President Teresa Sullivan: No fences around the caring community

This morning's sermon is based on Mark 4:26-34.

Keep, O Lord, your household the Church in your steadfast faith and love, that through your grace we may proclaim your truth with boldness, and minister your justice with compassion; for the sake of our Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

This morning I must begin by mentioning the most significant event in our community of the last week – and which I know is weighing on many of you: The dismissal of University of Virginia President Teresa Sullivan.

Even if you are not connected directly to the University of Virginia, you and I are affected daily by this huge institution across the street. It is no exaggeration to say that the most important public official in our community is the president of the University.

I certainly have no more information than any of you, and no doubt a good deal less than some of you. And I am in no position to comment on the actions of the Board of Visitors, nor should I.

But I would be remiss in not expressing the gratitude of our congregation, and my personal appreciation, to President Sullivan for the care and friendship she has shown to the Charlottesville community, and in particular, to this the parish church to the University of Virginia.

I first met Dr. Sullivan in a snowstorm, in the great blizzard of January 2010, when she was still president-elect.

Like many of you, she braved the elements to attend our Centennial banquet, and it was our great honor to seat her next to Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori.

As it turned out, the only two guests at the UVA Colonnade Club that snowy weekend were Dr. Sullivan, the first woman to head the University of Virginia, and Bishop Katharine, the first woman to head the Episcopal Church of the United States, and the first woman primate of an Anglican province in the world.

I’ve wondered since what these two intellectually powerful, historically groundbreaking women talked about over breakfast in the middle of a blizzard.

As President, Dr. Sullivan gave her first public address here in this pulpit on August 29, 2010 at our University Convocation Sunday. The backdrop to that sermon, and it is not so long ago, was the death of student Yeardley Love.

President Sullivan eloquently spoke to us about how we cannot be bystanders as others suffer.

She said this to us: 

“Care for those around you, especially those who are most in need. This is one of the foundations of a strong community based on caring and shared responsibility for one another’s well-being. The Kingdom of God has many bridges, but not so many fences.”

I don’t know – none of us can know – what will happen next week, or next month or next year, as this struggle over the leadership of this great university unfolds.

But I do know this – we can show our gratitude for Terry Sullivan and what she has stood for by continuing the work of building a caring community.

And I would point out, the president of this very secular University put the building of a caring community in terms of her own faith and the building God’s kingdom.

What she spoke of is far bigger than any of us, bigger than a university or its president, or any single leader.

And bigger than any fence.

Today, in the Gospel lesson from Mark, Jesus describes the Kingdom of God as a place without fences. But get that, you have to hear what he is describing as something of an inside joke. Follow me here.

We’ve domesticated the mustard seed story into a platitude about how big things can grow from small things, and that is certainly true. Giant Sequoia redwoods do start with a seed from a very small cone.

But it’s not just about the seed. It is about what grows from the seed.

Jesus uses the story of the mustard seed to make fun of the pomposity of the Temple authorities, who compare the glory of the Temple to the majesty of the cedars of Lebanon, which as the Old Testament says, are so large birds nest in them.

Jesus compares the Kingdom of God to not a majestic cedar, but to a scraggly, weedy, unruly mustard shrub.

Mustard bush in the Middle East

In the Mediterranean world, mustard is not a condiment for hotdogs. It is a weed that grew as big as a house, and it took over the grain fields.

It starts as a tiny seed no bigger than the period on a printed page. It is truly the tiniest of seeds, and when it grows, watch out. It is the Kudzu of the Middle East.

It take over everything in its path. It is unpredictable, no respecter of fences, no respecter of neat rows of grain. It growns everywhere, no stopping it.

The Kingdom of God is “like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”

No doubt the Temple authorities were infuriated by this pithy little story – Jesus was, indeed, mocking them. And the people got the mocking tone, and they repeated his story over and over and they wrote it down. It appears in three of the gospels and in documents about Jesus that did not get into the New Testament.

The Kingdom of God is like a mustard weed. It starts small, and it grows where it will and no fence – no institution – can stop it.

The community we are called to build in God’s kingdom – the community of caring people who heal the sick, comfort the afflicted, put bread on the table, educate the young and old, and work to change the social structures that cause suffering – that community is like a mustard bush that will grown everywhere.

It is unpredictable; fences cannot contain it, and it will bring heaven to earth in those places of need and suffering. That is the true Kingdom God.

All of us are a part of this great work – all of us have a role – and no fence can keep you or I out.

Please allow me to end this morning by reading to you the concluding words of President Sullivan in her remarkable sermon to us nearly two years ago. I quote:

“Ask yourself this question: If you happened to encounter an angel unawares, how would you treat him or her? What if this angel-in-disguise were a stranger, or someone who looks different from you, or someone who is on the low end of the socio-economic ladder, or someone suffering from physical or mental distress?

“This morning, let’s affirm our commitment to caring for every member of this community every day. Let’s make this promise to ourselves and to each other. Let’s promise not to stand by when someone else needs help. Let’s promise to take responsibility for each other. Let’s promise to show hospitality and kindness to everyone around us — even the strangers, who, for all we know, might be angels.

“Your neighbors might not exalt you for taking such responsibility. Your friends might criticize you. But building a community of caring is a very positive long-term investment.”

