St. George's Episcopal Church Roseburg, Oregon Twenty First Sunday After Pentecost, Proper 25, October 24, 2004 Go To St. George's Home Page

Joel 2:23-32
Psalm 65:1-13
2 Timothy 4:6-8; 16-18
Luke 18:9-14
From the Revised Common Lectionary as Adapted for Use by the Episcopal Church
and Authorized by the 74^th General Convention of the ECUSA

Jesus also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt:  “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.  The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.  I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.’  But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’  I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.”  (Luke 18:9-14)

God, I thank you that I am not like other people
The Rev. Dr. Bill Stroop, Rector

     Did you ever have occasion to be summoned to the principal’s office in school?  Perhaps you were in class and a voice came over the loud speaker, “Bill Stroop, please report to the principal’s office.”  Or perhaps for you it happened when a school official came to the door of your classroom, opened it a little, gave a nod to your teacher of the hour and then summoned you with a crook of his finger to follow him.  Most of us can recall a moment (or two) like that from school.

     Life for me has been a little like that this past week.  I often wear my clergy clothes during regular business hours, and the uniform gives people permission to inquire of me where I minister.  When I tell them about St. George’s, I sometimes get a blank stare.  I then offer that we are on the corner of Cass and Main streets.  When that fails to help, I sometimes say that we are a few blocks from the Presbyterian Church.  “Oh, I know where that is…” 

     This week, people haven’t been as interested in where we are as what we are.  The Episcopal Church has been in the news lately, and the headlines have been such that I feel like I’ve been called to the principal’s office to explain myself. 

     “Church Is Rebuked Over Gay Unions and a Gay Bishop” was the title of a story in Tuesday’s New York Times. [1]   Similar headlines have peppered the airwaves, T.V. screens, newspapers, and magazines.  I myself have added to the noise by starting a web page to help you keep track of this story, and to make sense of events as they unfold (Click Here to go to that page). [2]  

     On Monday, October 18, The Lambeth Commission on Communion presented the 100 page Windsor Report (or the Eames Report as it is sometimes called) to the Primates’ Standing Committee and the Standing Committee of the Anglican Consultative Council that concurrently met in London between the 18^th and the 20^th. 

     The Windsor Report is the end result of a year long study during which the Commission on Communion explored ways in which the Anglican Communion might remain in communion when some provinces take actions that other provinces find controversial.  The presenting reasons for this Commission had to do with stances of two provinces of the Anglican Communion on homosexuality.  The first reason was the consent given by General Convention in 2003 to the Episcopal election of a gay priest in a committed relationship in the Diocese of New Hampshire.  The second presenting issue was the performance of same-sex rites by Diocese of New Westminster in Canada. 

     “The Windsor report calls for all parties to the controversy to apologize for ways in which their actions have harmed others.  The document specifically calls on the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada to put into effect a moratorium on the ordination of sexually active gay clergy as bishops and on same-sex blessings, while asking that conservative bishops likewise cease to cross jurisdictional boundaries to offer episcopal oversight to dissenting congregations.” [3]

     I have often found it interesting – perhaps curiously delightful, and a wee bit spooky – that the lectionary lessons often seem to have something to say to us about what is happening right here and right now.  Today Jesus told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt:  “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.  The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people’ …”  God, I thank you that I am not like other people.

     Some have said that at the center of the controversy in the Church today is the primacy given to scripture, tradition, or reason in determining what to believe, or how to live.  There are those who regard the Bible to be the veritable word of God.  People who regard the Bible in this way, and place special value on the texts as sacred, afford the Bible special privilege; its texts are given priority over other documents or forms of inherited tradition.  Scripture becomes the ultimate authority. 

     Other people privilege personal knowledge or revelation over Biblical texts.  In many ways, the whole Protestant movement has its roots in the value placed upon personal experience and revelation.  At the same time, however, the authority of scripture is also highly valued.  Indeed, the Episcopal ordination rites ask the ordinand to sign a statement that says in part that “the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments [are] the Word of God, and … contain all things necessary to salvation.” [4]

     The current controversy is complex, and is deeply influenced by cultural, historical, demographic, racial, political, scriptural and doctrinal factors.  The Anglican Communion is a confederation of churches that exist in dioceses served by a bishop.  Dioceses combine into a total of thirty eight provinces, which approximate national borders.  All of these churches have roots in the Church of England and share a common allegiance to the Archbishop of Canterbury.  There are about 77 million Anglicans in the world.  Although the Episcopal Church was the first branch of the Anglican Church outside the British Isles, it is among the smallest provinces in the world with only about 2.3 million members (the Anglican Church of Nigeria for example, has 17 million members). [5]  

