Dedication Sunday
September 8, 2024
1 Kings 8:22-23,27b-30;
+ Today, we are celebrating ourDedication Sunday.
We are commemorating 68 years ofservice to God and others.
We are blessing backpacks.
We are retiring our 100 year oldprocessional cross.
We are welcoming new members.
It’s all very exciting.
And I especially love ourscripture readings for today.
I love all this talk of abuilding being God’s house.
I think we sometimes forget thatfact.
We forget that this is God’shouse.
God, in a very unique ways,dwells with us here.
But this is Sunday is more thanall these physical things.
It is about than just a building,and walls.
It about us being the House ofGod.
It is about us being thetabernacles in which God dwells.
It is about us and our service toGod and others.
And you know what it’s really allabout.
It is about LOVE.
Yup, it’s gonna be another lovesermon.
Years ago, I read an amazingbiography of the American poet Denise Levertov, I came across this wonderfulquote, from another poet, St. John the Cross:
“In the evening of our lives, wewill be judged on love alone.”
Later I heard a friend of minecomment on that quote by saying
“we will be judged BY love alone.”
I love that!
That quote has been haunting mefor years.
And it certainly has beenstriking me to my core in these days leading up to our Dedication Sundaycelebration.
If this congregation could have amotto for itself, it would be this.
“In the evening of our lives, wewill be judged by love alone.”
Because this, throughout all ofour 68 year history, is what we are known for at St. Stephen’s.
Love.
We are known for the fact that weknow, by our words, by our actions, by our faith in God and one another, thatit is love that makes the difference.
And by love we will, ultimately,be judged.
That’s what the Church—thatlarger Church—capital “C” Church— should be.
But sometimes we forget what the Church should be.
This morning, there are manypeople here who have been wounded by that Church—the larger Church.
I stand before you, having beenhurt be the larger Church on more than one occasion.
And for those of us who are here,with our wounds still bleeding, it is not an easy thing to keep coming back tochurch sometimes.
It is not any easy thing to be apart of that Church again.
It is not an easy thing to callone’s self a Christian again, especially now when it seems so many people haveessentially highjacked that name and made it into something ugly and terrible.
And, speaking for myself, it’snot easy to be a priest—a uniform-wearing representative of that human-runorganization that so often forgets about love being its main purpose.
But, we, here at St. Stephen’s,are obviously doing something right, to make better the wrongs that may havebeen done on a larger scale.
We, at St. Stephen’s, (I hope)have done a good job I think over these last 68 years of striving to be apositive example of the wider Church and of service to Christ who, according toPeter’s letter this morning, truly is a “living stone”—the solid foundationfrom which we grow.
We have truly become a place oflove, of radical acceptance.
As God intends the Church to be.
In these last 68 years, thiscongregation has done some amazing things.
It has been first and foremost inthe acceptance of women in leadership, when women weren’t in leadership.
It was first and foremost in theacceptance of LGBTQ people, when few churches would acknowledge them, much lesswelcome them and fully include them.
Certainly in the last fewyears, certainly St. Stephen’s has donesomething not many Episcopal Churches are doing.
It has grown.
And that alone is something weshould be very grateful to God for on this Dedication Sunday.
Seeing allthis we need to give the credit where the credit is truly due:
the Holy Spirit.
Here.
Among us.
In our reading from First Kings today, we hearSolomon echoing God’s words, “My name shall be there.”
God’s Name dwells here.
As we look around, we too realize that this istruly the home of God.
We too are able to exclaim, God’s name dwells here!
And, as I said at the beginning of my sermon, by“the home of God” I don’t mean just thisbuilding.
After all—God is truly here, with us, in all thatwe do together.
The name of God is proclaimed in the ministries wedo here.
In the outreach we do.
In the witness we make in the community ofFarg0-Moorhead and in the wider Church.
God is here, with us.
God is working through us and in us.
Sometimes, when we are in the midst of it all, whenwe are doing the work, we sometimes miss that perspective.
We miss that sense of holiness and renewal and lifethat comes bubbling up from a healthy and vital congregation working together.
We miss the fact that God truly is here.
So, it is good to stop and listen for a moment.
It is good to reorient ourselves.
It is good to refocus and see what ways we can moveforward together.
It is good to look around and see how God isworking through us.
In a few moments, we will recognize and give thanks for now only our newmembers but for all our members and the many ministries of this church.
Many of the ministries that happen here at St.Stephen’s go on clandestinely.
They go on behind the scenes, in ways most of us(with exception of God) don’t even see and recognize.
But that is how God works as well.
God works oftentimes clandestinely, through us andaround us.
This morning, however, we are seeing very clearlythe ways in which God works not so clandestinely.
We see it in here at St. Stephen’s.
We see it in the vitality here.
We see it in the love here.
We see it in the tangible things, in our altar, inthe bread and wine of the Eucharist, in our scripture readings, in our windows,in the smell of incense in the air, in our service to9ward each other towardothers.
In US.
But behind all these incredible things happeningnow, God has also worked slowly and deliberately and seemingly clandestinelythroughout the years.
And for all of this—the past, the present and thefuture—we are truly thankful.
God truly is in this place.
This is truly the house of God.
WE truly are the house of God.
This is the place in which love is proclaimed andacted out.
So, let us rejoice.
Let us rejoice in where we have been.
Let us rejoice in where we are.
Let us rejoice in where we are going.
And, in our rejoicing, let us truly be God’s ownpeople.
Let us be God’s people in order that we mightproclaim, in love, the mighty and merciful acts of Christ, the living andunmovable stone, on whom we find our security and our foundation.
