Homecoming
The Rev. Dr. Harold Weicker
Interim Rector

The Readings:
Isaiah 50:4-9
James 2:1-5,8-10,14-18
Mark 8:27-38
or Mark 9:14-29
Psalm 116 or 116:1-8

Good Morning! This Homecoming Sunday IS the day that the Lord has made. And we rejoice and are glad in it!

First - a word of sincere thanks and heartiest congratulations to Lynn. This summer especially, she has proven - and worked - her leadership qualities as the priest, spiritual director and over-all honcho (or is it "honcha") of this parish. Her experiences this summer will long remain a blessing to her ministry now and in the years to come. And my hat is off to her. I know you all feel the same way.

Also, a special word of thanks to Maggie Baxter, members of the vestry, Judy Felton, Ann Hansen, and so many others of you (too numerous to mention) for all the hard work you have done for St. Paul's. And thanks to all of you who have been faithful in your attendance, ministries and pledges this summer. By honoring your commitments to God and each other, and to all our brothers and sisters in Christ who need us, you bind us together as a meaningful parish. By putting your faith into practice, you hold up the vision of Christ in our midst… and in our world. Thank you.

And thanks to Lynn and all of you who - by your hard work - made this summer available to Carol and me as a time of restoration and renewal. We are deeply grateful to each one of you. Carol and I had a valuable summer. We have ongoing concerns for some of our children-- but don't we all? And if we don't have children to worry about, we each have a host of other areas of stress and distress in our lives that press in on us, often to the point of anguish. And so we come to the second, and last, point of this sermon.

"The Lord God has given me the tongue of a teacher, that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word. Morning by morning he wakens - wakens my ear as those who are taught."

The lessons for today - even today's Gospel by itself - hold up the two faces of faith: belief and action … of which "action" is clearly stated in Scripture as the most important in the eyes of God. For Isaiah, his commitment to God demanded that he sustain the weary. For Jesus, it was no accident that Mark remembers The Master as following the question "Who do you say that I am," ( a question of belief) with the shocking warning that - if you don't work your faith by dedicating most of your life to the betterment of others (action) - you will lose your purpose of "being," and your years on earth, and your beliefs, will pass away as nothing.

The American Episcopal Church in its General Convention this summer has just witnessed to the world that the "hot issue"-- our major concern - our primary controversy - our big action item and global statement -- is whether or not a homosexual priest should be a bishop, and how this decision would play out to the Anglican choir around the world.

To this, this American Isaiah says "Are you serious?!" The world is falling apart in violence, self-interest and greed. America has never been hurting so badly on so many levels. Good people and their families are in desperate anguish today with the loss of irreplaceable jobs and under-employment. Crime is up. Social programs are suffering. Education is paying a terrible price. Cutbacks in Federal and State support are preventing tens of thousands of students from attending college or getting a decent primary or secondary education. The global workforce is proving that millions of Americans will never have the quality of their old jobs or economic security again. War budgets and overseas involvements are incurring almost non-recoverable deficits and bankrupting this country from doing right for our citizens. Families, societies and cultures are falling apart.

Where, oh where is the community of faith that sustains the weary with a word? Where is the church that puts its life on the line by knocking itself out to sustain the weary?

As a denomination, we no longer live, work and believe as "one who is taught." Our ears are open mostly to ourselves and our "churchy" agendas, while the suffering world sees little hope in a church preoccupied with its own doctrines and expectations of a universally acceptable sexuality.

I am ashamed, and I weep. I weep over the lost opportunities our denomination has had to live Christ on earth for the betterment of all God's children. I weep over all the money that is consumed running the infrastructure of the institution-- urgently needed money that does not get out to the great church of human need. I weep over our preoccupation with belief and not service. I weep because, as Jesus warned us in today's Gospel, the American Episcopal Church is losing its life, because it won't give its self interest away for the sake of the common good. It does not sustain the weary. In a country and world that would embrace engaged compassion, we are down to less than 1% of America now… and we are sealing our fate as a quaint, museum piece of days long gone.

But, dear friends, things don't have to be this way for us at St. Paul's. The renewal of the Episcopal Church must start with us. This "Homecoming" is a perfect time to commit ourselves to the priorities of Jesus and to becoming a family in Christ whose ears are intentionally kept open to the Spirit of God as one who is taught, and whose hands and arms are open to the human cry. We must commit ourselves to compassionate action.

Ministry tables are set up in the plaza for information and sign-up. Find a ministry that captures your heart and imagination-- it's out there-- and make a commitment today. Be a life-giving part of the "word that sustains the weary" to all whose lives you can touch.

We need to make our life (individually and as a congregation), our statement of belief, not just words in mission statements and good intentions. We need to put everything behind that word that sustains the weary. Let us never forget, in our personal lives and as the parish of St. Paul in San Rafael, that we will only keep what we give away. It is for this purpose you and I are here at this time, and I pray that you, too, want to experience this joyful truth.

"The Lord God has given me the tongue of a teacher, that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word. Morning by morning he wakens - wakens my ear to listen as those who are taught."

"For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake and for the sake of the Gospel, will save it" (and find it).

Our feet are on the Way today. We are off and running! God is with us!

God bless us!

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