Homecoming

Charlotte Collins Reed
Christ Church Episcopal
January 23, 2022

 3 Epiphany C

Some years ago, I went back to Little Rock for the funeral of a dear friend.  My family moved to Little Rock the summer before I started 6th grade, and I stayed in the area through college, so going to Little Rock has the feel of going home for me even though the city is nothing like I remember.  People came from all over the country for this funeral, traveling from places like Seattle and Arizona, to mourn the loss of this amazing friend, hear the powerful words of scripture, to pray the prayers of the burial office together, and pour our grief into the familiar liturgy.  We also came to be together as none of us could bare to do this difficult work alone.  We needed to be together to hear the challenge in both scripture and our burial service to live like people who believe that death does not have the final say.  Our coming home sent us back out into the world nourished, strengthened, and challenged to live into our identity as Easter people. 

The reading from Nehemiah tells us of another homecoming, this one after the exile of the Hebrew people to Babylon in the 6^th century BC.  Some of the Hebrew people have returned to their homeland, the Promised Land.  The wall around the city has been rebuilt.  The people are home and yet nothing feels the same.  There is lots of squabbling about who was among the faithful and who was not, who should govern, how and if the temple should be rebuilt, and who they are as God's chosen people.  They are squabbling, much like the people in the church in Corinth to which Paul writes are squabbling, and in both cases, the very survival of the community is at stake.  When the Hebrew people gather at the gate this morning, they ask to hear the familiar words of the Torah, the law of Moses, read out loud for them, and to have those words explained.  Over and over again, we hear that all the people stood, all the people said "Amen, Amen," and all the people understood.  And all the people were moved to worship the Lord with their faces to the ground, apparently weeping and mourning.  They heard the challenge of the words of scripture, recognized the ways they were failing to live into their identity as God's people, and realized that their return to the Promised Land was nothing less than a gift from God who loves them and made them God's own.  And so they are able to rise up, rejoice, and make sure anyone who could not be at the gate could rejoice as well.

I am struck by the similarities between our situation in this era of Covid, and that of the Hebrew people in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah.  We have been exiled in a sense from life as we once knew it, where we did not think twice about sipping from the chalice, or packing people into the Parish Hall for a meal, or singing together, or so many other things.  We have been exiled from each other as some of us choose to worship in-person, others on Facebook Live, and others not at all.  We don’t all agree about whether masks should or should not be required, whether it is safe to eat together, and how much in-person activity we are comfortable having.  We are impatient and frustrated.  We don’t have a new city wall to celebrate, but we certainly have new space.  We come home to Christ Church and things are the same, yet different.  Like the Hebrew people, we know that our life together is a gift and now is time to move forward and discover who God is calling us to be in this new era.  And, like the Hebrew people who gathered at the gate, we know that we will find both comfort and challenge in our reading of scripture.

The reading from First Corinthians reminds us yet again that we are all members of the one body and that all the members are needed for the body to function and be whole.  No one can say “I am too young” or “I am too old” or “I am too busy” or “I am too whatever” to be part of the Body of Christ.  By virtue of our baptism, we are part of the Body of Christ.  That is a fact, and we each have gifts needed for the body to function and grow.  Each of us is a piece of how we move forward together.  Being part of the Body of Christ is a gift, given to us in baptism, and as the Body of Christ, we are much stronger together than we are apart.

Jesus enters the synagogue this morning, filled with the power of the Spirit, to tell the people that the words of the prophet Isaiah are fulfilled in their hearing.  The people had gathered, as they do each Sabbath, to hear the scripture read and explained, and to pray.  On the one hand, Jesus can be understood to be saying that he is the one about whom Isaiah prophesied.  The anointed one is standing in their midst.  But on the other hand, we know that the poor are still among us, as are the blind and the oppressed, both literally and metaphorically.  So in what way could Jesus’ words actually be true?

These are the first words of Jesus’ ministry in Luke’s gospel and they set out his mission for his ministry.  But this mission is not just Jesus’ ministry.  The ministry belongs to all who follow Jesus.  The people have gathered in the synagogue to hear scripture read and taught, and then Jesus tells them that their ministry is not in the synagogue but out in the world.  Likewise, Jesus gathers us to be nourished by the hearing of scripture, the breaking of bread, and the prayers, not just as an end in itself, but so that we are equipped to go into the world and proclaim good news to the poor, release to the captives, bring sight to the blind, and freedom to the oppressed, whatever form those actions might take.  The gathering is critical and the nourishment is vital, because the work to which Jesus calls us is hard and requires both God’s strength and the heart and hands of each one of us.

On this Annual Meeting Sunday, scripture reminds us that three things are essential in order for us to be the church God is calling us to be.  One: Come home, whether in person or online, to be nourished by scripture, the breaking of bread, and prayer.  Two: Come home, either in-person or online, to know the strength we have when we all work as essential members of one body.  Three: Come home, however you come, to be sent out to be God’s people in the world.  Following Jesus may not be easy, but the instructions are simple.

