Saints Peter and Paul 2013
http://www.lectionarypage.net/YearABC/HolyDays/PetPaul.html
On Iona, that sacred island of Saint Columba off the coast of Scotland, I had a few moments to myself before the pilgrim group gathered. I walked to the site of Saint Columba’s cell and presented myself in spirit to the old Abbot. A question formed itself in my mind, something to the effect of “How can I make my life work out?” After a silence, I clearly felt Saint Columba tell me “You are asking the wrong question.”
I am still working on what he meant by the “right question.”
We prayed at the beginning of our gathering: “Grant that your Church”, instructed by the teaching and example of Peter and Paul, “and knit together in unity by your Spirit, may ever stand firm upon the one foundation, which is Jesus Christ our Lord…”
To be the people of Saints Peter and Paul is to be a people who stand together on the one foundation, Jesus Christ. There is no other source of unity that will stand the test of time. One well-loved member told me, before I left, that they hoped I would find Iona and Ireland unchanged. Instead I found them very changed indeed. Even old monuments were more worn by time. If the very stones of ancient Iona change, then know that time will change us if nothing else will. In my brief 18 years here I have seen three different congregations and I think a fourth is emerging in front of our eyes. Life, time, culture, and people coming and going will all change us. And that change will be felt by some as loss and diminishment unless we are clear that our unity is based in Christ.
And if our unity is based in Christ, Christ Jesus will do marvelous things among us and with us. I promise.
We are a very diverse congregation in many ways. We have continuing members, some of whom welcome our present reality and others who look more to our past. We have newer members who have joined us for differing reasons: for depth of worship and spirituality in Episcopal and Catholic and Celtic tones, for the outreach we sustain to the poor and broken, for our community life and the fact that we are present in this complex neighborhood. We have a whole congregation of people who speak Spanish as well as English, who bring different insights but who are also deeply Catholic, who share our love for Mary mother of the Lord and who in the end are much more like us than they are different from us. Together we are Saints Peter and Paul, here and now. We are the church that is real and here and that Jesus loves, not the church we wish we had or the church we think we remember.
Only Christ can provide the mysterious unity that we need.
Are we asking the right questions? Maybe the old Saint’s challenging remark was meant for us all, because I did have our church on my heart that day as well. There are many wrong questions for a church to ask. Here are some examples:
How can I keep my church from changing? Or,
How can I change my church? (Both are flip-sides of the same coin)
Does this church meet my needs?
How can we fix our budget?
Am I comfortable with all my fellow-members?
There are others...
Here are some examples of the right questions:
How can we follow Christ more deeply?
How can we care for one another more authentically?
How can we serve our neighbors?
How can we welcome all who come to us?
There are others...
Seeking the right questions will make the right answers emerge in time. It is a messy, unresolved life, but it is a life illumined by the presence of the living Christ. Like Saints Peter and Paul themselves, we do not need to have all the answers. Here is a modern poem about St. Peter, in all his glorious incomplete humanity…
Impulsive master of misunderstanding
You comfort me with all your big mistakes;
Jumping the ship before you make the landing,
Placing the bet before you know the stakes.
I love the way you step out without knowing,
The way you sometimes speak before you think,
The way your broken faith is always growing,
The way he holds you even when you sink.
Born to a world that always tried to shame you,
Your shaky ego vulnerable to shame,
I love the way that Jesus chose to name you,
Before you knew how to deserve that name.
And in the end your Saviour let you prove
That each denial is undone by love. (Malcolm Guite)
