2 Epiphany A

Annual Meeting

January 20, 2008 

Isaiah 49:1-7

Psalm 40

1 Corinthians 1:1-9

John 1:29-41

"Come on y’all!" my cousin said. "Where we going?" I asked. "Follow me. You’ll see." Behind the house I grew up in there was a pathway between our back yard fence and the backyard fence of the people who lived directly behind us. It wasn’t an alley, too narrow for that, just big enough for utility poles and utility workers to walk in. At my cousin’s invitation he and the big kids of the neighborhood led a bunch of us out the backyard gate. We ran down that path between the fences one warm Sunday afternoon. The big kids were up ahead of me and the smaller kids were behind me. We were having a great time, just being kids and spending energy like kids do. All of a sudden someone yelled "Oww! Sticker bushes!" From my place in the pack I heard yelps and ouches coming from those ahead of me. When I got to the sticker bushes, I stopped and tried to negotiate the stickers. Move some of them out of my way without getting stuck. Then I looked down at my hand, it was bleeding, and so was my other arm but I was determined to follow the others. I walked forward into those stickers trying to step over them and hold them back as best I could. Moving ever so slowly, I looked down at my legs and there were streaks of blood running down into my socks. The sight of my own blood freaked me out. Both my arms and legs were bleeding. I thought I was hurt bad.

Meanwhile the big kids were already on the other side of the stickers, waiting on the rest of us and getting pretty impatient about it. My cousin hollered at me to hurry up. "I can’t hurry." I said, "I’m bleeding." He hollered back, "It’s alright. We’re all bleeding. We’re okay. Hurry and run through it. It’s easier that way." You can never underestimate the power of a little encouragement from one who’s ahead of you, especially one you trust. As soon as he said "It’s okay, we’re all bleeding," I stopped worrying about my own blood. If everyone ahead of me was bleeding and they were okay, I’d be okay too. I closed my eyes tight for a second and ran fast through the stickers like my cousin coached me to do, so did the little kids behind me. By the time we all ran through to the other side the sweat generated by our running had washed away almost all the blood and we took up where we left off playing. We all survived that jaunt through the stickers together, not without losing a little blood though, not for any of us. That was so long ago I can’t remember where we were going or why we were running to get there, I just remember the journey and that it was fun, stickers and all.

The way John tells the story of how the disciples of Christ came together, he invited them to get to know Jesus. The first thing they wanted to know about him, was where he was living. So they followed Jesus to that place and hung out with him awhile. Our patron saint, Andrew, invited his brother the same way John invited him. The disciples of Christ have been following Christ and inviting others along ever since. For us, the invitation is not to a place. It’s to the journey. The journey into relationship with Christ, a journey that makes a community out of those who commit to it. Old and young, men and women, family and friends, we are all bound together by our experiences on the journey. There are always some ahead of us to coax us to keep moving forward when we need coaxing, and to encourage us when we need encouraging.

These are the thoughts on my mind today for this annual meeting. My fifth one with you as we’ve journeyed together the past few years. You had a past that I wasn’t part of, though I spent a good amount of time learning about it. Your recent past when I arrived was the building of this church. That was a big, big undertaking which was, I’m certain, filled with hope. Maybe a sticker bush or two along the way, I don’t know, but you kept moving forward together. You witnessed plans unfolding and dreams made real. Then in the part of our history that we share together, the main building already completed, we built a playground, a columbarium and memorial garden. And some of you invited your friends, "Come see our new building." "Come meet our new vicar." And now after five years the "new" has worn off the building and it’s certainly worn off the vicar.

We still have reason to invite our friends but it’s not what is new that we invite them to now. It’s the journey. The same old journey the ones who are ahead of us traveled together. A journey to a deeper relationship with Christ and to a community as disciples like us have done faithfully all these many generations. With nothing big, no physical structures left to be built we can just now begin the real journey. The journey into Christ. That’s what the Church is supposed to become, what we’re journeying toward. Not a place. A body, the Body of Christ. The journey as it was revealed to us through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. A journey of learning and teaching what Jesus taught, a journey of healing what is broken, forgiving what needs forgiving and loving God and each other with our whole hearts. It’s a journey through twists and turns of life, through death and into life on the other side. It’s a journey worth taking and worth inviting others to. I sincerely hope 2008 will be the year the community of St. Andrew’s understands that. I hope this is the year we imitate our patron saint and invite people from outside this building to come with us on this wonderful journey. Now is the time to build relationships not things. And we really have to commit to Christ, to following him, to continuing the ministry he entrusted to us. By commitment, I mean a heart commitment.

Jesus said where your treasure is your heart will follow. Now is the time we have to commit our money and our hearts to pay for the things, the not so new things that were built before many of us joined this journey. About two-thirds of the folks who regularly take a seat in the pews of this church committed financial support to the ministry of this church for 2008. That means a two-thirds heart commitment. That’s about what we’d see in any Episcopal Church but we need everybody. Otherwise our work here together, our journey and ministry, feels like we’re running through sticker bushes. Having done that I know there’s a good lesson to be learned there -- about trusting those ahead of you, perseverance, and moving forward for the sake of those behind you. But having been on this journey into Christ, I also know he wants us to know joy. To have fun on our journey together as we continue the work he gave us to do, to bear each other’s burdens, as Paul said, and share each other’s joy. I hope and pray 2008 is the year the community of St. Andrew’s understands that. I hope and pray St. Andrew’s continues to grow up this year. Not just bigger with more disciples on the journey and I do hope and pray for that, just as I have all the years I’ve been here. I mean grow up into the full Body of Christ. I’ve seen a lot of growth and Christian maturity over the past five years, but I hope and pray we grow the heart of Jesus this year in this community of St. Andrew’s. So we can truly be his hands and bear his light in the world.