A sermon preached by the Rev. Ephraim Radner, Grace Church (affiliated with the Diocese of Colorado), Colorado Springs, June 24, 2007
It is a privilege to be with you today, and I am humbled that you invited me. You need to know that I am not here for political reasons – as representative, for instance or supporter of Bp. O'Neill, or as representative or supporter of Don Armstrong. I work faithfully, I hope, for and under our bishop, and will continue to do so; and for all the turmoil and questions and real tensions, I remain a friend to Don. Let no one mistake these realities. But that is not why I accepted your invitation. I am here because I am bound to you in love, and your own witness, and the love and faith you have shared with me in the past has sustained me and sustains me still. Why would I not come if you had invited me? So I am thankful to God, and for you. &pI was asked to say something about the Episcopal Church and its future.The reality is this: I have long ago given up on predicting such afuture. Las Vegas odds would be all over the place on this one. Kindof like the weather. So let us stop predicting and calculating. Thathas gotten us into a lot of trouble, I realize – myself included. Instead, let us focus on the address of God to us: "Who do you saythat I am?" (Lk. 9:20). Not only, as we hear in the Gospel's accountof this conversation, "what are the possible ways of understanding whoI am?", "but who do you say that I am?", what is your stake in this,where is your heart, how shall you take your stand in relationship tome?
All commentators of this event, that takes place near the town CaesareaPhilippi, recognize the question posed by Jesus, and Peter's responseto it, as a critical turning point in the Gospel: for Peter now, forthe first time, openly confesses that Jesus is "the Christ of God;rdquo;, orin Matthew's version, even more strongly, that "You are the Christ, theson of the living God!" (Mt. 16:16). And now, also for the first time,Jesus lays out the true shape of this true confession: "The Son of manmust suffer many things, and be rejected by the leaders and chiefpriests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised"(Lk. 9:22). And, again for the first time in the Gospels, Jesus laysout the future, not only for himself, but for those who confess him astheir Lord: "If any want to become my followers, let them denythemselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For those whowant to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life formy sake will save it" (9:23f.).
Yes, let us focus on the address of God made to us, directly to ourhearts and to us as a gathered people: "who do you say that I am?". For the answer – the truth of who Jesus is – determines our future. And that is all we can say about our future, and all we shall want tosay, and all that counts in the end and even now.
"You are the Christ of God", says Peter. That is, you are the"Messiah" – "Christ" being the Greek word for the Hebrew "messiah",which means literally "the anointed one", that is, the king, promisedby God, anointed by him, sent by him, who bears all of God's promisesand powers and mission. "You are the Christ of God!" Yes, and so let usthen choose Jesus as the Christ.
And the Christ, the Messiah, is not someone who simply appears withauthority in the midst of history. The Christ is promised in theScriptures of Israel, and no where else – he is pointed to,yearned for, sworn to, prepared for, in Israel's history and in herLaw, and in her prophets and psalms.
This church, any church – this gathering and our diocese, and our national bodies and our Communion – we must choose thisJesus, and not another, the one who is the Christ, the Messiah whomIsrael longed for. And only the Scriptures will tell us this, theScriptures of the Old Testament, just as much – perhaps more – than theScriptures of the New: So Luke writes later, about the resurrectedJesus: what does he do with the apostles? He says to them, "These aremy words which I spoke to you, while I was still with you, thateverything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets andthe psalms must be fulfilled". Then he opened their minds tounderstand the scriptures, and said to them, "thus it is written…" (Lk.24:44f.). Choose this Jesus, for this is who Jesus is and thisis the Jesus God gives to us. And that means, and must mean: let ustake our Scriptures seriously to the end, utterly. Like Ezra, "let usset our heart to study the law of the Lord" (Ez. 7:10), "seeking out"God's word, as the Psalmist puts it (Ps. 119:45, 94, 155). For "I cometo fulfill the Law, not to abolish it" (Mt. 5:17). Seek out the Law.
And I stress this, because this is not what our churches have beendoing, certainly not as a whole, certainly not our larger church – theOld Testament Scriptures are at best haphazardly read, with all kindsof picking and choosing; at worst they are ignored outright ashistorically outmoded. And we are suffering as a result. We do notknow who Jesus is, as the Christ of God, and so we view himrather as something full-born, original, unlike anything else, "new" inevery way. And so all must be "new" for us, which is simply another wayof saying that all comes to mirror our own selves. Any decision wemake apart from the Scriptures read together will take us far from God.That is the first thing I would say about our Church's future: she hasno future in God's goodness, if we do not flee to the Scriptures,immerse ourselves in them, understand them, live by them.
But we are asked to go further. "You are the Christ", Peter says inMatthew, yes; but the Christ who is the "Son of the living God" (Mt.16:16). We must choose Jesus, who is promised in Scripture anddescribed and yearned after in Scripture, as the very Son of God – asthe very the power of the living God's life embodied. Which is why wemust choose the "Body of Christ" itself as our own life. The body,that is, "which is the church", "the fullness of him who fills all inall" (Eph. 1:22f.). We must choose the Body, this Body, as being Jesushimself, and as Jesus himself chooses it: "For no man ever hates hisown flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, as Christ does the church,because we are members of his body" and so "gave himself up for her"(Eph. 5:29f., 25).
