Six years ago, I was privileged to consecrate a beautiful Church building for a dynamic, energetic, intellectually curious, congregation at Lake Tahoe. Their slogan was "A Church for Others." I find it helpful to look back on what I said then. Perhaps it may still be of some help for someone today.
The gospel message is too big for any one generation.
That’s why each generation of Christians discovers
more good
news, more grace in the New Testament.
Sometimes a forgotten part of the tradition
is suddenly
remembered or rediscovered,
and takes on
new life with a renewed meaning
for a
new day.
That’s what has happened with MOAB,
the Ministry
of All the Baptized.
In the 1940’s, there were major discoveries in archaeology
– the Dead Sea
Scrolls, the Nag Hammadi library,
for
example.
We learned a lot about how the first Christians
went about
being the Church.
We discovered that the first Christians were all ministers,
not spiritual
consumers sitting at the feet of an elite clergy.
They were all ministers and their ministry is what made them
whole.
Mutual ministry gave meaning to their lives.
Shared service taught them wisdom.
It exercised their characters so that they grew in virtue.
They become stronger, healthier, saner, holier people.
In the 1960’s, the movement to bring back that kind of
vitality
in the life of
the laity took off.
Ministry of All Baptized was especially strong in the West,
thanks to the
Western School of Ministry
founded by
Bill Spofford of Idaho,
Dean of St.
Michael’s Cathedral in Boise,
and by the
Dean of St. Mark’s Cathedral in Salt Lake,
a guy
named Wes Frensdorff.
But the Ministry of All Baptized wasn’t just a local fad.
It was the driving force in Vatican II.
It dramatically changed our ecumenical theology of Baptism
in a major agreement
in Lima, Peru in 1968.
Baptism ceased
to be a private rite, a family bonding moment.
Instead Baptism became the central event in the life of the
congregation,
and an
initiation into the largest and most important
order of ministry.
And so, today when we consecrate this building,
to house St.
Patrick’s Church,
we read our
lessons in a new light.
These are the perfect lessons to mark this day
in your parish
life
because St.
Patrick’s is shifting its spiritual gears.
St. Patrick’s is making a spiritual shift directly parallel
to the
spiritual shift today’s lessons
invite
us to make in our personal lives.
The dedication and generosity of so many of you
have set this
Church free from struggling
to
maintain itself for itself.
You have set this Church free
to grow up
spiritually,
and so become
a center of transformation
where
each of the members can grow up.
That’s s what today’s lessons are about.
Last week, we heard how hungry people flocked to Jesus,
and he
miraculously fed them.
Today, we see them back again, hoping for more food.
Jesus is manifestly frustrated.
They hadn’t gotten the point.
He didn’t intend to transform bread just to up their calorie
intake.
He was showing them what transformation looks like,
so they could
be transformed themselves,
so they could
manifest the power of God in their lives.
But they just kept trying to manipulate him
into meeting
their needs.
We shouldn’t be too hard on them.
Most of us begin the spiritual life as consumers.
It may not be literal food we are after.
It’s more likely to be peace of mind, serenity,
a sense of
being unconditionally accepted.
Most of us begin the spiritual life
trying to get
our needs met.
At first, we get what we want.
Christ meets us where we are,
gives us
graces and consolations,
heals our
wounds and feeds our hunger.
Our spiritual needs come back.
We find ourselves once again restless.
And that’s a good thing.
This is the point for a crucial transition in the spiritual
life.
Many people never make it.
They stay stuck at the consumer level of faith,
even though it
isn’t really working for them anymore.
To move on, it takes a paradoxical shift.
The paradox is that our spiritual needs
get met far
more deeply when we forget about them,
and go to work
doing something for someone else.
The wounds in our souls heal while we aren’t looking.
Our weakened spirits grow strong
while we
aren’t working on our spirituality.
A simple example:
If we want to
learn a little something about a subject,
we
can learn a little by attending a class on it.
If we want to
really learn a subject all the way,
we
volunteer to teach the class.
That’s how the Ministry of All Baptized
makes us all
stronger, wiser, healthier, and holier.
This is what St. Paul pleads for in our Epistle lesson.
Invoking the language of baptism,
“one Lord, one
Faith, one baptism”, he says,
“I . . . beg
you to live a life worthy of your calling . . . . “
(W)e must grow
up in every way.”
How do we grow up? He answers that each of us
is called by
God to a special form of ministry.
Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel were called to be prophets.
Paul, himself, was called to be the apostle to the gentiles.
Just so, every Christian, at baptism, is called to a
ministry.
Paul says,
The
gifts (God) gave were that some would be apostles,
some
prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers,
to equip
the saints for the work of ministry.
That list covers some of the most common ministries in the
Church.
But there are others.
In 1st Corinthians, he gives a different list.
Different places need different ministries.
What do you suppose would be on Paul’s list
if he were
writing to St. Patrick’s, Incline Village?
In the mysterious Providence of God,
the ministries
that are needed here
are
aligned with the gifts and talents
of
this community of faith.
I don’t know what they are.
Do you need spiritual directors, pastoral care givers,
health care
ministers, ministers of healing prayer?
Is there anyone who gets the notices from
Episcopal
Public Policy Network
and organizes
this congregation to advocate
on behalf of
the social justice issues
where
our Church has made a stand?
Do you need a minister to visit the elderly?
Do you need a visual arts ministry to make grace
visible as
beauty?
Van Gogh and Caravaggio have told me more about God
than any
sermon.
Or do you need mentors to companion new members?
The General Convention has just created
the new
licensed ministry of lay evangelist?
So I know that every one of our parishes needs that lay
minister,
and none of us
have one yet.
I don’t know what ministries are needed here.
I certainly don’t know what particular ministry
is your
calling.
But I do know this,
if you are
baptized, you are called
– called to
serve God by serving God’s people
in
your own special way.
And I know your calling, your form of services,
is unique.
Theologian, Karl Rahner, said,
“Each of us is
a unique irreplaceable word of God.”
Brothers and sisters, each of you
is “a unique
irreplaceable word of God.”
If you do not live into your calling,
that word of
God will never be spoken.
Only you can speak it.
So I implore you to discern and then to act.
“I . . . beg you to live a life worthy of your calling . . .
.”
We dedicate this building to be a holy place.
But it will take more than rituals to make it holy
It will take personal transformation – it will take
spiritual growth
from just being
recipients of grace
to being
agents of grace.
This Church becomes holy by becoming
what Fr. Jim
calls a “Church for others.”
This will not be a sacrifice of our own spiritual life,
but a
fulfillment of it.
Rabbi Hillel said,
“If I am not
for myself, who will be for me?
But if I am
only for myself, who am I?
If not now,
when?”
So when will we plunge out into the life for others?
“Now” is the best possible time.
It is in fact, the only time.
