The 21st Century Church; Learning from Peter and Paul

Homily- St. Peter and St. Paul, June 26, 2011

Have you ever made a serious mistake in your life, but someone has given you a second chance, a chance at redemption?

That is what God did in the lives of two men who played a central role in the birth of the Christian Church; He gave them a second chance.

Paul, an educated Jew and Pharisee, made a reputation for himself as a persecutor of followers of Christ.

Yet it was Paul, who after his dramatic conversion on the Road to Damascus became the one who preached the Gospel of Christ to the Gentiles, and through missionary efforts extended the church through Turkey and Greece into the very heart of Rome.

He left us his letters to Christian communities in that region, and they have become part of our sacred scripture.

Like Paul, Peter made mistakes. Always brash and headstrong, he was one of the twelve men who followed Jesus throughout his ministry. Yet he denied Jesus three times on the eve of his death.

This denial is echoed in our Gospel reading today with Jesus three times asking Peter if he loved him. Yet Peter still became one of the early leaders of the church, and is regarded as the first Bishop of Rome, the rock on which the Church was built.

Both Peter and Paul were martyred. They gave up their lives for what they believed in, for their faith in Christ.

As we honour their memory, we look for lessons in our own lives.

One lesson is the boundless grace of God, despite our failings. We can do, as the prayer says, “more than we asked or imagined.”

In the parable of the Prodigal Son from Luke’s Gospel, one of the most familiar and loved from scripture, the Father welcomes his youngest son back with a great celebration.

This, despite the young man’s ill considered request and receipt of his inheritance, his loss of his fortune in wasteful and extravagant living, and his return home penniless and in disgrace.

The father in the story doesn’t care about all that. All he knows is his son is back, and he wants to celebrate.
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The character usually ignored in the story is the elder brother, the one who stayed with his father, didn’t claim his inheritance early, and hasn’t done anything wrong.

But he is resentful because his younger brother has been forgiven and restored to the household. The father even kills the fatted calf for the celebration, something he never did for the elder brother.

What links this parable with Peter and Paul is grace, God’s grace. A second chance. A chance for redemption.

In our life as the Anglican Church in the Diocese of Huron we are at a crossroads. It isn’t just in this parish we have memories of the 50’s and 60’s, when we were stronger and more vital communities. We are all in the same boat, although perhaps some boats are leaking more than others, to carry on that metaphor.

One of the things planned for the fall is a Diocesan wide study of a book called the “Prodigal God” by Timothy Keller, a Presbyterian minister from the United States.

In the book Keller takes a new look at the parable, shifting the emphasis from the younger son, with his wasteful or “prodigal” or extravagant spending of his portion of the inheritance.

Instead Keller sees God in the person of the Father in the story as the Prodigal, or extravagant one. God extends grace to us, no matter what mistakes we make. God yearns for our return to his fold, his household. He yearns for our repentance.

Keller also takes another look at the elder brother in the story, who he sees as being just as wrong as the younger brother—but in a different way---his resentful attitude towards both his Father and his younger brother; his refusal to take part in the feast of welcome back.

Lest we too easily agree Keller, he suggests many Christians have acted too often as elder brothers.

The point of studying a book like this is that we need to become a church with a mission and a ministry, which will address the needs of not only our members but our communities in this 21st century.

Just keeping the doors open and continuing with parish life as it has been won’t work anymore. It isn’t sustainable, either financially or spiritually.

We don’t know what the church will look like in the next 10 to 20 years, but we need to start finding out what the possibilities are.

As well as this book study, we will have Back to Church Sunday this fall. You’ll be hearing a lot more about this as we get closer to the date. The idea is simple. All of us have friends, neighbours, children, grand-children. On one particular Sunday—September 25th, we will be asked to invite them to worship with us.

Ideally, we should pick them up and bring them to worship.

In Dioceses which have already tried this, thousands of people have come out in addition to the regular parishioners, and more important about 20 percent have stayed.

Think of how it felt to be worshipping on the 85th anniversary with people of all ages and almost 150 in the church. That’s the goal for Back to Church Sunday.

Studies have shown that the best way for churches to attract new members is by personal invitation by existing members—not church ads, not signs, not brochures or posters.

As we go into this summer period of refreshment, and the blessings of nature, I would offer a prayer for the coming fall to be an important time for renewal in this parish.
I can also announce Bishop Terry Dance will be here on Sunday October 16 for his first Episcopal visit since I was appointed.