God’s Mission has a Church

Sermon preached by the Rt. Rev. Stephen T. Lane at the Investiture Service at the Cathedral of St. Luke, Portland, Maine, on Saturday, September 13, 2008.

Isaiah 42: 1-9; Psalm 116:10-12, 15-17; 1 Peter 5:1-4, 10-11; John 10:11-16

I’d like to take just a moment of personal privilege at the beginning of this sermon simply to say, “Thank you.”

Thank you to all of you who are here today, who have supported Gretchen and me on our journey to be among you. Thank you to my family and friends. Thank you to my new colleagues in the House of Bishops, especially all of you from Province I. Thank you to the Search and Transition Committees. (We will formally recognize the work of these committees at our upcoming diocesan convention.) Thank you to the clergy of the diocese, both priests and deacons. Thank you to the leadership of congregations and diocesan bodies. Thank you to the diocesan staff, both the continuing members and the new staff.

And thanks, especially, to you, Chilton. You have been determined to lead us through a healthy transition both as a diocese and as two bishops. You have been generous and gracious every step of the way: firm in your sense of direction, unstinting with your support and counsel, constant in your encouragement, unfailing in your cheerful, good spirit. We have become colleagues and friends. I am aware that offering such leadership in the midst of your own grief about leaving us is not without cost, and I’m deeply grateful for your vision, your steadfastness and your care, and for the time we’ve had together. Thank you.

I also want to thank our Arabic reader this morning, Mr. Ambrose Magaya. Mr. Magaya is representing the Sudanese community in Portland. This last week has been a particularly painful week in Maine for members this community. Mr. Magaya is here with us, while the burial service for James Angelo is taking place at the same hour. We are grateful for his presence and his witness. 

Now… to the sermon

Today I’m not going to talk about Cornish Game Hens… (My thanks to Jack McKelvey for that unusual but enduring image…) but I am going to begin by talking about a pig. One of my favorite kid movies, a movie that actually speaks deeply to adults, is Babe. Babe, you may recall, is a pig, a talking pig. And in the movie Babe wins the British national sheep herding competition. He wins not by intimidating the sheep, by snarling at, nipping at or terrifying sheep like the wolves – err, the dogs – do, but by speaking politely with them in sheep language. Sheep it turns out, while not terribly ambitious or bright, nonetheless have a fully developed culture and language. And Babe is successful because he takes the time to learn the culture and the language. “If you would be so kind, would the three ladies with collars on please stand outside the pen?” And the sheep oblige. They hear Babe’s words and choose to follow.

Our Gospel is, in part, about that same process of recognition and mutual respect. The text is part of a long dialogue in the Gospel of John that begins with the story of the man born blind. Jesus is still speaking with the Pharisees, and he is continuing to chide them that they, who claim to be religious, do not recognize God when God is among them. Jesus continues to talk about their blindness, that they do not see and know God. And although he has shifted the metaphor here from a visual one to an auditory one, he continues to talk about relationship between God and God’s people. God and God’s people are in a relationship of love, and because they know and love one another, their work together does not require rules and regulations. It requires, instead, discernment and care. The relationship is not maintained by power or coercion, not by the Law, but by the shepherd’s gentle voice. The sheep are attuned to that voice, and they follow the shepherd.

For those of us who would lay some claim to the role of shepherd, there are some important things to notice in Jesus’ words. First, the shepherd speaks in the sheep’s own language. The shepherd has taken time to learn the culture and addresses the sheep with respect. The shepherd is not about pushing the sheep to do what the sheep do not want to do. To quote Isaiah, “…a bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench…” Rather the shepherd is about leading the sheep in a way that recognizes their concerns and does not invite the sheep to take more risks than the shepherd takes. The shepherd invites the sheep to follow him to a new way of living.

We, you and I, are just beginning to get to know one another. We are learning one another’s languages and coming to understand one another’s concerns. We need to listen to one another with respect and, more important, we need to listen together for the shepherd’s voice among.

Another thing we might notice in Jesus words is that while the initiative belongs to the shepherd, the path, the journey, belongs to God. Our Gospel is one of seven in John in which Jesus declares, in language reminiscent of Genesis, “I am.” Jesus is claiming to speak for God, indeed Jesus is claiming to be the presence of God. God’s reign is the standard for judgment about the shepherd’s work. It is not what I want or you want that matters, but what we together discern is God’s will for us. And notice that God’s mission is expansive. It is always moving outward. There are other sheep that do not yet belong to this fold and the shepherd must bring them all in. Our eyes must always be on those outside, who do not yet belong, who are, in fact, the true measure of our kingdom journey. It is not that God’s church has a mission; we are not setting the direction. Rather, God’s mission has a church; the church is to follow God’s will. The church’s task, our task, is to further the reign of God and to serve God’s people whether or not they belong to the church. [applause]

And we know the signs of God’s reign – the blind see, the lame walk, the prisoners dance, the poor hear good news. We know our job – to be light in the darkness, to open the blind eyes, to set the captives free, to declare the year of the Lord’s favor.

This is not an easy job. In our current culture, although most Americans claim to be spiritual, fewer than half claim to be church members, and less than a quarter attend any church regularly. Ours is a post-Christian culture. The language, the traditions, the symbols, the metaphors which may once have held us together no longer do. We’re searching for things to believe in, and lacking a sense of a greater whole, or a larger purpose, our culture seems intent on fracturing into smaller and smaller groups. We define ourselves more and more tightly, seeming to relish the boundaries that separate us, that make us unique: male/female, black/white, red/blue, gay/straight. Traditional, working soccer moms for Sarah. Bi-racial, post-moderns for Obama…

But the mission of the one God is not about division. It is about reconciliation, reconciliation with God and one another – that there will be one flock and one shepherd. And we, brothers and sisters, we represent the One to whom everyone belongs. Christ claims them all as sheep, as God’s children, and therefore we claim them all as members of our family. Are they children? They belong to us. Are they disaffected young people? They belong to us. Are they married with children? They belong to us. Are they gay or lesbian or transgendered? They belong to us. Are they Republican or Democrat? Working soccer moms or bi-racial post-moderns? Penobscot or Sudanese? Hispanic or Francophone? Poor, hungry or in jail? Summer folk or year ‘rounders? [laughter] They all belong to us.

If we make this claim, we may well suffer. Some will hold us to it; will challenge us to stand behind our promise. And some will repudiate us for it; will push us to deny our promise and our connection with some group or another. It’s easy to get side-tracked, to stop hearing the voice of the one who calls us, to hear only the competing voices, to think that it’s about getting on the right side…

But the truth is, it’s always and only about God. It is about God’s gentle voice, and God’s invitation to us to follow. It is to a place of listening for that voice that we need to return, over and over. God invites us to abundant life, and he invites us to bring everyone with us.

Such an invitation, such a gentle voice, can seem like so little. What we want is strength. We want to win. Let’s get the power behind us, let’s bring out the big guns. We need get the sheep in line. Get them to do what is right. But that’s the game the dogs – err, the wolves – play. And it hurts the sheep. It divides the sheep.

Whatever our temptations to power, our shepherd has shown us that that way will always fail. The cross of Christ stands in judgment over every use of power, including our own. The only voice we can trust is that of the good shepherd who has already shown us that he will lay down his life for us. His promises are sure, and we can trust our lives to him.

So may we, as we begin our time together, commit ourselves to listening for the shepherd’s voice. May we commit ourselves to listening to one another, learning about one another and speaking to each other with respect. May we seek not our own way, but seek to discern together the way God would have us go. And may we commit ourselves to being members of the one flock that belongs to the one shepherd.

So may it be. Amen.