Address to the Parish
Epiphany 3, Year A – January 27, 2008
Isaiah 9:1-4; Matthew 4:12-23
St. Giles Church, Northbrook IL – The Rev. Cynthia J. Hallas
An announcement of good news. An invitation. Signs of the
coming reign of God.
Those three elements form a pattern
that begins the public ministry of Jesus, according the Matthew’s account. It
may have seemed like an inauspicious beginning, as someone has remarked – a
carpenter’s son and four fishermen. But such is the power of God’s good news
that a small, relatively powerless group could be the genesis of world
transformation.
An announcement: “Repent, for the the kingdom of heaven has
come near.”
An invitation: “Follow me….”
Signs of the coming reign of God: teaching, preaching,
healing.
In these latter Sundays of January many, if not most, of our
sister churches are holding their annual meetings. Along with many of my
colleagues, I have adopted the practice of putting the meeting in the context
of the morning celebration of the Eucharist. This reminds all of us, clergy
included, that everything we do, we do in Christ’s name and in his service, no
matter how mundane or business-like the tasks may seem to us. The challenge for
rectors, of course – seminarians, take note! - is how to integrate what can, for
good or ill, be compared to the President’s ‘State of the Union Address’ with
the mandate we preachers have to proclaim God’s word from the pulpit. In
interpreting scripture we also end up interpreting the state of the parish, and
most especially the ministries and activities of the past year, in light of the
Gospel. And because these meetings are held in early/mid Epiphany (though this
year it’s much closer to the end!) we often have as our gospel reading one of
the accounts of Jesus’ calling of the first disciples, as we do today. With
the exception of those feast days when we renew our baptismal covenant, there
may well be no better occasion than the annual meeting of the parish to remind
ourselves of Jesus’ call to discipleship; a call that begins with an
announcement, an invitation, and signs of the reign of God.
So I start off this morning with announcements of good
news. We’ve done a lot at St. Giles this past year, by the grace of God. You
can read the details in your annual report; most of us here have lived through
all of it, but here are some highlights in the context of our mutual ministry:
·
St. Giles has a new look! The porte-cochere work was completed
in May, along with new landscaping in the Memorial Garden and about the
grounds. Many, many of you contributed your time, your talent, and your
treasure to this effort. Not only do we look better, but the landscaping and
construction contribute to a more hospitable and welcoming atmosphere for old
friends, current members, and especially those who have yet to walk
through our doors.
·
The parish discernment meetings gave the Vestry and me a window
into how parishioners regard our common life and mission. Over sixty of you
came together in small groups hosted by your fellow parishioners – that’s quite
a remarkable turnout for a parish this size. If the meetings illustrated
anything it’s how very much we at St. Giles value our fellowship. And if the
immediate results did not provide the clarity of mission some of us hoped for,
the ensuing conversations and brainstorming that took place, formally and
informally, did begin to reveal a few things. More on that in a moment….
·
A group called the “Joel Team” has been convened. Some of you
have heard about it and asked “Joel who?” “Is that an acronym of some kind?”
In fact, the team takes its name from a passage from the prophet Joel
concerning prophecy and vision (Joel 2:28). Charged with the task of taking
the results of the discernment meetings and helping the parish discern a vision
for the future the team focuses not so much on what we want to do, but
on who we seek to become as a community of faith.
·
We are all blessed with a fine staff and a dedicated Vestry. We
are blessed by the skillful creativity of Jim Brown, the cheerful efficiency of
Esther Freilich, and beginning this fall with the enthusiastic energy of Jess
Elfring. We are blessed by the dedicated service of our Vestry members, and by
the pro-active leadership of wardens Dan Jariabka and Mary Reid. And although
he is neither staff nor Vestry, John Hartman contributes to our parish through
his prophetic voice, and in many other ways, as he exercises the ‘ministry of
learning’ among us.
·
The members of this parish continue to show uncommon financial
generosity. There are few parishes of this size that can support what St.
