“Fishers of Women - Pescadores de Mujeres”

Charles Graves IV

Sermon, January 21 2018

“Fishers of Women - Pescadores de Mujeres”

AUDIO HERE

Almost 2.5 years ago, I was standing on a boat with some friends. It was a good-sized wooden schooner, fitting about thirty of us on board, rocking gently on the soft wind-blown waters on a clear spring day. That boat was perched peacefully upon the Sea of Galilee, with Israeli soil a few miles behind us, Jordan to our right and the edge of Syria straight ahead, just 10 miles in the distance. Looking out across the water to the seashore, I stood astounded at the mountains that seemed to jut out almost directly from the waters with very little lowland in between.

Taken by Rev. Charles at the Sea of Galilee, May 2015

With a 360 degree view to the waters’ edge on every side, I could almost see Jesus standing there at the shoreline, his voice ringing out clearly on a nearly windless day. Some local fishermen taught us how to throw out a large fishing net, quite like the type that would have been used in Jesus’ time. It was enormous and heavy and unwieldy, requiring several strong people and lots of practice to accomplish correctly. I gave a hand at it myself, trying my best to cast it out far and wide without getting tangled in between! Long story short, the net went about 2 feet outside the boat, fell against the side and nearly caught up my ankle along the way! Needless to say, I would have been a TERRIBLE fisherman if I had been around two thousand years ago! We certainly did NOT catch any fish that day.

Fortunately Simon (who would later be called Peter), along with Andrew, James and John were by all accounts much better fishermen than I am! It wasn’t an easy profession, nor incredibly lucrative, but it was their life, and as we can tell here in this story it was a family profession, carried from generation to generation. 

What strikes me every time I read this passage is how abrupt Jesus’ call to these soon-to-be disciples seems to be. He doesn’t walk up to them saying “Hi, my name is Jesus, you probably haven’t met me before... can I take you guys out for a cup of coffee...” or any of that. Maybe they had heard of him and the big scene at his baptism a little while earlier, or heard his preaching which we hear about at the beginning of this gospel, but we don’t know that. He doesn’t even say his name, much less anything at all about what he’s doing or why they should follow him at all. All we get is that odd but memorable phrase “And I will make you fish for people” or in the older translations “fishers of men”. What does that even mean? What about leaving their families, their professions, everything they knew and everything they had in the blink of an eye? 

Rev. Charles at the edge of the Sea of Galilee

Think about it: these men knew nothing at all of what would lie ahead. It was dangerous, following this man they’d never met, and they couldn’t possibly have imagined where it would lead or what they would encounter along the way. They couldn’t have anticipated the dangers it would expose them to or the violence they would risk along the way. Nor could they have known the blessings, the incredible sights, visions and miracles they would not only see but perform, or this thing called the Church that would still call their names 2,000 years down the line!

They didn’t even know where they would sleep that night, or what they would eat, or who they would stay with, or where they were going, or how they would get there. For those of you who are like me & like to have a plan or a schedule in life, it’s enough to give you the willies!

Many of you know that one of my great privileges in ministry is to serve a wonderful community of Latino & Latina immigrants and their children here in Cincinnati. Over the last 16 months I have learned a great deal from them, not least of which about their backgrounds, their former lives, and the journeys that brought them and us together. 

Young mothers, years younger than myself tell me that in their home village in Guatemala, girls usually don’t get past 6th grade because they don’t have pencils, and if you can’t afford pencils you can’t go to school. They come from some of the poorest and most war torn places on earth, and some have been threatened by the cartels that if they don’t pay the ‘impuestos’ - the “taxes” drug lords charge for “protection”, they and their families are dead. These young women, living through the kind of fear I cannot even imagine, have no greater dream than to scratch out a life so that their children will not have to endure these same horrors.

So many of them set out on a journey - an extremely dangerous and expensive one that could easily cost them their lives, and especially for women carries added risks of sexual violence and all manner of other potential disasters. They, like these four fishermen called by Jesus at the sea shore, have no idea where this journey will take them or if they will even survive it. But they have to go.

