Reverend Ref +

"SERMON" EPIPHANY IV - YEAR A (This is long -- sorry)

The reader board at St. Paul's says, "What is Wise". That is a very good question, especially in light of our reading today from Corinthians and what is going on in our own church. If you don't know, or haven't been paying attention, our church, the Episcopal Church in the USA, as well as the rest of the Anglican Communion, is in the midst of turmoil. In July of 2003, General Convention gave consent to the election of Gene Robinson as the Bishop of New Hampshire. Bishop Robinson is a gay man who has been living with his partner of 13 plus years. This process set off a firestorm around the Episcopal Church and around the Anglican Communion.

We have conservative bishops and liberal bishops lobbing verbal bombs at each other. We have conservative parishes threatening, or actually, pulling out of the Episcopal Church. We have at least one liberal church suing their bishop. And we have bishops crossing diocesan boundaries to "minister" to displaced parishes.

On top of all of this, we have a situation in the Anglican Communion where bishops from Africa, South America and Indonesia want us out of the Anglican Communion. Part of this is about homosexuality. Part of this is because they don't understand our polity. And part of this is because they have been oppressed by us and other first world countries for so long that they are now beginning to voice how they think things should be. It seems like we have forgotten how to be decent to each other.

What is wise? What is wisdom? Paul says that the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom. That the weakness of God is stronger than man's greatest strength. And Micah points out that God wants us to do justice and walk humbly before God. With everything going on, are we pretending to be wise about this, or are we willing to walk humbly and seek God's wisdom?

Next week, we will have a service at St. Paul's in celebration of my new ministry here in the Ruby Valley. For the lessons at that service, I chose the readings for William White, second bishop and first Presiding Bishop in the Episcopal Church. I chose those readings in part because of the collect for his feast day: O Lord, in a time of turmoil and confusion you raised up your servant William White, and endowed him with wisdom, patience, and a reconciling temper, that he might lead your Church into ways of stability and peace: Hear our prayer, and give us wise and faithful leaders, that through their ministry your people may be blessed and your will be done; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

It seems to me that we are in a time of turmoil. The House of Bishops met a few weeks ago to discuss their take on the situation in the church, and to give some early thought to the Windsor Report. Here's what they had to say.

To the faithful in Christ Jesus, greetings in the season of Epiphany. We rejoice together with you that God has "caused a new light to shine in our hearts" revealing God's glory in the face of Jesus Christ our Lord. The sufferings of our brothers and sisters in the aftermath of tsunamis in South Asia and flooding and mud slides in California and here in Utah where we are meeting, make us long all the more for this new light revealed to us in Christ. We are mindful as well of the suffering around the world caused by global poverty, HIV/AIDS, malaria, other diseases, and war. In this suffering world we are called to "serve and signify God's mission to the world, that mission whereby God brings to men and women, to human societies and to the hole world, real signs and foretastes of that healing love which will one day put all things to rights" (Windsor Report, paragraph 3).

We decided at our September meeting in 2004 to set aside this time so we might together begin to receive the Windsor Report with humility. We have met for a day and a half in Salt Lake City. We welcome with gratitude the work of the Lambeth Commission on Communion. We realize this is a long-term effort which will most likely extend beyond our March meeting. In the meantime, we aim to practice the more intentional consultative processes called for by the Windsor Report. We also anticipate the Executive Council of our church joining in this consultation.

In this spirit of intentional practice, we affirm that all need to repent, as the Archbishop of Canterbury reminded us in his Advent Letter 2004. We repent of the ways we as bishops have sometimes treated each other, failing to honor Christ's presence in one another. Furthermore, too often we have also failed to recognize Christ's presence fully manifest in our sister and brother Anglicans around the global communion. We honor their full voice and wisdom. We desire mutuality. We recognize our interdependence inthe Body of Christ.

Moreover, we as the House of Bishops express our sincere regret for the pain, the hurt, and the damage caused to our Anglican bonds of affection by certain actions of our church. KNowing that our actions have contributed to the current strains in our Communion, we express this regret as a sign of our deep desire for and commitment to continuation of our partnership in the Ancligan Communion.

We note here that our decision-making structures differ from those in many parts of the Anglican Communion and that our actions require conciliar involvement by all the baptized of our church, lay and ordained. Therefore we as bishops, in offering our regrets, do not intend to preempt the canonical authority of the General Convention of the Episcopal Church. At the same time, we are keenly aware of our particular responsibility for episcopal leadership.

We long for the fullest expression of the gift of communion that God has given us through Christ. "The communion we enjoy with God in Christ and by the Spirit, and the communion we enjoy with all God's people living and departed, is the specific practical embodiment and fruit of the gospel itself" (Windsor Report, paragraph 3). We rejoice in our partnership in the worldwide Anglican Communion and affirm anew our commitment to the interdependence of this church as a member of the Anglican Communion.

We agree that one important expression of our communion would be a communion-wide study and discernment process on matters of human sexuality as recommended by Lambeth Conferences of 1978, 1988 and 1998 and are eager to continue to respond to this challenge. This would be a sign of respect for gay and lesbian persons in our common life and of our ongoing pastoral care for them. We also believe that such a process would strengthen our communion. By doing so, we will be able to share more of the prayerful conversations and studies on the ministries and contributions of homosexual persons in the church that have enriched our experience for many years. The Presiding Bishop has already established a committee to offer a theological explanation of how "a person living in a same gender union may be considered eligible to lead theflock of Christ" (Windsor Report, paragraph 135).

We pray our brothers and sisters throughout the Anglican Communion will forgive us and that together we may remain in steadfast relationship so we might open our lives and our hearts to one another and learn how the Holy Spirit is acting in our different contexts. We are eager to take steps to make this possible, and particularly would welcome invitations to visit other Anglican provinces to learn from them the many ways they are vital witnesses to the healing love of Christ, often in very difficult circumstances.

During this brief meeting we humbly struggled in our deliberations to discern how best to receive the Windsor Report. We had an extensive discussion about a "moratorium on the election and consent to the consecration of any candidate to the episcopate who is living in a same gender union until some new consensus in the Anglican Communion emerges" (Windsor Report, paragraph 134). We have only begun a serious and respectful consideration of how we might respond. Further, we have not had sufficient time to give substantive consideration to recommendations in the Report calling for a moratorium on diocesan boundary violations or the call for a moratorium and further discussion of the authorization of liturgical texts blessing same sex unions. (Here we not that there are those among us who do not agree with the statement in paragraph 144 of the Windsor Report that "the Episcopal Church has by action of Convention made provision for the development of public Rites of Blessing of same sex unions.")

In February 2005 the Primates of the Anglican Communion will consider the Windsor Report. We commit ourselves to a more thorough consideration of the range of concrete actions identified in the Report at our House of Bishops meeting in March 2005. We do not wish to act in haste. We believe it is extremely important to take the time to allow the Holy Spirit to show us ways we can engage with people throughout our church in a consideration of all the invitations for further reflection and the recommendations of the Windsor Report.

We seek together the epiphany of Christ's reconciling love for the world, which lies at the heart of the mission we share. It is our prayer that along with Anglican Christians around the world we may be faithful to God's misison.

What is wisdom? What is wise? I can't answer that for you. All I can do is pray for it.