Bishop's visit - Rector's Rambling for September 23, 2018

Today we welcome our successor to the apostles, our sign of unity of the church in Metropolitan Detroit.  The Right Reverend Wendell N. Gibbs, Jr., is our celebrant and preacher today, as well as the one who will confer the Sacrament of Confirmation. 

When God began to push me towards considering coming to St. John’s to be your parish priest, I went to speak with my then diocesan bishop in Pittsburgh.  He, like the two bishops of Quincy who ordained me deacon and priest, was a real father in God to me.   When I laid out to Bishop Duncan my sense that God may be calling me to consider coming to Detroit, he advised me that I should meet the new diocesan bishop here.  “Make sure he will be supportive of your ministry as a traditional Anglo-catholic” I was advised.

Bishop Gibbs had been consecrated months before, but had recently become the diocesan bishop when I called and asked if I could meet him on the day I would later be meeting with the Search Committee here at St. John’s.  After a short time on hold the Bishop agreed to fit me in that morning.

I later found out that the diocese had not been informed yet by St. John’s that they were beginning to interview candidates for Rector.   After a long interim period the time seemed right, and thanks be to God Bishop Gibbs was willing to let things out ‘of the norm’ occur, and God moved both our hearts (and those of the Search Committee and Vestry) to call me here to be your priest.

Now we fast forward nearly 18 years later and we receive once again Bishop Gibbs for his official visit, which will be his last official visit before he retires in December of 2019.  No one would have ventured a guess when we met on the November morning in 2000 what the next 18 years would hold.   9/11, ongoing war overseas, four presidential election cycles, The District Detroit plan, and the renewal of Detroit though the building of 2 of the 3 sports venues have all happened in the time of our mutual ministry.  And who would have thought on that day that I would now be the priest serving the second longest time in one position in the diocese?

Hopefully we can have The Bishop back to bless the new buildings, but for now we pray in Thanksgiving for labor  with us in this part of the vineyard.

Baptism Sunday - Rector's Rambling for September 16, 2018

Today and next Sunday are sacramental milestones for St. John’s Church, and also will be remembered.

This morning we have the great grace to baptize four people!  Two are of children, following our Lord’s admonition to “Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 19:14 [“Suffer” meaning to allow, to permit, or not to forbid or hinder.])  The late Fr. Louis Tarsitano wrote in his book “An Outline of an Anglican Life: Lessons in the Faith and Practice of the Anglican Church”:

Remember, God does the work in all sacraments, so children were circumcised under his commandment in the Old Testament, including his only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ (Luke 2:21).  It is pure arrogance for human beings to declare that children are not called by God to new life in him.  Thus, following the commandment of our Lord and the consistent Scriptural witness of God’s good will towards children, the Apostles baptized entire households, including the children, from the first days of the Church (Acts 10:48; Acts 16:15; Acts 18:8; 1 Corinthians 1:16).

The two other baptisms are of adults, and I think that their circumstance will become more and more common in the Church.  Neither baptized as children, they grew up on the periphery of, or outside the church, but God in His great providence has brought them into this New Covenant with himself through their newfound faith.  Through an interesting set of circumstances they have entered our fellowship, and I think that this will become a more common occurrence in the future.

Church attendance, and denominational fidelity, have declined precipitously in the last 46 years.  In 1972 less than 10% of those surveyed said they “Never Attended” church services.  In 2016 that number was over 25%.  More and more people, particularly the younger people brought up outside of the Church, know little to nothing about the Faith in Jesus Christ that saves us from sin and death.

Today we celebrate four new members of the body of Christ, and pray that we learn ways to attract people into a relationship with Jesus Christ through the interpersonal relationships that open hearts and minds to hear Jesus and to follow Him.

That terrible day - Rector's Rambling for September 9, 2018

Seventeen years have passed since that most horrific tragedy struck the American nation.  On September 11, we will once again recall that terrible day, when our country was attacked by those who hijacked airplanes and slammed them into the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and a fourth plane was taken down by a passenger rebellion before it could strike another symbol of American commerce or government.

I remember before that day listening to people say, “where were you when _____” (fill in the blank with an historic event).  Although I could remember Nixon’s resignation, and Reagan’s and Pope John Paul II’s shootings, I did not have the poignant moments of the Kennedy assassinations, Dr. Martin Luther King, or the first walk on the moon (I am too young for those).

But, like so many of us here, I remember vividly and painfully hearing on the radio about the first plane crash, watching on TV the second one, and then the third while I drove in to St. John’s.  Within the next two hours, downtown Detroit became a ghost town as employers sent people home, since no one could concentrate on anything but what was happening in New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C.  And, of course, there was the fear that another attack would happen here or in Chicago.

The world changed on that day.  Seventeen years later, we still have troops deployed in an unstable Iraq and Afghanistan, the threat of the Taliban has been superseded by ISIS, and our interaction with allies and foes has been colored by the events of that day.

The other thing I remember about that week was how the country turned with earnest prayer to God.  Attendance at worship spiked, public prayer vigils were held (I officiated at several), and people turned for answers, comfort, and relief to the One who is bigger than all these things and events.  But it didn’t last.  Before long, we were back to bitter bickering in politics, and slackening attendance at worship.  Would that we could be as united, and worshipful, without a critical event to push us into it.

May God continue to bless us as a nation, even with our shortcomings and failings as human beings.  God is still good, all the time.

Labor Day weekend - Rector's Rambling for September 2, 2018

This year Labor Day falls  early as on the calendar as, the first Monday of September being the 3rd this year.  And Summer held on to the very end as the hot weather lingered for one last week as well to make it all a festive last hurrah of outside activity.

After taking time to pray and give thanks on Labor Day for Labor and Industry in our country, we move forward on Tuesday into the start of autumn, at least mentally.  The children return to school and here at St. John’s we look forward to the return of our wonderful full choir next Sunday.  Our Sunday School and Adult Education programming resume on Sunday next as well, and we are also busy preparing for the Bishop’s visit to us on Sunday, September 23rd!

Although I write this column on Monday or Tuesday, I anticipate that many will be away today, getting in that last holiday vacation. I got away for a few days midweek and I have the extra joy and privilege of getting to do a wedding tonight! 

But I also hope that next week will bring a renewed emphasis on being regular about Sunday worship attendance.  I know that people travel during the summer, and that for a few with health issues the heat prevents them from being with us during the summer.

We have to make the commitment to make attending worship the #1 priority on your Sunday morning schedule.  The world is pressing on and scheduling alternative activities on Sunday morning, a time-slot that even secular society respected as sacrosanct even a few years ago.

Stand up!  Be counted for Christ!  Come to Church on Sunday!

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Almighty God, our heavenly Father, who declarest thy glory and showest forth thy handiwork in the heavens and in the earth; Deliver us, we beseech thee, in our several callings, from the service of mammon, that we may do the work which thou givest us to do, in truth, in beauty, and in righteousness, with singleness of heart as thy servants, and to the benefit of our fellow men; for the sake of him who came among us as one that serveth, thy Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

~ 1928 Book of Common Prayer, p. 44