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Sunday June 25, 2006 - Proper 7, Year B

It's been a tumultuous couple of weeks
for the Episcopal Church.
Not that it's unexpected—
it always happens like this when the General Convention meets, four lay people, four clergy and the bishops from every diocese in the Episcopal Church
coming together once every three years to do the legislative work of our denomination.
And in fact, in comparison with last time round in 2003, this year's Convention was fairly tame. There were no bodyguards
or bishops in bullet-proof vests,
walking around the Convention Center,
for most of the time there was a sense of commitment and purpose
rather than division and discord.

The first few days, at least
were dominated by conversation about the Millennium Development Goals,
with goals set by the United Nations
with the aim of eradicating extreme poverty in our lifetimes. Most of the goals
are things that we take for granted, but when you live on less than a dollar a day
it's not so simple. You can't just go buy food; you might have to send your children out to work, instead of having them go to school, or even sell one of you daughters into prostitution to put food on the table for everyone else. You might have to choose between paying for medication for yourself that would save you from passing HIV onto your unborn child, or putting shelter over the heads of your older children. You might ransack the hillsides for the firewood you need to keep warm, even though the loss of vegetation might mean landslides when the rains come.

The Millennium Development goals are to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, to achieve universal primary education, to promote gender equality and empower women, to reduce child mortality, to improve maternal health, to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, to ensure environmental sustainability, and to create a global partnership for development with targets for aid, trade and debt relief.
They're big goals,
but if we as individuals and as the church and as a nation get behind them
they can be achieved.

Some people
have wondered why the church should get involved at all.
After all, these goals are set by governments,
and only they have the sort of power and money it will take to make them happen.
But the bible is full of calls to God's people to do justice and be merciful, it's full of condemnation of those who don't care about other's basic needs.
Jesus himself
said that when we feed someone who is hungry, it is as if we are feeding him. If we give water to someone who is thirsty, it is as if we are giving water to him.

Our faith isn't just about what we believe,
it's about how we live
and how we love.
That's why in our service of baptism
we ask the question in the baptismal covenant,
"Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?"
And if one girl learns to read, or if one mother lives long enough for her baby to know her,
or if one little boy doesn't die of malnutrition,
then maybe, maybe, we've begun to live out that promise of our baptism.

And so a lot of the first few days of General Convention
were taken up with people talking, conservatives and liberals alike,
about how we as a church
can get involved
with changing this world of ours,
with doing the work of justice and mercy.

And then, of course, came the election of the new Presiding Bishop, the senior bishop of our church, leader and spokesperson. How it works
is that the bishops elect someone, then a committee made up of lay and clergy representatives check out the person that has been elected and make a recommendation to the House of Deputies, that is, the lay and clergy representatives from all the dioceses, on whether to consent to the election or not.
There were seven candidates, and no one expected any surprises. We all thought
that one of the middle of the road guys
would be elected, someone who would be more or less
acceptable to everyone.
This time last Sunday morning,
the bishops, clergy and lay deputies and visitors all worshiped together,
and then at the end of the service, the bishops left the Convention Center
to go to a nearby church
where they were locked in
for as long as it took
to elect a new presiding bishop.

At about 3pm, a rumor went around. They'd elected someone
on the fifth ballot. Eventually a messenger came
with a sealed envelope. That was given to the committee, who went off
to work on their recommendation. We still didn't know
who it was.
When the committee came back,
the name was announced. Katharine Jefferts Schori, Bishop of Nevada.
to a room where they looked at the name
There was a gasp — no one had expected her to be elected —
and then the Convention Hall erupted in cheers, celebration, laughter and tears.

Many people are delighted about her election. Apparently she stood out among the candidates for her skills, her wisdom, and her manner. She speaks Spanish fluently, which is important because the Episcopal Church includes not just the US but Colombia, Puerto Rico, Honduras and other Spanish speaking countries. She is a pilot, was an oceanographer before she was ordained, and has strong pastoral and management skills.