Whether by walking across great distances, or in the modern world by jumping on top of the treacherous northbound train through Mexico called “la bestia” - the beast - for the number of people who’ve lost their lives on it, to being smuggled in cars or trucks by “coyotes” - coyotes, the drug lords who take every cent they have and abandon them at any sight of trouble, this journey is a treacherous one. Jesus’ disciples would risk martyrdom at the hands of angry mobs, gory deaths at the hands of lions in the arena, crucifixion itself or all manner of bloody demise for the road they would walk with Jesus.

The good news for us, and for these four fishermen whom we would come to call disciples, and to these young mothers from Guatemala is that Jesus Himself is the one who tells all of us “Follow Me”. And that same Jesus is the one who walks with us, who guides us, teaches us and even carries us every step of the way. Jesus who himself was a refugee in the arms of his mother  fleeing to Egypt from the murderous desires of King Herod, that same Jesus walks ahead of us, and beside us, so we never have to journey alone.

How might Christ be calling you to get up and “follow me”? What does your “follow me” journey look like? What is our “follow me” journey together as a Christian and Episcopalian community in Walnut Hills? How might we be called to support those who journey with us, or whose journeys may be very different than our own? What new directions could Christ be calling us into, and what do we need to leave in order to get there?

If you’re seeing some connections to the Exodus, and that long journey story from captivity to freedom, then you’re right. Think about that this week, as we prepare for the annual meeting next  week, as we consider together where God may be calling us to go in 2018 and beyond.

May it be so.

Amen

Follow Jesus. New Beginning. All People.

Follow Jesus. New Beginning. All People.

Sermon for January 7, 2018

Baptism of Jesus (First Sunday after the Epiphany)

Church of the Advent, Cincinnati

Mark 1:4-11

AUDIO HERE

Our own Nativity creche here at Advent, with Magi watching

If the Gospel I just read sounds really familiar to you, it’s actually because it’s the same reading I preached on less than a month ago on December 10th, for the 2nd Sunday of Advent. If you find it a little odd that we would do the same reading twice within such a short span - you’re right! but the reason is because the Church is encouraging us to pay attention to 2 different things. During Advent, our focus was on John’s gospel of repentance. But now as we re-read it, our collective focus turns to another important theme in scripture: Baptism. It’s the remembrance of the Baptism of Jesus. 

Some of you know that I’ve been pulling my hair out this week (figuratively!) over a sort of odd situation in our church calendar that left me torn all week about what I was going say to you all today. You see, Yesterday was what’s called the Feast of the Epiphany- it happens always on January 6th. And on the Feast of the Epiphany - a word that means “revealing” or “revelation”, we remember that beautiful story of the Magi - the wise men or kings who came from the East, following the star by night and bringing their gifts to the Christ child. Now, this story takes place, we believe, when Jesus was probably a toddler of about 2 years old.

Now for us here in modern times, we have a really big jump forward, because the very next day - today - we jump forward to the Baptism of Jesus which takes place when he’s a grown man of about 30 years old! So we jump about 28 years in less than 24 hours! And if, by chance you’re not the sort of person who likes to celebrate religious feast days on a Saturday, it’s an even bigger jump because we miss the story of the Magi, the “holy innocents” and the flight to Egypt altogether. We’ve just gone from the birth of Jesus all the way to adulthood from just one Sunday to the next!

So I asked around - I talked to some of you here at Advent, I talked to some clergy friends in Cincinnati, and I even polled my seminary & clergy friends on Facebook about how I ought to deal with these two extraordinarily important but really very different remembrances that we’re both basically celebrating at the same time. I vacillated back & forth for days & eventually my friends appealed to me that actually there’s a lot to be learned from them both. 

