The Way of Love: Introduction and 1. Turn

Epiphany 4A 2019

The Wayof Love: Intro, Turn (1 Cor 13:1-13)

            Rev. Adam T. Trambley        

February 4, 2019, St. John’s Sharon

This morning I want to talk about The Way of Love.  The Way of Love is a set of practices for a Jesus-Centered Life that were introduced by our Presiding Bishop Michael Curry at General Convention this summer.  You may have noticed, if you saw his sermon at the Royal Wedding or have every heard him preach, that he talks a lot about love.  Bishop Curry talks about love because love is at the center of our Christian life.  Love is the core of what Jesus was about.  Love is the Way – the Way to a full, abundant life in God. 

We know the importance of love.  This morning we heard a beautiful reading from First Corinthians celebrating love.  Many of us have used this reading at our weddings, because we know that if we want a marriage to be happy and to last, our marriage has to be grounded in the kind of love Saint Paul talks about.  Patient, kind, not jealous, not envious, not rude.  Bearing all things, believing all things, hoping all things, enduring all things.  It doesn’t matter how right we are, or how flashy, or how anything else – in the end only love matters.  And love endures.  When our marriage is grounded in that enduring love, we know it’s going to work.  In fact, when we love our spouse like Saint Paul describes, that love is going to endure even beyond our marriage in this life.  Because that love abides.  That love abides forever because that love abides in God.  We can anchor not only our marriages, but even our whole lives in that abiding, life-giving, liberating love that is nothing less than God.  God is love.

Living into such love is hard, though.  If it was easy, we wouldn’t have to read and preach about it – we’d just do it. The Way of Love is a set of practices so that we can live in to the fullness of life in Jesus.  Sometimes we call a set practices like this a “Rule of Life.”  A Rule of Life lays out for us a variety of things we do to orient our lives in the direction we want to go.  A Rule of Life has different components touching different aspects of our lives that we need if we are going to have the whole life we want.  Most of us have some sort of Rule of Life already, even if it is an informal one.  Our Rule of Life may include things like coming to church on Sunday, or saying prayers before bed, or making a weekly contribution to the church or to charity, or volunteering in a ministry, or eating dinner with our spouse every day, or going to visit our grandchildren every month, or taking a walk every morning.  These are all things that provide meaning to our lives as we fill in other aspects of life around them.  The Way of Love is a Rule of Life with seven components.  Exactly how these seven components look will be different for each of us.  A Jesus-centered life is going to include all seven in some way, however.

The seven practices of the Way of Love are:

1.     Turn

2.     Learn

3.     Pray

4.     Worship

5.     Bless

6.     Go

7.     Rest

Now, I know these can be a little bit hard to remember, so I’m going to help you in two ways.  First, there are trifolds that I hope you received with your bulletin that talk a bit about the Way of Love and each practice.  I’ll also have wallet cards next week that people can keep or give out to others.  Second, I’m going to teach you some hand motions for the Way of Love. 

(Do hand motions.)

The first practice on the Way of Love is Turn.  I want to talk about Turning this morning.  When we Turn, we pause, listen and choose to follow Jesus. Just like the first disciples who turned from what they were doing when Jesus said, “Follow me,” we stop what we are doing, listen to where Jesus is leading us, and follow.

Turn has three different aspects that I think are important: the first big turn away from sin and toward Jesus; the on-going course corrections that keep us heading in the right direction; and the falling in love again and again, more and more deeply with Jesus.

Our first Turn might occur at our baptism, or at some adult profession of faith, or at some time in our lives when we decided we were going to live for God.  This decision often happens when our lives are so out of control that we can’t handle them ourselves.  We have fear and hatred and sin swirling around us.  We feel oppressed and overwhelmed.  Nothing we can do seems to work and we want out.  Somehow in that moment we find a moment of stillness, like the eye of a hurricane.  In that quiet moment, the call of Jesus comes to us and he invites us to turn our lives to him.  Jesus invites us to accept him as our Savior – the one who can get us out of this horrible place we’ve ended up in – and as our Lord – the one who is able to order our life in the right way.  Hearing that still, small voice, we can choose to Turn so that we follow Jesus into a life of truth, love, hope, justice, and freedom.  This fundamental Turn is our decision to be on the side of the light, instead of the side of darkness; to be about God’s work instead of wittingly or unwittingly doing the devil’s work; to leave behind sin, hatred, and fear to be about the abounding love of Jesus Christ.

Once we’ve made that first Turn, however or whenever we made it, we have to continually reaffirm that decision.  Somehow, despite our best intentions, we find ourselves wandering off the road that Jesus wants to lead us down.  Maybe we tripped and found ourselves in the brambles on the side of the path.  Maybe we thought we knew a shortcut, but got lost instead.  Maybe we got tired or bored and wandered off to look for berries for a minute.  Maybe someone else on the path really hurt or annoyed us and we decided to try a different path for a time.  In reality, we find ourselves straying quite a bit.  In those moments, we are invited to stop, listen for Jesus, and turn in the right direction again. 

These on-going turns can be tough.  Pride and judgment both can get in the way.  We can be too stubborn to stop.  We might be afraid of looking bad if we apologize and turn around.  Nobody wants to have messed up.  Yet we all bumble around so often that stopping regularly, listening for Jesus, and making a course correction may need to happen multiple times a day.  And that is OK, as long as we are willing to do the work.  Put down the distractions, apologize to the people we’ve hurt and make it up to them as best as we can, and Turn back to heading in the right direction.  A few weeks ago, we talked about the practice of the Examen, which is just stopping at the end of the day and asking where we felt closest to God during the day and where we felt farthest away.  This practice is one way to stop and see how well we are following Jesus and decide to Turn as may be necessary.

The final aspect of Turn, that is also the most important, is what we are turning toward.  We are not turning just because where we are is bad, although it very well may be.  We Turn because we want to be with Jesus.  We want to fall in love with Jesus and live more and more deeply in his love.  Jesus loves us.  Jesus loves each and every one of us more than we can even begin to imagine.  The strongest human love we have ever known is nothing compared to the unconditional, unfathomable, unstoppable love that Jesus has for each and every one of us.  Jesus wants nothing more than for us to be following along with him on the Way of Love because he wants to be with us.  When we mess up, he wants us to turn back as quickly as possible.  He’s not waiting to judge or punish us for our sins and mistakes.  He just wants to overcome them so that we can go back to being with him.  When we Turn, we are turning toward that incredible love that we find in Jesus Christ.  Jesus is the love that we long to see face to face.  Jesus is the love that we yearn to be fully known by.  Jesus lavishes his love on us, as much as we will let him.  To Turn is to follow the longing our of heart to abide in that radiant love of Jesus and to fall in love with him in return.  This desire to be loved more and more deeply by Jesus and to love him in return is the first step on the Way of Love.  This desire for Jesus’ love is what propels us forward into a Jesus-centered life.  And Jesus’ love for us is what calls us to him and gives us the strength and ability for the rest of the journey.

Turn.  The first practice for a Jesus-Centered Life on the Way of Love.  Next week we’ll continue looking at other practices.  Let’s close by reminding ourselves of all seven practices, using the hand motions.

1.     Turn

2.     Learn

3.     Pray

4.     Worship

5.     Bless

6.     Go

7.     Rest

Annual Rector's Report -- January 2019

Epiphany 3A 2019

Rector’s Annual Report

            Rev. Adam T. Trambley        

January 27, 2017, St. John’s Sharon

This morning’s readings are good ones for an Annual Meeting Sunday.  Today we will hold/have held our parish annual meeting between services.  At the meeting we elect vestry members, receive reports and the annual budget, and take care of any other necessary business.  Rather than squeeze it into the meeting, I want to take this time to give my annual report to the parish.

In Luke’s gospel, we hear Jesus lay out his mission statement.  Reading from Isaiah, he proclaims his vision of the year of the Lord’s favor. The good news is preached to the poor. Captives are released.  The sick are healed.  The oppressed go free.  Jesus begins by saying that the Spirit of the Lord is upon him, and Jesus finishes by saying that this great vision of God is now fulfilled in his life and work.  If we are following Jesus and living into his vision, than we too should be anointed by the Holy Spirit to bring good news and healing and freedom while letting people know God’s favor and love for them. 

Saint Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians takes this vision of Jesus, that Jesus fulfills just by being Jesus and doing his Jesus’ stuff, and helps us operationalize it in our own lives.  He talks about being part of the one body of Christ, while we each have different gifts.  The Spirit of the Lord is upon each and every one of us, just as it was upon Jesus. As Paul says, in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, a body that has not one member, but many members.  We are to take the gifts we have as a metaphorical hand or eye or spleen or pituitary gland and use them to benefit the body as a whole.  In just this way, with each of use using the gifts we have to build up our parish, our community, and the greater Body of Christ, we can see glimpses of the fulfillment of the Kingdom of God that Jesus was talking about.  The Lord’s favor breaks in upon us and upon those we love and serve.  People’s lives are changed.  People are healed.  Good news is shared with the poor in a myriad of ways.  And we, the Body of Christ at St. John’s, are increasingly blessed as we live deeply into the life of Jesus.

