From The Rector

Dear Members and Friends of St. Luke's,

Fr. Michael preached this sermon touching on some important subjects this past Sunday. It was suggested that it be sent to every member of St. Luke's as not everyone had the opportunity to hear it. Please take the time to look at this. St. Luke's belongs to all of us.

In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said, “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.’” Now John wore clothing of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. 

But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit worthy of repentance. Do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. “I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”  Matthew 3:1-12 

Like many Americans, Aimee and I have spent way too much time over the years watching HGTV and all those home improvement programs. Chip and Joanna Gaines make remodeling a home look so easy and fun, don’t they? Joanna never even gets dirty. So, when we moved into our new home this summer, we had some very high hopes for renovations and improvements. For the first month of our time in Granville, we camped out on blow up mattresses in the basement while our contractors began the work on the first two floors. We had both upstairs bathrooms redone, the entire interior was painted, and all the flooring was completely redone... along with a whole host of other odd jobs. And then, finally, after a month of living in the basement, we were able to move upstairs to begin the process of unpacking all those pesky boxes that came with us from New York. Over the course of a couple weeks we did a lot of work and we made the first two floors livable. But then everything kind of stopped. You see, we ran out of two important things: money and energy. The fact is that once we ran through our renovation budget and we moved upstairs, we found we didn’t really have much energy to do any more improvements ourselves. Consequently, there were a whole lot of boxes of odds and ends that never really got unpacked and ended up in the basement or the garage. And as long as we didn’t go into the basement or the garage, we didn’t really think about it too much. After all, it was nice enough upstairs. It was cozy, it was mostly clean, and we had comfortable furniture in all the rooms. So, we didn’t really kill ourselves finishing all those HGTV plans of ours. And those boxes and assorted piles of detritus in the basement and the garage stayed just as they were. Now, I don’t think Aimee and I are bad people or lazy people. We just got used to living with clutter in a couple of places... places we didn’t have to think about too much so long as the door was closed and we didn’t have to see it. Now is that a healthy system of getting things done in an orderly and methodical manner? No. Was our new home everything that we wanted it to be? Not really. Was there more work that could be done by us to make it closer to the home we did want it to be? Of course. But who wants unpack boxes, hang pictures, and paint the basement when you can go to Whit’s? So, we settled into to our not quite finished home. And then we settled into a rut.

And I think that the operative word here is settled. We settled. And it’s important to note that the word settle can mean more than just one thing. To settle can mean to adopt a steady and secure style of life, especially with regard to home or work. To settle can mean to come to rest in a comfortable position or place. But to settle can also mean to accept something that one would normally find less than satisfactory. And that is exactly what I was thinking about as I looked at this Gospel account from Matthew. Because here we see John the Baptist… grumpy old John the Baptist… suggesting that we stop settling and we get back to work. Now, John the Baptist, as most of us realize, is probably not someone we might choose as rector of our friendly local Episcopal Church. But that was not his job. John was the forerunner of Jesus Christ. He came to make everything ready for the coming of Jesus. He was a wildly charismatic but patently unsettling figure. And he was anything but polished or sophisticated. We are told that he dressed himself in camel’s hair... and not the Brooks Brothers kind either. His diet consisted of locusts and wild honey. And this messy, wild haired guy with honey and bugs stuck in his beard wanders in from the wilderness and looks at the religious leaders of Jerusalem and Judea, and then he comforts them with a warm Advent message, right? Wrong. He looks at the Pharisees and the Sadducees and he says, “You miserable bunch of snakes! You have a lot of nerve.  You have all settled into a rut that might make you feel secure, but there is work to do. Don’t think that your privilege or your lineage is going to save you. So repent and get ready.  Because someone far greater than me is coming. I baptize with water, but he will baptize with fire!  Get ready to clean up your lives. It is time to get back to work because the messiah is coming!” 

And while I might not use the same methods as John the Baptist or use his choice of words, I do think that John’s message is timely and appropriate on many levels. The religious leadership of Jerusalem had, indeed, settled in an ineffectual rut. They were supposed to be serving the needs of a people living under the rule of a ruthless foreign power. But instead of attending to those needs they had carved out places of privilege for themselves. They were doing just fine, thank you very much. And so they settled. They settled for comfort rather than doing the hard work of serving God and God’s people. And it is so easy to settle. We do it all the time. We do it in our personal lives and we do it in the church as well. We get to a comfortable place... a seemingly safe place. And then we look around and we say, “Well, this looks pretty good to me. I think I’ll settle right here for a while.” And then without even knowing it, we stop growing and we stop serving. We settle. And then we forget all about the work we are supposed to be doing even as we admire where we are.  But folks, that is a very dangerous place. And I will be perfectly frank with you, St. Luke’s cannot afford to settle right now. Now, is this a beautiful church offering beautiful music and God’s love and good will to the people of Granville, Ohio and the surrounding community? Yes, it is. St. Luke’s is a fantastic church. But the fact is that fantastic churches with wonderful priests and kindhearted people are closing all over America.  That is the reality of being the church in the 21st century. And I will be even more frank. St. Luke’s is not in a terribly secure place financially. Very bluntly, we are not bringing in money at the rate that we are spending it. And while it would be so easy to shrug our shoulders and simply hope that some incredibly wealthy person will simply wander into our church and immediately sign a pledge card to balance our budget, I don’t that that is terribly realistic. And I would not be doing my job if I allowed us to settle for what we are currently doing.  Now I cannot make anyone in this church give more money. I am not a professional fundraiser. Nor will I threaten or accuse or blame anyone for where we are, as I am not a politician either. I’m just lowly parish priest. And you should know that there is no brood of vipers to blame here. It has simply been a challenging last couple of years here, as we all know. But St. Luke’s challenges did not end with my coming to be your priest and my presence here is not a cure all. There is more work yet to be done. So, I will ask all of us to take responsibility and then to move forward. Over the coming days and weeks, the finance committee, the wardens, the vestry, the staff, and I will all be working together to look at how money is spent here at St. Luke’s. I can tell you that next year’s budget will not look like this year’s budget. Very simply, it will not because it cannot. But I can also promise you that I will do everything in my power to make sure that we are moving into the place where God wants us to be, while keeping you all informed. This is the challenge that is currently set before us. 

Now here is the good news... this is not an impossible task in any way, shape, or form. We are not climbing Mt. Everest here. And we all need to remember that St. Luke’s is a church that knows how to deal with challenges because we have some wonderfully gifted people. As I was reminded earlier this week in a longtime parishioner’s letter, St. Luke’s is the only parish in the history of the Diocese of Southern, Ohio that was able to regain parish status after having that status taken away. And please hear me when I say that we are nowhere near that particular threat. We just need to get back to work... together. That is how problems are solved.  I’ll even give you an example. This past week a lot work got done at our home on Pinehurst Drive. Aimee and I decided that we had settled for long enough. And while admittedly, Aimee has done far more work at home than me this week, I can tell you that the basement is no longer a chaotic mess of boxes and unused furniture.  Did John the Baptist come to yell at us? No. It’s just that my mother-in-law was coming (along with my sister-in-law and her fiancée). It created a little urgency. Now, the work is not all done, but at least we aren’t settling anymore. And we can’t settle here either.  We all have a part to play in making St. Luke’s the church that we all know it can be and I promise I will do my part. And I am proud to work alongside the people who are already doing their part. Our task is certainly not insurmountable... but we cannot settle anymore. We are all in this together. Now if only we could get St. Luke’s a show on HGTV. I wonder if Chip and Joanna would like to become Episcopalians.  I’ll be they could sign a nice pledge card! Amen. 

Faithfully,
The Reverend Michael Ralph