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Hope – that’s the word that comes to mind when I reflect on what it’s like to be back in this place with you. You fill me with hope for the church and its future.
It is fascinating to return to a place you once knew. When you leave a place, a city, a people, or family, everyone continues to grow and change. And when you return to the place or city or people or family you once knew, it always feels a little strange. Maybe you’ve had that experience in returning to your elementary school years later, or a park, or library from your childhood.
It feels so small when compared to the largeness of the memory you have created. And things are always a little bit different. The school has a new wing or paint job. The library has had a facelift or remodel. The park has a different play structure than you remember.
That’s a little bit of what it has felt like in returning to Epiphany. Now, my memories are from adulthood and not childhood, so the place doesn’t seem smaller, but it does feel different. So many of you have asked what it’s like to return. What have I noticed? What is different and what has remained the same?
I want to tell a story this morning about a time that many of you will remember, others will have heard of, and for some, this is new. In 2007, Epiphany was in transition. The previous rector had left, the Director of Music had left, and things were in flux. Tom Foster had moved to Seattle and was serving as the interim Director of Music. When Doyt was called to be the rector in late 2008, one of the first calls he made, was to Tom.
They knew one another because they had both previously served at All Saints’, Beverly Hills. Doyt knew Tom was a treasure and would be vital to the rebuilding of this congregation, and so, he convinced Tom to stay.
Only a few months later, as a recently ordained young adult, I came to serve alongside Doyt as the Associate Rector. Those early years were exciting, full of hard work, creativity, and tremendous blessing. Diane Carlisle was there every step of the way, supporting and guiding us in building the transformative worship we still experience today. God called together an incredible team, you endorsed it, and Epiphany expanded at breakneck speed.
In Doyt’s stewardship letter, which is in the mail as we speak, he references ths time, saying: “I’m having a Holy Spirit flashback to my early days at Epiphany. The energy in the space was undeniable, the vitality was palpable, something you could feel deeply. That same sense of awakening and excitement is alive right now, as your parish continues to grow and thrive in soul-revealing ways.”
I have noticed this as well in returning after seven years of being away. I am different. You are different. And still, one cannot ignore the deep, unwavering steady presence of Jesus in this place.
As I told Dwayne Shearer, our senior warden, the other day: Epiphany is Epiphany. The culture, the theology, the high standards for excellence, and the transcendent worship are all the same.
What feels different to me, is the maturity and settledness I feel among the staff, lay leaders, and congregation.
It doesn’t feel as frenzied. There is a professionalism and sense of grounded-ness in the way this team creates ways for people to experience transformation through worship, RELATA, small groups, classes, singing in the choir, and more.
If you are wondering, yes, this is THE Stewardship Sermon and the gospel assigned for this Sunday, NOT chosen by me, has Jesus saying, “How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the Kingdom of God!…It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the Kingdom of God.”
It must be nice being the rector and having the choice to assign this weighty task to your new Parochial Vicar. Thanks a lot, Doyt. That’s okay…I am up to the task!
Jesus is teaching the disciples in this text, and he is teaching us. It’s a more indirect style of teaching than we are used to in our westernized culture. A man tells Jesus that he follows the commandments and always has. I love the way Jesus responds to this. As the text says, “Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, ‘You lack one thing; go, sell what you have and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, then come follow me.’” (Mark 10:23).
You can almost imagine this loving Jesus, caring so much for this man who wants to please him. This was confusing for the man on so many levels. In that culture, in that time, people were perceived as being especially loved by God if they had wealth and many possessions. It was the prosperity gospel of its time and just as damaging then as it is today.
And here, this radical teacher Jesus is flipping things on their head by saying the opposite! He is telling the faithful man, the wealthy man, that he must give away his wealth to follow Jesus.
Do you remember what I told you last Sunday in my sermon about St. Francis? It was the sermon about Jesus’ Parable of the Rich Fool…..I sense a theme here…..I talked about assessing our relationship with our possessions and our wealth. Does our wealth own us, or do we own our wealth?
The Parable of the Rich Fool appears only in Luke’s gospel and today, in Mark’s gospel, we have the camel and the eye of a needle. Jesus’ message is consistent. Jesus hears the man and the disciples protesting and says, “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God: for God all things are possible.”
One of the miracles of this truth is your very existence. You are here because God is. Well – what are we to make to of this here at Epiphany Parish in 2024? Jesus flips the narrative on its head. He says: God doesn’t love the rich more, rather, the Kingdom of God is for those who love God first.
If you love God first, and you have a lot of wealth, how are you giving out of your abundance? We don’t apologize for our wealth, God gave it to us. We are because God is. But, are we honoring God’s generosity through our own?
A few weeks ago, I brought my youngest son, who is 10, to Evensong. It was his first experience of this rich tapestry of prayer and song. He may have been reading a book, but I could tell that he was taking it all in. Many of you know, that I have been priest longer than my children have been alive. Both of my sons were born while I was working at Epiphany the first time. It is rare that I get to sit beside my children in church.
When the offering plate came around, I handed Myles cash to put in the plate. He leaned over and whispered loudly, “Mom, why are you giving money to the church? Don’t they pay you?!” It’s a fair question and it was a great opportunity for teaching. I told Myles that we never pass up an opportunity to give to the glory of God. We give because we have.
We give because God has given to us. We give because it is an act of hope towards the future of God in this place. We make a pledge to the church every year, and when the offering plates comes around, we put money into it. We give to the church because it is not transactional, reciprocal, conditional, or controlled. We give out of thanksgiving to God.
God blossoms in our lives all the time – I had the opportunity to move back to a city I love to serve in a parish I adore. Some of you have the luxury of being in a position to prayerfully choose to downsize your possessions and right-size your living space to match your stage of life. That is a blessing. Others have been deeply blessed by their hard work, good fortune, and wise investing. If you have a ton of money, give a lot. If things are tight, give what you can. Give proportionately to what you have. Every pledge matters.
Wonderful things are happening all around us and we have the opportunity, no- the responsibility- to give back to God out of what we have been given. You are generous. You have partnered as co-creators with God in building a place in which all of God’s children are welcomed and treated as beloved. Because of your generosity, Epiphany continues to grow and serve as a center of spiritual gravity of the city of Seattle.
The Stewardship Theme this year is HOPE. As Doyt often says, the neighborhood church is the hope of the world. Here at Epiphany, we give because our timeline is perpetuity – meaning, Epiphany will not go out of business and is eternal because people are spiritual beings who will always feel drawn to worship God. That is what we are about in this place and always have been. Our primary focus is God, not good works, not providing social services, but God and the transformation of souls.
Today, I invite you to consider how you can give not just out of obligation, but out of joy and thanksgiving for all that God has provided. Let us embrace the possibility that through our giving, we will discover the richness of God’s kingdom among us.