But the second thing is, that when I wear my miter is you recognize what hangs down the back, the two lappets. When I was consecrated a Bishop, the Bible was laid on my head, and the Bible markers, one came out of the Old Testament, one out of the New Testament, were hanging right down the back. The later tradition and custom was that those Bible markers would be sewed on to the miter so that it would be a reminder to the Bishop that he is not only to believe everything that's in the Old and the New Testament, but to defend it, guard it, and proclaim it. And in many ways of course, it's a reminder to you and I would say that it, so I failed to do that, you get to see the lappets more than I do, please remind me, because that's the role of the Church. The Bishops are called to lead but what we need is a reminder from people like yourself, which is why I'm here tonight. Because my coming to be with you reminds me as to why I'm in this fight.

Now without you I would be in the fight because I have no other choice, that was what was required and asked of me when I was consecrated a Bishop. And what Father McGlen (sp?) has said is absolutely right. He used the terms truth and love. He knew I was going to use that even though we never discussed it. But it's absolutely right. You and I are charged to proclaim the truth in love. But I recognize that anytime I gather with a significant group of people such as this wonderful group, representing friends of mine from seminary days, representing friends of mine from varieties of points in my life actually. I'm very encouraged and quite humbled too.

So therefore, what I'm going to do is give you the answers to the burning questions that you wanted to have tonight. No, probably not, yes, I don't think so, and I'll keep you posted. (LAUGHTER) Now that I've answered all those burning questions, I would like to get on to the current subject for this evening. And my reason for that is if we don't discuss the subject before us tonight, none of the questions nor the answers that I've just mentioned matter anyway. So let's start from here.

The feast of St. Philip and James, the Apostle, which was celebrated this week and commemorated here tonight at the house, has one of those most remarkable sections that one can find in the New Testament in Second Corinthians. It says, Therefore, since it is by God's mercy that we are engaged in this ministry, we do not lose heart. We have renounced the shameful things that one hides. We refuse to practice cunning or to falsify God's word. But by the open statement of the truth, we commend ourselves to the conscious of everyone in the sight of God, and even if our Gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case, the God of this world had blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not proclaim ourselves, we proclaim Jesus Christ, his Lord, and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus' sake. For it is the God who said, Let light shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Now beloved, you and I are engaged in a battle. We are engaged in a war. And what we do and whenever we are engaged in a war is we want to hear from the General every now and then. So let's just imagine for a moment that we have gathered to talk about how the battle is going. The General is now ready to address you and he goes as follows: Boy are we in trouble. Everything has gone to pot. Literally and figuratively. And many of our soldiers have run. Some of them have been killed. It kind of makes me why I even show up any more to look at you people. Money is down. People seem to have had the hearts cut out of them. No enthusiasm left for what we're doing. But I'm here this evening to encourage you and to tell you why it's so good to have you as part of our army and we need you.

Now beloved, there is something wrong with this picture. And what is wrong with the picture is many people are ready to go off to battle but they haven't eaten yet. Many people are ready to run off and do what they think they've been called to do but they haven't received what was necessary to do the task. What are the things that are necessary? Well, on one hand we can say the marching orders. Last time I checked, I found them. By the way, yes, I need to tell you right up front, I'm one of those fundamentalists. I say that to you...thank you (CLAPPING), because I had a choice between two books that I was going to shape my life after. One was called the Bible, the other one was called The Cannon Law. And I know who wrote each one and I know which one I trust. (LAUGHTER) Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and His Word has not changed just to suit the needs of people. His Word has not changed because we suddenly have a new revelation. In fact, one of the things that I would submit to you is that we live in the age of what I would call corporate munism. And this is what I mean by corporate munism. By and large, one of the things at the Unification Church, the Reverend Sun Myung Moon teaches, is that Jesus in fact was a prophet who was sent and in fact, is a son of God.

