Disciple: Looking Ahead

By The Rt. Rev. Peter James Lee

As a country and as a church, we are looking ahead. Our country faces a divisive and heated presidential election campaign, as demonstrated at this summer’s political conventions. At our annual convention in November, the Diocese of North Carolina will announce the nominees for election as the XII Bishop Diocesan of North Carolina, with the election set for March 2017.

Beginning the last Sunday in June, the gospel readings we hear on Sundays from Luke’s Gospel will be those that punctuate Jesus’ movement towards Jerusalem and his final confrontation with the authorities. “When the days drew near for [Jesus] to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.” (Luke 9:51) His insistent urgency to his followers was emphasized by his image from farming: “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:62) Plowmen know to keep their eyes ahead or the furrows will not be straight.

Many opinion polls tell us the American people are dissatisfied with the direction of the country and many feel powerless to change that. But our faith tells us something much different: We are empowered to make a difference with who we are and what we do. In the eight months I have served among you as your assisting bishop, I have seen the differences people of faith can make. So far, I have visited some 27 of our congregations, and I am impressed by their faithfulness and energy. I have confirmed and received dozens of Spanish-speaking people in Wilson, dozens of teenagers in the Myers Park neighborhood of Charlotte, and more in the many places in between. In most of those churches, our people are making a difference. The renewal of our churches is one way to revive our sense of the common good. In 2000, Robert Putnam published his insightful book, Bowling Alone, which told the story of the decline of voluntary associations in America, including bowling leagues, and the rise of extreme individualism in our culture throughout the 20^th century. In 2015, New York Times columnist David Brooks published “The Road to Character,” a chronicle of how heroes of the spirit have overcome that extreme isolation. Brooks contrasts what he calls “resume virtues” with “eulogy virtues,” the difference between accounts of our accomplishments and descriptions of our character, and how the latter is so much more important to the well-being of our common life. In his account, character contrasts with the self-preoccupation so common in our culture.

Christians make a difference now as we did in the first century of the Christian movement, so vividly described in the Acts of the Apostles. One of my favorite characters in the Book of Acts, described in Acts 16, is Lydia, an especially appropriate model for the contemporary church. She was a woman, likely a refugee (she is described as from Thyatira, now in modern Turkey), living in the Roman cosmopolitan city of Philippi in Macedonia. She was probably rich, since she is described as a dealer in purple cloth, a luxury item of the first century. Paul’s teaching led to the conversion of Lydia and her whole household, a home she opened to Paul and his companions. So the first European convert in the Jesus movement was a rich, generous woman, who was a successful refugee. Paul made a difference, and so did she. Some scholars think that Paul’s special affection for the church at Philippi may have part of its roots in Lydia’s financing of Paul’s mission trips.

We make a difference, then, in the way we support our local congregations, our diocese and the wider church, with our witness, our presence and our treasure. We make a difference in the way we reach beyond our churches to stand with people who are vulnerable. Our churches are doing just that across the diocese: Holy Trinity, Greensboro, is involved with the Cottage Grove neighborhood, a generally low income neighborhood of Greensboro, where the emphasis is to be with people, not just do things for them, to help them build up their community. St. John’s, Charlotte, when I visited in the spring, gave and blessed dozens of practical gifts for refugee women. St. Timothy’s, Winston-Salem, is one of many churches in the Diocese who don’t just serve the homeless populations in their neighborhoods, but welcome them as members of their church and invite them into church life. In May, I blessed a house built cooperatively by nine of our Wake County parishes with Habitat for Humanity.

As I write this, the Rt. Rev. Anne Hodges-Copple, our bishop diocesan pro tempore, a diocesan team and young adults from all over the world are in South Africa as part of “Lift Every Voice,” a three-year program designed to introduce young voices to the truths of racial and social injustice and invite those voices into developing diocesan programs that work toward reconciliation.

In June, I participated with Bishop Hodges-Copple in the ordination of four men and a woman as transitional deacons, deacons whom we expect will one day be priests. Our church (rightly, I think) requires all priests – and bishops – to be first ordained a deacon to emphasize that servant ministry is at the heart of leadership, leadership that equips people to recognize the gifts God has given each of us so we can make a difference.

Joseph Blount Cheshire was Bishop of North Carolina from 1893-1932. He was deacon in charge of Chapel of the Cross in Chapel Hill from 1878-1880. During that time, I’m told he walked to Durham and established St. Philip’s Church, named for a deacon. One of his descendants told me he was buried in the vestments of a deacon because he remembered his service as a deacon to be among the happiest days of his ministry.

Bishop Cheshire was a forward-looking leader who helped people make a difference.

We live at a time when disillusionment with politics, fear of terrorism and unease with tolerating people who are different can sap our spirits.

We in the church can make a difference by looking forward with hope and confidence. That hope and confidence are important qualities for all of us in what our beloved Presiding Bishop Curry calls the Jesus Movement. We make a difference. Embrace that reality with joy, and we will move forward.

The Rt. Rev. Peter James Lee is the Assisting Bishop of the Diocese of North Carolina.