Annual Meeting of Christ Church + Washington Parish in its 212^th year.
Sermon/Annual Report given by the Rector  ©    January 29, 2006

+May the words of my mouth and the meditation of all our hearts be acceptable to you, O God, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

Many scholars think that St. Mark's Gospel was set down somewhere between 60 and 65 CE. The presumed primary audience is the Jewish Christian community, not in Judea, but perhaps in Rome. If these scholarly theories are true, then the story about Jesus' authority takes on a special kind of power and import. If the date of writing is correct, then Mark's Gospel coincides with the first major Roman persecution of Christians in Rome. Nero, the Emperor, singled out the Christians in Rome for serious persecution. This began a trend that ultimately resulted in the Empire-wide persecution during the reign of Diocletian.

In the story Jesus demonstrates authority in teaching the Scriptures. His authority is visible, audible, and amazes those who heard him. Jesus also demonstrates authority over the demonic. Scholars think that Jesus claimed his authority with Scripture by teaching its meaning directly. In the typical rabbinical way of teaching, the teacher would discuss all of the commentaries on a text. The discussion would be something like, "Rabbi Gameliel said…and Rabbi Moses says…but Rabbi Simon says…." Finally the teacher would conclude with his own viewpoint.

Jesus didn't do that. He said, "Today this text is fulfilled in your presence." He taught with personal authority. He did not rely on the authority of the teaching tradition.

In confronting the demonic, Jesus exercised his authority to heal. The demon saw Jesus for who he was and responded with fear. Jesus' authority over the demonic was powerfully demonstrated.

Let me make two points about this gospel lesson in light of our Annual Meeting. The first is that Jesus’ authority in teaching Scripture comes from his relationship with God and the second is that our authority in teaching Scripture, healing in God’s name and carrying out the gospel imperatives comes from relationship with God and strength given by the Community of Faith.

What makes the Church is both the power of God in people’s lives and the power of community to support that power and carry out the mission of the Church, which, our prayer book says, is “to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ.”  We sang one of my favorite new hymns as our gradual today: “We all are one in mission.”  The first stanza concludes, “A single, great commission compels us from above to plan and work together that all may know Christ’s love.”   Our mission in this parish is to plan and work together that all may know Christ’s love.  We have differing gifts that God can use as we work together to proclaim the Good News of Christ’s love in our world.   I have seen the community gather now for three funerals for our brothers Wendell, Neil, and John of this church family.  I have seen the power of the Holy Spirit present with us in those services of worship.  I have seen the surprise of our neighbors and friends that Christ Church is here and that it is a vibrant community of faith.  How energizing it is for me to see the Church packed with those giving thanks for the life of their friends and relatives and how much I see the potential of our parish in our neighborhood as a source of God’s healing love.

We have a job to do as God’s people in the world and indeed, on Capitol Hill, and that job is to claim Jesus for ourselves and to proclaim his justice-love for others.  The mission of the Church is clear as set forth in The Book of Common Prayer.  The catechism of the BCP says that “The Church is the community of the New Covenant” and the mission of the Church is “to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ.” The catechism goes on to ask, “How does the Church pursue its mission?” and the answer is that “the Church pursues its mission as it prays and worships, proclaims the Gospel, and promotes justice, peace and love.” And finally, the catechism says that the Church carries out its mission “through the ministry of all its members” (all quotes from BCP 1979, p. 855).

Our parish does a good job of praying and worshipping, and we do a great funeral.  We do a pretty good job of proclaiming the Gospel and promoting justice, peace, and love in our community and in our world and we are called to do an even better job.  One of the things that struck me during our recent funerals is that Christ Church is still a “secret” on the Hill and we need to be more visible.

Nevertheless, we’ve had a great year, I believe.  Our finance committee continues to work with our budget and assets to help us to the best job we can in caring for our old properties, our neighbors and our members.  We have new energy in the Discernment Committee we have established to help us decide whether to take on a new capital campaign to address some of our property needs.  We have served our neighbors through the CHGM and our holiday basket drives, as well as through our sandwich-making and veggie chop Sundays.  We recognized some of our parishioners at the CHGM Thanksgiving service for their contribution towards helping our neighbors: John Jameson and Linda Mellgren and John Payne, Marian Connolly and Carol Knight.  In addition, the St. Nicholas dinner committee and quilters dedicated this year’s quilt profits and income from the St. Nicholas dinner to go to our adopted parish, St. Pierre’s in Gautier, MS, one of many churches devastated by the hurricanes.

We held prayer vigils for those whose lives were forever changed by the hurricane and we held services of Resurrection for both parishioners and neighbors on the Hill. We had our great services of Holy Week and Easter.  And during our summer worship we studied and worshiped from other parts of the Anglican Communion with a greater awareness of our common life and our connectedness. On Homecoming Sunday we reflected on how our parish comes together at difficult times like it did on September 11, 2001 and how much it is our home.  Even though we have had less interest in overnight parish retreats the past several years, we came together for a wonderful day-long parish picnic and worship service at Watkins Regional Park in September.  We gathered for informal worship and the children played and we had a great Christ Church food event. 

