· CHILDREN'S EDUCATION

· ADULT EDUCATION

· EFM

· JOURNEY TO
   ADULTHOOD
      RITE 13
      J2A
      YAC

· VACATION BIBLE
   SCHOOL

· SERMONS

· CURSILLO

· HAPPENING

· RESOURCE LIST
      Chapel Library
      Recommendations

SERMONS

The Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost
October 8, 2006

By The Rev. Sylvia Czarnetzky

I survived my first Day in the Country!  And I have one word to say about it:  Wow.  This operation has been a sight to behold.  This place has been, for the past few days, a hive of purposeful activity.  I’ve been touched by the generosity of people here with their time, their talent, and their material goods.  Everyone has pitched in, from the bread bakers to the trash haulers, and everybody in between.  And it’s been wonderful to watch a community of people all pulling in the same direction. 

For me, the lesson of Day in the Country is this:  The whole of Day in the Country is greater than the sum of its parts.  All these individual efforts come together to make something happen that we could not manage on our own.  It’s a powerful truth about community -- that our individual efforts, with God’s help, somehow create something larger and better than we could do on our own, and amazing things start to happen. It’s about transformation.

[Here are some thoughts on community from a different angle.  I don’t know about you but I found myself deeply moved by the images on television this past week of the Amish funerals -- that somber line of horse-drawn buggies clip-clopping down the paved street, carrying Amish families to the burial of their litttle girls who were killed.  For some reason, the fact that this violent and brutal thing happened to Amish school-children made me feel like there’s now just no place that evil cannot reach.  No place is spared being touched by the tendrils of  evil, no matter how hard you try.  And that’s not a good feeling.  It makes me feel bad and vulnerable and worried for all children.

But one of the things I’ve been telling myself this week is that there’s a corollary to the notion that evil is everywhere, and it is this:  that no place is beyond the redemption of God.  And even in the midst of this terrible tragedy, there are moments of hope and powerful witness -- the Amish who went to call on the family of the shooter, and the ones who went to his funeral -- that the families of the community that buried several of their kids would tend pastorally to the family of the man who killed them is a powerful and very public witness to their depth of their Christian faith.  And kind of witness speaks louder than mere words ever can.]1

On Thursday night of this week, I went downtown to attend the dedication and consecration of St Alexis’ Episcopal Church.  (Carrie Duncan and Judy Barnes, of our parish staff, are both lay leaders in this new congregation.)  We gathered in a downtown building that didn’t look much like a traditional church.  It’s a storefront, with exposed brick and folding chairs instead of pews.

But I was both a witness and a participant that night in the trans-formation of that ordinary building into a church.  Through our prayers and Bishop Gray’s actions and a little bit of paperwork, that building became a church, and the people who gather in that space on Sunday nights for worship and on weeknights for Bible study, have become a church.

One of the most significant parts of the service that night was the way Duncan walked around the worship space during the service to dedicate the various pieces of liturgical furniture.  He said a prayer and laid his hands on the podium, and it became a lectern and pulpit --  a place for the proclamation of  God’s word.  He prayed over a beautiful pottery bowl on a pedestal, and it became a baptismal font, where we welcome new members into the Body of Christ.  Duncan then laid his hands on a beautiful table, hand-crafted by a member of the congregation, and it became an altar, where we prepare a feast of bread and wine to feed us and sustain us in our journey of faith.

And for me, it was like a course in Church 101.  This is what a church is --  a building set aside for the worship and praise of God;  a body of people who gather in a holy space Sunday after Sunday, week after week, to say our prayers; to help each other through tough times and to celebrate in good times; to praise our Lord; and to thank Him for the many blessings rained down upon us, not the least of which is the gift  of his only Son, Jesus Christ.  

Amen.