Sermon

Eggs and Fish

by The Rev. Carol Sanford, Chaplain to the Episcopal Search Process

Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion?  [Luke 11.11,12]

First I must say that, although I have known children who occasionally wanted an egg, I cannot ever recall hearing a child ask for a fish. Even the children in our family, who are perfect in every way, show interest from a very early age in tooth-rotting, system-rattling, sugary treats. I am rather fond of them myself.

Of course, we live in a world of Cocoa Puffs and Hershey bars, and so the likelihood of a hungry child requesting, say, a mackerel, is fairly dim. Children seldom know what is truly in their best interest, and the clamor in the grocery store candy aisle continues even now that Halloween is passed.

All of this, of course, presumes a child who is hungry after the fashion of one who is consistently well fed and only momentarily between meals.  A child who is truly hungry, one whose body is shutting down from lack of nourishment, will reach out for anything at all that holds the promise of filling the empty space. This child, too, may mistakenly grab for something that is not truly life giving.

We are gathered here for our Convention Eucharist. During this sacred time, we will be praying for the Holy Spirit to guide our individual and collective discernment as ballots are cast for the eighth Bishop of West Missouri. We are asking for eggs and fish.

The fish, of course, is a symbol of Christ with ancient origins and we all know the miracles of the multiplied fish feeding the hungry thousands. At Easter, our eggs represent the promise and bounty of new life in the resurrected Christ. We are asking for sustenance in our Lord and for the guiding and transforming power of the Holy Spirit. We are children of God asking for eggs and fish.

Which child are we in our asking? Look around you. This place is filled with faithful people.  You came back even after yesterday’s lengthy convention business. Many of you are here from congregations with current challenges. Let’s face it, all congregations have some challenges, but some of them are especially painful. And yet here you are, faithful to God and to your Church and to your place as a member of the body of Christ.

Our Bishop is here with us, a faithful shepherd continuing to uphold the strong heritage of the Episcopate in this diocese. And soon we will gather at the table of God’s Grace, overflowing with mercy, love and every good thing that we need to flourish as the body of Christ on earth. Clearly, as a diocese, we are not starving and blinded by hunger.

Are we, then, the over-indulged or ignorant child who cannot tell the difference between food and sparkly junk, or the greedy adult who chooses not to know or to ignore the truth? For any of us individually, myself included, this might well be true at times. But I believe that when faithful Christians gather in Christ’s name and at Christ’s table, as we are today, something extraordinary happens.

I truly believe that Christ is in the midst of us and that our collective spirit has the chance to be infused with the very Spirit of God. This is why our election is being held within Holy Eucharist; so that, gathering in remembrance of Him, we will remember who we are and so be open to receive God’s every Grace.

We ask in every way we know how, through prayer and song and silence and invocation, for the Holy Spirit to be among us and to move within us. These are not magic spells. We aren’t trying to make God come to us. God in Trinitarian completeness of three persons is already and eternally here. What we are doing is seeking to become aware of and receptive to God’s presence and to listen for God’s will.

I suggest to you that who we are within this process is even more important than the outcome of the election. We are here today as heirs of all the previous worship and work of this diocese, and how we come together today will set the stage for our future with one another, and with those whom we will serve and with our new Bishop, whoever that may be. Personal anxieties and preconceived ideas and even gossip can distract us, but we are here as God’s faithful people. God’s Holy Spirit is with us and working among us already, and it is this movement of the Spirit that we seek to recognize and out of which we seek to accomplish our task.

We have set aside a holy place for our election by being here in the Cathedral. We have set aside sacred time by placing our election within the context of Holy Eucharist. Now we must set aside space within ourselves to recognize, experience, and obey the Holy Spirit moving in our midst.

We must deal with the possibility that God’s will may be more surprising than we bargained for, or that something we individually hold precious may be lost along the way. And so we present ourselves as living sacrifices by putting aside everything that we bring with us except our commitment to love God and to love each other, and to live into our mission to discern and carry out God’s will. This is challenging, but it is part of being a Christian.

Remember, this is a group enterprise. As an individual with a ballot, I want to know that you, my colleagues in this mission, lay and ordained, voting and non-voting, are here in love and charity, and are listening with me as members of the body of Christ. I want to know that we approach our God and this process with awe and earnestness, but I want us to have the humility to not take ourselves too seriously.

We don’t even have to like each other. But we are called to bring every bit of love and commitment that we have for our God and for our diocese and for our neighbor to this table, and to trust that God will take care of the rest.

We ask for eggs and fish.  We are here neither because we are starving nor because we are greedy. We are here because Christ loved us and gave Himself for us. This is a joyful event based in God’s ever-creating abundant love. Let us enter into this process with praise to God for our life together in Him, with thanksgiving for our past as a diocese and with joyful expectation for our future.

The surprise, of course, is that when we ask for eggs and fish, for the things of God, we open ourselves to receive bounty beyond our imagining. In one of the great Christian mysteries, the mighty Spirit of God, Creator of everything that is, hovers over us here in Kansas City on this Saturday morning, brimming over with life and light and all of the guidance and every good thing we need. All we have to do is ask.

“So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.”  [Luke 11.9-10]

Amen.

© Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral