Loading...Have you noticed how the light is beginning to change? The sun stays lighter later. Light changes things. The Light of our Lord Jesus Christ shining on us changes the world.
The darkness does not overcome the Light. The origin of the Light of Christ comes from the Love Jesus shares with his heavenly Father.
Because of the Love the Father and the Son share, the two of them set about a mission to save the world from the deep gloom of sin and death. To accomplish the mission, Jesus sacrifices his life, his light, to go to the place where darkness lives.
For anyone else that journey would be the end of the story. But for the Son of God, darkness is a turning point, the place from whence the heavenly Father not only raises his Son, but with him the entire dead dark world to a new light which shines in our hearts. As St Paul writes to the Corinthians ...it is not ourselves that we proclaim, we proclaim Christ Jesus as Lord and ourselves as your servants for Jesus sake. For it is the God who said, “Out of darkness let light shine,” who has caused his light to shine in our hearts to give the revelation of the glory of God in the face of Jesus. Christ. [2 Cor 4:6]
Face-to-face is God’s means and method of Incarnation and Salvation. Isn’t a face-to-face meeting warmer and more light-hearted than any other kind of meeting?
The miracle of meeting face-to-face is why there’s an organization named the Consortium of Endowed Episcopal Parishes Network. The abbreviation is CEEP and CEEP was established for leaders of churches and church institutions (like seminaries and foster homes and pilgrimage guides) to interface with one another.
The original founders of CEEP specifically intended for churches responsible for endowments to interface about things that can be hard to face: things such as endowments which were established both by great generosity and most often from families whose prosperity depended upon the labor of enslaved persons. Endowments can contain a blend of light and dark so inextricably wound together the shadows can play tricks on one’s vision making a person wonder where do the shadows end and begin?
Upon a face. The face of a beloved. Efforts are made to connect the stories of those who so generously give and those whose labor provided for those gifts. That’s a meager start, and yet it is something: to tell the whole story of how a church building was built, and to shine a light upon the secrets that bind us to repeating patterns of behavior we don’t want to repeat.
CEEP’s clarion call is to surrender to the light — the way Jesus takes the light upon his face and his apparel at his Transfiguration when the cloud clothes him in the splendor preparing him to enter into the tomb with the law and the prophets of Moses and Elijah.
Jesus invites us to follow him into our darkness with His Light. Our job to spread His light of secret-surrendering, complete-story-telling, darkness-scattering-bedazzlement upon our path and walk faithfully in the way of the cross.
I had good company for that walk this week at CEEP. St James boasts many volunteers. Thanks to everyone from St James who greeted the 650 participants from all over the world.
I sat with 100 of my sister clergy for one entire morning, telling #metoo stories and praying for the day those #metoo shadows are scattered forever.
I spent the afternoon with 200 clergy colleagues listening to Adam Hamilton, senior pastor of the 22,000-member United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas, the largest United Methodist congregation in the world, measured by both weekend attendance and membership. Adam’s leadership shines like a beacon for identity and mission in Christ to the unchurched and nominally churched.
I met Mary Kate Wold face-to-face! She is President and CEO of the Church Pension Group who manages over $15 billion in Episcopal Church assets, including my retirement. When I asked if she could address a computer error in my account she not only provided a personal representative to reconcile the glitch, she spent 30 minutes asking me about my aspirations to swim the English Channel. She enlightened my heart.
I walked my best friend Laurie Brown, Stewardship and Newcomer Assimilation Minister from the Church of St Michael and St George in St Louis, around all my favorite downtown haunts. We laughed and laughed over memories of light-heartedness from when our children were very small together.
Most precious of all to me was spending time in the company of my middle brother, Luke. He’s the one who first shined a lamp for me towards CEEP, during a time when I wasn’t convinced that the institution we call the Episcopal Church was all that sparkly. I needed someone to make sense of the shadows of the oppressive and unhelpful canons and traditions we’ve inherited and the life-giving, darkness-overcoming, beacon of hope in the gospel we bear. I found that sparkle in Luke’s face. The light of his face changed me four years ago when he first dragged me to this over-stimulating, over-helpful, over-enthusiastic conference. The light of his face scattered the darkness of my doubt and filled the empty space with a warmth and hope that yes, the light is changing.
The Light Changes the Episcopal Church, and you and me. We are gospel bearers even as we bear the consequences of oppressive and unhelpful shadows. The light of Luke’s face changes me because it’s fixed upon the face of the Light Source, our Saviour. If you see dark circles under my eyes, it’s because I stayed up too late in the night basking in the love of the Lord in the face of His faithful.
This coming Sunday — March 1, please come to the Parish Breakfast hosted by the Men of St James. Those who attended CEEP will give a recap of who else they met face-to-face and what they learned.
