Stay in the City until you are clothed with power from on high, Richard Shimpfky: Louie Crew's Anglican Pages (Unofficial)

Unofficial Anglican Pages of Louie Crew
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A series of essays in the Episcopal Church Stay in the City until you are clothed with power from on high, Richard Shimpfky: Louie Crew's Anglican Pages (Unofficial) “Stay in the City until you are clothed with power from on high.” A sermon by Rt. Rev. Richard Shimpfky Retired Bishop of El Camino Real Bishop in Residence at St. George’s in Flushing (Diocese of Long Island May 6^th, 2007 As the Easter cycle has moved along; we’ve been with the women at the tomb, with doubting Thomas and with the Eleven at table, as those two thousand year ago people came to experience new life out of the old; as they came to know the full meaning and implication of a creator God; came to accept in terms certain all that Jesus had told them of the One who created the whole world, who provides most generously and graciously, who simply will not quit until having full way with the world. Happy Fifth Sunday of Easter. Alleluia, Christ is Risen! The Lord is risen indeed, Alleluia! In Easter, the preacher’s challenge is to not let the substance of Easter be too closely tied to the past event of two thousand years ago. The preacher is instead to tie Easter to those, like ourselves, who stand at a distance from the past event. If Easter and the meaning of the Easter moment is not about this present moment then it is about nothing at all. Easter proclaims that here and there, now and then - in the midst of a dying world of consumerism, greed, scarcity and diminishing possibilities - lies the possibility of resurrection newness. The one part of the Easter Story we do not hear contains Jesus’ words of instruction to the disciples: He says, “Stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” I want to suggest that as we celebrates the joy of Jesus’ resurrection, these words of Jesus to his disciples holds the hope and promise of a new day, of Easter, for us, and even for the city of New York. New York is the largest city in our nation and - some argue - the greatest world class city in the world. I think New York is a great city, or it can be - will be - if we remember the new life we’ve been given and which we celebrate in these fifty days of Easter. I suggest to you that we may be, even now, being clothed with power from on high. Indeed, I am sure of it, and it is time for Episcopalians to remember our heritage; it is time now to reclaim our godly mission; it is now time to be of one mind in the midst or our concerns. It is time for Episcopalians - young and older - to do that, and to be about the city with the work Christ has given us to do: to win the world for God, to champion the poor and to welcome the stranger, to take risk and adventure in righting wrong, building community and contending for justice and love for all. This church of our’s was called by God into being 600 years ago to be the church for all the people of England, and at the American Revolution, though disestablished, our American Church remained a church for all people. After a century of sleep and forgetfulness, during which J.P. Morgan in the 19^th century and Presiding Bishop, John Hines, in the 20^th century kept that flame alive; and after the last thirty or more years of internal transformation until God had God’s full way with us we - the Episcopal Church - are again, born again, as the Nation’s public church. And just look at us! Here we are, with our shining moment and place in the civil rights movement, with our record of opposing racism symbolized in our leadership in South African divestment that brought down apartheid; our leadership in the nation in the debate over human sexuality, our public charities (such as Episcopal Charities of Long Island;) here we are with our prayer book in American English, with our women in sacred Orders, with our schools, colleges and institutions and with our endowments of money and talent; here we are in the city. We have not run away and we are ready and equipped with power to be useful to God in this new era of the Lord’s favor. Jesus’ tomb has been stripped of its conquest; this old church of ours is loose in the world in the power of the risen Christ. We - you and I - have no reason to fear; we have only- like the disciples - to awake to the newness in the air. We are free now: Free to build and model for the nation the sort of koinonia, Christian community, that is healthy and to get on with the mission; to let our problems take contest in our mission - and not the other way round. Oh, I know there are a few unhappy bishops who would like to make as our mission drilling windows into the souls of our homosexual brothers and sisters, but I am happy and tired of that old stuff, as - I trust - are most of you. We are free like old Abraham and Sarah to be young again; secure and well fed and no longer barren. We can be fruitful in God as God’s public church once again; to win the city’s kids and youth, to nurture them, to love them, to give to them roles - not rules - to grow by, and to share in God’s power in the Episcopal Church. We can fill up our churches by our welcome to the strangers - no longer needing to fear them. We can fill our seminaries, build schools, light candles in the darkens, raise up leaders for church and state and, by God’s grace, we can have some fun as we get tired everyday doing good. I date us today with the disciples - in the city: our hearts warm, the future assured, being clothed anew with power from on high. Will those of you being confirmed and or received today please stand. Today, you are the outward and visible sign - the sacrament - of God’s Holy Spirit rushing through the Church with great power. You are set in a world calling you to be consumers; my call to you today is to participate in something with ultimate purpose, and my confirmation day prayer for you is that you will sense the power of God from on high working in each of you for God’s great good, both in the church and in the City at large. Amen. The Rt. Rev. Richard L. Shimpfky

“Stay in the City until you are clothed with power from on high.”

A sermon by Rt. Rev. Richard Shimpfky

Retired Bishop of El Camino Real

Bishop in Residence at St. George’s in Flushing (Diocese of Long Island

May 6^th, 2007

As the Easter cycle has moved along; we’ve been with the women at the tomb, with doubting Thomas and with the Eleven at table, as those two thousand year ago people came to experience new life out of the old; as they came to know the full meaning and implication of a creator God; came to accept in terms certain all that Jesus had told them of the One who created the whole world, who provides most generously and graciously, who simply will not quit until having full way with the world. Happy Fifth Sunday of Easter. Alleluia, Christ is Risen! The Lord is risen indeed, Alleluia!

In Easter, the preacher’s challenge is to not let the substance of Easter be too closely tied to the past event of two thousand years ago. The preacher is instead to tie Easter to those, like ourselves, who stand at a distance from the past event. If Easter and the meaning of the Easter moment is not about this present moment then it is about nothing at all. Easter proclaims that here and there, now and then - in the midst of a dying world of consumerism, greed, scarcity and diminishing possibilities - lies the possibility of resurrection newness.

The one part of the Easter Story we do not hear contains Jesus’ words of instruction to the disciples: He says, “Stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” I want to suggest that as we celebrates the joy of Jesus’ resurrection, these words of Jesus to his disciples holds the hope and promise of a new day, of Easter, for us, and even for the city of New York.

New York is the largest city in our nation and - some argue - the greatest world class city in the world. I think New York is a great city, or it can be - will be - if we remember the new life we’ve been given and which we celebrate in these fifty days of Easter. I suggest to you that we may be, even now, being clothed with power from on high. Indeed, I am sure of it, and it is time for Episcopalians to remember our heritage; it is time now to reclaim our godly mission; it is now time to be of one mind in the midst or our concerns. It is time for Episcopalians - young and older - to do that, and to be about the city with the work Christ has given us to do: to win the world for God, to champion the poor and to welcome the stranger, to take risk and adventure in righting wrong, building community and contending for justice and love for all.

This church of our’s was called by God into being 600 years ago to be the church for all the people of England, and at the American Revolution, though disestablished, our American Church remained a church for all people. After a century of sleep and forgetfulness, during which J.P. Morgan in the 19^th century and Presiding Bishop, John Hines, in the 20^th century kept that flame alive; and after the last thirty or more years of internal transformation until God had God’s full way with us we - the Episcopal Church - are again, born again, as the Nation’s public church.

Unofficial Anglican Pages of Louie Crew