Sermon from the new PB

This was forwarded to me from friend Kale:


From: "Ann Fontaine"
To:
Sent: Wednesday, June 21, 2006 9:31 PM
Subject: [wydiocese] +KSJ sermon today


> Episcopal News Service
> Wednesday, June 21, 2006
>
> Presiding Bishop-elect Katharine Jefferts Schori preached the homily at
> the Closing Eucharist June 21 at General Convention in Columbus, Ohio.
> The text of Jefferts Schori's homily follows:
>
> Homily preached the General Convention's Closing Eucharist
> Wednesday, June 21, 2006
> The Right Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori
>
> Grow in All Things into Christ
> Lections for the Reign of Christ
> Colossians 1:11-20
> Canticle 18
> John 18:33-37
>
> This last Sunday morning I woke very early, while it was still dark. I
> wanted to go for a run, but I had to wait until there was enough light
> to see. When the dawn finally began, I ventured out. It was warm, and
> still, and very quiet, and the clouds were just beginning to show tinges
> of pink. I ran by the back of the Hyatt just as two workers were coming
> out one of the service doors. They were startled, I'm afraid, but I
> nodded at them, and they responded. I went west over the freeway, and
> encountered a man I'd seen here in the Convention Center. Neither of us
> stopped, but we did say a quiet good morning. Then I found a lovely
> green park, and started around it. There was a man with a reflective
> vest, standing in the street by some orange cones, as though he were
> waiting for a run or a parade to begin. I said good morning, and he
> responded in kind. Around the corner I came to a bleary-eyed fellow with
> several bags who looked like he'd just risen from sleeping rough. I
> said good morning to him too, but I must admit I went past him in the
> street instead of on the sidewalk. Then I met a rabbit hopping across
> the sidewalk, and though we didn't use words, one of us eyed the other
> with more than a bit of wariness. Around another corner, a woman was
> delivering Sunday papers from her car. She was wary too, and didn't get
> out of her car with the next paper until I was a long way past her.
> Back over the freeway, and a block later, two guys seemingly on their
> early way to work. We nodded at each other.
>
> As I returned to my hotel, I reflected on all those meetings. There was
> some degree of wariness in most of them. There were small glimpses of a
> reconciled world in our willingness to greet each other. But the
> unrealized possibility of a real relationship -- whether in response of
> wariness, or caution, or fear -- meant that we still had a very long way
> to go.
>
> Can we dream of a world where all creatures, human and not, can meet
> each other in a stance that is not tinged with fear?
>
> When Jesus says that his kingdom is not of this world, he is saying that
> his rule is not based on the ability to generate fear in his subjects. A
> willingness to go to the cross implies a vulnerability so radical, so
> fundamental, that fear has no impact or import. The love he invites us
> to imitate removes any possibility of reactive or violent response. King
> Jesus' followers don't fight back when the world threatens. Jesus calls
> us friends, not agents of fear.
>
> If you and I are going to grow in all things into Christ, if we're going
> to grow up into the full stature of Christ, if we are going to become
> the blessed ones God called us to be while we were still in our mothers'
> wombs, our growing will need to be rooted in a soil of internal peace.
> We'll have to claim the confidence of souls planted in the overwhelming
> love of God, a love so abundant, so profligate, given with such
> unwillingness to count the cost, that we, too, are caught up into a
> similar abandonment.
>
> That full measure of love, pressed down and overflowing, drives out our
> idolatrous self-interest. Because that is what fear really is -- it is a
> reaction, an often unconscious response to something we think is so
> essential that it takes the place of God. "Oh, that's mine and you can't
> take it, because I can't live without it" -- whether it's my bank
> account or theological framework or my sense of being in control. If you
> threaten my self-definition, I respond with fear. Unless, like Jesus, we
> can set aside those lesser goods, unless we can make "peace through the
> blood of the cross."
>
> That bloody cross brings new life into this world. Colossians calls
> Jesus the firstborn of all creation, the firstborn from the dead. That
> sweaty, bloody, tear-stained labor of the cross bears new life. Our
> mother Jesus gives birth to a new creation -- and you and I are His
> children. If we're going to keep on growing into Christ-images for the
> world around us, we're going to have to give up fear.
>
> What do the godly messengers say when they turn up in the Bible? "Fear
> not." "Don't be afraid." "God is with you." "You are God's beloved, and
> God is well-pleased with you."
>
> When we know ourselves beloved of God, we can begin to respond in less
> fearful ways. When we know ourselves beloved, we can begin to recognize
> the beloved in a homeless man, or rhetorical opponent, or a child with
> AIDS. When we know ourselves beloved, we can even begin to see and reach
> beyond the defense of others.
>
> Our invitation, both in the last work of this Convention, and as we go
> out into the world, is to lay down our fear and love the world. Lay down
> our sword and shield, and seek out the image of God's beloved in the
> people we find it hardest to love. Lay down our narrow self-interest,
> and heal the hurting and fill the hungry and set the prisoners free. Lay
> down our need for power and control, and bow to the image of God's
> beloved in the weakest, the poorest, and the most excluded.
>
> We children can continue to squabble over the inheritance. Or we can
> claim our name and heritage as God's beloveds and share that name,
> beloved, with the whole world.
>
> - - - - - - - - -
>
> To SUBSCRIBE to Episcopal News Service, send a blank email message, from
> the address which you wish subscribed, to join-enslist@epicom.org and
> include "subscribe" in the subject line.
>
> Send QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS to news@episcopalchurch.org
>
>
>
> * * * * * * *
> Ann Fontaine
> Wyoming c1
>
> "Must be able to get along with Western people, ride and drive, as
> well as pack a horse, follow a trail, shoot straight, run an
> automobile, and be able to rough it whenever necessary"
> an advertisement for a library organizer and director in Northern
> Wyoming. 1916