Monday, January 30, 2017

Annual Report Sermon January 29, 2017

Rector’s Annual Report
            Rev. Adam T. Trambley         
January 29, 2017, St. John’s Sharon

This morning is our annual parish meeting.  I want to take a few minutes to talk about where we have been this past year, which has been a good one, and where we might be heading. 

Our readings this morning act as good anchor for us as we look at our common life.  In our first reading, Micah asks what God wants from us.  The answer isn’t something costly or impossible, that that we do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God. Then in the gospel, we hear the beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount.  Again, we are given some concrete instructions on the path to love.  We are to either be with or become the poor in spirit, the mourning, the meek, those hungering and thirsting for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, and those persecuted for righteousness’s sake. 

As we think about our life at St. John’s, we want to keep these instructions before our eyes.  Ideally, as we gather together in this place, we should be helping one another grow in doing justice and loving mercy and walking humbly with God.  We should be a place that lifts up the meek and comforts those who mourn and fosters peacemaking and purity of heart.  Although talk about things like attendance and budget figures, building maintenance, and our schedule of programs and activities, in the end, all of that only matters because this church stuff helps those of us who show up here live the life that God wants for us.  If we could easily measure the important things better, this report would be shorter.  I could just say: we now have score of 87 on doing justice, which is up one-a-half points from last year, our loving kindness score is down a bit, and we should be very proud of our incredibly high walking humbly with God score.  But since we can’t measure that, we talk about what we can. 

We can talk being effective at bringing people closer to God in a variety of ways. I regularly hear people talk about the ways they have grown, or have looked at their faith differently, or have developed some new prayer or spiritual discipline, or found a healing or peace that they were looking for.  These comments come from both longtime members and newer members.  They also come from people who came to St. John’s only for a particular season.  One of the ministries we have had recently is providing healing or reconciliation with God or the church to people who have needed it.  Folks have come from different places for different reasons, and they have come and worshipped and even gotten involved in our ministries. Then, after God has done whatever work he has had for them to do here, they have been able to go back to their original spiritual home.  We have served a similar purpose for some people who have come to St. John’s toward the end of their life, and who have found healing and a peace with God before they went to meet him more fully.  While it would be easy to underestimate the value of this ministry, especially since it doesn’t seem like a long-term growth strategy, God is using our parish to make an incredible difference in people’s lives at a crucial time, and that is a great blessing.

Last year we celebrated our 150th Anniversary as a parish.  We put out a new directory and parish history that included work by Art Locke, Darlee Jackson and Tom Lipinski.  We honored veterans and those in the armed forces.  We celebrated Pentecost with a parish homecoming and luncheon at the Corinthian.  This fall, Bishop Sean joined us for a celebration with representatives from other churches in our diocese and in our community.  We even had a proclamation from the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and September 12, 2016 was proclaimed to be St. John’s Day in the City of Sharon.  I hope you all sent out the appropriate greeting cards.  Overall, we were able to look back and celebrate the incredible ways that this parish has Worshipped God, Cared for People and Grown as Christians for a century and a half, while also stopping to appreciate some of the impact our work is still having today.  Special thanks go to Ron and the choir for all their work on the music for our events and to the entire committee that worked hard on different aspects of our year-long celebration.

A second major initiative in 2016 is the stone work on our buildings.  As part of the Believe and Prepare Capital Campaign, we have now received pledge payments sufficient to undertake most of the pointing and tower repair, as well as a few smaller items.  Some of this work is still on-going and will be finished up this summer.  The new sign is in the hall near the office stairs – we are waiting until the spring to have a stone base built to install it on the corner of State and Irvine Avenue.  The one major piece that will be delayed until closer to the end of the campaign will be repairing the frames and the plexiglass that surround the church’s stained glass windows.  We also have discovered that we need about $20,000 for unexpected expenses for roof and stone work at the top of the stair/elevator tower and over Allen Hall. Gratefully, at this point our contributions to the campaign are running ahead of the amount that was pledged.  I cannot thank everyone enough for their generosity to this effort.  We know we have a number of pledges probably cannot be fulfilled due to sickness or other unexpected causes, but we still project we will be able to do what we need to do because of your generosity. Thanks, too, to Donna and Angelo Stamoolis for chairing this effort.      