But, while he did many things, his career was cut short. And since his career was cut short, there were a number of things which he did not accomplish. And so, God waited until there would be somebody appropriate who could be sent, who could complete the unfinished task of Jesus, and his name is the Reverend Sun Myung Moon. Now most people here would say, Where do they get that? But I want you to listen carefully to what I just said. The idea that somehow Jesus Christ's price that he paid for you and me was insufficient. Somehow that he did not reveal himself to us, but that each generation would become brighter and brighter and brighter, and there would be the opportunity for His Word to be revised so that it would meet the needs of the bright population, is inconsistent with what we understand God's divine revelation to be. And so as silly as corporate munism might seem to you, as at least a hypothetical construct, I would thus nonetheless have to ask us the question, How is that any different from a culture or Church that isn't convinced that Jesus got it right the first time. And so it is that you and I have been given as the next verse of this lesson tells us today, we, as it says very clearly, have this treasure in clay jars so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. In other words, after we've read this scripture, we sing how great thou art, rather than reading what we've done and sung how great I art.

The culture very often seems to be involved in reversals. For example, it would appear that we are now in the process of creating God in our own image and that we are successfully attempting to bring chaos out of order. The reason why we see very clearly in the Genesis account of creation, the fact that God loves us so much that he brought us into the world, the reason we see that so crystal clear in the Old Testament that he brings us into the world is because he wanted to share with us what was his. Not make us co-creators as we so often hear today. We are co-creators. We are participants in the created order. There's a big difference. We have been given the authority to name things and there is power in naming but it's not our name. And it's not our name that the only name given for health and salvation. It is the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And so beloved, I am not going to talk with you about all the wars and all the battles, and the other thing I'm not going to do is tell you how sick the Church is. If you drove this far for me to tell you the obvious then there's something wrong with you. (LAUGHTER) I mean, yes there's sickness, yes there are problems, you know most of them. But how much would you enjoy a doctor who sat down with you and said to you, I'm very happy to tell you that you have cancer. Now please see my receptionist out and the bill most certainly must be paid within 30 days. I mean, most people would probably have a few questions about that diagnosis. One of which would be, what is the prognosis? And so if I were to rehearse with you the obvious or if I were to send you 156 e-mails to justify my point, what would I have done for you? Except to keep you posted. Do you really want to be kept posted on the obvious? I don't think so.

I'd like to talk with you however, about what I understand the Orthodox faith to be. Because what I've just read to you and what I've just said to you is in effect looking at the very beginning stages of what it means to be Orthodox. It is to say that we do believe that Jesus Christ is truly risen from the dead. He has truly ascended into heaven. He is truly coming again. This does not require some sort of new definition. This is basic.

Next, we are starving. Now we can blame everybody for that. We can tell each other about the priests who aren't preaching the good sermons, the celebrant who celebrates a liturgy that we've never heard of before and we're not even sure who we're praying to anyway, and all of the sorts of things that we can rehearse about what seems to be going on today. All of which would be valid and all of which would be a concern. But at some point we can't make excuses any more. We have to make decisions about following Jesus Christ. I mean if you in fact have determined that you want to love Him with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your mind, if you have determined that you wish to be able to follow Him wherever he calls you, then tonight we need to thank Him. Because you see, He really must trust us a great deal to allow us to live during this most momentous time in Church history.

All of us, pretty much I believe, have fantasized about what period of Church history we wish we had lived in. I can sometimes tell by the way people vest. (LAUGHTER) I can sometimes tell by what they read, and I can sometimes tell the second I walk into their Church and notice that all the furniture has been rearranged within 24 hours of arriving. In other words, there are certain things in people's minds that if they can just get the furniture and everything else just right, then the faith is going to be okay. Forgive me about the proverbial rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic folks. But what I would like to talk about is something much bigger than that. Because the faith of the one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church is not like the usual table that sits right here, right here in this refectory. Oh well, I think I'll have a little bit of this, a little bit of that, a little bit of this.

Reminds me a bit of the fellow who had read the Reader's Digest version of the Bible and he looked at me and he said, You know, I just can't understand why people are upset because it still has the eight commandments and the five Apostles. (LAUGHTER) And yet truth be told, I tried it the other day, I was asked to address a group of people and I asked if they could name the Apostles for me. These are lifelong Episcopalians. Got them up to six. Got them up to six. So I tried the 10 commandments. Got them up to seven. So, but I want to tell you something cause it's important you hear this. They knew everything that was going on in the Episcopal Church. They knew all the problems. They knew who their heroes were and they knew who their heroes were not. But my job is to call us into a greater awareness of who this Jesus is, whom we seek to defend.

