Diocesan Convention, The Reverend David R. Williams, Epiphany IV--Year C--Jan. 28, 2007
 
Give us grace, O Lord, not only to hear your Word with our ears, but also to receive it into our hearts and to show it forth in our lives; for the glory of your great name.  Amen
 
On Friday and Saturday this past week, seven members of this congregation attended the annual Diocesan Convention held at the Koury Center in Greensboro.  I will highlight three or four Convention moments; however, I begin with a story - a story about a congregation of people in another time of history.  
 
The context is the first century, the location a port city in the Eastern Mediterranean sea.  The city of Corinth, recently prosperous in a major revival of flourishing commerce and trade, attracts immigrants from Egypt, Syria and places of the Far East. A large Jewish population has moved to Corinth, and generations of Italian and Greek colonists make up the rest of the city.  In other words, the city of Corinth has become a melting pot of global cultures, races, religious beliefs and values.  It is a secular city. While there is a Jewish synagogue and various temples dedicated to Roman, Egyptian, Greek mythological deities, this urban port attracts people from all over the Eastern world as well as the corruption and perversion of affluence.
 
The morality of the entire Roman Empire is at low ebb, but Corinth is particularly notorious for lax morals.  To live like a Corinthian is a proverbial expression for wild living.  
 
One day, an itinerant Jewish evangelist comes to town, looking for a place to stay. Warmly invited into the home of a Jewish family, the evangelist attends Synagogue with his hosts. He speaks fervently to his fellow Jews of the man “Christos,” a Messiah figure martyred near Jerusalem about 20 years ago.  The evangelist has testimonies, personal witnesses, knowledge, and a strong conviction. His name is Paul. 
 
After several of Paul’s talks, the leadership of the temple becomes intimidated.  These new beliefs are foreign to their tradition, and they consider heretical Paul’s stories about Jesus as Christ and Messiah. Paul is asked to leave the synagogue, which he does, but from an initial following of people, a “New Judaism” evolves, regular meetings held in a home next to the Synagogue.  Many people reflecting the mixed cultures of this port city Corinth are baptized into this New Judaism.
 
The followers maintain the strong morality of a monotheistic, traditional Jewish faith and yet are intrigued by Jesus stories promising divine prerogatives without strict obedience to Jewish dietary law. Not a bad deal! But, being human, they soon squabble: which spiritual gift is most important and desirable? Who is most important? Who is least important? How can a Gentile become a Jew?
 
Paul spends a year and a half with this congregation, this “Christian Church”.  After Paul departs Corinth to visit a city across the Aegean Sea, and after he hears of the squabbles and fragmenting arguments going on in the Corinthian Church, Paul writes a letter to the Corinthians about diversity – varied gifts, gifts of the spirit – about the Body of Christ having many parts. 
 
Then, the middle of his letter, we hear Paul seem to interrupt himself: “There is more than merely the acknowledgement of varied gifts.  The gifts of God go nowhere without the love of God.”
 
Now begins the passage so familiar to all of us, so widely used in weddings and funerals: “If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging symbol…”
        
Agape, charity, human respect and caring for each other – that is the glue holding the Church together, Paul writes.  This kind of love is at first difficult to perceive, especially when we are young, but as we get older the mirror becomes more clear and we come face-to-face with the power of a divine truth.
 
The new church in Corinth fragments into dissension and argument just as any church, any diocese, any family does from time to time. Paul’s wonderful words, especially in this Letter to the Corinthians, remind us of the glue, Love and Charity, as the greatest of gifts.
 
Among many encouragements of our Diocesan Convention, here are three manifestations of the power of Paul’s eloquent words to the church in Corinth:
 
Millennium Development Goals: this primary theme of convention arose over and over again during the two days of meetings: Bishop Curry’s address, workshops, an information booth, a guest preacher at the Eucharist.  At one workshop, this visiting American missionary informed us of recent trips to the Sudan and Rwanda.  He shared stories of successes in Rwanda, a country known mostly for its mass genocide in the 1990s.  Not anymore.  Through the Millennium Development Village Project, divisiveness among tribes, especially Tutsis and Hutus, no longer exists or is far less relevant. 
 
The missionary reminded us that distinction between Tutsis and Hutus began when Rwanda was a German and later a Belgian Colony.  A farmer with fifty or more cattle was a Tutsi. Fifty or fewer cattle meant Hutu.  It was a division between Cain and Abel.
 
 Abel took care of the flocks, while Cain cultivated the ground. (Genesis 4:2)
 
One brother was a cattle farmer, the other was a tiller of the ground. One tried to eliminate the other. Not anymore. Rwandans are Rwandans now.  The nation is one, and the new villages flourish.
 
The Penick Village of Southern Pines, a retirement community of the Episcopal Church, is changing.  A young, creative, visionary director of the Penick Village has visions of the retirement community as more like home. “We have been a good retirement community, but good is not good enough,” he says.  He introduced us to the term Shahbaz, a designated person offering respect and loving care to our elderly family, especially those of limited mobility. Every resident should have a Shahbaz, he says.  Newly designed living quarters are on the drawing boards.  Good is not good enough.  Our own Harriet Whitley is one of ten people elected to the Penick Board by the Convention.   
 
Steve Slott, Susan Autry, B Holt, Chinkie Goodale, Bob Walker, Ralph Macy and I attended the two-day Convention as delegates
 
Everybody is aware our previous Senior Warden loves his Diet Pepsi.  We also know he dedicates himself to his own mission goal of free dental service to those unable to afford it, but maybe you did not know this: Steve Slott does not dance.  Something unique occurred at Convention.
 
While the youth of the Diocese are providing an experiential opportunity for ten minutes of exercise to music, a song by the Temptations (taking many of us back to the 1960s - you know—“My Girl”) is “I’ll Be There.”  The teenagers show all 500 delegates how to move and dance with just the flair of “The Temps” on-stage! As the song begins, 499 delegates join in the dance. The last delegate to join is our former Senior Warden.  Steve Slott danced!
 
We witness the blessing with so many gifts and people in the Church during every Diocesan Convention and every Sunday here at Holy Comforter. And we are nothing without the most blessed gift of all, the Agape Love of God holding together our human frailties.
 
“And now Faith, Hope, and Love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is Love.”
 
Amen.