While we are talking about funding, I would also note that we did fairly well this year, financially.  Our operating budget came out about $15,000 in the black, which is incredible, due to savings of over $7,000 in utilities, $4,000 in other plant expenses, contributions of almost $6,000 from outside groups using our building, and savings of over $20,000 since Jane’s job offers family health insurance coverage with a reasonable employee contribution.  If you aren’t around during the week, you may not be aware of the number of people and groups taking advantage of Allen Hall and the upstairs dining room.  We have a Presbyterian Church plant that meets in Allen Hall on Sunday afternoons, a Girl Scout Troup, AA meetings, Behavioral Health Committee Meetings, Relay For Life meetings, Model Club meets, Cana’s Corner Coffee House, and a variety of parties, showers and other one-time events in addition to our Community Lunches, ECS distributions, ECW events, and other parish meetings.  Thanks to Fred our sexton for his work.  He just had knee surgery, but is returning tomorrow.  Thanks to Mike Gutowski for filling in while he was recovering, and for everyone who helps out with cleaning and straightening and making sure that the facilities stay in good condition to welcome others.  Thanks to Rich Billioni who is in here regularly polishing brass and trimming hedges, among other projects.  Thanks, too, especially to Tina for all of her work, that includes coordinating with those using the building and doing the bookkeeping.  To keep our finances straight, we have counters each week, a finance committee, a budget committee, and significant work done by Bob Edeburn throughout the year and by Nick Baron to get the budget into the computer.  Thanks to all of you who help with facilities and finances that allow us tools to do the work we need to do.   

Diocesan changes also affected St. John’s over the past year.  St. Jude’s re-divided into three congregations, and Redeemer in Hermitage closed its doors.  At the same time, the Diocese decided to look forward and initiate a new church plant in Hermitage.  Jason Shank, the church planter, has been with us at St. John’s a number of times, and he is reaching out in the Hermitage area to otherwise unchurched or dechurched folks and forming the core of a new church.  Deacon Randy decided to be a part of the getting that effort off the ground, and then he discerned a call to assist Father Doug at St. Clement’s in Greenville.  We at St. John’s said farewell to Randy and welcomed Deacon Erin and her family.  We have also been able to welcome a few families from St. Jude’s who have decided to make St. John’s their new church home, and we are grateful for the contributions they have already made to our parish life. 

While a new church plant is focused on reaching new people constantly, reaching new people is also important for us.  About a half-dozen people from St. John’s participated in two seminars and some follow-up phone calls with the church planting coaches to learn techniques for reaching new people.  While I don’t think we can point yet to any great successes, we have tried some things, and a few doors have opened up.  In particular, Laurel Technical Institute has adopted me as its official unofficial chaplain, and I’ve been able to eat lunch about once a week in their lunch room with students, offer prayers at some of their events, and even offer some thoughts on non-profit finance to an accounting class.  Thanks to Tracy Schliep for making that possible. I’ve also been having lunch about once a week at the Penn State Shenango cafeteria, and have gotten to connect with faculty, staff and students.  These institutions are both made up of people who are likely to stay in the area long-term, but most of whom aren’t currently regular church-goers.  They are strategic, near-by places for us to reach out to.     

Our Vestry is also preparing to do some strategic planning work over the coming year.  In 2011, we put together our Purpose Statement, Guiding Principles, and Strategic Directions.  Our Purpose Statement and Guiding Principles were meant to capture who St. John’s was throughout its history, but the Strategic Directions were based on opportunities at the time.  Five years have passed, so we want to take another look at where we are.  Special thanks go to one of our newer members and vestry members, Gary Funderlich, who brings his experience as a corporate board attorney to help lead us through this work.  Also, thanks to all our vestry members who have done some great work this year, especially Madge Tamber our senior warden, Al Seladi our junior warden, Barb Lipinski our clerk, and Keith Rowlands our treasurer, and Curt Myers, who has finished his term and will now have some more Monday evenings free.  Your parish leaders work hard, are willing to have honest and sometimes difficult discussions, and are a real joy to work alongside of.  

A Natural Church Development team is also looking at where we are in our parish life from a slightly different angle.  Natural Church Development helps a congregation see what are its current strengths and what areas of its life can use some attention.  NCD’s premise is that healthier churches grow, and all churches have areas of their life that can be improved.  The area of health we are currently working on is loving relationships, which includes the depth of our relationships, how affirming we are with one another, and how we handle conflict.  Over the next month or two, the NCD team will put together a plan containing concrete ideas to help us grow in this area.  Thanks to all those who are participating in that work.
   
St. John’s continues to do a wonderful job of caring for people and meeting their basic needs.  Episcopal Community services provides food bags and other services twice a month.  They have also just received a grant and a new refrigerator to distribute milk to their clients.  Our community lunches provide a good meal every Saturday along with opportunities for fellowship and prayer.  The Episcopal Church Women raise money through two rummage sales and Winterfest that is then distributed to groups inside and outside of the church.  The ECW women have also been helping with bereavement lunches following funerals.  Literally hundreds of people from our parish and from other churches and the wider community volunteer to help with these outreach ministries.  I am grateful to each of you for this important work that you are doing to help others. 

