New Directions
Homily delivered for the First Sunday after Epiphany (Year C)
9 January 2021
8:00 a.m. Said and 10:00 a.m. Sung Eucharist
Trinity Episcopal Church
Ashland, Oregon
The Rev. Anthony Hutchinson, SCP, Ph.D., homilist
Isaiah 43:1-7; Psalm 29; Acts 8:14-17; Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
God, let us not accept that judgment that this is what we are. Inflame our hearts with the desire to change—with hope and faith that we all can change.
Take away our hearts of stone and give us hearts of flesh. Amen
Today is Baptism of Christ Sunday, and my last day as your rector. In a few minutes, we will be renewing our baptismal vows, and then performing a rite solemnizing the ending of my service here.
In the reaffirmation, we renew our commitments made in baptism. As we do so, God is also renewing God’s commitments in our baptism. Remember the loving and affirming words of blessing said as the newly baptized are anointed with oil: “You are sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked as Christ’s own forever” (BCP 308).
Today’s lesson from the Hebrew Scriptures expresses this promise from God this way:
Do not fear, for I have redeemed
you;
I have called you by name, you are mine.
When you pass through the waters, I
will be with you;
and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you…
…[Y]ou are precious in my sight, … I love you.” (Isa 43:1b-2a, 4)
Today’s Psalm also expresses God’s love in the face of scary waters:
“Yahweh’s voice sounds over the waters,
The God of glory thunders;
Yahweh is greater than roaring waters…
Yahweh’s voice is powerful,
Yahweh’s voice is exquisite…
Yahweh will strengthen his people,
Yahweh will give them the blessing of peace.” (Psalm 29:3-4, 11)
This linkage of scary roaring waters with God’s love and protection is implicit in our baptismal theology. In order to have new life, we must, in a sense die. Paul said it this way: “Therefore we are buried with [Christ] by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life” (Rom 6:4).
Roaring waters are scary, and we fear risk being drowned in them! But coming through them, like Moses and the Israelites and the Red Sea, brings us to joy and peace. The Catechism in the Book of Common Prayer (BCP 845-62) says, “The inward and spiritual grace in Baptism is union with Christ in his death and resurrection, birth into God’s family the Church, forgiveness of sins, and new life in the Holy Spirit.”
The story of Jesus being baptized by John clearly embarrassed early Christians, who balked at the idea that he somehow needed John’s teaching and baptism. Mark, the earliest Gospel, says John preached a “baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.” When John baptizes Jesus, he comes up out of the water, “immediately he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven.” But Matthew changes the story. He deletes the fact that John’s baptism was “for repentance” and adds the exchange where John says “I need to be baptized by you, Jesus, not you from me.” Luke, today’s reading, leaves in that John’s baptism was for repentance but adds a lengthy description of the Baptist’s preaching and then he avoids mentioning that it was John who actually baptized Jesus. Luke says merely, after his story of the arrest of John, that “when all the people had been baptized and Jesus also had been baptized and was praying” that the dove descends on him. The Gospel of John simply deletes Jesus’ getting baptized altogether. In the prologue of John, the Baptist appears purely as a witness to Light, the word made flesh. John bears witness of the one who is to follow, and identifies him as Jesus. Later, Jesus goes out to Jordan to baptize rather than be baptized (John 3:22-4:3). Though the Baptist is quoted as bearing witness that he saw the spirit descend on Jesus, there is no scene in John’s Gospel of the baptism itself.
The early Church’s embarrassment over all this is convincing evidence that the historical Jesus was, in fact, baptized by John, drawn to the Baptist’s message of a new life in a living God for all willing to turn aside from old ways.
Key here is what the word “repentance” actually means: the Greek metanoeo used here literally means “a change of mind.” The historical Jesus clearly had a change in thinking at this time, since it was his baptism and then John’s arrest that seem to have sent him into the 40 day fast in the wilderness from which he comes ready to abandon his family and commence his ministry. He died to his old life, and came to newness of life.
And that is what we are called to even now: change our mind and heart, turn from old ways, go boldly where we have not gone before. This may be from specific misdoings and failures, but it can also mean just going in a new direction.
Today is my last day as Rector here at Trinity. It’s been a good ten years, full of joy and love. I have learned here always to think of we, not you and me. I have learned that no matter what challenges present themselves, if we take the default position of trying to follow Jesus, things will work out for the best. I have learned how important it is to not judge, and to always recognize that everyone we meet is facing their own struggle and issues, unknown to us. So we must be kind, and go easy on them and ourselves. I have seen your great examples of love and service, and greatly benefitted from them. I have learned, by serving with you as you faced great challenges and sorrows, including degenerative illness and the death of loved ones, how to graciously give care to the end for my dear Elena as she declined and just over a month ago, died. I am forever grateful to you all for this gift of the example of loving service and the nitty gritty of how to follow Jesus when facing roaring waters.