Door marked for Epiphany House Blessing. Credit: Mark Branch

Now, I’m giving you a homework assignment. Take out your bibles & open yo Matthew, chapter 2. Sometime this week I want you to read that whole chapter, it should only take you a few minutes. But really spend some time with it. Reflect on it, pray with it, visualize it in your head and walk around with it throughout the week. Find me sometime in the next week or two and tell me what you think. It’s not only the story of the Wise Men from the East, but it’s the story of the terrible order by King Herod to murder the boys in Bethlehem in an attempt to stamp out this newborn baby Jesus who would be a threat to Herod’s grip on the people of Israel. And it’s the story of Jesus, Mary and Joseph fleeing as refugees into Egypt until Herod’s death, and their starting a new life in Nazareth in Galilee where Jesus would come to grow up.

I have a sentence I want you to remember. Repeat after me: 

Following Jesus is a New Beginning for All People.

Following Jesus is a New Beginning for All People.

Following Jesus

Just as the Wise Men got up and followed the star, making the sometimes dangerous and uncertain journey to worship that child Jesus, so we also commit our lives to following Jesus, no matter how far and how difficult the journey. From the day of Jesus’ baptism onward he would call all of us to follow him. For the next several weeks we’ll be talking about what it means to follow Jesus.

New Beginning

As with any young child, a birth represents a new beginning, a new life - and especially with this young baby boy whom these men came from the East to adore. And it was a new beginning for the Wise Men too - their lives would be forever changed by this journey, this encounter with the Christ child. Baptism too, is a re-birth and a new beginning. Jesus’ baptism by John was the beginning of his ministry as an adult - the launching point for the three years of his life that would change the entire world.

All People

The Wise Men were not Jews - they were Gentiles, and people from far away - foreigners! And yet they were among the first to adore and worship Jesus Christ. Through Christ’s Baptism and our baptism - all of us are able to enter into the redeeming mercy of Jesus. Baptism is open to all, and it obligates us to all people. As Episcopalians, we pledge at our baptisms to “seek and serve Christ in all persons” and to “respect the dignity of every human being”.

Following Jesus is a New Beginning for All People.

So in this Season of Epiphany, over the next month or so as we walk this journey together, I encourage you to write down that phrase. Carry it with you as you go. Pray with it and live it every day of your life in Christ.

Following Jesus is a New Beginning for All People.

Amen.

Epiphany Dawns

The following is my article for the January 2018 edition of the Church of the Advent parish newsletter.

2018 - It’s the dawn of a new year on our global calendars, even though for us in the church, our “New Year” was a month ago at the beginning of Advent! During that month, we spent time in preparation for the birth of Christ in our world, and we rejoiced at the celebration of his arrival in the Christmas Season. Now that Christ, the Word made flesh, is born among us once again, we stand at the edge of another joyous and profound celebration. It’s not New Year’s Day, it’s the Feast of the Epiphany on January 6th. Epiphany is the day when we remember the visitation of the Magi (often known as the Three Kings or Wise Men) who traveled from the East, following the star to find Mary and Joseph with the young boy Jesus. Of course, these Wise Men famously bring gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to honor and serve this child who would be called King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

As we collectively turn the page to 2018, God reminds us again to consider how each of us is called to offer our own gifts to Christ in serving the Church and supporting one another. What skills and talents might God be growing in you & challenging you to share in 2018? How might God be nudging you in new directions, or moving you to nurture others to share in new ways? 

Maybe it’s as an acolyte, or altar guild, or as a lay reader or usher or as a Vestry member. Maybe it’s by bringing others to church with you, or by visiting someone who is sick or alone. Maybe it’s something else entirely! 

At the end of January we will have our Annual Meeting of the whole congregation. This is our chance to take stock of our successes and challenges of the past year, and plot a course for the journeys on which God is guiding us for 2018. We will continue to examine where our Lord is leading our whole congregation in the new year, and how to continually offer our gifts to Christ in Walnut Hills and beyond. Join us, and discern with us together as we look to share the treasures of our lives with the newborn King. 

That Awkward Waiting

That Awkward Waiting

Sermon, December 24, 2017 (Advent 4)

Church of the Advent, Cincinnati

Luke 1:26-38

AUDIO HERE

-A few weeks ago, on Advent 1, Rev. Stacy preached about Kairos and Chronos, two Greek words for time that remind us that God’s time is not the same as our time. The Church’s time is not the same as society’s time. It seems to me that we’ve been feeling this particularly strongly in the last month or so. 

