Annual Parish Meeting Sunday
1 Corinthians 12:13-31a
Jan. 26, 2025
Welcome to annual-meeting Sunday and the
state-of-the-parish address. Of course,
there are many ways to frame the state of our parish. I’d encourage you to take home your copy of
the annual report, which you can find in the entryway and on the tables
downstairs.
In terms of the temporal affairs of the
church, God continues to bless us with good indicators. Including both in-person and online
worshipers, attendance was up 8 percent last year. Because of your amazing generosity, giving was
1 percent over projection. The endowment
fund is greater than $3 million for the first time in decades. I can’t tell you how grateful I am to God, and
to you, for the incredible foundation for ministry you provide.
I’m going to focus this morning on the
spiritual state of our parish. As some
of you will remember, just before the pandemic hit, we did a spiritual
self-study called RenewalWorks, which documented something I think we already
knew. St. Andrew’s is a group of disciples
who are much more comfortable following God by doing rather than being. We’re passionate about serving people nearby
and far away, which you’ll absolutely see in the annual report. That’s all right and good, true to the heart
of Jesus and the heart of this place. And,
it’s not the end of the story of our discipleship.
Over the past year, we’ve been pushing on
this a bit, trying to build a pathway you can use to grow closer to God not
just through service but through study, prayer, worship, and even (God forbid)
rest. We’ve been framing our spiritual
journey as following the Way of Love, a phrase coined by our past Presiding
Bishop Michael Curry. We’ve offered a
couple of sermon series as well as devotional booklets on the Way of Love. And we’ve been prioritizing spiritual growth
and spiritual leadership in our Vestry, as you’ll hear later from the wardens.
What became clear through the Vestry’s
work this year is that there is no single pathway we all have to follow to grow
closer to God. Instead, we each create
our own adventure along the journey, finding the route that’s right for each of
us but leading to a common destination – heaven, both in this chapter of
eternal life and in the chapters to come.
So, in 2025, what will that journey of
spiritual growth look like? In a time of
division and rancor in the world around us, I think it’s important that we grow
in our clarity about who we are, who we follow, and what we value. So, what’s our journey for the year ahead?
In 2025, our parish theme will be “Discovering
My Way.” I want to break that down a bit
because the words matter. In fact, just
the emphasis we put on certain words matters.
For example, what if I say, “I love you”? The meaning’s quite different if I say, “I
love you” or “I love you” or “I love you.”
So, let’s highlight the first word in this
year’s theme: “Discovering My Way.” Now, that may seem odd. I mean, after 2,000 years, doesn’t the Church
already know where we’re going? Well, we’ll spend this year
“discovering” because the eternal truth of God as revealed in Jesus Christ is
always new. From creating the universe,
to covenanting with Abraham, to saving people from slavery, to entrusting them
with promised land, to leading them back after exile, to redeeming all
people from sin and death – through it all, God says, “See, I am doing a new
thing, … do you not perceive it?” (Isaiah 43:19 NIV). Well, in the same way, God is always newly at
work with you, inviting you to take the next step on your own journey – to come
closer and go deeper with God.
So, through this year, we’ll be inviting
you to do just that. Your clergy and
Vestry are drawing a map you can use to chart your own spiritual adventure with
God. It won’t be complicated – just take
a couple of inventories, meet with a clergy coach, and start taking some next
steps forward. When you do, you’ll be
amazed to meet the God of new things sidling up next to you.
So, that’s the first word. Here’s the second, a small but mighty word: “Discovering
My Way.” What happens when we
emphasize “my”? That’s not something we
usually do. Usually, when I stand up
here, I’m not talking about “you”; I’m talking about “us” – the Church as the
Body of Christ, the Church as a family, even the Church as an organization. In a world of individualism, the Church is one
of the last places in American society where “we” matters more than “me.”
And yet, as we heard in the second reading
today, the Body of Christ is made up many unique members. And we each follow a unique path deeper into
the heart of God. That’s why we’re
encouraging you to take this discovery process seriously for yourself. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to
something as personal as spiritual growth. We’re here to help you explore your own wiring
and explore your own gifts as you explore the love story God’s opening up to you.
OK, how about that last word: “Discovering
My Way”? What way is that
exactly? Well, it’s the way toward what we
all long for, deep down. You can call it
“peace.” You can call it “joy.” You can call it “the heart of God.” You can call it “union with the divine.” You can call it “heaven.” Whatever you call it, we’re each on a journey
to seek our heart’s desire, right?
Well, the way to get there is the Way of
Love. Love is the only thing that brings
us into peace, and joy, and union with the divine. Love is the only door that opens our hearts to
God. It’s the way of Jesus, and that’s
the way we want to help you explore this year.
So, this is our journey for 2025 – a unique
journey for each of us as we move toward heaven, living ever more fully into
the image and likeness of Love. And … alongside
our individual work of “Discovering My Way,” we know we do that in a particular
time and place. In 1913, God put a
missionary outpost of the Episcopal Church here in Brookside; and 112 years
later, we’re just as surely called to reveal God’s kingdom where we find
ourselves here and now.
