“THE RECTOR’S CHARGE”
PREACHED BY THE REVEREND DR. HAROLD T. LEWIS
ON THE OCCASION OF THE 155TH ANNUAL PARISH MEETING
IN CALVARY EPISCOPAL CHURCH, PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA
ON THE SEVENTH SUNDAY OF EASTER
16 MAY 2010
“Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.” (Acts 16:31)
I’ve had a fair amount of experience in jails. At the tender age of 16, after participating in a civil rights demonstration, I was hauled off by New York City’s “Finest” (when there was far less of me to haul) and was thrown into jail with a lot of clergy types. For part of the time that I was in college, I had a non-paying job as chapel organist in Her Majesty’s Prison, a maximum security institution in Montreal. When arriving and leaving, I had to go through seven sets of sliding steel doors. And when I was a young priest in Honduras, a tragic car accident landed me behind bars, where I learned first hand of the corruption-riddled jurisprudence all too common in third world countries. Because of these experiences, I read with especial interest the account of the imprisonment of Paul and Silas in today’s lesson from the Book of Acts.
What were Paul and Silas doing in jail? Well, it’s clear from Luke’s account that they were being stalked. We have been encountering interesting women in the Book of Acts during this Eastertide --- Tabitha, a.k.a. Dorcas, who was raised from the dead; Lydia the merchant who experienced a conversion; and today, a nameless slave girl, who was a fortune-teller. The girl followed the disciples around for several days, announcing that they were servants of God, proclaiming the way of salvation. Now some preachers working the crowds would be flattered by that line, and maybe even have encouraged the girl to continue her free publicity, but it would appear from the text that Paul could look into the girl’s psyche and see that she was possessed by an evil spirit. So Paul, exasperated, demands that the spirit come out of her. That was good news for her, but bad news for her owners, who made a mint from her fortune-telling.
So to seek revenge, those owners had Paul and Silas thrown into jail. But an earthquake comes and frees the disciples from their shackles. The jailer returns, and believing them to have fled, decides to kill himself (for according to Roman law he would be put to death if prisoners escaped on his watch). Paul and Silas prevent him from committing suicide, and the jailer, grateful that his life is spared, throws himself at the disciples’ feet and asks what he must do to be saved.
Now here Paul and Silas don’t say that the jailer would be saved if only he did nice things for traveling preachers. The disciples do not, like television evangelists, offer a book containing seven tips for a victorious life, which you can obtain for a small donation (prayer cloth included at no extra cost)! No, they simply say, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.”
Taken at face value, this advice sounds too simplistic. Worse, it sounds like what a street corner evangelist might say --- and simplicity and such brands of evangelism make Episcopalians both nervous and suspicious. But there it is, the unvarnished advice of the Blessed Apostle and his companion --- and what is more, I think there is a message in this pithy bit of advice for us today, on the occasion of the 155th Annual Parish Meeting. For I think it is precisely because we have followed this precept, it is precisely because we have believed in the Lord Jesus, that this parish has, by God’s grace, prospered for more than a century and a half.
But if you’re still not convinced, if you’re still wary of this simple message about believing in Jesus, let me make it more complicated, and therefore more palatable, by taking a page from Betty Crocker. Many years ago, the Betty Crocker people came up with a new cake mix --- all you had to do to make the perfect cake was add water. It was a flop. Why? It was too simple. People didn’t buy the new product because it seemed too easy. They felt they had no real part in making the cake. So the market people and the test kitchen people at Betty Crocker went back to the drawing board. They came up with a new formula, which required that the user of the cake mix add an egg in addition to the water. Immediate success! Wannabe bakers believed that they now had a real part in the success of the cake they would eventually take out of the oven. Consider what follows in this sermon to be the egg.
