Sermon for the Second Sunday after the Epiphany, January 17, 2010

Solemn Evensong by the Reverend Stephen Gerth

Year 2: Isaiah 43:14 – 44:5; Ephesians 4:1-16;  

In November at our diocesan convention, I ended up sitting next to our parish treasurer Steven Heffner at the Mass that was celebrated before the business meeting began. We were at the cathedral, our very large and wonderful cathedral –we are stewards of one of the greatest Christian church buildings in the world. Anyway, there were probably 800 or 900 people there for the convention Eucharist. The nave of the cathedral was already set for the convention meeting. The Mass was celebrated in the choir area; the bishop presided from his chair and from the high altar.

Steven and I ended up with good seats. We were on the top row of the choir stalls. When it came time for the ministration of Communion, the bishop said, “The Gifts of God for the People of God.” Then I, along with everyone else in the congregation, sat down. The bishop received Communion and began to give it to those who were at the altar with him. At this point, I turned to Steven and said, “Now, we are going to watch the clergy receive Communion.” The assisting bishops and priests in the chancel were beginning to line up. We watched. A couple minutes passed and I said to him, “Now, we are going to watch some more clergy receive Communion.” And we did. Finally, some of the altar servers were lined up for Communion with the remaining clergy. I said for the third, “Now, we are going to watch clergy and servers receive Communion.”

Finally, ushers began signally to people in different areas that they could go forward to respond to the bishop’s invitation, “The Gifts of God for the People of God.”

What happens at the cathedral happens in the vast majority of Episcopal parish churches. I certainly prefer the practice at Saint Mary’s. When the invitation is given, everyone stands up and comes forward. It’s always seemed right to me, but it’s not something I witness. I’m up in the chancel, almost always.

Sitting and waiting at the convention Mass in the high choir stalls gave me a very good view of things. It reminded me too of an ordination service there, when I heard an otherwise very fine sermon preached that was addressed entirely to the persons being ordained.

At that ordination we were also in the choir area. It was packed. I remember wondering how the preacher might have addressed his sermon to the 1500 people who were there in the congregation and let the dozen being ordained to serve the Church overhear the gospel as it might apply them.

In today’s second reading, from the Letter to the Ephesians, we read, “And his gifts were that some should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry.”[1] Today I found myself quipping to Father Smith, “And his gifts were that some should be laypersons.”

It seems to me that no one in the assembly, in the congregation, should ever experience his or her presence as less important than that of any of the congregation’s servants.

If you were to look at the printed phrase in the Prayer Book, “The Gifts of God for the People of God,” you would notice “Gift”, “God” and “People are all given capital letters. This is quite deliberate. The only saints the New Testament knows are all baptized persons. In the New Testament, the word shepherd always refers to Jesus himself – in Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, the Letter to the Hebrews, the First Letter of Peter and in the Revelation to John.

Paul Bradshaw in his book Eucharistic Origins writes, “Early Christians understood themselves not only to offer sacrifice in their worship but also to constitute a priesthood.”[2] The New Testament refers to the baptized as a priesthood in the First Letter of Peter and in the Revelation to John. The idea of a ministerial priesthood doesn’t really emerge until the third century.[3] It happens as the Christian community no longer gathers for the Eucharist as part of a common meal – the pattern of the Last Supper and as the Christian community almost everywhere outgrows the homes in which they have met and begin to meet in larger places.

It’s helpful to remember that those who first received the Letter to the Ephesians, in Ephesus and then across the growing Christian community, heard it without any experience of a professional clergy, much less an experience of church buildings like this.

I don’t think we can move backwards to a simpler time – there was a haunting movie about that kind of disaster a few years ago called “The Village.” But I think how we treat each other truly and lovingly in our common prayer and ritual, can help shape and reshape how we are in relationship to each other and lead us into a deeper relationship within Christ’s body, the Church. The Gifts of God are for the People of God.

+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.