-I’m willing to bet that for some of us here, the tree is up, and the stockings are hung. The mistletoe is out and the presents are already under the tree. All of that is well and good, after all it is December 24th, but what’s odd is that today, what you’ve just heard, is the first mention this season of a virgin named Mary, a carpenter named Joseph, and an angel with a message that would surprise us all.

-You’ll notice, that I didn’t read anything in the Gospel about a birth, or Bethlehem, or a baby, or a manger, or shepherds or kings. All that will come later. And when you come back at 4pm today, we will continue the story together. But for now, we’re still in the expectation of Advent. 

-After all, this is Church of the Advent after all, and we’re going to enjoy our season until the end! But it’s not just us, the whole Episcopal Church and many others are experiencing this very same moment. In society it’s been the Christmas season for some time now, but for those of us in the church, we wait with patient expectation for what is to come, remembering the anxious stirring of an arrival but we do not know exactly when, or what, it will be.

-Take a moment with me - look at today’s Gospel and shout out a word or phrase from it that sticks out to you. Anything from the Gospel - shout it out.

-What’s it like when you have to wait for something you really want? What does it feel like? what’s so hard about it?

-This is the end of the waiting. Like kids everywhere will sit sleepless tonight, waiting, wondering, hoping, dreaming of what may await them in the morning, so all of us are at this very moment. 

-The waiting is hard for all of us, no matter how young or old we may be. We want to get straight to the tree, to open the gifts, to sing our favorite Christmas songs and share a Christmas meal. But we’re not there quite yet. God tells all of us to wait just a little bit longer. 

-So wait with us, friends, just a few more hours. Pray, and prepare with us for the birth of a new reality in our world. The reward is more than worth the wait. 

Amen

Penitential Advent - Metanoia

Penitential Advent - Metanoia

Sermon, December 10, 2017

Church of the Advent, Cincinnati

Mark 1:1-8

AUDIO HERE

-Amidst the joyful outside energy of the world preparing for Christmas, you'd expect we might be reading the beginning of one of the Christmas narratives. Maybe the annunciation, etc. But instead our lectionary reminds us that we're not there yet.

-instead we have what seems the complete opposite: the grizzled terrifying looking john the baptist not saying "hooray" but saying "repent"! The guy is a total downer!

-John has 2 claims to fame: "prepare the way of the lord" which we talk about this week and next week, and the baptism of Jesus which usually shows up in  late Jan or Early Feb. but today I want to highlight something else, and it's that word "repentance".

-Advent is one of 2 of what's called "penitential" seasons, along with Lent which is much better known for being about Sin. But while Advent is about preparing for the birth of Christ and a new beginning, it's about doing that by clearing out the sin in our spiritual houses to make room for the entrance of Christ into our world.

-"penitence" and "repent" come from the Latin for "to feel sorry for". The Greek, however goes deeper. The Greek "metanoia" actually means "second-thought" or "change of heart/mind". That's what repentence really is - it's a complete change of life, a 180 degree shift that changes us from the inside out, not just a smattering of guilt.

-Perhaps it comes at a perfect time. Even those who are not religious, toward the end of the calendar year begin to take stock of themselves and look to change in the new year. We Christians get an early start.

-There's so much individually and collectively that we need to really examine as deep and persistent sin. Sexual harassment, racism, economic injustice, mistreatment of the poor, the immigrant, the refugee, extreme violence, the threat of war, on and on and on until it can get overwhelming. It seems to get worse every day. I know some who wake up in cold sweats in the middle of the night over this and so many other truly horrible faults.

-Blue Christmas, sometimes guilt, sorrow or other grief. This may be one way to move toward healing in this Advent season. Take time away, get out of the hustle for a day or a few hours just to pray, spend time with God. Truly repent and make amends to those you may have harmed.

-And get active! Make your voice heard against injustice when and where you see it! Not only repent privately, but call for repentence publicly in politics, in the media, in the economy, in every aspect of society!

