Sermon at the Church of the Holy Apostles, New York City, July 2, 2006
Fourth Sunday after Pentecost Year B
by The Reverend Dr. William A. Greenlaw

Job 38:1-11, 16-18
Psalm 107:1-3, 23-32
2 Corinthians 5:14-21
Mark 4:35-41, 5:1-20
 

I want to set the stage for what I want and need to share with you this morning by recalling three powerful images.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, against all odds, refused to give up her seat and move to the back of the bus in segregated Montgomery, Alabama. She was tired. She had had enough. And she decided she was going to keep her seat. Something had snapped inside her, and her outrage, her defiance over one too many indignities, became the spark for the Montgomery bus boycott, the spark giving rise to the Montgomery Improvement Association, the spark that awakened the leadership of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the symbolic act that gave rise to the civil rights movement in modern America.

On the first Day of Pentecost, those early diverse and disparate Christians from all over, speaking different languages, experienced something so transformative and powerful that they heard and understood each other-and they became as one in the Lord. And those early Christians were so empowered by that spirit, she enabled them to move mountains and change their world.

In a very different time, the prophet Jeremiah railed against the official prophets and ministers of the court, the purveyors of the official line, saying they proclaim, "Peace, peace, when there is no peace." This was of course the peace that was offered without justice for all people, for Jeremiah knew that peace without justice is no peace at all.

I will return to these images, but first, a little very recent history:

It was eleven days ago this morning that an action took place in Columbus, Ohio, that has shaken many Episcopalians across this land, and it has shaken an astonishing number of the faithful right here at the Church of the Holy Apostles-and I mean shaken us to our core. And our community has been in turmoil since that day.

The General Convention of the Episcopal Church had elected a woman as our new Presiding Bishop just two weeks ago today. And many were ecstatic here and across our church, hardly able to grasp what a wonderful and hugely significant event this was. And then the Convention's House of Deputies voted decisively twelve days ago to reject calls for a moratorium on giving consent to partnered gay or lesbian bishops-elect. Those deputies had had enough of demands to repent of actions they believed were not only right but just. The Episcopal Church would continue to move forward, and not be held-hostage to those persons both in the Anglican Communion and within our own Episcopal Church, who demanded nothing less, really, that the repudiation of Bishop Gene Robinson. And again, there was widespread rejoicing that our church was being prophetic, standing on its principles, moving forward.

Most of you know what happened next, but I want to describe it using the words of Bishop Robinson, that most gentle and caring and loving soul who we have come to love and respect so very much, and who has been demonized beyond imagining. Speaking of the last day of convention, just eleven days ago, Gene Robinson writes:

"[Presiding Bishop] Frank Griswold -- who, let us remember, has been a sometimes reluctant, but ever faithful champion for us, and who has paid a great price for presiding at my consecration -- brought back the 'moratorium' resolution in a heavy-handed and inappropriate way (in my humble opinion). He seemed absolutely intent on getting this resolution through as a way of getting us all to the Lambeth table.

"I don't know whether or not our Presiding Bishop-elect was coerced or merely persuaded to join in this appeal, but it is clear to me that her support for such an action provided the push needed to convince the Deputies to adopt a resolution more prohibitive than the one they had rejected the day before.

Gay and lesbian deputies, many in tears, not to mention our straight allies, rose to the microphones to pledge their support of our new primate as she goes off to represent us in unfriendly places, to 'give her what she needs' to continue the conversation. The scene of gay and lesbian deputies, willing to fall on their own swords for the presumed good of the Church, voting for this resolution against their own self-interest was an act of self-sacrifice that I won't soon forget.

"Keeping us in conversation with the Anglican Communion was the goal -- for which the price was declaring gay and lesbian people unfit material for the episcopate. Only time will tell whether or not even that was accomplished. Within minutes -- yes, MINUTES -- the conservatives both within our Church and in Africa declared our sacrificial action woefully inadequate. It felt like a kick in the teeth to the ones who had gotten down on their knees to submit to the will of the whole, even though the price of doing so was excruciating. Such a quick, obviously premeditated and patently cruel reaction from the Right can be seen only as the violent and unchristian act it was."

The drumbeat of rejection of what was offered has continued without interruption, including the Archbishop of Canterbury getting front page coverage in the New York Times for his suggestion that maybe we should move toward a two-tiered Anglican Communion. The inner circle would be for those covenanting with each other to keep the historic faith, and then there would be an outer ring, for those in some kind of looser "association" with the communion.

It was clear where the Episcopal Church would end up-and that also seemed to suggest that other self-described Anglican bodies within the USA would be invited into the inner circle. That would certainly be some comeuppance for the Episcopal Church, and perhaps especially for our bishops!!

But let's hear from the our own bishops in this diocese. In a statement issued just after the General Convention, they wrote:

"The recent action of the General Convention in respect to the consent process for bishops 'whose manner of life presents a challenge for the wider church' has in its turn proved a challenge for many in our own church. We supported the resolution, reluctantly. We did so being sharply aware of several things. First this is a part of a 'process' -- and processes by their very nature suggest an approaching resolution. Second, it seemed then and seems now, quite clear, that if we are to remain at the table to continue these important conversations, then our conversation partners need assurance that we are listening and taking their concerns seriously. This in turn points to the importance of what is called the 'listening process.' We can and should expect the most serious engagement in those conversations. Now is the time to see whether or not our conversation partners will take our invitation to a deeper sharing with the seriousness with which it is offered. And finally we take this action with full confidence that our new Presiding Bishop, the Rt. Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori will be a voice for all God's people in the councils of the Anglican Communion."

