Readings for Epiphany 4C
St. Jude's Annual Meeting
January 28, 2001
The Rev. Karen Siegfriedt
St. Jude the Apostle Church, Cupertino CA,
This is the third time that I have stood before this congregation on the Sunday of its annual meeting. And it is a delight! My heart grows deeper in love and respect for all of you who continue on the journey of faith and who generously support this community through your offer of time, talent, and treasure. The year 2000 has been a year of blessings and abundance for the people of St. Jude's. There is much to celebrate. We began the year of 2000 on New Year's Eve, when this community gathered together to pray for world peace and to bless the doors of this church as a symbol of our support for the year of the Jubilee. Many of the sermons that were preached throughout the year carried the themes of the Jubilee Year which included: Respect for the earth; Sharing the Wealth; Release of Captives; Reconciliation and Respect.
The year of the Jubilee is not simply a 365-day period of time. Rather it is a condition of the heart, where we who have made a baptismal covenant with God, continue to commit ourselves to living a life of compassion and truth. It is by living this life of compassion and truth that the year of the Jubilee can become a beacon of hope and transformation for our world rather than just another program that the National Church "cooked up." Last year, through your input, the vestry set and accomplished many goals. I will speak to most of those goals at the annual meeting following this service. But now, I would like to focus my attention on one particular goal that was set for the year 2000. This goal was to increase spirituality for all ages by enhancing educational programs. In addition, the vestry focused on a similar goal for the year 2001. It has to do with faith development. Spiritual awareness, spiritual maturity, faith development - there is a longing in this community for something deeper. What is it? Why do we want it? And how do we get there? This is the topic for today's sermon.
Whenever we set goals for our community, we must never forget the primary reason why we are here. Our primary goal as Christians is to become like Christ. This includes: how we think; how we speak; how we act. St. Paul pointed to this goal when he described his own process of transformation from a zealous Pharisee to an apostle of Christ: "It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me." This statement reflects a very high level of consciousness where the needs of the insatiable ego have given way to the will of God. In this state of union with God, love overcomes fear, human beings become fully alive, and our lives and community become reflections of God's love.
This is easier said than done. Some of us have had glimpses of this union with God and we thirst for more. For others, it remains a distant hope. But for all of us, experiencing the presence of God and being transformed by that experience, is a real possibility. It requires commitment, prayer, an openness to the Spirit, and a willingness to go through a process of healing and forgiveness. It is this thirst for a transforming experience of the Divine that I believe is behind the vestry goals of spirituality and faith development.
How do we get there? Spiritual practices are those techniques that help us experience the sacred in our daily lives. There are many fruitful spiritual practices to learn. During the season of Pentecost, I plan to teach some of them through a preaching series. But there is one spiritual practice that is easy to learn which I would like all of us to begin to practice and to take seriously, starting today. This is the practice of SILENCE. Silence is the discipline of practicing the Presence of God beyond words or thoughts- so that we may fully hear the Word of God. Imagine how much deeper we could grow individually and as a community of faith if we spent as much time listening to God as we do speaking! We have two ears but only one tongue. Perhaps that means that we should listen at least twice as much as we speak.
Blaise Pascal commented some three hundred years ago: "All of humanity's problems stem from the inability to sit alone in a room for any length of time." Meister Eckhart once said: "The very best and noblest attainment in this life is to be silent and let God work and speak within." St. Francis said: "Spread the gospel at all times, and if necessary, use words." To have a 'life transforming' and trusting experience of the grace of God, we must practice attending to the presence of the "still small voice within." Imagine starting every committee meeting with 20 minutes of silence. What do you think might happen? Perhaps personal opinion and willfulness would give way to a deep sense of being guided by the Holy Spirit. Imagine sitting in silence with your spouse for 20 minutes each evening. What would happen? Perhaps this would allow the Holy Spirit to calm the ego-driven personality such that disappointment would give way to appreciation and respect.
There are many folks who are afraid of silence, even here in the church sanctuary. Many are afraid to face their pain, their thoughts, or the unknown. They allow the busyness and clutter and endless chatter of everyday life to impinge upon them in such a way that there is no time or room for the interior life. No wonder some do not experience the Holy! God wishes to communicate with us in the language of love that is beyond words, concepts, or images. Silence is where this communication often takes place. In groups, shared silence allows us to be more humble, vulnerable, defenseless, and therefore, spacious. Silence aligns our purpose and direction so that we can become one with Christ to live a life of compassion and truth.
There is a melody that permeates creation. This is the Voice of God. Do you hear that melody? Do you want to? The spiritual life is about recognizing this melody. Silence allows us to learn the melody by heart. Once we know the melody and can support it with our own voice, a beautiful song begins to emerge. When a whole community of faith joins together to support this melody, a symphony bursts forth, and the power of God working through that community is far greater than we could ever hope or imagine. But if we can not hear the melody or choose to sing another song, then discordance will occur in our lives, and our hope for that peace which passes all understanding will always be beyond our reach. (Choir demonstrates melody, harmony, and discordance.)
I believe that the next step of faith development for this community of St. Jude's is to listen intensely, through silence, to the melody of God; to join together in support of that melody with our spiritual gifts; and then to allow the symphony to emerge. When this happens, then St. Jude's will be "a welcoming community where every Sunday is Easter. Our sanctuary overflows with spirit-filled people and our services and ministries are spiritually nourishing, rejuvenating, uplifting, joyful celebrations of God's love." This is our vision. And with your commitment to the spiritual life, it will become a reality.
| Updated 1/27/01 |
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