Such a choice for the Body of Christ – for you are the Son of theliving God! – cuts against many grains. There are those in ourchurches ready to give up on the Communion, or on this or that part ofthe Communion, or this or that part of a diocese or parish. They comefrom the left and the right of the spectrum. They will not subjectthemselves to the Body's needs or demands or burdens. But that, myfriends, is not a choice for Christ Jesus, "King Jesus", Jesus theliving God in the flesh. For in choosing Jesus as the Christ, wechoose to give ourselves to the church. Hence I do not leave. I toomust join myself to the Centurion, who explains his faith to Jesus bysahing, "For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me.I tell this one, 'Go,' and he goes; and that one, 'Come,' and he comes.I say to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it." (Lk. 7:8f.). So I mustsubject myself to the Body of Jesus, here, where I am. That is thesecond thing I would say about our church's future: unless we subjectourselves to the whole Church, and the church at hand, we have noblessing. How we do this in particular instances is a challenge. Butit is the criterion of our decisions, make no mistake about it.
But even here, we have not finished being addressed by God. For Jesushimself responds to our choices, by telling us clearly, that he himselfmust suffer and die, in order to be raised, and so, "if any want tobecome my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their crossdaily and follow me". We must choose the cross ourselves, we whosearch the Scriptures and give ourselves for the Body of the Church; this is what it means, in fact: we must choose radical patience, whichis another way of translating the word "suffering". And who haspatience in the church these days, though God demands it?
I read something the other day from the intellectual historian MarkLilla. He explains, in a book review, how the Christian Gospelprovided a radically new view of what a human being is, in contrast tothe views of much of the ancient Mediterranean world of Jesus' time. Not only are persons the products of nature and society, as everyonethought then, "they are also direct children of God, whose lives areaimed ultimately toward salvation. This", Lilla goes on to say, "wasChristianity's great revelation – and its secret weakness. The life ofthe Christina pilgrim is hard, his progress slow. It offers no solaceon earth, certainly not in political life, which is subordinated to thespiritual mission of the church. And human beings are impatient; toldthat salvation awaits them, they rush ahead, building towers up toheaven or hastening the apocalypse" (NYRB, 6.28.07, p. 31). Yes, it isa kind of "weakness" in those who confess Jesus as the Christ, thatthey are called to radical patience. It is a weakness, of course, onlybecause God himself became "weak" in order to make us "strong" (cf. 1Cor. 1:27; 2 Cor. 8:9; 12:9f.). And He asks us to choose Him, not another.
And where does such a choice as this lead? The Episcopal Church is notan idol, and we must never think it more important than God. But it isbeing destroyed by bad choices, false choosing from across thetheological and political spectrum before God's address. It is beingdestroyed by those without patience, willing to create their ownchurches – churches of innovating doctrine and order, that must haveeverything now, and cannot work with the Body; churches of immediatepurity and conformity to perceived truths, that cannot wait to havetheir own witness work.and prevail. That is the third point I wouldmake about our future. It's future in God lies in our patience in God's patience.
Perhaps this destruction of our church is God's will. Perhaps it isnot. And that is not our concern in itself. What is clear in anyscenario is that we need conversion, one way or another, here,in this church, in this diocese, in this denomination and Communion andlarger Church beyond Anglicanism: we need conversion to God's Word,conversion to Christ's Body, conversion to the patience of perseverantfollowing. We need our choices converted: Who am I? You are theChrist, the son of the living God! And we shall follow! It is allthere; and the rest is God's to give. No more, no less.
I repeat Pope John XXIII's well-known prayer that he said each night: "Dear God: it's your church. I'm going to bed. Good night". That'snot an abdication of responsibility for the converted life, the lifethat chooses in Jesus as the Christ of God. It is rather anacknowledgement that the outcome to such a life and such a choice, andsuch a following, is not ours to manipulate. And if we understandthat, we can embrace the fact that the future of the Episcopal Churchand of the Anglican Communion in faith is one where our manipulationdisappears.
I am moving on, as you know, to teaching in seminary in Toronto. Ihave struggled hard in this decision, after 10 years in Pueblo, whereour lives have been blessed. But I have a concern for theologicaleducation now, and my move is born precisely of the faith I have justbeen talking about, whether rightly embodied and pursued, we shallsee. I want to teach, to form leaders, and to search the Scriptures,not for my pleasure, but for the long haul. Not for today or even fortomorrow. Because the long haul is God's haul, God's drawing in,God's catch. "The Kingdom of heaven is like a net which was throwninto the sea and gathered fish of every kind"; and only "at the end ofthe age" are the good and bad sorted out (Mt. 13:47ff.). That is the"haul" of God, long and full and finally as it should be. Jesus tellsthat parable to those who would follow him. And shall we not patientlyfollow this Christ, the Son of God "according to the Scriptures", inhis Church, along his path, letting God draw His catch in? Nothingcould be more glorious and wonderful than this. So I say, "come". Ifany would follow, come!
