As I begin my eighth Bishop’s Annual Address, I would like to think out loud with you about what we are doing in this diocese and where I pray we are going. I welcome the opportunity in the context of our convention theme of “Living a Scandalous Gospel.”
Because we are already “Living with a Scandalous” Gospel. Notice I say “living with.” That does not mean we are always living it but we are living with it; it is in our very midst. As our homilist, Frank, said so well last evening, if we have the Bible we have the scandal among us. And to address the question Frank raised, “so what?” - What’s the scandal? In the words of author and preeminent preacher Peter Gomes, “The gospel is offensive and always overturns the status quo. It’s not good news for those who wish not to be disturbed. … ”
Jesus told stories and gave us images of what this overturning looked like in his day - they are in the Book - about the wedding feast where the outcasts were invited in, those who did not have the proper garments. And many more such stories about inclusion are in the Book!
This morning I want to tell you a story about this Gospel that overturns conventional practice; practice that is not bad, but that still misses the mark. The story is from this neighborhood; it is about a couple that lives just across the street from Paulsen House - Sandy and Smitty Myers.
About three years or so ago, Smitty, a well respected retired Dean of the Gonzaga Law School, celebrated his 90th birthday. A big party was held in his honor in a lovely setting - the MAC (Museum of Arts and Culture), an artistically designed structure that overlooks the river. Being their neighbors and having become friends with them, Gloria and I were invited to attend and, as we expected, dignitaries from all of Spokane were present. But they weren’t the only ones present. In the mix and clearly comfortable to be there were people from all walks of life.
As we introduced ourselves and met others we learned that the men who drive the recycling truck that serves our area were there. The local mail carrier and spouse were there. The crew from the garbage collection truck was there; servers, waiters and waitresses, from local restaurants were there. And the couple being honored knew them all by name. Everyone had a great time, and no one seemed out of place. All were, without a doubt, welcome.
The button I was given yesterday evening - pinned on me while I was talking - stirred a twinge of conscience. It reads: “Who isn’t here?” At first it annoyed me a bit, because when we gather at convention, I want to celebrate, to indulge in being this extraordinary diocesan group that we are and the blessing - Frank - we are to one another, and to raise up the marvelous work that is being done by our congregations. For it is happening and it is making a difference - even transforming our communities. But there are those who are not here, and the scandal of the Gospel won’t let us forget it. And what a good and right thing that is - for us all.
That scandalous Gospel reminds us at every turn that every human being is important - Jesus would leave 99 sheep to find one lost. In the story of blind Bartimaeus, people said to him, “leave Jesus alone. ” But Jesus stopped . . . looked him in the eye, blind eyes, spoke to him and healed him. When people are treated with respect, as important, healing occurs.
There are posters here that remind us of unholy history across continents and in our own country. The practice of slavery. In the 1400s and for five more centuries, more than ten million slaves were shipped from Africa to the Americas. We scandalize the Gospel when we treat anyone as less than human.
And what we do makes a difference; God has a plan and we are the plan, as our speaker reminded us last evening. The Gospel is lived out in us.
That Gospel truth hit home for me and others at the Lambeth Conference held this past summer in Canterbury. As around 700 bishops and nearly as many spouses from around the globe gathered for three weeks together, the bishops attended a 2 ½ day retreat in Canterbury Cathedral. Having never been to that part of the world, I was in awe of much around me and especially Canterbury Cathedral, the historic landmark for Anglicanism.
Not long after we arrived at the Cathedral I was gazing and walking through this grand, historic cathedral when I saw a placard on a great column that read: “Mission Statement.” I quickened to read it, thinking this must be some mission statement, given this stately structure. It didn’t take long to read it. The statement was shorter than I expected, yet it said it all. The full mission statement was four words: “To Show People Jesus.” That’s it; the entire mission defined in four words — light on length; but profound in purpose.
For to live it out means striving to let the authentic Jesus show through us - the authentic Jesus, not the one we so readily domesticate or, as one passionate preacher described him, the Jesus we dress up and slick down. But the Jesus whose words and actions speak for themselves. As writer Phyllis Tickle encourages us, listen to the actual words of Jesus, not the narrative around them, or the commentary about them, just the words. They can be scandalous.
We have so much to treasure and celebrate in this diocese. The generosity of spirit all around, the wonderfully welcoming, faithful, fruitful ministries of people and congregations, already being lived out in scandalous ways.
But we have more to see and more to do. God is continuing God’s work of revelation, unfolding new possibilities and even new emerging visions for us. New ways of being the Church that are challenging, sometimes frightening. And we’re called to step forward in uncertain, creative ways.
Let me give you but one example. A restart of a Church. A new mission on an old site. Holy Trinity, Spokane. It is a model of what more people are referring to as the emerging church. When I drop in there, the doors to the church are open. Banners are flying outside, on weekdays and on Sundays. More often than not inside the Church I hear music; usually it is the voice of Johnny Cash - and this is an Episcopal Church - being amplified by an iPod and tiny but powerful speakers in a corner. Something just doesn’t seem right. I’m not convinced God wants iPods in the Church. Yet there is something about it that is very right.
