SERMON PREACHED BY THE REVEREND DR. HAROLD T. LEWIS, RECTOR
CALVARY EPISCOPAL CHURCH, PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA
ON THE OCCASION OF THE 149TH ANNUAL PARISH MEETING
THE SIXTH SUNDAY OF EASTER
16 MAY 2004

"And Paul ... said in a loud voice, 'Stand upright on your feet.'" (Acts 14:10)

One of the unsung (and, I would hasten to add, unpaid) heroines of our congregation is Suzie Wolfe, our parish archivist. She is custodian of the annals of Calvary Church. If you want to look up an issue of Agape from the summer of 1997, learn what Dr. Shoemaker said in a sermon in 1957, or find out what was decided by the Women's Auxiliary in 1887, Suzie can direct you to the source. After today, she will be able to add to her files the minutes of the 149th Annual Parish Meeting. Just as our Senior Warden in his report this morning saw fit to recall what Junior Warden Scotty Stewart said to the parish at an Annual Parish Meeting 24 years ago, so perhaps will a parish officer, a generation hence, find relevance in what was said and done today. That, I suppose, is why we keep records.

I like to think of the Book of Acts as the minutes of the early church. Luke (who also brought you the Gospel that bears his name) goes to painstaking efforts to describe the Apostles' comings and goings as they go about the business if planting the church, of spreading the Gospel. They were the first evangelists, who took the brand new message of the Gospel to the ends of the earth or at least to the world as it was then known. But more than that, they are giving personal testimony, sharing stories about how the Gospel had set their lives on fire. In their missionary journeys, they want to spread that fire to others. Today's lesson is a case in point. Paul and Barnabas travel to Lystra, where they meet a man who has been crippled from birth. Paul looks into the man's eyes, sees his faith, and declares to him, "Stand upright on your feet." The man, instantly healed, springs to his feet, and the people go wild. They immediately believe that the gods have come down from the heavens. They declare Barnabas to be Zeus, and Paul to be Hermes, and they begin to offer sacrifices at their feet. It is not uncommon for us to transform certain human beings --
- movie stars, athletes, for example, into gods. Star Wars aficionados, by the way, will be reminded of a scene in "Return of the Jedi" in which the Ewoks mistake the android C3PO for a god and try to offer up Han Solo and Luke Skywalker as human sacrifices.

Paul and Barnabas are upset. They immediately assess the situation. The good news is that the cripple man is healed; the bad news is that the Lycaonians have not given the credit to Jesus Christ. Paul and Barnabas tear open their shirts (perhaps in an effort to reveal their human bodies?) and tell the crowd that they are humans just like they are.

I think this story has something to teach us as we begin our year as a parish.
First, we learn that when we are on fire with the Gospel, God can and will work through us. He won't make us gods, but he can make us godlike. He can imbue us with his life-giving spirit and that will enable us to change lives. One of the great joys of my ministry at Calvary Church is sitting on the floor with the children at Beginnings, and telling them Bible stories. Their wide-eyed enthusiasm, their ability to theologize without the encumbrances which often cloud our vision, is refreshing. Last Wednesday, as I was relating the story of the Feeding of the Five Thousand, I asked the four-year-olds if anybody knew what a miracle was. Little Jessica, without batting an eyelash, responded, ---and this is a quote: "It's when something happens unexpectedly." We must be open to the miraculous, to the unexpected, and be able to recognize the hand of God in those events when they come. The beauty of Calvary Church is that historically she has not been afraid to push the envelope, and to find God's glory and God's revelation ---unexpectedly.

But there's more. I think we can learn from Paul's direct command: "Stand upright on your feet." And note that the lesson tells us that the man not only sprang to his feet
but he began to walk. There is a total transformation --- physical, spiritual and social. But how must we stand upright and spring into action? Well, I'll tell you. Everything I know about the Faith I learned in Father Coleman's Confirmation class at St. Philip's, Brooklyn, in 1960. A seminary education and a Ph.D. in theology did precious little to build on that foundation. And in that class, the Rector asked us, some fifty strong, in the words of the Catechism, 'What is your bounden duty as a member of the Church?" And our memorized answer was: "My bounden duty is to follow Christ; to worship God every Sunday in his church; and to work, pray and give for the spread of his Kingdom." It was true forty-four years ago, and it is still true today.

