, taking time as we do every year, to renew our commitment to God’s mission as this parish has done at every annual meeting.
God’s mission for us is summed up by the phrase on the side of our church: Come as a Stranger, Leave as a Friend! This vision is grounded in our understanding that what God asks of us, is to welcome the stranger in God's name. To offer the love that we have felt so that others might find it on their journey and become friends with us and their maker.
As Peter Saros, our parish consultant puts it, "the most important factor that a church should be concerned with is how the church can be supportive of people in search of having a relationship with God in their lives. Many times people change [churches] because they have found the church that empowers them in their search and they wish to be part of that community.”As Jesus said, “I don’t call you servants any longer, because servants don’t know what their master is doing. Instead, I call you friends…” (John 15:15, CEB) This vision of friendship is important for our journey because it is Jesus who has first invited us on the journey through the Spirit.
Since 2011, we have worked with Peter to help us sustain our Church and consider how we can support one another on the journey and invite others to join us. In this work we were called not to just have more events, but to focus on what we do well, to support this parish community and to share it with the world, whether its our fish fry or apple festival, bible study or knit one pray too, Sunday worship or mid-week potluck, all of them present us with wonderful opportunities to put our mission into practice.
One of my favorite things about this parish, is that it constantly looks beyond itself to see the needs around us. Last year, we heard about a young firefighter battling cancer, and we gave some of our money away from our wine tasting to help him. Church School classes made bedtime bags for kids who were homeless & in need. This year we are talking about helping those in our community who might like a fish fry meal but can’t afford it, and this year’s wine tasting will also be giving some of its money away to the Chase Kowalski Memorial Scholarship Fund.
These are not outreach events but members of this parish have said we need to remember those in need, to remember those who mourn, to give out of our love just as God has given to us! (Amen!)
2,000 years ago or so Jesus in the synagogue in Nazareth, astounded the home crowd with his reading from the scroll of Isaiah…
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."Today he doesn’t return the scroll & sit down. No, today, Jesus takes that scroll he just read and hands it to you… and you… and you… Jesus gives each of us that scroll. He gives it to us so that we can follow his way, to bring good news to the poor and those in need, to proclaim release to captives, recovery of sight to the blind, to let those oppressed go free and show the favor of the Lord that we have experienced.
And he gives it to us, so that our lives outside these walls live into the Spirit, in whom we live and move and have our being. It reminds me of the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer:
“The Christian cannot simply take for granted the privilege of living among other Christians. Jesus Christ lived in the midst of his enemies… So Christians, too, belong not in the seclusion of a cloistered life but in the midst of enemies. There they find their mission, their work.”As we take communion each week, we are fed on a very deep level, connected with the very essence of God. And from this table we are sent forth “a people, forgiven, healed, renewed; that we may proclaim God’s love to the world and continue in the risen life of Christ our Savior.”
We go out from here each week, to live our lives beyond these walls for there is our mission and work. It is there that we live out of that friendship and love, it is there that the scroll handed to us is lived in our lives at home, at work, at play, at the grocery or gas station, in the midst of people who do not know Good News, in a world full of darkness, full of violence and death.
We need not worry about people who might ridicule us, think us foolish, or condemn us or even picket our funerals. We are redeemed in Jesus and our hope lies outside this world and beyond the measure of what our culture considers successful.
Remind yourselves on this journey that you are “as vital as the one light we move through…”
For it is through you that God works today. So what St. Peter’s Church is today and what it will be tomorrow is up to us, to live in our lives. We have our challenges before us as a parish, removing the lead paint on the Rectory, sustaining our finances in a way that will lead to healthy days for the parish, to continue our strong outreach, and to tell our story to this community so they know how alive this parish is and how the Spirit of God continues to move through us. And that is the job for all of us to do.
For in this special place, we are fed, where strangers have become friends, where God lives in the midst of us, bidding us share that love. We do this in our worship, in our fellowship and in our service to the world, for our mission is to welcome with God's love all people on their journey of faith.
This morning, Deacon Christopher & I will be handing out your scrolls, written with the words of Isaiah that Jesus proclaimed and a poem from Mary Oliver that asks you what you plan to do with your lives, and they share the same piece of paper because they are connected.
And as we do this, in the background you will hear the song "Home" by Phillip Phillips. Listen to the words as if it were Jesus talking to you, because Jesus will always make us his home and we need to live into that hope that God entrusts us with...
Hold on, to me as we go
As we roll down this unfamiliar road
And although this wave is stringing us along
Just know you’re not alone
Cause I’m going to make this place your home
Settle down, it'll all be clear
Don't pay no mind to the demons
They fill you with fear
The trouble it might drag you down
If you get lost, you can always be found
Just know you’re not alone
Cause I’m going to make this place your home
Settle down, it'll all be clear
Don't pay no mind to the demons
They fill you with fear
The trouble it might drag you down
If you get lost, you can always be found
Just know you’re not alone
Cause I’m going to make this place your home
Know you are not alone, because we are in this together and Jesus is going to make his place, your place and this place his home. Amen.
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