In our Morning Prayer Old Testament reading this morning from 2 Samuel we hear that the Lord instructed Nathan the prophet to tell King David to build a house for God.  We have a long enduring history of magnificent structures being built for God.

Yet, as great as such houses continue to be, there is another more intimate house building that must occur. That is to allow the Spirit of God to build us into that place where God lives and acts.  We call it Spiritual Formation.  It is a lifelong process.

The remaining days of summer can be an opportune time to reflect on what that means, to allow space before the frenetic fall schedules come upon us to simply listen, to prayerfully ponder what being a living house for God could look like and might call forth from us.

Be cautioned, though, that internal arguments might ensue.  As this morning’s second reading from Acts tells us, every Sabbath Paul would argue with the Jews and Greeks, trying to convince them about Jesus.  Anyone who has ever built a house knows it cannot be done without argument.

I encourage us to let the inner arguments happen, to listen to them, and not be too surprised at what we might learn about this house building business – especially as it relates to our own gifts and calling.

The most heartening part of convention is that we discover anew that this discerning work is done best in community through common prayer and common conversation seeking clarity in our common mission.  While hard work, this is fundamentally sound, and it works as we  grow in the spirit of ‘Ubuntu’ into our truest selves in Christ.  While never perfect, new and exciting possibilities emerge as out of a solid foundation.

With more to be said about Ubuntu and the particulars of convention in the days ahead, your Deputies and I are already planning communication to the Diocese.  For now, we are clearly a “learning and changing” church, and as unsettling as this can be at times, it is the only way to be the living Body of Christ. In the words of our forbearer Benjamin Franklin, “When we stop learning and changing, we die.”

In addition to the regular schedule of committee meetings and legislative sessions, I am also one of the people who presented my public narrative story during the training for coaches who are leading table groups in Mission Conversation.

For those not familiar with “public narrative,” it is a model for telling our story within and beyond the church that calls for saying something about oneself, the church, and our mission (with a sense of urgency) within 2-3 minutes.

Listening to experienced people do this (not me, yet), it is amazing how powerful and memorable a personal account of how an individual has come to be where she is in the church and how quickly such stories are engaging and “real” to others. Though we have begun the preliminary training with Diocesan Council, there is more to be learned and practiced in the form of public narrative in our diocese.

In terms of committee work, for the third and last year I am on Program, Budget and Finance, which requires trying to finalize a budget with priorities and mission focus for the next triennium before next Monday. It is an utterly impossible task, and the encouraging word is that this is increasingly apparent and acknowledged. More, louder voices are saying “business as usual just won’t do.”

We had simulating conversation at the PB&F hearing last night in the form of interactive table groups conducting candid conversation about what is and is not working with the system and structures we are now using. Questions about the Asking formula reflected the work underway already in our diocese by the Askings Task Force. Last evening’s open conversation was an important step toward sharper focus in mission and more creative thinking in using the resources we have. Our own Pia Longinotti spoke to the group in a knowledgeable, compelling way.

This morning in the House of Bishops (HOB), we heard two very moving presentations from 18 year old youth representatives. Both expressed enthusiasm, while telling the bishops it’s time to get moving in Evangelism and Service! They were right and I was delighted. We will all remember the young man’s comment that, “we have gone from being fishers of people, as Jesus commissioned, to being keepers of the aquarium.” In too many ways, he was right.

On legislation, I think it important to note that the House of Bishops yesterday adopted a resolution that calls for a 50% cut in the cost of meetings by boards, commissions and committees during the next triennium, and that the money saved go directly to mission. While this will call for substantial change, if it passes in the House of Deputies, I am enouraged that it will at least force the overdue conversation about using our resources more collaboratively and creatively. For me, this holds some positive potential. More to come.

Likewise, a vigorous visionary spirit was prominently present on Sunday at Holy Spirit Church. An immense amount of renovation is underway, accomplished largely by volunteer labor of the congregation with community support. Commendations are in order for all who have had the vision and commitment to substantially remodel the building in their new location to be more inviting and to equip the people to  reach out to others in their unique location (just off the lake) for expanding mission. It will be a joy to return for the dedication of the newly restyled building when the time comes. What a testimony to development for vision St. Mary’s and Holy Spirit are giving to us all. A declining economy has certainly not diminished the Spirit in either place.

