Sermon preached at the Institution of the Rev. Laurie Jean Wurm as Rector of St. John's, Boonton, NJ

October 20, 2007

The Rev. Geoffrey B. Curtiss



Send us out, O Lord.

We begin by thanking Rosemary for our being here today. In 1992, it was Rosemary who knew a potential solution for her partner Laurie when Laurie had hit a dead end at Princeton Seminary. In 1981, it was a small group of progressive Christians who were sent out to offer sanctuary to the Dykes of Hoboken. If you do not know the story, it is a good one for another day. But, thank you, Rosemary, for bringing us all together.

Laurie, I begin my message today by thanking and praising God for the persistence and the willingness you have demonstrated to forgive this Episcopal Church: for our brokenness demonstrated in our language of exclusion, in leaders that seek unity over truth, in our behaviors of self-selection, and in our unwillingness to trust the proclamation that YHWH’s Reign is at hand and an alternative future is already present.

What we do here today heals us and lives into that alternative future; you have allowed us to become a part of your life and your family. YHWH sent you to us that we might be changed and transformed, not so that we can make of you one of us -- how boring would that be! Remember this, as YHWH now sends people to you here in Boonton. I celebrate that YHWH’s Reign and alternative future are being made manifest among us. You indeed are one who looks not only for the coming kingdom, but who has staked your life on the validity of the cross as the way of life of the kingdom.

We gather for your Institution as Rector of this congregation. This is not an easy task before you, but rather a great challenge. Walter Brueggemann confronts those of us who are called to lead institutions with an important observation: are we to be seduced into becoming the voice of the Temple and those who seek to maintain their presumed worlds, their hierarchical power structures, or can we remain true to the intention of YHWH to be prophets, priests and pastors, that is to let the voice of the peasant, the marginalized, the ones who are oppressed, alienated, who cry out lamenting their condition be at the center of our work?

Your Institution will call you to maintain this congregation, as well as to carry on being a prophet, a pastor and a priest. If you have not already, you will regularly find yourself in the midst of this tension between being prophet, pastor, priest; one who preaches liberation, seeks equity, calls for the redistribution of wealth and power, AND you will also hear the voices of management to maintain the status quo, voices that serve power, demand statistics and programmatic initiatives calling you to manage this institution and to participate in the councils of the Church.

One might ask, “How can we, as rectors, be the Elishas carrying Elijah’s mantle?” Are we willing to risk everything; that is, to burn our livestock and our livelihood in order to pick up the mantle and remain true to the Word of YHWH? Or do we as Rectors ultimately become like David, and even worse Solomon, as we are seduced into the Canaanite ways that surround us and prostrate ourselves before the God of consumerism, self-sufficiency and affluence? Can we keep the voice of Moses ever before us and not get tripped up like Ahab and the Omri dynasty and bow down to these foreign gods? It becomes so insidious; we usually do not even know it is happening until after it is too late.

Can we listen to the voice of Samuel and resist the temptation for unity when those all around us are clamoring for it? It is the voice of Moses that is the voice that keeps us true and focused. Samuel knew this voice, Jeremiah and Ezekiel knew this voice, Second Isaiah spoke this voice and we audaciously claim that Messiah Jesus is this voice. As our contemporary reading reminds us, Messiah Jesus did not seek to create a new religion and have people prance before him crying, “Lord, Lord.” Rather, Messiah Jesus organized against the Temple and Rome’s colonizing powers in Galilee, Samaria and Judea. He took up the voice of Moses and left a legacy of disciples “who stake their lives on the validity of the cross as the way of life of the kingdom.”

I am sure, since your arrival here in Boonton, you have been hearing many voices all around you that are vying for your attention, that seek to convert you to their agenda, that seek to squelch the voice of Moses from being spoken and acknowledged. I can name some of these voices because they are so familiar: oh, but we have always done it this way, what do you mean walking the streets and finding out who are neighbors are, we only worship using the Book of Common Prayer, we only do Anglican church music, we come here because we love our historic church structures, we desire this place to continue our ancestral traditions, I am here to maintain this as my family chapel. This is what David faced as he took over Jerusalem -- all the Canaanite voices that kept trying to seduce him away from YHWH. And remember, he was seduced regularly, and his reign ended tragically.

In the larger context of our culture the Canaanites continue to infect our institutions and seduce us into believing that we do not have enough, that we should be unsure about our future and cede the future’s determination over to others who know more, that wealth trickles down and that violence is the only way to exercise and maintain control.

