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Presiding Bishop-Elect Schori Calls on "Mother Jesus"

Quote from the Morning Eucharist Sermon on June 21, 2006 (at General
Convention 2006) by Presiding Bishop-elect Katharine Jefferts Schori:

"Our mother Jesus gives birth to a new creation -- and you and I are His
children."
 

Full Text of Sermon from Episcopal News Service
June 21, 2006

Presiding Bishop-elect Katharine Jefferts Schori preached the homily at
the Closing Eucharist June 21 at General Convention in Columbus, Ohio.

The text of Jefferts Schori's homily follows:

Homily preached the General Convention's Closing Eucharist Wednesday,
June 21, 2006 The Right Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori

Grow in All Things into Christ
Lections for the Reign of Christ
Colossians 1:11-20
Canticle 18
John 18:33-37

This last Sunday morning I woke very early, while it was still dark. I
wanted to go for a run, but I had to wait until there was enough light
to see. When the dawn finally began, I ventured out. It was warm, and
still, and very quiet, and the clouds were just beginning to show tinges
of pink. I ran by the back of the Hyatt just as two workers were coming
out one of the service doors. They were startled, I'm afraid, but I
nodded at them, and they responded. I went west over the freeway, and
encountered a man I'd seen here in the Convention Center. Neither of us
stopped, but we did say a quiet good morning. Then I found a lovely
green park, and started around it. There was a man with a reflective
vest, standing in the street by some orange cones, as though he were
waiting for a run or a parade to begin. I said good morning, and he
responded in kind. Around the corner I came to a bleary-eyed fellow with
several bags who looked like he'd just risen from sleeping rough. I said
good morning to him too, but I must admit I went past him in the street
instead of on the sidewalk. Then I met a rabbit hopping across the
sidewalk, and though we didn't use words, one of us eyed the other with
more than a bit of wariness. Around another corner, a woman was
delivering Sunday papers from her car. She was wary too, and didn't get
out of her car with the next paper until I was a long way past her.

Back over the freeway, and a block later, two guys seemingly on their
early way to work. We nodded at each other.

As I returned to my hotel, I reflected on all those meetings. There was
some degree of wariness in most of them. There were small glimpses of a
reconciled world in our willingness to greet each other. But the
unrealized possibility of a real relationship -- whether in response of
wariness, or caution, or fear -- meant that we still had a very long way
to go.

Can we dream of a world where all creatures, human and not, can meet
each other in a stance that is not tinged with fear?

When Jesus says that his kingdom is not of this world, he is saying that
his rule is not based on the ability to generate fear in his subjects. A
willingness to go to the cross implies a vulnerability so radical, so
fundamental, that fear has no impact or import. The love he invites us
to imitate removes any possibility of reactive or violent response. King
Jesus' followers don't fight back when the world threatens. Jesus calls
us friends, not agents of fear.

If you and I are going to grow in all things into Christ, if we're going
to grow up into the full stature of Christ, if we are going to become
the blessed ones God called us to be while we were still in our mothers'

wombs, our growing will need to be rooted in a soil of internal peace.

We'll have to claim the confidence of souls planted in the overwhelming
love of God, a love so abundant, so profligate, given with such
unwillingness to count the cost, that we, too, are caught up into a
similar abandonment.

That full measure of love, pressed down and overflowing, drives out our
idolatrous self-interest. Because that is what fear really is -- it is a
reaction, an often unconscious response to something we think is so
essential that it takes the place of God. "Oh, that's mine and you can't
take it, because I can't live without it" -- whether it's my bank
account or theological framework or my sense of being in control. If you
threaten my self-definition, I respond with fear. Unless, like Jesus, we
can set aside those lesser goods, unless we can make "peace through the
blood of the cross."

That bloody cross brings new life into this world. Colossians calls
Jesus the firstborn of all creation, the firstborn from the dead. That
sweaty, bloody, tear-stained labor of the cross bears new life. Our
mother Jesus gives birth to a new creation -- and you and I are His
children. If we're going to keep on growing into Christ-images for the
world around us, we're going to have to give up fear.

What do the godly messengers say when they turn up in the Bible? "Fear
not." "Don't be afraid." "God is with you." "You are God's beloved, and
God is well-pleased with you."

When we know ourselves beloved of God, we can begin to respond in less
fearful ways. When we know ourselves beloved, we can begin to recognize
the beloved in a homeless man, or rhetorical opponent, or a child with
AIDS. When we know ourselves beloved, we can even begin to see and reach
beyond the defense of others.

Our invitation, both in the last work of this Convention, and as we go
out into the world, is to lay down our fear and love the world. Lay down
our sword and shield, and seek out the image of God's beloved in the
people we find it hardest to love. Lay down our narrow self-interest,
and heal the hurting and fill the hungry and set the prisoners free. Lay
down our need for power and control, and bow to the image of God's
beloved in the weakest, the poorest, and the most excluded.

We children can continue to squabble over the inheritance. Or we can
claim our name and heritage as God's beloveds and share that name,
beloved, with the whole world.
Date: 6/21/2006

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