August 3, 2003

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer.  Amen.

I remember, probably around twenty-five years ago now, sitting in these pews during one of the Church of the Redeemer’s annual meetings.  A man named Joe Powell had just been elected Senior Warden, and he got up and announced that, as far as he knew, there was really only one specific job requirement of a Senior Warden, and that was that in the absence of clergy, it was the Senior Warden’s job to conduct the Sunday worship service, and with that, he turned around to Don Bitsberger who was our Rector at the time and said, “My first act as Senior Warden is to forbid you to ever let that happen.”  Right then and there, I knew Joe Powell was an extremely intelligent person.  And, I have to admit that when I was actually first elected Senior Warden, this particular job requirement did fleetingly cross my mind, but seeing that the situation had never arisen in all of the thirty years that I had been a member of this church, I naively thought that it was probably nothing that I needed to worry about.  Well, today just shows how wrong I was!

As you probably know, Steven and Craig are both on vacation.  When it became evident that we would not be able to find any supply clergy to be here today, I told Steven that I thought I could probably get us through Morning Prayer, but there was no way I was going to give a sermon.  So…before he left, he and I explored a number of different options which included inquiries into possible preachers, and searching both books and the internet for sermons that I might possibly be able to read to you today.  In the end, however, it was to no avail, and when I finally had to acknowledge to myself that I would probably have to face the intimidating prospect of getting up here on my own, I thought, well, given this opportunity, what would I like to talk to you about?  And I decided that I would like to talk to you a little bit about our future.

As the Search Committee has begun to write our profile, one of the questions that has come up is “What is our vision for the future of this parish?”  What would we like to tell a candidate about the direction we hope this parish will go?  What do we want our church to be known for, and what do we want to do to make a difference in our neighborhood, community and beyond?  And it occurred to me as I was thinking about these questions, that to the best of my recollection, we had never been asked to consider what our vision was, or even what we would like it to be.  We had never collectively come together to discuss our goals and objectives, and how we were going to reach them.  Individual committees may have thought about various ideas for their particular areas, but I don’t recall ever trying to define a church-wide vision. 

Now, I certainly don’t plan to propose a vision or push any particular agenda today, but I do feel that it is something that together, we should think about and discuss.  Do we just want to continue to drift this way and that with the thought of the moment or do we want to think about channeling our hopes and desires into a cohesive plan?  Do we feel our lack of a defined mission is a void in our Christian life together or do we think it doesn’t matter?   Are we satisfied with what we are doing now or do we think we could do more? What would it mean if we did have a vision?  Would we want to be known for our great music, a particular outreach effort, our ministry to children? Would we like to share our expertise in business, education, or finance with those who need it but can’t afford it?  Would we like to build on our present strengths or would we like to chart a new path using our untapped talents? The possibilities are both varied and endless.  Perhaps we just want to be able to say to our next Rector that we would like his or her help in discerning our future sense of identity, but ideally, if we decided that we did want to come together to form a vision, that vision could not only bring us together as one body in Christ, but it could feed us, inspire us and revitalize our spirit to pursue that common dream, and take it out beyond our four walls, to do the same for others. 

We are so fortunate to be a congregation that has many resources and unlimited potential.  We are energetic, well educated, accomplished and dedicated.  If we could channel our abilities into a common ministry, there is no limit to what we could be, what we could achieve, and what we could do for others in this world in God’s name.  By being united as one and working towards a shared objective, we could reinforce our sense of community and be able to support each other in putting our Christian ideals into practice.

We have the ability to generate excitement and enthusiasm around a common mission.  All of us could accomplish so much more working together than we could as individuals.  Our sense of community and commonality would grow.  We would have a vision in which we could all share and a ministry in which we could invite newcomers to participate. 

In our Gospel reading today, we see that the members of the crowd are interested in the material things that Jesus can offer them.  They have followed him as a result of the miracle he has just performed in feeding the 5000 with only five loaves of bread and two fish.  But Jesus wants them to be interested in his spiritual gifts, which offer them the power to overcome temptations in their lives and the inspiration to strive for higher ideals.  On a material level, the feeding satisfies the hunger of the body, whereas on a spiritual level, the meal represents the nourishing of the soul.  Jesus reveals himself as the bread of life, able to provide for the life eternal in such abundance, that no need of the spirit is left unfulfilled. 

Today, Jesus is as necessary to our lives as is food, enabling us to meet the demands and challenges that face us.   In Christ, we find that which feeds us, that which sustains us, and that which restores us.  He gives us a strength we can appropriate and make our own, empowering us to be more and do more than we could without him.  And that strength is what will enable us to go out into the world to exemplify His ideals.   

Our faith in Christ can give us the will and the wisdom to discern our mission and carry it out.   God works through each of us, and we in turn are here to do His work. As part of the body of Christ, we could take our vision out into the world to help and serve others, producing a miracle of our own making through working together towards a common goal.  Our ministry could make a significant difference.  God stands ready to help.  It is up to us to decide whether we are hungry enough to take up the challenge.     Amen. 

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