2 January 2022
Holy Trinity Anglican Cathedral
New Westminster BC
When the pandemic began, many of the continuing education programs for clergy were cancelled. In the time between these programs shutting down and our discovery of how to use on-line technology more effectively, I relied on several websites that send out regular e-newsletters with articles and suggested books to read. It was through one of these websites that I became aware of a book with an intriguing title, How to Lead When You Don’t Know Where You’re Going by Susan Beaumont.
The title intrigued me because, quite frankly, I spent a fair portion of 2020 and 2021 asking that very question: Where are we going? On the one hand, I could see and have seen how we have responded to the restrictions of the pandemic by improving our on-line presence and using Zoom for small worship gatherings, meetings and educational programming. It was and still is clear to me that this is how things are going to be for the foreseeable future.
On the other hand, I am still pondering where we’re going as a congregation. We’ve seen recent progress on our property redevelopment application, but there’s still a ways to go before shovels are put into the ground and we move out of the Cathedral during construction of the tower next door and the restoration of the Cathedral itself. COVID has kept many of us physically separated from one another, so it’s not so easy to gauge how people are feeling about our ministry here in the downtown core of New Westminster. New people have joined us and elders have left us.
For the magi they had a guiding star that led them to Bethlehem and to the young child upon whom the future would weigh so heavily. True, they brought him gifts associated with royalty, but even the magi could not have imagined what the child’s future would be. Only a dream sent to Joseph prevents Jesus from becoming one of the casualties of Herod’s paranoid rage when he sends soldiers to kill all the male children two years and younger. I can imagine Joseph and Mary asking themselves as they fled to Egypt, ‘Where are we going? What will happen next?’
For the writer of the Letter to the Ephesians, a similar question weighs on his mind. He is writing in a time of conflict within the early Jesus movement. The conflict centres around what it means to be ‘chosen’. There are those members of the movement, some Jews, some non-Jews, who believe that to be ‘chosen’ means to have a privileged position in the movement and that others need to conform to the standards and practices of the ‘chosen’. It’s not so unusual a position for privileged individuals or groups to take. Throughout human history we’ve seen racism, sexism, religious fundamentalism, ethno-centrism, nationalism – whatever ‘-ism’ we care to name – try to impose itself on others and suppress the glorious diversity of humanity as intended by God.
But this is not the understanding of ‘chosen’ that the writer of Ephesians believes to be at the heart of the good news of God in Jesus of Nazareth. In Jesus God has revealed a mystery that has been making itself evident since the creation: that every human being has been made in the image of God, that every human being has been called to grow into the likeness of God, that every human being has been given gifts to be used in building an inclusive, diverse and united humanity.
This is a grand vision and a difficult one for any single human being to fulfill by themselves. But the writer of Ephesians dares to write to his audience words that challenge any narrow sense of ‘chosen-ness’ they may have: ‘through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places‘ (Ephesians 3.10).
By ‘the church’ the writer does not mean some abstract idea of ‘church’. He means the real communities of Jesus’ disciples, wherever they are to be found, who respond to God’s call to gather and to work for the achieving of God’s purposes, ‘the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things‘ (Ephesians 3.9). In ways that we are still trying to fathom, we have been ‘chosen’ to bring God’s plan into the real times and the real places and the real circumstance of human beings.
Frederick Buechner, the American theologian, essayist and novelist writes in The Alphabet of Grace,
I say that feet are very religious too . . . . I say that if you want to know who you are, if you are more than academically interested in that particular mystery, you could do a lot worse than look to your feet for an answer . . . . Since the possibilities for drawing back seem to be infinite, you are, in your quest to see yourself whole, doomed always to see infinitely less than what there will always remain to see. Thus, when you wake up in the morning, called by God to be a self again, if you want to know who you are, watch your feet. Because where your feet take you, that is who you are.
Our feet, as a congregation, as a gathering of the disciples of Jesus in these times, in this place, in these circumstances, are firmly planted in the needs, concerns and wants of New Westminster. It is on this plot of land, one hundred and sixty-one years ago, that the first church was built and, two fires later, where this building in which we now worship arose from the ashes. It says something about us that we did not move on but re-built twice, here overlooking Columbia Street and the Fraser River.
So, where are we going? Several times, in different ways, I’ve told public groups, city staff and elected officials that we’re going nowhere. We are here for a reason and that reason is to bear witness to the three truths I mentioned earlier:
· that every human being has been made in the image of God,
· that every human being has been called to grow into the likeness of God, and
· that every human being has been given gifts to be used in building an inclusive, diverse and united humanity.
How we will accomplish this over the coming years is still unfolding. Accomplishing our work will require every one of the gifts that God has given to each and every member of this congregation.
· In the coming year we must restore confidence in the safety of our place of worship and gathering.
· In the coming year we must communicate to the wider public and to our City why the re-development of our Hall and the restoration of our Cathedral is not just for the benefit of the ‘chosen’ few but for all those who rely on our physical resources to shape life-giving community.
· In the coming year we must to do our part to participate in genuine reconciliation with the Aboriginal communities on whose land this building was built.
· In the coming year we must continue to grow in our understanding of our faith and how each one of us witnesses to the restoring, healing and renewing love of God we have known and know in Jesus.
So, where are we going? We’re on a road that leads to the fulfillment of God’s promises to us and to all creation. It’s not always an easy road to follow, but, like all difficult journeys, it is a journey that is always best when travelled in the company of friends who share a common vision and have their eyes fixed on a guiding star, a light that enlightens all peoples, always leading us onwards to that perfect day.
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