A Cohesive Renewal

St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church, Owings Mills MD

September 18, 2022

Year C, Proper 20: The Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Jeremiah 8:18-9:1

Psalm 79:1-9

1 Timothy 2:1-7

Luke 16:1-13

A Cohesive Renewal

Now, I’m not interested in making anyone feel bad, but if you missed our Renewal Sunday celebrations last week, well, you missed something pretty special.

Thanks to the hard work, dedication, creativity, and generosity of so many of our parishioners and our church staff, we had quite a time here.

The rain did not dampen our joy. In fact, as I ad-libbed last week, the rain actually fit in perfectly with the theme of the day.

After all, there can be no renewal without water – both the water of baptism and the water that falls from the sky and waters the earth, including the new trees planted outside in honor of Rev. Ann and Rev. Caroline.

Several parishioners mentioned that our indoor parish picnic felt a lot like old times – so many of us together, so much joy in the room, enjoying good food and drink – including the tasty frozen desserts served by our own ice cream man, Bob Brennen!

As you can probably guess, the only thing that might have made me happier is if we had a baptism or two!

During the past week, it’s been gratifying to receive so much positive feedback about the day – how beautiful the music was, how great the Sunday School room looks, and how appropriate it was that we had a service project, creating gift bags for the hardworking teachers at Owings Mills Elementary School.

My favorite comment came from a parishioner who said that the whole day was “cohesive.”

I love that because that was exactly the idea – that the theme of “renewal” would pervade our entire day, from our worship to the party, just as we hope and pray that God will renew our entire church, that God will renew our entire world, that God will renew our entire lives.

A cohesive renewal.

After such a great day last week, I would have really liked today’s gospel lesson to be the kind of Bible passage that would make our hearts sing.

But, instead, we are given one of Jesus’ most difficult and troubling parables, a real head-scratcher that’s sometimes called the Parable of the Dishonest Manager.

We’re told that there was a rich man and this rich man has been informed that his manager has been “squandering his property.”

We don’t know exactly what this “squandering” was – and, for that matter, we don’t know for sure if these charges are even true – we can all imagine scenarios where someone might come up with a false accusation to get rid of the manager.

But, guilty or not, the manager sees the writing on the wall.

And he knows himself well enough to know that he’s not cut out for manual labor and he’s too proud to beg.

So, thinking and moving fast, the manager goes to a couple of people indebted to the rich man and slashes what they owe, hoping that when he’s out of work and out of a home, they will look kindly on him and help him out.

Exactly what’s happening here is unclear.

It could be that the manager is eliminating his commission – which wouldn’t be dishonest – or maybe he’s falsifying the rich man’s records, which, uh, would be dishonest – true to the character a manager who had been “squandering” the rich man’s property.

But then things take some unexpected turns.

First, the rich man commends the manager for his shrewdness.

That’s hard to figure out.

But, even more puzzling, Jesus seems to approve as well, suggesting that if his followers – “the children of light” – are shrewd like the manager then we will be welcomed into “the eternal homes.”

OK.

Well, since we have rad other parts of the Bible, we can be sure that Jesus is not teaching us to cheat or to be dishonest.

But, I think that this rather confusing parable is another way for Jesus to say that his disciples should be “as wise as serpents and as innocent as doves.”

We live in a world of limited resources, a world of dollars and cents, a world where our budgets – our personal budget – our church budget – our national budget – are all in fact moral documents, revealing what we truly value, and what we don’t value very much at all.

We need to be savvy with what we have – to not squander and certainly not cheat like the manager may have – but use our resources carefully, building wealth so that we can do the most good that we can. 

And, this week’s news provided a real-life example of what Jesus might have in mind for us: the outdoor clothing company, Patagonia.

Since it was founded by a counter-cultural rock climber Yvon Chouinard in 1973, Patagonia has been in the lead in using organic materials, providing day care for children of employees, and being good caretakers of the environment.

Not being outdoorsy myself, I don’t think I’ve ever bought or worn a Patagonia product, but people seem to really like their stuff because the company has been hugely successful, making its founder a billionaire, apparently much to his dismay.

Just recently, he and his family worked out a complicated plan to transfer their ownership of the company, worth about $3 billion, to a trust and nonprofit organization.

Putting this together took a lot of shrewdness – I don’t pretend to understand it all – and some skeptics think it’s just a clever way for the family to avoid a big tax bill, but it sure looks like this clever family has sacrificed great wealth to ensure that Patagonia will stay true to its principles, using all of its profits to fight climate change and protect sensitive lands around the world.

So, I don’t know if the skeptics are right or not, but the positive interpretation of what they’re doing really is like what Jesus has in mind: be clever and make money, yes, sure, but then use that wealth for good.

