Being Led to those Things that Are Right Reflections on General Convention, Deuteronomy 8:1-10, Ephesians 4:25 - 5:2, John 6:37-51 August 10, 2003, Year B, Proper 14 The Rev. William V. Livingston, Rector Church of the Resurrection, Starkville, Mississippi Each week we open the Eucharist with a collect: a prayer that is meant to collect our individual petitions, to unite us into one body of worship, and to prepare us for the collected emphasis of the scriptures to be heard that day. Hear once again, hear not only with your ears but with your heart the opening collect for today: Grant to us, Lord, we pray, the spirit to think and do always those things that are right, that we, who cannot exist without you, may by you be enabled to live according to your will; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Unless one has been on a deserted island with no television, one has to be aware of the recent happenings of the Episcopal Church General Convention in Minneapolis. Thus, while we use it the Sunday closest to August 10 each year, what an appropriate Sunday for this collect. My hope and prayer is that all involved at General Convention were led to those things that are right. Based on emails, phone calls, and conversations I have had with many of you this week, as you have talked among yourselves, and as you have pondered General Convention decisions, specifically the decision to accept the election of the Rev. Gene Robinson as the next Bishop of New Hampshire, my hope and prayer is that each of us will be led to those things that are right. Throughout the Episcopal Church, I anticipate most sermons today will focus on this decision. Some will condemn. Some will celebrate. However, I expect most will, as I will, not advocate one side over the other but will seek to connect us to our faith and advocate healing. Jesus, the one on whom we base our faith, taught us to see the world not as black or white nor in or out. Instead, he invested much of his earthly ministry confronting the status quo and challenging the obedience to rules of his time. Instead, he reinterpreted the scriptures to reflect God's grace and being led by such grace. It is that openness to God's grace and being led by the Spirit that I hope will guide us now as we each discern our response to the actions of General Convention. Not only is this openness to God's grace and being led by the Spirit part of our basic existence as Christians, it is specifically a cornerstone of who we are as Anglicans and Episcopalians. The process and the outcome of General Convention does not change who we are but reflects how who we are determined what happened at General Convention. We as Anglicans and Episcopalians are a people who build our corporate life around the teachings of the creeds, the historical episcopacy, and sacramental worship practiced through our use of the Book of Common Prayer, with all based on our founding principles of Scripture, tradition and reason. We accept Scripture as containing all things necessary for bringing about the kingdom of God and that God still speaks to us through Scripture. Our shared tradition has helped clarify our understanding of Scripture through the collective voice that has generated our creeds and shaped our corporate worship. We are a people who teach that we are continually discerning God's guidance and mission for us. This discernment is the reasoning that believes if God is God, if we are invited through the Holy Communion into a participation in Christ, and if we live in an ever changing world, we cannot pretend to know and definitely cannot dominate the will of God, but can only be lead by God's grace as assisted by Scripture and our collective corporate life. Nothing that happened at Minneapolis this past week changes any of this. The vote on Gene Robinson was not about winners or losers, about who is right or who is wrong, or about who is in or who is out. Instead, God's people of the Episcopal Church attempted to discern God's will. Still, because of the sinfulness that comes with living in a fallen world, we will always discern God's will differently. The Christian Church and the Episcopal Church has proven this innumerable times, as we have gone through eras in which we executed those with differing views. We have seen the Church that once not only tolerated but endorsed slavery move to an institution that seeks to stamp out all forms of oppression. Perfect decisions aren't within our grasp. Some decisions are better than others, and we will disagree, and we have and will sometimes will make choices we later regretted, but throughout, God will still be God. Without any thought to General Convention, in last week's sermon, I asked the question: "Why are you here?" The question may have been more prophetic than I imagined. Many of you have shared with me one of the things you highly value about the Episcopal Church is that you don't have to leave your mind at the door as you enter, that we don't use clichés or undebatable dictums to mask the struggles we experience in this earthly journey. The Episcopal Church has recently met to discern God's guidance. Based on media coverage, we would think we debated only one issue, but well over 300 resolutions that effect our corporate life were discussed. This issue of sexuality is not limited to Episcopalians. This action makes brings out in the open what has occurred secretly many times before in the Episcopal Church and in other faith traditions. Other denominations wrestle with this. The fact that we did so openly, even with national media cameras running, and did so, as best we can, honoring those with differing views, says a great deal about who we are as a community of faith. Thus far, on the media reports I have watched, I have seen only one other faith tradition be all too eager to cast the first stone. Too often in such debates, those on both sides, in the arrogance that often accompanies our humanness, spend far too much time debating who is allowed to come close, who is worthy to receive, who must be made to change. We are masters at devising litmus tests, barriers, questions that must be answered correctly, merit badges that must be earned. Whether we close the door with overt "standards" or the raised eyebrow of scorn, we don't hesitate to send people away unheard, unseen, unloved simply because they don't agree with us. We say we are defending God, as if God needs our defense, when in fact we are defending ourselves. We say we are honoring Scripture, as if our grasp of God's Word were the only grasp. We, as Episcopalians have come to one of those pivotal debates. Agree or disagree, our Church has spoken, has expressed her interpretation of the Holy Spirit at this moment in faith history. Christ calls us to stay in fellowship and to continue to discern. As the Deuteronomistic historian today reminds us that God led the Israelites into the wilderness for forty years in order to humble them, testing them to know what was in their heart, our Church has difficult days ahead as we address the question of how a faith community can live "in the tension of disagreement," and trusting God to redeem. So, where do we go from here? We need to remember that spiritual health is a relationship between God and person, not an automatic consequence of institutional membership. We need to remember that our call is to servanthood, not to institutional perfection. We need to remember that Jesus was far more radical than our institutional dabbling might suggest. We need to remember that Jesus didn't found an institution, but a circle of friends; he had no regard for hierarchy or for any of the barriers that we consider necessary. We need to remember Jesus' words today from the Gospel of John: "This is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day." My hope, my prayer is that regardless of your reaction to the decision, each of us will respect the differing reactions. For some it seems like Good Friday and for others like Easter day. For those for whom it seems like Good Friday, I offer Paul's words from today's Epistle: "Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not make room for the devil." You have been deeply hurt. A major part of your life and faith have been destabilized and you have a right to and need to grieve. However, focus on your grief that the Holy Spirit offers you and not the anger that comes from our humanity. Reflect prayerfully and deeply before you make significant and irrevocable decisions in response. For those whom it seems like Easter, you already know it is not so for all. Therefore, be careful in your jubilation. Respect the right of others to disagree. Do not judge them. Do not ridicule or condemn their sorrow. Allow them time and space to live into the death they have experienced and give dignity to their grief. Some of you still remain unsure, with leanings one way or the other but are neither destabilized by nor celebrate this decision. As voices of moderation right now, you may be the conduit through whom Good Friday may become Easter and, like the bread we break in the Eucharist, through whom that which is broken God may use the brokenness to bring healing and reconciliation in ways we cannot now see. Console but do not insight those who grieve. Respect those with stronger views. Faith is sure and certain hope in the face of uncertainties. My hope and prayer is that we, the Parish of the Resurrection, the Diocese of Mississippi, the Episcopal Church, be collected and united into one body of worship to be led by God to those things that are right; that whatever our opinions about ordination issues, our call is to tell the story of Jesus, always outward and onward, to search and to serve; and that all of us remember, that in the things that really count, that in the things in which we wish to bear witness, Easter always follows Good Friday.