You’ll find examples of that throughout
the annual report. Through our 16
Outreach projects and partnerships last year, you witnessed to the power of
love with $95,000 given from our operating budget, another $122,000 given by
individual parishioners, and 279 opportunities for service in the world. That’s a powerful witness to the call of Jesus
Christ to prioritize the needs of the poor and the hungry, the dispossessed and
the rejected. When the world says, “Those
folks don’t matter so much,” the Church says, “Those folks are made in God’s
image and likeness, so we serve them as we would serve Jesus himself.”
Outreach ministry is a huge part of that
witness to love’s power. But so is
something harder to quantify, and that’s our presence – the way we engage with
each other, and our neighbors, and the people God puts in our paths each day. And in this historical moment, the stakes feel
especially high as we Americans engage with each other. In the past week, since President Trump’s
inauguration, our national divisions have come back into full view. The president is doing exactly what he said he
would do related to immigration1 and sexual identity2 and
a dozen other issues. Some of us
gathered here this morning will respond with satisfaction while others will
respond with fear and anger. And the
question will arise: What will St. Andrew’s say and do in response?
Well, first, I encourage you to read the
words of our bishop, Diane Jardine Bruce, in this weekend’s Messenger
and bulletin. As she says, our primary
call as followers of Jesus is to love God and love our neighbors. Indeed.
And where might we find a guide to help us
live that way? What’s our touchstone, as
a congregation and as individuals?
It’s the Baptismal Covenant. This fundamental statement of our faith and
practice reminds us that God exists in a relationship of love among Father,
Son, and Spirit. It reminds us we’ve
been created, redeemed, and empowered to live out that same self-giving love. And it describes what living that way looks
like week to week, day to day: worshiping God together, resisting evil and
turning from it, proclaiming the Good News of God’s love, seeking and serving Christ
in everyone, and striving for justice and peace by respecting the dignity of
all. That’s our touchstone. It’s what St. Andrew’s will promote, and it’s
what you’ll hear me advocate. Just as
this summer I suggested you use the Baptismal Covenant as your voting guide, so
now I suggest you use it as your living guide for divided times.
Now, when someone asks you what your
church has to say about the news of the day, it may be hard to bring those five
promises to mind. So, as you witness to the
Way of Love in this fraught year, let me boil down the Baptismal Covenant into
an elevator speech. Actually, it’s been
right before our eyes for more than three years now. You see it every time you come by St.
Andrew’s, adorning the wall of HJ’s: “God
loves all. All means all. Pass the peace.”
Let’s take it from the top. First, “God loves all.” That truth rings throughout the New Testament:
“God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who
believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life” (John 3:16). Or, as St. Peter says in Acts: “I truly
understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who
fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him” (10:34-35). Or, in the words of Bishop Michael Curry, “If
it’s not about love, it’s not about God,” for love is what God does.
So, first, “God loves all.” The second sign at HJ’s says, “All means all.”
That may seem unnecessary – of course
“all means all.” But we’re quickly
tempted to think, “Well … all but them.” And who might those “thems” be? If we look at our own circles of relationship
and at our own stories, I’ll bet most of us will find a “them” pretty close to
us, perhaps now, perhaps in our family histories. For me, it’s the LGBTQ+ community that I feel
protective of. I have three family
members who are trans men, one who’s bisexual, and one who’s gay. So, when I think about who’s at risk of
exclusion, that’s the “them” who come to mind for me. It might be good for each of us to ask
ourselves: In my own circle and my own
story, when have my people been the other? I’d wager nearly all of us have a connection
to someone whom someone else wanted to exclude.
But Jesus is having none of it. As St. Paul puts it in the reading this
morning, “Just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of
the body, though many, are one body, so it is with [the body of] Christ…. The
eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you,’ nor again the head to the
feet, ‘I have no need of you.’ … If one member suffers, all suffer together
with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.” (1
Corinthians 12:12, 21, 26)
So, if God loves all, and all means all,
what are we called to do? “Pass the
peace.” That’s our shorthand for the Baptismal
Covenant’s five promises of discipleship: Gather in beloved community. Turn from evil and sin. Proclaim Good News. Seek and serve Christ in everyone. Respect the dignity of all. In other words, “Pass the peace.”
In a nation that insists we define
ourselves by which leader we follow, we must be clear in our answer. Our leader is Jesus Christ, the Love of
God walking among us. We follow him by
living the Baptismal Covenant, serving the God who is love by walking in love
ourselves. What doesn’t align with those
promises doesn’t align with who we are.
“God loves all. All means all. Pass the peace.” This is who we’ve been. This is who we are. This is who we will be: Unique members of the
Body of Christ – hands and feet, eyes and ears – each of us indispensable, each
of us discovering our way to heaven, each of us welcoming all the fellow
travelers we meet, each of us passing the peace.
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