So, next Sunday will be the start of our Stewardship Campaign here at St. Thomas’.

And, you know that this place has been long blessed with significant financial resources, and at least as important, we’re also blessed with savvy and clever people who take good care of what has been entrusted to us, allowing me to sleep quite well, actually.

  I won’t be preaching next week, so I want to say this today:

My hope is that the cohesive renewal that is happening at St. Thomas’ will include all of us taking a prayerful and thoughtful look at our budgets, our budgets which tell us what we really value and we don’t value all that much.

My hope is that our cohesive renewal will include us reflecting on just how blessed we are, how much we have to be grateful for.

In my case, especially after last week, I’m not kidding when I say that I’ve got to be the most fortunate priest in the Episcopal Church!

And I hope that our cohesive renewal will inspire us to be as generous as we can with this amazing church, moving us beyond depending so much on the wealth left behind by others, renewing the sense that this is our church and we are responsible for taking care of it, providing the resources to do the work that God has given us to do, providing the resources for the future ministries that God is preparing for us as we speak.  

So, may God continue to renew this old church.

May God give us the gift of a cohesive renewal.

Amen. 

The God of Renewal

St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church, Owings Mills MD

September 11, 2022

Year C, Proper 19: The Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Renewal Sunday

Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28

Psalm 14

1 Timothy 1:12-17

Luke 15:1-10

The God of Renewal

I’ve mentioned to you before that I really like taking early morning walks along the NCR Trail, about a twenty minute drive from here.

And when you follow the same route day after day, you start to notice small changes, things that might escape the eye of someone who was walking along there for the first time.

So, a couple of weeks ago, I noticed that just a few gold and brown leaves were beginning to fall, beginning to dot the trail under my feet.

By now, there are leaves along the trail, lots of leaves have fallen all over the place, including here around the church, where they will soon become a nearly daily challenge for our sextons, Ricky and Chris.

And we all know what’s to come.

Soon enough most of the trees will be bare, standing starkly against the sky.

Our part of the world will lose much of its color, growing colder, at times seeming almost lifeless.

You won’t be surprised to know that we have a herd of deer that spend a lot of time around the rectory. Now, I know how many of you feel about deer! But, since Sue and I are not exactly avid gardeners, we enjoy seeing them, especially the three fawns who love to run and bounce all around but still usually stick close to mom.

For now, at least, it’s a kind deer paradise over there. But I’ve wondered what the fawns will make of their first fall and winter, their first touch of coldness, the time when the grass and foliage are much less abundant, the time they feel the first pangs of hunger, loss, and fear.

I don’t know what a young deer thinks about any of this – or if they do think about it – but I wouldn’t be surprised if they might just assume that this is the way it’s going to be forever.

But, we – even those of us who are not avid gardeners – we know better.

We know that, while everything seems cold and quite dead, in fact new life is being prepared in secret, just waiting to rise again, like Jesus freed from the tomb on the first Easter morning.

God is the God of Renewal.

We see the God of Renewal at work in nature, and if we’ve been around for any length of time, we have all experienced the God of Renewal at work in our lives, during the times when suffering seems just too great to endure.

We encounter the God of Renewal at work during times of lost-ness, when it feels like we have lost too many or too much, when we can no longer see clearly the way forward, when it sure feels like all hope is lost.

And yet we discover strength we didn’t know we possessed – we receive help from friends we didn’t even know we had – we receive the grace of courage and fortitude that only God can give – we were lost but now we are found.

I’m mindful that, in the midst of our day of celebration, this is also a solemn day, as we recall the terror attacks on our nation twenty-one years ago.

And yet, those of us who remember that terrible day and the frightening and uncertain days that followed, also remember the spirit of goodwill that bloomed here in our land and throughout much of the world.

As it happens, it was Queen Elizabeth II who offered some of the wisest words during that terrible time of lost-ness, wisdom that has stuck with me. The Queen who, despite her great privilege, knew something about loss, reminded us that, “Grief is the price we pay for love.”

And, whenever I read or hear that quote, I can almost hear St. Paul adding, “Love never ends.”

Especially in times of lost-ness and loss, God is always at work, offering us love, renewing the love between and among us.

All of us have been through a time of lost-ness over these past couple of years.

Venerable Institutions and norms of behavior that once seemed rock solid, have been revealed as shockingly wobbly, in decline, unreliable, and rejected by many.

We have endured a pandemic that stunned us, forcing us to face our fragility and limitations – a pandemic that took precious lives from us - a pandemic that forced us to take steps previously unthinkable, like keeping the church doors closed on Sunday, keeping the doors closed for many Sundays.

But, just like the shepherd who, let’s face it, kind of crazily leaves the 99 to go search for the one lost sheep, just like the woman who relentlessly cleans her home until she finds that one lost coin, the God of Renewal does not give up on us.