Another way that we care for people is by reaching out to our sick and shut-ins.  Over the past year, we have had some significant turn-over in our Eucharistic Visitors.  Doddy Crawford has gone to Georgia to be closer to her family and David Bricker has gone to heaven to be closer to Jesus. Both had visited a number of people every month.  Others continue this ministry, including Gerri Bricker and Vicky Barletta, but I’d encourage everyone to think about joining us in this important and very rewarding work.

St. John’s continues programs to help us Grow as Christians, as well.  Laura Peretic, Sherri Lowery and Amy Clark have been teaching Sunday School, and Heather Ulan has offered a children’s chapel at the 8:00 o’clock service.  Tracy Schliep, Barb Lipinski and others have led an adult Sunday School group between services.  We had a wonderful Wednesday night supper and discussion group this summer.  Matt Ciszek and Michael Wachter initiated a Read-the-Bible-in-a-Year group that connects via Facebook.  Katherine Huff, Laura Peretic and others put together a two-day VBS last summer, and First United Methodist is interested in working with us on a VBS this summer.  After a successful Wednesday evening Advent service, we have continued with a weekly Eucharist, with music, every Wednesday at 5:30, followed by dinner in the upstairs dining room.  This has been a wonderful opportunity for people to gather for prayer and for fellowship, and one of our newer members, Hungarian Joe, has even made a delicious Chicken Paprikash for us.

We also continue to Worship God here every Sunday, and I just want to recognize all the people who help make our worship inspiring.  We have youth and adult acolytes, Eucharistic Ministers, readers, ushers, greeters, choir members, the altar guild, our dancers and flag line, and everyone who comes to sit in the pews and pray, respond, sing, and/or come forward to the rail to encounter Jesus one more time before going out to do the work that God has given us to do.  Your prayers and presence make a difference in all that we do at St. John’s.

St. John’s is a very special parish.  I remain honored and happy to serve you as your priest and rector.  May God continue to bless us as we carry out our work over the next year.       





Sunday, January 22, 2017

1 Corinthians 1:10-18

Epiphany 3A 2017
                                                           Rev. Adam T. Trambley                                  
January 22, 2017, St. John’s Sharon

In today’s Epistle, Paul writes:
Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no division among you, but that you be united in the same mind and of the same purpose.
He goes on to talk about all the ways divisions in the early Corinthian church occurred.

Apparently, people were breaking into groups depending on who baptized them and that person’s particular teachings.  Instead of being united in proclaiming the good news and doing the work of Christ crucified, died, and risen, they were saying, “I belong to Paul” or “I belong to Apollos” or “I belong to Cephas” or “I belong to Christ”.  Of course, saying “I belong to Christ” seems like the goal. Ideally it is. Yet, all too often when people are in some kind of conflict, especially in the Church, when they say “I belong to Christ”, they don’t mean that they are part of the whole Body of Christ and see the gifts of given to all people, but that they feel they are right, and that Jesus is on only their side, and that if everyone else doesn’t agree, then they aren’t real Christians.  That attitude leads to even greater divisions then ones based solely on personalities.

In our day, we still are continually tempted to break into different groups about one thing or another.  But we were not baptized into different groups.  We were baptized into the Body of Christ.  No matter what else we end up doing, no matter what other groups we end up joining, no matter where we decide to live or work or worship, fundamentally we are a part of Christ’s Body with a lot of other people who might be passionate about different things or hanging out with different people, or trying to live into their vocation in ways we might not understand or agree with.  We might like everyone to be in lock step unity about everything, we might especially like people to be in lock step unity with everything that we think, but that tends not to be the way the world works.  Maybe that’s due to our brokenness or maybe that’s part of way that God has made his children in the fullness of his image that encompasses so much more than any single human being could experience or understand. 

Yet in the midst of those differences, we have to realize that we should be moving toward the same place, even if some are on buses, some on camels, some in ’57 Chevys, and some on Segways.  The New Jerusalem where we are all want to be after our own death and resurrection has “all the kings of the earth bringing their glory” into it.  No people, no group, or no nation, no matter how odd, is excluded.  There isn’t a Democratic heaven and a Republican heaven, or a heaven for all of one party and hell for all of the other.  They don’t only serve Coke products in heaven and lukewarm, flat Pepsi products in the other place.  When Saint Peter asks you who you belong to at the pearly gates, he isn’t looking for you to say the Steelers or the Browns, or, heaven forbid, the Patriots.  (And I know that kind of talk in the pulpit will get me in a lot more trouble than anything about Democrats or Republicans, but please don’t lower your pledge.)

This isn’t to say that we can’t cheer later this evening with a moderate amount of the beverage of our choice.  Nor is it say that we shouldn’t take an active role in the larger life of our society.  In fact, given the moral imperatives to love our neighbors as ourselves, it would be hard not to be involved in some way.  Yet working hard for what we believe does not mean denying the fundamental human dignity of those who disagree with us or destroying others to achieve our own ends.

