Steadfast Ground, Courageous Service: A Call to Be God's Witness

I bet you might have noticed that in today's gospel from Luke,

the story is about buildings.

This happens almost every year.

I don't know if the people who wrote the lectionary did this on purpose.

But Jesus and the disciples are going by the temple, and they're admiring how beautiful it is.

And Jesus says, you just wait.

Not one stone will be left upon another Not one stone will be left upon another.

We hear this today in our own space It's, you know, here's the day we're talking

about the building Some, anyway, and how we care for it This is a beautiful space We love it,

We tend it We restore it. We adorn it.

We open it to our neighbors.

It is capable of displaying the beauty of God that we feel in our hearts about God.

And it will not save us.

And it will not save us. Our program, our numbers, our budget,

something you might call successes, cannot save us.

Only the grace and love of God can save us.

That is the foundation of our life together, and it is the lens upon which I speak today.

I, too, want to say thank you. Thank you for your generosity, your faithfulness.

You know, I've been here 13 years as your rector now.

You have welcomed me for all of those years.

It has been the most rewarding years of my whole ministry.

I give thanks to God to walk with you here in Asheville, among this community,

through seasons of growth, through seasons of pruning or uncertainty,

and in quiet faithfulness, and seasons of experiment.

I look forward to many more years together and how we can keep on asking how

God is calling us to be faithful,

to live faithfully in this kingdom that is breaking in upon us every single day.

We stand on the shoulders of saints. I mean, look at this place,

nearly 175 years, thousands upon thousands of benefactors, known and unknown, have prayed.

Served, given, and witnessed so that this place can be a beacon for the gospel

of Jesus here in Asheville.

Their witness is a living history, an inheritance for us to steward.

So to all today who continue to be generous to support our mission and our ministry

and our calling with your prayers,

with your time, with your witness, and, yes, your money,

thank you. Thank you.

Your generosity, I pray, is not a transaction, but a witness.

To what is in your heart, that by God alone, we are loved,

even though often we're not very lovable.

In Luke's words, we have the opportunity to testify, and I would say every pledge,

every brownie tray that comes in here for a funeral,

every flower delivered, our children's chapel, the ministry of the Church of

the Advocate, every trip to Robbinsville, every meal prepared for Transformation Village.

There's so much more. It's danger to actually name specific things because you

have to leave something out.

All of it is testimony that God is real, God is present, God is our foundation.

We are a witness here in downtown Asheville, And I would say that it's strong, a strong witness.

I want to say stronger than ever, but there are generations I'm past when I

know it's been strong as well.

And what is true is that our calling is as urgent as ever.

Our nation and our world are fractured.

And may be as fractured, maybe not as they've ever happened,

but maybe as much as I've ever seen.

The truth is that every human being is created in the image of God and deserves

to be treated as a child of God.

We see that being dishonored so strongly in so many places in our lives each

day. So our calling to witness.

That everyone is created in God's image is as strong as it has ever been for us.

When we unlock the doors of this place each day, when we pray each day,

it's more than just for ourselves.

We are participating in God's healing of this world.

I want to thank our whole vestry This great group

of people I get to serve with here I want to thank Tom Williams for his leadership

this year It's always such a blessing to serve in partnership with our wardens

And Tom's faithfulness and service has just been a true blessing to me,

I've said it many times There's no way I can lead Trinity on my own.

I want to say that, you know, vestry service is not a chore, I would say.

It really is like a small group. That's what we try to do.

If you're a part of a Bible study or a book group or something like that.

Yes, we have the responsibility of caring for buildings and our finances and

looking at the vision of the future of Trinity, yes.

And we share our prayer requests with each other.

We pray for one another.

We study the Bible together.

So it's a small group, if you will.

And it's a really great small group to be a part of here at Trinity.

For most of my time here, it's been one group of people who have been the staff here at Trinity.

And in the past 24 months, we've had quite a change among our staff.

And there's only, I think, one person or two that are one over 25,

one person close to 20, and one person with 10 or more.

And a number of people with five years or less in their service on our staff.

And still, what an amazing group of people to serve with.

Our mission that we talk about, that we acknowledge, that we agree with one another on,

is our role as a staff here at Trinity is to help the people of Trinity live

out their mission in following Jesus.

That's our role, is to help the people of Trinity live out their faith.

And we try to do it all of the time.

By many measures, as you've heard, Trinity is on solid ground.

I try to give, I don't like to give too many statistics, but I think I've shared this before.

There's really only about maybe 250 Episcopal churches in the entire United

States that have as many people that come to church on Sunday that we do.

Over 85% of Episcopal churches have 30 people or less on Sunday.

So by many measures, we are on solid ground.

And yet, as we've just been told in the gospel, we're on solid ground.

It will not save us. Foundations, a solid ground matters because it helps you

move, helps you go somewhere.

We don't just stay in our homes 24-7. They're a place where we rest and gain

strength and grow, and then we go out into the world.

So yes, we are on solid ground. And ground that we pray helps us keep on moving

toward deeper worship, deeper welcome, and more courageous service.

And that is why over the next year, you'll hear more about this later,

your vestry has approved a kind of sweeping assessment of our life together.

And we'll do this in a really holistic way. We want to include everyone we've been through COVID.

We've been through Hurricane Helene And now we're going to spend some time Everybody

will have an opportunity to participate How does our history inform us?

Who are we now?

Who is God calling us to be? How is God sending us forth into the kingdom for service?

These are not boxes to be checked.

It's more of a posture, praying, discerning, testing what we believe God is doing among us.

We will invite, as I say, every member to participate,

from the youngest to the most senior, from those who are new to those who you

might say have been carrying the keys to this place almost since they were born.

We'll host all types of ways to do this.

And we're doing it so that we can look at ourselves and ask ourselves how we

are aligned with the mission of God to be a place,

as we say, where everybody and anyone can explore their faith,

embrace community,

expect to see the difference of God, and find this to be a place where they

can make a difference for God.

The stones of this church are beautiful.

Be assured, we'll keep on tending to them.

And our confidence is not in them.

Our confidence is in the promises of God.

Our hope is not in being busy.

And finding more ways to be busy.

Our hope is that we might see and know,

that God is among us and that God loves us enough to give God's own self for us,

and will raise us from death. to life, too.

Our hope is in the truth that we believe God is,

at this very moment working to make all things new.

So, I thank you for your trust. I thank you for your generosity.

I thank you for your courage. I thank you for your prayers.

Look forward to this opportunity for our assessment in the coming months.

A congregation does this type of thing really only in two instances.

One, they're getting ready to look for a new rector.

Or the rector's been around a while.

Now, unless somebody else has a plan that I don't know about.

You're not going to be doing the first one anytime soon.

The second one has just happened before our eyes.

And so we have the opportunity to think again about our life together.

And the way in which the gospel of Jesus is convicting us and calling us. even now in this new day.

And by God's grace, the coming chapters of Trinity will be marked by something

maybe like holy boldness, patient endurance,

steadfast love, and joy, and reliant on nothing else,

but the grace and mercy of Jesus relying on nothing else but the love that refuses to let us go.

May it be so. Amen.

The homily was offered by the Rev. Dr. R. Scott White.

Introductory and closing reflections were shared by the Rev. Amy Peterson.

Musical contributions were performed by Dr. Kevin Seal.

Sermon audio was prepared by Nanette Popa. Production was guided by Karen Marie Frederiksen.