Sermon

Sheep and Goats

by Mr. Jeff Johnson, Stewardship Committee Chair

A traveling salesman arrives in a country store where he finds four men playing poker with a goat. He is amazed when he watches the goat call for two cards, raise his bet, and take in the pot.

Finally he says, "That's astonishing. I've never seen such a smart goat." "He isn’t that smart," says one of the men at the table. "Whenever he gets a real good hand he wags his tail."

A man in a movie theater notices what looks like a goat sitting next to him.
"Are you a goat?" asked the man.
"Yes." replied the goat.
"What are you doing at the movies?"
The goat replied, "Well, I really enjoyed the book."

Funny thing about Sheep jokes and Goat jokes. The sheep are almost always passive, the action is normally taking place around them or to them. The Goats however are clever and funny. Now I turn your attention to the Gospel reading and to Ezekiel and we find that the passive easily-led Sheep are the favored stock. Goats, pushy and stubborn as a species, don’t make it to the kingdom of heaven and in fact are cast headlong into the pit.

Of course the meaning in the parable and in the old testament is not a lesson in passivity vs pushiness but rather the difference between those that follow the path of God and those that stray. Despite this good teaching, I might suggest to you that a little Goat-like behavior, a little boldness, is a fundamental requirement in the living out of our call.

The Greek word Parrhesia was used often in the book of Acts to describe the way that disciples like Peter and Paul would speak about Jesus. Parrhesia means “bold speaking” or “fearless speaking”. Today we might call that “straight talk”. Straight talk is important because it leads to a fearless assessment of where we stand and thus can lead to bold discussion of where to go from here.

Three weeks ago at the Diocesan convention, Bishop Martin Field addressed the convention, and with some “straight talk” shared with us some results of the Faith Communities Today Project or FACT Project that looked at faiths and denominations of all sorts.  In his talk I think he drew from the survey some information that is not only relevant to the larger church, but directly applicable to Grace and Holy Trinity.

The primary message, the cold hard truth, is that there is a gap between what Churches offer and what the public seeks. The evidence to support this premise is irrefutable. There are fewer people in the pews and in terms of Worship and Mission and Congregational Life we lack vitality and are losing vitality every day we don’t try to reverse it.

Now it is important to point out that Congregational Vitality is not like temperature or blood pressure that we benchmark with quantitative measures. We have only to use the Elephant Test. It’s difficult to describe but you know it when you see it.

The survey reported that 28% of Episcopal congregations consider themselves or are considered by others to be spiritually vital. That is a pretty hard number to hear but to be fair, the most spiritually vital congregations which were non-denominational churches scored only a 45%. Now, when the best that any church achieves is 45%, I see opportunity and I especially see opportunity when I read in the FACT survey that music is the biggest way that worship connects to what the survey calls innovative. Innovation leads to vitality.

In terms of vitality of Mission, Episcopalians do much better as a group, ranking third among all 28 denominations in terms of Mission because they typically have 2 or more key missions for their members and communities.

Episcopalians may be doing very well at this but how are we doing at it? There was a time that Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral was synonymous with hunger relief in our community. Now not so much. There was a day 15 or 20 years ago when 50 or 100 clients were fed in a tiny kitchen in the basement of this very building. Now over 500 are fed each day across town but it is no more a part of our mission than a school in Botswana or a birthing home in Haiti. My point is that vitality of Mission has to do with direct and personal identification and participation. I’m not sure we have broad identification and participation in any “flagship” mission at this church. That can change.

Vitality of Congregational and Community Life at Grace and Holy Trinity has some bright spots. We do hospitality very well for our internal community and we are the home to many fine organizations that use our facilities for free or reduced costs. That is something we can all be proud of.

However, is that translating into spiritual vitality. Does that qualify as transformative? I think too often we passively wait for good things to happen to us because we have a beautiful building and a great location and we leave so many opportunities on the table to transform ourselves into a member of this downtown neighborhood. That too can change.

So what will it be for us? What will become of us? Will we continue to passively wait for good things to happen or will we dare to be the goat in the poker game and double our bet?

Vital congregations, with members who are passionate about mission, also tend to be generous in stewardship. Makes sense. We give to organizations we feel connected to, touched by, transformed by. What makes church stewardship different from other fund raising is this: when we engage our time, talent, and treasure in the mission of the church, we become the means for others to connect, to be touched by, and to be transformed by. That’s mission. Nothing passive there.

In six weeks we will welcome Peter DeVeau as our new Dean. He will bring many things to Grace and Holy Trinity but one thing he will not bring is a magic wand. The magic or more precisely, the miracle is in The Stewardship Commitment of each one of us, our Time and Talent and our Treasure, the very substance of our lives and the fruits of our labor that we dedicate to the tasks at hand.

You can bet that Peter will be seeking ways to add Vitality to our Worship, our Missions, our Community but he will need our help. The challenge is before us and God has given us all we need in the form of a New Heart and a New Spirit.

© Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral