Bishop's 2022 Convention Address
The Rt. Rev. Deon K. Johnson
Convention Address for the 183rd Convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Missouri
You can watch the Bishop deliver this address on YouTube (beginning at 59:32 of the Convention Eucharist)
The video is also available at the end of this text.
Luke 24:13-35 | Now on that same day, the first day of the week, two of the disciples were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. And he said to them, "What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?" They stood still, looking sad. Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, "Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?" He asked them, "What things?" They replied, "The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place. Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, and when they did not find his body there, they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but they did not see him." Then he said to them, "Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?" Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures. As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on. But they urged him strongly, saying, "Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over." So he went in to stay with them. When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight. They said to each other, "Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?" That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. They were saying, "The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!" Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.
In the name of the One, Holy, & Living God. Amen.
Good morning! I am so glad you are here! You don’t know how much it warms my heart to be preaching to actual people. Take a moment to turn to someone and let them know that you are glad they are here today! God is good! All the time!
During a time of upheaval and division, when the world seemed to be turned upside down and hope was a word whispered in hushed voices in dark corners. During a time when political division and mistrust threatened to fracture the world. At a time of political upheaval and societal change, a young British author penned these words, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way...[1]”
Charles Dickens captured brilliantly the sentiment of his time, and I dare say the sentiment of ours. We have seen the best and worst of humanity over the last two years of pandemic. We have experienced the sense of deep profound connection and painful distance of separation and grief. We have celebrated and enjoyed connection across the distance and we have suffered in isolation and solitude. We have longed for the things of the past while pining for the already-not-yet future. We live in a time of duality, not just in our world but in the church.
In our gospel for today the disciples know firsthand the best of times and the worst of times. They had been following Jesus, seeing the sick made whole, the lame leap for joy and the dead being raised back to life. They were filled with hope that God’s reign, God’s Kingdom was breaking into the world in this Jesus. They were downright euphoric looking towards a future where God’s will and God’s grace ruled the day and not the Romans. Then the soldiers came, the betrayal came, death came. It all fell apart.
They had followed this preacher, this itinerant prophet from Nazareth, this meandering messiah, only to see him hung on a tree. Executed a common criminal outside the city wall. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
On all accounts Jesus had failed and their faith had been in vain. The disciples were filled with grief, loss, and pain. They were looking towards an uncertain future. And so they did what those who have loved and lost do, they gathered together to comfort each other. They gathered to walk together, to tell the stories, to share the grief, to halve the pain. The thing is that when they had resigned themselves to the inevitability of their fate, God shows up. In that long hard walk along the Emmaus road Jesus shows up. Jesus show up and walks with them when they are at their lowest. Jesus walks with them and talks with them and tells them they are his own. In that broken place, along that long walk, God shows up.
I am convinced that like Jesus showing up for the disciples, Jesus shows up for us, on the long walk homeward. God works in broken places and through broken people. My sisters and brothers, siblings in the risen Christ, our Church is broken, and our people are broken. We lament the continued decline in our numbers, the lack of engagement from our young people, the exhaustion of our lay and ordained leaders is real. We bemoan that the perception of the followers of Jesus in our world is that of self-righteousness, racism and homophobia. And yet God still shows up. God will show up in our brokenness, in our spectacular failures. Jesus for his part did not choose the cream of the crop to be his first followers. Jesus called betrayers and tax collectors, fisherfolk who never catch fish and egotistical twins seeking after power. He chose to build his church on a rock-headed Peter and a show-me-the-wounds doubting Thomas. Jesus chose Mary Magdalen as a witness and Martha as an example.
Ours is a faith of mustard seeds and dishonest managers, of pearls and preachers, of baptizers and bridesmaids. The gospel is a radical re-orienting of the world, and yet we have defanged the good news of Jesus Christ. These are disruptive images, stories of transformation and renewal, stories of community connection, stories that radically transformed our faith. These are stories that turn the world upside down, and re-order it to something that resembles God’s justice. God invites us to join in the work of apocalypse; of unveiling, of revealing, of turning things upside down, and to do just that we must walk together. God seems to have a warm spot for the bothered, the beleaguered, and the broken. Which means God has a warm spot for us.