-The good news is just as John says - the one who is greater is coming soon! For us that means joy and the opportunity for forgiveness and redemption. Repentence is actually a good and maybe even joyful thing because it means the possibility for a second chance to right what we've done wrong.

-That's the penitential spirit of Advent. Amen

Jesus Christ, King of the Universe

This is my sermon from the Feast of Christ the King, November 26 2017 at Church of the Advent, Cincinnati. 

•   Today we celebrate the Feast of Christ the King, which you may or may not know, as it’s perhaps one of the lesser known feast days of the church year. It’s original name is one of the best & probably most grandiose I’ve ever seen: The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. It’s one of the more recently added feasts in terms of the long history of Christianity, being added in 1925 by the Roman Catholic Church & later adopted by the Episcopal Church & Anglican Communion along with a whole host of other churches & traditions.
•  Christ the king started out in an era, in 1920’s Europe, just after the world was torn apart violently by conflicts among kings and political leaders in WWI, and amidst the rise of fascism in Italy, and what would later become Nazism in Germany, as a whole host of authoritarian regimes began increasingly cropping up around the world. Pope Pius, at that time, wanted to remind the people that it was Christ, not any dictator or political leader, not any general or military authority, not any powerful businessman or financial interest – but Christ alone, who is truly Lord of all.
•     We always celebrate Christ the King on the last Sunday before the season of Advent begins, and since Advent is the beginning of the new church year, Christ the King is the last Sunday of the current church year, which is always at the end of November. Although Pope Pius could not have imagined it 92 years ago when the Christ the King celebration began, just so happens that for us here in the modern day USA, that places it squarely after Thanksgiving and significantly right between the feasts which our material culture has chosen to worship – Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
•      See, I don’t mention that by accident. Even though even the human leaders who planned this feast couldn’t have known it – I really believe God knew what God was doing here. Think about it – While every store, company and corporation are in fever pitch trying to make you buy, buy, buy more and more, never having enough so that you will spend every dime that you have in order to gain some false sense of satisfaction, or worthiness, or power, Christ the King reminds us that none of that matters at all! Christ the King tells us that nothing we can do can buy us the power or glory we crave, because it all belongs to Christ anyway. Christ the King tells us that no matter how much physical wealth or money or political influence the enormous corporations and mega-donors may have, it all really belongs to Christ anyway – and for that matter –Christ alone is the one with all the power!
•      If you’re like me, the Gospel for today was a very familiar one. The imagery is so complex and beautiful that we could spend the rest of our lives unpacking it, and yet it’s so simple that small children usually understand it better than us adults. I could preach endlessly on this text, and if you stay active in church long enough you will certainly hear lots of sermons on it, but there’s one thing here I want you to notice on this feast of Christ the King.
•       Our Christ – Our Jesus who is King of Kings and Lord of All, seated on the throne at the Right hand of the Father, doesn’t even play the same game as the earthly kings! Jesus doesn’t sit in some rich palace, or wear a heavy crown of gold and jewels. He doesn’t employ fleets of maids and servers to wait on him hand and foot, or crush the poor with his physical might. Our Christ is the one who IS the poor, who IS the Least of These, who IS the hungry and the imprisoned, and the sick, and the thirsty, and the naked!
•      Christ the King is not some unreachably holy being up in the stars of heaven, but the hungry and the needy whom we serve each day at Open Door Ministries, or visit in the hospital, or bring coats to as the winter approaches.
• One of my favorite Advent traditions is to see Handel’s Messiah performed sometime in December almost every year. It’s an absolutely stunning piece of Baroque music written by the great composer Handel in 1741, usually lasting about 2 to 3 hours and if you’ve never heard it performed live, you must. The piece quotes exclusively from Scripture, telling of Christ’s victory over death, his glory and his ultimate power over all creation. Part of what mystifies me every time is the beauty of the kingship language Handel borrows from Scripture in describing our Lord Christ. These are just 2 of the verses that stir my spirit every time I hear them:
• Psalm 2:1-2 Why do the nations so furiously rage together: why do the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth rise up, and the rulers take counsels together against the Lord and His anointed.
• Revelation 19:6, 11:15, 19:16 Hallelujah! for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth. The Kingdom of this world is become the Kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ: and He shall reign for ever and ever. King of kings, Lord of lords.
• These next four weeks, we prepare to encounter the Lord Christ again in some powerful & life-changing ways we don’t always think about. We will meet him in the awe-inspiring and terrifying apocalyptic vision of the end of times projected in Revelation & in Mark’s Gospel. And we will meet Christ in the fiery warnings of John the Baptist, and in the pregnant joyful anxiety of Mary and Joseph. And of course we will again meet again in a manger in Bethlehem not just a beautiful newborn baby, but the King of the Universe, Jesus Christ our Lord.
• As we embark these coming weeks on that sacred journey, Join me in remembering Christ not only as our brother and friend, redeemer and teacher, but as the King of all Creation. Remember him, not as the ally of the rich or the powerful, but as the poor, the sick and the destitute before your eyes. But above all, remember The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe.
• AMEN