But it is time to move on. I am heading in new directions in my own ministry and life; and you all individually and as a congregation will also be going in new directions. The rite of ending of a pastoral relationship is intended to help us make a clean and healthy break from the past, as good as the past has been.
Change is inevitable in our life, both individual and common. It can be scary, and feel like raging waters. It can trigger grief for feeling that we are losing good and happy things we are turning away from. But what is good is never lost if we pursue the onward path behind our Lord. I truly believe that this change is good, and presents great opportunities for us all to better pursue God’s call to us.
We live in a scary world, one in which it is easy to lose hope and our bearings. Dying to our old selves, coming through the raging waters, brings us to God’s promise of love, support, and peace. In the baptism of Jesus story, the dove of peace, the Holy Spirit descends. The voice of God, a voice of splendor and power louder than raging waters, says, “You are my child. I love you. You make me happy.”
And so it is for us. We are God’s children, God’s beloved.
Thanks be to God, Amen.
+++
Before the Peace
The Ending of a Pastoral Relationship
Departing Minister
On the first day of January, 2012, I began my ministry as Pastor, and in April of that year was inducted by Bishop Michael Hanley as Rector of Trinity Church Ashland. I have, with God’s help and to the best of my abilities, exercised this trust, accepting its privileges and responsibilities.
After prayer and careful consideration, it now seems to me that I should leave this charge, and I publicly state that my tenure as rector of Trinity Church ends this day. I will remain living here in Ashland, working on my translation, The Ashland Bible, and doing supply priest work as appropriate in other congregations.
The Vestry and Senior Warden, under the rules of the Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Oregon, in the absence of a rector take canonical charge of the parish, including assigning supply clergy and, in collaboration with the bishop, finding an interim priest-in-charge, appointing a search committee and calling a new rector. Our senior warden now is Daniel Bunn.
Senior Warden
Do you, the people of Trinity Church Ashland, recognize and accept the conclusion of this pastoral relationship with Father Tony?
|
People |
We do. |
Departing Minister
The last ten years have been good for me and for Elena, may she rest in peace. I have come to be good friends with many of you, and hope to maintain and develop these friendships unencumbered by the limitations imposed by being your rector.
I undertake to fully respect the boundaries set by the canons concerning former pastors, staying away from this dear place and you dear people for a year or two, until your new rector has established firm ties with you and deems appropriate my renewed participation in the parish in new ways.
From before I came here, on-line postings through my blog and on Facebook have been part of how I do ministry, particularly helpful for me to reach out to people I know in the far-flung world. I hope to continue this on, particularly in the next year, a reduced level. If it helps you to break the pastoral relationship with me and establish ties with your new clergy, I ask that you “unfriend” me and stop following my blog at least for the time I am away from the parish. I won’t take it personally, knowing you are “unpastoring” me while hopefully remaining friends.
I want to thank all of you for your support of my ministry here, for your advice and counsel, and for your great example to me in living the way of Jesus. We’ve been through a lot together, and I cherish it all. I am hopeful that your ministry of the baptized in all the various ways that make Trinity alive and loving will continue unabated and actually be renewed and grow through my stepping away.
Senior Warden remarks
Departing Minister Let us pray.
All. O God, you have bound us together for a time as priest and people to work for the advancement of your kingdom in this place: We give you humble and hearty thanks for the ministry which we have shared in these years now past.
Silence
We thank you for your patience with us despite our blindness and slowness of heart. We thank you for your forgiveness and mercy in the face of our many failures.
Silence
Especially we thank you for your never-failing presence with us through these years, and for the deeper knowledge of you and of each other which we have attained.
Silence
We thank you for those who have been joined to this part of Christ’s family through baptism. We thank you for opening our hearts and minds again and again to your Word, and for feeding us abundantly with the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of your Son.
Silence
Now, we pray, be with those who leave, and with us who stay; and grant that all of us, by drawing ever nearer to you, may always be close to each other in the communion of your saints. All this we ask for the sake of Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord. Amen.
Departing Minister The Peace of the Lord be always with you.
People And also with you.
At the Eucharist after this rite, the preface for Apostles and Ordinations is used:
Through the great shepherd of your flock, Jesus Christ our Lord; who after his resurrection sent forth his apostles to preach the Gospel and to teach all nations; and promised to be with them always, even to the end of the ages.
No comments:
Post a Comment