St. Michael's Church, Litchfield, CT

For last year’s words belong to
last year’s language
And next year’s words await

another voice.
And to make an end is to make a
beginning.

All shall be well.

~T.S. Eliot, Little Gidding

Eliot speaks my mind as we part after over fourteen years together as people and priest.  We share a long and rich past, one for which I can genuinely give thanks and will continue to learn from long after we part; our common future is no longer so particular as budgets and programs and prayers, rather it’s what all Christians share, the hope of glory and peace incomprehensible through the reign of God for all and in all, and/or however else you conceptualize God’s kingdom come.
This year my report is more naming, reflection and maybe a little exhortation rather than an account of what ministries we exercised, who did what and where we’re going into a future planned together. The thought saddens me, even though I know it is right for me to leave and for you all to move together into the future that awaits another voice. It’s important that it includes everyone’s.

Each one of you, as the baptized in this place and sharing with thanksgiving in the Lord’s meal together, is marked as Christ’s own in the priesthood of all believers. So, even in this period that you will become briefly a priestless parish, you are not a parish without priests, that is, people proclaiming by word and example the Gospel of Jesus Christ and fashioning their lives according to its precepts.
I invite and urge you all to willingly, deliberately and intentionally live out the promises of your Baptismal Covenant – our deal with God – and encourage, support and hold each other accountable in doing so. This is just the right time to participate in creating what is emerging in the church in the early 21st century. Most church observers recognize that the church is in a new time in its history that is still emerging, no one has a clear idea of what we’re becoming. It can be incredibly exciting to listen together for what God is bringing into being through you and your parish companions and creating together a community reflecting the holy. Please begin by giving your attention to the small group reports that will be available to you next week. My sincere thanks are extended to all the people who comprise those groups and exercising ministries at St. Michael’s. Perhaps you will discover a new way to participate. Those reports can supply the what’s, who’s and where’s and may carry within them seeds of possibility for what’s next.
As for us – as priest and people – it was a slowly dawning realization to me that the differences in leadership style, vision and behavior being called forth by parish leadership for the rector described somebody else with a very different set of gifts. It would not be reconciled and took its toll on us all. My family urged me to consider other options. Leadership stated a need for a CEO and had various ideas about a job description. I chose not to create such a role for myself, became aware that it was somebody else’s turn to be rector, and with the help of the diocese negotiated a six-month financial agreement with the vestry. This will enable me to re-set and re-boot myself for whatever is next in my ministry. I am grateful to the parish for the compensated time, time you will be spending re-setting and re-booting as well.
I am truly and sincerely confident that God has something else in store for us both that is good, lively and holy. All shall be well. My tenure as rector will end on February 15, though my final fifteen days will be taken as vacation during which The Rev. Salin Low will cover any emergency. Supply clergy will celebrate and/or lay readers officiate for the Sundays of February until The Rev. Walt Zelley joins you in Lent. Walt will be here for the time it takes to determine a more formal transition ministry for St. Michael’s.

I mean, brothers and sisters, the appointed time has grown short. .…the present form of this world is passing away.
Paul of Tarsus, 1 Cor. 7:29a, 31b

I came to appreciate Paul’s letters to the Corinthians in new ways over these last years. Besides being documents abundant in a Christ crucified and risen theology, and how the message of the cross applies to divisions and disorders in congregational life, the letters are united in a common vision that in the cross and resurrection, not only a new creation is available for people of faith, but a whole new time has begun with it, too. We have faith – a particular or intuitive knowledge and hopeful conviction — that with God, all things are possible, even the re-creation of our hearts, minds, attitudes, relationships, even our institutions. That re-creation is the kingdom come. In the re-creating power of God, old forms fade away. In the re-creating power of God old grievances, grudges, conflicts, betrayals, bad politics, injustices and animosities erode, decompose and become the humus for new life. The crucifixion and resurrection of Christ shared with and through the giftedness of the members of his Body, provide the design for God’s new creation. The new creation is something that comes into existence only through the co-working of God and God’s people. It is something we make with God.
God calls you all to create together a community of the new creation sharing your considerable gifts with one another and the world, encouraging one another, practicing speaking the truth in love to one another, being willing to learn to trust one another and willing to be trustworthy for one another so that the Holy Spirit may work among you as well as in you. Such a community isn’t so much ‘God is my co-pilot’ as it is, ‘We are God’s co-pilot’. Let God be in charge, even though it requires you both to get things done and it’s going to mean doing things differently. Scary, but the ride will be exhilarating. You can do that and be that if you choose, remind each other and support each other. Remember with God, all things really are possible….

The gospel is Mark’s telling of the calling of the brother disciples: Peter and Andrew; James and John. The account is so spare it’s easy to seem like an out of the blue decision for them all. Imagine Jesus strolling along the beach and .. what? – He sees some strangers and likes the cut of their jib? And, do you really think that Jesus just indiscriminately invited some guys to come and check out life as a disciple without previously knowing them? And, he’s so compelling, he reads their minds then controls them so that they ‘right away’ and ‘immediately’ run off from the family businesses, leaving everything behind? They always impressed me as more practical than that.
I don’t think there was anything out of the blue about it – I imagine a whole back story. Jesus has been around all over Galilee, proclaiming God’s good news – I bet all those guys had heard him before, and had heard about him before. For all I know they had had heated conversations with each other and/or others about Jesus and the good news he proclaimed.
Jesus issues an invitation for them to follow, to repent and realize the kingdom is near, in fact, it’s so near they can see the firstborn of its new creation standing right in front of them – when suddenly, the details don’t matter anymore, it’s just about one thing and that is commitment to share God’s good news with folks who need to hear it.

The people-fishing Jesus called Simon (Peter) and Andrew to used, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” as bait (Mark 1:15). Like so many of us, the communities of first century folks needed and wanted to hear that right now – this time, any time – the reign of God, fueled by the cross/resurrection power of Jesus, is discovered and lived by accepting its truth and trusting its strength.

Jesus and his disciples knew that, Paul knew that, our forebearers knew that, we know that. The good news is the declaration of God’s victory over sin and death; it is the experience of healing, restoration and liberation; it is the announcement of a reconciled new creation breaking into the present, into the right now, into this any time.

Maybe the important things really are all in the timing: the call to new life and the commitment to living it. It’s time. It’s time for us both. This ending begins something new and contains within it the future you will make together.

Believe in the good news. All will be well.

This is respectfully and gratefully submitted,

The Rev. Jennings Matheson
January 22, 2012
3 Epiphany B