     With such diversity, one does not have to look hard for controversy.  I believe that much of the current controversy is about what scripture says and how it is interpreted, as well as about religious, cultural, traditional, and political leanings.  Looking at the Anglican Communion worldwide, liberal churches are mainly found in the developed world.  Liberal churches are far outnumbered by conservative ones.  Conservative churches within otherwise liberal dioceses in the Episcopal Church and the Church of England have formed alliances with conservative churches in Africa, Asia and Latin America.  In the last year, bishops in some eighteen non-U.S. dioceses have claimed jurisdiction over conservative American parishes.  The Windsor Report calls for that to stop, and for the African bishops to “express regret” for violating the church's traditional polity.  Likewise, the report rebukes the Episcopal Church for consecrating an openly gay bishop and for authorizing the blessing of same-sex unions, calling for a moratorium on both practices until some new consensus in the Anglican Communion emerges.

    It seems that today’s crisis is not all that different from those that have occurred since the apostolic age.  Fundamentally at stake are what we mean by unity, and upon what that unity rests.  Perhaps to some it is a universal acceptance of all of God’s people.  Perhaps to others it is the importance of the written word of God in guiding our moral and ethical lives together.  But no matter how we define unity, we must carefully listen to what we say and do, lest we pray and act like the Pharisee who prayed “God, I thank you that I am not like other people.” 

     Not long after Jesus’ death, the elders of the early church gathered in Jerusalem.  Peter, who had had a vision told the senior members of the early church that the Spirit told him to not make a distinction between them and us (Lk 11:11).  Peter had been told that what God has made clean, human beings should not call profane (Lk 10:16, 11:9b).  When the other elders of the church heard Peter, they praised God saying, “Then God has given even to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life” (Lk 11:18). 

     I am quite certain that this is not history recorded as it happened.  What is made to sound simple and straightforward in these few verses was actually a complicated and tortuous process as the spirit lead a people away from one way of believing into new but equally holy territory. 

     Tensions are high in the world wide church, because we are on the threshold of what might be a new incarnation of the Body of Christ.  And that is as scary for us as it was for Peter‘s colleagues.  Tensions may be high as well in our little corner of the communion as old memories surface.  But we must remember that the Gospel of Luke calls us to action, to claim and build the Kingdom of God.  The Gospel calls us to embrace relationships of interdependence and to become a body composed of individuals mutually dependent upon one another; where each component is given equal status and equal opportunity; where we are all prepared and indeed anxious to share together, and to recognize that if one part of the body suffers, the whole body suffers. 

     Perhaps now, more than ever, we need to look into our own hearts and pray to God saying, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!”

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Joel 2:23-32

O children of Zion, be glad and rejoice in the LORD your God; for he has given the early rain for your vindication, he has poured down for you abundant rain, the early and the later rain, as before. The threshing floors shall be full of grain, the vats shall overflow with wine and oil. I will repay you for the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent against you. You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God, who has dealt wondrously with you. And my people shall never again be put to shame. You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I, the LORD, am your God and there is no other. And my people shall never again be put to shame. Then afterward I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female slaves, in those days, I will pour out my spirit. I will show portents in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and terrible day of the LORD comes. Then everyone who calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved; for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the LORD has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the LORD calls.  

Psalm 65:1-13

1 Praise is due to you,
      O God, in Zion;
      and to you shall vows be performed,

2 O you who answer prayer!
      To you all flesh shall come.

3 When deeds of iniquity overwhelm us,
      you forgive our transgressions.

4 Happy are those whom you choose and bring near
      to live in your courts.
     We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house,
      your holy temple.

5 By awesome deeds you answer us with deliverance,
      O God of our salvation;
      you are the hope of all the ends of the earth
      and of the farthest seas.

6 By your strength you established the mountains;
      you are girded with might.

7 You silence the roaring of the seas,
      the roaring of their waves,
      the tumult of the peoples.

8 Those who live at earth’s farthest bounds are awed by your signs;    
      you make the gateways of the morning and the evening shout for joy.    

9 You visit the earth and water it,
      you greatly enrich it;
      the river of God is full of water;
      you provide the people with grain,|
      for so you have prepared it.

10 You water its furrows abundantly,
      settling its ridges,
      softening it with showers,
      and blessing its growth.

11 You crown the year with your bounty;
      your wagon tracks overflow with richness.

12 The pastures of the wilderness overflow,
      the hills gird themselves with joy,

13 the meadows clothe themselves with flocks,
      the valleys deck themselves with grain,
      they shout and sing together for joy.

2 Timothy 4:6-8; 16-18

As for me, I am already being poured out as a libation, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. From now on there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have longed for his appearing. At my first defense no one came to my support, but all deserted me. May it not be counted against them! But the Lord stood by me and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion’s mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and save me for his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.  

Luke 18:9-14

Jesus also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt:  “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.  The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.  I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.’  But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’  I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.”