Our children joined with those of Capitol Hill Presbyterian once more for the Christmas pageant and we worked to include our children in our ministries.  Dierdre Eckian served our children and youth and young parents by working with the Sunday School teachers, the 20-30-somethings, and the young adult book group.  She helped us begin the Godly Play program for Sunday School as well.  Her leaving the position midyear has certainly affected the program for children and youth this past fall.  We had such a successful Vacation Bible School in the summer of 2004 and we hope to offer that program again this year.

Our parish continues to be known on the Hill with our second year of the “G Street Cooperative PlayGroup” for two-year-olds, and our serving as a meeting place for the new Hebrew community on the Hill, the “Hill Havurah,” which held its Passover Seder in our parish hall and will, again this year.   The Capitol Hill Community Achievement Awards went to friends and parishioners of Christ Church, Nancy Metzger, and Frances Slaughter. The Capitol Hill Chorale, the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop, The Capitol Hill Youth Chorus, the “G Street Coop” and other community groups have used our Church for classes, dinners and concerts as partners on the Hill. A memorial service for one of our neighbors, John Janke, filled this space to overflowing with neighbors and friends who had never been to Christ Church.  Our St. Nicholas dinner and quilt auction and the St. Patrick’s Day Dinner and auction brought neighbors and friends to our parish as well and raised money for our operating budget and special outreach needs.

We have continued some of our interest in the Church and the Visual Arts with the work of our seminarian Cindy Simpson and Bill Doggett and me.  Cindy and Bill made great new Lenten banners for this worship space and Bill made new Easter and Christmas banners to enhance our worship.  I led the parish Spiritual Retreat on The Stations of the Cross in Art and we still hope to create portable ‘Stations’ for Lent and Holy Week.  I was honored to serve as chaplain and keynote speaker for the second annual Art and Faith Retreat for the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland in June and I had a wonderful experience of art and faith at Ghost Ranch in Abiquiu, NM in May, praying at holy sites in the desert and painting watercolors.

I continue to serve in leadership positions in the wider church, as Secretary of the Board of Trustees at the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale, and as a member of the Commission on Ministry of the Diocese.  I was asked to be an alternate reader for the General Ordination Examinations.  I have enjoyed my role as supervisor of seminarians from The Virginia Theological Seminary with Cindy Simpson last year and Meaghan Kelly this year.  I serve one day a month as chaplain at the Washington National Cathedral.

My vision for Christ Church this year is that we become more a visible part of our community and neighborhood in light of all the development and transition in our neighborhood and that we become a beacon of hope and justice among our neighbors. I hope we can join with other parishes to do some joint youth work and we plan to join St. Mark’s, Capitol Hill and the Capitol Hill Presbyterian Church for a joint Easter Vigil this year in a service that would rotate among these churches. I hope we can enhance our front yard to make it more inviting to people on Barracks Row and in the neighborhood.  I hope we can be a pastoral presence to potential parishioners and also to neighbors. I hope we can continue to claim the authority of Jesus to welcome the stranger and the neighbor and all who would find a home with us.  I want to create a new vestry committee under parish life to work specifically with communications and spreading the word of our parish in the community.  Last year Gerry Connolly received an honorable mention award for his work with our web site, which is a great witness of our parish in the wider neighborhood. 

We have undergone staff changes with Deirdre Eckian’s resignation in June and now with employing Raiford Gaffney, a neighbor and member of St. Mark’s to be our part-time parish administrator to help the office volunteers and staff with much-needed administrative support (and I believe, to organize the rector, an office volunteer said).  I hope this staffing change will free me up to be more present as your pastor.  I have realized especially with the sadness of the recent deaths of three parishioners how much being a pastor matters to me and how much I feel called to that ministry among you.  Indeed, we are dedicating the next four Sundays to the healing ministry of Jesus as the lectionary readings focus on healing.  We plan to have an evening service of healing during February as well.   

The duty of all Christians is “to follow Christ, to come together week by week for corporate worship, and to work, pray and give for the spread of the kingdom of God” (BCP, p.856).  Let us all claim the authority of Christ in our lives as we carry out this duty. As we give thanks for the work of our parish this past year and as we move forward in new ministries, let us remember that the source of all our authority and ministry is the empowering, healing love of Jesus the Christ in our lives.

I give thanks for this great and historic parish and for each of you and I pray that God will empower us to move forward in this New Year to love and serve God and our neighbors and friends and to promote justice, peace and love to all we meet, building up Christ’s Church.

The hymn, “We all are one in mission” ends this way: “Now let us be united and let our song be heard. Now let us be a vessel for God’s redeeming Word. We all are one in mission, we all are one in call, our varied gifts united by Christ, the Lord of all.”

Amen.