Rev. Katherine N. Mitchell, DMin

Pentecost 18 Matthew 18:15-20
September 7, 2008

It's wonderful to look out and see so many wonderful, caring and familiar faces.  Thank you, Joe, for inviting me to be a part of your celebration today as we honor 21 years of ordained ministry for your rector, Ann Franklin.  It is entirely fitting that today's readings have to do with Church and more importantly, how we are conduct ourselves as "church."  

Matthew's Gospel is challenging, -  challenging the church to get along, to stop its bickering and to remember what it is that draws the church together.  Matthew nicely sums this up by stating (and reminding us) that "For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them."  Without Jesus as our core point, our corner stone, Church cannot exist.  Jesus knew, Matthew and the other Apostles knew, and Paul most certainly knew that holding the church and its people together was not without its headaches, worries, and challenges.   I strongly suspect that your rector can verify that this is also the case with this parish, Church of the Good Shepherd. 

Having been intimately involved with Good Shepherd for a number of years, as a parishioner, vestry member, warden, and later as your deacon, I feel like I know both the parish and many of the people in the parish well.    Good Shepherd is a parish that is small, with many difficult, if not daunting aspects to it. 

Probably the best way to describe these challenges is that Good Shepherd suffers...suffers from numbers.  That is to say, the parish makeup is small, a scarcity of numbers or bodies sitting in the pews on Sunday morning.  The churches resources are also limited by numbers, a limited pledging base, few bodies to do the work of the church, and always the limitations affected by increasing costs and declining revenues, not mention the greater than ever demands upon our personal time and resources.   Numbers!

Yet, despite these areas of poverty and its smallness, Good Shepherd is one of the most alive and richest parishes in the diocese.   An unknown writer suggests that there are significant differences between dead and alive churches.  Here are a few of these differences and let's see where  we think Good Shepherd fits in:

• Live churches' expenses are always more than their income; dead churches don't need much money
• Live churches keep changing their ways of doing things; dead churches see no need for change
• Lives churches strongly support world mission; dead churches keep the money at home afraid to give it away
• Live churches are full of regular, cheerful givers; dead church are full of begrudging tippers
• Live churches move ahead in prayer and faith; dead church work only when success is guaranteed 
• Live churches welcome all types of people;  dead churches stick to their own kind
• Lives churches enthusiastically support their ministries; dead churches have no ministries - only themselves.
  

I see Good Shepherd in this mix and I think you do as well, but I think you would agree Good Shepherd is a  struggling, albeit, alive church!

Historically, the richness and wealth of Good Shepherd has come from the people here along with the dedication and energy expended to make and maintain this very sacred space.  Its richness, its very wealth has evolved out of the knowledge and experience that when two or three are gathered together in the name of Jesus,  Jesus is among us.

In more recent years, your rector, Ann Franklin, has provided the oversight, wisdom, knowledge, and skills necessary and needed to guide this parish through some of its most difficult times.  Ann's role as rector, priest, and pastor is to serve as a model of what "church" should be.   I know from personal experience the talents and gifts that Ann has in mentoring, guiding, listening, counseling, and discernment that have served this parish, as well as individuals in very excellent ways.  

As priest, Ann has held our hand and cried with us in moments of despair, grief, fear, and anxiety. She has celebrated with us our greatest joys.  She has married some of us and baptized our children and grandchildren.  She has opened her home and her heart to us, sometimes at a very personal sacrifice.

Ann has modeled for us the way we should be with one another, not only in this worshiping community but also in the greater world.  But most importantly, Ann has provided each of us with the understanding and framework of knowledge that the primary task of the church is to bring people into right relationship with God and with one another. 
These are some of the qualities and activities I am aware that Ann has encouraged and elicited from this congregation that help it to be an alive church:

1. Vision -  understanding and honoring the past but also understanding  where this church is and where is going in the future
2. Spiritual maturity - helping the people individually and collectively develop a solid moral grounding based on Christian character 
3. Outreach or mission - warmly  inviting, forming, sending and serving
4. Leadership - equipping individuals to help others to follow Christ by acting as mentors, guides, and teachers
5. Small groups - offering  to the community space for meetings and gatherings, but also providing  the means that allow people to become actively involved in the life of this parish
6. Life Mentoring - encouraging personal change and discernment of where God is calling each of us.
   

All of these qualities and actions are possible only because of the belief that "For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them."    Our Jewish brothers and sisters have a saying, "Where two sit and are occupied with the study of the Torah, the glory of God is among them".  This is the same kind of thing as when two or three are gathered in Christ's name, whether it is to study the person and the ways of Jesus, to do the work of Jesus, or to be in quiet or joyous community - Jesus is in the midst, the midst of us.

I remind you this morning that because we are aware of Jesus' presence among us, whether as a worshiping congregation, or merely two or three gathered together in his name that

• We are not alone
• In knowing this we find our strength
• And that the surest place to find God is in the fellowship of other believers.
  

These beliefs take us right back to Jesus' promise: For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.

So this morning, let us give thanks, thanks for Ann's ministry here at Good Shepherd, in the diocese and in the world.  Let us also give thanks for this rich and alive church, the people who have been a part of it for over a century now, and for the future - whatever form or shape that may take.  Let us also with profound gratefulness give thanks for the living and transformative Christ that is present with us, as a Church and personally, in all that we do, all that we are, and all that we each will become. 

Amen.