This has been an incredible week for change. The Supreme Court has ruled that same sex
marriage is legal in all of the states of the union, overturning bans in a
number of them. There has been a great
outcry against this from people in the conservative camp who look at this as
simply another attempt by liberals to make our nation into a socialist
country. The Orthodox churches have
denounced this decision as have many in the Roman Catholic Church. Many others however have embraced this ruling
as a source of goodness in this time of conflict and argument.
Donald
Trump has raged against Mexicans who have come across our border, labeling them
rapists, and as a result a number of companies have refused to sponsor his Miss
Universe pageant. His power simply
doesn’t extend as far as he would wish.
There are consequences for strong opinions, as most of us have
discovered someplace in our lives.
The
Episcopal Church is meeting in Salt Lake City in their 78th General
Convention. They have elected Michael
Curry, the African American bishop of North Carolina to be the Presiding Bishop
for the next nine years. The election
was on the first ballot, a unique event in the history of the Episcopal
Church. Bishop Curry is well known as a
dynamic preacher and an advocate for people who have no voice. He follows Katherine Jefferts Schori, the
first woman elected to that post. It
certainly appears that this church of ours is looking toward the future and
attempting to be a voice in a culture that is diverse and demanding.
Jesus
went to his hometown of Nazareth to preach in the synagogue and wasn’t taken
particularly seriously. “Who is this man? Isn’t this the carpenter, the son of
Joseph? Don’t we know his brothers?” Jesus was dismissed almost out of hand as
being too familiar. The Gospel says that
he was able to cure a few people, but he says those great words that I have
heard quoted over and over again: Prophets are not without honor, except in
their hometown. Familiarity breeds
contempt is another way of putting this.
Jesus sent
his disciples out to do their work, advising them to take nothing with them for
their journey and to simply rely on the people whom they met. They did this to great advantage and indeed
they are still our models for what ministry needs to look like in this world.
I hope that this church of ours will always continue to use that same model. Times change and so the church needs to change with them. Staying in the same place leaves those behind who are tormented. We have left slavery behind, we have left the oppression of women behind. We continue in this world to look for the downtrodden and to lift them up. That is what Jesus told his disciples to do, and the job remains. We can continue to find ways to keep the church the same and unchanging, or we can do what needs to be done and be the inclusive body that our Lord intended us to be from the beginning. The choice is critical, and it us up to us.
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