Let me to add that it remains our task to carry on this work of building a caring community – work that is truly all of ours to share, no matter our age, our social status, our educational status, or our affiliation with the University of Virginia.

Teresa Sullivan ended her sermon by saying “God bless the University of Virginia,” and I would add, God bless President Sullivan. Amen

      

By James Richardson, Fiat Lux 

UVA President Sullivan at Mount Zion First African Baptist Church

The ouster of University of Virginia President Teresa Sullivan is now truly a national story. There are so many stories now, I won't begin to summarize them.

There are links to all of the news stories on a Faculty Senate website which can find HERE. The story, safe to say, is not going away soon.

I do want to draw your attention to an item that few may have noticed. Even as the Board of Visitors was preparing to announce her "resignation," President Sullivan preached last Sunday at Mount Zion First African Baptist Church, where my friend Alvin Edwards is the pastor.

Our church has many long standing ties to Mount Zion, and I was aware that President Sullivan was to be the guest preacher. Although her ouster had happened by the time she took the pulpit, no one at the church knew it. She went through with her sermon, and touched many people with her faithfulness and heart. A member of the congregation, Erika James Hayes, who is also a professor at the UVA Darden Business School, wrote this report on her blog, and I post it here in full:

A SUDDEN DEPARTURE

I am a member of the Mount Zion First African Baptist Church in Charlottesville, and a faculty member of the Darden Business School at the University of Virginia.  Both affiliations are relevant to a set of unusual circumstances I experienced this weekend.  On Sunday I enthusiastically attended church service.  On this day my enthusiasm was in large part because our church was welcoming Theresa Sullivan, President of the University of Virginia.  As a UVA faculty member I was looking forward to hearing her speak to a constituency often peripheral to the academic community. President Sullivan was invited by our pastor to be a guest speaker with the purpose of ministering to the congregation in honor of the high school and college graduates from our church.  As I’ve seen her do on numerous occasions at the university, she delivered eloquent, humorous, thoughtful, personal, and deliberate remarks.  Her message centered on staying true to one’s convictions, and leading with a purpose.  Referencing bible verses from the book of Romans she spoke of not allowing one’s self to conform to the inevitable trials and tribulations life will present, but to betransformed by them. She used stories to illustrate her point that one does not need to hold a particular title or position to lead, but that true leaders lead with integrity and from the heart.  True leaders lead in accordance with their values and they are not side-tracked by people who question or doubt those values.

In my professional life, I view things from a standpoint of crisis leadership and diversity, the nature of my work. But this day, I listened as a parent and member of the congregation. And I was moved by her comments.  This is precisely the message I would want my own children to hear when it is time for their graduations.   As a fellow university professor I felt affirmed by President Sullivan’s remarks because they are consistent with the message that I try to instill in the MBA students I teach.  I left the church service filled with pride for the African American graduates who were honored in our service, and proud of our President who chose to spend her Sunday morning at a predominately African American Church ministering to our young people.  I had not expected what was to come next.

When I arrived home from church I checked my email and was shocked to see a message from the University of Virginia Rector announcing that the UVA Board of Visitors and President Sullivan had mutually agreed over the weekend to part ways.  Effective August 2012, Sullivan’s two year tenure into her presidency would end, well short of the original contract term.  The message went on to identify differences in philosophical approaches for UVA’s future as the primary reason for the abrupt departure.  I suspect there is truth in the rationale provided to the university community, and I suspect that there is more to the story that we may never know.   

Like most others in the UVA community I was stunned by the turn of events.  I am also saddened by her pending departure.  I’ve had the opportunity to meet Sullivan on a number of occasions and was pleased to have served on her inauguration committee.  She is an impressive woman.  Yet, what I have been reflecting on are her comments during the church service, as they relate to confronting challenges.  Reciting verses from Romans chapter 12, Sullivan communicated: “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is —his good, pleasing and perfect will.” 

At the time that she was so graciously delivering her remarks to our church graduates, President Sullivan must have been experiencing tremendous internal turmoil as the decision to end her presidency had likely occurred within the previous 24 hours.  I suspect her charge to our graduates to be transformed by (not conform to) the challenges of life, were drawn from her own immediate need to lead in such a manner at this particular juncture in her career. 

President Sullivan concluded her remarks with the following verses from Romans 12:  We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach;  if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully. 

I am keenly aware of the gifts in others; but have often questioned the gifts I offer to the world.  I have no obvious or extra-ordinary gifts in things society generally rewards (e.g., music, art, athletics, and oration) yet I have found it curious how I’ve been able to lead a rather extra-ordinary life.  President Sullivan’s remarks helped broaden my understanding of “gifts” and as I listened to the gifts she recited from Romans my own gifts began to crystallize.  Furthermore, I have a better understanding and appreciation for the true gifts in others.

President Sullivan’s choice to deliver these particular remarks takes on new meaning in light of her personal changing circumstances at UVA.  She has many gifts, and they are well recognized within the UVA community and will be well received beyond it.  I am confident that she will be positively transformed by recent challenges.

