Rector's Charge to the Annual Parish Meeting of
St. Paul's Church by-the-Lake, Chicago, IL. 60626
22 January 2006

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

"You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of human masters. The time is fulfilled, the Kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news."
I Cor. 7:23 & St. Mark 1: 15

I. The time after Epiphany, like that after Pentecost & Trinity Sundays, are marked by the use of the color green in the church's vesture. There are 34 Sundays this year, to be exact, that will be 'Green Sundays'. There really isn't an Epiphany Season, nor a Pentecost or Trinity Season. They are marked in both the 1979 and 1928 Prayerbooks as 'Sundays after Epiphany, Pentecost or Trinity. My point has to do with TIME. There are Ordinary parts or times of the Church Year, and there are extraordinary times. Advent, Christmas, Lent and Easter are extra-ordinary.
There are two words in the Greek New Testament for 'time'. Chronos is the measuring of passing time, such as in calendars, days, clocks and hours. We know the word Chronology (the order in which events happen) from this Greek word. But that is NOT the word use in today's Gospel when Jesus says 'the time is fulfilled'. It is a different Greek word: Kairos, which is the fullness or completeness of time. What we might call God's Time, it is endless, unto the ages of ages, as our Eastern Orthodox friends say. Jesus says "The time is fulfilled", He means it is completed and thus follows: "the Kingdom of God is near, repent & believe".

II. Chronos, or Ordinary time will run out. We are indeed, according to St. Paul, running out of time. Whereas Kairos is the time which we as Christians must begin living even from the day of our Baptism, as the old-time is passing away. St. Paul is clear in today's Epistle that Christians live the Kairos time by the way we act, behave, and treat others. He speaks of living the call from God, obeying the commandments, belonging to the Lord and NOT being a slave of Human Masters.
When people tell you the Bible supported Slavery (which it doesn't), this is the passage (I Cor. 7) to make reference to. The only way the Bible might be said to support slavery is to ask us to become Slaves to God's Word, Slaves to His Grace, Slaves to doing good for others. Indeed over and over it warns us not to become enslaved to Sin, the World, the Flesh or the Devil.

III. So let us take our 2006 marching orders as a parish from these words of Holy Scripture. "The time is fulfilled- you were bought with a price." You know this is NO Ordinary Episcopal Church. We are, almost everywhere in the Diocese from Bishops down, know as an Extraordinary Parish, sometimes for good, often for our hanging on to the old ways of our Anglican Faith. They know we still use the 1928 Prayerbook, they know we still (priest & people) pray in the direction of liturgical east, i.e. the Altar is still against the wall…by the way they hate that we do that! They also know we still believe the Bible on all the major controversial issues of the day. I don't have to rehearse the list here, you know it and you know this parish holds the line on this. We do so without having to say a word about any of it. We just keep the Faith that always has been, that is the deposit of faith from Holy Tradition of Christ's One, Holy, Catholic & Apostolic Church.
Let those who want to change that Faith bear the burden of proof, let them waste valuable Gospel Time justifying their innovations. I will not give any more attention to it than I just have. It is all in the Chronos.
And it doing that, we fulfill the Kairos, the fullness of God's Kingdom. In His time none of those political games matter, just keeping the Catholic Faith. In the Old Testament there ;was always a Remnant of believers who did not sell out to the popular religions of Babylon or Persia. Many did worship Baal, or the idols of Roman & Greek Mystery Religions. It was considered God's Gift to be part of such a faithful remnant, so when sanity and sanctity returned to the people- the remnant was there ready to restore the Temple, the Faith and the holiness of God's People. Sound familiar? That is exactly the Kairos work of St. Paul's Church by-the-Lake.

IV. No it is never easy to be a remnant. It is far easier to 'go-along', to be popular, to be well-liked. For that is where in the worlds eyes the power lies, in Chronos time. But it is not worth it, not at the cost of Kairos, God's Kingdom. Not at the cost of trading Kairos for Chronos.
Our Job is to choose the Kairos- God's time, God's Kingdom, and NO other. We do that here at St. Paul's by-the-Lake with grace and dignity, I think. We do it by living out our faith in this place, in this neighborhood- at this time, but in Kairos. That is the call we must live out, it is not a personal preference, nor even one of many truths to choose from. It is just the way eternity is- always and forever. That is why the remnant never fears and never despairs, but is full of hope…it just is.
This is no ordinary Parish- it is extraordinary in everyway. Hear again our call: "You were bought with a price- do not become slaves of Human Master. The time is fulfilled, the Kingdom is near, repent and believe the Gospel."

+In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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