Sermon for Sunday, Oct. 1, 2023
Matthew 21:23-32; Philippians 2:1-13
In today’s Gospel reading, the religious
leaders, baffled by Jesus, sputter at him, “By what authority are you doing
these things, and who gave you this authority?” (Matt 21:23). Clearly, there’s a conflict here about where
real authority comes from – and, by extension, what real leadership looks like.
So, to make sense of that conflict, we
need to know what Jesus has done to upset the religious leaders. Well, with today’s reading, we’ve skipped
ahead in Matthew’s Gospel, leapfrogging over Jesus’ triumphal entry into
Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, and we find ourselves this morning in the rising
conflict leading up to Good Friday. So, here’s
what Jesus has done to push the religious leaders’ buttons: He’s ridden in triumph into Jerusalem, the political
capital and center of the Jewish universe.
And then he’s driven the merchants out of the Temple, literally turning
the tables on the existing religious order. In two quick strokes on the same day, Jesus has
taken on the Roman Empire and the Jewish leadership. Both church and state need to be turned upside
down, Jesus says. No wonder the leaders
are asking him, “By what authority are you doing these things?”
And then, as if this fire needed stoking,
Jesus responds by telling a series of parables against the religious leaders, letting
them know their days in the sun are numbered because of their arrogance and self-righteousness.
It’s a story we still know all too
well. This past week, the news has given
us pictures of a powerful senator who’s become a cartoon character, with bars of
gold and wads of cash sticking out of his pockets. But like all characters in a political
cartoon, Senator Menendez is a symbol of so much more that’s wrong in our world
of political leadership. Yesterday, our
legislators did, actually, meet the deadline to attend to their most basic
responsibility, keeping the government’s doors open and the lights on … at
least for 45 more days. Then we’ll get
to watch them fight over shutting down the government again, substituting their
own agendas for the nation’s interest.
Sadly, arrogance doesn’t stop at the Capitol
steps. There’s been plenty of it in beautiful
spaces like this, too. For years, the
Church could count on social pressure to drive people to come to worship on
Sundays. The question was which
congregation had the more attractive preacher or music program or kids’
ministry. Now, the social pressure to go
to church is gone; and, as we hear over and over, folks are voting with their
feet, leaving to find meaning somewhere else.
For example: In 2006, the proportion
of Americans identifying as religiously unaffiliated was 16 percent. Now, it’s 27 percent and growing.1 The Episcopal Church faces the same problems
but even more intensely. Our general Church’s
membership has dropped 21 percent in the past 10 years.2
Why is that? I think much of the issue comes down to whose
needs we’ve been prioritizing. In a
nutshell, I think church leaders, lay and ordained, have become conditioned to
think in terms of the well-being of the institution first. We hear it all the time: “The Church needs to
grow; the Church needs younger members,” etc. That’s not wrong, it’s just not the
point. Mtr. Jean and I have been blessed
to have some great conversations with a member here who’s a marketing
professional. He’s been helping us see
the difference between focusing on the institution versus focusing on the
people the institution is here to serve – and then communicating that way. It’s part of the shift we’ve been trying to make
for years here, a shift toward reclaiming mission over maintenance – in other
words, trying to discern what the people in the pews and the people around us actually
need, rather than trying to cook up the next attractive offering to keep the church
chugging along. Ironically, paradoxically,
the Church will find success by focusing less on our desire to succeed and
focusing more on our call to give ourselves away, loving and serving the people
God brings here and the people God places alongside us.
I pray that kind of reflection also will be
happening in our diocese in the months ahead.
You may have noticed a new intercession in the Prayers of the People
each Sunday – and you’ll hear it about a hundred times more over the next 18
months. We’re searching for a new bishop
for the Diocese of West Missouri. Over
the past year, our diocesan leadership bodies have studied the missional
history of the Episcopal Church in West Missouri, including how previous
bishops spent day after day on the road, visiting tiny mission stations, preaching
in larger congregations, confirming new members, speaking to civic groups, and uniting
people in twice as many West Missouri communities as have an Episcopal presence
today. Based on that return to our
roots, we’ve redone the diocesan budget from scratch, trying to prioritize
equipping smaller congregations to serve the people around them rather than
simply gasping for breath.
