Pentecost XVIII, Proper 22

Habakkuk, 1:1-6,12-13;2:1-4
2 Timothy, 1:6-14
Luke, 17:5-10

"Increase our faith!"

+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

A few times each year I do not worship here on Sunday morning. I miss it. On a couple of these occasions, I've not gone to church and have simply said a mass wherever I'm staying. The day after I was married I said mass on the kitchen table, offered thanks for our wedding, and of course prayed for the parish. On another occasion, I said mass outdoors at the ocean shore on a crisp, beautiful, early morning – wonderful to receive the risen Son as the sun rises.

Usually when I'm away, I go to the local parish. It's important to be with the local Christian community. The mass unites God's people, and Christians should be with one another on Sundays. Two Sundays ago when I was on vacation I went to the local parish, what I expect is a fairly typical Episcopal parish – dignified, hospitable, catholic in the essentials, eucharistic. It's good to experience other parishes and to worship Christ in different ways. It broadens and deepens our spirituality.

Yet, I usually leave feeling, "That was a fine, faithful parish, but it's not me." How we worship our Lord forms who we are, and who I am, and who most of us are, is what we do here. In no way at all does that make us a better Christian or more pleasing to God than other Christians. The point is that this parish is special, a rare gem. Like you, I treasure it. Like you, I offer up an enormous portion of my time, talent, and treasure for it, and I do so with happiness, and love, and pride.

That does not mean we as a parish are exactly where God wants us to be. That does not mean we can be complacent. The Christian pilgrimage through life is about growth, about becoming more Christ-like, about increasing in faith and sharing faith, and so it is about change. There's no growth without change; life does not get better without change. When we reflect on our lives, we see that the times when we have grown and matured the most are times of enormous change: going to school, leaving home, moving your home, making a living, starting a new job, getting married, having a child, dealing with disasters and misfortune. These challenging changes should make us more ourselves. They should help us grow up.

The same is true with our spiritual lives and how we exist as a parish. When I talk about change in the parish, I do not mean that we should become something that we are not. We don't want to be some other congregation or to model ourselves after another congregation. We change by building upon our strengths, by honoring our history and what we are, by growing in our faithfulness to God's call for us, by more powerfully proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ, by continuing upon the path we've started. For this purpose, God has given us many, many gifts – gifts that shape our identity.

One of our strongest gifts is our worship, worship that enlivens our hearts, our minds, our bodies, life-changing worship where we encounter God, an authentic and transforming experience of the holy, worship that gives us a glimpse of the heavenly court, that shows us the beauty, and majesty, and mystery, and love of God. It fits well with this building, a grand, gorgeous building that takes us out of worldly banality to the throne of God, a glorious building hallowed by the prayers and loving care of many generations, many holy saints. We have a sturdy catholic tradition that makes us a full service church: all the sacraments are reverently administered, none of the accoutrements ignored. It's full, rich, positive catholic faith and practice; it's not catholic-lite but full-bodied and unabashed, though not Roman catholic. We have always been Christ-centered in our preaching and teaching: a place where the gospel is heard, a place where the intellect is respected and engaged, a place where history and learning is honored, a place to seek God and to ask the hard, important questions of life. And in more recent decades, we changed to become a diverse congregation, people of vastly differing backgrounds bound deeply by our faith in Christ. The congregation has become a better image of what heaven is like.

One of the ways we've been changing in more recent years is how we approach ministry. Clergy are not the only people called to ministry. Traditionally, catholic parishes have a tendency toward being priest-ridden, everything flowing to and from Father who knows best. We are becoming more de-centralized to empower parishioners better to engage in Christian service, to take greater responsibility for our corporate ministry. That's the point of our vision teams. That's what happened here yesterday. The S. Francis animal blessing we have here was a tremendous event, the result of the leadership and initiative and faithfulness of parishioners, who are reaching out to minister to others, to address needs, and to honor life. We are always working to develop our attitudes so that they more closely conform to Christ's example that we focus outside of ourselves.