We have followed too much the ways of the world and have forgotten that we need each other, that we need to show Christ, that we need to be outposts of hope, and healing, and health in our communities. We have forgotten that Jesus shows up, not in our beautiful buildings, but in places where people have lost hope, in the barren, broken places in our community. We forget that we are not charged with building the church, we are charged with making disciples. Let me repeat that: we are charged with making disciples, not building the church.
We are called to do and make one thing: disciples! We are not called to make committees, we are not called to make commissions, we are not called to make congregations, we are called to make disciples, followers of Jesus. We are called to shape a people who know that they are loved and beloved, a people who know that they are called to love others who don’t look like them, pray like them, love like them. We are called to make disciples of all nations, all, all, all!
It is time for us to stop tinkering around the edges, we are called to stop finding excuses, we are called to stop stalling, we are called to stop finding ways to ignore our neighbors and be about the business of building the reign of God. We as followers of Jesus are commanded, commanded to do one thing: make disciples of Jesus.
How do we get there? How do we stop talking and start doing? How do we let go of our fear and rediscover deep faith? We follow Jesus! We participate in God’s mission, not our own. We find ourselves as church in trouble when we forget that it is about following Jesus’ way and not our way. My challenge to you, to us as a Diocese, as this part of the Jesus-vine, the Jesus-walk is to look to our roots, to look to our foundation, to look to the basics. What did Jesus do in his ministry? Pray. Go. Rest.
Without prayer we are lost. Jesus took time away to pray for those he loved, to pray for you, to hold you up to God in prayer and we are called to do the same. We pray with our voices and we pray with our feet. Without connecting our lives and individuals and as communities of faith to the deeper well of prayer we are lost. Prayer changes things. Prayer changes us. Without prayer we are in the words of St. Paul, “a noisy gong and a clanging cymbal.”
Like Jesus, we must go! Have you ever noticed that Jesus is always on the move? Have you noticed that he is always going somewhere, always walking with his disciples from on dramatic encounter with God’s people to another?
Jesus is a messiah on the move, always on the go, always seeking that which is lost, always looking for those on the fringes, the edges. Jesus doesn’t just talk about the reign of God, he goes out into the world and unearths living signs of God’s love.
I saw a bumper sticker that said, “To grow, you need to go!” (who knew deep theology could be found on the back of a car on I-44?). We will not grow if we do not go: go into our communities, our neighborhoods, our towns and villages and make disciples. Go out into the world and feed the hungry, clothe the naked, seek justice. Go out and be Jesus for those who need Jesus! When you walk out of our churches, out of our communities of faith we should look like Jesus, we should smell like Jesus, we should love like Jesus! Walk in love as Christ loved us! We must be nimble, like the Disciples walking the way to Emmaus with Jesus, we must be ready encounter the risen Christ as we walk together, pray together, serve together.
Rest. We are tired! We are weary. We have done far more in the last two years than any of us could have dreamed or imagined. Our clergy have had to discover new ways of being, connecting, and serving. Over the last two years we have prayed the prayer of James Weldon Johnson, “God of our weary years, God of our silent tears.” Now is the time for us as a Diocese to rediscover what it means to take rest. Jesus in his ministry often went off to a quiet place to rest for a while. I think Jesus knew that he would not be his best self if he did not rest. The same is true for us. We need to take times of Sabbath, times of renewal, times of refreshment. Rest is the ceasing from doing so that we are prepared to do the work of praying, and going.
When we have taken our rest, start again with prayer so that we might go once more into God’s world as God’s church. Pray. Go. Rest. Repeat.
This past summer, I gathered with about 700+ of my closest bishop friends at Lambeth, in the UK. Relationships were built, hard truths were spoken, bread was broken, bonds strengthened. But one of the things that struck me most didn’t happen at the conference, it happened on the train. As you walk onto the train platform there are signs everywhere that read, “Mind the Gap.” It seems comical at first, but then you realize that the sign proclaims the Good News for us and in our time. There is a gap between Jesus and his followers. There is a great chasm set between the Christ and the followers of Christ. This is an opportunity for us to learn and to grow. To own it, and then turn to build a new future, a new church, a new world that better reflects God’s dream, God’s vision, God’s hope for the world.
