Why are you here?

Hmmm.  An interesting gospel reading.  Jesus talks to his disciples about bread and wine in very carnal terms: those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me.  And they react!  It is easy to be immune to those words as we hear them so much but if you really think about it, it is kind of gross, and was new for them.  Eating his flesh and drinking his blood.  And the disciples said, “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?…Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him.”

That one line is easy to miss.  And it was really highlighted for me this week as I was praying with the gospel reading and discerning what to preach on that wasn’t bread again!.  “Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him”  How often do we think that not all of Jesus’ disciples followed him; that some turned back?  But twelve stayed.  It is important to remember that the Twelve stayed.  The important ones.  And here we are 2000 years later.  Look at where we are and what we have in a faith tradition and where we are worshipping.  St. Paul’s Within the Walls, over 150 years old.  In Rome.  The city said to have the most churches in the world: over 900 churches here.

So how did we get here?  And why?  Well obviously those twelve disciples found something that wouldn’t let them go.  Remember that the early churches were house churches.  For the first three centuries or so the early Christians met in homes, in small groups, and celebrated communion, the Eucharist, around home tables.  Eating this bread and drinking this wine, body and blood!  Again and again.

Just down the street from us is Santa Maria Maggiore where it is reported that Mass has been said every day since the early fifth century.  Every day for 1600 years.  If you do the math, that is over, way over, 600,000 times.  Lots of ‘Our Fathers’ and ‘This do in remembrance of me…’

And that is despite some real challenging church history.  The early Christians were worshiping for over 300 years before real churches were built.  Thanks to Constantine, who experienced a conversion in the 4th century, and made it legal to be a Christian, we have churches at all.  Then you have the Great Schism in the 11th century when the Eastern (Orthodox) and Western (Roman Catholic, and us!) split over a few words in the creed.  And we have the Reformation in the 16th century, Martin Luther posting his 95 theses on the tree in Germany on 31st October 1517.  We have Vatican II in the 20th century.  A lot of church history to have survived.  And lots of churches built!  The twelve disciples must have found something that wouldn’t let them go…

In our Old Testament reading we have Solomon consecrating the magnificent temple he built to worship God.  If you would like some interesting reading and history read the first several chapters of the book of I Kings and learn of the size and grandeur and beauty of that amazing temple.  And here we are in another beautiful church, wonderfully conceived and constructed restored and maintained through the herculean efforts of our generous board in the United States.

So I raise a question —Why are you here?  Why are you here here?  In Rome, at St. Paul’s worshiping in the Anglican tradition, on a Sunday morning when you could be lots of other places: sleeping in, football practice for your kids or grandkids, out to brunch, yoga class, touristing. 

Perhaps you are a visitor to Rome and you just wandered in.  Or perhaps you are a regular here.  Or somewhere in between.  But I think it is very worth considering — Why are you here?  Why are you at St. Paul’s instead on one of the other 900 churches in Rome, and why are you in church at all.  

“Because of this many of his disciples turned back…”  But twelve continued to follow.

I found the Episcopal Church when I was about 18 years old, in college, at the University of Missouri.  After looking around and trying to make sense of several early family crises and tragedies, I  walked into the Episcopal Church and felt at home.  Well done traditional and formal liturgy in a beautiful setting that gave reverence and praise to God, augmented by good music, and with people who I found interesting, engaging, and welcoming.  Indeed as we have said, not having to check our minds at the door, the thinking person’s church, was for me a new home and has been since.  That was over fifty years ago, and I’m still coming.  There is something that won’t let me go.  Why am I here?  The Anglican tradition focuses on the beauty of worship as an offering to God, and balances respect for our heritage (we call Tradition) with reading of the Word and celebration at the Table (Word and Sacrament, Eucharist), use of ritual and symbol, along with flexibility and adaptation.  We say that Anglican (Episcopal) theology is a three legged stool of Scripture, Reason, and Tradition.  I had looked at other traditions that were more ascetic: no flowers, candles or music, no beauty.  The reverence and tradition of the Episcopal Church fed me.  And the sacraments in the tradition handed down by Jesus and the twelve apostles.  It still feeds me today.  I liked the worship and the people and the progressive nature.  Women had not yet been ordained…  Nor same sex marriage even thought about.  The inclusivity was appealing.  Additionally, the Eucharist is central to worship, as Jesus instituted, and the form of worship is pretty much the same in all Anglican Churches around the world.  There is a familiarity and comfort that one can experience in the Anglican Church when traveling internationally.

As a medical doctor in training then, and in practice since, I had no thoughts of being a priest.  That came much later.  But won’t let me go.  And why am I at St. Paul’s?  I could say that it is Larry and Yvette and their convincing conversation.  And then Rector now Bishop Austin Rios’ message to me of being needed here and Bp Mark’s plea to me.  But I actually am here because of you all.  Because I have been warmly welcomed here repetitively since I first walked in these doors eleven years ago.  Indeed the summer of 2013 I first came here to serve.

So I am here because this is a special place with special people and special ministry in a special building.  And because God is among you.  Working and living and breathing the Holy Spirit into your presence.

Last Sunday there was a young man visiting from the US and he told me that he was Methodist and this was the closest he could find to a good Methodist service.  And afterward he told me that he liked what he saw.  And he felt welcome.

There is something special here.  Something that I cannot explain.  That won’t let me go.  That’s why I am here, and keep coming back.  Why are you here?

Amen.