First Sunday after Pentecost

Readings- Proverbs 8: 1-4,22-31; Psalm 8; Romans 5: 1-5; John 16: 12-15

In 1973 I entered Virginia Theological Seminary using a proposed prayerbook that would become the 1979 Book of Common Prayer.  Raised in the Evangelical and Reformed Church, now the United Church of Christ, I had much to learn.  At V.T.S. we had a full spectrum of students, some fresh from college, some changing careers mid-course in their working careers, and some recently retired from business or military, both men and women.  We were taught the three guiding principles of the Episcopal Church–

Scripture, the Old and New Testaments,
Tradition, including Hebrew ancestry, Roman Catholicism,
the 16th-century emergence of Anglicanism, and the history of
the Episcopal Church, and
                                                                  
Reason, how God gave us a mind, the ability to learn, which included
the avenues of science, and the ability to make sense of how
Scripture and Tradition intersected and diverged.

However, we also began considering a fourth strand of living faithfully.  How were our lives being changed by our daily experience of God? Of course, experience had always impacted the reading of Scripture and our selection of Tradition, and our manner of reasoning. 

Yet, our experience further shaped our Church.  Just as in ancient times, the marriage of clergy rocked the strands of Scripture, Tradition and Reason, so to the experience of women’s voices rocked the Church. Could women possibly be ordained priests? Experience began to affirm that indeed God was calling women into ordained leadership in our Church.  Though resisted by many, the Church was rocked by women who clearly articulated a call from God. 

And soon to follow, could people who are called into love as single gender couples also be called by God into ordained leadership as well as into holy matrimony?  The Church witnessed God’s hand in loving relationships of same gendered people. 

So, now we have Scripture, Tradition, Reason, and Experience, four strands woven together in the Episcopal Church.  We have listened and learned from God, and from each other.  God’s love, as St. Paul wrote to the faithful gathered in Rome, 

God’s love [continues to be] poured into our hearts through
the Holy Spirit…

For me one of my foundational truths is from today’s reading of John 16:12–                      

[Jesus said] – I still have many things to say to you,
but you cannot bear them now.

The Church, we, are still listening and still learning. 

I will conclude with a personal example.  In January 1976 I took the General Ordination Examination.  One question was about marriage and divorce.  Could people marry, divorce, and remarry with the full blessing and affirmation of the Church?  I then wrote, “Yes”, on the basis of Scripture, Tradition, Reason, and Experience.  Yet most of Scripture, and most of Tradition       was a resounding “No”.  The short version of my answer was this–

1- when ministry is rejected, it is acceptable to “shake the dust off your
your feet” (Mark 6:10-11) and move on to another ministry.  At its
core marriage is a very personal ministry, and
2- Jesus said that “I have many things to say to you but you cannot
bear them now…”

I stand by my exam response, though my examiners failed me on this question.  Would they do so today, probably not. 

As we journey through life whether we are ahead of the times, with the times, or behind the times, our collect for today proclaims

God, you have given to us your servants, grace…

With God’s grace, may we continue to strive to listen to hear God’s voice guiding our hearts and minds through

 Scripture, through Tradition, through Reason, and through Experience.

Amen