6 Easter Yr A

Around the church recently we’ve been spending some time and energy being agitated about church attendance, and about programming that meets the needs of all of you and of those who we have not yet reached. We have many conversations about these things, Dave and I talk in the office as we brainstorm new ideas, the education committee wonders about how to do Sunday school in creative ways, the worship committee plans worship that they believe is engaging and interesting, and yet stays true to our Prayer book heritage, people are interested in ways in which we can get the word out about what St. Andrew’s offers. I do believe that many of you talk of these things over your kitchen tables, over breakfast when you leave on Sunday morning, and when you gather at each other’s homes for a meal. Sometimes these are frustrating conversations, sometimes they are enlightening conversations. But today’s reading from Acts sheds some light on these conversations.

Paul is teaching in front of the Areopagus. The Areopagus was both a place and a group. According to Dan Clendenin, on his website journeywithjesus.net, the Areopagus was a small rocky hill northwest of the Acropolis in Athens. More importantly, the Areopagus was the most prestigious and venerable council of elders in the history of Athens. Dating back to the 5th and 6th centuries BCE, the Areopagus consisted of nine chief magistrates who guided the city-state away from rule by a king to rule by an oligarchy that laid the foundations for Greece’s eventual democracy. Across the centuries the Areopagus changed, so that by Paul’s day it was a place where matters of the criminal courts, law, philosophy and politics were adjudicated.

This is all to say here is Paul, who had been publicly professing the Jesus Way in the marketplaces and synagogues with anyone and everyone, being questioned and ridiculed by these culture shapers and opinion makers who advocated ‘foreign gods.’ We find Paul today in the marketplace, using the images and categories of these power brokers, to make his case for the Jesus Way. I think Paul begs the question, how do you and I in the beginning of the 21st century, in the marketplace, profess the Jesus way? And can we do that or do we do that using the images and categories of the power brokers of our day?

It is no longer enough for us Episcopalians to sit back and expect people to join us because we do church right, or better than anyone else. That has been our prevailing opinion. And we have expected people to conform to our tradition, we have expected people to do it our way, we have expected people to see the wisdom of our reason and tradition, and the beauty of our prayer book. Now, don’t get me wrong, I think our tradition and our prayer book are amazing and wonderful things, and I am not suggesting that we in any way get rid of them, but I am suggesting that Paul begs us to worship the one God, and asks us to find ways to present God that make sense not only to us who are already here but also in the images and categories of those who would not enter our doors otherwise.

I beg you, as Paul begs us, to find ways to profess the Jesus Way in the marketplace, in our community. I think two things need to be happening at the same time for us to live like Paul asks us to live. One of those things is that everyone here needs to find a way to get serious about your own faith formation. If we don’t offer something that works for you, then it’s up to you to offer something that may work for you and others like you, for others who are here right now, and for others who may come because your idea works for them.

We offer bible study, Education for Ministry, Wednesday night casual worship and education and youth group, food and fellowship, Sunday morning formal worship, Sunday school for children and adults, and occasional faith formation events. Our outreach includes the Cornerstone mission meal, United Campus Ministry meal, Clothe a Kid, collecting toiletries for Love INC, and food for the Church Response food shelf, we have people who bring communion and our community out to those who cannot be here on Sunday’s, and I’m sure I’ve missed something.

We are working on two new ideas for the fall and if you find your passions around children and youth we invite you to participate in shaping these ideas. We’d like to reinvision our ministry with children and youth and we are asking the questions Paul has directed us to ask. Given the landscape of families today, which is very different from the landscape many of us grew up in and raised our own children in, how do we respond, how do we offer faith formation in ways that work for fragmented and frantic families? What are the images and categories in which we must work so that we can make sense of God’s abundant love for them?

The other idea is around adult faith formation. I truly believe our ministry with children and youth is only as vibrant as our passion for our own adult faith formation. And we need a shot in the arm. Our vitality is marked by our willingness to engage in our own faith formation, and we will be transformed in that process. We will see and live and experience God’s love and abundance in ways we never imagined, in ways we never thought possible. And then we are sent out into the world as bearers of the love and forgiveness and justice that we have received, to serve others, and to profess to others that God’s love is available to them as well.

We had a wonderful and worthwhile workshop a couple weeks ago. Pastor Arley Fadness led us in identifying our gifts, looking to the places where our passions lie in order to get about doing the work that God has given us to do. I would love for us to engage this process further, and to that end I would like to see us work together with something called “Rooted in God,” it is a program that will help us explore creatively what it means, foundationally and universally to be Church, and we will discern specifically what God is calling our church to do and to become. I’d love to tell you more about this, and I look toward the fall to begin.

Earlier I said that there are two things that need to be happening at the same time. The second is that we need to be clear about our mission, which is what we will get at with the ‘Rooted in God’ program. But we can’t sit back and wait to get clarity. We need to act on our love of Jesus Christ in ways that make sense to each of us. We need to take seriously living by word and example and God’s abundant love in our lives. We need to invite others to come to church with us, not to fill our pews, but to give them the greatest gift of all, the knowledge and love of Jesus Christ. I don’t know what all the images and categories are for those who have yet to know the love of Jesus Christ in their lives. But I do know that Paul calls us to ask and figure that out, and then to teach out in the marketplace in ways that make sense.

I do know that the abundant love of God is present in this place, and the transforming power of Jesus Christ is alive and well. I do know that we are nourished with the body and blood of Jesus and sent into the marketplace to do the work that we are called to do. Together we’ll figure out how.

Alleluia, Christ is risen. Come, let us adore him. Alleluia.