SEVENTH SUNDAY OF EASTER – 20 May 2007

ST PAUL LUTHERAN CHURCH, ABQ NM – The Rev. P. L. Holman

Acts 16:16-34; Psalm 97; Revelation 22:12-21; John 17:20-26

“Woven Together By Grace”

Do you know what “guilt by association” is?  When you’re one of six born within a 12 year span there’s always lots of trouble to get into, and if you have the great misfortune of being around when, say, the boys manage to break the neighbor’s back porch window after they’ve been warned a dozen times not to throw the football near that yard – well, just for being around I’d get in trouble too. There you have it: Guilt by association.

Today God’s word gives us a still more excellent promise: GRACE by association.  In today’s installment of the Acts of the Apostles, Paul and Silas are in Philippi where they encounter a girl possessed and in God’s name free her of that spirit.  The problem is, her gift was a source of income for her owners, who became enraged and dragged the missionaries before the local authorities.  Later, after being stripped and beaten, they found themselves in jail.  It was the Spirit that led them to Europe, the Spirit that empowered them to free the slave girl, and the Spirit that kept them connected to God’s mission.  Now, when their prayers in the Spirit rattled the foundations of captivity, that association with God’s power resulted in the baptism of yet another family, expanding by God’s grace the network of those following Jesus. They could not and did not accomplish this under their own power – it was God’s GRACE flowing through them that wove the jailer and his family into the network of rejoicing believers. They discovered GRACE by association.

Through the waters of Baptism and the power of the Holy Spirit we too know

that GRACE which unites us all.

Ivan Westergaard, Linda FitzGerald, Susan Lakeman and I along with Jan Krakow know something about the unifying power of God’s GRACE: we just returned from the RMS Assembly in Ft. Collins CO. Almost 600 people gathered for a very full three days of meetings, music, workshops, conversations, worship, laughter, frustration, glimpses of anger and even a few tears. The St. Paul voting members will share a written report in the newsletter soon, and I hope that today you will take time to ask them about their Assembly experience.

You see, each year our Synod gathers in assembly to take care of business as well as strengthen our partnership in mission.  It is important for us to come together every year for the Rocky Mountain Synod spans Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and El Paso TX.  We are the most diverse synod when it comes to types of eco-systems, the largest in land size save for Alaska, and also fairly culturally diverse. In this assembly we were drawn together in several intentional ways. 

Ø      Worship using the ELW was well prepared and wonderful; folks offered their musical gifts using a variety of instruments, and we sang in both English and Spanish. While some of the music was new to us, the congregation of Lutheran voices sang out anyway and eventually hit most of the right notes. 

Ø      Keynote presentations focused on the ways we are anointed to BE instruments of God’s grace in the world; interspersed throughout the gathering were opportunities to anoint one another with water or oil – on forehead, eyes, ears, and feet – all tangible reminders of our call.

Ø      Prayer was also a part of the rhythm of our time together. Centering prayer, spontaneous prayer, silent prayer and joy-filled prayer expressions connected us time and again to the God who called us together and to the Spirit weaving among us. 

As to the business matters of the Assembly, we passed the budget without discussion. That’s unusual.  But then the amount of dialog around the resolutions we were asked to consider more than made up for that!  A bit of background: policies and strategies are shaped and influence our life together as a synod in a variety of ways.  The Bishop has authority to set direction in some areas; the Synod Council working with him and his staff can also make strategy decisions. But, in my opinion, the most lively and inspired work of the Synod comes through the resolutions that congregations, boards and committees, or working groups submit to the assembly for consideration.  Some resolutions relate directly to the work of our synod; other resolutions might memorialize the larger church to consider certain recommendations or take certain actions.  This year we had both. We considered resolutions on ecological stewardship, responsible dialog on war and peace, and core values for youth and household ministries. We also considered resolutions that ask Churchwide to consider amending the policy that currently prevents homosexual persons in committed relationships from serving as pastors and rostered lay leaders in the ELCA.   

As you can imagine, the dialog on all these was purposeful and filled with passion, with a wide-ranging variety of perspectives.  We are not of one mind on most of these matters.  But what does matter is that we are the body, one body, and as the body of Christ we prayed and listened, we shared and voted, and we were guided by the Spirit through it all.

As he was preparing to leave the earth, Jesus prayed to his heavenly Father that his followers may all be one, just as he and the heavenly Father are one: united in Spirit and purpose, united in love and hope. Until Christ comes again we will always be on the way – a work in process if you will, never fully connected in this unity Christ desires for his body the church. 

We will always be in need of transformation – of being jarred lose from our bondage of self-absorption, shaken free from the agendas that WE think matter, that block the flow of God’s possibilities, so that we can hear and see with new eyes the path God intends for this body to follow.  Sometimes it is hard to trust that such unity is possible. Our words so readily get in the way – terms like global warming, politics, homosexuality and the like have become so loaded that instead of being vehicles that convey information they now almost function like the challenge to a duel.

We’ve been called and gifted to choose life, for our sake and for the sake of the world.  And there is danger in this life we’re called to live. The danger looms large every time we forget that we aren’t in charge, God is.  That the prisons that hold us captive – prisons like fear or unknowing, like busyness or apathy, like despair or depression – these prisons are finite, God is forever. We have GRACE by association with the One who is Grace. And God’s power to free and heal, to embrace and forgive is as close as your heart.

For me personally the most powerful experience of the GRACE that connects us came during Friday evening worship.  The service was based on the Thomas Mass.  We were invited to get our bodies moving as we walked to stations to light candles, be anointed for healing, talk with the preacher and walk our offering to the baskets.  There was also a station for confession and forgiveness; I had been asked to hear confessions.  Yes, Lutherans hear confessions too.  Time and again as people came to sit and speak, as I listened to the pain and saw the tears come pouring forth, I found myself simply overwhelmed by this glimpse of the great burdens hidden in the hearts of this seemingly happy crowd.  Then, as we affirmed trust in the power of God to forgive and in the power of the community to do the trusting when we simply can’t, as we held hands and prayed, the transformation was also very real.  A smile, a hug, a glimpse of hope – the burden not erased but somehow rearranged, peace taking over if but for a moment. I was blessed as much as they. That is GRACE by association, my friends, and it is amazing.

Listen carefully to the Spirit’s leading, in the prayers and words and songs we share this morning. Open yourself to the power of that Spirit to set you free from the prison that holds you captive. Trust that power for those you know who are in need of healing and hope this day.  And as the bread we share is broken open, one loaf shared among us reweaving the fragments of this body gathered, let God break you open for the sake of your neighbor and weave your lives together in new ways so that one day, life by life, the quilt of Grace might embrace the whole world.

Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!

Amen.