The 8th Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 12)
The Rev. Nigel Taber-Hamilton, Rector
2nd Kings 4: 42-44, Psalm 145:10-19, Ephesians 3:14-21; John 6:1-21.
Today's readings are rich! John in particular is replete with metaphors that link it to Hebrew
scriptures. If I were to spend any time with you on that passage we'd be here all day! Only one thing will I
say directly: that the mention of bread and fish seems to reflect a conversation in the early church as to
whether Eucharist should be bread and wine, or bread and fish. Fortunately for us.......!
But I do want you to take away one thought from that reading three words: "Isn't it amazing......"
While I was writing my sermon yesterday I found myself thinking "Gee, this sounds like a funeral
sermon!" And, in some ways, that's because it is like a funeral sermon! We're marking a moment of
transition today, when a person who has been with us will no longer be with us in the same way.
That's life! How does that saying go? "The only constant in life is change"? We've come to one of
those "constant moments", one of those moments of change in our common life as a community. This is
JR's last Sunday with us.
Yes, I know, he's not going far (at the moment, anyway!), but he'll not be here next Sunday, or the
Sunday after, nor the Sunday after.......there's a spot behind the altar that will be empty, and a quality of
sound that will be gone.....not to mention a big hole in all of our hearts.
This is the hardest sort of change to embrace - the one that leaves heartache behind. It reminds us
that it isn't the change we mourn but the loss behind that change, and that's especially so when the "loss" is
a person we care about.
But before I get too maudlin, let's talk about some good things! First, it's been a great two years.
Actually it's been a great three years but the last two have been particularly remarkable.
Let's be clear: they've been remarkable for lots of reasons, and because of quiet a few people, but
they've been especially remarkable because of JR.
Now I could go on about the singing - but I doubt I could keep then envy out of my voice! So let's
talk about families. We have lots. There's always been a family here, of course: all of us. But that family that
was St. Augustine's was weighted a little heavily toward the grey end of the spectrum. Now we have a broad
cross-section, including the dulcet tones of children. Those of you who have come in the last two years and
have stayed have done so in part because of JR.
Thanks, JR! And thanks for all the other things you've done, and been for us and with us. We
couldn't have done it without you - you've planted something special here.
Isn't it amazing what you can do with a few loaves of bread and some fish?!
I want to say today that JR will not get to see all of the fruits of the things he's begun here - or, at
least, if he does it will be from afar, as more of an outsider than an insider, from the vantage point of a
different ministry somewhere else. His gift - his legacy - to us is his willingness to give of himself, to help
create, to pour out energy and time and love, and then to let what is coming into being go and to move on.
Others will come after JR - we already have Annie - and they will move forward the work he has begun.
I' m reminded of St. Paul's comment to the Corinthian Christians, acknowledging his role, but also
acknowledging that it was dependant on the gifts of others:
"I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.".(1 Cor. 3.6) God is behind this. We are
simply moving through history; that history is God's.
Now let me remind you of something else. We - all of us - planned this. I don't mean "planned this
service", or "the celebration today". I mean we have, over the last many years, been intentional, thoughtful,
careful, focused and collegial. We reached a point where we described for ourselves what we needed to have
so that we could be a fully welcoming community with something of God for everyone. We described one of
the sorts of people we needed to help us grow into that welcoming community. And we went out and we
found several, with God's good grace and Spirit guiding us.
And we have supported those people - today we're talking about only one of them - we volunteered,
we donated our time, we gave of our finances, and our skills. We have given each other - and God - gifts of
belonging, and community, and of joy! And, yes, we have had fun! God has richly blessed us.
With JR we have been creating a legacy for the future of St. Augustine's. There's a pretty good
chance that none of us will be here to see it come to it's ultimate fruition, but we have begun the journey,
and we continue on it, on the pilgrim's way, hand in hand.
Isn't it amazing what you can do with a few loaves of bread and some fish?!
Now I want to expand what I've been saying beyond the things that have coalesced around our
Christian Formation programming. Same story, different focus.
For longer than I've been here this community has talked about expanding it's facilities. We don't
have an "Edifice Complex"! We're not doing this because we like big buildings. We build buildings because
in them we can continue to build community, in them we can follow Jesus' command to serve one another,
in them we can learn and grow and go out as God's people, renewed for the real work of ministry, which is
always beyond these walls.
In building we're creating a legacy for the future of St. Augustine's, a gift we're giving to those who
will come after us. There's a pretty good chance that none of us will be here to see it come to it's ultimate
fruition, but we have begun the journey, and we continue on it, on the pilgrim's way, hand in hand.
It's the same story I've already told you: it took us a while to recognize that we could do this. It's so
easy to get trapped between fear of change and anxiety about what it will mean. And it's easy, too, to get
trapped into thinking we can't do it: we don't have the right people, we don't have enough money, we don't
have the will.......and the list goes on.
We have $1.3 Million dollars pledged over the next two and a half years in the midst of the worst
economy since the Great Depression. With the decline in building and labor costs because of the economy
we estimate that we will need another $375,000. We have received notification of a bequest from Blessed
Emily Seaman that will go some way toward that figure, though we don't yet know the actual amount. We
have already received another bequest from Blessed Janis Wright that can also help us significantly. We are
so close!
I want you to stop for a minute and think about what I've just said. I've just said that we - the
approximately 150 of us who are here on Sundays - we are within shouting distance of completely paying
for a near multi-million dollar building AND DOING SO IN ONLY THREE YEARS! This is abundance
beyond most of our wildest dreams! God is good! All the time! Especially now!
Hear one of the most important words again: WE. We are being good stewards of God's gifts to us.
We are creating a legacy in just the same way that JR has created a legacy for us.
Isn't it amazing what you can do with a few loaves of bread and some fish?! If you recognize that
God is with you.
Now hear another word: THEY. Who are "they"? The ones who went before us. The letter to the Hebrews
says this:
"[S]ince we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses...." Witnesses". Those who show forth
in their lives the power of God that, they discovered, was and is within them.
Some of those "witnesses" are here today - the ones who put up this building - and the one next to
it. Some are not here - they're a part of that great, invisible cloud who still surround us - "they" who so
longed to see us complete this work we are now engaged in - I think of Clarence Noyer, who wanted to
build this building so badly he could, he said, almost taste it.
Hebrews tell us where our responsibility lies, as do those wonderful members of the silent unseen
cloud. Hebrews says: "[L]et us also.....run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus
the pioneer and perfecter of our faith...." (Heb: 12 1b - 2a) . Let us create our own legacy, our own gift to
those who will follow us. Let us continue to build up our community - the bricks and mortar and the hearts
and minds", as stewards of God's mysteries, and recipients of God's grace.
Because, truly, it's amazing what you can do with a few loaves of bread and some fish, if you
recognize that God is with you. Amen.
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