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7:30 and 10:30 AM

 

The
Cathedral Church
of Saint John
Ten Concord Ave.
Wilmington
Delaware
19802

voice: (302) 654-6279
fax: (302) 777-5789

Wheelchair
Accessible

Parking lot
on Concord Avenue

  

Dean’s Letter to the Parish

December, 2008 - January, 2009
Episcopal Cathedral Church
of Saint John
Wilmington, Delaware

Dear Friends in Christ,

God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

So says Paul to the Christian community in Corinth and to us as appointed by the Church for the First Sunday in Advent. As for that community, so for ours, God is faithful and we are indeed called into the fellowship of Christ, we are the community of the people of Jesus.

Paul was writing to the Christian community in Corinth which was going through a period of dissension. Questions about morals and faithfulness were producing conflict within that community. Personality cults were being formed and the focus of the community was in danger of shifting from the Gospel of Christ to the “wisdom” of these personalities. Paul seems to recognize that when any one person or group lays claim to the authority to define truth, they are boxing God in, they are usurping God’s authority. Paul’s warning is: Let no one deceive himself. If any one among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is folly with God.

This Advent season finds us in a time of dissension and uncertainty in the Church and in the world. There are those in the Church who make claim to knowing and representing the will and mind of God. And with that claim, they have shut the door to the possibility that the Spirit of God may be expressing a different will and intention. With the door shut, the community of Christ is fractured. Once a person or a group has laid claim to defining the whole of truth, they have then said to all others the truth is not in you, the truth cannot be in you.

This same condition is found in the world as well as in the Church. It was certainly to be found in this past election season. Recently I received an e-mail message that was raising concern about this. It included as outward and visible evidence for concern a photo of an outdoor sign of a mainline church. The photo had been taken just before election day and the sign read: Sure. Go ahead, vote for Obama as long as you don’t mind going to hell. What a testimony to having taken authority for truth, for shutting the door on the possibility that truth may have a different expression that the one you are promoting.

Yes, here we are in Advent, the beginning of yet another year of pilgrimage through the story of faith, another year of opportunity to live that story and to witness it to the world, beginning here at home and to the “ends of the earth.” With this pilgrimage, as with all pilgrimages, will come the possibility of being surprised by God. And as with all opportunities, a chance to be surprised by what God is calling us to be and to be about. Not that uncertainty will vanish and dissension will cease, but that God, in God’s wisdom, has shown the way to transform uncertainty and transcend dissension. And that way is the way of the Lord, and that Lord is Jesus whom we call Christ.

So, perhaps our Advent marching order can be that which Paul gave to the Church in Corinth: Therefore, my beloved brothers and sisters. Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

Faithfully,
The Very Reverend William B. Lane

Dean’s Sermons:

Cathedral Call Letters from the Dean

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