Why do we feel so energized about the defense of the faith? Why do we feel so strongly about the fact that that which has been revealed and entrusted to us is something that we likewise are to guard and share with the next generation? Is it because it's just comfortable? Is it because it's what's familiar? Is it because that's the way Father Jones did it when I was 11 years old. It was a great deal more than that beloved. And that's the questions which we must begin to ask ourselves today.

It has been said that the average Christian today reads a Bible less than once per week. Let me make some assumptions here. I'm going to assume that people who are as exercised and so concerned about the future of the Church read the Bible every day. That would be assumption number one. You read the Bible every day. Why? The reason for that is because you want to see what God's word is really saying to you.

Second assumption I will make is that traditional Episcopalians go to Church absolutely every Sunday unless they're sick. Even when relatives are in town. Don't you love that one? Couldn't come to Church on Sunday Father, I had some relatives visiting us. Oh that's right, they're atheists, I forgot, excuse me. (LAUGHTER)

The third thing I'm going to assume about traditional Episcopalians is that you take seriously making your confessions. Either privately or at general confession, you seriously go before the Throne of Grace asking for God's absolution. In other words, there's no point arguing about the importance of the seven sacraments unless we think they're important enough to live. There are many people who don't want to see anything in the sacraments change just as long as they don't have to take advantage of them.

It reminds me a bit of my home parish in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where the vestry and the rector had a real head-banging meeting. The parish I was brought up in had enough song and benediction of the Blessed Sacrament every Sunday night. And the rector announced to the Vestry that starting next Sunday he would not have it any more. He listened to about 15 minutes of them arguing and screaming about how this parish was founded on the principles of the Tractarian movement, the Oxford movement, and how every priest who's ever served there has had benediction of the Blessed Sacrament on Sunday night and he kept pressing him, Do you believe this? Yes we do. Do you understand it? Yes we do. Good, then why don't one of you ever come to it? Not one member of the vestry was attending benediction on Sunday night and yet, they voted to keep it because it was a nice idea. It was what we stood for. You see, most soldiers don't vote on the war from the privacy of their homes sitting in an easy chair. Most soldiers decided a long time ago that the only real way to be involved in the war is actually to show up for the war. And what that means is that if you and I are not prepared then what will happen to us as we are going to degenerate into just being a group of angry people.

The other day I was meeting with a group of bishops and a bishop decided to get up and leave. It's what he does and so he got up to leave and I had asked if he would please stay and he said, This is too painful. And I said, With all due respect, there's enough pain to go around this room 10 times. We're all in pain. Is there anybody here who had come tonight because you want to stand up and say, I've come to refute everything the speaker has said because I think the Church is at the best shape it's ever been in its entire existence. Okay, see me later, it's okay.

But the question I'm about to ask is, are we involved in the us syndrome or the them syndrome? Here's the way it works, I'll explain to you what it was like. When I was a little boy and I saw that some things were starting to happen, I looked in the mirror and was brushing my teeth and I said, It doesn't matter as long as bishop, bishop, bishop, bishop, bishop, bishop, bishop, bishop, bishop, bishop, bishop, bishop are here. I know they've got everything under control. And that nearly ordained decon. It's all right with me. I'm not worried, as long as bishop, bishop, bishop, bishop, bishop, bishop, is still around. Next thing I'm ordained a priest. Every thing's fine as long bishop, bishop, bishop, bishop, bishop and bishop are there. Now a bishop. And I know people are saying, When are you people going to do something?

But one of the things that I discovered where I was at fault, is I kept on waiting for somebody else to do it. Do you know how I figured this out one day? One day, I had been busy, but I was doing busy religious things so it was okay. You know, that's meaning that I made sure everything was back in place in the sacristy. You know, I made sure all the religious things were handled, and I was busy. I was busy all day. But now it's time for me to take the Blessed Sacrament. So I knew that I had someone who was sick so I took my verse and picks and I put my stole on and moments later I was out there in the car and I was almost ready to start the car up. But there was a problem. Guess what I hadn't done? I hadn't gone to the tabernacle to get the Blessed Sacrament. I had an empty picks. And I heard the Lord say to me, Once again, you're taking yourself to my people.

You see beloved, that's when I was convicted that the real problem is that we can go through all the externals and all of the outer features of the Catholic faith, we can even defend all the elements of it. But that in and of itself is know what is needed for the battle. In fact, the veroticum (?), the Blessed Sacrament, as it's taken to those who are sick is often times called the pilgrim's food. It was the idea that the very last thing that they would receive in this world would be the food for heaven. When they awakened they would behold Jesus Christ, face to face.

Let me explain to you exactly what I mean about the kind of Orthodoxy that I'm talking about. It's the kind of Orthodoxy that begins by making the sign of the cross the second we wake up in the morning. It's the kind of Orthodoxy which means immediately giving God thanks for the fact that we've been given another day to praise his Holy Name. It means being able to find the treasury called the daily office and being able to pray morning prayer knowing that there are people around the world who are praying it with us. It means taking time out to meditate. I like to tell seminarians, when you get into parish life the first thing to go will be meditation time. Unless you fight for it. Here's what I mean. People are always calling me on the phone asking me what I think and what my plan is and what I'm going to do next. Well they're asking the wrong person. If I tell you what's on my mind you're going to be shortchanged. I'm hoping you're asking, What does Jesus say? If you want to know from me what Jesus is saying then you'll have to count on the fact that that's going to involve meditation and discernment and time to be able to discover what Jesus is saying to me, so that I might be able to share with you what I believe perhaps what he's saying to you also. That requires more time for praying and more time for Bible study.

I've come to a point in my life where I can't even comprehend a vestry that doesn't have a Bible study before it begins. I can't understand that. I can't understand a vestry that wouldn't stop in the middle of the evening and pray over something when there is a difficulty. I mean it's a little bit like what I would call the peek-a-boo prayers. Do you remember the peek-a-boo prayers? That's the ones that you hurry up and say quickly before mass began, hurry up when mass is over. Kind of peek-a-boo, cause they were quick. But everybody knew that's when you could start the organ or put out the candles. In other words, we knew they had a function but it was their form which really seemed to have the larger function, the necessarily the content. And I began to feel that at meetings we kind of are polite with God at the beginning at the end. Ask him to bless the evening. At the end we thank him for the evening. But what if there was battling going on in-between? What do you do? Used our best reasoning. Our best skills. All of which is pleasant but what we need to do is to adopt a new discipline of stopping wherever there is conflict and pray. Right on the spot. In the middle of a meeting, in the middle of a family squabble. Why am I telling you that? Because I want to take you back to the earlier issue. How many people want to show up on Sunday to be with a group of angry people?

Anyway, what I'm trying to say to you as a cradle Episcopalian and a cradle Anglo-Catholic at that, I have always understood that God's plan is very clear. That is what he calls us to do and to be. But the way in which we convey it is extraordinarily important. I would not subscribe wholeheartedly to McGlen's perspective that the medium is the message. But I have to say to you that what the Church is in desperate need of today are people who are able to proclaim the truth and love. Now, let me give you some examples. I am in a number of places where I hear the truth being proclaimed. And the body language that goes with the proclamation of that truth is something a bit like self-righteousness. It conveys that I'm right and you turkeys are wrong.

On the other hand I also, by virtue of some of the meetings I have to attend, some of which I actually still attend, have to go places where there's a lot of oozing of love. Oozing of love, everybody loves everybody. They just don't necessarily believe anything. In fact, one of the most remarkable things is when my wife had cancer 13 years ago, which group in the Church contacted my wife first and spent the most time checking back to see how she was doing? The liberals. The liberals. Now you may say, Why is that? Well it's because in many instances those who were often times called liberals, lead with their heart, and they love people. The love people and hate to see people in pain. Don't like to judge anybody because they think that's what we do.

I don't know about you, but I did not raise my children by telling them, I love you so much, I'm going to let you do anything you want. It's a bit like this, you can see it now. The child is at the stove, the oven door is open, it's a gas stove, pilot light is off. Mommy or daddy is walking down the steps, child has just struck the match, with head inside oven. Parent now says, Excuse me Susie, I would not want to damage your psyche and I wouldn't want to disrupt your natural ability to have an inquiring mind, and moreover, I wouldn't want to say anything that would scar you or let you think that daddy is being abusive, but it would please me immensely...you see, by then folks, there would have been a BOOM, Susie and daddy would have been flying through the air anyway.