This parish professes belief in Jesus, not simply as a theological abstraction, the second person of the Trinity, the Son of God. Our belief is dynamic, not static, because we have embraced what Marcus Borg in his little book, The Heart of Christianity (available in the Calvary Bookstore) calls the “emerging,” (as opposed to the traditional) paradigm of our religion. Whereas the traditional paradigm sees belief as an emphasis on doctrinal truths and sees Jesus as an authoritative and sometimes punitive figure, the emerging tradition sees belief as a system that emphasizes grace, mystery and inclusion, and envisions a Jesus whose primary action in history is to seek a relationship of unconditional love with us. So with this in mind, the words from our mission statement that we welcome all in the name of Christ constitute no mere slogan. They express a radical and fundamental aspect of who we are as a parish and who we are as Christians. Paul’s “mission statement” in Galatians, inspired no doubt by his early experiences as a missionary, as he brought such a motley crew into the fold, says the same thing: that in Christ, there is no longer Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, but that all are one in Christ Jesus.
This parish professes belief in a Jesus who said “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” It is to the credit of the people of Calvary that in these trying economic times, when investments are yielding far less than just a few years ago, that the average pledge to the support of our mission and ministry has increased by 10%. The overwhelming response to the Senior Warden’s letter, which had the temerity to ask for more money from people who had already been generous if not sacrificial in their giving, is seen as nothing less than a vote of confidence in the parish leadership. The fact that giving has now crossed the seven-figure threshold is indeed a cause of rejoicing.
This parish professes belief in a Jesus who above all is to be worshipped. It is a parish who understands the words of the ancient Catechism: “My bounden duty and service is to worship God every Sunday in his Church.” It is a parish who understands the words of the Psalmist: “O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness, let the whole earth stand in awe of him.” It is a parish that understands (as Dr. Cram certainly did) that a church building is primarily four walls and a roof built to house an altar, and that it is to that altar that we bring our selves, our souls and bodies to be a reasonable, holy and living sacrifice. This is why, time and again, at our neighborhood gatherings --- the entire worship experience ---- liturgy, music and preaching ---- was at the top of the list of those things most important to us at Calvary.
This parish professes belief in a Jesus whose disciples sing when they are in prison. One of the reasons that I resonated with this morning’s lesson is that it reminded me that, like Paul and Silas, those of us who were arrested for protesting racial discrimination back in the 60s passed our time in the jail cells singing --- mostly Negro spirituals like “I’ve been ‘buked and I’ve been scorned” and songs that grew out of the civil rights movement, like “Black and white together we shall not be moved.” At first blush, singing in jail strikes one as out of place, inappropriate, or incongruous. But ever since the Israelites sang psalms while in exile in Babylon, song has played a role in sustaining people in time of their captivity. I think it was Augustine of Hippo who said Quis cantat bis orat (“He who sings prays twice”).
Yesterday, the diocesan ECW met here for the United Thank Offering Ingathering, which should not have been a remarkable occurrence, but in some ways it was. It was the most recent example of Calvary’s hosting a diocesan event, something which could not have happened a few years ago. We experienced a kind of imprisonment --- certainly an estrangement and isolation --- for well over a decade, but we sang --- literally and figuratively --- throughout those years, never ceasing to build up the kingdom in this place. And nor did we stay on our knees. Emboldened by belief in a Jesus who came to preach good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives, and to set at liberty those who are oppressed, we were successful, in our Lady’s words, in putting down the mighty from their seat and exalting the humble and meek. By God’s grace, we had some small part in causing the earthquake which resulted in the permanent loss of the fetters that for so long had restrained us.
For the record, Calvary Church is not perfect. On the debit side of the ledger at the neighborhood gatherings were such concerns as the need to improve parking, lighting and the sound system; and a concern about whether we can balance the budget over the long term. Worry about our relatively small endowment, the “graying” of the congregation and the need to provide more outreach opportunities for our parishioners was also expressed. But these, I would suggest, are not insurmountable obstacles. They are goals achievable if we are able to remove the primary obstacle of fear, fear that can serve as a prison for all our hopes. The jailer’s fear almost led to his death, but the compassion of Paul and Silas led to the transformation of his life, and that of his family.
When all is said and done, this parish professes a belief that our small lives are swept up into a great drama, the history of God’s redemption. God is indeed reaching out to us in Jesus Christ, taking our lives into the gospel story of transformation and redemption.
Let us pray:
March we forth in the strength of God, with the banner of Christ unfurled,
That the light of the glorious gospel of truth may shine throughout the world:
Fight we the fight with sorrow and sin to set their captives free,
That the earth may be filled with the glory of God
As the waters cover the sea.