[signed,] The Rt. Rev. Mark S. Sisk, the Rt. Rev. Catherine Roskam, and the Rt. Rev. E Don Taylor.

Gene Robinson, again, on behalf of us all, writes that those in the great "middle" of our church, including our own bishops, we need "to give us an accounting of what this Convention vote got them. And we'll be asking, 'was it worth declaring us less than children of God, marked as Christ's own forever?'"

And so back to the three images with which I began.

To paraphrase Jeremiah, we hear the cry, "unity, unity, when there is no unity." For unity without justice is not unity at all. The Archbishop of Nigeria, Peter Akinola, for whom we offer needed prayers today in the Anglican cycle of prayer, seems interested in unity only on his terms. He is patently not interested in a "listening process." He will almost certainly not sit down at the same table with Bishop Schori, given both her record and her gender. To call him a "conversation partner" is almost beyond imagining. He has said quite simply, or rather simplistically, he is not going to change because the gospel does not change. And Archbishop Akinola seems clearly the most prominent Global South and African spokesperson at this time, and he has not been repudiated by Archbishop Rowan Williams, so far as I am aware.

But it is also unclear what the Archbishop of Canterbury is prepared to discuss in the face of our quite "inadequate" response, not to mention his obvious shock over the election of Bishop Schori as our new Presiding Bishop. I have the clear sense that Rowan Williams is more inclined to tell us what we must do to stay connected than to sit down with us as a true "conversation partner."

I am sorry to say how disillusioned I have become with him, especially given that on his selection as Archbishop of Canterbury, he was hailed as such a progressive, and brilliant theologian. He seems to have bought into an agenda of holding together the Anglican Communion no matter what the cost in terms of those who need to be excluded.

To me, the salient point is that all these things about our ostensible "partners" were well known before our "inadequate" response to the Windsor Report, yet we sacrificed our own people anyway. The conservatives were not satisfied. And progressives were outraged. The worst of all possible outcomes-and the likelihood of that was all too clear. But we had to give the goal of a false unity one more chance-of uncertain duration.

I think it fair to say that many of us right here at the Church of the Holy Apostles have had our very own "Rosa Parks" moment. Something has quite simply snapped inside for us as well, and from here on out, it is simply no longer tolerable for faithful gay and lesbian persons in our church to be treated as anything other than full and equal members of the body of Christ in every respect. Anything less than that is simply unacceptable and anyone who temporizes with this principle is going to be called on it. And that means our own bishops as well, perhaps especially our bishops, even our own dear Cathy Roskam. They have heard, and they are going to hear more from us, for things have changed, and they are changing in much of our church, thank God.

I want to hearken back to the civil rights movement and say, "we're on the move," and "we shall overcome"-not someday far off, but someday soon.

On that first day of Pentecost, the faithful were as one in keeping the faith with each other. It was simply incredible to march with other members of this parish in the Gay Pride Parade, being led by our banner proclaiming "there shall be no outcasts in the Episcopal Church." It was a friendly, joyful, and boisterous gathering, perhaps especially when we turned off Fifth Avenue onto Eighth Street, and then on to Christopher Street. Marching with other inclusive churches was an exhilarating experience.

Last Tuesday evening, about 35 members and friends of Holy Apostles met. Now I want you to consider just what it takes to have more than third of our average year-round Sunday attendance, to come out on the last Tuesday evening in June? Well, the Spirit was palpably present in that room as we heard from John Gibson, and Father Barry, and Bruce Parker, as we heard from one whale-of-an-energized Peter Carey, and Stephen McFadden, and Mother Liz. It was as if the whole room had gotten religion!

And it was clear something had got to be done. And soon. I want to tell you, when the Spirit is present, she demands attention-and action.

And a whole lot of people have been working since then, for starters, crafting a resolution that our vestry could endorse, a resolution addressing none other than our own bishops in a quite public way. And try getting a quorum for a vestry meeting on a Sunday afternoon on a Fourth of July holiday weekend. And making sure that everyone else on the vestry from near and far can endorse a resolution-for we want it to be unanimous. And try getting six clergy tracked down-I finally talked to Father Tim just yesterday in Florence-for we want all six clergy signed on.

I want you to consider in this disparate, but wonderful, even if sometimes fractious community, what it would take to get fourteen wardens and vestry members and six clergy agreed on anything the last week of June-when many want a much-needed respite from all things-churchly. It has all been something to behold. And I believe as clearly and firmly as I have ever believed in anything, that the Spirit has been here and is still very much present in this place, Glory be!

Because the vestry does not meet until after the coffee hour, I don't want to say more just now, but stay tuned, and be sure to check our website this evening. And, once again, I invite you to get involved if you are not already. If you are not a part of the Social and Economic Justice Committee listserv, I invite you to become a member, for this has been the primary way, through the wonders of the internet, that we keep in touch with each other and keep abreast with what is going on without having to go to meetings. If you would like to join, just give your name and email address to any of your clergy and we will see that your name is added. Much will be revealed in the coming weeks and days, and even hours. And much may be asked of us.

But this is also where life has been given, and it is a grace-filled and abundant life that is offered to every one of us by the God who loves us and cares for us beyond our wildest imaginings. And we are to care for each other.

God bless you, and thank you for being who you are.

May God continue to bless us and keep us, this day and in all the days to come.

Amen.

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