“O God, you have prepared for those who love you such good things as surpass our understanding. Pour into our hearts such love towards you, that we, loving you in all things and above all things, may obtain your promises, which exceed all that we can desire…”
A few weeks ago, I was asked to join two other Austin-area priests in a panel discussion for the Episcopal Parish Network. The topic was “atypical church models.” One priest leads a church that doesn’t have its own building. The other leads a colorful, LGBTQ-inclusive church that meets in a storefront. And, as you know, I’m the priest at a two-campus parish, one of only a handful in the Episcopal Church.
The EPN group recognized that these models of ministry might represent the “growing edges” of the Episcopal Church, as it becomes less of an establishment institution and more of a missional one.
They were especially curious about the way small congregations build an identity and ethos as the community adapts and grows. We talked about how a congregation grounded in prayer and discernment takes on a kind of personality that isn’t just one person’s preference, but a combination of tastes, ideas, and passions adding up to more than the sum of its parts.
I like to think of the resulting context as the Holy Spirit’s personality, tailored to this time and place for the people who are here today and the people who will be here tomorrow.
This congregation knows what this process feels like. Since its founding, you have done deep and ongoing discernment to build this community and you are used to pivoting. It isn’t always easy, and sometimes, it has been discouraging,
But, I believe that we are always getting more comfortable with letting the Holy Spirit guide us beyond our own imagination. As we continue in our strategic planning on this campus, this will be the key. Because, it’s just a fact that, when we ask God to help us be attentive to where he is leading us, we will always be surprised by the path we end up on, but we will be delighted, too.
Because God’s promises surpass our understanding, and exceed all that we can desire.
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But don’t take my word for it! There are stories of surprise and delight all around us…
Here’s one: On Wednesday morning, acclaimed public interest lawyer Bryan Stevenson preached at Seminary of the Southwest’s graduation.
As the founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, Stevenson has dedicated his life to improving the justice system. He and his team have “won reversals, relief, or release from prison for over 140 wrongly condemned prisoners on death row…” As one presenter noted, Bryan Stevenson has, quite literally, changed the world. But he didn’t plan it that way.
Stevenson got his undergraduate degree in Philosophy, and then realized that no one would hire someone with an undergraduate degree in Philosophy. With no real plan in mind, he went to law school.
Early on in his program, he took a class that required him to go to Georgia and meet with a person on death row. In his early 20s, with no expertise and no credentials, the proposition filled him with fear. But he showed up and entered the room.
He spent the first several minutes telling the man he was sorry, because he didn’t know anything and couldn’t help. But finally, he said what he had been coached to say: “You will not be executed in the next year.” The man thanked him profusely, because that meant he could invite his family to visit him without fearing the worst news.
Stevenson and the imprisoned man spent the next two hours talking to one another. They found out they shared a birthday and were the exact same age. By the time he left, they had become friends.
Stevenson told us that the encounter left him changed in a way that would shape the rest of his life. He had entered the prison in fear and trembling – everything in him had resisted it – and he had left with a new calling. God had led him to places that surpassed his understanding, and there was joy by the time he got there.
Because, God’s promises exceeded all that he could desire.
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Today’s scripture readings are marked by similar encounters…
In Acts, Paul has a vision that leads him to Philippi, in Macedonia. He doesn’t know why he’s supposed to go there, but he senses that God wants him to go. Once there, he meets a woman named Lydia. She is a successful businesswoman who makes her money selling expensive purple cloth. She is also a woman of sincere faith.
At Lydia’s prompting, Paul and Silas baptize her and her household, and she becomes one of the major benefactors of the church, even hosting church services in her home. It becomes one of the most significant congregations of the early church.
The fact that Lydia is a woman is significant. According to the norms of the day, there is no reason for Paul and Silas to take a woman seriously, even if she is wealthy. There is no precedent for letting a woman set the terms for her family’s conversion. And it was scandalous that Lydia offered herself as the host for these men who did not belong to her household.
Paul, who had devoted his life to upholding rigid cultural norms, had followed the Spirit on a mission beyond his understanding, and now he had a woman for a ministry partner! What Paul had once scorned, he now delighted in.
God’s promises exceeded all that he could desire.
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In Revelation, John of Patmos is carried away to behold the heavenly city of God. Held in neglect in a prison cell, he is somehow encountering the bounty of Christ. Held in darkness, he is nevertheless surrounded by the ambient light of Christ. Left to die, he is brought into an understanding of eternal life.
Though a prisoner in the eyes of the world, John is a prophet in the eyes of God. Though scorned, God delighted in him. God gave him visions that surpassed his understanding.
God’s promises exceeded all that he could to desire.
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In the Gospel of John, a man stands up for the first time in 38 years. All he wanted was for someone to let him get into the therapeutic pool called Bethzetha: “House of Grace,” He was only looking for temporary relief.
But Christ calls him to stand. Risking embarrassment and disappointment, the man does. He immediately goes to the temple to worship God. Christ could see beyond the man’s self-understanding.
God’s promises exceeded all that he could to desire for himself.
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The life of faith doesn’t come with a map. We know this.
But, sometimes, fearing embarrassment and disappointment, we think that we’re not doing it right unless we know exactly where we’re going from the start.
Other times, we believe the lie that following Jesus is primarily a practice of “fear and trembling.” That’s it’s supposed to be hard all the time.
Sometimes, we fear the work itself. We don’t want to have to change our minds: about who we are, about who God is, and about who is worth listening to.
But our Collect gets it right: If we commit to staying close to God, in prayer and discernment, fostering a habit of love, God will lead us to places we never thought we’d go.
These places will “surpass all that we can understand…or desire.” They will be places where cultural norms need not apply, because the church is for everyone. They will be places where darkness is turned to light, and the prisoners become the prophets. They will be places where the impossible is made possible, just as we had settled for “good enough.”
We need not fear or fret about where the road is leading…It is always leading home, to the surprising and beautiful paradise of Christ. And his home is a “house of grace.”
Amen.
Leah Wise 