Charlotte Collins Reed
Christ Church Episcopal
May 8, 2016
Expectations
On my first Sunday as an ordained person, almost 19 years
ago, I felt a lot like I feel today. I
was very excited, a little nervous, and eager to see how this new church and I
could make a gospel difference in the world together. I arrived early that Sunday morning, ready
for a new adventure. In the parish hall,
on my way to the church, the very first person I met looked me up and looked me
down, then she looked me in the eye and said, and I quote, “I think we were
expecting someone bigger.”
I hope we all have expectations for something bigger this
morning, even if we cannot articulate that longing with quite the clarity of
the parishioner on that first Sunday years ago.
I hear in the voices of the people I have talked with so far a longing
to grow in numbers and in stewardship, and those are certainly good
things. In the reading from Acts, we
hear the story of the jailer who was in desperate straights when he woke up and
saw the doors of the jail wide open. He
was sure the prisoners had escaped and the jailers’ days were numbered. The jailer was so moved by the faith of Paul
and Silas as they stayed in their cell even after being released from their
chains that the jailer asked what he must do to be saved. There is a whole world out there just as
desperate to hear the Good News as the jailer was, and we have Good News to
share. And just as Paul and Silas’s
focus was on the jailer and not on their own well being, as long as we keep our
focus on the Good News we have to share and on the folks who need to hear it,
and not on our own perceived needs for more people, we will grow in both
numbers and faith.
Whatever our expectations of ourselves and each other this
morning, Jesus has some expectations of us, as individuals and as a
church. While today is the Sunday
between the feast of the Ascension, when Jesus ascended to heaven, and the
Feast of Pentecost when the Spirit descends on the disciples, in the gospel reading
we hear part of the prayer Jesus prayed for his disciples before he died. Jesus does not pray that the disciples will
be successful, or that they will always agree, or even that they will always be
right. Jesus prays that the disciples
may all be one as the Father and the Son are one, and that the love with which
the Father has loved the Son may be in the disciples. In another place, Jesus
commands the disciples to love one another as he loves them and Jesus tells
them that the world will know they are Jesus’ disciples by their love for each
other. Jesus expects the disciples to
love each other and to live as one.
Jesus does not say this will be easy or painless. But Jesus expects them live as his disciples,
in unity and with love, so the world will know they are his disciples and see
that unity and love are actually possible.
When I was coming to Christ Church back in January to
interview with the Search Committee, I contacted a colleague who serves as the
rector of the Falls Church Episcopal in Falls Church, Virginia. Falls Church was a huge Episcopal Church that
split in 2006. The rector and the vast
majority of the church left the Episcopal Church, and the property was tied up
in a nasty legal dispute for years.
Having once been a church with a membership of over 2800 people, the
continuing Falls Church was down to 27 members after the split. Once the property dispute was settled, and
the continuing church got the property back, they wanted to call a rector. My colleague left a great position as rector
of a large parish to become the rector of this struggling congregation in 2012
because he felt called to that ministry.
So, when I was coming to interview at Christ Church, I contacted him for
advice on what to ask and what I was looking for as I discerned whether this is
the place to which God is calling me. I
expected a laundry list of landmines to avoid and a litany of questions to
ask. What my colleague said was this
“You are looking for a spirit of loveliness and a sense of unity…not the desire
for unity, but real unity.” That’s
it. I was looking for a church that was
trying its best to live into the prayer Jesus prayed for his disciples. Without knowing that this is what I came
looking for, your Search Committee and your vestry demonstrated those very qualities
in abundance. So, Don and I are here.
Jesus’ expectation of us is that together, we will grow in
unity and love. Jesus’ expectation is
also that our growth in unity and love will push us out into the world, so that
the world can see something in us that the world longs to have, much as the
jailer saw in Paul and Silas something he longed for. We heard Jesus pray that the disciples would
be united as he and the Father are united so that the world may believe and
know that Jesus is the one sent by God.
Unity and love benefit us, for sure, but the reason unity and love are
good for us is because those qualities make us good disciples to the world
around us and enable us to be the people and the church God calls us to be.
Our reading from Revelation ends with an invitation. The words we hear this morning are the final
words in the entire Bible, so the entirety of Scripture ends with an invitation. They are words for us to hear and for us to
say as we move forward together into being the church God is calling us to
be.
“The Spirit and the bride say ‘Come.’
And let everyone who hears say ‘Come.’
And let everyone who is thirsty come.
Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift.
The one who testifies to these things says ‘Surely I am
coming soon.’
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!”
Jesus’ expectation is that we
live together as one so we can offer the water of life as a gift to this
thirsty world.
Amen.
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