The New Year 2006

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January 28 - Choral Morning Prayer and High Mass -- Charles I King and Martyr

Proper 14 B - Post General Convention

+ It was only two weeks ago that we read about the apostles in a tiny boat on a big sea being tossed to and fro and in danger of sinking. Who'd have thought that within that fortnight's time we would find ourselves in the same boat? But why should that surprise us? We've been in the same boat as the Apostles as long as we have been a Church.

The events of the recent General Convention have rocked the boat - but they haven't shaken the Captain. I'm not here to moan about ECUSA or its actions. ECUSA contracted a fatal disease years ago and that disease has finally taken its toll. That disease is pride - the same pride that is chronicled in the opening pages of the Scriptures when Adam and Eve taste of the fruit which the serpent promises will make them just like God.

But enough of ECUSA - you, dearest sisters and brothers are the faithful remnant that the reading from Deuteronomy is addressing. You understand the meaning of the words, "All the commandments which I command you this day you shall be careful to do." Why? "That you may live and multiply and inherit the land." The land you are inheriting is full of rock and weeds and varmints. But it is the land that God has destined you to inherit and to turn to fruitful gardens - making the desert bloom.

You, dearest sisters and brothers, understand about wandering in the wilderness - wondering if you are the one who took the wrong turn - puzzling if it is God's voice that you are hearing since it is so different from what others claim to be the voice of God. But you are to remember that "the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart." It's kind of hard to be prideful when you've been humbled by the Almighty - when you know that unto the Almighty all hearts are open, all desires known and that from Him no secrets are hid.

"Know then in your heart, that as a man disciplines his son, the Lord God disciplines you." Know it in your heart - not in your head. Know in the marrow of your bones that God is testing you to find you worthy of Himself. As gold is tested in flame, your time of testing will render you pure and refined, spotless, glistering and priceless.

Above all, know that God is faithful in His promises. "All that the Father gives me will come to me; and him who comes to me I will not cast out." The captain will not toss you out of the boat - neither will the boat flounder because the Captain has steered it before even as the gates of hell raged against it. "This is the will of my Father," says the Captain of our ship, "that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life."

And where do we see this Son? In the Bread of Life - in the new Manna that comes down, not in the desert, but on our altars. We see in the face of the Son, the face of the Father - radiant, full of love and delight beyond all telling. Waiting to welcome all those who have loved and kept His commandments. Waiting to bestow on them the gifts of His Kingdom - waiting to crown them as co-heirs, adopted co-regents of the realms of glory.

You, dearest sisters and brothers, are keeping the faith, fighting the good fight, running the race. Would that we were in the final lap, but the race is not won until the Son returns to acknowledge His own - those who have kept "all the commandments which I command you this day."

We will have lost some along the way - they think we are leaving them - it is they who have left us. We cannot help but weep and grieve this loss. But we need not turn to bitterness or anger. "Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving as God in Christ forgave you." "Walk in love as Christ loved us." Walk in the way of Christ, not in the way of comfort and concession and accommodation. The way that Christ walked - the way of true love - led not to ease but to the hill of crucifixion.

In the eye of the storm, let us call to mind the words of Lady Julian who said, "all is well and all manner of things shall be well." The Captain is at the helm - the storm continues. The Master will bring us in safety to a new harbor - a new home - a new land. Hear again the promise made to the faithful band of Israelites who held to the commandments and were tested in the wilderness: "The Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing forth in valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and figs and pomegranates…in which you will lack nothing…a land in which you shall eat bread…and you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the Lord your God. +

-- Robert F. Scheiblhofer, Rector