Gather

Charlotte Collins Reed
Christ Church Episcopal
January 17, 2021

2 Epiphany B/Annual Meeting/MLK 

          Five years ago this weekend, Don and I made our first trip to Hudson to meet with the Search Committee here.  Like today, it was Martin Luther King weekend and annual meeting weekend.  We had wonderful conversations, very fine meals, a tour of the greater Hudson area, and finally a tour of the physical plant.  I remember seeing the annual meeting reports stacked on a table under the lectern, telling the story of the parish over the past year.  But one of the things that does not usually happen in an interview for a rector is an experience of worship.  I remember standing in this church that weekend wondering what the church feels like when everyone is here, gathered for worship.  Is there energy?  Do people sing?  What does worship here feel like?  We came back and met with the vestry, negotiated a letter of agreement, made plans to move and arrived in Hudson, excited to be here, but we still had no idea what the gathered body of Christ Church would be like in worship. 

          This morning, Jesus goes about gathering up people.  He has already found Andrew and Simon Peter when the story picks up this morning. Jesus finds Philip and says “Follow me,” which Philip does, no questions asked.  Philip finds Nathanael and proclaims that “we have found the one about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.”  Nathanael was not impressed.  Only when Jesus actually recognizes something good in Nathanael-that he is a person with no deceit-does Nathanael recognize Jesus as the Son of God.

          Why does Jesus call disciples to follow him?  He doesn’t need them in order to be able to turn water into wine, or fish and bread into a meal for thousands, or raise Lazarus from the dead, or walk on water, all of which happen in John’s gospel.  They are not a lot of use to him at the cross, although Jesus does give his mother to the beloved disciple and the disciple to his mother.  So why does Jesus gather disciples?

          Perhaps the answer is found in Jesus’ words later in the gospel after he washes the disciples’ feet.  After Jesus has washed their feet and foretold his betrayal, and after Judas has departed from the room to betray Jesus, Jesus says “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.’”  Perhaps Jesus has gathered disciples so that he could love them and teach them to love with the transforming, sacrificial love of God.  Then, through their love for each other, even in the midst of betrayal, the world will know the love of God.

          What Don and I discovered once we finally arrived in Hudson and got to worship here is how very much love there is here, and the way that love is experienced when the church gathers.  What I quickly learned is that the love for each other is quickly and easily shared with those who are new to the church as visitors are welcomed and made to feel at home.  The love for each other spills over when there is a need in the community, such as for food for the Hudson Food Pantry, or workers for Habitat, or knitters who knit for peace, or people who make lunches for Open M.  By these actions, the world experiences the love of God at work.

          At Christ Church, we know how to be a gathered community.  We know how to worship together, how to serve together, how to learn together.  But the past year has really tested the depth of our commitment to live as a gathered community as the pandemic has kept us physically separated.  A year ago, I could have been right there with Nathanael who said “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” except that I would have said “Can anything good come out of Zoom worship?”  Or Zoom vestry meetings, or Zoom EFM or bible study, or Zoom compline or healing services, or Zoom conversations about racism, or a Zoom Talent Show, for that matter.  But over the past year, time and again, the people of Christ Church have risen to the occasion, supporting outreach ministries, taking advantage of educational opportunities, having challenging conversations about race, coming together for all kinds of worship, leading a major construction project, and finding ways to connect with each other.  Jesus has gathered us, however we gather, to be the love of God for each other and for the world. And yet, at the same time, we still have much to learn about how we reach out with the Good News when we must reach out in a new dimension when we cannot gather physically.  One of the vestry’s goals for 2o21 is for us to learn new ways to welcome people to our online presence.  A second goal is to find new ways to reach out and serve those who have been hit hardest by the pandemic.  Jesus has gathered us so that the world can see God’s love though our lives.

          This weekend is also Martin Luther King Jr. weekend.  We also find ourselves at the end of an exhausting, stressful, and unnerving couple of weeks in our national life.  Images of hate and darkness fill the news.  My favorite Martin Luther King quote, which I use on this Sunday every year, seems especially poignant this year.  In his 1957 speech “Loving your enemies,” King said “Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that.  Hate cannot drive out hate.  Only love can do that.”  Dr. King dd not expect squishy or sentimental love to drive out hate.  The love Dr. King proclaimed and lived was transformative, sacrificial love, love that has the courage to speak the truth to power and love that brings us closer to the Kingdom of God Jesus proclaimed where every single person is valued as a child of God.  In the end, Dr. King gave his life to overcoming the darkness and hate of racism, and to all appearances, darkness and hate won, just as darkness and hate have appeared to win over and over again in the past year.  And if the work of dismantling racism stops, darkness and hate will win.  But the work has not stopped and in many ways that work has intensified over the past year.  That work is rooted in shining light on the darkness of hate and fear and living as one beloved community of humankind.

Jesus gathered disciples, and Jesus gathers us, whether gathered here physically or physically distant, to teach us to love with God’s transformative love, so that the world can experience that love through our lives.  That love requires courage, sacrifice, and real work.  Jesus calls us to that work, and Jesus needs us for that work.

                                                                             Amen.