The Community's Talents

I preached this sermon on November 19, 2017 at St. Phillips Episcopal Church, Columbus, Ohio. The Rector and Vestry of St. Phillips asked me to speak with them about how to navigate the urban challenges of gentrification, changing neighborhoods, etc. 

Based on Matt. 25:14-30

The Parable of the talents is a very familiar one – perhaps one of the best known or most often repeated parables in scripture. It’s told again in Luke 9, where it’s not just a rich man but a king who entrusts his servants with his wealth to invest according to their judgment. If you’re like me & you grew up in the church or you’ve been going to church a long time, you’ve heard many a sermon on this passage encouraging their congregations to invest their time, talent and treasure wisely in one way or another. You may also have heard this passage in sermons around stewardship season, encouraging you to contribute generously and invest in the stewardship of the church, so that the good works here at St. Phillips and other churches near and far may continue to grow and strengthen for many generations to come. And while Fr. Wilson and I certainly do encourage you to give generously to this wonderful church, and that is indeed part of the lesson that we can draw from this parable, it’s not the whole story.

Now if, perhaps you are new to this parable or new to the church, this is a fascinating story with simple but powerful imagery, if a little bit disturbing in the end.

 Here in Matthew, the placement of this story is significant. It’s preceded as we heard last week by the parable of the ten bridesmaids as we heard last week, which is all about how the well-prepared bridesmaids steward their resources of oil while the ill-prepared bridesmaids are left literally locked out when the bridegroom (Christ himself) arrives. And then the section from Matthew 25 which follows this is even more famous than this one, and it’s of course Jesus’s ubiquitous statement “I was a stranger and you welcomed me… when you did it unto the least of these you did it unto me”.

So here we find that this parable of the talents – this lesson about how we steward and take care of the resources God gives us - is situated among two very important lessons that teach us something about today’s parable too. It’s not just about taking care of material resources, but it’s intimately connected both with being prepared to meet God at the unexpected moments of God’s arrival among us and it’s about taking care of the poorest, neediest, most struggling and the ‘least of these’ in God’s kingdom.

Now, whenever I read this parable, the line that always gets me, that sticks in my craw so to speak, is this line near the end of the reading:

For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.

Isn’t that the opposite of what God would want? Isn’t this the same God who pledges to uplift those who have nothing and who abhors greed and hoarding of material possessions? Isn’t this after all the same God who just a few lines later will insist on giving to the least of these? Then how would this God, in what seems to be an act of downright cruelty, take the small pittance from the one who had the least to begin with and give it to the one who had the most already and now has even more? Imagine for a moment, the young teenage mothers from places like Ghana and Guatemala whom I have had the privilege to serve in my ministry, or refugees from Iraq or Afghanistan, some of whom I’ve gotten to know personally who survived some of the worst atrocities humans can levy on one another. Think of the neediest in your own communities the most downtrodden persons you have ever met and think of what it must sound like to hear such a phrase:

For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.

How in the world could that be? How could the God we love ever say such a thing?

That was the question I always struggled with, for years and years until I realized that it what we’re talking about here isn’t that God is taking from the poor and giving to the rich, but that this is about what we do with OUR TALENTS – our skills and abilities, our knowledge and capacities with which God has blessed us.

