Glory to God, who working in us, will do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine. Glory to him from generation to generation in the Church, and Christ Jesus for ever and ever. Amen.
In Colossians we heard, “Your life is hidden with Christ in God.” I’ve always treasured that phrase because it reminds us that despite the chaotic, confusing, and confounding details of our lives, we remain secure in the love of God. We might feel lost or like we’re in the midst of a storm, but the relief of God’s grace is always with us. Our belovedness exists within the very depths of our being and in the heart of God – meaning that the world, or our mistakes and doubts, can never take it away from us. Our lives are hidden with Christ in God.
This phrase also meant a lot to Jonathan Daniels – one of the saints depicted in the icons in our Chapel. Daniels was a seminarian who heeded Martin Luther King’s call to come to Alabama to stand up for justice. While he was there, Daniels ended up giving up his life by stepping in front of a shotgun blast intended for a young black girl. Just days before his death, Daniels wrote in his journal: I lost fear in [Alabama] when I began to know in my bones and sinews that I had been truly baptized into the Lord’s death and Resurrection; that in the only sense that really matters, I am already dead, and my life is hid with Christ in God.”
Beloved, this morning I’m going to talk about what we know in our bones and sinews. Or, put another way, what do we focus on? The reading from Colossians began, “If you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is.” A few Sundays ago, we heard Jesus say to Martha, “You are worried and distracted by many things.” I don’t need to give you a list of examples – we all know what we are worried about and distracted by. These earthly things that we focus on and obsess over can seem so urgent and they end up consuming us. We live in what one sociologist has called the “age of acceleration.” Things move at such a fast pace that we are left dizzied, drained, and disoriented about what the point of life is.
This is one of the points made by Jesus in his parable about the rich man. This character was so obsessed with having more and more that he lost focus on the reality that it is God from whom all blessings flow, not our own stockpiling of resources. None of us want to be fools and squander the gift of life that we have been given, but when we focus on the wrong things, that’s exactly what happens. And deep down, because it’s been put there by the Holy Spirit, in our bones and sinews, we all know what the most important thing is: love.
As the well-known passage from First Corinthians puts it, “If we speak in the tongues of humans and of angels but do not have love, we are a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if we have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and if we have all faith so as to remove mountains but do not have love, we are nothing.” In this, my penultimate sermon as the Rector of this fantastic and amazing parish, my goal is to reflect on our continuing mission of love and offer some inspiration and guidance. I’m hoping to help us to focus on the right things, because with all that’s going on in our parish and in the realm of politics, it would be very easy to lose our focus and stumble.
When I’m meeting with couples as they prepare for marriage, I ask them “What makes you ‘you’ as a couple.” Maybe it’s game night, it could be square dancing, perhaps cooking together – whatever it is, I tell couples to think about it, write down three activities that define their relationship, and pull that list out when their relationship gets into a funk, because I can almost guarantee when the relationship isn’t flourishing, they aren’t doing those things that make them “them.” Well, that same wisdom applies to this parish. What makes St. Luke’s “St. Luke’s”? What is in our bones and sinews as a parish? Where does our focus need to be?
It’s not my role to be involved in the search process, but I’d commend that question to the Vestry to discuss and write down. Then, if and when a Profile Committee is created, they can refine that a bit as they discern how to best describe this beloved community of St. Luke’s. And since I’m offering advice: please, don’t hope for, search for, or expect your next Rector to be Robert 2.0. The Holy Spirit brought me to St. Luke’s because the gifts and needs of this Parish aligned with my gifts and needs as a priest. And what an amazing and blessed 11 years we shared together! But I hope and pray that your next priest will help you to grow in ways that I cannot, that she or he will bless you in ways that I cannot, that they will lead in ways that I cannot.
As far as who St. Luke’s is that should be held onto:
First, this Parish is a leader in racial truth telling and healing. Yes, I championed and led those efforts, but it was always a team effort. Don’t give up on that. This community needs you to keep leading. I was talking with Reg Boland this week about our two chalices, and they are an embodiment of this struggle for justice in which we are engaged. One chalice, the St. Lazarus chalice, has a connection to the Confederacy – the person who led the efforts to commission this chalice in memory of the Rev. Thomas Wheat was Varina Davis, the First Lady of the Confederate States of America. The other chalice is the St. Phillip’s chalice, which was used by the African-American congregation that was merged into St. Luke’s in 1970. What an instructive and holy tension that sits on our altar each Sunday. Don’t ignore that tension, continue to struggle for a more beloved community.
Secondly, our relationship with the Bishop James Hannington Memorial Cathedral in Mumias, Kenya, while relatively new, has already become a core part of who we are, and what the Foundation is about. We had a Zoom meeting this past week with Bishop Wandera and others from the Cathedral and I told them, just as in a wedding we say, “What God had joined together, let no one put asunder,” that is how we feel about this relationship. Our relationship is mutually transforming and life-giving. I’m excited that the Foundation is fully supportive of continuing this relationship and we have begun plans to have a group from Kenya visit us in April 2026.
