I speak to you in the name of one God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen. Please be seated.
Last week we spoke about what it means to hear the voice of the Good Shepherd, to know
that that is a voice that calls us each by name and calls us into abundant life.
Today, we are again asked to consider the kind of life that we have in God, especially
a life that is sustained and knows its beginnings and its ends in a knowledge of God, particularly
a knowledge of Jesus.
Now friends, this is something you and I shouldn't have any problem with.
We say this every week.
It is the mission of this church to know Christ and to make Christ known to others.
It's something that informs all of our ministries.
We talk about it at committees and at vestry and in sermon preparation and in all kinds
of things.
If first and foremost we know Jesus, we are doing something right.
For years in this community, it's been the guiding principle that shows us the way forward,
that as if to say, if we want to know what it means to have life as a community at St.
Stephen's, it begins there at the most basic moment, know Christ.
I would go even further to say that Christian people, not just the ones in this room, are
fed by that so much that that's what we define life in at all.
The only way that you and I know how to live is first by knowing this Jesus.
I will tell you that is liberating for my faith.
It has become so important to me to go back to the rich, firm place upon which to build.
The knowledge of Jesus as a foundation of my life has so informed my own sense of prayer.
I trust it is doing the same in your life.
I trust it's something we can do together.
This knowledge of God from which so many other things spring and are given life.
I delight that we get to hear Stephen's story today, not the easiest part of it to listen
to of course, but Stephen whose knowledge of God leads him to do incredible things.
Not just to become the first deacon and martyr of the church, but to serve, to find meaning
and value in his life by looking to others, others like widows and orphans, the people
who had no power, no business being helped.
Here is the Stephens of the world finding the depth of meaning and a great sense of
his own purpose in knowing Jesus, which then lets him know others.
It sounds so much like our mission, doesn't it?
From a knowledge of God and from a knowledge of knowing Jesus in their lives, the life
of the earliest Christian communities also flourished.
They hear ancient words again and again as we heard today, first Peter quoting from Isaiah.
Their lives renewed, refounded, loved by the sake of knowing this Jesus, building their
own firm foundation as well.
This knowledge of Jesus has also been something that has helped this community prosper and
grow since 1962.
I feel like we're talking a lot about this lately.
You'll hear from Stephanie at Thanksgiving's today to talk about our giving to an endowment.
We've been talking about niches and memorial walls for a columbarium, but friends, we aren't
doing this because we want nicer things around here.
We're doing this because it's holy work.
And for three generations, the people of West Boise, at least some of them, have come to
know their life and their origin in God.
The work we are trying to accomplish is that so this continues for centuries.
We owe it to those who come next to us to say, we know what it is like to live in Christ
Jesus.
Do it with us.
Let us help you.
It's the mission we have.
It's the reason we are here first and foremost.
I don't know.
When it comes to our common life, there are times when I feel this really clearly, really
wonderfully by hearing your stories and your lives.
Sometimes I feel it too much to the point of when I leave this place, everything's a little
harder.
Do you ever feel that way leaving church that you're like, oh, I have to go back to scrutiny
of the real world?
I feel that way sometimes.
I have to remember not everybody I run into is a parishioner.
Not everybody I run into has like the sweet love of Jesus in their heart.
They can.
And it's up to me and you to live it.
Know Christ.
Make Christ known.
It's also the second half of our mission that makes that scrutiny, that adversity, that
thing that isn't always easy when we go back into the world of like, okay, that's also
why we are here.
Sometimes it's clear.
Sometimes it isn't.
Sometimes I think we need help.
Sometimes it's the, the reading that we hear in the gospel today when it's Thomas and it's
Philip and they can't see it as clearly.
For me, I know I can't see it as clearly when I am distracted.
If there's uncertainty in my life and I am not spending as much time with Jesus, I know
that that's why.
Again, I'm called to the life of our patron.
I walk in here so many days and stare at this window.
I hope his life informs ours because can you imagine St. Stephen distracted by the many
cares of life?
I mean, he might have been.
Saints are real people.
They make mistakes.
I don't know though.
I just can't picture it in his life.
