Quote from C.S. Lewis

In the same way, the Church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs.  If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time.  God became Man for no other purpose.  It is even doubtful, you know, whether the whole universe was created for any other purpose.  ~ From "Mere Christianity"

TALK ABOUT IT: Human destiny 

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DO IT (INNER WORK): Mistaken Identity 

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DO IT (OUTER WORK):  Being Christ to Others

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Expect Miracles

FROM THE SERMON FOR JULY 10, 2011
"The Parable of the Sower" Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

What I hear that goes back to the Jesus of history is a parable, which he told to communicate his experience, his vision, his passion for one thing - the one thing he was always trying to share - the Kingdom (the Empire, the Domain, the Reign, the Reality, the Presence, the Dream) of God.

I hear, "The Kingdom of God is like this..."

"Like a sower sowing seeds indiscriminately.  So much so that they are nearly all wasted on the shallow path, on rocky soil, in the thorns.  And yet somehow the most amazing, unexpected thing happens.  Somehow, some of the seeds find good soil and the harvest is even more extravagant than the sower himself."

In the time of Jesus, a seven fold crop was a good year. A ten fold crop was truly abundant.  But this harvest is thirty fold, enough to feed a village for a year.  And sixty fold, double that.  And one hundred fold.  That's retirement!  If you had a hundred fold crop, you'd never have to farm again - ever!

How could such a thing ever happen?!  Well, the Kingdom of God is like that.  Who could guess?  Who could even imagine such a thing as the Kingdom of God?

How could such a thing ever happen?  It's a miracle.

In the darkest times, in the ordinary times, in the mundane, in the least expected moments, the Kingdom of God springs up all around us, and within us.  That non-geographical place where heaven and earth, divine and human, come together and become one.

"The Kingdom of God is at hand."  In fact it is "within you," says Jesus.  How could such a thing ever happen?  It's a miracle.

That's what I hear that goes back to the original context, to the Jesus of history himself.

But even more important is what we hear Jesus saying to us here and now.   What do you get out of this parable?  How is Jesus using this story to touch you, to speak to you, to transform your life?

I can tell you what I hear, and encourage you to share what you hear.

What I hear is, "Expect miracles!" And as I hear that, I realize I'm thinking about this church.  "Expect miracles."

I'm thinking about how isolated and cut off we had become from our diocese, from our community, and even from our own fellow Episcopal churches....  But what I hear is "Expect miracles!"  In the darkest times, in the most ordinary times, in the mundane, in the least expected moments and ways, expect miracles.

So then I think of the priest who I had a breakfast meeting with recently who said, "Frankly, I'm surprised.  I didn't think this church was going to make it, but you guys had the highest percent of your congregation that supported Episcopal night at the baseball game this year.  I'm impressed!"

And I think of a woman in California who is receiving a prayer shawl from this church from a person in this community who's not even a member of this church but who received the healing gift of a prayer shawl himself and is passing on the gift of a prayer shawl to his sister.

I think of a boy's baseball team that's in Houston, Texas, today at their world series playoffs, whose coach's wife texted me from Houston yesterday, "We're doing great. Thank you for your prayers!"  And I think of the picnic we're planning in the park on the 23rd to celebrate the hard work of "our boys" and to get to know their families.

I think of all the members of this church who showed up yesterday at Cliff Maus Village working shoulder to shoulder with Episcopalians from across Corpus Christi, and interacting with some of the residents with whom we hope to develop relationships in the future.  When's the last time you can remember our church getting involved like that with other churches in making God's dream for this world come true?

I think of the plans for the blessing of backpacks coming up on August 20, which we're hosting for the neighborhood so that we can begin to establish ourselves as a caring presence in the community.  And I think of the father of one of the baseball boys in the park whose eyes lit up when he heard that we were going to collect backpacks for some of the kids at Cliff Maus Village and include them in the "blessing of the backpacks", and who said, "Oh I want to donate some backpacks for that!"

