Christ Episcopal Church
February 17, 2013
Lent 1-Annual Meeting
Back in July, I was invited to make a presentation at a workshop for churches seeking grants to support outreach ministries in their communities. My topic was the hallmarks of healthy congregations, in part because I happened to be on the diocesan committee that developed the hallmarks. But I was also asked to present the hallmarks of healthy congregations because Christ Church, Springfield, this church, our church, is considered to be one of those healthy congregations. Since most people would prefer to hear a story rather than a list, I told the story of how we, at Christ Church, came to have a sense of our identity as a church so that if someone asked us, we could say who we are and what we value. On this annual meeting day, I thought I would share that story with you, to remind you where we have been and how we got where we are. I also figure you should know what I am saying about you behind your backs.
In the gospel reading this morning, we hear the story of Jesus’ temptations in the wilderness. Jesus has just been baptized and he has been led by the Spirit into the wilderness where he stayed for 40 days. The voice of God is still ringing in his ears "You are my Son, the Beloved, with you I am well pleased" when he hears the voice of the devil say to him "If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread." Three times the devil challenges Jesus to do the devil’s bidding to prove Jesus is the Son of God, and three times, Jesus uses Scripture to understand his identity as the Son of God, until finally the devil departs until an opportune time.
Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to work out what it means to be the Son of God. At the end of the 40 days, Jesus leaves the wilderness and enters Nazareth where he enters the synagogue and reads from the prophet Isaiah "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. He has anointed me to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor." Jesus has discovered something of what it means to be the Son of God and these words are certainly not what the devil had in mind.
I wish I could tell you that our process of working out our identity as the part of the body of Christ known as Christ Church was completed in 40 days and what emerged from that work was a vision as clear as Jesus’ vision. However, the process took years and the vision that emerged will continue to grow and change. Such is the nature of the Spirit.
About five or six years ago our vestry decided to have a parish wide conversation to think about where the energy for ministry is at Christ Church. We had lots of ministry happening, but in a fairly unorganized and random way. So, the vestry hosted 10 meetings over a period of several weeks, used countless pads of newsprint to record your thoughts and ideas, and with the help of some additional parishioners, crunched the data to come up with categories of ministry, which would become the nucleus for ministry teams. Over one summer, parishioners gathered in groups to create a mission statement and goals for each of the ministry teams, leaders for the teams were identified, and we held a dinner in the fall to explain the teams and give people an opportunity to sign up. The teams met quarterly with great enthusiasm at first, then after a couple of years, enthusiasm waned. This is beginning to feel more like Moses and 40 years in the desert than Jesus and 40 days in the wilderness. But what we learned through all this is that we are a church that loves doing ministry, but really does not like meetings.
Fast forward a couple of years to phase 2 of our quest to articulate our identity. The vestry and I realized, with the help of a conference I attended, that our ability to tell the story of Christ Church would be greatly enhanced if we could articulate our values as a parish. The goal was to come up with 3-4 things that we actually value-not what we think we should value, but what we actually value, that tell the story of who we are. So, the vestry employed more pads of newsprint and proceeded to list every single ministry that happens here. That took the better part of a couple of vestry meetings.
Figuring that, in the words of the Ash Wednesday gospel "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also," and that where we are investing our time and energy is where our values are, the vestry looked for common themes in our ministries. To describe a months long adventure in one sentence, what the vestry realized is that all of our ministries revolve around hospitality, worship, outreach, or education. Through living those values, we want the world to know that everyone has a place at God’s table. Our budget is now organized around those values. If you read the Annual Report, you will see that our ministries are organized around those values. Joyce Spangler organizes the Clarion around those values. And when we begin a new ministry, we look to see how that ministry fits with those values. When we began Reading Camp, that ministry fit education as we sought to improve the reading skills of rising third graders, outreach as we reached children without a lot of other opportunities to improve their reading, hospitality as we welcomed those children and their families to Christ Church and treated them as our own for a week, and worship to the extent that we sang songs about nouns and verbs with the kids because we like to sing and think music is important. Reading Camp fits the values we hold at Christ Church.
That is where my story ended for the workshop. But this year, we will begin another new adventure. As many of you know, last summer the General Convention of the Episcopal Church approved a liturgy to use for the blessing of same sex unions. Over the summer, because education is one of our values, the vestry hosted a series of three Sunday afternoon forums so that we could learn the theological and scriptural reasons for blessing such unions. Because hospitality and outreach are two of our values, gay and lesbian people have found themselves welcome at Christ Church for years as we have hosted Equality Springfield’s meetings on Thursday nights, the Dayton Gay Men’s Chorus for the last three years, and gay and lesbian people have been vital and visible members of this parish. And because worship is one of our values, we can understand why two people who want to commit themselves to each other for life would want to do that in the context of a church blessing, even in a state where their marriage is not legal.
So, this spring, with the Bishop’s permission, we will bless the union of Rick Incorvati and Kent Brooks. We will not do this in any hidden way, but openly and as part of who we have become as Christ Church and the values we hold. Rick is now in the ordination process and will begin Deacon School in the fall. Our bishop requires that everyone in the ordination process, gay or straight, who is in a committed relationship have that relationship solemnized to the full extent of the law, which in Ohio, for Rick and Kent, means having that union blessed by the church. We did not arrive at this point overnight, by any means, and the vestry and I understand that not all of us will agree with this decision. But the decision reflects our desire to live as a church that embodies the values of education, outreach, hospitality and worship.
After 40 days, Jesus left the wilderness and began his ministry, more aware of who he was as the Son of God. At Christ Church, knowing who we are and what we value as children of God sends us out into the world with the message that we believe to be the gospel message of Jesus: There is a place for you at God’s table.
Amen.
Thank you.
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