So Walter Brueggemann goes on to say: “The prophetic tradition is a massive act of imagination that asserts that the world could be different, if the present is informed by our frightened past and an assured future.”

Scarcity can be displaced by generosity;
Anxiety can be displaced by confidence;
Greed can be displaced by sharing;
Brutality can be displaced by compassion and forgiveness.

As you start to lead this congregation and participate in the councils of the Church, I give you five learnings from Parker Palmer about how to handle what institutions have a tendency to do to us.

1. We must debunk the myth that institutions possess autonomous, even ultimate, power over our lives.
2. We must validate the importance of our emotions as well as our intellect.
3. We must teach ourselves how to “mine” our emotions for knowledge.
4. We must learn how to cultivate community for the sake of both knowing and doing.
5. We must teach and model what it means to be on a journey toward an undivided life.

That is why I rejoice at the Gospel text you chose for today. (Luke 10: 1-2)
Surprise me again, YHWH, with your Spirit, and send me out. The Gospel strategy that you have chosen to raise up this morning from Numbers (11: 16-25) and Luke goes far beyond institutional development and Church Growth. You are challenging this congregation into a radical form of mission. Moses in the wilderness and Jesus in Galilee are not interested in building institutions or perfecting our Temples. Their hope is to fill YHWH’s people with YHWH’s spirit.

Did Moses or Jesus huddle their followers into a Saturday morning training event or a conference setting to teach some strategic plan that would empower people to identify their gifts, help them practice their religion with enthusiasm and joy, create church structures that increase capacity and clarify roles, provide worship that is inspiring, create a system of small groups of common interest and concern, do a needs assessment, and develop a “love quotient” in order to grow.

You have heard it….. if only we develop a stronger internal institutional life our Church would grow. But this is not the Gospel and it bores our hearts and turns our churches into funeral parlors.

Laurie, do not get confused between the Gospel and the Church.
The Church will do anything and, yes, everything to keep itself alive.
The Gospel will do everything to give its life away.

The texts invite us into a proven, radical, alternative strategy that will turn the world and the Church inside out and upside down. “Get out of this Church and get into the streets, the high-ways and by-ways of Boonton, go out two by two, four by four and bring the Gospel to the people.” Set the table, for Jesus is coming; he sent them out two by two ahead of himself.

Only as you take up this mantle of spirit-driven sending out and are prepared to let go of your self-delusions and be open to new possibilities does the Spirit come and fill you, support you, sustain you. No wonder Church Growth Movements fail. They are anti-Gospel.

They want to keep the Spirit in a closed bottle for it is dangerous. Go forth INTO THE WORLD and you will be filled with the Spirit.

As John Vincent has taught us,
"Mission Strategy is not about perfecting our religion or our institutions, but about forming disciples who are willing to let go of everything for the kingdom."

I do promise that we will set up the opportunity to use the Urban Theology Unit’s tools for mission.

Is there something for which St. John’s, Boonton, is willing to sell everything they have in order to find the kingdom? Laurie asked All Saints Hoboken this question, and I hope for the day it is posed to St. John’s. Someday, not-too-distant future, if you are true to the voice of Moses, you are going to ask these parishioners that question, “Are we willing to go deeper into Boonton, its people and its places?” Do it, please do it, when your heart is ready.

So rather than developing strategies about how to get people into the Church, help the people of St. John’s to become known as the place that sends people out.

Finally, some advice for you, Laurie. If you spend more that 20% of your day either in this Temple or working on maintaining this Diocese, you are not fulfilling your prophetic, pastoral or priestly role. You will have been seduced, like many Rectors and CEOs, into worshipping false gods.

Do not let Baal and the contemporary Canaanites seduce you away from YHWH. You need to work hard toward the discipline that 80% of your time is spent outside of this Temple among the people of Boonton and surrounding communities. The Church may need managers, but the Gospel needs prophets, pastors and priests; choose well how you use your time.

About this home base ….Did the disciples not worry about their home base, “we have left our families, our homes and our jobs for the sake of the Gospel.” The mission of the kingdom requires us to leave our home base and sometime to set up new way-stations. Home base then is at best a way-station and should never become a shrine.

You know the disciplines: 10 individual meetings a week, walk the neighborhoods again and again and again for there is always something new to see, visit and know the power brokers of the town, hold people accountable for what they say and what they do, find partners outside of this congregation to work and mission with, build an alternative community of resistance to stand up against the powers that corrupt and destroy us. Know your heart; trust your heart; learn from your heart; live your heart; and give of your heart.

Give us your Spirit, O Lord, and send us out.