We are One Diocese, One Body, One Faith Epiphany 3 January 24, 2016 St Luke’s Attica and Christ Church Albion

+It’s great to be with you this morning. I am the Canon for Connections in the diocese, it’s a new position established by our Bishop to further his vision of the web of grace by having someone, in addition to him, go out into the diocese to facilitate the connections between the parish and the diocese, the parish and other parishes, and people to people. As we began last year with the Be Not Afraid and the Take Heart Conversations, where over 400 people from all areas of this diocese gathered to talk about what it means to be the church today and what it take to still be the church tomorrow, the Bishop’s goal is to have our parishes connect on a variety of levels and through a variety of means. Being here today is one part of this web-spinning!
I took this job after 6 years as the Rector of the Church of the Good Shepherd and the priest at the Church of the Ascension…so besides having a new job, our family had to move out of Good Shepherd’s rectory in Buffalo to our house in the town of Lockport. I went from being The Rector, a fairly well-defined role to being this Canon for Connections, a new and not very well-defined or well-known job. I went from living in the City of Buffalo, where I have lived since moving to WNY 15 years ago to living in the country, in the hamlet of Wright’s Corners, in the town of Lockport.
Lots of changes for our family and those who know us. But these changes didn’t happen over night. We thought long and hard about them, and then we were intentional about saying good bye to the old and hello to the new.
The Jesus we meet in this morning’s gospel has also gone through a lot of changes but I think, for us, it’s easy to think that his changes came in one fell swoop—after all he is the Savior of the world----but they didn’t. It may be difficult for us to think of him needing to learn, to study and to prepare. But he did!
In this morning’s Gospel Jesus has just been baptized (the gospel we heard two weeks ago) and the Holy Spirit, which has just descended on him leads him into the wilderness for forty days and nights of challenge, temptation, fear and loneliness. Strengthened by the Holy Spirit Jesus endures it all. We catch up with him right after those 40 days during which he has prepared to take on his mantel as a teacher and preacher. He leaves and the wilderness and heads to Galilee where, we’re told, his renown grows. Jesus, to use modern phraseology has “found his voice” and begins to use it.
I suppose he could have begun his teaching and preaching right after his baptism, but he didn’t. He went on a pretty brutal retreat, where he prepared himself for all that was to come.
Remember last week when Jesus got a little snippy with his mother—telling her, when she asked him to help with the wine at the wedding in Cana , “woman, it’s not my time?” On some level he knew that he wasn’t ready for prime time yet , so while he performed the miracle he didn’t make a big deal about it, because he knew he wasn’t ready. He knew he had some more work to do before the Holy Spirit could use him to his fullest.
You know, the Holy Spirit isn’t picky. The Holy Spirit doesn’t just rely on the Savior of the world to come and do the work of God. The Holy Spirit, as Paul has been telling us these last two weeks, chooses us—each and everyone of us-- to do God’s work in the world. We—you and me, all of us--- are called   to be prepared, to be ready, to be open to the Spirit so that when we hear that call, when we feel that nudge, when we are thrust out of our own wildernesses and into a hurting world that so desperately needs the light of Christ, we can respond.
So, how do we do this? How do we prepare for the work the Spirit gives us to do?
By taking seriously our baptismal promise to “continue in the apostle’s teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers.” We are to participate, as fully as we are able, in the life of the church. We’re to gather in fellowship, to study together, to pray together, to work together.

Paul tells us: “[that] in the one Spirit we [are] all baptized into [the] one body…indeed the body does not consist of one member but of many.” And every body, every community, every church, every diocese needs every member...because there are a variety of gifts, a variety of ways God can be worshipped, Christ can be proclaimed and Love for everyone everywhere, no exceptions, can be expressed.
My wish for all of us is this…that we never forget that the call of the One Spirit is to seek and serve Christ in all whom we encounter and that we always remember that there is only  One Body and we, each and everyone of us, are vital parts of it, a body that answers always and forever and only to the  One Spirit, the One God and the One Savior.
Amen!