Acts 16:16-34; Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21; John 14:23-29

The Reverend Paul D. Allick, St. George’s Episcopal Church, May 16, 2010

Years ago I met with a youth confirmation class that had just been confirmed. I was working with them to create a youth group. The first time I met with them I thought it would be good to do some reviewing  with them. I started with the Church year. They couldn’t do it; they had blank looks on their faces. They did not know the story of Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week, Easter and Pentecost.

So I tried the Sacraments. What are the Seven Sacraments? Which are the major ones and which are the minor ones? Again, blank stares.

I asked them what they did they remember from their confirmation class. They remembered visiting other Churches and visiting a synagogue. They remembered that their service project was helping clean up a polluted pond.

Now I don’t know if they covered the basics of their religion and just ignored it. But whatever the case, it obviously wasn’t the emphasis of the course. Learning about our neighbors and helping to clean up a pond are noble efforts but that is not the focus of the sacrament of confirmation.

I set about catechizing these young people. If they weren’t going to be knowledgeable practitioners of their religion then their religion wasn’t going to be around very long.

It may sound exclusive and prejudiced on my part but I wanted to make strong Episcopalians out of this young people. I wanted to bring them into this portion of Christ’s Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. I wanted to mold their impressionable young minds and help them to own and be proud of their Anglican Tradition.

That is my personal mission as an Anglican Priest: to make more Anglicans. On a more universal level, it is the mission of all Christians to make more Christians.

We see how this mission works in our story from the Book of Acts. Paul and Barnabas are in a Roman Colony. It is a place very far from home. They reach out in compassion to this young slave girl. She has a strange spirit upon her and is being used to make money for her owners. They heal her and get into trouble. They are flogged and put into prison. An earthquake comes and they get free. One of the guards witnesses the act of God and asks about this Christ they keep talking about. Paul and Barnabas catechize the guard. He washes their wounds. He and his whole household are baptized and then they have a feast.

This is what you and I as baptized ministers are doing in the world. We are healing others and ourselves. We are waiting upon God to act. When others see how we have trusted in God and see him act in our lives, they are going to ask us questions. We need to know what to teach them. Each of us is a catechist.

When we have taught them the Tradition then we invite them to be baptized. After the baptism we all have a feast. We feast at the Altar in the Blessed Sacrament of Christ’s Body and Blood and we feast in the fellowship hall over donuts and coffee.

It is a simple formula but it is dangerous and it will require us to be ready. In our hospitality toward others we must, as St. Peter writes, “Always be prepared to make a defense to any one who calls you to account for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and reverence.” (I Peter 3:15)

Yes, we Episcopalians, and all Christians should be learning about our neighbors and be concerned with the human and environmental conditions around us but first we must be concerned with the tenets of our faith. It is from our faith, our Scriptures, Sacraments and Creeds that our compassion and inclusiveness proceed.

You’ve heard me say it a thousand times but I will keep saying it until it turns around. In the Episcopal Church we have spent so much time on secular social issues, on outreach, and partisan politics that we are losing our focus on what really matters. What really matters is a knowledge of the Scriptures, the Creeds and the Sacraments.

Everyone is welcome here. Everyone is invited to the baptismal font and the altar. Everyone is welcome to put on their Baptismal Garment and become part of the Body. All are welcome to confirm their faith by study, prayer and doing their part to sustain Mother Church. As we see in St. John’s vision of heaven, “Blessed our those who wash their robes, so that they will have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by the gate.”

We wash our robes when we come to accept Christ as our Savior. We wash our robes when we accept the Creeds and Catechism of our faith. Every person we meet has a robe waiting here to be laundered and put on. Each of us have our robes on and sometimes we have to wash them. We have to study up on our religion. We have to repent of our sins and start over with Christ.

The gates are wide open. The robes are washed and ready. Come on in. Bring others with you.