Our purpose statement that describes the particular way that God calls us at St. John’s to use our gifts to live out his vision is Worship God, Care for People, Grow as Christians.  We live into this purpose week in and week out in a variety of ways based on the different gifts that we as members of this parish have been given. 

Overall, I would say that this past year has been one of focusing back on the basics.  Two years ago, we celebrated our parish’s 150^th birthday with a couple of celebrations and the proclamation of St. John’s Day in the City of Sharon.  Last year, we undertook significant upkeep and updates on our building facilities, as well as initiating a new accounting and database software package.  This year, we have lived into being a congregation with such a meaningful history and beautiful, useful facilities.

The first part of our purpose statement is Worship God, and worship continues to be at the center of our parish life.  We gather every Sunday morning at 8:00am and 10:00am, as well as on Wednesday evenings.  Many of you work to make our worship life possible.  I want to thank all the ushers, greeters, Eucharistic Ministers, lectors, acolytes, oblationers, and those who help decorate for our special services.  The altar guild sets up and takes care of the many of the beautiful items we use in our worship.  I want to thank Linda Houk, Ada Ehrlich, Flo Bett, Marilyn Callahan, Tony Kropp, and Ron Gracilla for their work, and Linda wants me to let you know that the altar guild is looking for new members.  Thanks, too, to Gerry Bricker, Vicky Barletta, and Donna Stamoolis who regularly take communion to our parish shut-ins and bring our worship life out to them.

Special thanks for their role in worship goes to Ron and the choir.  As people have come and gone over the past few years, Ron has done a great job of retooling our hymns and anthems for worship.  He has also done a great job incorporating special musicians for Christmas and Easter, and for working with our musical scholars.  We are grateful to our musical scholars for being with us.  We have about a half dozen students in the Sharon High music program who join us for choir rehearsals and worship, as well as for an hour of formation during the week.  Thanks to Jane Trambley for working with them, as well, and to the supper group that meets after our Wednesday service who have welcomed them for dinner before their class.

Our parish has marked a higher number of life events in worship than we have over the past few years.  We have had more weddings than any time in the past five years and we celebrated a dozen children’s baptism and one adult baptism.  We have also commended many of our loved ones to God again this year.  Some of those deaths have been people who were very involved in our parish life for a long time, and we as a church continue to feel their loss in many ways.  Thanks to Robyn Sherman and all who help with lunches after funerals for the families of the deceased.

While we Worship God, we also Care for People.  Those ministries reaching out to others touch lives in many ways.  The Episcopal Church Women had a successful Winterfest this year, and they had a great time baking cookies together.  Thank you to Connie and all the ECW members for your work, and for your generosity with the funds you raise.  Our Family Kitchen completed its seventh year, and served 8,512 meals last year!  Thank you to all those involved, especially Madge and Ron Tamber, Curt and Cleo Myers, Donna Billioni, and Paula Ference, Sherri Lowery for her work with the children, Katherine Huff for her prayers with our guests, Rob Ridgeway who handles the fifth Saturdays with his and Gary’s extended families, and so many others that donate, cook, clean and volunteer.

Our food pantry, Episcopal Community Services gave out over 1,700 bags of food to 278 families last year.  This could not be done without the 60 volunteers who do everything from pick up food from grocery stores, unload the truck, pack bags, register clients, carry bags up the stairs, staff the bread room, clothing closet and Doddy’s pantry, and who take care of the administrate side of the food pantry.  Thanks to you, and to those in our parish who contributed over $8,000 last year to support the ECS.  Thanks, too, to Matt Wertz who has taken over as ECS President this year.  At this time, I’d also like to recognize Bob Edeburn who served as ECS President for the past decade, and has just transitioned out of that role.  He has also recently retired from the financial roles he served with precision and wisdom in our parish since the 1970’s.  This parish has been rich blessed by his many contributions, and, on behalf of the parish, I want say “Thank You.”

Our parish cares for people in many other, less structured ways.  Our alms fund distributes thousands of dollars annually to those in need. Our youth had a hat and mitten tree to collect winter items and distribute them.  Sherri, Katherine, and others responded to the fire down the street.  Numerous parishioners also work or volunteer in different organizations dedicated to caring for those in need in a variety of capacities, and I am proud of the way this parish puts our mission and our values into practice.