Now when I worked with juvenile delinquents at the St. Francis Boys Homes, what I think Father Tom and I discovered is that, while we worked at St. Francis, if one of the boys had come up to us and said, Could we borrow the keys to your car because we want to go wash it for you and vacuum it for you, and we'll have it back in a few minutes. Now, if you believe that one, it's about like the kid at St. Francis who one day, when I discovered in his locker, in his room, some green material that was dried, leaves that had been dried. And he tried to tell me it was oregano. (LAUGHTER) Now I'm lead to believe that that would have been a remarkable spaghetti sauce...(LAUGHTER) that it would not have been in his best interest to do that. Nor mine. And what I have discovered is that while I would not necessarily want to use the term, tough love, what I have discovered is the difference between the word love and love.

Now you say, what do you mean? I want to use the word love as God means it. You know, have fun with the Greek, it's okay with me you know. By the way, seminarians will be graded later. Write down the definitions for all the love. But at least in terms of love, note the qualitative difference. Notice the qualitative difference. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son to the end that all that believe in Him should not perish, but had everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. Greater love has no man in this, that he laid down his life for his friends. If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

Now here's a few instances where the word love appears in the Holy Scriptures. Now I'd like to take you to the Gospel of Hallmark. Now when you go and you want to review the Gospel of Hallmark, what you'll discover is that we've gotten to a point, from what I can determine, where we don't know the difference between love, like, and lust. In fact, if people were really honest, one of the things that they would do on half of the television shows and the movies today, is they would go up to someone after knowing them for 20 minutes and say, I'm falling in lust with you. At least that would be honest. At least that would be honest.

Or look at the difference with children. They come home and they say something like, I'm in first grade, Freddy says he likes me. Well that's good, I mean it's nice to be liked. Somebody called you on the phone tonight, just about anyone of you and says, Freddy likes you. That would take on a different significance wouldn't it? Yeah. So you see, we use the words in different ways, at different points in our lives, but with God it's always the same. To put it differently, for God love is a decision. He has loved you so much that there's nothing you will ever do to make him stop loving you. However, however, between you and me, we can really tick him off. We can really upset God. It does not mean that he won't love us any more. But it means that we can break his heart. And whenever we misunderstand the kind of love that he has for us and compare to the love of the world, there's a problem. The Gospel the world says, If you do what I ask of you then I might love you. That's what the Gospel of the world says. If you do what I expect of you, then I'll think about it, but I might love you. But if you don't, I probably won't. Do you see, what that often times mean is we are afraid to explain truth to people because we're afraid they won't like us any more. Or, that that's not even worse. What is it that the child will say that will absolutely cause a parent to die in their tracks. Mommy or daddy, I don't love you. No parent ever wants to hear those words. But children get to the point of understanding that if they really want to get mommy and daddy's attention, that will do it. That will do it.

And how is it that we show love for people? Well, I suppose on Mother's Day, there are many mothers who would say something like, Thank you very much for these flowers, which I don't need. Thank you also for additional kitchen equipment, which I have no interest in using, and I want to tell you how much I appreciate the fact that you love me that least. Often times what we do is we buy the gifts that we like for somebody else, we like them ourselves so we expect they'll like them. And then what happens is, then we get into the tricky part. The tricky part. What would mom say to her children, if the children all went to mom and said, What do you want for Mother's Day? What are some of the things that mom would say? I just want you to love me. I want you to call me more than just once a year. Adolescence? Just clean your room, would you? So you see, it's interesting. We decide what we think we need. God already knows what we need because he's already revealed it in his Son, Jesus Christ.

I don't know about you, but that does not make me angry. I don't know about you, but when I hear other people proclaiming truths, you know the plural or truthism, you know about that one? I've got truth, you've got truth, everybody's got to have truth. I mean it's kind of a silly thing. You pull it altogether and your truth, his truth, their truth, my truth and we all are happy ever after. Is there objective truth or is there not? Yes, and his name is Jesus. He is the way, the truth, the light and no one comes to The Father, but by Me. No one comes to the Father but by Me. Is that exclusivity? Yeah, I guess it is. But name for me somebody else who died on the cross for our sins? Does he have a right to be able to do that? You bet he does. You bet. Cause the only one who has paid the price for you and me is Jesus.

