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Sermon Dan Handschy What an auspicious occasion this is for Church of the Advent. Four or five years ago, we set out on the journey to become a congregation of the Oasis Missouri, and finally, we have arrived. It has been a powerful and important journey for us; we have learned much about ourselves, and begun to have high hopes for our future -- all because of the soul searching we have had to do to decide we want to be truly welcoming. Thank you all for coming tonight to help us celebrate this moment. The discernment process involved for us in becoming an Oasis congregation required us to look at how we do things here, and helped us decide that we would like to grow into the future, not keeping our light under a bushel as it were. This has been process not without pain, but also with a great deal of joy and excitement. That makes this for us truly a Festival Eucharist. That joy and excitement this evening is tempered a bit, however, by the publication of the Windsor report. It landed with a weighty thud on the table earlier this week. There has been much reaction to the report in the news services during the week, and much discussion about what happens now. The Primate of Nigeria, in a press release, seemed to be saying that he was ready to take Nigeria out of the Anglican Communion, because the American Bishops who participated in the consecration of Gene Robinson weren't scolded severely enough for his taste. The Report does ask them to apologize, but what is more worrisome, in the recommended covenant it presents to the Primates, seems to give the Archbishop of Canterbury more authority than historically that see has had to call certain actions within the Provinces out of bounds. I want to address the report, or at least a possible reaction to it, but to do so, we have to take an excursion through Scripture. If you have ever sat down and read the Gospel of Mark from cover to cover (you have, haven't you?), you will notice that one set of miracles occurs twice. I am speaking of the calming of a storm at sea, and the feeding of a multitude in the wilderness. Early in Mark's Gospel, Jesus is sleeping in the back of the boat as the disciples cross the sea of Galilee. They wake him, and he calms the storm. A chapter and a half later, he feeds the five thousand in the wilderness. Immediately, while he stays behind to dismiss the crowd, he makes the disciples get in the boat and cross back to the other side. In the middle of a storm, he comes walking to them on the water. Again, a chapter and a half later, he feeds four thousand in the wilderness. Hmm. Sea cross/feeding. Does this sound familiar? Some early group of christians found it important to portray Jesus as a new Moses. If you read a little more carefully, you notice that between each sea crossing and feeding, Jesus performs three, count them, three, miracles. In the first instance, he arrives on the shore and the demoniac who lives among the tombs accosts him. He throws demons into a herd of swine who rush down into the sea. The demon's name is legion, the name of a contingent of the Roman army. Just like Moses, Jesus destroys his enemy's army. Then, Jairus, a leader of the synagogue asks Jesus to heal his daughter. While on the way, the woman who has been menstruating for twelve years touches his robe. Impurity is contagious, so now Jesus is unclean. He whirls around and asks, "Who touched me?" The woman is terrified, but Jesus tells her her faith has healed her. When Jesus and the disciples arrive at Jairus' house, the little girl is dead. Jesus takes her by the hand and raises her. We are told she is twelve years old; just the age of menarche and the period of time the woman was cut off from table fellowship. Jesus immediately instructs her family to give her something to eat, restoring her to table fellowship. He then sends his disciples to the lost sheep of the house of Israel to heal their sick, raise their dead, eat what they set before them, and proclaim the kingdom of God . When they come back, they meet up in the wilderness. Jesus feeds the crowd there. Look at what is happening. Jesus, as Moses, is leading a new people across a new sea, a dangerous boundary, and feeding them in the desert. The people who are crossing are the unclean of Israel -- the demon possessed, the woman, the dead child. They are crossing that boundary one at a time, being brought back into table fellowship and having the Kingdom proclaimed in their midst. In the second occurrence of this set of miracles, Jesus again heals three: a man with a demon, a blind man, and the Syro-Phoenician woman's daughter. At first he refuses to heal her, because she is a Gentile, a dog. But, she fires back, even the dogs eat the crumbs under the master's table. He relents and her daughter is made well. Notice what is happening here. When the disciples cross the sea, Jesus is not in the boat with them. When they see him, they think it is a ghost. I think that this episode is telling us that at some point in the life of the same christian community that saw Jesus as a new Moses, at some point after his death and resurrection, the community began to include Gentiles. Gentiles, too, could make the dangerous sea crossing and join the table fellowship in wild places. There was some struggle in the community about that shift. The fight between Peter and Paul gives us an insight into that struggle. Paul tells us, in the letter to the Galatians, that at Antioch , the community had begun to include Gentiles at table. Even when Peter came down, they continued to welcome Gentiles. But then some men from James came down, and Peter backed up. He lost his nerve. Paul responded by calling him names. Look at the passage we read in Matthew's Gospel. In almost all particulars, Matthew copies Mark. This is the second sea crossing. Jesus is not in the boat with the post-resurrection community. He comes to them walking on the sea (it's important to note that he is walking on the sea). Peter says, Lord, if it is you, invite me to come to you walking on the waters -- not the sea, but the waters; the waters of baptism. Peter for a moment steps out of the boat, joins table fellowship with Gentiles, but then looses his nerve. Paul's baptismal formula is that "in Christ, in baptism, there is no male nor female, slave nor free, Jew nor Gentile." All distinctions of gender, class and ethnicity are erased. Peter almost makes it across the waters of baptism, but not quite. We at Advent know something about losing our nerve. We started to climb up the gunwales of the boat four years ago, took a look at the waters, and got back in. We are extremely grateful that the people of the Oasis Missouri were patient with us. We are even more grateful that Jesus continued to invite us to step out over the waters of our baptism and include all baptized christians at our table. We are grateful for the courage in the face of the storm. And so now, the Windsor Report. If ever there was a storm at sea, this is it. The white hot rhetoric, the threats and actions to separate congregations from the Episcopal Church, to separate Provinces from the Anglican Communion, all that can look like a pretty frightening storm. Will this church we love, and yet can be so impatient with, will this church survive? One of the very earliest metaphors for the church was the boat, that same boat in which the disciples make that dangerous sea crossing. Jesus is standing out on the raging waters of our baptism, inviting us to step out of the boat. What will happen? Paul stepped out over the waters of baptism. He and Peter parted ways, and the church did not come to an end. In fact, the church that we have received as a heritage through the ages looks a lot more like Paul's church than Peter's. But it is the church of both Peter and Paul. I find some amusement in the fact that our National Cathedral is named the Cathedral Church of Saints Peter and Paul. Like it or not, they are in the same boat. The resurrected Jesus has invited us to screw up our courage and step out over the waters of baptism. We can lose our nerve from time to time; we can begin to sink and need Jesus to take our hand; but we cannot not walk on the waters. The Anglican Communion will do its usual best to find a middle way to muddle through, and will probably succeed. The Windsor Report is a first step. Most of us will probably continue to find our place in that communion. We will do our best to explain to the other Provinces and to our brothers and sisters here why we have done what we have done. In time, maybe, like Peter and Paul, we will be able to eat at the same table for a while. But I don't think we can undo what we have done. None of us will ever be content to stay in the boat. We have made a dangerous crossing, but we have discovered that Jesus feeds us abundantly in this new, wild place, and we will continue along that desert way until we gather all God's people at table in the new Kingdom of God.
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