I think of the beach cleanup we have scheduled for August 27th to show our care and appreciation of God's world, and how that's expanded to eight churches because we have also initiated a memorial event with these eight other churches (including Muslim and Jewish congregations) for the tenth anniversary of 9/11.

And I think of the men who stood in line for a pair of clean socks the last time John McDermont and his wife went out by themselves to distribute clothes to the homeless, and they ran out.  "I'm so sorry", John said, "but next month I'll be back with my church, and we'll have ten times as much!"  And that's where many of our members are right now - distributing clothes to the homeless.

"Expect miracles!" How else do you explain what's going on with this church?  Still struggling to pay our own light bill, and yet the Kingdom of God is springing up all around us, and within us.  The Dream of God is coming true for us, and through us...  "The Kingdom of God is like this."  "Expect miracles!"

That's what I hear.  Can you hear that?  Do you hear anything else?  Anything different?  Anything more?  What else do you think Jesus might be trying to say to you?  Keep listening, and keep sharing.  The more we listen together, the better we hear.

Personal: First Impressions

I'm impressed.

Today we had a long presentation in a hot church.  The air conditioning system failed us for the second Sunday in a row.  Most of the solid members of our congregation were present, and most of them stayed the course through the presentation and Eucharist and then for the pot luck discussion of the process of discerning (perceiving through prayer and reflection) what God is calling Reconciliation to do and be.  Everyone got a glimpse of all the work being done by our Bishop's Committee and the Listening Team on this critical discernment which will determine the future of our congregation.  These are my first impressions of the day.

RELIEVED
First, I'm relieved.  I believe that the hardest part is over.  Yes, we are a long way from being finished with the process and there is a lot of work ahead.  But I believe that we have the most difficult, most trying part behind us.  For those who really saw the whole big picture today for the first time, it was a little (or a lot) overwhelming.  A lot to take in, and a wake up call that we do all have some work ahead of us.  It isn't going to be a few meetings of a few people behind closed doors.  But the hardest part of building a future for Reconciliation is the messy, tedious, confusing, awkward steps of just getting started in discovering where God is calling us to go - rather like bobbing for watermelons!  I'll admit that I have been a little anxious about how much work was going to be involved for everyone in securing a future for our congregation.  So first of all, I am relieved that we have made it through the most difficult part, and most everyone is still hanging in there.

AMAZED, ENERGIZED, ENCOURAGED
Before the day was over, I was impressed by what happened.  Thanks be to God!  The goodly number of folks who stayed to the end were taking charge of their church!  We shared one another's dreams and passions for collaborating with our neighbors and blessing people in our community.  People shared from a place in their hearts where there was strong energy, hope, and enthusiasm - signs of the stirring of the Holy Spirit (enthusiasm = en theos = in God).  After a rather exhausting morning, I found myself being filled and recharged by the strong, clear, focused expressions of compassion around the room.  It is definitely one of the high points of my ministry here to feel affirmed that we have it in us to do great things, to do (as Jesus put it in the Gospel reading today) even greater works than him.  Wow!

CHALLENGED
The challenge I am feeling about the work ahead of us is how to ever channel everything we heard today into a single direction.  Today I saw a church community that has great dreams and passion that are all over the map.  There was a great diversity of care and compassion for the physical, emotional, educational, and spiritual needs of children, of women, of the elderly, of the grieving, of the homeless, and of the environment.  I am very aware that we are not a large enough group to do everything for everybody.  So what are the themes and patterns that can unite us in going forward in the same direction together?  Integrating and focusing such diversity so that we don't dilute our energy and resources in all directions is going to be a challenge.

I also feel challenged about identifying and connecting with the people in our neighborhood who share our dreams and passions for blessing our community.  The neighborhood around the church is not just our first mission field, it is our first partner in reaching out to the larger community.  The mission of the Church isn't going to happen in here (inside our church); it can only happen out there (outside the walls of our church).  We have a lot of face-to-face work to do to get to know our neighbors and then to get to know those who we are called to bless in the larger community.