Now, does God really need for us to be engaged in a war where we can defend Him? Of course not. It's kind of like prayers, isn't it? If you did not pray today, do you think God feels cheated? No, but you were. You see, God does not need our prayers to be God. And if we don't say our prayers and then we go around feeling guilty about not having said our prayers, that doesn't really change God very much. But if you and I don't have an encounter with God, that can change our lives very much. And that's biblical orthodoxy by the way.

Now one of the things I love when I'm talking with my people is, when I say now, What are the seven principal feasts of the Church? How are we doing? Do we attend them? Many priests I talk with say, I would even have a daily mass if I could get the people out. I would have morning and evening prayer every day if I could get the people out. What I guess I'm really trying to say to you is that, you and I have to start a revolution. But the revolution that we have to start is not the kind that we're going to read about in magazines. It's not what you're going to read about in an e-mail address. The kind of revolution you and I are going to have to be involved in is the kind which is going to result in absolute and total recommitment to Jesus Christ, a spiritual revolution.

Now this is not to point any attention to myself at all because I am blessed and I'm standing on holy ground, but I have 20 men in seminary. And the diocese in Quincy is a tiny diocese. Does that mean we've done something remarkable? Of course not. The parable of the Church is very, very clear. It's the parable of the talents. How does the parable of the talents work? Seem pretty nasty in the end. Here's this poor fellow, only had one talent, doesn't use it, it's taken away from him and give him one who already had it. That seems like a pretty nasty God. But what do we see it that? He gave it to the one who knew what to do with it. If God has people that he wants to be sending into the Church, why would he send them somewhere where the people don't know what to do with them? What I believe is the sign you see hanging everywhere is pretty clear, The Episcopal Church welcomes you, we just don't know what the heck to do with you once we've welcomed you. See in other words, welcoming is cheap. Incorporation is what we're talking about. Incorporation, according to the Bible, is called discipleship. That's where we disciple people.

Now when I was a child, I of course walked back and forth to school, twice a day, with snow you know, up to my knees, barefoot, thank you, that's right. Thank you very much, and what else? It was all uphill. Good. For those of you under 40, you can believe that if you want to. So there we were, going off to school every day and of course my mother would have to stop and tell me all the important things that I needed to know. Now what I learned with my mother is I could tune her out for the first five minutes. It was the same old stuff. But what I learned from my mother is, I better listen to the last two minutes of what she had to say before I went out the door, because that's what I would get in trouble for if I didn't do it. First five minutes, that was a breeze; last two minutes, very important.

I can't expect everybody to remember everything the Lord has said, but what did he say? What are the words he said sending us out the door as it were, before ascending into heaven? Go into the world, baptize them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, keeping all that I have commanded you, and lo I am with you even until the end of the ages. Folks, the easy part is, lo I'm with you even until the end of the ages. That's the other part that we have to be doing. If we will not adopt a more radical form of taking the good news and the sacraments to people, then we can be in trouble. We will continue to be in trouble. And you know why? I want to tell you why. Because the kids today know the difference between the real think and the counterfeit. They know the difference, and we need to stop giving people junk food. No more McBible and no more McSacraments. It's time for the real thing once again. That which has been held on to by Saints and the Apostles for 2,000 years, but it must start with you tonight. To put a little differently, if you're expecting me to change the course of Church history tonight, so that everybody here will be happy, I want to tell you right now, you are going to be disappointed. But you can expect of me that I'm not going to stop. And it's you I represent when I go off to battle. But when I turn around and battle, I want to see some faces. I want to see people who don't say, What do you mean we Kimosabee(?). (LAUGHTER)

What that is going to require, it's going to require a new and real commitment to Christ. It means that we are going to have to be in Church more often. It also means we're going to have to form more cell groups. Those cell groups are going to have to become dynamic places for witness. Do you really believe that all the tenants of the faith are being taught in Churches today? I don't think so. So what should we do, complain that they aren't or do it ourselves? Do it ourselves. Let's get started. Don't wait for somebody else to do it.

