Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost

October 25, 2009

Job 42:1-6, 10-17

Psalm 34:1-8, 19-22

Hebrews 7:23-28

Mark 10:46-52

Highlights of Bishop Scruton’s Convention Address, October 24, 2009

Bishop Robert McConnell Hatch, 4th Bishop of Western Massachusetts died on July 16th, 10 days after his 99th birthday.

Did not want a memorial service, just to be remembered at Convention after his death.

Led the diocese through the tumultuous 1960’s with dignity and compassion

              A gentleman

              Respectful of all people

Used his scholarly mind to think deeply, creatively about changes and conflicts of  60’s

Jesus’ words from Isaiah provides perspective of God’s vision for the church.  “Look.  I am making all things new.”

Bishop Hatch’s concluding words at his last Convention address in 1969:

“As one looks into the future one sees continuing change and conflict.  There is no real escape from this because it is part of the context of time.  No institution that has any significance can escape it.  Furthermore, no one knows just where we are going or how it will all turn out.  This is true of our society and it is also true of our institutions.  We are called upon to live in a period of great uncertainty.  However, from the Christian point of view, there is good in this.  It show us that we are not the masters of our fate and that we cannot control and manipulate the future.  Christian faith has always taught that the future is in the control of God, not man.  Too often in the past we have thought of it as being the other way around and we have shoved God into the background as we tried to control the future ourselves.  Now we see that this cannot be so.  The very unrest in these times, the very conflict and change, compel us to recognize that God is in charge and the future belongs to God alone….Only with such trust can we enter the future calmly, hopefully, and without fear.  Only with such faith can we go about the difficult and often painful task of building a society and a church that will reflect far more fully the teachings and the spirit and the will of our Lord Jesus Christ.”    

Bishop Hatch’s words ring true for the financial crises we face in our life and in our church.

              Bishop Scruton recently echoed these words in his Pastoral Letter to us in May which addressed our current crisis we in the church because of our failing economy, the dwindling numbers of worshipers in our congregations, and the lack of resources we have to maintain our buildings.  In his convention address, Bishop Scruton gave us these challenging words of advice:      

Envision sustainable ways for being the church.  Let go of things that don’t work, things you         don’t need and things which have become an unnecessary burden.

Find new ways of being the Church—new patterns,               structures for mission/ministry

Recognize that the church is not the building; the church is people/disciples/apostles who gather     for any reason in the name of Christ.

Close buildings too close to each other, or where congregations are struggling to survive

Come together as parishes to share people and material gifts and resources

Meet in small groups, in homes an in other venues, for worship, learning, spiritual reflection and     mission

Build team ministries

Employ priests whose primary income comes from secular work

Stay focused on mission                        

              Bishop Scruton reminded us that the Anglican Consultative Council (1984) articulated a unifying vision of mission for all churches in Anglican Communion.  He asked each of us, and all of our congregations to see if, and how, we are fulfilling each of these 5 Marks of Mission which are founded on the biblical mandate that the mission of the church is the mission of Christ:

              To proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom

              To teach, baptize and nurture new believers

              To respond to human need by loving service

              To seek to transform unjust structures of society

              To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth

              Bishop Scruton made it clear to all of us who attended this convention that he wants us to begin to make a careful assessment of the ways our churches are becoming a financial burden to us, limiting our ability to participate fully and vigorously in these 5 Marks of Mission.  He wants us to make a careful assessment of the ways we are, and are not, living into this vision for our church.  And he is wants us to imagine the kind of church we might become if we let go and let God lead us into God’s preferred future for us. 

[Throughout our convention we witnessed the many ways our diocese and many of our churches are beginning to respond to this challenge.

And now I will call on our lay delegate, ____________, who will share some important highlights of our convention with us.]

              Our scripture passages today encourage us in our new vision for our church.  They show us a way of seeing which makes all things new.  When God encounters Job at the end of his own tumultuous life, God does not answer Job’s questions as to why he was made to suffer.  Instead God gives him a new way of seeing God.  He learns that to be human is to be vulnerable to suffering; and to be mortal means that we cannot comprehend God; all we can do is trust that God will lead us into his preferred future, a future Job gets to enjoy for a long time before he dies.

When Bartimaeus encounters Jesus, he is desperate to have his vision restored to him again.  So desperate he ignores the crowd who wants to silence him as he shouts out for Jesus to heal his blindness so he can see again.  Jesus tells Bartimeus to “take heart.”  It is the streanght of Bartimaeus” courage and the faith of Bartimaeus’ heart which enable him to see.  And the first thing Bartimeus does with his new sight is to follow where Jesus will lead him.

              Like Job, we need God to lead our church out of our present malaise into God’s preferred future for us.  A future where, like Job, we can also find our joy and our enjoyment in the new ways God is inviting us to serve his purpose in this world.  But first, like Bartimaeus, we need to acknowledge our blindness to the present realities of our church.  We need to be desperate enough to leave behind the marginal life we are clinging to.  We need to find the strength and courage to ask God to help us see; to see ourselves for who we are, and to see ourselves for who we might become as his church in this world.  Then, like Bartimaeus, through eyes of faith we too will be able to follow Jesus on the way to God’s preferred future for us and for the community of faith we call our church.