In a neighborhood that only recently was characterized by poverty, meth houses, and violence, Holy Trinity is there. And from beginning to end the mission of this congregation has been to say to the community - this is your church. This is your Gospel, and it is being shaped to be heard by all. There is much creativity and a great deal of flexibility. And a congregation of six to eight people a year ago now sees sometimes 60 people in church, worshipping on Sunday.
It is not about building a church and inviting others to attend our church. It is about saying to all, it is your church. You are not only welcome, you are invited. It is about striving ” To Show People Jesus.” You won’t be surprised to hear that it is the people of Holy Trinity who are passing out buttons that ask “Who isn’t here?”
It is not enough just to welcome others when they show up; we must invite them to come. We have congregations that do that - and do it well - one of those is St. Anne’s, Omak. They are shameless - perhaps scandalous - in invitation. This summer they held a big ice cream social, invited everyone in. In the course of the event they managed to get names and addresses for all who had not been there before. And they followed up with personal notes afterwards. When the fall schedule began, 32 people - adults and youth - showed up who were not previous attendees.
At the annual Bishop’s All Star weekend for youth, a good size group descended on the community of Oroville, hosted by Trinity Church. The young people worked hard - cleaning and scrubbing, doing yard work, and much more to make life better for older people, for the community. They could have been doing many other things, but they weren’t. And we had a great time. Maybe even in one way or another helped “to show people Jesus.”
It is happening and I haven’t even touched on all that is going on throughout the Diocese. Time does not allow. But we can say that we know we aren’t finished - that would be scandalous. And we know God isn’t finished with us. There is more to come. And what a great gift it is to be moving into it together.
So now I want to turn to where I pray we are going in addition to what we are already doing. The place where we are called to go looks like this - and it comes from the Mission Strategy adopted by Diocesan Council in September of 2007, which is being implemented daily in staffing and strategies.
We are going to where we will more and more be “creative and compelling witnesses to Jesus Christ in the Inland Northwest.” That’s our vision. To do so we are committed to building dynamic, growing communities of faith. And our guiding ethos is “openness, innovation, boldness, and risk.” In Christ, we have great expectations - to think big and bold - innovative, open to risk, to failure as well as success.
Speaking of risk, today is St. Luke’s Day; it is the day when the Gospel tells us that Jesus went to his own home town, entered the temple, stood up, opened the scroll and read:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.
And he said this was being fulfilled in him - today. A scandalous thing to say.
All were amazed at his words, impressed. But then he said a few more things and was later driven to the edge of a cliff and almost thrown over.
It is risky to claim our calling. The church itself must be a safe place, but in carrying out the Gospel we cannot play it safe. And we aren’t playing it safe. We are doing it and we are on our way to that place where the vision already stated is more and more a way of life in this diocese.
We not only do it together, we do with specific strategies and with help already well underway. Let me name specifics.
The leadership of this diocese is committed to congregational development for every faith community. It is a high priority, and we are staffing accordingly to assist every congregation. We are training more than ten persons to help congregations, all congregations, do the following:
- Invite/Include -Evangelism
- Equip/Enable - Formation (making disciples)
- Send/Support - Outreach
We have three new Commissions established over the last couple of years.
1. Young Adult, Youth, and Children’s Formation
2. Social Justice and Outreach Ministries
3. Camp Cross
We are revisioning for Camp Cross, asking what God is calling us to do with the treasure we’ve been given, something perhaps beyond summer camps and weekend conferences. More to come.
Our Foundation is growing in service to congregations and our endowments are increasing dollars to support Church Growth and Development.
Anti-racism work and Social Justice and Outreach work continue with greater breadth and depth.
We are trying new models for leadership development - Julia, our young adult intern, is with us today. She is the first person to serve in the WaterMark program developed in this diocese.
We are revising our Constitution & Canons to serve mission more effectively.
I am appointing two new working groups: one for Communication, the other for Economics and Environment. Both will review what we are doing and make recommendations to improve.
In closing, I want to challenge every congregation to think scandalously about the three basics of being a healthy, vital congregation: 1) Invite/Include, 2) Equip/Enable, and 3) Send/Support.
I heard someone say the other day that the hope of the church is in our young people because when it comes to the church they have “a critical eye” and “a hopeful heart”
I pray that, regardless of age, we will have critical eyes and hopeful hearts to recognize and proclaim by word and example the core of the Gospel.
Having referred to St. Luke’s Day, I now want to recall another Saints’ day, St. Michael and All Angels. On that day the Gospel reading tells us that we will “see greater things than these.” When we more and more learn about and live out a scandalous Gospel, and help others to do the same, we will see greater things, and we ourselves will be both blessed and a blessing. Amen.