One of the great, great scenes that I recall was when the Soviet Union fell. And there was a Russian soldier who was standing there and on three occasions he was told by someone that the Soviet Union had fallen. He kept standing there. Finally at the third moment of being told, he dropped his rifle, he bowed over and he made the sign of the cross, Eastern Orthodox style, three times. You think he learned that in school? Do you think he learned that in Church? No, he learned it from his studabubba(?). He learned it from grandma. He learned it in the home. When the Jews were sent into dispersion on numerous occasions, did they learn how to preserve the Passover Sadder, the Haggadah, because they went to Hebrew classes in the Temple, or in the Synagogue. No. No, they were in hiding, they were in dispersion. How did they learn it and why was it kept alive? Because it was done in the home. So let's do some Orthodox checks, if we could right now.

Number one, after 10 minutes in each house here, would a person know that it's a Christian house? If so, how? If not, what can I do? Number two, if I have a problem in my family and I need to pray, where is my definable prayer area where I can gather my family to kneel with me so we can pray together as a family? Number three, when someone comes to my door and I see there are two of them and they have blonde hair, it looks like they have a name tag on, and white shirts, elder...anything else? Do you know what you get when you cross a Jehovah's Witness and an Episcopalian? You know, somebody who likes to knock on doors but doesn't have a heck of a lot to say when the door opens. (LAUGHTER)

But anyway, when we have the people knocking at the door, why not invite them in? Why not tell them who Jesus Christ is to you in your life and why you believe what you do, and here's the next part. What is really scary and I know this because I was recently lecturing at a University where somebody stood up and began to quote the Scriptures to me. You know what was really scary, he was a Muslim and he could quote the New Testament better than the folks there that call themselves Christians. He knew more about Christianity than they knew about Islam. So why is Islam growing? What do you know about Islam? What do you know about Mormonism? What do you know about Revisionism? What we know is what we don't like. But how do we encounter it with the truth? What is the truth? Is it because it feels right or is it because we know with all of our hearts that the truth of the Gospel is revealed in Jesus Christ. Do you believe that the bread and the wine becomes the body and blood of Christ? Yes.

Let me tell you one of the things that happened a few years ago, and it's what I call the portability of the Sacraments. And here's what I mean by this. Last time, just check, how many of the healings that took place in the New Testament happened inside a building? Okay. How many times do you see the people lined up in St. Peter standing nearby and says, Appointment with the Lord, you're in luck, he has an opening tomorrow at 7:15. We're healing, healing? Oh yes, we have them on Sunday nights at 6 o'clock, hope you can come. How often do we see that in the Bible? In other words, in the Bible we see Jesus among the people. We see the Apostles being set out and what we see today is, if we think people need something they should come to us. That day's over. That's dead. The day before us now is where we have to take the good news and the truth of the Gospel to the people because if we don't, they're going to get the other version because it's so attractive. Because it gives simple answers to complex questions and it makes them feel good.

I was in a section where there was a restaurant and the chef was standing there. He looked at me and he said to me, Hey Father, your money isn't any good here. Well you see, you know that saying, There's no such thing as a free lunch. So anyway I said, No, I really ought to pay. No, no, no, no sir, thank you, Father, your money is no good here. Okay. So at any rate he's watching me, I sit down, now he walks over and says, You busy? Of course not you know, I got a plate of food. No, everything is great. Are you busy? No, no, I'm not, I said. He said, (WHISPERING) Could you hear my confession? I said, Excuse me? He said, Could you hear my confession? I said, Well yes, of course I could. But I said, I do need to save you, not because it's a problem for me but I'm not a Roman Catholic priest. I'm a priest in the Episcopal Church, but I would be happy to hear your confession. He said, Well you're a priest aren't you? Next point to make folks, a lot of the things that we consider to be really important distinctions, people in the community don't know anything about any more. It's lost. It's lost. They need Jesus. That doesn't mean we compromise the sacraments, it means we draw them to the sacraments.