One powerful example of Christian political work was William Wilberforce.  Wilberforce was elected as a Minister of Parliament in England in the 1700’s.  A nominal Church of England member, he had a powerful conversion experience and wanted to dedicate his life to God.  He was going to resign from government service and do something that felt more purely Christian, but his Christian friends told him not to.  They said he could do more service in Parliament than out of it.  So he did.  Every year, at the beginning of the session, he introduced a bill outlawing slavery in the British Isles.  For decades, he introduced the bill and it failed.  Once, it almost passed, but four of his supporters went to the theater that night and missed the vote.  Finally, after twenty-seven years in Parliament, in 1807, Wilberforce saw the passage of the Slave Trade Act, which banned the British slave trade.  He continued his work, and three days before he died at the age of 73, he heard that the 1833 Slavery Abolition Act, barring slavery in almost all of Great Britain passed.  These laws were felt not only in Britain, since the British Navy, which ruled the waves in those days, was empowered to suppress other nation’s slave trading, as well.

Wilberforce certainly ruffled feathers and challenged a variety of interests as he fought to stop slavery.  Nevertheless, as a rule, he reached out to others and respected even those who disagreed with him.  His desire to see all people released from bondage to live the fullest life of the Kingdom of God extended to slaves, as well as slavers and those defending him.  Even when being horrified at their sometimes-brutal behaviors, he wanted them to be part of the great Kingdom of God.

Psalm 146 struck me as I read it in my own personal devotions yesterday.  Verse two in the Prayer Book (which is often marked as verse 3 in other editions), says: Put not your trust in rulers, nor in any child of earth, for there is no help in them.

While certain people may have good ideas, or even be excellent role models, in the end, for what really matters, there is no help in them.  We may want to, or even feel called to, support a certain candidate for office, or work for a certain boss, or even wear a particular black and gold number on our t-shirt.  That’s OK, as long as we remember that our help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth, and our salvation comes through his Son, Jesus Christ.

This principle is crucial to our churches, as well.  Paul was addressing the church in Corinth with his words, but we don’t do a very good job of following them.  We can easily walk to churches that in the past have said, “I belong to John Wesley,” or “I belong to the Pope,” or “I belong to the Patriarch of Moscow” or “I belong to the Patriarch of Constantinople,” or “I belong to John Calvin,” or “I belong to Martin Luther,” or “I belong to Willow Creek,” or “I belong to Henry VIII.”  (OK, no one in the Episcopal Church or Church of England really says they belong to Henry VIII, but you get my meaning.)  We have spent centuries focused on the doctrines or practices or other boundaries that we have decided will separate us.  These people don’t do communion right, those people don’t stay morally pure.  These people put on a concert of loud modern music, and those people drone dull ancient chants.  These people have the wrong understanding of the atonement, and those people we just don’t like.  None of these divisions serve the proclamation of the gospel nor the work of feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, or healing the sick.  Saint Paul calls us all back to basics – to our common baptism and identity in Jesus Christ.  He even goes so far as to say that he is not preaching with eloquent wisdom.  His goal is not to make an impressive point that convinces us to be on his side, but to point back to what is central – the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. 

Of course, we can’t all fit into the same building on Sunday morning, so we are going to have our individual congregations.  Different people will have different emphases, and do things in different ways.  No problem there.  God even gives different congregations different missions.  At St. John’s, our purpose is to Worship God, Care for People, and Grow as Christians.  We do that in a variety of ways, but that is what we are here for. That purpose doesn’t mean that we aren’t committed to all the work that God has for his people, but we have to focus somewhere.  Other congregational purposes may be slightly different, but we can work together with different congregations with a variety of missions, all as part of the Body of Christ.  In fact, just like we need priests and welders and millwrights and teachers and doctors and stay-at-home moms and dads, and just like we need apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers, we also need various congregations that are more evangelical and more charismatic and more youth-focused and more sacramental and more conservative and more progressive and more traditional and more experimental to do the entire work that God has given us to do.  Sometimes those differences will lead to conflicts, but conflicts can actually help us grow deeper in a fuller life of faith if we maintain the bonds of the love of Christ even in the midst of our conflicts.  The difference is whether or not we decide to walk toward each other in the midst of our disagreements, or use our disagreements as an excuse to walk away from each other.


On the night before he died, Jesus himself prayed for his followers that “they all may be one.”  Saint Paul calls us to live together in ways that don’t add obstacles to be removed before Jesus’ prayer comes to fruition.  We want to find our deepest identity in Jesus Christ, in ways that unite us with all other baptized Christians, no matter what other accidents of our life might seem to separate us.  We all look forward to spending eternity together in one great, new, holy city, and the more we prepare to live there in this life, the more likely we will find our way through the door in the next.  I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same purpose...For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.