I am thankful that the Diocese has been able to partner with both congregations in providing financial and other resources for planning and facilitation of the renovation projects. The generosity of those who have given to the Bishop’s Building Fund and other endowments through the years makes a great difference in moving us forward today.

Though I have at times been accused of being too open, I continue to believe it is the right posture for listening to the leading of the Spirit.

A few weeks ago we celebrated the Feast of Pentecost, keeping with the long standing practice of commemorating the coming of the Holy Spirit (Pentecost) fifty days after Easter Day.

As I  anticipated Pentecost, the Sunday readings May 17 reminded me that when the Spirit comes it does so in abundance, “While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word . . . The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles . . .”  (Acts 10:44ff).  Clearly the Spirit did not drift in as a docile presence or arrive as an inactive, limited power.

Ruminating on those recent readings, I am even more mindful that receiving and releasing the flowing Spirit is the very call to each of us – to let this life-giving power flow through us, neither contained or controlled.  In doing so we continue to be renewed and transformed, and become agents for the same in the world around us.

Great and miraculous things happen, not through our own power or control, but by our openness to act as we are empowered by the Spirit.  Author Martin Hughes offers an apt descriptive image of the posture that allows the power of God to be seen and known through us in this way,

“Some people’s strength is all drawn from themselves.  They are like isolated pools with limited reserves.  Others are more like rivers.  They do not produce or contain the power, but it flows through them, like blood through the body.  The strength is theirs, but it is not their own.”  (The Beatitudes)

As the summer season comes closer, I invite you take time for reflection on the attitudes and assumptions that either block the flow of the Spirit or free it up to renew, empower, even raise to new life.  It’s the difference between an isolated pool and a flowing river.

I also invite you to consider in your contemplative time the theme of this year’s Diocesan Convention, “Living Water for Thirsty People,” focusing on Jesus as the “living water.”  How might  we  ourselves to make known the truth of His Spirit both in our care for creation, and for those who have more than enough to drink yet remain desperately thirsty.  May this summer be a spiritually refreshing season for you.

At the end, there were numerous expressions of thanksgiving: thanksgiving for the holy grandeur of worship in the Cathedral, of a place that has a Table for all people, and the renewed recognition that the vivid account of the coming of the Spirit in the Acts reading is never limited to one people or one time in history, but an ever-recurring, living truth.

And Church of our Saviour/Nuestro Salvador congregations in Pasco, a small group with dwindling numbers met in a church building in disrepair to voice by presence and participation their commitment and depth of faith in emerging future possibilities. The  evening continued with a generous and delicious pot of Tamales and desserts that symbolized hospitality and a genuine spirit of community.

The second word is fullness, seen in 300 Gonzaga students, the April’s Angels, working at Camp Cross on Saturday, and Confirmation, Reception, Reaffirmation, the Blessing of Children, and Commissioning of a new Daughters of the King Chapter at St. Luke’s, Coeur d’Alene on Sunday.  So much to see and share; such reason to be thankful, and I am.

Reflecting on uplifting reports I’ve received, I am aware of the great distance we traveled from Maundy Thursday through Sunday morning in a relatively short time.

Once again we journeyed through the Paschal Mystery of life, death, and Resurrection, and were poignantly reminded that Easter does not come without Good Friday, and that Friday would not be “Good” were it not for the holy promise and reality of Jesus’ Resurrection, on which our faith rests and our future is reassured.

St. Paul's Episcopal Church

My reflection on this past weekend is drawn to a sign and to signs.  Arriving at St. Paul’s, Cheney on Sunday, I was heartened by the prominent and inviting sign of welcome outside and the signs of being poised for moving forward inside — signs evident in the community gathered for worship, fellowship, and conversation with clear commitment and adventurous openness to new possibilities.

This visit followed the Saturday memorial celebration of the Rev. Jim Grant’s life and ministry at which the signs of military honors, a  piper playing, and an overflow crowd of family and friends gave testimony to the sign that Jim had so faithfully been to Christ’s presence in his worldwide priestly ministry — a sign of God’s unlimited call and ever expanding possibilities.