Hands to Work. Hearts to God.

Lent 4A
The Rev. Linda Campbell
Hands to Work. Hearts to God

The first parish I served was Church of the Incarnation. I have always been glad that it was Incarnation that raised me up, affirmed my call to the particular ministry of the priesthood, hired me to companion the children and youth and families of that parish, and then sent me on my way to incarnate God’s work in my life and to help do that in the lives of other parishes in California.

A common thread through all the parishes in which I have since served – has been the desire to be what I call a “hands to work, hearts to God” kind of community. And this desire to be a “hands to work, hearts to God” kind of parish, is rooted, whether we know it or not, in a fundamental Anglican tenet. Words and visions have their place. But our starting point as Anglicans is not words – it is communion. And communion is a sign of incarnation - embodied presence.

So, what is incarnation? If it’s our theological starting place, what does it mean? The word itself means “enfleshment”. Putting on flesh. For instance, when we talk about “fleshing out an idea” what we mean is - give the idea reality by putting it into action. When the Vestry has an idea about the building – our junior warden, Susan Matteson, almost immediately sets about putting that idea into action. When George Coons saw that some of our doors were not working correctly, he partnered up with Ric Jesch, and they have spent several Saturdays down here, putting the doors in order.

So incarnation has to do with connecting what we think with what we do. It has to do with fully being in your body, living and being fully alive. The Gospel of John puts it this way: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” John 1: 14 The divine incarnation is God taking the ultimate risk of becoming one with us by becoming one of us.

Our commitment to incarnation invites us always towards being personally engaged. Putting ourselves out there. At the heart of mission and outreach is the incarnational event of real people being with real people. It’s you and me allowing ourselves to be deeply touched and changed by those we meet. During the Vestry retreat, we brainstormed about what the various areas of outreach in this parish are. The two things that initially came up were the Souper Center and the Ina Lawrence fund. One is hands on and the other is making grants. The Souper Center is located in the Iron Triangle of Richmond. It is an interfaith homeless center and a feeding center. St. Alban’s is one of it’s founding members. Our commitment is to make lunch for about two hundred people about eight times a year and then to take the lunch to the Souper Center and staff the cafeteria. If you have not been on this adventure, I urge you to take part. The next time it will be St. Alban’s turn to do this is the last Saturday of March.

The Ina Lawrence fund gives away about $10,000 every year for all kinds of projects. This past year, the fund paid for a water pipe to be built in a remote desert village of Northern Mexico. It contributed to the Night Ministry, a chaplaincy service that sends a priest out onto the streets at night to offer counseling and prayer to the homeless. Ina Lawrence fund helped youth of this parish go to New Orleans and staff a summer camp for children in the 9^th Ward, still traumatized by the hurricane. Through the Ina Lawrence fund, St. Alban’s was able to send several thousand dollars to purchase blankets and other needed supplies in Bangladesh after the hurricane flooding there. In a few weeks, St. Alban’s will be sending two of our parishioners, Benny and Violy Galas, to the Philippines with money to help the Northern Central Diocese offer ministries to the homeless and hungry. All of this is able to be done because one woman, Ina Lawrence, incarnated the love of Christ in her estate plans – and entrusted this community with funds to carry out Christ’s command to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick. In other words, to incarnate God’s love.

Incarnation is about being practical. One of the things I love about our Anglican heritage is that we are a practical people. We aren’t averse to theories, but we are more interested in putting ideas into practice. I think this is because, at some fundamental level, we understand that Jesus had a vision of God on the move in the world – and his preaching and teaching and healing were always pointed towards that vision. In essence, Jesus said to the people around him - “God is up to something! Open your eyes to see God at work. Open your ears to hear God calling. Discern what God is doing, then join God in that mission.”” (Presler, page 40) In other words, the prayer is not for God to be on our side helping us to accomplish what we’ve set out to accomplish. The prayer is to be on God’s side, discerning the hints and hunches about what God is inviting us into, and asking for the grace to respond by doing our small part.

So, what is God up to now? Well, babies! We have three newborns in the parish – Carina and Zachary, and Maxine. Unless you’re sleep deprived! :) babies bring out the best in you – have you noticed? It’s hard to be grouchy around an infant. That’s because we instinctively both want to protect them, to shield them from all harm and to partake of the hope that they inherently signify. Here, incarnated in beautiful baby flesh, is Hope. Hope that love triumphs. Hope that life wins. Hope that the future is open and inviting. And hope is directly of God.

So, what else is God up to? Leadership! Having just come from a Vestry retreat - your leaders are committed to the care and growth of the parish. They are committed to you - as well as preparing for those who have yet to come.

Your Vestry is committed to providing opportunities for you to become a minister of Christ’ love to others. Your leaders want to create the desire and motivation to actively take God’s love out into whatever part of the world you live in – to be Bread for a hungry world.

And the Vestry is committed to working with the larger community. One way they are working at doing that is to partner with the Red Cross in preparing this building to be a shelter for our neighbors in case of a huge disaster, such as an earthquake or some other major catastrophe.

God is at work, in the hope of new life – and in the passion of leadership - calling us out of ourselves and into creatively engaging for good with others.

AND - we face enormous challenges – repairs to the organ, replacement of essential office equipment, replacement of windows damaged by dry rot …. It might be tempting to say, who are we? We are just a small and relatively unknown parish.

The truth is, we don’t know all of what God has in mind for this parish. But we do know that where God calls, God accompanies. We do know that where God sends, God goes with.

And the truth is, incarnation is risky. It is risky for God, as God entrusts creation and the gospel to our faulty and fallible stewardship. It is risky for you and me – as we learn a new way of living the good news - whether we are at home with newborn babies; scanning the classifieds looking for work; commuting to offices in San Francisco; retired and living on a fixed income; or trying to balance the demands of work, marriage, child rearing, church going. And it is risky for the church as it discerns how best to maintain the assets entrusted to this generation by previous generations, as well as how to respond to the call to move out into the world with renewed mission and purpose.

In all of these the challenge is to open our minds and our hearts in wonder at what God is up to now. And to put flesh on, to act on the new things God invites you to participate in.


Resource: Horizons of Mission by Titus Presler, The New Church’s Teaching Series, published by Cowley Publications, 2001