Tags: crisis leadership, facing adversity, life challenges, personal crisis, Theresa Sullivan, University of Virginia, UVA

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Channel 29 segment on President Sullivan

I now have proof that someone is reading this blog -- Channel 29 news. Someone on their staff read my comments from yesterday about the dismissal of University of Virginia President Teresa Sullivan. A news crew came to my house last night to interview me, and the old newsie that I am, I could not refuse. But I had to put on a black shirt and collar first. The segment made the 11 pm news.

There are still many questions that are unanswered, and the reporters tell me that those who can answer are making themselves scarce. I would urge them to show a level of transparency that is worthy of Mr. Jefferson's university.

You can see the segment from Channel 29 by clicking HERE:

Saddened and shocked by the dismissal of UVA President Sullivan

President Teresa Sullivan
at St. Paul's Memorial Church
Sept. 26, 2010
Photo by Bonny Bronson

I am among those saddened and shocked this morning by the abrupt dismissal of Teresa Sullivan as the president of the University of Virginia (and, sorry, no Monday Funnies today). In our community, the president of the University is certainly the most important public official we have. This is doubly true for my congregation; most of my members are connected to the University as students, faculty, staff and alums.

Terry has shown in her brief two years here that she cares about the community, cares about students, and cares about the people who work at the University. She had a down-to-earth style that was refreshing.

She gave her first public speech in our pulpit, preaching on Sept. 26, 2010, at our Convocation Sunday. She preached about creating a caring community, and the backdrop was the beating death of a student, Yeardley Love, by her boyfriend. You can read her sermon HERE.

Speaking as a member of the community, I have to say that there are more questions than facts about her dismissal. It is clear from reading the prepared statements issued from University officials on a Sunday that Sullivan was dismissed, and the crux of the conflict was her leadership on the budget.

The Board of Visitors apparently wanted to more money to make more "star hires" and Sullivan had a different view. She had not long ago reached a compromise with advocates for a "living wage" for the lowest paid University employees. She has also stood against steep tuition increases, as Governor Robert McConnell credited her with in his prepared statement.

But I am only speculating about the reason for her departure. I would hope that as the week unfolds we might get more facts about her dismissal.

I must also register my dismay that her dismissal was done on a Sunday when reporters are off,  officials are hard to reach, and not incidentally, some people are in church.

Finally, I must give my thanks to President Sullivan for her friendship to our congregation and her leadership in our community. She will be very missed.

The real family values of Jesus

Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem

Today's readings are: 1 Samuel 8:4-11, 16-20, Psalm 138, 2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1 and Mark 3:20-35. Here is my sermon for today:

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Last summer when Lori and I were on our pilgrimage to the Holy Land, we began to notice a common theme everywhere we went, and it was not just about the Bible.

It was about the decorations.

Everywhere we went, from Bethlehem to Jerusalem, from Nazareth to Galilee – every holy site was embellished with icons, statues, shrines, candles, and brass bric-a-brac of all sorts.

And on top of every holy place was a massive church, and layer upon layer of ruins of other churches that had been on the same site over the centuries. Every time one was destroyed, another was built in its place.

Shrine on the exact spot where it is said
Jesus' was born.
Church of the Navity, Bethlehem

Among the most elaborate was in Bethlehem, on the spot where legend says Jesus was born. Centuries worth of candles, mosaics and brass lanterns were everywhere. And, in a curious modern touch, hanging from every chandelier were Christmas ornaments.

All of these shrines were built, layer upon layer, century upon century, to worship God and glorify Jesus as a majestic king like that described in the Old Testament lesson today from 1 Samuel 8:4-11, 16-20.

There is nothing wrong with that, but we had to mentally peel back the layers to imagine what each place might have looked like when Jesus walked the earth.

It struck me that the same people who built all of these glorious edifices also knit together the collection of letters and documents that became the Christian New Testament.

And rather than sift facts for accuracy as modern people might, the writers of the New Testament did just as they had done with the holy shrines – they added layers and layers of textual adornment to worship God and glorify Jesus as a majestic king.

The layers are sometimes so thick that the first century Jew we know as Jesus almost fades into oblivion.

Almost, but not quite.

Today we get a remarkable window underneath the layers of text to see the reality of Jesus.

This window comes in the Gospel of Mark, which scholars almost unanimously agree was the first written account of the life of Jesus.

At the very end of this passage today, we hear a story you might overlook – a story about how his family is very, very worried about him.

It is important to note that in the Gospel Mark there is no Christmas story, no Virgin Mary, no Wise Men, no manger or shepherds in the field – no ornaments hanging from the chandeliers.

The Temptations of Christ in the desert,
12th-century mosaic at St Mark's Basilica, Venice

In Mark, he is not the Jesus of stained glass windows or perfectly pressed white flowing robes with a lamb on his shoulder. He is not the Jesus of homogenized platitudes or suburban safety. He is far different than that, and much more interesting.

We know this man as Jesus, which is a mangling of his real name thanks to bad biblical translations over the centuries.

His mother knew him by the name she had given him, the common Jewish name Joshua, or Ye-sou, and so that is what I will call him this morning: Joshua.

We also get a glimpse today of his mother. She also had a common Jewish name: Miriam, and that is what I will call her this morning. There is no mention of her husband in this account, so we can safely assume that by the time we meet her, she is a widow.