Across this diocese we are learning to mind the gap. We are praying, going, resting and minding God in the gap together in partnership in so many ways. From the great big, hairy, audacious dreams of Deacon Barbi Click to be on the move in a mobile food truck to serve those who are unhoused, to the oasis of hope for the LGBTQIA+ community in Kirksville and surrounds.
We are minding the gap and walking together in caring for creation, finding new ways to partner with each other to install solar panels on our buildings, from Grace, Jeff City to St. Paul’s, Carondelet. We are feeding hungry hearts and bodies at St. Mark’s, St. Louis and Trinity, Central West End. We are nourishing those who need community and connection with Peace Meal partners in places like St. John’s, Tower Grove and St. Francis, Eureka. We are discovering ways to undo the lasting effects of systematic racism and neglect by investing in North St. Louis, with the leadership of St. Peter’s, Ladue and the Church of St. Michael and St. George, Clayton. We are minding and finding Christ in the gaps where our young people gathered with renewed focus on campus ministry in congregations from Calvary, Columbia; Christ Church, Cape; Christ Church, Rolla. We are doing the work of inviting all to the table in places like Holy Communion, U-City with Grace Gathering for the neuro-divergent and welcoming the African Diaspora in partnership with the Cathedral in the newly formed Grace African Christians Connection. In every community of faith that make up this Diocese we are walking in love and minding the gap.
I see a Church that doesn’t just talk about racial healing and justice, but actively seeks to dismantle systems of oppression and injustice. I see a Church that doesn’t just pray about climate change, but actively participates in the renewing of the earth as part of our call as stewards of creation. I see a Church that stands in the margins, on the edges, on the outskirts with those who have been called less than, those who have been left behind, left out. I see a Church that doesn’t just proclaim Jesus to the world, but who actively lives Christ out in the world. I see a Church that is learning what it means once more to walk in love as Christ has loved us!
I am excited for the future of this Diocese, for the future of this church. I am excited that we get to be bearers of God’s amazing Good News in Jesus Christ. I am excited that the light of the Gospel continues to be shared and shone in so many ways that enliven and elevates the people of God.
We now must make ready. We must be ready to move with the Holy Spirit into the unknown future. We must be ready to forge new partnerships, to find new ways to collaborate, to discover new paths, new journeys, new adventures. We must let go of what the church has been so that we can look towards what we shall be. We must find our joy; the joy of being beloved of God, the joy of knowing we are loved, the joy of gathering as people of faith. We must know and share that we’ve got “the joy, joy, joy, down in our hearts! Down in our hearts! Down in our hearts!”
There is no going back. Once you decide to follow Jesus there is no turning back. Like the disciples on the Emmaus Road we have to walk with those in pain and grief so that their hearts might be strangely stirred with the presence of the One we follow. And like the disciples we must be willing to get go. The disciples had to lay aside the Jesus they knew before crucifixion. The disciples had to lay aside their perception of who Jesus was and look towards a new and resurrected faith! What do we need to lay aside for this time? What do we need to let die in the church, so that we can more closely follow Jesus? Where do we need to go, so that we can grow?
Friends in Christ, we can no longer walk alone. We can no longer minister in silos or solo. We can no longer minister in a vacuum. We must walk this journey together! The Good News for the disciples and for us in the Gospel is that Jesus stayed. He stayed with those who were lost, he stayed with those who were uncertain, he stayed with those who were tried. “I am with you always even to the end of the age.[2]” That is the promise of our faith.
And in the words of the poet and writer Oscar Hammerstein;
“When you walk through a storm hold your head up high and don't be afraid of the dark
At the end of the storm is a golden sky and the sweet silver song of a lark
Walk on through the wind walk on through the rain
Though your dreams be tossed and blown
Walk on, walk on, with hope in your heart and (in Christ Jesus) you'll never walk alone
You'll never walk alone.[3]”
May God bless you. May God keep you. And may you walk in love as Christ loved us. Amen.
[3] “You’ll Never Walk Alone” from the Musical Carousel, Written by Oscar Hammerstein, 1945
Watch the Convention Eucharist here (Bishop's address begins at 59:32):
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