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Sermon at The Church of
the Holy Apostles, New York City,
May 14, 2006,
The Fifth Sunday of Easter: Year B
by The Reverend
Barry
M. Signorelli
Acts 8:26-40
Psalm 66
1 John 3:14-24
John 14:15-21
And this is his commandment, that we should
believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another,
just as he has commanded us.
In the Name of God, who calls us into
love. Amen.
You can tell that we are drawing near to the
end of the Easter season from the shift in the emphasis of our
Gospel readings – away from the post-Resurrection experiences, and
toward the promise of the Holy Spirit who will descend upon the
Apostles at Pentecost. The lections seem to show Jesus readying
his disciples for his imminent departure, preparing them for that
inevitable time when he will depart from them, at least as the
world understands the concept of presence. Jesus takes great
pains to assure his followers that, although they will ostensibly
be “on their own,” they will be indeed enjoy the unending presence
of God’s Spirit to lead them into all truth. Elsewhere Jesus
indicates that this Spirit will teach them those things that can
not yet bear to hear – suggesting that Jesus’ teachings,
constrained as they were by the limits of human space, time, and
comprehension, were not all-inclusive, but were rather the
foundation or bedrock upon which his followers could build an
ever-evolving understanding of God’s will for the world. And the
touchstone by which they would judge the soundness of their
discernment is love: whether they loved one another, and whether
their preaching drew forth love in their hearers for one another.
I cannot help but hear these readings in the
context of all that is happening in our Church at this time. With
the Anglican Communion perched, some say, on the edge of schism,
with Primates of other provinces refusing to come to the Eucharist
with our Presiding Bishop Griswold, and with the
increasingly-shrill cacophony of those trying to change radically
the polity and character of the Episcopal Church – with all these
things happening, I cannot help but hear these readings with a
touch or irony. How do we Anglicans love one another in this
day?
Often, not very well at all, I fear. It
seems that all of our energies and passions have been diverted
into an unending battle over homosexuality and the worthiness of
gays and lesbians to participate fully in the life of the Church.
There are so many other things that we could, and should, be
spending our time and efforts on – poverty, hunger, injustice,
oppression, the cause of peace, the health and living conditions
of the millions around the world – but instead we are led to
believe by a surprisingly small number of very loud, very
well-financed instigators that sexuality is THE defining litmus
test by which the righteous shall be judged. This faction is
supported monetarily by a number of very wealthy (and very
discrete) right-wing figures such as Howard Ahmansen (a former
member of the Episcopal Church whose Los Angeles parish has now
aligned itself with the Church of Uganda) and several conservative
family foundations. These funders have made contributions to many
conservative political candidates and causes (which is their
right, of course); they also provide more than half the operating
budgets of the American Anglican Council, and the Institute for
Religion and Democracy. The IRD has stated, in a fund-raising
appeal, that its goals was to infiltrate “theologically flawed”
Protestant denominations to “restructure the[ir] permanent
governing structures” so as to “discredit and diminish the
Religious Left’s influence.” It is this coercive influx of money
that has made possible the loud voices of dissent in the wake of
Bishop Gene Robinson’s consecration and raised the stakes in
international Anglicanism to the point of break-up.
Now let me remind you, many of the
conservative funders behind all this are not Episcopalians;
indeed, this very same kind of insidious attack is going on within
most of the mainstream Protestant denominations. The great
danger, of course, is that, just as money in politics tends to
drown out reasoned debate and discussion, so too does the influx
of outside mammon stifle the workings of the Holy Spirit within
the Church.
But who am I to say that they are not
themselves agents of that Spirit? Because they fail the one
litmus test that Jesus did leave us: they fail to call us to love
for one another. One of the heroes of the dissident movement
within the Episcopal Church is Archbishop Peter Akinola, the
Primate of Nigeria. He is an arch-conservative regarding
homosexuality, who has referred to gays – including those under
his own pastoral care – as “dogs.” Many of you have heard of the
law proposed by the Nigerian government that would outlaw, not
only homosexual behavior, but also speech and actions supporting
homosexuality, whether by gays or straights. Not only would this
law make me a criminal in Nigeria, it also shuts down any
possibility of making a defense, or even talking about whether
this was just or not. Nascent gay-rights groups just forming in
Nigeria would be banned, and indeed, one prominent gay-rights
activist in the Nigerian Anglican church is now in hiding, and is
being publicly hunted by both Church and State. For you see, the
Primate of Nigeria, the Most Rev. Peter Akinola, has spoken in
support of this law, giving the State the imprimatur of the
Church, blessing the persecution of some of its own daughters and
sons.
