Today’s gospel lesson is about the beheading of John
the Baptist. Isn’t that perfect?
As some of you know, but not everyone knows, I will
soon be leaving Trinity Cathedral. The deficit that
piled up during the interim year between Deans left
our Vestry – our board of directors – with little
choice but to cut our operating budget by cutting
staff. Dean Baker was given the thankless task of
deciding who among us must go. This deficit is not
Dean Baker’s fault – he inherited it from the interim
year that, in all candor, was the roughest for Trinity
Cathedral that I have experienced in the 18 years I
have been here. And so I am the one to go.
I want you to know a few things before I leave, so I
asked Brian if I could preach a few times between now
and my departure, and he has graciously allowed me the
pulpit today.
First, Lori and I are very grateful for the letters
and emails and the phone call and the prayers and the
good wishes you have sent us in the last couple of
weeks. That means more to us than you possibly know.
Keep it coming. Leaving is not our choice – and is
certainly not Lori’s choice – and we leave with a
great deal of sorrow. But leave we must and leave we
will.
That said, here is the second thing I want you to
know: Lori and I will be alright. We aren’t worried,
so please, don’t worry about us. We really will be
fine. God has always taken care of us and I am certain
that wherever we go, and whatever we do, God will be
looking out for us. I have always landed on my feet.
So don’t worry about us.
Many of you have asked me what I will do next. The
simple truth is I don’t know. But I am really not
worried about employment. In fact, as I told Bishop
Lamb and Bishop-elect Beisner, my anxiety is not about
finding another job, my anxiety is finding a job too
soon. I intend to take my time to discern what to do
next. During the last three years I have built up a
reservoir of vacation and sabbatical time, and I
intend to take all the time I need to figure out where
God is leading me next. Lori and I will travel some
and I have writing projects long delayed to get
cracking on. I also need to clean out the garage, but
we won’t go there this morning. I will promise you
this: we will not fall off the face of the earth – we
will keep you posted on developments.
When Dean Brown announced he would retire a
year-and-half ago, he stood in this pulpit and said
“now I can really tell you what I think.” Same here.
In the next few weeks, please indulge me by allowing
me to leave you with some parting advice. I will give
you the first installment this morning, and it has
something to do with the beheading of John the
Baptist.
Through the centuries, many courageous people have
lost their heads for their faith. John the Baptist who
proclaimed the coming of Jesus and condemned the
political authorities of his day for their
self-indulgence; the early martyrs of the church who
spread God’s Word and paid with their lives usually in
grumesome ways. In the 20th century, Dietrich
Bonhoffer was executed by the Nazis for denouncing
them in his German pulpit. In our own time, Martin
Luther King Jr. was assassinated for having the
courage to upend the system of racial prejudice in our
country.
All of these people demonstrated that faith comes
with a cost, and faith can require taking risks and
digging deep for courage. All of them were killed
because they understood the Jesus calls us to step
outside of settled ways and to confront those who use
power for evil. When others are hunkering down to save
their own skin, these faithful people stood up in the
face of evil and said “stop” – God’s kingdom demands a
different course.
Our faith is at its most powerful, and I would
venture we are closest to God, when we look outward.
Trinity Cathedral, at its best, is outwardly focused.
This faith community has done incredible things in
this community when it looks outward beyond these
walls – we brought Francis House back from the ashes
of a fire so that it could continue to serve the
homeless. We built one Habitat for Humanity house and
we are now building a second house. We’ve adopted
Jedidiah Smith elementary which serves a poor
neighborhood, and we’ve supported the kids and
teachers year after year in big ways and small. Let me
go on with more: Every single day, we host more than
100 drug and allcohol addicts who meet in the Great
Hall across the way to try to straighten out their
lives. This Cathedral opens its doors and hearts to
those who others shun.
People of all ages from this Cathedral do things in
the community and the world. Lori and I were
priviledged for many years to accompany our teenage
youth group when it repaired houses on Indian
reservations as part of the Sierra Service Project. I
think it a real shame that we longer participate in
this program, and I hope we will get re-involved in it
by next summer.
This Cathedral has confronted the powerful when the
need arises and acted courageously. Dean Brown and
other Cathedral leaders stood against the city when
it tried to close Loaves & Fishes. This Cathedral
opened its doors to the community for prayer following
the Sept. 11 attacks, and again opened its doors for
interfaith prayer and dialogue at the start of the
Iraq War. No other church, no other cathedral, did
that in this city. This Cathedral did that.
So today I will give you the first installment of my
advice. Yes, Trinity has a budget problem, and yes you
need to get your church’s financial house in order. In
the days ahead, you will find it tempting to pull back
on what we do in the community. This will lead you to
become self-absorbed with money and nickel-and-dime
everything to death. It will be very tempting to cut
the outreach we do in the community. Well, don’t do
that. Reaching outward is what the Kingdom of God is
about, it is what Trinity Cathedral is about, it is
why God has called all of us here. It is how we make
disciples to love and serve Christ in this world. Keep
looking outward. That is at the foundation of our
mission here, that is what cathedrals are supposed to
be about.
This Cathedral stands as a beacon of hope in a
despairing world. Keep the light burning bright, keep
looking beyond these walls. Do whatever needs to be
done. Get on with it. The Gospel is not calling any of
us to play it safe. Don’t be afraid to take risks.
But make no mistake: Looking outward, caring about the
world always, always comes with a cost. Sometimes the
cost is in lives – Bonhoffer, King, John the Baptist.
Sometimes the cost is being controversial, or
unpopular, or being labled “political” and taking the
heat. And sometimes the cost is merely money, and in
the scheme of things, money is really the smallest
cost of all.
So buck up, we are marked as Christ’s own forever, and
we are pleasing in his sight. So let us get on with
the work we have been given to do and celebrate all
that we are given and at the end of our days each and
everyone of us will rejoice and be glad.
AMEN.