A New Way of Living: Integrity Eucharist, NYC

If anyone is interested, below is the sermon I preached at the Integrity Eucharist in NYC yesterday … After a brief word of welcome, I dived right in …

Text:  Mark 9:30-37; James 3:16 – 4:8

Anyone who has been following the news will note there is quite a rather large power struggle going on within our society.  A sizeable portion of our nation laments that the country they grew up in is not the country they’re living in today.  On many levels, they’re right. The United States today is certainly not the United States from 50s or 60s, or even 70s 80s or 90s!  Change is inevitable as history marches on.  Speaking of change, another sizeable portion of the country is saying that the change they supposedly voted for almost a year ago is not happening.  Depending on how certain bills get through Congress, they could be proven right as well. What these two sides have in common is that, rightly so or wrongly so, they are giving each other a large dose of bad press in no small part because we live in a world of instant communication, tweets, blog posts and a 24 hour news cycle. We live in a world where civil discourse has been thrown out the window, where anything can be said and anything goes.  It seems that any chance of intelligent discussion has been discarded in favor of sound bites, talking points, and over-the-top rhetoric.

The disciples get quite a bit of bad press in the Gospels.  They are shown saying inappropriate things, shooing people away from Jesus, and constantly misunderstand what Jesus is trying to tell them.  Sometimes we can see quite a bit of ourselves in the disciples.  Much too often for our liking, we can be rather slow to get the point of what Jesus is talking about or what he is doing.  The Good News, however is that if we read through to the end of the Gospels, we learn the disciples are restored, redeemed and reclaimed following the Resurrection of Christ.  Reading further into the book of Acts, we witness the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon all sorts of different cultures and tribes and nations.  So then, we shouldn’t lose hope as we look at what is going on in the world.  Consider the place of African Americans, who once were required to sit in balconies during church services so as to be out of site of their white masters.  Consider the place of women, who only gained access to the discernment process and the sacrament of Holy Orders within our lifetime, and could not even vote a century ago.   And now, consider the place of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Christians and the road we are on today.  Slowly but steadily, the Church has expanded its embrace to include everyone who Jesus has already included.  It is a long road, and at times it is a hard road.  Quite frankly, I’m sure many of us have just wanted to give up and get off the road altogether!  But in the end, just like the disciples, we all get caught up in the radical welcome of grace and peace that comes of living in relationship with God.  This is a precious gift, and one that is given freely.  But, like many things worth having, it is a gift that, while it is given freely, does not come cheaply.

SCARY!

Oh …. my !!!!  Me at the Integrity Eucharist yesterday…..

The Devil that is Facebook

So, I recently joined Facebook against my will.  You can find me under my real name, David Casey.  Please stop by and say hey if you have time.

I say against my will, because I received an email from someone on a listserv I read saying “look at my pictures from this event on Facebook” with a link.  I follow the link, and am asked to enter my email address, first name and last name.  Next thing you know, the screen goes “WELCOME TO FACEBOOK!”  and within an hour I have 11 friends, several suggestions, and a plaintive request for me to post a picture.   I did post a picture of a very Anglican looking Weimeraner until I can get a decent picture of myself up there.

Shortly thereafter, I saw i got another email on my blackberry saying someone wrote on my wall (which sounds quite suggestive and possibly kinky, but I digress … ).  So, once again, I followed the link on my blackberry, and next thing you know, my blackberry now has a Facebook icon on it.

I feel like I’ve been caught by the matrix.  Anyone have a blue pill?

I have found it useful to keep in touch with friends and stuff.  Integrity NY has a page on there and it is also has a notice about our Eucharist on Sunday.  One of the possible attendees is a professor at General Seminary.

Does anyone know of a crash course in “How to Survive Coffee Hour?”  If they don’t teach that at seminary, they should.  I understand it can be treacherous.

Seriously, it seems as if it’s coming along very nicely and I’m quite excited about it   If you’re in town around 4, please join us at St. Luke in the Fields at the corner of Grove and Hudson.  Should be quite lovely!

UPDATE: Apparently there are “about a million” David Casey’s on Facebook.  I’m the one who lives in New York, NY and whose main photo is a very Episcopalian looking Weimeraner.

Integrity Eucharist

OK 3rd post today, and probably the last until tomorrow….

The Integrity NYC chapter is having a Eucharist this Sunday at St. Luke in the Field in Manhattan at 4pm.  We’re delighted that Bishop Roskam, our Suffragan, will be celebrating.

I will be preaching.

The Reverend boy’s preaching debut will be in front of a bishop.

No pressure.

Update: You should probably check out our chapter’s  blog to get the full gist of it.  And we have a very nice graphic

Welcoming Churches

Over the weekend, the Diocesan LGBT Concerns Committee on which I sit took a trip to the northern reaches of the Diocese of New York for an open forum on what the committee is doing and to listen to the needs of the LGBT folks up there.  There was quite a bit of talk about what it means to be a welcoming church, not just for LGBT folks, but for everyone.  I mean, when we say “The Episcopal Church Welcomes You” we’re saying that The Episcopal Church is for EVERYONE.

As we are a fairly liberal diocese, one would think that all of our parishes would welcome everyone.  But, sometimes that is not the case.  Someone posed the question along the lines of “Is there someone who I wouldn’t want to sit with in church?” when trying to determine how welcoming is a given parish.  I came close to wanting to take that a step further and say “Is there someone sitting in church today that I would not want to speak to during coffee hour?”  It is one thing to worship and pray with just about anyone, but it’s quite another to engage that person directly over a cup of coffee.   The vast majority of Jesus’ ministry did not take place in the temple or in the synagogue, but by engaging the world in all its messiness.

So how welcoming are we?  I’m not just talking about if a trans person walks into church, or a gay or lesbian couple gave each other a smooch during the passing of the peace .. I’m also talking about a migrant worker, a person of color, or someone who is definitely not like the folks we normally see sitting with us on a Sunday.