The Church Shorn (Penitential Advent 2 of 2)

John the Baptist
St. Mary's Episcopal Ashe County

The Episcopal Church is not John the Baptist. The Episcopal Church is the sheep, or in this case maybe the camel, that needs to be shorn to provide clothing to the prophets in our midst. The stark reality being that if we look at the balance of the Episcopal Church in our history and our current culture we do not live in the valley that must be filled... we live in the mountain and hill that must be made low. We exist in the space that must be shorn.

The issue is that too often we want to focus on the context of the individuals in our pews. Without any doubt in each of us, no matter how privileged we are in the system we inhabit, there are distinct valleys that must be lifted up. Places that the cycle of systematic violence we all inhabit have worn raw. These places need to be filled and must have a time of fulfillment. Part of Advent's call is to provide a space for that.

This cannot happen, however, in an individual context unless it happens on a systematic context. If a machine is consistently wrenching a set of cogs too hard, forcing them to wear down to nubs much faster than expected, to replace the cogs will not solve the problem... the entire machine needs to be recalibrated if it is to be sustainable and safe. This is why in Advent we have to ask ourselves how are we, as individuals and a church corporate, needing to recalibrate our own places in the machine in order to prevent the wearing down of others. What mountains and hills create our foundations that are denying foundation to others?

This is a question of how do we need to be shorn, how do we need to be worn down, how does part of us need to be taken away... so that others might be clothed, so that others might be brought up, so that others may have vital realities added. This is the question of how do we confront and dismantle the privilege so often inherent to the Episcopal Church, and many Episcopalians, and bring an end to the oppression that such maintains. This is the Penitence of Advent.