Many people are excited that she is a woman. It is not that long since women were not allowed to be on the vestry or serve as acolytes;
now we have a woman as our most senior bishop.

But others have mixed feelings. You may have heard that our relationship in the Episcopal Church with Anglicans in many other parts of the world is strained. The tensions are particularly difficult around the issue of homosexuality. But there are also many other parts of the Anglican church worldwide who do not have women bishops, and some do not have women priests. That means that us having a woman bishop may make things even more tense. So there are some,
who had hoped we wouldn't cause any more trouble by electing a woman!

The third big thing that happened at Convention was a series of resolutions
to address the Windsor Report. The Windsor Report is the work of a commission of Anglicans from all over the world, including one from the US,
who were called to put together a response to the conflict within our tradition over sexuality,
to try to come up with some way that we could move forward together
even when we differ.
A number of resolutions were passed at Convention in response to this report. They affirmed our commitment to the Anglican Communion, they expressed regret for the way in which our actions had strained relationships, they called for restraint in consecrating bishops "whose manner of life presents a challenge to the wider church."
Some people think that the resolutions didn't go far enough. Some think they went too far.
Now we wait
to see what the response of the rest of the world will be.

That's been a long explanation, but I think it's important for us
to talk about these things, and not just rely on what we read in the newspapers — because you all know
that newspaper stories are written to sell newspapers, and sometimes the facts get a little muddled.

And it's also important
for us to talk about what we do in response to decisions like these.
The reality is
that some of us will disagree with some of the decisions of General Convention; some of us will agree with them wholeheartedly. Some will feel hurt; others will feel encouraged and supported.
But no matter what we think, the reality is that the decisions have been made. They can't be revisited until the next General Convention, in 2009.
So what do we do now?

It's really tempting to go for an easy answer. When I read the readings for today, I really wanted to preach a sermon about how wonderful it is that when life is in turmoil, when we feel like we're in the middle of a storm, Jesus comes and calms things down. Or how when we're faced by challenges that seem insurmountable, God gives us courage and skill to deal with it, like
David.
There is truth in there somewhere, but it tends to let us off the hook. We don't have to do anything: God will deal with it.

But it's our reading from 2 Corinthians, and the verses that come just before it, that are maybe more help to us. The fifth chapter of 2 Corinthians reads like this, "All this" — that is, our salvation and re-creation — "all this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors for Christ."

God has given us the ministry of reconciliation, God calls us to be reconcilers. Our job is to build bridges
between people and God
and between ourselves and others.
Our job is to do the work of reconciliation.
And what that looks like
is being willing to listen to people that we disagree with,
and not just listen
but make a real effort to develop a relationship with them.
It means working together with people who we might not even like,
or at least we might not like some of what they believe
working together
on the things we can agree on.
It means reaching out to care for people in need
even when they have hurt us.
It means opening our hearts
and maybe even
allowing ourselves to get hurt.

That's what 2 Corinthians 6, the reading we had today
is talking about.
It's about doing the work of reconciliation
even when it's costly.
For me
it's donating towards the Millenium Development Goals,
even when I'd really like to spend the money on myself.
It's about saying to someone who doesn't agree with the ordination of women
that I won't force my ministry on them.
It's about making an effort to go talk with other clergy
who I heartily disagree with.
It's about putting aside our differences to work for the greater good.

What that work of reconciliation looks like
will be different for each of us.
But the message of 2 Corinthians
is that we are all called to do the work of reconciliation. We're called to it
even when it's costly
we're called to it
and equipped for it
with all the gifts of the Spirit,
with purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, and the power of God.

That's what I'll take away from General Convention 2006. John Danforth, former senator from Missouri and ambassador to the UN, spoke to Convention on Thursday last week. He said,
talking about all that was going on at convention, all the things that threaten to tear us apart, he said
"I believe that we have a higher calling, a more central message ... ours is a special calling to the ministry of reconciliation."

It's up to us. In response to Convention, in response to the world around us,
we are called to the work of reconciliation. We
are ambassadors
for God.

Sermon ©Raewynne J. Whiteley 2005