Let me point out that ++Akinola was a
signatory, as one of the Primates, of Lambeth’s 1998 resolution
calling on the Church to listen to the experience of homosexual
persons. As the Canadian House of Bishops recently declared, “the
proposed legislation criminalises civil and religious same-sex
marriage as well as the public and private expression of same-sex
affection, all public affiliation between gay persons, and even
publicity, public support, and media reporting of the same. The
proposed legislation, endorsed in an official communique of the
Standing Committee of the Church of Nigeria signed by its Primate,
would make the very act of listening to homosexual persons
impossible.” The Canadian Bishops went on to say that “The
Nigerian legislation, and its endorsement by the Church of
Nigeria, is indeed anathema to us, and quite at odds with the
grace and love given to all human beings in Jesus Christ.” The
word “anathema” is heavily loaded in its theological sense,
meaning a complete separation from the Christian community, worse
than excommunication. And it is rightly so used here: for how is
the Holy Spirit supposed to speak to us if we bind her, gag her,
and banish her from the room?
In Christian history, we believe that the
Holy Spirit speaks to us in community – in the “councils of the
Church,” as the Prayer Book puts it. We can argue over whether we
have always accurately discerned what the Spirit is telling us,
but we have always agreed that the decisions made in council are
the closest we can come to understanding and implementing God’s
will. In the Episcopal Church, our council is General
Convention. Three years ago, that body discerned that the Spirit
had indeed called +Gene Robinson to the ministry of the
episcopate, and acted accordingly. Now those within the Church
who disagreed with that decision are calling in reinforcements
from outside to foment unrest, to undo by rebellion what they
could not do by conciliar action. General Convention meets again
next month, and will take up issues that will bear directly on the
standing of the Episcopal Church among our sister Provinces around
the world. I trust – I pray – that the deputies and Bishops
gathered in council will be open to the workings of the Holy
Spirit, and that the din of a discontented mob will not drown out
her voice. The decisions coming out of Convention may not be
acceptable to some within our Church or to others in the Anglican
Communion. This may be the risk we are being called to take: for
it is far better to be in accord with the Spirit and at odds with
the world, than the other way around.
I fully understand that some people find the
issue of homosexuality in the Church a difficult one. There are
many factors that each of us bring to a consideration of this
topic: our cultural upbringing, the attitudes of our families and
friends, our own experiences in life and the church, the weight of
tradition, and our approach to the interpretation of Scripture.
These are all very valid concerns, and they deserve to be talked
about, shared, and pondered. That conversation, doubtless one
that God knew we would eventually have, is intended by God to be
held in a spirit of love; its perfectly fine for us to disagree,
so long as we never lose sight of the fact that all of us, on any
side of this or any issue, are God’s beloved children. None of
us, whatever our opinions, is beyond the pale of God’s love. It
has, until recently, always been the tradition in Anglicanism that
we could, and almost assuredly would, argue over things, often
heatedly; but when the time came, we gathered together at the
Lord’s Table, breaking bread together and acknowledging each
other’s worth and validity in God’s eyes. When even that most
basic and fundamental act of charity and reconciliation is
rejected by those who disagree with us, then who is leaving whom?
How long can the fiction be maintained that those who act in godly
faith are the ones causing schism? How long can the threat of a
break-up be laid at the feet of those who are threatening to stay?
“This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world
cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You
know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.”
Jesus warns us that the Holy Spirit does not operate by the
standards of the world; indeed, the Spirit may call us to actions
that are anathema to the world and its preoccupations with power,
privilege, and authority. Yet this may be the time when all of us
are called to make a choice as to whose voice we will listen to.
As we make our choice, we do well to remember that the only final
standard by which we will be judged, is whether we have loved one
another.
This goes for those on the left as much as
for those on the right. It also means calling to account those
who foment hate, intolerance, and disregard for the community’s
faithful discernment. May we all find anew our way toward living
together, even in our disagreements, in love.
For if it was important enough to be the last
thing Jesus told us, we ignore it at our peril.
Amen.
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