Sermon preached by The Rt. Rev. Arthur B. Williams, Jr.

A Sermon by The Rt. Rev. Arthur B. Williams, Jr. Bishop Suffragan of Ohio, retired Delivered at Calvary Episcopal Church, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania On The Second Sunday in Lent, March 7, 2004
"Nevertheless today, tomorrow and the next day I must be on my way." This verse that we have just heard from the Gospel of Luke (13: 33) is amazing in its simplicity. Interestingly, it is a verse least challenged even by those scholars who in recent times have questioned which words of the New Testament actually came from the lips of Jesus. But there is general agreement, even among the scholars of the Jesus Seminar persuasion (with whom I have some disagreement), that this v. 33 of Luke's 13th chapter is an authentic utterance of the historical Jesus. It indicates something of Jesus' intention in going up to Jerusalem in the kind of terms he himself would have used. "Today, tomorrow and the next day I must be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem". Thus he speaks of himself as a prophet whose purpose it is to lay down his prophetic challenge at the very heart, the very center of the military, legal, and religious powers, and face the consequences of doing so! This theme of being "on the way" is doubly applicable for you who call Calvary your church home. Firstly, if the Lenten season is understood as a pilgrimage to Good Friday and Easter (and it is) then we are on that same way with Jesus. The Gospel tells us that in the midst of his ministry in Galilee he turned to his followers and with a new determination he said to them, "Behold we go up to Jerusalem." Luke says, "He set his face to go to Jerusalem." So the call to us on this Second Sunday of Lent is to be a pilgrim and to be on this Way with Jesus. This is the Lenten vocation to all who would call themselves Christians. When Jesus says to us, "I am the Way!"- what is that way for us? - even when we have heard Jesus' own lament, "Jerusalem! Jerusalem! The city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it!" I say being on the way is doubly applicable for this parish of Calvary. Today, tomorrow and the next day you must be on your way. No matter the threat, no matter the isolation, no matter the criticism this parish must stay on the way of preserving in this corner of the vineyard what I would call "Classic Anglicanism"- the heritage of our Episcopal Church. What do I mean by "Classic Anglicanism?" A seminary classmate of mine, Bill Countryman, now Professor of New Testament at one of our seminaries, likes this phrase, "Classic Anglicanism." He would agree with what I said at my adult forum here two weeks ago. We in the Episcopal Church were shaped by a different kind of reformation than the ones that took place in the 16th century outside of England. We could have gone the way of the reformed Roman Catholicism that came out of the Council of Trent. We could have gone the way of the reformation in Geneva, which was represented in England by the Puritans. It would have been enticing to go either way because both of these 16th century traditions, Roman Catholicism and Puritanism, believed that they knew the mind of God better than others. They believed they were expert in determining what was perfect and what was imperfect in God's Church. Richard Hooker, the chief 17th century theologian of the English Reformation, had this to say in a religious tract at that time. "Two things there are which greatly trouble us in these times - one is that the Church of Rome cannot err, another is that Geneva will not err." (1) It is in this that Classic Anglicanism distinguishes itself. We say of ourselves, "We do not expect the church to have a detailed and certain knowledge of the mind of God. No one will ever possess a complete and detailed account of God's will." (2) It is enough for us that the search for God's truth takes place in the ongoing conversation in the ongoing life of the faithful community. Archbishop Desmond Tutu, now the retired Archbishop of Southern Africa, loves being an Anglican. When asked about how we Anglicans go about the business of being the church - he said, in his inimitable way, "This work can truly be an untidy business!" Elizabeth the first of 16th century England had to deal with the "untidiness" of the English Reformation. So she focused with her bishops and theologians on maintaining the unity of the Church in England. She did this by creating a big house with one room for all sorts and conditions of believers. This Anglican characteristic prompted Bishop Hensley Henson, former Bishop of Durham (1920-1939), to describe us as "the roomiest church in Christendom." Friends, what's held us together for over 400 years is this over arching - this foundational concern for maintaining the life and conversation of the faithful community of God. We believe it is enough conviction that God's Holy Spirit will continue to work with us in the unity (not uniformity) of the church to guide us towards God's truth. (3) We believe, therefore, in the primacy of Holy Scriptures, but not as some kind of rulebook or divine blueprint for living. We read the Bible through the lenses of the Church's Tradition, our experience and our human reason convinced that, in the context of prayer, God will encounter us in its pages. The purpose of scripture is not to include some while excluding others, but rather that we should hear our God calling us into relationship through God's Son Jesus who is for us Lord and Savior. We cannot surrender to the dominant legalism of American Christianity inherited from our New England Puritan forefathers and foremothers. (4) Nor can we surrender to the legalism of those within our Episcopal Church who claim to already know the mind of God so clearly that they will not go on maintaining the unity of the church, the holiness of conversation, and the diversity of God's people. (Let us recognize that when the Anglican Archbishop of Nigeria says that he will boycott any meeting attended by our Presiding Bishop he closes down the possibility of holy conversation. Recognize also that the purpose of constitutional amendments and "confessing churches" is to close down conversation.) So when I say the leaders and people of Calvary Church need to be "on your way"- it's the way of the Classic Anglican I am speaking about. As you are on your way today, tomorrow and the next day, worry not that some will label you "revisionist," "modernist," "heterodox" or whatever. One person's revisionist is another person's reformer. It was the so-called revisionists of old who dared to say the earth was not flat and that the sun did not revolve around this planet. Reformers told us slavery, segregation, and apartheid are evils and repugnant to the Word of God and that women should be heard in the church, sit on its councils, and, indeed, be ordained to its leadership. It was the reformers who believed that God would be edified if the worship of God were offered in the language the people spoke. It was the reformers who suggested that some marriages no longer reflected the love of God; that some couples should have the opportunity to love again, and that their new relationship should be blessed by the church. Today Bishop Gene Robinson will be installed as Bishop of New Hampshire - and the conversation will continue on 60 Minutes this evening with our Presiding Bishop and others. (5) We in the House of Bishops know the Presiding Bishop well enough to know that he will speak about keeping us all around the Table, about the great diverse center in our church, about holy conversation, about the place of reconciliation at the heart of the church's mission and about the search for God's truth in all this. I have to say frankly that as you here stay on the way "today, tomorrow and the next day" you cannot know all that is in store. Sometimes it's difficult to believe that God has a plan for each of us. But be assured that as Jesus moves along his way he wants each of us also to move along our way. A collection of writings that was mailed out to all parishioners of Calvary last year suggested that we all needed to do one thing - take the opportunity in Lent to pause. So my friends, pause now, renew and reclaim the vision. God seems to have given this parish a vision to seek out the depths of "Classic Anglicanism."

May God bless you all on your way and in your particular calling to be the church in this place.
Let us pray the words of one of the church's great mission hymns: Come, labor on. Claim the high calling angels cannot share- To young and old the gospel gladness bear: Redeem the time; its hours too swiftly fly. The night draws nigh.
Come, labor on. No time for rest, till glows the western sky, Till the long shadows o'er our pathway lie, And a glad sound comes with the setting sun, "Servants, well done."
____________ Notes:
1. Richard Hooker. Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity (Vol. 1, P.91) 2 L. William Countryman. Dealing with Conflict as Anglicans 3 Ibid. 4 Ibid. 5 CBS 60 Minutes opted not to air this segment.