Giles supports, and this year there is even more good news in that regard,
which I will leave to our treasurer, Diana McCluskey, to share with us a little
later. But I thank the parish for your continuing strong financial commitment.
·
At the diocesan level, some of us have served or been otherwise
active in diocesan commissions and committees, with youth ministry, and in
other capacities serving the larger church. And we look forward to the
leadership of our new bishop, Jeff Lee.
Those are announcements, proclamations of good news in
this parish. So what do we do with that good news about St. Giles? Well,
we put it in the context of THE Good News, of course! So to follow, here’s
an invitation (or two):
·
Last year at this time I reminded the parish that in the coming
year we would be approaching the 50th anniversary of the
construction of this building on this site on what used to be a corn field: “50
Years on Walters Avenue”. The actual 50th anniversary of the groundbreaking
misses St. Giles Day 2008 by one day – a casualty of leap year! Plans are just
beginning, and I have asked Ellie Bonebrake and Bob Robinson to head up the
planning for that effort and rest assured, there will be jobs for many, many
people, so here’s invitation #1: let’s make this a time celebrate our history,
but always with an eye toward our future: a future that will witness to the
Gospel in this block of Walters Avenue and way beyond. That’s #1.
·
I mentioned a moment ago that in the discussion that arose out of
the Discernment Meetings new things began to be revealed and new ideas began to
emerge. And out of those new ideas one particular thread kept coming up again
and again: “We’re St. Giles – we feed people.” I first heard that phrase from
Meredith Brooks, and it was soon on the lips of a number of people in the
parish. “We’re St. Giles – we feed people.” If folks get together and talk
about St. Giles, its history, its ministry, its sense of mission, the idea of feeding
is the one thing that always seems to rise to the top. Whether it’s the empty
belly of physical hunger or the deep, deep desire of the human spirit to know
and experience the reality of God, we at St. Giles are convinced that that’s
something we both do well and are being called to continue doing. In a little
while, our senior warden, Dan Jariabka, will issue an invitation – invitation
#2 - to all of us, an invitation to ‘feed people’. I won’t say anymore here,
because I don’t want to steal his thunder. But please, pay close attention to,
and be prepared to accept, that invitation to do the transformational work of
feeding people.
And that leads me to that third element that heralded the
beginning of Jesus’ public ministry: evidence of the reign of God. So I want you
to imagine with me, if you will, a ‘re-casting’ of this morning’s gospel
passage. I want you to imagine Jesus going through our own “Galilee of the
gentiles”, our contemporary communities. Imagine Jesus passing through
Northbrook, Northfield, Deerfield or Glenview; Wheeling, Buffalo Grove or Evanston; Libertyville, Mundelein or Chicago; Skokie or Winnetka. “Repent,” he says, “for
the kingdom of heaven has come near.” A proclamation that calls repentance out
of us not because we’re fearful of the consequences of not doing
so, but because the consequences of saying ‘yes’ are so amazing and wonderful
and life changing that turning our lives around becomes something we embrace,
not something we dread.
And as Jesus passes through our communities, he calls out
to an attorney or a business owner
or a student;
to a homemaker or a teacher or an
artist or a musician;
to a retiree or a toddler;
to a widow or widower or to those recently
married;
to a priest or a banker or a
secretary or a CEO;
to people in every imaginable walk
of contemporary life
and he says to each “Follow me, and I will make you feed
people.” Think about that. Imagine yourself responding to that invitation.
And then imagine what we as a parish can do to make visible the signs of the
reign of God.
Last Friday I officially began my fifth year as your rector.
I thank you for the support you’ve given to me and my family, especially – but
not only – during this past year with Jon’s illness. I give thanks for the
opportunity to be your rector. We’ve had our ups and downs but I truly believe
we are in a position to move forward, together, as we hear Jesus’ good news,
respond to his invitation, and in so doing become partners in his kingdom
work. Amen.
