Dedication Sunday
September10, 2023
Genesis 28.10-17; 1 Peter 2.1-5,9-11
+ I love our Dedication Sundays.
I really do!!
It is this one Sunday each year when wereally get to celebrate St. Stephen’s and all it is and does.
We get to celebrate what it has been,what it is and what it will be.
And we get to celebrate all that God doesfor us here.
On our website, we are described as a
“growing, inclusive community of artists, poets, musicians,professionals, writers, students and searchers for God.”
I love that description of us.
Because that is who we are.
If you have not looked at our website,or any of our many social media, please do!
But St. Stephen’s is, to say the very least, a unique place.
There are not many congregations quite like it—thisweird and wonderful blend of progressive, peace and social justice-basedministry blended with Anglo-Catholic worship and spirituality.
This is not some nonsensical mish-mash, however.
This is a place wherein somehow it all comestogether and forms a good solid base.
It is for this reason so many people are drawnto this out-of-the-way church in the far reaches of Northeast Fargo.
I had one parishioner say to me that St.Stephen’s is a really a kind of spiritual powerhouse.
This wonderful, eclectic place which has becomehome to so many people.
Some people—especially those of whoattend here week-in and week-out, might not see this as all that unique ofplace.
Sometimes we don’t seethe treasures right under our noses, because they’re just that close.
But let me tell you, others definitelythink we’re unique.
Andrew Uruho, who has been attendinghere for the last several months, definitely think we’re unique.
He’s attended over 200 Episcopalchurches all over the country.
And he definitely came here expectingone thing and found something completely different.
He came here expecting to find 1979 BCPand Hymnal 1982 hymns (all of which he loves).
He found liturgies adapted from EnrichingOur Worship inclusive language Eucharists, Celtic Masses and New Zealand PrayerBook.
This past week, Jane Gaffrey sent me anote about how important St. Stephen’s has been not only to her but to her sonJason, who is trans:
Jane wrote me this this week:
“I hear from Jason how much he is awed and happy because ofyou and others at St Stephens --how much he feels accepted and loved as heis. And everyday I hear how awed he is that you share your own humanityand struggles publically. He loves how REAL people are and how you andthe church love others well no matter who they are.”
Andrea Olsen, who was featured in anarticle on Episcopal News Service which has garnered A LOT of attention, shares how she never feltwelcome anywhere like she was welcomed here, and she had attended quite a fewchurches in her search.
Even Mother Mary Johnson, a retiredpriest in this Diocese, who has filled in for me a few times over the yearswhen I’ve been on vacation, this past week was accidentally contacted when wewere updating our directory.
Her number got mixed up with ourparishioner Mary Johnson’s phone number.
She sent me a text message afterwardsaying,
“I would GALDLY be claimed as part ofthe St. Stephen’s community!”
Mother Mary, by the way, was one of thefew people in this diocese how actually reached out and commended us for ourstanding on DEPO back in 2015
We have parishioners who did not feelwelcome in any other church either here in Fargo or in any of the other placesthey have lived.
But they felt welcomed—and more thanthat—included—here.
I hate to break this news to you, butthis kind of radical hospitality is NOT common in the Church—even among so verymany Episcopal churches.
If you look at our social media youwill see what people are saying there about us.
And the renovations we have made herehave been a symbol in many ways of what we are truly doing here.
These renovations are important for usto reflect the vitality and the beauty of our parish.
Remember what it looked like in ournave back in 2007, for those of you who were here?
It was plain.
As in Quaker Meeting House plain.
Steve Bolduc shares the joke that onetime there was a Diocesan gathering here at St. Stephen’s about 20 years ago.
Two people in line for food in theUndercroft were overheard by Steve saying, “Ah, St. Stephen’s! So low church itshould be called Mr. Stephens.”
I love that story!
I love it, because that aint us now!
As we slowly brought more beauty into ourphysical building, not everyone was happy about those changes.
And that’s normal.
Some people felt it too “busy” in thechurch.
Some people feared stained glasswindows for fear that it was would darken the church.
People feared a memorial garden becausethey didn’t want to see a cemetery on the church property.
People feared a bell because it mightirritate the neighbors.