                                                                   Amen

A sign

Charlotte Collins Reed
Christ Church Episcopal
January 16, 2022

2 Epiphany C 

          On my tour of English Cathedrals back in October, one of our stops was at Coventry Cathedral in Coventry, England.  Coventry was a great 14^th century Gothic Cathedral until it was bombed on November 14, 1940. The current cathedral is a modern cathedral in both the architectural sense of the word as well as the historic sense.

          As my friend Anne and I walked up to the Cathedral, we saw the ruins of the great Gothic structure on the left, the current modern cathedral on the right, and the two are joined together by an outdoor entry way.  We spent some time in the peaceful ruins, then headed into the cathedral.  The cathedral dedicated itself to a ministry of reconciliation in the aftermath of the bombing and that commitment is evident throughout the church with displays that describe the various ministries of the congregation.  The bombing of their cathedral was transformational in their understanding of who and what they are called to be as the church.  My personal great epiphany came as I looked at one of the stained-glass windows, made from the shards of stained glass from the bombed-out building.  Rather than try to recreate the original windows, which were likely scenes from scripture, the new stained glass windows were simply stunning, colorful, small bits of glass, in no particular arrangement, that created immense beauty in their own way.  This may seem like the revelation of the obvious since I have been preaching this for almost two years, but somehow that stained glass window sent a powerful reminder not just to my head but to my heart that the way we are put back together is not the same as we were before. 

          While Christ Church has certainly not been bombed out, and we actually have beautiful new space now, the past nearly two years have brought radical changes to life as we knew it in early 2020.  As a church, we have had times where we could gather only online and had to restrict access to the building. We have had to find safe ways to connect with the community, opening our worship to those outside the building through Facebook Live.  I had actually gone to a workshop on using a smartphone to livestream worship in January 2020 and left the workshop thinking “We’ll never do that.”  Proof that one should never say never!  We have looked for new ways to help those in need and found new partners for our outreach efforts.  We have tried multiple different ways to provide Christmas formation for all ages via Zoom or, more recently, in-person and socially distanced.  Over and over again people have stepped up to help us connect with each other, the world around us, and with God.  But we still have a ways to go and the landscape around us continues to shift with the twists and turns of a pandemic.  If the way we are put back together is not the way we were before, how are we to figure out the way forward?

          Our readings today give us some solid footing for moving forward.  First, both the reading from Isaiah and the Psalm remind us that God is always calling us forward to a new future.  Those readings also remind us of our identity as God’s beloved people.  That identity is not meant to give us a sense of superiority in any way, but to ground us as the people God calls us to be in the world.  God’s delight in us and God’s rejoicing over us calls us to be God’s people in the world.  God’s loving kindness and God’s refuge provide us not with a place to hide, but a place from which to go out into the world.  This is our starting point for moving into the future.

          Secondly, the reading from First Corinthians reminds us that we do nothing alone.  Whatever God is calling us to do and be, we have the Holy Spirit to guide us and equip us.  We have the gifts of each one of us to draw on and we each have gifts that are essential to building up the body of Christ.  As we discern what God is calling us to do and be in this new world, each and every one of us is needed.   Some things we know we want, such as the excellent hospitality that comes from having ushers, greeters, coffee hour, beautiful flowers, amazing music, and a space that is made ready for us, our guests and for God on Sunday morning.  Other ministries we look for new ways to do to meet the new challenges of a new time such as Christian formation for all ages, outreach that connects us with those in need, and new ways of connecting with the community and sharing Good News.  This is Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend and as if we needed anything more to point out the work that needs to be done to heal the sin of racism in our country, Covid has certainly done that.  There is much gospel work yet to be done to make King’s dream a reality and we are called to find our place in that work.  God will not call us to do anything we cannot make happen if we all work together using the gifts God has given us.

          Lastly, you might wonder where the story of the wedding at Cana fits into the idea that the way we are put back together is not the way we were before.  The story of the wedding at Cana, in which Jesus turns a huge amount of water into the best wine of the party is often thought of as a miracle story and we wonder how to replicate the miracle.  However, in John’s gospel, Jesus’ actions this morning, along with feeding of the multitudes, raising of Lazarus from the dead, walking on water, and healing the sick, are not miracle stories but signs that point to the glory of God.  In the first chapter of John’s gospel, we hear that Jesus is the Word made flesh who lived among us and showed us the glory of God, full of grace and truth.  In John’s gospel, Jesus spends his earthly life showing us the glory of God.  So this morning, we see Jesus change water into wine, not as an end in itself, not to save the hosts of the party from the embarrassment of running out of wine, but to point to the glory of God.  Throughout the Hebrew scriptures, wine is a symbol of God’s love and God’s abundance, and Jesus points us to those very truths.

          Our call as Jesus’ followers has always been to be a sign to the world of God’s love and abundance.  No pandemic can change that call.  Christ Church has faithfully answered that call over the ages, through thick and thin, because, guided by the Holy Spirit, people have stepped up time and time again to offer their God-given gifts and talents.  There is nothing new about what God is asking us to do, only a new context in which God asks us to work.  As we move forward, God reminds us that the way we are put back together will be grounded in God’s love, guided by the Holy Spirit, and enriched by the many gifts and talents we have been given, so that at this time and in this place, we are an effective sign of God’s love and abundance. 

                                                                             Amen.