The Way is the Foundation
Readings for the Fifth Sunday after Epiphany
This sermon was preached at Christ Episcopal Church Eureka on Sunday February 5, 2023.
During this season of the liturgical year, known as Epiphanytide, we hear the words of the greatest sermon ever preached, the Sermon on the Mount. Last Sunday and today we heard the beginning of the sermon and because of the timing of Lent we often do not get to hear the sermon in its entirety, which is unfortunate because we miss out on hearing the sermon’s dramatic conclusion. Jesus concludes this sermon with the image of people walking together: some walking together along a way that leads to destruction and others walking along a way that leads to life. And then Jesus says that those who hear his teachings and put those teachings into practice by following him in the Way are like a wise man who built his house upon the rock. When the rains come down and the floods rise up and the winds blow and beat against the house, it does not fall because its foundation is on the rock. The Way is our Foundation. While those who hear Christ’s teachings and do not put them into practice and fail to follow him in the Way are like a foolish man who built his house on sand. When the rains come down and the floods rise up, the house falls with a great crash. The Foundation is the Way. The Way is the Foundation. Before Christians were called Christians, they were called Followers of the Way. And here at Christ Church, the Way is our foundation and vision.
Our mission is to glorify God, follow Jesus Christ, and serve all people through the power of the Holy Spirit; and our vision is to be a community of companions walking together in the Way of Christ’s Love for all. So, how have we been walking in the Way of Christ this last year?
The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. described God as One who makes a way out of no way;[1] and as I reflect on this last year, I see how God has made for us a way out of no way by guiding us safely out of a long and difficult season of pandemic. Just last February, we held our annual meeting online due to legitimate fears and concerns about COVID. What began back in March 2020 as two weeks of lockdown became two months and then two years and during that time it was sometimes hard for me to see the way out, hard for me to see how God was going to make a way out of no way. Many churches, including many Episcopal parishes, have not found a way out of the COVID lockdown. Several churches have permanently closed while others are barely hanging on. Although we have all been worn down by the pandemic, we have emerged stronger because we continued to walk together as compassionate companions in the Way of Christ’s self-giving love for all, even during lockdown. We found a way to remain together even when there was no way to be together.
This theme of making a way out of no way has been expressed most concretely (pun intended) in a project we completed this last year, a project that has been on our to-do list for many years now. With the completion of the Jeanne and Robert Fish Memorial Wall and Walkway, we have literally made a way where there previously was no way.[2] We made a new wall and walkway where there was previously a mound and a wooden retaining wall that was posing all kinds of health and safety hazards. Like the house built on sand, the old retaining wall was built on shifting ground and would have likely fallen with a great crash due to the earthquakes and storms we had this last year. Our new concrete wall, like the wise man’s house, is built on a rock-solid foundation that provides a walkway. The Way is the Foundation.
Another embodied expression of our vision to walk together in the Way of Christ’s Love for all has been in our unique ministry of Sacred Saunters, when we literally walk together through the redwoods as a community, worshipping God in Word and Sacrament. This last year, our Saunters expanded to become deanery-wide, including the parishes of St. Alban’s in Arcata and St. Francis in Fortuna. And this year, we hope to include St. Paul’s in Crescent City. And when it comes to expanding our community of companions, our livestream worship has expanded our community to include viewers from all across this country, from the UK, South Korea, Canada, Italy, and India. Thanks to the skilled and dedicated members of our stream team, over 100 new people have subscribed to our channel, which has received over 20,000 views just this last year. We’ve been casting wide our net as fishers of men and women.
Our community of companions also expanded this last December as we officially welcomed our newest Associate Priest, the Rev. Jeri Gray-Reneberg, a pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, with whom we Episcopalians are in full communion. So, through Pastor Jeri, we are walking together in the Way with our Lutheran siblings. And Pastor Jeri recently spoke at a gathering in Ferndale where she, along with others from Christ Church, reminded our LGBTQ+ siblings that the Way in which we walk is the Way of Christ’s love for all. We do not condemn or exclude anyone based on age, gender, sexual orientation, political persuasion, or race.
This last year, we hosted an in-person diocesan training program for our deanery called “I Will with God’s Help: Journey Toward Racial Healing and Justice” and we are also hosting a Sacred Ground Circle here at Christ Church composed of members throughout the deanery. Sacred Ground is a “prayerful resource [sponsored by the Episcopal Church] that creates space for difficult but respectful and transformative dialogue on race and racism.”[3]
Thanks to Merry Phillips and the concert committee, we have once again opened our doors to the wider community in hosting live concerts, including performances by Bobby Jo Valentine, the Chamber Players of the Redwoods, the new Bach On! String Orchestra, and most recently concert organist Ken Cowan, who brought in well over a hundred guests.[4] And before every concert, I let people know that we are community that walks together in the Way of Christ’s Love for all.
We also opened our doors during the Advent season as we brought back our popular Tuesday Night Soup Suppers and learned from Kathryne DeLorme about a powerful symbol and resource for walking in the Way of Christ’s Love: the Prayer Labyrinth. Due to the December earthquake, we had to cancel the last labyrinth presentation, which is now rescheduled to be part of our Shrove Tuesday Pancake Dinner, which we haven’t offered since 2020.
The earthquake in December as well as the earthquake that we felt right here on New Year’s Day shook us all up, but we continued walking in the Way of Christ’s Love for all by preparing and then sending several Project (Re)Start bins and over $2,500 worth of gift cards to those who were hit hardest in Rio Dell. We continue giving generously to meet local needs through our regular support of Betty Chinn, the Forgotten Initiative, and the Food Bank as well as global needs through our support of Sandy in Honduras. And this last year, we have been praying more intentionally for our Anglican siblings around the world, with whom we walk in the Way of Christ’s Love. We have been learning about the provinces for which we pray in the Anglican Cycle of Prayer;[5] and during our prayerful study and exploration, I connected with an Anglican Theological College in New Zealand, where I now plan to spend a significant portion of my three-month sabbatical this summer.[6] During my sabbatical, our new regional dean, Mother Lesley, will serve as our Sabbatical Priest; and when I return (which I will do), we will launch our new Joy Mass Family Service, through which we will invite new generations to walk with us in the Way of Christ’s love for all, the Way that is our Foundation.
When earthquakes, storms, and viruses and other challenges come (as they inevitably do), we will not fall because we have built our house on the rock-solid foundation of the Way of Christ’s Love for all. Thank you for walking with us and for sharing your gifts and letting your light shine along this Way, so that others may see the power of this Way and give glory to the Source of all Love, our Father in heaven. Amen.
[1] “When our days become dreary with low-hovering clouds of despair, and when our nights become darker than a thousand midnights, let us remember that there is a creative force in this universe, working to pull down the gigantic mountains of evil, a power that is able to make a way out of no way and transform dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows.” Martin Luther King Jr., Address to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference on August 16, 1967, http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45a/628.html
[2] Watch a video of the construction of the Jeanne and Robert Fish Memorial Wall and Walkway here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcRsZc8gZUo
[3] https://www.episcopalchurch.org/sacred-ground/about/
[4] Watch the Bobby Jo Valentine concert here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLQCBdo4cwA
[5] Today we pray for the Anglican Church of Papua New Guinea, which happens to be well known for its lack of roads and “ways” across the island(s).
[6] St. John’s Theological College, https://www.stjohnscollege.ac.nz/. Read more about the upcoming Sabbatical in the Sabbatical Guide here: https://christchurcheureka.files.wordpress.com/2023/02/sabbatical-guide-02.05.23.pdf
DANIEL DeFOREST LONDON 