Tuesday, May 19, 2015

The 7th Sunday of Easter: Trusting in God: "Your Word Is Truth"


This summer the Episcopal Church through voting at General Convention will elect a new Presiding Bishop.  There are four candidates. One of the candidates, Bishop Michael Curry, spoke at our Diocesan Convention several years ago. I know a little bit about 2 of the others. All seem to be highly qualified. Yet I wonder if they realize the whirlwind that leading the Episcopal Church will be.

When the current Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori visited Delaware this past winter, she met with various groups up and down the state. I went to a lunch meeting in Celeste Cox’s home and found myself sitting next to her as we balanced our plates on our laps. We chatted briefly and I told her how proud I was of the Episcopal Church under her leadership. I added that she has suffered a lot of criticism, much of it unfair.  She replied, “It goes with the territory.”

For a long while in our history the Presiding Bishop was simply the most senior bishop and remained a diocesan bishop, except when needed to preside over the House of Bishops.  So, although it wasn't by lot, the longevity of one bishop vs. others meant that no one “stood” for the office. Since 1919 the PB has been elected.

What if the “election” process looked like the way Matthias was chosen: praying for God to see which person would be best and then casting lots (in a carefully supervised and video taped moment).  Historically, casting lots was done using sticks with markings, stones with symbols that were thrown into a small area, and then the result was interpreted. I imagine sometimes the interpretation could have been problematic with disagreements among observers.  So the best way today might simply be to draw straws, one with the shortest straw (the loser) becomes Presiding Bishop.

This description offends our democratic sensibilities, I think.  Although many of us profess to try to discern where God may be leading us when we make a decision, it would be hard—were I a General Convention delegate—to give up my vote for Presiding Bishop.  I would prayerfully vote, but that would be my limit. 

Perhaps what the disciples understood God to be like allowed them to trust this ancient method of choosing leadership. The passage we just heard from the 17th chapter of John’s gospel tells how Jesus understood the one he called “Father.”  What has been called Jesus’ high priestly prayer depicts God as the One who acted and who will continue to act—the One who has given and will continue to give.

God acted in giving the disciples to Jesus. God gave Jesus the words the disciples needed to hear to understand the truth of Jesus.  God will act to protect the disciples in his name, so they may enter the relationship that the Father and the Son have and experience joy in doing that.  God will act to protect them from “the evil one.” Finally, God will sanctify them, setting them apart for the sacred task of mission, testifying to the truth of God’s revelation of God’s self in Jesus..

Because Jesus spoke this prayer as a plea on behalf of his disciples, it may well resonate with us today as followers of the risen Christ. Jesus’s prayer shows that he “entrusts the future to God.”  The community of his followers will understand that their life together “rests in and depends on God’s care.” The intimate relationship conveyed by the tone of Jesus’ words offers a glimpse of how we may relate to God as well. We can envision a future “in which God’s governance and care of [us] is complete” and “in which the experience of God’s love for [us] is realized.”*

But in the meantime we have been set apart for the sacred mission of testifying to God’s revelation of God’s self in Jesus.  If that sounds a bit abstract, it is.  But it can be made very real in the way we live and the way we explain our choices to others.  The Vestry is reading and discussing a book by Dr. Eric Law called “Holy Currencies.”  In it he suggests ways in which a Christian community can “spend” and “receive” certain parts of its life together to renew itself and enrich its ministry to serve. 

One currency he describes is “the currency of truth.” Giving and receiving “truth” means encouraging respectful sharing and listening to all possible points of view about a particular issue. I was reminded of our “holy conversations” about same-sex marriage, guns, and the death penalty several years ago. (I did use some techniques I learned in a workshop with Eric Law during a clergy retreat.)  Choosing to participate in these and following the guidelines, we may have found ourselves more aware of God’s presence as we listened to folks who held opinions quite different than our own.  If we can become so aware of God’s presence in a situation where people disagree, then perhaps “casting lots” does not appear quite as antiquated as it first looks to modern eyes.

I’d like to close with a doxology written by Eric Law (which can be sung to the traditional tune):
“Praise God from whom all blessings flow
Circling the earth so all may grow
Vanquishing fear so all may life
Widening grace so all may live” 

May we see ourselves and our ministries as filled with God’s joy and grace, so God may be revealed through who we are and in what we do.

*Gail R. O’Day, Reflections on John 17: 1-26, The New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. IX, p.797-8

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