And so, first we walk past the frozen shrimp, then we walk past the frozen meat, then we walk past the tank that had the lobsters in it. Next thin you know, a big door opens up and the next thing you know I recognize that I am in a mean locker. LAUGHTER) He knelt down in shaved ice and I heard his confession next to a slab of beef. Now, I have sat in confessionals many times and I want to tell you, being a priest in the confessional is somewhat akin to being the Maytag repair man. (LAUGHTER) And I mean, here he is, make sure you have it on the board so that we know that we're a traditional parish, just don't expect us to show up. And there I heard a confession there.

Another time I heard a confession standing next to a grinder in a steel mill. Another time a man knelt and I anointed him with holy oil, laid hands on him in a Corning glass factory. Now why I'm telling you this, is we need to get it through our heads that as wrong as all the revisionism is and all the other things that are ripping this Church apart, it would not be as severe if we were out there doing what we need to do today. Tonight, and tomorrow. It is that absolute and total recommitment that is essential. Don't say, I'm too young. Look in the Bible. Don't say, I'm too old. And for heavens sake, don't say, I've done it for so many years somebody else ought to do it now. Just imagine what would happen. Just imagine what would have happened if Jesus had said something like, This isn't the right day, not convenient.

Happened to me about three times ago in the Holy Land. We're getting ready to walk the way of the cross. Suddenly there was a snow storm in Jerusalem. Now what doesn't happen that often but bare with me. So anyway, there we are, we're getting ready, and the person who has been designated by the group to come and tell me when there's a complaint, walked up to me and said, Bishop, we have thought this over, this is not a convenient day to walk the way of the cross. I said, Nor was it 2,000 years ago. (LAUGHTER) And I'm here to tell you this is not a convenient time for us to be engaged, embroiled, in watching our beloved Church gutted. But then again I'll start back where I was in the beginning with you. Some crazy reason that I don't totally understand, He's decided that you're the ones that are going to make the difference. He trusts you that much.

No, I'm not some Bishop who gets his picture in some magazine somewhere. No, no, no, no, no. All it took was one woman to raise enough fuss that we saw a revolution in this country with atheism, Madeline Murray O'Hare. So don't say to me, What can one person do? I know what one person can do. If one person here tonight was willing to invite eight people with you at Church on Sunday, no matter how pathetic you think that things are, wherever you may be going, I want you to know that you and those eight will make the difference. You'll make a change. The Church will change when the Church changes. But the hearts are converted even more toward Jesus so that we can have true orthodox theology which means making Jesus number one in our life. Taking the sacraments to the people and drawing the people to the faith.

In many ways today they like the milk. But the Catholic faith that we have been asked to preserve is a poor taste of heaven. And the more that our worship becomes something to entertain the troops and less to please God, we're in trouble. Theology and worship are not about keeping the crowds happy. Theology and worship is about faithfulness and obedience. And ultimately, love. Loving God so much that we give unto him ourselves, our souls and bodies as reasonable and living sacrifices. And you know something, did you realize that that's all he ever wanted anyway, was you? That's all he wanted was you. All he wants from you is faithfulness.

Now, if you think that you are so important that you have a right to see how all of this turns out, then think again folks. I'll be 61 soon, and if I think that I'm going to see how this all turns out, then I am very delusional. But there isn't one day when I can have a vacation from faithfulness. To put it differently, there is not one person here who is so unimportant that you won't make a difference by living the Gospel and living the Orthodoxy with your lives that we profess with our lips. Why? We have no other choice. We have no other choice. And on the day of reckoning beloved, all of the people who we patted on the head and say, Whatever you do is okay, I want to promise you, they won't be standing there pleading our case. The only one who will be pleading our case is our only mediator and advocate, namely Jesus.

And so, I have all the answers to all the questions that you have. I have them all. You just have to figure out what the right question is. Let us pray.

Heavenly Father, stir it up we pray, a renewed faith, a willingness to die for you, a willingness to be persecuted for you. A willingness to carry the cross in good times and difficult times. The Lord Jesus. May we remember so clearly the words through your Apostle, I am not ashamed of the Gospel. Guide us so mightily Lord Jesus in this faith that you have entrusted to us, that others may be drawn to you. And that we who are the keepers of the coals, may share them yet with another generation when they shall burst into flames. Through Jesus Christ, your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God now and forever. Amen. Thank you.

---The Rt. Rev. Keith Ackerman is the Bishop of Quincy