“Come unto me, all ye that travail and are heavy laden,
and I will refresh you.” Matt. 11:28
We have come to that time in the deliberations at General Convention when eyes begin to glaze over. Participants are beginning to peek at their travel home itineraries, to buddy up for rides, to dream of their own beds. It has been a long ten days, work starting with committee meetings at 7:00 a.m. and ending too late to catch the late news on hotel room televisions.
Parliamentary process with 1,000 deputies asking procedural questions, expressing opinions, and all too often enjoying the sound of their own voices on the PA system, can make the four hour sessions absolutely mind-numbing. An occasional stroll to the water cooler or restroom is the total exercise possible during a day 'on the floor'. Yet in the midst of the tedium there have been thrilling moments, as when the vote was taken for the Bishop of New Hampshire in 2003, and the announcement of the vote taken in the House of Bishops electing Katharine Jefferts Shori as the Presiding Bishop in 2006.
There are also those quiet moments when, if one listens very carefully, one can hear the rustlings of change, the murmurings of hope. At the beginning of this morning’s session, the penultimate day of Convention, the House of Deputies heard its chaplain describe the work of evangelism. Not the definition hijacked by religious hucksters (my term) but a much more traditional understanding of the word, translated as “telling the story,” --telling others your/our story about what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ.
Our preacher at the morning Eucharist, Brian McLaren, took up the same topic in his sermon. He called it “using the 'e' word.” He spoke to the heart of the matter of why we have been assembled here in Anaheim for nearly two weeks. Frank Wade and Brian McLaren both got it right today. Pioneering sociologist Emile Durkheim once famously wrote that the primary goal of any institution is its own continuance. History and a realistic appraisal of the situation on the ground have proven him to be correct, overwhelmingly. However, let us consider that the Episcopal Church may be about to prove the exception to the rule. Our Church’s goal is to simultaneously maintain the precious traditions of a story that reminds of who we are (and whose we are), and still provide a fearless vision for the cessation of any entity whose self-preservation concerns override its responsibility to the “least of these” as expressed in Scripture. This is the legacy of Jesus, the reason for his presence in the world, and the way that we are bound to follow.
Today the big news on the floor of the House of Deputies was the debate over acceptance of the Church’s budget for the next three years. Its presentation alone created consternation and anxiety for many, as the cuts were extensive. I spent some time this evening with the Chief Operating Officer of the Episcopal Church, our own parishioner Linda Watt ,who expressed great concern for the substantial number of national church employees who lost their jobs in the aftermath of these cuts. And yet, even in the midst of this tale of scarcity, there are bright glimmers of hope for our beloved Church. Adherence to our commitments to the poorest among us, in a global sense, was consistent and well honored. Today we pledged 1% of our income to the Millennium Development Goals, and .7% to our domestic poverty programs.
In meeting the need to pare our budget, I believe we also did another great thing, unintended and difficult though it may be. We asked ourselves to adhere to the Principle of Subsidiarity, a seemingly complex and obscure theological notion that is actually very easy to understand. The principle is that the most effective method of dealing with an issue is to do so at the most basic and uncomplicated level. For our purposes, this means that the best, most effective way for Episcopalians to deal with Jesus’ call for us to be missionaries in the world, and to sow generosity where the world wants only to reap selfishness, is on the local, diocesan and parish, levels. It is our opportunity, therefore, to be as the first disciples were, real flesh and blood proof of a living and loving God.
As I leave this convention tomorrow, I am even more convinced that it is each of us who must be Jesus’ agent of change in a world longing for the coming of the Reign of God, for the peace that passes all understanding. If not us, as you have heard me say many times, then who? Jesus’ promise in the quote from Matthew at the top of this post is that we do not, and will not, do this alone.