So thanks be to God and to the godly people of Church of Reconciliation for affirming today that we do have it in us to be a dynamic, life changing, Christian community that is about to become the eyes, and legs, and hands of Christ in Corpus Christi in our own unique and powerful way.

Your partner on the journey,
Fr Bruce+

Go to People Where They Are (Part One)

It's true, and it's urgent... 

In case anyone hasn't noticed or admitted it yet, the Church as we know it has been experiencing accelerating decline for the past sixty years.  Our own congregation has experienced this phenomenon for ourselves over the past ten years.  And yet some congregations are discovering ways to thrive.  So other than going to entertainment style worship, or to easy answers to complex questions of faith, what are these successful congregations doing? 

A number of best practices include getting out of our comfort zone and going to people where they are rather than simply opening our doors and waiting passively for them to come to the Church.  That is, taking the Church into the workplaces, the neighborhoods, and the homes where people actually gather and pursue their needs for relationships and meaning.  This approach acknowledges that the Church no longer has automatic credibility or trust.  These have to be earned.  It acknowledges the reality that no one cares anymore what we do on Sunday mornings until they know that we care.

What does that meant for Church of Reconciliation?  Most likely this will mean finding ways to meet the people who live and work in the neighborhoods around the church, not to proselytize but to just be good neighbors - to become aware and sympathetic with the needs and concerns of the families and folks who live and work around us.  It means addressing the needs and concerns of our neighbors and collaborating with them in meeting the needs of others.  It means creating positive social visibility as well as improving our physical visibility.  And...... it includes learning to use the dominant social media of our culture, electronic networks.  That's the focus of this email. 

As you know, we have been working on a Facebook page for Church of Reconciliation.  This is only a first step, and we still have some bugs to work out on it, but it will be up and running soon.  This will require a great deal of my time as the Vicar, but it will also require your participation and help.  Unlike a website that waits passively for people to find it, Facebook is an interactive electronic medium that reaches out and interacts with people - with friends of friends of friends of friends.  And that's where you come in.  You are the center of your friendship network.  You are the one who can use our Facebook page to engage with your circle of relationships, which can engage other circles.  But first, you will need to take an active part in the Facebook ministry yourself, to "Like" and "Comment" on the posts, to post your own comments, to engage in the discussions, and to send pictures or stories about things that are going on in the Church or in your own life of faith - to help develop a tool for reaching your network of friends of friends of friends. 

Here are five specific things you can do as we all prepare together to go to people where they are electronically (using our church Facebook page).

FIRST, join Facebook if you haven't already.  To do that, go to "facebook.com" on the internet, and follow the instructions for setting up an account.  Create a user name and a password, set up your profile, and set your privacy settings.

SECOND, click on this link and "surf" (look) around the Reconciliation Facebook page >> http://www.facebook.com/pages/Episcopal-Church-of-Reconciliation/135421449861110.

THIRD, find the "Discussion" link in the menu on the left side of the Facebook page, and click on it to go to Discussions.  To engage in a discussion, write a comment in the reply box at the bottom of a discussion and click "Post reply".
 
FOURTH, help me start a collection of questions.  SEND YOUR OWN QUESTIONS, honest questions, for discussion.  Post them here, or send them to this email address (reconciliationcorpuschristi@gmail.com). 

FIFTH, as we create an active Facebook page together, start inviting your friends to go to it to see what is going on at Reconciliation, to join in our discussions, and to post their own questions.  They will if you will!

Your partner on the journey,
Fr Bruce+

Taking the Journey

"Truth can be likened to the bright moon in the sky. Instruction, in this case, can be likened to a finger. The finger can point to the moon’s location. However, the finger is not the moon. To look at the moon, it is necessary to gaze beyond the finger, right?"  - The Sixth Patriarch Huineng

Some people worship the finger, some use it to gouge each others' eyes out.  Other people take the journey to the moon.  I want to take the journey and to hear from others who are on the journey.

Bruce