Rector's Sermon - Sunday, January 19, 2003

First Reading	Psalm	Epistle	Gospel
Isaiah 49:1-7	40:1-12	1 Corinthians 1:1-9	John 1:29-42

      In the first lesson today, Isaiah the prophet is clearly discouraged. He still trusts the Lord, but does not see much progress for all his efforts. Yet God does not allow him to feel sorry for himself. Instead God offers him an even larger task. Isaiah's work is not merely to gather and restore Israel but his endeavors will also help promote a healing and reconciliation among all the peoples of the earth. Isaiah is to create people willing to be a light to all nations.

      Under New York State Religious Corporation law, the third Sunday of this month is the date set for our annual parish meeting and the third Monday of January is the national holiday commemorating the life and work of Martin Luther King. King was like Isaiah in that he came to realize, in drawing strength from the word of God, that his immediate struggle against particular manifestations of injustice and racism were part of a much greater battle for the dignity of all humanity. That is why King refused to define himself as a victim in which all options were closed or set and controlled by others. King knew that everybody was a somebody. Everyone was a child of God, and born with a promise of a future. One of his great gifts was his articulation of a vision of a peaceful society, with racial equality and harmony that very few of his contemporaries could even imagine.

      Annual parish meetings afford us the opportunity to put our comparatively small problems into perspective with the larger challenges of our society and the world. They encourage us not to be deterred by the current situation, but to rejoice that we can dream and express our hope. The popular saying to think outside the box can be very helpful, but it is not something really new. God is always encouraging us to think outside the box. All prophets, from Isaiah to King, have thought outside the box. There was a popular book out years ago, entitled Your God is Too Small. I suspect, as a title, it would be a good slogan to put occasionally on the front of church bulletins. When we feel we are in a rut it is likely our God is too small, or rather, we fashion our own little house idols because we become too timid to perceive where God might really be leading us.

      There is an old story of three fraternity brothers, who were from the city and they decided it would be good for them to have the experience of milking a cow, so they went out to a nearby pasture past East Hill Plaza, and went up to a cow to attempt to get some milk. The trouble was these brothers weren't from the Ag school, but were English majors, probably pre-law, and they didn't find a cow, but mistakenly picked a breeder bull. The bull got annoyed, and put down his horns and started snorting and acting as if he were about to charge them. Two of them quickly got over a nearby fence, but the third had begun running the other way. The bull saw him and started chasing. "Run," shouted the other two guys, but the other guy slipped and went face down. "Get up, run this way", they shouted, but the poor guy wasn't quick enough and was covered with mud and even lost a shoe. He started limping and the bull was within several feet, so he shouted back "What should I do now?" The two others replied, "have faith, brother, have faith." That is the way the world would prefer to view faith and why the story ends there. The world would have you think that faith is simply an act of desperation

      However the dynamism of faith is really the opposite of desperation. People of faith are not people of the last resort. We are not victims despairing that all our options are closed, but people who God, through the Holy Spirit, strengthens to face the challenges ahead. That is why during his lifetime, King was regularly underestimated and put down. Opponents of the civil rights movement were always frustrated and taken by surprise by its inner strength and resistance.

      Like the example of Isaiah and Martin Luther King, we in our time are offered the chance to be a part of a great mission, to bring dignity to life, to bring healing to pain, and an end to human degradation and exploitation. It's part of a noble task. We are people who are offered a connection to Isaiah and all the prophets and saints who have expanded the vision of a promised land, who have refused the tired dead-end deals and debasing definitions of the world's reality and status quo, and who refuse to be conformed by the powers of this world. It is good that we are gathered on this cold day in January to remember, to dream and to give thanks.

      And I offer this to you in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen