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Jeremiah 1:4-10, I Corinthians 14:12b-20, Luke 4:21-32
St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, West Valley City, UT
The Rev'd W. Lee Shaw
Today is our Parish Annual Meeting with San Estéban. We will gather for lunch together and then move into our Annual Meeting. So it appropriate to continue some of our conversation about community, specifically Christian community.
Our epistle reading today from I Corinthians is Paul's extended
discourse on how community can and ought to be together as the Body
of Christ. Last week we heard how all members offer different gifts
of ministry to the whole body. Today we have some warnings about
the misuse of specific gifts, in this case speaking in tongues, but
his advice is good for any area of community discord or disagreement:
Brothers and sisters, do not be children in your thinking; rather,
be infants in evil, but in thinking be adults.
Part of our
responsibility in growing into the full stature of Christ,
is to become mature Christians in the faith, to respect the dignity
of every human being as thinking adults.
I give thanks for this community, eclectic and eccentric as we are
at times, for your willingness to step forward and do the work of
ministry in community. I really feel our Mission Statement captures
the spirit of this part of the vineyard: St. Stephen's is a
welcoming, confident community with a diversity of gifts; where all
are equal in Christ. We live our baptismal vows through mutual
respect, shared ministry, and joyful worship.
We are now gathered in worship to open our hearts and minds to the
Word of God proclaimed to us, to reaffirm our faith in the one,
holy, apostolic and catholic church,
and to join our voices in
prayer for all in our community and the world. Then we will move
into a time set apart, Kairos time or God's time, for the celebration
of the Holy Mysteries, the Holy Eucharist, as we share the bread
and the cup of wine and meet Christ again for the first time in the
breaking of the bread.
From here we will move from the work of the community in worship to the work of the community in taking counsel with one another in the governance of our common life, the Annual Meeting. I hope all of you will join in our luncheon and then stay for our meeting. This is a council of the church and you the church are invited to take part.
I am very grateful for each of you and have found great joy in my
ministry among and with you. As I think of community, I return
over and over again to a quotation from a retired Archbishop of
Canterbury, Lord George Carey. I have used this previously in a
sermon, but I believe it bears repeating as we look to the full
nature and possibility of our life as church
at St. Stephen's:
May she be a church where it is good to live, where you can breathe, and say what you think. A church of freedom.
A church that listens before speaking, which welcomes without judging; which forgives without wishing to condemn; which announces rather than denounces. A church of mercy.
A church where the Holy Spirit will be able to feel at home because everything has not been foreseen, settled, and decided in advance. An open church.
A church of [St. Stephen's], a church of suburbs and streets and housing estates, you may still be small but you are making progress. You are still fragile. But you are full of hope. Lift up your head and look: The Lord is with you.