I’m incredibly grateful to the New Living Translation which actually draws this out much better than our own translation here. There it says:

To those who use well what they are given, even more will be given, and they will have an abundance. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away.

So it isn’t about the rich vs the poor, the have’s vs the have-not’s, but it’s about that we DO with whatever it is that we have. It’s about whether we will use well the gifts which we have been given and whether we will invest those talents – those skills and abilities and the knowledge we have – into the work of growing the Kingdom of God. And yet when we do not use our talents well, they wither on the vine, and they atrophy and die. Think of those skills which you never practice or those muscles you never engage. Think of those things which perhaps you could do well many years ago but you haven’t tried in a long time. It’s like fruit that goes uneaten and grows mold in a few days. Or as one who’s been to the gym only once in the last few months, it’s like the abs and biceps I used to have but are now long gone!

As was in the introduction, I am proud to serve a church called Church of the Advent in Cincinnati, in a neighborhood called Walnut Hills just a few minutes from the heart of Downtown Cincinnati. Most Sundays we’re home to about 50 hardy and Christ-loving souls, which for me is by far the smallest parish I’ve had the good pleasure to serve. But while Advent may be small, we are small but mighty! While I know lots of other Cincinnati churches of many stripes and types are busy on Sundays but sit empty much of the week, Advent is not one of them! Almost every day of the week, our beloved 1860’s edifice is filled with God’s people, some who have very little money or none at all and some who have much more. We’re among the most racially diverse Episcopal churches in our city, and we have an extraordinarily committed base of active laypeople, a majority of whom live within just a few blocks of our church.

Our beloved parish proudly hosts Open Door Ministries – a program going strong for 40 years which provides a food pantry 5 days a week and hot meals 3 days a week. We host one of the city’s few church-based payee programs, helping those suffering from addictions, disabilities or mental illnesses to ensure that their bills are paid consistently to prevent them from falling into homelessness. We host a monthly clothing drive in conjunction with a local Presbyterian Church and another large food pantry each month together with another area congregation.

Needless to say I am extremely proud of all these ministries inside our building, but I’m at least equally proud of what we do outside of our church in the neighborhood of Walnut Hills. Just in the last few months, Advent has joined with other Episcopal ministries to support local Latino & immigrant ministries, provide hurricane relief in Texas, to protest in favor of the rights of migrants and to meet at our US Senator’s office to advocate for fair housing policy. And Church of the Advent is a founding member of the Walnut Hills Faith Alliance, a quickly growing group of now almost 10 local congregations of all different denominations, working together every single month to put on events and provide for the needs of children and families in our community. From throwing neighborhood parties for children to celebrate Easter, the 4^th of July, Halloween and others, to providing backpacks, hygiene products and coats for neighborhood schoolchildren, to planning a summer reading program next year at no cost to neighborhood parents, we are investing deeply in the children and families of our neighborhood!

Just last weekend as we hosted Diocesan convention, and delegates were invited to attend dinner in the neighborhood, visiting local churches and ministries around Cincinnati. We at Advent were extraordinarily privileged to host two of your own from right here at St. Phillips, along with a hefty contingent from Trinity Columbus as well. But we didn’t just have dinner for us delegates, we hosted a community dinner as we do each month, open to the poor and the needy in our neighborhood, as well as several homeless families and children from Interfaith Hospitality Network who were spending that week sleeping over at our church. If you don’t believe me you can ask the delegates from St. Phillips about their experience at Advent, but I can tell you, they got to experience a little bit of the ways we invest every day, using our talents for the people of our community.

I’m not saying all this just to brag about my church, although I am extremely proud of all that we do. I’m saying this to tell you one thing: That you can do the same and even more in the name of Christ. Although this is my first time here, I have heard for years about this wonderful congregation and your important place in the neighborhood of Near East. I have heard about your commitment to urban ministry and to the people of this community. And so I hope you will join with me, dear friends, fellow Episcopalians and most importantly lovers of Christ, in using our talents well.

AMEN