Thirdly, what grounds all that we do, what gives us relief, what nourishes us in grace, and binds us together in love is our intentional worship. Thanks to the ministries of our acolytes, vergers, lectors, servers, choirs, Altar Guild, and Stephen’s musical leadership, St. Luke’s offers transcendent, reverent, and comforting liturgies. You are in the habit of keeping the feasts of this church. I often tell my students at Hood, “If the church forgets to keep its calendar, we can’t expect the world to remind us who we are.” We are in the habit of marking all the Principal Feasts of the Church, we pray Morning and Evening Prayer, we do special liturgies such as Evensong and Lessons & Carols, Sunday worship is solid, and we do Holy Week in a way that most congregations are envious of. Throughout history, when people do not worship to the best of their ability, idolatry and distraction set in and they lose their identity. When I arrived at St. Luke’s, I inherited strong liturgy and, to the best of my ability, I continued that. Keep that up.
And related to worship is what makes worship so robust – you. Your voices and presence matter deeply. Sometimes in a time of transition and an interim, people can get weary and attendance can dip. Don’t let that happen. As was the case for most churches, we saw it happen during the pandemic. In January 2020, our average Sunday attendance was about 140. Now, it’s 115. We’ve built back a lot, just a few years ago it was even lower. May God bless this parish with persistence and perseverance, that this transition will be a step forward, not backwards.
Fourthly, St. Luke’s is known as a force for God and for good in this community. Keep showing up at Pride, Juneteenth, and Earth Day. Keep the doors open for OctoberTour and Cheerwine. Keep the doors open during the week. Salisbury has been blessed by a vibrant St. Luke’s, a congregation that understands the English idea of the parish – we care for not just our members or potential members, but the entire neighborhood. God has given us this community to bless and minister to, and we have a strong track record of doing so. May that continue to be so.
Fifthly, this is a growing parish. Yes, we are losing some members who, due to health issues, are not able to come to church as often, but our average Sunday attendance has remained steady because new people are coming in. This is a warm and welcoming church, and there’s room to grow even more in that direction. In the transition, don’t let the focus become so inward that we lose sight of the need to welcome others – which will take even more effort in a time of transition and uncertainty.
And the last identity piece that I’ll name is your generous support for this parish. Just like attendance can wane during a transition, so can financial giving. But there are so many more important things for you to be focused on than worry about the budget. Don’t make the Interim and new Rector have to worry about meeting the budget or making cuts. Give generously and even sacrificially. As Jesus cautions us, “So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.” After all, it’s just money – give it away and show your wallet that you’re the boss of it, not it the boss of you.
These things: racial healing, the relationship with Mumias, strong liturgy, community involvement, growth, and generosity make St. Luke’s who we are. Those are in our bones and sinews. Hold onto those things.
And now a bit of inspiration for a time such as this. Some of the things that I most appreciate about this parish.
One is your commitment – as I’ve said before, I started the ordination process when I was a sophomore in college, I went right to seminary after graduation, and was ordained when I was 25. I have no idea what it is like to be an adult member of a church, but I hope that I’d be half the church member that you all are. I am so impressed and inspired by how you show up, how you give, how you support one another. You all have taught me so much about what it means to follow Jesus and I am absolutely confident in your ability to flourish in this transition. When I first knew that St. Luke’s was the right call for me was when I first interviewed with the Search Committee in June 2014 – Cathy Green said, “St. Luke’s is a great church and we’re going to do great things with or without a priest. We’d like to have a priest though to support us in what we’re doing.” How true that is – you all have all that you need, God’s presence and your faith.
Two is your willingness to go where the Spirit blows. When I was formally installed as the Rector here, my former Rector in DC, Luis León, preached and said something like “You’ve called Robert to lead, so let him lead.” And you’ve blessed me with trust, patience, forgiveness, and willingness to let me lead. You’ve never said “No, we can’t try that.” We’ve made mistakes and we’ve learned, and that has enabled us to do some truly amazing things.
Third is your hopefulness. I can’t tell you what a joy and blessing it is to serve as congregation that expects God to meet us in every situation and has a hope that cannot be shaken. Though I’ve preached some tough sermons through the years, I’ve made some hard decisions, we’ve faced some difficult circumstances, and we’ve buried some pillars of this church, we’ve always kept going because of your hopefulness. Your trust that God is with us and for us is such a gift.
As I’ve said, this transition will present obstacles, frustrations, and conflicts. There’s no point in denying that. There will also be new opportunities, gifts, and blessings that will come from this period. The inspiration to face all of this and thrive is grounded in your commitment, your willingness to trust God, and your hopefulness. And I’m not packing any of those in a box and taking them with me – because those gifts come from and belong to you.
The prayer that I opened this sermon with is one of the concluding doxologies from Morning and Evening Prayer. It’s a prayer that I turned to in times of uncertainty and challenge in my tenure as your Rector, and I commend it to you: “Glory to God, who working in us, will do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine. Glory to him from generation to generation in the Church, and Christ Jesus for ever and ever.” That prayer has always been answered in abundance. While there is a lot of uncertainty in this transition, I am absolutely confident that through you, God will continue doing amazing things and that, indeed, all shall be well.