Meanwhile, the diocesan Standing Committee
has been designing the process for our bishop search; and in a couple of weeks,
we’ll announce the members of the Bishop Search Committee. These are the people who will create a
profile of our diocese – telling the story of who we’ve been, who we are, and
who we hear God asking us to become. This committee will screen the people who
apply to be bishop and raise up those whom God might be calling to lead us in
this transition time for The Episcopal Church.
Next August, the Search Committee will present three to five candidates
for election, and our Diocesan Convention delegates will choose one of them a year
from this November.
What kind of leader will we be looking
for? Today’s Gospel reading gives us one
portrait of religious leadership – people who assume their credentials
privilege their point of view, people who hear a challenge and rush to silence
it, people who focus on protecting their power and end up saying and doing
little of any real value for the people they supposedly serve. We can definitely see that model of
leadership among the cartoon characters in Washington. But we’ve also seen it in the Church, over
and over again – leaders who were interested in their own position, or anxious
about the appearance of their congregation’s success, rather than guiding and
forming people to follow Jesus and serve the folks God had placed around them.
So, as we pray for the bishop search over
and over again for the next year and a half, just who are we asking God for?
Before I answer that, I want to share
something personal. In search processes
like this, the typical posture is for potential candidates to “dance a little
sidestep,”2 keeping their options open through artful noncommitment. By the same token, the typical approach for folks
in the pews, especially here in the land of Midwest Nice, is not to ask
directly so they don’t put their leader on the spot. I don’t think any of that does us much
good. In fact, I think it leads us into
the kingdom of anxiety, into the thickets of “what’s Fr. John gonna do?”
So, let me tell you what Fr. John’s going
to do. I’m not going to be a candidate
for bishop, and here’s why: Because God isn’t
calling me to it. If God were, this would
be a very different conversation, but I believe I’ve gotten enough clarity to
know the call isn’t there. Why? Part of that is about the historical moment: I doubt that a middle-aged-to-older, straight,
white man, from this diocese, is the one that we’ll be seeking once our profile
is complete. It’s also about the
ministry of a bishop: I’m not enraptured
with the work of the larger Episcopal Church, and a bishop spends a lot of time
and energy on that. It’s also about the
schedule of a bishop: As we’ve learned looking
back at the inspiring work of bishops from a century ago, and from the inspiring
work of our current bishop provisional, a good bishop must be on the move,
showing up all over the diocese and doing the long, slow, slogging, one-on-one
work of leading the sheep. If I were
bishop, that’s how I’d need to do it. But
here’s the primary reason that this isn’t a good fit: That kind of schedule won’t work for Ann and me. As you know, she struggles with a lot of
health issues secondary to her lupus. Honestly,
we never know what’s coming. Even as it
is now, I struggle to be present at home enough. So, I don’t think I’m called to a job that would
put me always on the road.
So, back to the more important question: Who are we asking God for when we offer that
prayer for the bishop search? Specifically,
I don’t know yet. We have a lot more work
to do as we discern the mind of Christ on this question. But I can tell you this much: Looking to the mind of Christ is exactly the
right way to approach this discernment.
So, let me leave you today with the very best answer to the question, “Who
should be our next bishop?” Because this
much I know with all my heart: Our next
bishop must be the person who best fits the executive leadership profile we
heard today in the reading from the letter to the Philippians:
Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit,
but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests
but the interests of others. Let the
same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of
God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied
himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God also highly exalted him and gave
him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee
should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (2:3-11)
Amen.
1.
Public Religion Research Institute. “Religion and Congregations in a Time of Social
and Political Upheaval.” May 16, 2023. Available at: https://www.prri.org/research/religion-and-congregations-in-a-time-of-social-and-political-upheaval/.
Accessed Sept. 30, 2023.
2.
Paulsen,
David. “Episcopal Church’s latest parochial reports point to denominational
decline, hope for future.” Sept. 21, 2023. Available at: https://www.episcopalnewsservice.org/2023/09/21/episcopal-churchs-latest-parochial-reports-highlight-denominational-decline-hope-for-future/.
Accessed Sept. 30, 2023.
3.
IMDb.
“The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982). Charles Durning: Governor.”
Available at: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083642/characters/nm0001164.
Accessed Sept. 30, 2023.
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