In a time of so much suffering and loss, God has remained at work, opening our hearts to be even more loving and generous, giving us courage to keep going even when we double-masked and fanatically sanitized our shopping carts and grocery bags.

And you know that the God of Renewal has been working overtime here at St. Thomas’!

I first fell in love with this church when I heard how, back in the early days of the pandemic, some of you made masks and hung them up on the parish hall door so that anyone in the community – people we don’t know and will never know – could have some comfort and safety.

The God of Renewal has been working overtime at St. Thomas’, lifting up exceptional lay leaders, especially Tony Seville and Jesse VanGeison who held this place together during a long and occasionally contentious time between rectors.

The God of Renewal has been working overtime at St. Thomas’, sending us two wonderful old friends, two loving shepherds, Ann Copp and Caroline Stewart, who we thank and honor in a special way today.

And, for the past 14 months or so, I’ve seen the God of Renewal hard at work here at St. Thomas’ – as people who had left for a time have made there way back to us, as new people have taken the big step of crossing that well-worn threshold into this old holy place.

The God of Renewal has been at work as lay people take turns leading Bible discussions on Zoom, as a determined group persisted in the dream of offering hospitality to people from Afghanistan, a dream that seemed almost out of reach until just last week when at last we welcomed our brother Hizbullah to our community.

The God of Renewal has been at work as we created a beautiful new website, a website which in just its first week has already drawn at least one new newcomer to our church!

Even for the God of Renewal, this is all pretty amazing, wouldn’t you say?

Both of today’s parables end with celebration.

After the shepherd finds the lost sheep and after the woman finds her lost coin, they don’t keep their joy to themselves. No, they invite people over for a party to celebrate that what was lost has been found, that hope has been renewed.

So, that’s what we’re doing here today on Renewal Sunday.

And, since for us Christians, renewal begins in the water of Baptism, in a moment we will renew our baptismal promises.

And, here’s the thing. If, with God’s help, we continue to take these big baptismal promises seriously, then the God of Renewal will continue to use this old church - God will continue to use us - to renew our weary and worn world, from Owings Mills to Baltimore City and beyond.

So the young fawns frolicking around the rectory may not know it – and, especially in moments of loss and fear, we may forget it – but God is the God of Renewal.

Amen.

The Cost and the Blessing of Discipleship for Philemon and for Us

St. Thomas’ Church, Owings Mills MD

September 4, 2022

Year C, Proper 18: The Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Jeremiah 18:1-11

Psalm 139:1-5, 12-17

Philemon 1-21

Luke 14:25-33

The Cost and the Blessing of Discipleship for Philemon and for Us

In today’s Gospel lesson, we’re told that, “large crowds were traveling with Jesus.”

I suspect that these large crowds were following Jesus because they had seen or heard about his healings, maybe even his Sabbath healings, like the time Jesus set free the bent-over woman and she stood up straight!

Maybe these large crowds were following Jesus because they wanted to see more of these wonder works, or maybe they longed for healing for themselves or for those they loved.

Or maybe the large crowds were attracted to Jesus’ parables, the strange and challenging stories that opened new ways of looking at the world and new ways of thinking about God, stories that must have kept people scratching their heads for days.

Now, most normal religious leaders, present company included, would want to hold onto these big numbers – to keep growing the church, let’s say.

But, as we heard today, rather than trying to please the crowd, rather than sugarcoating his message, Jesus instead offers some hard words, some difficult teaching.

Jesus warns that there is a cost to following him – a cost that should be carefully calculated before making the decision to follow Jesus.

Now, it’s true that God’s grace is free – there’s nothing we could ever do to earn or buy God’s grace.

But there is a cost.

The cost is how we respond to grace.

There is a cost to putting Jesus first, ahead of even our closest family attachments, ahead of all our worldly goods.

There is a cost to keeping our baptismal promises – a cost to proclaiming the Good News in word and example – a cost to loving our neighbor as our self – a cost to striving for justice and peace among all people – a cost to respecting the dignity of every human being.

Grace is free, but there is a cost to following Jesus – a cost for us today and a cost for disciples two thousand years ago.

Like, for example, a man named Philemon, who, as we heard in today’s second lesson, once received quite a remarkable letter from St. Paul.

 In this short letter, we get a glimpse of Paul conducting some business. It’s a personal  - but not quite private – letter. Paul addresses it to Philemon and to others in his household.

It’s a letter that was valued and saved and shared by early Christians and eventually ended up in the New Testament.

And, it’s a letter that gives us a glimpse of the cost of following Jesus.

So let’s try to unpack what’s going on here.

Paul is writing to a man named Philemon and he’s writing about one of Philemon’s slaves, Onesimus – a name which means “useful.”

