5 Epiphany February 8, 2009

"Those who wait for the Lord, who trust in him for help, will find their strength renewed. They shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint." (Is 40:31)

In spite of the urgency and the rapid-fire pace of Mark’s Gospel, Jesus doesn’t ever seem to be in a hurry. It seems as if Jesus consciously chooses to run his life on the concept of "kairos" - the right time; God’s time" - , rather than "chronos" - the time our watches and clocks tell us it is - the time that rules most of our lives like a slave-driver.

I believe that choice of "kairos" over "chronos" is one of those liberties of abundant life Jesus offers to us who seek to follow him as his disciples. When we choose to "wait for the Lord, to trust in him for help", our strength is not only renewed, it’s conserved.

We spend a lot less time and energy striving to do things before their time has come, or striving to do things whose time may never come.

The Jesus we see in the Gospels doesn’t seem to be a multi-tasker. He does one thing at a time, and when that thing is over, then he moves on to the next. No wasted motion, no frantic need to hurry to meet a deadline, just a deliberate focus on the task of the moment until that moment passes.

The sequence of events in our Gospel lessons for last week and this week is a perfect illustration of this trait of Jesus’. Jesus goes to the synagogue on the Sabbath to worship and to teach. At the end of the service a man with an evil spirit confronts and challenges Jesus. Jesus casts out the spirit, releasing the man from his bondage, and confirming the "authority" of his teaching. This is not just words, but real power as well! Jesus and the four disciples then head for Simon Peter’s home. The first task is the healing of Simon’s mother-in-law, sick in bed with a fever. That accomplished, they enjoy the fellowship of a Sabbath meal together. At sundown, after the Sabbath is over, the crowds flock to Jesus for healing and deliverance.

After a good night’s sleep, Jesus wakes early and goes off by himself to pray. I can almost hear Jesus’ prayer: "Father, this has been almost too easy so far. What do you want me to do next?" The answer Jesus receives becomes evident in his response to the disciple’s excitement when they find him: "Teacher, everyone is looking for you!" It would have been so easy to stay and become the respected healer and teacher of the village. Instead, Jesus answers them, "We must go on to the other villages around here. I have to preach in them also, because that is why I came." (Mk 1:38) Jesus refused to let the excitement of his early success get in the way of his understanding of the mission God had in mind for him.

Paul, Dot, Earlene, Debra, and I were blessed to represent St Bart’s at a wonderful, upbeat Diocesan Convention last weekend. This Diocese has come safely through a time of turmoil over the last five years, yet, even as we rejoiced in this, the focus of the Convention, like Jesus’ focus in the Gospels, was looking forward to what God is calling us to do, not looking over our shoulder at what lies behind. We are a healthy and happy Diocese, committed to sharing the love and joy of God in word and deed.

Bishop Howard used his address to Convention to challenge us to celebrate the liberty of the abundant life God offers us by focusing on our stewardship of the resources God has placed in our hands. Even in these difficult economic times, anticipated pledges from the congregations to the Diocesan budget are up 4.4 % for 2009 over that actually received for 2008. Noting that, "Our giving reflects the level of our trust in God and in one another.", Bishop Howard posed three questions for us:

"What are we prepared to do? What are we prepared to give? Do we have faith to do this?"

In his very brief remarks, Bishop Keyser added this: "Are we going to participate in God’s dream for us, or are we going to participate in the world’s nightmare? Our pledge card is the outward and visible sign of the health of our soul. We have a great opportunity. Let’s not miss it!"

I believe St Bart’s has a great opportunity in front of us as well. We have the opportunity to continue to grow - spiritually, in numbers, and in our financial health. Hopefully our opportunities for this year will include the realization of our dream of a new Parish Hall to increase our ability to minister to our youth and to our community.

Our Diocesan financial staff, (and I believe, by the wisdom of God), anticipated the drop of the financial markets and transferred our building fund monies into safer areas like CD’s and money market funds. Instead of taking the 30-40% loss that we feared, our funds are essentially intact and at our disposal. As of December 31, our balance with the Diocese was $154,000 plus. This is in addition to the $68,000 plus we have in a money market account locally with Alarion Bank. This gives us a total of $222,000 currently available for the work. We have another $50,000, plus or minus, in Building Fund pledges receivable over the next two to three years.

Your Mission Board has contracted with GTC Design Group of Live Oak to provide us with all the plans and documents we need to get bids on the building of the Parish Hall. We will then go to the Diocese, bids in hand to, hopefully, get permission to build. Our thoughts are to contract for the dried-in shell of our building, then roll up our sleeves and do the balance of the work ourselves, as finances allow.

We believe this is God’s dream for St Bart’s at this time in our life together as his people. If this is so, then we can be confident that it will come to pass. If it is not so, then we will continue to follow the words of Isaiah from our first lesson this morning: "Those who wait for the Lord, who trust in him for help, will find their strength renewed. They shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint." (Is 40:31)

Either way, I believe it’s appropriate for us to end this sermon by joining together and reading the first two and the last two verses of our Psalm for today, and to do so, as my friend Bishop Bill Skilton would say, "Con gusto!" (Psalm 147:1-2, 12, 21c)