Another gospel writer, Luke, tells us he had run away from home as young boy; and then, as all of the gospels tell us, as a young man he disappeared into the desert on a religious quest. Joshua was not much older than an adolescent when he disappeared.

Joshua was not an easy child.

Chances are he disappeared not just for the 40 days of Hebrew symbolism, but probably for many months – even years.

Now he is back in his home territory as a faith healer and teaching people with riddles called “parables.”

He is different, and everyone notices. There is a spark in him. He dazzles people, and when people touched him, they feel connected to the Holy in a way they had never felt before, and many feel miraculously healed of all that hurts and harms them.

Yet there are rumors that Joshua has lost his mind, that he is crazy, unhinged. The local religious authorities are nervous, and spreading rumors that he is possessed by a demon – and so Miriam and her family grow alarmed, very alarmed.

Even worse, Joshua attracts crowds, and crowds attract Romans, and that terrifies Miriam. The Romans are of the opinion that any large gathering can turn insurrectionary at any moment, and the Romans do not take kindly to that sort of thing.

So Miriam takes her other sons and daughters to find Joshua and plead with him to come home – and yes, as the gospel tell us, she had more children than just this one.

But Joshua won’t go home. He tells the crowds that he is already home, and that they are his mother and brother and sisters.

He now belongs entirely to them.

In that moment, he casts off all the family and social conventions that had previously defined him.

“Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother,” he declares.

We do not know how Miriam and her sons took this rebuke – and it was a rebuke – but probably not well. We know that as the story unfolds, they will be there with him at the end, at his death on the Cross. In time, they will come to understand this wayward prodigal son.

But we are not at the end of the story; we are only still at the beginning, at this crucial moment when the story becomes about us.

Joshua, the One we know as Jesus, is willing to proclaim that tribal loyalties, family ties, nationality, and politics as usual, are as nothing compared with the divine bond that connects him to every human being. He now belongs to all of humanity, and all humanity to him.

What did these first followers sense in him? He was someone who stood on the “border of the holy,” as author Bill Countryman would put it, standing in that space between the divine and the earthly.

The Celts talk about “thin places” between this world and the next. Jesus was the embodiment – the enfleshment if you will – of that thin place.

This experience of him so seared the souls of those who followed him that they began feel the fullness of God in themselves. They began to understand who God had created them to be – servants of this hurting world, servants of each other.

They would talk of what they experienced with him so often, and with so many others, that multiple versions of these events would gain currency before they were written down.

These first followers discovered that after his death he was still with them, changed, different, new, but still the One they recognized as Jesus.

And he still claimed them as his brothers and sisters.

To stand with him took courage. Not everyone got it, and, truthfully, none of us fully gets it.

In all candor, following Jesus is not always easy. Following will take us to moments that challenge our view of things, our actions in the world, our tribal loyalties, our comfortable ways.

The path of Jesus is not the conventional or convenient social path.

But when we walk this path together, when we risk opening ourselves to the unexpected, to the surprising – the Holy – we will find ourselves standing at the very gates of eternity.

And we will discover the fullness of God in ourselves, and who God created us to be – servants of this hurting world, servants of each other – brothers and sisters with the Risen Christ who is not just in the heavens, but here on earth, and with us always. AMEN.

By James Richardson, Fiat Lux

Summer mornings begin inch by inch

We haven't had a poem in this space lately, and today seems like a good day for that. At dusk today Venus will cross the sun, a celestial rarity. Perhaps that suggests a poem with something celestial in it? Our friend Karen in Tennessee sent this poem yesterday, and I like it a lot:

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Horses at Midnight Without a Moon

by Jack Gilbert from Collected Poems

Our heart wanders lost in the dark woods.

Our dream wrestles in the castle of doubt.

But there's music in us. Hope is pushed down

but the angel flies up again taking us with her.

The summer mornings begin inch by inch

while we sleep, and walk with us later

as long-legged beauty through

the dirty streets. It is no surprise

that danger and suffering surround us.

What astonishes is the singing.

We know the horses are there in the dark

meadow because we can smell them,

can hear them breathing.

Our spirit persists like a man struggling

through the frozen valley

who suddenly smells flowers

and realizes the snow is melting

out of sight on top of the mountain,

knows that spring has begun.

The Monday Funnies

Pat Hill is on a mission trip in Sudan, so I've looked through the joke vault he left me. At least the cartoon from Dave Walker is new. Stop me if you've heard this one before...

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As the beloved pastor is being honored on the occasion of his departure, an elderly woman greets him with tears in her eyes.

"Pastor," she says, "we're really going to miss you."

"Don't worry," replies the pastor, "I'm sure the diocese will find someone at least as good to replace me."

The woman sobs uncontrollably and answers, "That's what they've all said, and they've all been wrong."

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A Sunday School teacher asked her class, "Does anyone here know what we mean by sins of omission?"

A small girl replied, "Aren't those the sins we should have committed, but didn't?"

God Revealing: Born anew, born from above

Icon of the Trinity
By Andrei Rublev

My sermon for today, Trinity Sunday, is based on Isaiah 6:1-8, Psalm 29,  Romans 8:12-17 and John 3:1-17. Here is the sermon:

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Today is Trinity Sunday, the day the Church sets aside for preaching about that ancient and obtuse doctrine of the Trinity.

It is perhaps no accident that the Church saves this teaching moment for the start of summer vacations. And we are already in trouble. Listen to the opening words of Psalm 29: “Ascribe to the LORD, you gods.”

 We’ve arrived quickly at the doorstep of multiple gods. As many a preacher has tried to do, my task is to make what sounds like three gods fit back into the package of one god.

Usually the senior pastor in a big church assigns this preaching task to a seminarian or an intern. But ours, Joe Lenow, took off last week just in the nick of time.

 So it comes to me.

You may fairly ask, though, why we should care? What difference does it make if we understand this ancient doctrine?

And it must be fairly said that a great deal of blood has been spilled over many centuries by those fighting to the death over the finer points of the doctrine. Was Christ of one mind with God or of two minds melded into one? Was the Son subordinate to the Father or co-equal? Was Holy Spirit of the same substance with the Son or different, or both at the same time?

I know that these questions are not exactly high on the list of topics that command your attention. And how would anyone really prove any of this anyway?

Yet these questions once consumed people. We might ask why? We might start by reminding ourselves that those who came up with the concept of the Trinity were maybe not that different than us. They faced hardships and untold calamites, and life was certainly more precarious for them than it is for us. They tried very hard to grasp how God could be present in the world but feel so distant at times.

 At its core, the Trinity is fundamentally a statement of the infinity of God and God’s infinite ways. It is a statement about how to experience God and who God is. The God of the Trinity is the Infinite One who is the spark that creates all things, and calls it good; the Infinite One who came in a particular time and place as a man called Jesus to show us how to love one another; and the Infinite One who is a holy spark living still within us and going infinitely where she will.

In both Hebrew and Greek, the word for “spirit” is a female-gendered word, so it is perfectly appropriate, and biblically correct, to speak of the Holy Spirit as female. In fact, I’ve heard people recite the Holy Spirit section of the Nicene Creed using the female pronoun.

The Trinity gives us God as male, God as female, God as a living breathing being who is capable of reaching all people everywhere infinitely. The Trinity is another way of saying that all people are capable of experiencing God, each in our limited way, yet God is bigger than any of us can experience in only one way.

Yet it is also true that the idea of the Trinity solidified – some would say fossilized – into a rigid doctrine with hard religious boundaries. The seed of that religious rigidity is still with us in the Nicene Creed, that fourth century statement of religious doctrine that was written primarily as a loyalty oath for bishops.

I would hope you would hear the Creed as a prayer, but I realize that is not always so easy to do because it can sound like a doctrinal trap.

There is a way out of this from the depth of our tradition. We need look no further than, for example, William Temple, who was the archbishop of Canterbury in the darkest days of World War II. William Temple* once wrote that “Christianity is not first and foremost a religion; it is first and foremost a revelation.”

By that he meant that Christianity is defined by experience – a revealing – of the Risen Christ in our daily life as individuals and in our collective life as the people of God.

“It comes before us chiefly not with a declaration of feelings we are to cultivate, or thoughts we are to develop,” Temple wrote in a short book published in 1936. “It comes before us, first and foremost, with the announcement of what God is.”

This revealing of God’s self is not about the nature of God in heaven – the stuff of doctrine. Rather, this revealing of God’s self is about the nature of God in the world – the stuff of human experience.

And we experience this revealing of God not once, but many times, all through our lives, and every single day. If we can be aware of these experiences of God’s revealing, we might grasp more deeply our connection to God, to each other, and to every living thing.

If we are open to these experiences, much else in our life will open up and we will come to the central purpose of our life. We will discover how God calls each of us uniquely as individuals and collectively as the people of God.

Jesus himself talks of this revealing as almost as a riddle. “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above,” he is quoted as saying in the Gospel of John.

Those words have been much misunderstood, translated by some modern people as a test of being “born again.” The words have become, for some, a badge of being doctrinally correct. But that is not what Jesus is getting at.

The phrase is a play-on-words with the double meaning of being both “born anew” and “born from above” or “born of the Spirit.” Jesus talks about an experience of God that happens over and over again, that transforms us in such a profound way that we become new people – changed – literally born anew every single day.

That kind of experience transcends rigid doctrines and creedal formulas, and nurtures us into becoming servants of each other and the world – the people we were created to be. As we grow into our own true selves, we might just find that other ancient words will ring true for us as they did for the prophet Isaiah:

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I; send me!”

* William Temple, Christian Faith and Life, MacMillan, 1936, p. 34By James Richardson, Fiat Lux

Mustard seeds within us

If you've been reading the Daily Office lately you might conclude Jesus has an inordinate fondness for small things like yeast and seeds and small coins. On Friday came a string of these parables, including one of the most familiar: the story of the mustard seed, from Matthew 13:31-35. Here it is in full:

“He put before them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.’ ”

I once wrote a seminary paper, that was very well received, on the parable, putting forth the proposition that the parable is something of an inside joke. Jesus is making fun of the pomposity of the Temple priests who compare to the Temple to the mighty “cedars of Lebanon,” a building so tall that birds nest in its branches.

It helps to know that in the 1st century world of Jesus, a mustard plant was not a lovely condiment for hotdogs. Mustard seeds grew into big bushes that were the scourge of neatly growing grain fields. Mustard was a weed, and not welcome in the grain fields.

