Spirit of God Lead Us Towards Your Feast

St. Francis Church, Fair Oaks, California, Sunday September 9, 2012

Spirit of the Living God Fall Fresh On Me!  Congregation Repeated with me!

The opening words of today’s collect -- “Grant us, O Lord, to trust in you with all our hearts” simply and eloquently sets forth my vision for the way I will co-minister with you and lead this congregation as your Priest-in-Charge.  Today I want to share with you a few reflections on my role at St. Francis and the way some of my life experiences have prepared me to be with you on your journey at this time in your parish’s history.  Over the next 4-5 weeks I will continue to preach about the journey we are beginning. 

A Priest-in-Charge has all the canonical authority of a rector, but unlike a rector, the Priest-in-Charge position is not a tenured one.  Rectors often stay with congregations for 20-30 years. The Priest-in-Charge is typically with a congregation for a period of 3 years renewable at the end of each year.  Our time is precious!

As Priest-in-Charge it is my desire to shepherd you into your next generation of ministry and mission in The Episcopal Church. In all I do, I will put a spotlight on your distinctive parish identity and on resurrection, Christ’s resurrection and the resurrection of St. Francis Church. The unique gift that I bring to you the people of St. Francis Church is to continually point you towards resurrection. 

Yesterday 75+ people came here to celebrate the life of Moton Bryant Holt.  I preached my first sermon yesterday.  My sermon was on resurrection.  I preached that due to our faith in the resurrection death is transformed.  Some deaths are final.  We all will experience one day the end of our life in death.  Other deaths are a part of our spiritual journey.  A little piece of us dies when we lose somebody we love.  Over and over throughout life we die little deaths that helps us experience resurrection.  

To journey towards resurrection, in the next couple of years we need to steward our time together.  Let’s take a few minutes to reflect on the nature and quality of our specific shared journey that we are beginning with one another.

You have just made an extraordinary journey that not many congregations ever have to face.  You lost Pastor Marcia, your rector.  Several of you have already shared with me that the ministry Pastor Marcia offered to St. Francis Church, led this congregation to a place where you were equipped with the spiritual gifts to grieve her loss.  In this last year you held together in unity as a parish.  You compassionately ministered to one another. 

There is abundant reason for celebration and joy to have come through this year as whole as you have done so.  There is a sense of relief I am sure that you all feel to have completed the journey so well. 

(Take a deep breath)  Let’s celebrate where you have come from.

The Good News is that your spiritual journey has matured you as a congregation.   God however is not done with you or with this congregation or with this church. 

Vacation-like journeys have a beginning and an end.  Spiritual journeys have no end.  Spiritual journeys deepen our connection to God and to one another.  In our spiritual journeys we enter places of greater intimacy with God.  It is through our spiritual journeys that God matures us to become the one we are called to be. 

The one we are called to be is often not the one we planned ourselves to be.  We influence some of the parts of the way we live our life as people and as communities, but God always has surprises for us. When we are willing to trust, God always leads us to places we did not expect to go and sometimes even initially resisted going.  When we follow Jesus we like the disciples at Emmaus always discover Christ resurrected.

Our spiritual journeys are unlike all other journeys that we take. 

My journeys as a kid were always short ones. As a kid I always knew where I was going before I got there. I did not go far, but I knew where I was going before I got there!

Now I think of journey very differently than I did as a kid. The way I thought about journey began to change when I left the Jesuits, the Society of Jesus.  I left the Jesuits with my heart torn between staying and leaving the Society. 

My head told me to stay but the Spirit told me to leave.  As I sat waiting outside my Jesuit superior’s office to sign my papers that would release me from my vows, a priest friend passed by and comforted me. I told my friend that I intended to return to the Society in a year or two.  My friend, a more spiritually mature Jesuit priest, smiled at me and said, “the Spirit has led you to leave the Society of Jesus, Joe, trust the Spirit to lead you and do not turn back unless the Spirit leads you back to the Society.” 

Oh how much I wanted to set the terms of my journey as I left the Jesuits, but I could not.  My life questions required my generous patience and complete trust in the Spirit of God to lead me through a life maze that has led me to many unexpected, grace-filled places on the journey. I had to submit my will and take time to discover God’s hand and direction for my life. I learned to be patient with all that was unresolved in my heart and to love the questions.  That statement I just made has a lived value of 10-15 years of life.  I struggled to give up my hasty, self-willed answers and to cease to manufacture my answers in God’s name. 

All too often I was like the little boy who could not wait for the caterpillar to become a butterfly. The little boy breathed warm air on the caterpillar so that it would quickly become a butterfly.  Indeed, the butterfly soared at the boy’s command. The boy was all a glow with smiles for his achievement.  Then the butterfly crashed to the floor, unable to move its wings and no longer living.  The gestation period from caterpillar to butterfly is typically ten days.  When we are patient with God’s process then we have the privilege to see the glory of God. 

Many times throughout my spiritual journey I was that little boy who hastily breathed warm air on the caterpillar to bring about my desired beautiful butterfly in my time, on my terms and under my power and control.  After several similar tragic errors of judgments I learned to let go.  I learned to patiently live into God’s timing.  I learned to live my questions rather than try to hastily solve my questions.  As I did this I gradually, without noticing it, I lived into who I am today. My journey is not unique. 

St. Francis Church is on a similar spiritual journey. You may be tempted to quickly breathe warm air on the caterpillars in our midst to feed a desire to immediately see a beautiful butterfly fly.  You know better though. You have traveled far and well over the last year. I encourage you to take your time as a congregation and to continue to go deeper.  As we go deeper in our lives and rely more on God and less on ourselves we will be ready to dream more daring dreams with the Spirit who leads us in new and unexpected ways.

St. Francis Church is a mature congregation of fifty plus years.  Your maturity has evolved through your struggles. The Spirit will continue to call you to places that you have not been before.  St. Francis Church is half the size of the congregation it was five years ago.  Loss of membership has not separated you from the love of God or the abundance of God’s grace and blessing.  St. Francis Church continues its spiritual journey as all its members continue to discover new depths of individual and collective meaning with all its associated new and yet unknown possibilities. 

I am here to remind you that as we walk forward into an unknown future, that God is all around us, especially ahead of us. Due to the spiritual journey that I have made in my life I am prepared to be with you on your journey. With you I will listen for the Spirit’s direction manifested in the resources and gifts that are in your hands today. My promise to you is to point each of you in directions where you are more likely to encounter the resurrected Jesus. 

I pray that we let God lead St. Francis Church to the feast God is preparing for you.  I am confident that God has uniquely prepared a very special place for the people of St. Francis Church.  The place God prepares for all of us is always a feast of heavenly and earthly delights.

To witness the glory of God’s feast requires patience with God’s time.

Resist my temptation to return to what was.

Resist the little boy’s urgency to see glory.

Resist seeing St. Francis Church’s best years in the past.

Celebrate your history, but walk with me as we anticipate the future that God is leading us towards.  The Spirit of God will lead us.

As we begin this shared journey together, O Lord, increase our trust in you so that we as a congregation may be ready to sit at your table, in your time, and joyously accept the feast you have prepared for us.