I imagine Stephen had such a singular focus that he is able to do the things he is able
to do, to proclaim with boldness, to serve the meek and the lowly, and even to bring
his knowledge of the life of Jesus into the most dangerous moments and keep going.
Distraction or otherwise, he's our guide.
We need more of his life.
We need more of his witness, but we also need help.
I do think this is why maybe we pair those readings together today to hear that Thomas
and Philip, this is not the easiest thing in the world.
There are going to be times when we need the help that Jesus offers to us more times than
not, and so Jesus does help them, and he gives them a line that I look back and see
as bold more than comforting, do not let your hearts be troubled.
That's something we say more often than not when we offer funerals and burials here and
most Episcopal churches.
You hear from John 14, it's meant to be a source of comfort.
I don't know that the original audience would have heard it that way.
Think about where they are at this point in John's story and all the things that have
either already happened or about to.
They know that they are the ones who are going to betray this Jesus.
They know that he is going to suffer.
They know that he is going to die.
They know that the way of the world is different from their way.
He came to his own and they rejected him.
They know that there will be troubles almost everywhere they go.
What kind of life is that?
For this kind of advice?
It's a life that Jesus knows they can't live without him.
Without the knowledge and love of him.
Without putting him first in every possible way.
Even in all of their troubles and the things that might go wrong and the things they don't
understand and the places that they need help.
Here is this Jesus who is willing to go through that list anyway.
Willing to die for them that they might know his life even more.
Is that not the salvation we talk about all the time?
Help for the helpless?
Rescue for those who can't do it for themselves?
There is such a great, large vocabulary for this kind of thing.
The word I kept coming back to is we might need to reclaim the word surrender in our
sense of church.
Of what it means to come before this Jesus who desperately wants to be known in our lives.
Not in a sense of our unworthiness, but in a sense of like, okay, fine, you do it.
I know I need your help.
I know I can't live this life without you.
Show me a better way through your life.
Because that is what Jesus is doing every day.
He's showing anybody that will be there to watch, to listen, to show up.
You can hear how almost exasperated he is in the gospel today.
You don't even know me yet?
Haven't we been together for so long?
Haven't you seen me?
And if you don't believe me, at least believe the fancy things I do.
No, this is a great call, a great reminder, the mission of this church is something for
your life and mine every day to spend more time with this Jesus.
This Jesus who wants to be known.
This Jesus who wants to show us what real life looks like.
And this is no different than any other relationship you have.
I think sometimes we get really tempted into the idea of, I don't have to do this, it's
too theologically high-minded.
No, that's not how relationship works, friends.
Think of the best relationships in your life.
You probably spend time together.
You probably work at it.
You probably laugh and cry together.
This is this same Jesus.
So when you wake up in the morning, spend time with Him.
Greet His presence in your bedroom.
Tell Him you're glad to see Him.
Talk to Him throughout the day.
I'm getting better at this.
I'm really trying.
My prayer life is changing, friends.
It's a lot of fun.
I can't wait to do it with you.
Thank Him for the day that has been at the end of your day.
There's no wrong way to do this.
And then listen to His advice.
Do not let your hearts be troubled.
And if I were to be so bold with Jesus, I might say it just slightly differently.
Do not let the things that trouble you separate you from Jesus.
Because that's often our inclination.
When we look around the world and we see that things maybe are not the way that we want
them to be or are challenged by the things where we do find adversity in our jobs, in
our driving, in just about everything in life, do you do the thing that I do and push
God away sometimes?
If we're really honest, no, invite Him in.
Do not let your hearts be troubled.
Do not let the things that trouble you get in the way of your relationship with Jesus.
Life has plenty of troubles.
Don't do it alone.
Don't face them without the source of your life.
So friends, let's be renewed by our mission.
Lots of things happening here.
Lots of things to announce.
Lots of events.
Lots of things on Google calendars.
No, go deeper than that.
Know that the mission of this place at its bare bones, at its fundamental level, is to
know Jesus.
Everything else follows.
Know Jesus, make Him known.
Let that be our daily bread, the thing that we live into in the world every day, in this
world and in the life of the world to come.