But a few weeks ago, Greta Taylor, whohas been attending St. Stephen’s since the late 1950s pulled me aside and toldme how she loved the fact the door to sacristy was moved.
It looked like how it was when shefirst started attending here.
And that all the attention when oneenters is directed to exactly where it should be—on the altar, and on thebeautiful cross above the altar, that has come to truly symbolize our communityhere.
This renovation has been a much-neededboost.
And I know our Altar Guild rejoices init.
But we are more than our windows, ouraltar, our cross, our bell, our tower, our organ, our labyrinth, our memorialgarden, our renovated sacristy.
We are so much more than these fourwalls and this roof.
This building symbolizes and reflectswho and what we are—a solidly progressive parish based on Peace and SocialJustice in our following of Jesus in this world.
But even that doesn’t fully representwho we are.
This past Wednesday night I preached aboutPaul Jones, who is commemorated in our Peace and Social Justice window, and, more specifically, about the book OutlawChristian by my friend Jacqueline Bussie.
If you have not read this book, READTHIS BOOK!
Jacqueline Bussie and her late husbandMatt Myer attended briefly this church.
She saw in us an outlaw Christiancommunity.
Outlaw Christians are people are notafraid to rant, and speak out, and rail at the realities we are faced with.
Outlaw Christians don’t sugarcoat it.
Holy, righteous ranting and speakingout and not conforming to the status quo is very much a part of ourprogressive, peace and social justice tradition.
You don’t believe me?
Look at these windows!
These windows are rants!
These windows are our sermons.
Our whole, 67 year ministry here at St.Stephen’s is a rant—a long, impassioned, often angry speech.
And yes, I did say angry.
Anger isn’t always a bad thing.
We need to be angry about some things.
And I am angry.
I am angry when we are told to put ourflames under bushels.
I am angry when I am told that weshould be comply, that we should simply go with the flow.
Holy, righteous anger is not a badthing.
And many of us are here because we areangry at the way the Church has treated us in the past.
On this Dedication Sunday, I veryproudly boast of all that God has done here.
And if my boasting may at times soundlike a rant at times, I make no apologies for that.
I have no qualms about boasting aboutwhat all of us are doing here at St. Stephen’s.
In our wonderful reading this morningfrom St. Peter, we find him saying,
“Once you were not a people,
but now you are God’s people;
once you had not received mercy,
but now you have received mercy.”
When we look around us this morning, aswe celebrate 67 years of this unique, spiritual powerhouse of a congregation,we realize that truly we are on the receiving end of a good amount of mercy.
We realize that mercy from God hasdescended upon us in this moment.
And it is a glorious thing.
So, what do we do in the face ofglorious things?
We sing!
We rejoice!
We give thanks!
And, as unbelievable as it might seemat times, we cannot take it for granted.
We must use this opportunity we havebeen given.
We realize that it is not enough to receivemercy.
We must, in turn, give mercy.
We, this morning, are being called toecho what St. Peter said to us in our reading this morning.
We, God’s own people, are being calledto “proclaim
the mighty acts of [God] who called[us] out of
darkness into [that] marvelous light.”
We proclaim these mighty acts by ourown acts.
We proclaim God’s acts through mercy,through ministry, through service to others, through the worship we give hereand the outreach we do from here.
I love being the cheerleader for St.Stephen’s.
God is doing wonderful things herethrough each of us.
Each of us is the conduit through whichGod’s mercy and love is being manifested.
In our collect for this morning, weprayed to God that “all who seek you here [may] find you, and be filled withyour joy and peace…”
That prayer is being answered in ourvery midst today.
That joy is being proclaimed in songtoday.
And although it may seem unbelievableat times, this is truly how God works in our midst.
God works in our midst by allowing usto be that place in which God is found, a place in which joy and peace andmercy dwell.
So, let us continue to receive God’smercy and, in turn, give God’s mercy to others.
Let us rant.
Let us continue to be the outlawChristians we have been throughout our history.
But at the same time, let us be a placein which mercy dwells.
Because when we do we will findourselves, along with those who come to us, echoing the words of Jacob from ourreading in the Hebrew Bible this morning,
“How awesome is this place! This isnone
other than the house of God, and thisis the gate of
heaven.”