By comparing the Kingdom of God to a mustard seed that grows like a weed, Jesus is saying that the Kingdom of God is unpredictable, surprising, not always respectable – and like the Holy Spirit, will grow where it will and invade the neat rows of grain. The point of the parable was not just the seed; it was the weed that grew from it. The Kingdom of God doesn't follow human rules and is seldom neat. For those excluded from the Temple and the restrictions of the priests, this was a satirical story. The story doubtlessly scandalized the Temple authorities. Who was Jesus to compare their grandiose Temple to a weed?

There is another way to hear the parable as well that is perhaps so obvious that I have not thought of it until recently. You can hear the parable of the mustard seed as a metaphor for the interior spiritual life. God’s spirit grows in unpredictable, surprising and not always respectable ways within us. The Holy Spirit grows where it will within us, and sometimes makes us uncomfortable by invading the neat rows of grain in our life. It is why the interior life can be unsettling, but also a great adventure if we are open to it. Small things do grow within us, and not always as we expect.

Yesterday, retired Bishop Steven Charleston of Alaska, as he is likes to do, posted a bit of wisdom on his Facebook page. Here is the one from Friday, and I leave it with you here today:

“An answer to your prayer is coming to you. It may not arrive exactly as you imagined, but you will recognize it when it happens. The pieces will fall together. The situation will change. Something unexpected will enter into the picture. At that moment, you will realize again one of the deepest truths of human faith: someone is listening when you pray. Someone hears you, cares for you, knows you. From that tiny seed of experience great religions grow. But they all begin when an answer is received to an appeal as ancient as time and a hope as new as now.”

By James Richardson, Fiat Lux

New Senior Associate Rector called to St. Paul's

The Rev. Peter Carey

Dear friends of St. Paul's,

I am delighted to announce that I am calling the Rev. Peter M. Carey as our new Senior Associate Rector.

Peter comes to us with broad parish and teaching experience. He is currently the Associate Rector at Emmanuel Church, Greenwood. Peter and his wife, Lisa Plog, and their three children - Zachary (age 9), Sam (age 6), and Lily (age 4) - will be with us for their first Sunday on July 8. They will also join us for our Shrine Mont parish retreat weekend July 13-15.

Peter and Lisa have long-standing ties to Charlottesville and St. Paul’s. They were married at St. Paul’s and their son Zachary was baptized here. Lisa grew up in Charlottesville and graduated from the University of Virginia. Her parents still live in the area and her father is on the faculty at UVA. Lisa currently teaches history at St. Anne’s-Belfield School.

Peter is a graduate of Bates College in Maine. He holds a master’s degree in education from George Washington University and is a graduate of the Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria. Prior to serving at Emmanuel church, he was the head chaplain at St. Catherine’s Episcopal School in Richmond. He is also well known in the wider Church as a writer for Episcopal Café.

After the departure of Ann Willms, I spent a good deal of time talking with parish leaders about how we have managed and shared our clergy responsibilities. I concluded that St. Paul's would benefit from having a more senior associate rector with significant prior parish experience and a broader scope of responsibility. I asked Paula Kettlewell to form a committee to draft a position description which reflected the manner in which she and David Poist so successfully shared their ministry.

After I identified Peter as a candidate, I asked several groups of parish leaders, representing a broad cross section of the St. Paul's community, to meet with Peter and give me their advice about how Peter would fit in our community. After meeting with these groups, Peter then met with the Vestry. I received extremely positive feedback from the members of these groups, and with the consent of the Vestry, I offered this call to Peter as our next Senior Associate Rector and Peter enthusiastically accepted.

You will discover, as I have, that Peter has tremendous energy and fresh ideas for ministry. He will participate broadly in every aspect of parish life with us, including working with families, children, adults, and in pastoral care, education and the use of social media. Peter is extremely friendly and outgoing with a magnetic personality. He will make a great addition to our clergy staff.

In explaining why he has decided to join us, Peter wrote this:

“There is great hope and passion for St. Paul's, and many, many folks I met with are so excited about not only St. Paul's past, but also the present and future of this wonderful church. The energy and excitement of the folks I’ve met with is contagious and I am so excited to join you! 

“There are a plethora of opportunities for new programs, for new approaches, and for new ideas at St. Paul's, of course, some choices will need to be made about what direction this wonderful church should go, and the Long-Range Planning process will help in this area. I am excited about the energy for the future of St. Paul's, and grateful that God has moved me to find you at this time.  

“We are huge Wahoo fans in our family, especially my 9 year old son and myself, the opportunities for engagement with the UVA community are wide and deep and I am psyched to see what we can do together.” 

I am thrilled to have Peter join our clergy team. Please join me in welcoming Peter and his wonderful family (see picture below) to our parish.

Peace to all,

The Rev. James Richardson, Rector & Chaplain

The next chapter in the life of the Diocese of Virginia is now

VIRGINIA: ‘Continuing congregations’ turn focus to future

By Emily Cherry | May 30, 2012 2 Comments |

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Church of the Epiphany Episcopal welcomes the community to worship. Photo/Frances Caldwell

[Episcopal News Service] The past weeks have been a time of transition for the Diocese of Virginia. Congregations that have worshiped away from their home churches for more than five years have made joyful homecomings to their church buildings. The entire diocese has joined in celebrating these returns, all while entering into a discernment process to help these congregations make plans for the future.