The parable in today's gospel reminds us that we are servants, not masters. We do not wait to be served. We do not expect to be catered to, but rather, like Jesus, to minister to others. Parishioners are not objects of ministry; they are doers of ministry, not consumers of ministry, but producers of ministry. So that we remain focused on service, we are beginning to challenge ourselves by asking: if we shut our doors tomorrow, who besides us, who outside of our doors, would care?

Our goal here is not to be merely a congenial community of like-minded people. If that were to happen, then our purpose becomes keeping members satisfied. The clergy and the vestry become customer service specialists. Our primary purpose here is to have communion with God, to grow in Christ, to know the strength and joy of living with Jesus. Our purpose here is to have Christ's charity and faith and hope characterize all that we do and to spread the gospel by sharing what we have, our gifts, with other people.

Another way that change is part of our lives is through renewal. Our spiritual lives need continual renewal. Tent revivals aren't for nothing; there's a real truth in them. We have to recall our conversion – why we became Christians, how we've experienced God in our lives. It helps us grow in faith, enthusiasm, vitality, and joy.

As a parish priest, there's nothing I like to see more than someone letting Christ into their lives and seeing how that life expands and grows. When I first became a Christian, I had enormous excitement about Christ. Within two and a half years of my baptism, I was in seminary. One of the primary ways I remain so excited about Christ is through new converts and people returning to the Church. They renew me; they help me. People are looking for God, and they come to the Church with questions, and longings, and hurts, and confusion. We have to be there for them. Their concerns are our priority.

One of the great blessings of being a parish priest is hearing stories of God working in people's lives. One day, not long before I went on vacation, I had two conversations with parishioners, really each of them was a testimony – if you will. When Christ is real to us, then we talk about him. Both of these parishioners have become regular, practicing Christians in the last couple of years. Both are experiencing some tough times, unpleasant challenges and sorrow that we'd wish upon no one. But for both of them, God is more present in their lives than ever. Their faith has grown, their relationship with Christ more real. Their challenges are not going to disappear, but God is giving them strength and growth. There's sadness in their challenges, but there's also real beauty and blessing in how they are responding. Their lives have changed. It's why the parish is here.

Another change happening in this parish is that we focus not on what's wrong with the Church, but what's right. If we emphasize the difficulties of the Church – and there's strife and confusion in all denominations, if we focus on the strife in the Church and threats to the Church, we tend to become more angry, less trusting, more prone to despair. The Church in every age has troubles and injustices, sometimes even costing people their lives. Thank God things are not so bad here and now. The Church always marches forward with good news. Christ is always with the Church. The power of evil does not prevail.

We focus on the good things Christ is doing. The great opportunities we have. This parish is at the center of where it's happening. When I came here eleven years ago, my fourth night here I was awoken suddenly, frightened by half a dozen gunshots just outside my window. Things have changed radically since then. Twelve years ago, the DC Government was giving away shells, abandoned homes, in our neighborhood, and now there's one a hundred yards from us on the market for a million dollars. There are more people moving into this neighborhood than anywhere else in town. This is where it's happening. There are great opportunities for mission – more than ever.

Another way we are changing here is by dealing with our differences of opinion more honestly and openly, all the while trying to love one another as Christ loves us. Like every family, the members of our parish family have differences. We don't want to ignore those differences, but to acknowledge them – not to sweep them under the carpet, but to make peace with them. We honor people with whom we disagree.

Christian hospitality, Christian charity is about a lot more than being friendly to one another. Generally we become friends with people like ourselves – people with similar backgrounds, lifestyles, interests, values, but Christ wants more from us. He wants us to love all people, those we like and those we don't like and those we don't know at all. Let us remember how Jesus says he comes to us: "I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me water, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me." (Mt 25:34-35)

We heard S. Paul tell Timothy this morning that God gives his followers not the spirit of fear, but the spirit of power, of love, of self-control. We don't have to be afraid of challenges and difficulties. We are not like the man who takes the talent God has given him and buries it. We take our talents, our gifts from God, and multiply them to his glory. The changes we have initiated together build upon God's gifts to us. They are our response to God's call. They increase our faith.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.