2 Pentecost

Corpus Christi Sunday
June 10, 2012

Mark 3.20-35

+ As you know, it is very rare that I get mad. By mad, I mean, like angry-mad. I am just not one of those priests. I have to be pushed and prodded and backed into a corner for me to be truly mad. And when I do, as some of you know, it’s not pleasant. And it is even more rare for me to be so mad that I actually see RED. But it happens. Yes, even to the nicest of guys, like me.

But this past week, I got a bit angry. I heard in a very round-about way that the there is some serious thought and consideration for an Episcopal church plant in West Fargo. Now, of course, we’ve all heard this before. We’ve heard the talk about how West Fargo is the fastest growing community in North Dakota (this before the oil boom out west). But, still, if it’s true (and again, I stress this is only a rumor at this point): I would be quite angry.

Here is St. Stephen’s doing exactly what is expected of a church to do. We are reaching out beyond our walls. We are going out into the community and being a representative of Christ and his Church to this community. We certainly are not sitting here in isolation up on the north side of Fargo, afraid to leave these walls of our building. We are doing exactly what is expected of a church. And it’s working. We have grown and are flourishing.

My concern on this is how divisive such a move as a church plant would be. Divisive from the perspective of all three existing Episcopal churches in Fargo-Moorhead. I am at loss to try to rationalize what the thinking might be to pumping money into a church plant in this community and not ever consider helping out the existing congregations to do a more effective job of evangelizing.

I know we at St. Stephen’s would certainly be open to such wisdom. And I can’t imagine that the Cathedral and St. John’s in Moorhead would be opposed either. A church plant in West Fargo, I believe, would actually build up more walls than it would create a healthier Episcopal community among the churches already existing here. And hence, my anger.

In today’s Gospel, we find Jesus saying that wonderful statement of his: “If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.” And it is true. It is true of our church and it is true of our own community.

Last week Sandy preached a sermon in which she referenced Diana Butler Bass. I love Diana Butler Bass because she is one of the rational voices in the Church today. While other Christians—and specifically Episcopalians—are singing their songs of doom about the demise of the Episcopal Church and other mainstream churches, Bass actually says we shouldn’t be crying doom quite yet. It’s not doom. It’s not the death knell.

It’s just…change. The church is changing. And because it is, we need to change too. This has been my almost tiring siren song for the last several weeks. Change, change, change.

But change does not necessarily mean reinventing the wheel. Which I think a church plant in West Fargo would do. Change means taking a look at who we are and where we are and realizing that maybe we need to look at new ways. It is does mean not abandoning what we have. It does not mean tearing everything down. It simply means taking what we have and expanding from it. Change means looking at our strengths and our weaknesses and building up our strengths, while dispelling our weaknesses.

I have thought and prayed a long time on this issue of change. And I am one person who does not hear a death knell. I am one person who does not heed the prophets of doom who are already mourning the death of the Episcopal Church, And I am one who can still get mad and frustrated when I hear about divisive ideas being touted as cutting edge and the only way of survival. This is not the way forward. It is not the one and only way the Church is going to survive. In fact, divisiveness is only going to erode and destroy the Church even quicker.

My point on this is that the Church needs to work together on proclaiming the Gospel and its message of love to others. We are all in the same boat and, as such, we should be working together. We should be frustrated and, yes, dare I say, angry, when we find division in the Church. It is not, in these instances, necessarily a bad thing to feel a certain level of healthy frustration and anger—as long as we don’t act out in anger or let anger define us or destroy us—or when it makes is bitter and difficult to those around us.

If we do so, we end up hurting whatever cause we are fighting for rather than moving forward. And anger will only cause our divisions to continue and grow deeper.

Love, always needs to overcome anything negative. And love always needs to win in the end.

For me personally, I am struggling to keep an open mind and an open heart about such things as a church plant in West Fargo. Close mindedness and hard heartedness are counter to the Gospel—to the Gospel of love of God and love of one another. Close mindedness and hard heartedness are truly the sins against the Holy Spirit that Jesus speaks of in our Gospel reading today. Close mindedness and hard heartedness are ways in which we stifle the Spirit of God at work in our world and in our church.

And prophets of doom who are already shouting the death and destruction of the Church are also running the risk of being counter to the Spirit as well. Where is their faith in God’s Spirit in this Church? Where are their prayers and petitions and fastings for God’s Spirit to blow through this larger Church and renew it?

This is what we should be doing. We should be working together as Church to allow Christ’s Spirit to flow and to flourish. And our job is not hinder it. Our job sometimes is simply to be the conduits for that Spirit to work. To be the pliable vessels through which that Spirit can do the work the Spirit does in the Church and in our lives.

When anyone asks what it is we do well here at St. Stephen’s, I am honest. What do we do well here? We love well here? We are good at welcoming. We are good at being open to the Spirit of God at work here.

And the Spirit IS at work here. We can feel the Spirit of Christ here at St. Stephen’s. Christ’s Spirit flows through us and the works we do. Christ’s Spirit is manifested in the love we have for God and for each other and for others.

There’s our big secret here at St. Stephen’s.

So, yes, I am angry, if it’s true there will be a church plant in West Fargo. Yes, I am frustrated. But I’ll get over it. I have not closed my mind or hardened my heart to what might be done. But I will continue on what I have been called by Christ’s Spirit to do here at St. Stephen’s and in Christ’s Church. And so should we all.

There is glorious future awaiting us as Christians—and I am not just talking about what awaits us in the nearer Presence of God. I am talking about here, on this earth. God’s Kingdom is breaking through to us—again and again. Our job is to share the news of that wonderful Kingdom as it break through, and to allow it to be manifested in those we are called to serve. So, let’s do just that.