We also live out our purpose as we Grow as Christians.  Certainly worship and service help us live out Jesus’ Way of Love.  We also have a number of opportunities designed for learning and growing.  Sunday between services we have an adult class that looks at a variety of books, films, and other resources, as well as two children’s class that have studied everything from songs and bible stories to writing icons.  Thanks to Laura Peretic, Sherri Lowery, and Heather Ulan for their work with Sunday School, and to Donna Billioni for sharing her icon skills, as well as to Barb Lipinski and Madge Tamber who have taken a lead in both our adult Sunday school and our Wednesday fellowship meal.  Our Kettle Corn brigade, led by Kettlemeisters Dick Steingrabe and Frank O’Stafy, have both raised money to send our young people to camp and popped for community events.  They upped their game this year with a new automatic stirrer.  We also have a parish library with numerous books on various spiritual and religious subjects that Barb Bogolin does a wonderful job curating. 

Over the past two years our Natural Church Development Team has helped our church grow corporately in the area of loving relationships.  This past year they continued their work of increasing the sense of love and affirmation we show one another by spot-lighting a person of the month and through our thank-you box in the lounge.  Anyone can note someone who did something they are grateful for in the parish, and a note will be sent from the parish.  Thanks to Cleo Myers, Hannah Hancock, Katie Tingler, Tracy Schiep, Ron Gracilla, Debbie Gibson, Sandy Geiwitz, and Michael Wachter for their NCD work this year.  Next week we will begin the next NCD cycle by beginning to gather information about where our parish’s health could improve.

We also grow as Christians by connecting with and learning from brothers and sisters in other churches.  We gathered Ash Wednesday with other congregations for a service at First Methodist and hosted the area’s Good Friday service and a joint Easter Vigil.  To commemorate the 50^th Anniversary of Martin Luther King’s entrance into eternal life, we held a special Sunday service with guest musician James Willaman and readings from Dr. King’s writings.  Some from St. John’s joined our new church plant in Hermitage, Church of the Resurrection, for their official public launch in September.  Members of St. John’s also participated in our Diocesan Convention in Niagara Falls, where we decided to formally enter into deeper cooperation with the Diocese of Western New York.

All of these activities couldn’t happen without significant work behind the scenes.  I am so grateful to Tina for all that she does to keep things running smoothly.  Ron does a great job with our music programs, but also does many other things that just need to be done.  We also have a dedicated vestry.  I am grateful for all that they do.  I enjoy our vestry meetings and feel like we are all working together to do what is right for the future of the church.  Thanks especially to Keith Rowlands, Nick Baron and Al Seladi as they finish their three-year terms.  All of them served as vestry officers.  Thanks, too, to Robert Barletta, Linda Houk, Frank O’Stafy, Donna Stamoolis, and Matt Wertz for their work on vestry.  We have gone through a full year with our new accounting software, and it is working well.  We are still hoping to incorporate a number of features, such as on-line giving.

We have been blessed with wonderful, beautiful facilities, but we have to keep them clean.  I am grateful for Fred Dickman who retired after a number of years as our Sexton, to Eric Hanson who filled in for a few months, and for Woody Raymer who just took over the job as the snowpacylpse hit last week.  He’s still getting the hang of things overall, but he knows how the snow blowers work now.  Over the past year, we’ve replaced the lighting in our parking lot, and the outside landscaping was redone by the generosity of Mary and Bud Polonus’s family.  We have also received an anonymous donation that will pay for a new sound system in our sanctuary in the coming months and help with the remaining work to be done as part of our Believe and Prepare capital campaign.  I am incredibly grateful to all who have contributed and are still making their pledges.  We hope to replace the discolored plexiglass on our stained glass windows to protect them better and let a little bit more light in, while also taking care of one of our windows that is bowing a bit.  I would also note that our facilities were highlighted this summer in a community screening of Tiger Warsaw for its thirtieth anniversary, a film that featured our church bells as well as Patrick Swayze playing basketball in our former gym.

On a personal note, this year was significant for me in a number of ways, in addition to sending off one of our young choir members to New York city for college.  This spring, I completed and defended my doctoral thesis about taking community leaders on prayerwalks.  I also co-edited a book that looks at chapter eight of the Acts of the Apostles as a template for mission and evangelism.  I just found out Thursday that our book won an Illumination Book Award silver medal in the Bible Study category.  I also got to help lead a pilgrimage to the Holy Land for high school students with young people from our Diocese and the Diocese of Western New York.  I know that what I’ve learned has seeped into various sermons and other work here, and I hope you have found benefits from these experiences, as well. 

Next year, I look for us to continue living our purpose out more and more fully.  We will gather weekly for worship, for loving service, and for formation opportunities  Starting next week, we will spend a few weeks looking at the Presiding Bishop’s Way of Love.  A new NCD team will invite us to grow and change in some helpful ways later this year.  We will take advantage of opportunities to pray and minister with other churches in our diocese and our community.  We will all use our individual gifts to Worship God, Care for People, and Grow as Christians together, and we will invite others to join us as we share with Jesus’ love in word and action.