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The disciple learns how to be a place in the world where
the act of God can come alive.
(Rowan Williams)
Aloha Dear St. Andrew’s,
Grace and Peace in this new month of the year, this new year of the Snake, this renewed calling to our disciple walk with Christ, this continuous and constant renewal of our our collective witness to all as the Cathedral ʻohana. Thanks be to God that God meets us in each moment as a new moment for us, ready to meet us with forgiveness, ready to greet us with grace, ready to pour mercy over our heads like the saving balm we need – all of this is, of course, to save us from ourselves and for God’s sake, for we are the very ones God has disciplined to meet the world with forgiveness, greet our neighbors with grace, and pour streams of mercy to one another. We are the ones who make God manifest for all to see and know Love. Epiphany continues – through us!
As we enter into all this newness, we must be wise to the fact that the goings on around us are complicated, and have created unsteady spaces for some of our siblings in Christ. For some, right now is scary; for some exhausting; for some hopeful, full of goodness, and promising; for some, all of this is beyond fathoming. And, we as an ʻohana together are all in the same nave of this boat called St. Andrew’s.
Think about the Gospel story about the stilling of the storm - the disciples in the boat on the Sea of Galilee when the winds kick up and the storm sets in. I think an ideal metaphor for us in this moment, but not the storm part alone. Rather, the fuller story as it is found in the Gospel of Mark– Right before the disciples get into the boat and experience the rocking and heaving of the sea, Jesus has filled them with stories – strange and preachy parables of familiar everyday things like seeds, fields, weeds, roots, good soil. And he told the disciples what it meant: Our lives and how we cultivate our lives creates the environment, the personal ecosystem, that responds or doesn’t to God’s ever-flowing, always-flowing, sustained-spilling, of countless seeds of presence, promise, and potentiality… each seed offered by God to grow in us is an opportunity for our growth in discipleship; each one is a possibility of God made manifest through us for the world in some way. For ultimately: The disciple learns how to be a place in the world where the act of God can come alive. (Rowan Williams)
Then the boat. Then the storm. And there is action and excitement -- and there is fear, exhaustion, and perhaps renewed strength and adrenaline for some of them – and they wake Jesus up and plead for help. And Jesus responds, “Peace. Be still.” The wind and waves quiet, and so do the disciples. Jesus asks, “Why are you afraid? Have you no faith?” Consider if he would have added: “Who and Whose are you, after all?” After all, he had just taught them about being a disciple and of God’s self, God’s way of the Kingdom, God’s hope in them and promises for them – God’s abundance poured into the world, into Creation, into them – is all so that they embrace and make manifest the place where the act of God can -- not may -- can come alive. They are disciples and this is their calling – to be that place. To offer that space. To extend that very embrace.
Us too. This is true for us too – in this moment we are
living in right now.
Each one of us in our discipleship is to learn how
to be a place in the world where the act of God can come alive…even and especially when things may feel unsteady. And our collective calling as St. Andrew’s is to bring all of us together and exponentially amplify as a place in the world where the act of God can come alive.
This is precisely why we will continue to renew our Baptismal Covenant each Sunday in Epiphany – and why we will together pick up Rowan Williams’ Being Disciples: Essentials of the Christian Life as our Lenten book study. Pick up a copy!
Over these remaining Epiphany weeks, discern yourself as a “place in the world” for the world – and take each of the unique Baptismal Covenant questions and hold it with you for the week –
Feb. 2-8
Celebrant
Will you continue in the apostles' teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of the bread, and in the prayers? Will you persevere in resisting evil, and, whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord?
People
I will, with God's help.
Feb. 9-15
Celebrant
Will you proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ?
People
I will, with God's help.
Feb. 16-22
Celebrant
Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?
People
I will, with God's help.
Feb. 23-March 2
Celebrant
Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?
People
I will, with God's help.
And pray ~~ For your discernment, your disciple-walk with Christ, and for one another – all of the one anothers! For God is with us and has always intended for us to be ready to be with and for each other – renewed and newly embraced each day to make Epiphany happen. Dig into our ministries – Acts of the Apostles study, Eden Guild, Benedictine Work Day, Outreach and Feeding ministry, Cathedral Run Club – and join in the manifestation of our “place” for we are the very ones God has disciplined to meet the world with forgiveness, greet our neighbors with grace, and pour streams of mercy to one another. We are the ones who make God manifest for all to see and know Love. Epiphany continues – through us!
Thanks, thanks, thanks be to God!
Aloha ke Akua,
Dean Heather+
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