Now, before I continue, I want to mention that unlike the way slavery was practiced in our country, slavery in the ancient world was generally not a dehumanizing institution. Slaves were very much still seen as people and some even rose to prominent positions. Slaves were not necessarily slaves forever. But, having said that, it was still better to be free than to be a slave.

So, as we read Paul’s letter – and, of course, unfortunately we only have one side of this correspondence – we learn that Philemon’s slave Onesimus has been serving Paul while the apostle has been in prison.

Notice the wordplay on the name Onesimus. Paul writes, “Formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful both to you and to me.”

We’re not told how or why Onesimus ended up serving Paul. 

Maybe Philemon had loaned out his slave – or, maybe, Onesimus had run away and gone to Paul for safe harbor.

We just don’t know how it all went down, but the slave Onesimus has been with Paul, and he has become a Christian. 

And now Paul is writing to Philemon – who is also a Christian - with a big ask.

But, because Paul is being so indirect we don’t know exactly what he’s asking.

It could be that Paul is asking Philemon to let Onesimus stay with him indefinitely.

It could be that Paul is asking Philemon to forgive Onesimus whatever he’s done and welcome him back.

Or, it could be that Paul is asking Philemon to free Onesimus – to welcome him back not as a slave but as a beloved brother in Christ.

So, we don’t know exactly what’s going on but we know it’s a big ask because Paul lays it on pretty thick. Listen to this again:

“…though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do your duty, yet I would rather appeal to you on the basis of love – and I, Paul, do this as an old man, and now also as a prisoner of Christ Jesus.”

And there’s this:

“So if you consider me your partner, welcome him as you would welcome me. If he has wronged you in any way, charge that to my account.”

And, finally:

“Confident of your obedience, I am writing to you, knowing that you will do even more than I say.”

And, that’s it.

We don’t know how Philemon responded.

But, we do know that Paul’s appeal to either forgive or free Onesimus forced Philemon to face the cost of discipleship.

So, the other day someone asked me how I was doing, after just a little more than a year as your rector.

I answered that I feel like the most fortunate priest in the Episcopal Church.

There are a lot of reasons why I feel so blessed, but the most important one is that so many of you – so many people here at St. Thomas’ - are so often willing to pay the cost of discipleship, with God’s help, of course.

Two examples:

Since before I arrived, Bob Kenyon has been eager to overhaul our church website, generously willing to use a lot of his own time and expertise to get the job done.

A few months ago, Bob and I put together a small committee with Margaret Green and Sana Brooks, along with Sara Hollands, who has added parish communications to her children and youth responsibilities.

Week after week we met, poring over every word, learning new technology, carefully choosing each picture, prayerfully striving to create something both beautiful and useful, a site that would let hungry people out there know that we’ve got the Best Food right here, and they are all welcome to feast with us. 

When you visit the website, I think you ‘ll see and feel the love and the care and the time and the effort – the sacrifice - that went into creating it.

The cost = and the blessing - of discipleship.

Second example:

One day about a year ago, Louis Hogan and I were having lunch. Our conversation turned to the chaos then unfolding in Afghanistan, as people – especially many people who had assisted our country – desperately tried to flee. 

We might have just left it at sadness and disgust, or even talked about donating some money to organizations that were trying to help these people. But instead, Louis wondered if maybe we could actually welcome Afghan refugees here, sacrificing some of our own space, sacrificing some of our own comfort, to do something really generous for at least a few people who had lost so much.

Well, many of you know what happened next.

We assembled a group of talented parishioners who looked long and hard at the assistant’s house. Others, especially Betsy Wilmerding and Page Seville, spent countless hours learning the byzantine rules of refugee resettlement. We made friends and formed partnerships with people in other organizations and congregations.

And we hit more obstacles than we can or would ever want to remember.

So much time, talent, and treasure.

So much patience and faithfulness.

So much sacrifice.

And now, after nearly a year of planning and waiting, a young Afghan man, sponsored by us and our partners, will be arriving in our community on Tuesday afternoon.

The cost – and the blessing - of discipleship.

Amen.

But, wait, don’t you really want to know what Philemon chose to do?

Well, there are two tantalizing clues.

In the Letter to the Colossians, a Christian named… Onesimus is mentioned in passing. We’re told he’s on his way to Colossae.

And there’s also a very old tradition that Onesimus was not only freed by Philemon, but went on to become a bishop in the city of Ephesus and later gave his life for his faith.

Do we know any of this for sure?

No, we don’t.

But, since Paul’s letter was saved and made it into the Bible, I like to think that, yes, at least in this case, Philemon was willing to pay the high cost of following Christ – that he accepted the cost – and received the blessing – of discipleship.

May the same be true for us.

And, now, for real this time: Amen!