We must work for the spread of his Kingdom. More than twenty persons receive paychecks from Calvary Church, but if we depended solely upon them, the work of the parish would come to a grinding halt. If you are not already doing something, why not decide today that you will ask Rick Booth if he can use another usher? Why not ask William Stevens if another pair of hands could be put to work on the altar guild? Why not ask Ivory Wade if you can come in and help affix labels for our Agape mailing? Or tell Leslie Reimer that you might want to test your vocation as a Sunday School teacher. Or perhaps you could deliver flowers after church on Sunday, or read a lesson or administer a chalice? Think about it.

We must pray for the spread of his Kingdom. There has never been a time when the church has been in greater need of our prayers. I read an article in this week's New Yorker which said that given the rampant human rights violations that took place in that infamous Baghdad prison, the United States has lost its ability to be a moral exemplar for the world. I wonder if the same cannot be said of the church. As we sort out various matters, we come across to the world, and, truth be told, to ourselves, as very confused. Within the course of a month, the ecclesiastical authority of this diocese can grant permission to a bishop not in communion with this church to administer confirmation, and yet deny to a bishop in good standing of this church the right to function even as a priest. The Bishop of Alabama decries the existence of the Anglican Network as divisive, and not in keeping with Anglican principles, and the bishop of Pittsburgh counters that the Network exists at the behest of the Archbishop of Canterbury. The bishops of the Diocese of Massachusetts, long advocates of same-sex unions, have nevertheless forbidden their clergy to perform marriages of gay persons, now that such relationships have become legal in that Commonwealth. The bishop of California, long a supporter of gay marriages, nevertheless revoked the license of his assistant bishop when he chose to marry another man. Right, wrong or indifferent, the real tragedy is that far too much of the church's energy is being used to iron out in-house disagreements, while the saving message of the Gospel too often goes unpreached and unheard.

We must give for the spread of his Kingdom. I saw a bumper sticker once, which read, "If you love Jesus, tithe. Anybody can honk." Bob Eley informed us this morning that our operating expenses last year were $1,308,000. Let me offer a translation. That means that it costs $3,583.57 per day to keep Calvary running ---- staff paid, building heated, organ tuned, Sunday bulletins printed, in addition to our obligations outside the parish, including outreach to our community. The good news is that the wherewithal to meet those expenses exists in the congregation, even if we didn't draw a penny from our endowment. The bad news is that many members of the congregation simply are not willing to give in a way that is proportionate to their income --- much less sacrificially. As I have said before, some give annually, some give monthly, and some give weekly, very weakly.

And as you contemplate an increase, or, conversely, justify a meager contribution, let me disabuse you of three myths. Myth #1: Calvary has a lot of people, so my small contribution, with all the other small contributions, will add up. Refutation: We do have more members than most congregations, but it is also true that we have more building, staff and programs to maintain. As Jim Bauerle once said, "Calvary is like an elephant. We need to feed her bales of hay, not peanuts." Myth #2: The endowment will carry the day. Refutation: Last time I looked, Calvary's endowment depends upon the same stock market that you depend on. The value of our portfolio, and therefore our income from it, have shrunk over the past few years, even as our expenses have increased. Myth #3: Three or four families bankroll Calvary. Please introduce me to them! The truth is that we depend upon a!! contributions, large and small, to meet expenses. And to these myths, let me add an apocryphal tale. It is alleged that in the old days, whenever that was, if there were, say, a deficit of $40,000, four members of the Vestry wrote checks for ten thousand dollars each to close the gap. I cannot vouch for the veracity of such a tale in days of yore, but I can assure you that if it was ever true, it is not true any more!

My sisters and brothers in Christ, ours is a goodly heritage. We stand on the shoulders of generations of Calvaryites who had such a vision for this place that when we articulate our mission statement that this is a place where everyone is welcomed in the name of Christ, we cannot claim to have come up with that idea. Proof of the pudding is that in the past year, amidst the confusion, injustices and uncharitableness that have characterized life in the church in this Diocese, many have found Calvary to be, in the prophetic words of Pam Foster, an oasis. But we cannot bask in the glow of that realization and become spiritual Jack Homers. No, like the crippled man healed by Paul, we must, aflame with the zeal of the Gospel, spring to our feet and walk. We must work, pray and give for the spread of Christ's Kingdom.

Let us pray:
Come, labor on, who dares stand idle on the harvest plain, While all around us waves the golden grain?
And to each servant does the Master say, "Go work today." [Jane Laurie Borthwick, "Come Labor On," Hymnal 1982, 541]