The recent returns and celebrations have been a longtime coming for the four “continuing congregations” that have worshipped in temporary spaces while the diocese and breakaway congregations that had joined the Convocation of Anglican Churches in North America fought over rights to diocese-owned properties in the courts. The breakaway congregations occupied the church buildings throughout the court proceedings.

In all, seven church properties (and a number of additional buildings and land parcels) have been returned to the Diocese of Virginia following the near conclusion of a five-year legal dispute. Each has a different story to tell, and telling these stories is a key part of a diocesan initiative known as “Dayspring,” an effort to discern the work of the Holy Spirit with graciousness and patience as the diocese explores how best to use resources and properties for the ministry of the church.

As the continuing congregations have begun discerning their way forward, each has realized that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to a new beginning.

Members of Church of the Epiphany in Fairfax returned home on May 6, after worshiping in a local school. While making that transition, they’re also welcoming a new interim vicar and are turning to social media and marketing to increase their visibility in the community.

It’s been a time of challenge, but since returning home the congregation has tripled Sunday attendance and doubled its membership from 25 to 50 members.

The congregation also has benefitted from what the Rev. Jennifer McKenzie, interim vicar, calls the “Blessing-a-Day Club.” A slew of blessings that “seem to fall out of the sky,” she said, have landed on Epiphany’s doorstep, including volunteer musical groups for Sunday worship, pro-bono graphic design services, and more.

“The biggest challenge right now for us is building the staff infrastructure that we need to support this growth, so that as this growth continues, we don’t let people slip through the cracks and lose people,” said McKenzie.

The congregation’s hopes for the future are high. It’s launching a new branding- and direct-mail effort to raise the church’s image and presence in the community; hosting community groups, from the Boy Scouts to an Irish dance group; and participating in a local festival. And it’s rolling out the welcome mat. “Our big thing here is, ‘All are welcome,’ said McKenzie. “And we really mean that. When people walk in the door, we want them to know that there is a place for them.”

The Rt. Rev. Ted Gulick, assistant bishop in Virginia, and the Rev. Kate Chipps, priest-in-charge of St. Margaret's, Woodbridge, celebrate a baptism with the continuing congregation. Photo/Courtesy St. Margaret's, Woodbridge

The continuing congregation of St. Margaret’s in Woodbridge, meanwhile, hasn’t made an official “move.” Although the original St. Margaret’s church property was returned to the diocese earlier this spring, the congregation continues to worship in its “temporary” worship space, which it shares with three other denominations. Members of the congregation are joining together to discuss what shape their physical church will take in the years to come. Meanwhile, they’re saying goodbye to the Rev. Kate Chipps, priest-in-charge, who has led them through this difficult process. Chipps will retire in July.

St. Margaret’s vestry is leading the congregation through this time of transition, gathering input from members on the best possible worship space to meet their needs, and meeting with the Dayspring teams to discern a way to move the congregation out of “reaction mode” into “planning mode,” explained Eleana Boyer, senior warden.

“The spirit of the church is moving more toward a positive direction,” added Boyer. That doesn’t mean that they aren’t facing challenges, including how to grow their congregation and how to financially support their ministries. But they’re meeting those challenges head-on. “Once we get through this transition and change, you’ll see us really shine,” said Boyer. “We are a faithful people. We have come this far by faith, and we are moving forward in faith.”

Members of St. Stephen’s in Heathsville returned to their church building on Palm Sunday and the congregation is as active as ever. Members are busy planning their community strawberry festival and the annual spring barbecue and bluegrass event. Read more about their story here.

And then there’s the Falls Church, a congregation that continued to grow while worshipping in a temporary space, and where a large number of members have just “returned” to a church building where they’ve never worshipped before.

“It’s just really exciting to see how things are falling into place,” said the Rev. Cathy Tibbetts, priest-in-charge.

On the congregation’s first evening back in its worship space, members opened the doors to the building, inviting families to come and explore the church grounds. “We wanted them to have the opportunity to explore the blessings that God has bestowed on us,” said Tibbetts.

The congregation is looking at growing its clergy staff, including calling a “planter-builder” to oversee the church’s growth process.

A community focus is a large part of the Falls Church Episcopal DNA, according to Mike Lockaby, the senior warden.

“I think that being involved in the community is going to draw in people who previously did not feel welcome, or previously were un-churched,” he said. So the congregation focuses on “being more open to our community and more positive toward our community and more involved in what’s local.”

In addition, they’re looking inward by establishing small group ministries, in which 10-to-16 parishioners will gather for fellowship and/or Christian formation. The congregation also has instituted a “partnership ministry,” which gives newcomers a contact person who is familiar with the church’s culture and spirit and who can determine the best way to welcome that person. “The message that we have been stressing and that we wish to continue to stress is, ‘We welcome you,’ and there’s no asterisk to that,” said Lockaby.

The Falls Church Anglican is the only one out of the seven properties returned to the Diocese that continues to pursue its appeal. The diocese has made settlement negotiations with the other six congregations involved in the litigation. In these cases, the Convocation of Anglicans in North America congregations agreed to return church property and Episcopal funds, and to withdraw their appeals.

