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| Bishop Michael Bird |
It is a real pleasure for Susan and me to be with you this morning here at the Ascension and as always, I bring you greetings and very best wishes from all of us at Synod Office and all the members of your Diocesan family. I want to particularly thank Bishop Terry for his faithful leadership here in the parish and for his support for me personally in my episcopal ministry. I also want to thank the whole ministry team: Deacon Janice, Leonel, John Lang, the wardens and corporation, the parish council and all who exercise ministry in one form or another. This congregation is alive with adult education, children’s programming, outreach, wonderful and varied liturgies and music and many wonderful events and projects. And I have to say I think you have one of the best parish websites in the diocese!
This all happens because of solid leadership and the willingness and the passion of our members to exercise their ministries in this place ……in so many ways we are being called to serve here and we are also being sent out by God and I am so pleased to be part of this service which celebrates the work of our volunteers in ministry in this parish. In this celebration, we recognize the treasure we have in the time and talents and dedication of the people who make up this congregation. Thank you, to each and every one of you for the gift of this work that is ours to share in together.
In our Gospel reading this morning..... a man who had been blind from birth was given the gift of sight and with that sight comes a new sense of purpose and meaning for his life....he was been set free to proclaim the message of Jesus and yet in the face of the joy and the sense of awe and wonder of this miracle ... the people around him do their very best to minimize or belittle the great treasure that they are confronted with in him.
In the first scene, the man who has been healed encounters his neighbours ...... and basically what he is met with is indifference and denial... people who don't want to ask the tough questions in their life ...... about what it means to have faith in the midst of the suffering and hardship of this world ...... instead they get into an argument about whether this is in fact the man they knew as the blind man or someone else.
His next encounter comes in the form of an interrogation by the Pharisees and this time the meeting brings hostility and outright disbelief as they argue and debate about the identity and the character of Jesus.
And then in the third instance the man who had been healed is reunited with his own family as they are questioned by the Pharisees, ....surely this time he would receive a much more positive response. But in an attempt to stay on the good side of the religious leaders, the parents hedge their bets and halfheartedly identify him as their son but also state that he is old enough to speak for himself.
It seems that life is so much easier when we can stay in our own little box and not have our perspectives challenged, our way of life called into question and when our own personal and corporate belief systems remain forever firmly in place. If we can keep things as they are, there is no need to stand up and be counted!
In the midst of this kind of apathy and hostility Jesus boldly claimed to be the light of the world; a world that is so often blind to the needs and the brokenness that is all around us and it is into this world that we who are followers of Jesus are sent. This word “sent” is an important one in the gospel reading today as Jesus says to the disciples: “We must work the works of him who “sent” me. And the word appears a few verses later as the blind man is asked to go and wash in the pool of Siloam and we are told that the name Siloam means “Sent.”
Perhaps the most powerful passage in our reading today, however, comes from the man who received his sight, himself. Having heard all the doubts, the fears, the indifference and the accusations....he stands before the crowd, an unlikely witness to the healing and restoring power of God’s love and says to them: you can call Jesus a sinner if you want to …. you can deal with this situation in any way you choose...... but here is one thing I do know.... “that though I was blind, now I see.”
Our Old Testament passage this morning is the account in 1st Samuel of King David’s calling and anointing. Like our Gospel reading we see here that God often chooses the most unlikely from among us and when we are called into ministry we are never the same again. David is a good example of someone whom was changed irrevocably by God’s call. Like others in today’s readings, David was minding his own business, out tending his sheep, when God took the initiative and entered his life. Samuel, also is called to be a servant and God’s representative, anointed David king of Israel.
I am now in my tenth year as the Bishop of Niagara and over these years I have had the privilege of experiencing just how profoundly God has chosen some very unlikely people to be the bearers of God’s message of love and hope and peace. Perhaps one of the most memorable experiences of this came on a trip to South Africa where I visited the cell of Nelson Mandela, prisoner 46664. It was hard to believe that the occupier of that 8 foot X 7 foot cell, for 18 of his 27 years in prison, could become one of the greatest political heroes of his day and with others would be responsible for such a dramatic transformation on the world stage. On the same trip, I also met one of my great heroes, another unlikely religious world leader, Archbishop Desmond Tutu. When the Archbishop became recognized as a great leader in the church and around the world he was not even considered a person according to his country’s constitution by virtue of the colour of his skin.
What is perhaps even more noteworthy for me, however, is the countless number of men and women, that I encounter week by week, here in the Diocese of Niagara who are being called to exercise ministries that are changing lives and changing the world…… they serve with migrant farm workers outreach, refugee sponsorship, community kitchens, community gardens, breakfast programs, like the ones you are involved in, open door programs for the poor, the marginalized, for street workers and at risk youth… the list goes on and on and on.
I want to thank you for all the ways that the ascension is a wonderful example of how we are being transformed as a church and I know that over the last six months you have been celebrating and giving thanks for the miracle of God's abiding presence that has been made so very real here in the lives and the ministries of your parish volunteers. There is no doubt that we, as bearers of that treasure, are being “sent” to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ who is the light of the world.
I offer my congratulations and very best wishes to all those volunteers who will be honoured here today and may God’s richest blessings be upon us all, throughout the Diocese of Niagara, as we walk this road together in days and years to come. AMEN
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