At this morning's Eucharist, the preacher was the Right Reverend Katharine Jefferts Schori, our Presiding Bishop-elect. Her sermon, on growth and love, was received with a standing ovation.Here's a snippet.
If you and I are going to grow in all things into Christ, if we're going to grow up into the full stature of Christ, if we are going to become the blessed ones God called us to be while we were still in our mothers' wombs, our growing will need to be rooted in a soil of internal peace. We'll have to claim the confidence of souls planted in the overwhelming love of God, a love so abundant, so profligate, given with such unwillingness to count the cost, that we, too, are caught up into a similar abandonment.
Here's another bit:
Our invitation, both in the last work of this Convention, and as we go out into the world, is to lay down our fear and love the world. Lay down our sword and shield, and seek out the image of God's beloved in the people we find it hardest to love. Lay down our narrow self-interest, and heal the hurting and fill the hungry and set the prisoners free. Lay down our need for power and control, and bow to the image of God's beloved in the weakest, the poorest, and the most excluded.
The line that caught some people was this one: "Our mother Jesus gives birth to a new creation -- and you and I are His children." This was not some newfangled radical feminist image; rather, Bishop Jefferts Schori was citing imagery of Julian of Norwich. Compelling and arresting, just like any great metaphor.
I look forward to hearing more sermons from her. If you'd like to read the full text of this one, it's already online.
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