In addition to the church buildings belonging to the four continuing congregations, three additional church properties have been returned to the diocese as a result of the litigation. These churches previously did not have continuing Episcopal congregations associated with them. The diocese already has reinstated Episcopal worship services at St. Paul’s in Haymarket; and the property of Church of the Apostles, Fairfax, also has been returned to diocesan ownership. The diocese has arranged a yearlong lease with the Anglican congregation of Truro Church, Fairfax, and both parties have agreed to enter into a “covenant of mutual charity and respect,” a piece of the agreement which the Rt. Rev. Shannon S. Johnston, bishop of Virginia, describes as “an opening for a transformative witness to many across the worldwide Anglican Communion.”

Coordinating these efforts amidst unique circumstances is no small task. And that’s where Dayspring comes in. The Dayspring initiative – so named for the poetic, biblical term that translates to “new dawn,” brings together leaders from across the Diocese of Virginia to plan, vision and strategize about the properties returning to the diocese, and how best to put them to use for the mission of the Episcopal Church in Virginia. Johnston is at the head of the effort, which also is guided by the Rev. Canon Susan Goff, bishop suffragan-elect, and Henry D.W. Burt, secretary of the diocese.

“It is heartening to consider how the Diocese of Virginia is responding to the staggering richness of the possibilities before us,” said Burt in a recent letter to the diocese. “Each of the continuing congregations remains profoundly committed to its mission and ministry. They are experiencing significant growth, and Dayspring teams are considering a number of transformational mission efforts at churches where no continuing congregation exists. There is tremendous energy and a gracious spirit ever present in this work.”

– Emily Cherry is the communications officer for the Diocese of Virginia.

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Finding an old treasure on my bookshelf

The other day I was rearranging books on one of my shelves when I ran across an old book with a green cover that I didn't realize that I had: Christian Faith and Life, by William Temple. My copy was published in 1936 and the pages were none too worse for wear. A kind saint must have given it to me; doubtless I had set it aside and forgotten about it.

William Temple (1881-1944) is one of the great figures of Christianity of the 20th century and a heroic prophetic voice during the rise of Nazism. He became Archbishop of Canterbury, denounced Hitler and anti-semitism, and  famously gave a speech in the House of Lords decrying how "Jews are being slaughtered at the rate of tens of thousands a day." Temple became the first  Archbishop of Canterbury to go into battle since the Middle-ages, landing with the troops on the beaches at Normandy. He worked tirelessly to create ecumenical and interfaith dialogue particularly between Christians and Jews.

Let me tell you about his book I found on my shelf. It is short -- 139 pages -- and it is compilation of eight lectures Temple gave at Oxford in 1931 when he was Archbishop of York. The language is a bit dated, a bit muscular and male-gender-specific, but he nonetheless has much to teach us and much that sounds still fresh.

I read the book recently on an airplane, and it was a perfect way to launch my summer reading program. This summer I want to look at what it means to call ourselves "Church," and how old ideas meld with newer ideas of our own time. Our Vestry has been in a lengthy conversation over the past year about our future as a parish, and it seems to me the basic question -- what is Church? -- fits in that dialogue. I will take you along with my summer reading, writing occasionally on this blog about it, sharing some of what I read.

A good place to start is with Archbishop William Temple. Today I leave you with an excerpt from Christian Faith and Life (pages 128-131) that is well worth considering in any conversation about what it means to be the Church of the 21st century:

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As Christ’s purpose was to found a Kingdom, so we should think of the Church as the army of that Kingdom. It is, no doubt, true that we have repeatedly substituted compromise for warfare and prudence for the spirit of adventure. The world in which the Church is set to work has, over and over again, made terms with it, which the Church of that period has most wrongly accepted. One of the commonest of the compromises that have been made is for the world to allow the Church to be at peace in proclaiming what may be called its philosophical paradoxes provided that it keeps quiet about its moral ones. And to some extent we have to confess that the Church, as we ourselves constitute it, has fallen into the snare. We have shown, no doubt, a disproportionate of concern about the distinctive philosophical doctrines of Christianity as compared with the moral duties of all disciples of Christ. We have, for example, been much more silent than we ought concerning Christ’s perfectly plain teaching on the subject of wealth and poverty. We have not driven home upon men His clear intuition that though, if wealth comes, it ought to be accepted and used as an opportunity, yet it must be recognized as rather a snare to the spiritual life than an aim which the Christian may legitimately set before himself and pursue. … 

An Army does not exist for its own benefit; it exists for its kingdom and its king; and you must come to the Church not chiefly for what you can gain from it, but for what you can give it. When you come like that, you will gain far more than if you come looking for gain. … Come to lend yourself as a member of the Body of Christ – one of His limbs, to be moved according to His will in cooperation with the other limbs in His Body. … 

And, remember, the supreme wonder of the history of the Christian Church is that always in the moments when it has seemed most dead, out of its own body there has sprung up new life; so that in age after age it has renewed itself, and age after age by its renewal has carried the world forward into new stages of progress, as it will do for us in our day, if only we give ourselves in devotion to its Lord and take our place in its service.

By James Richardson, Fiat Lux