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This week I have had the privilege of sitting with folks who are 6 years old and in their 60s contemplating what feeds them spiritually. The six year olds were interested in sweets and fun. Those of more mature years longed for meaning beyond tasks.

As we re-evaluate mission and ministry of the Church in this season of history, many of us are examining what is relevant and purposeful in our spiritual and religious lives. Does weekly participation in Eucharist matter? What is important to do in person? How does zoom foster community? What does it mean to give of ourselves and our means today?

Several trends are emerging in our common life at St. Stephen’s,which are consistent with national ones. Our attendance patterns at worship have changed since COVID lockdowns–where some of us were weekly worshippers, now we come twice a month; some of us have stopped coming altogether and yet we would still identify with the parish. Where before we gave cash or checks through the offering plate, now we give online or not at all. Our demographics are changing so that now 40% of our congregation is over 65 years of age. Each of these trends has implications for our mission and future.

Our stewardship campaign theme this fall stems from the prayer of our leaders who gathered to help us spiritually prepare for implementing the pre-development process funded by our Trinity Wall Street Gift of Place grant. In contemplating the mission of the 70 disciples who were sent by Jesus in advance of his ministry, our leaders hear the call to go, partner, and to build for light.

I think this exhortation is a fitting summary of the vision of the church in this century. We need to go and break out of our old habits. We need to cultivate friendship for service and compassion in mutual partnerships with those like us and with those who are radically different. Together, we are called to build for light–illumination takes many forms and brightens the shadows of fear and despair. We are entering strange territory. We will find Jesus working there.

Reverend Lisa Hunt, Rector

Some times when I am particularly weary, I find it hard to discern the next right thing to do. My longing is just to give up. My dad would talk about it as the old black dog coming down on him. You may know the feeling.

A wise friend reminded me this week that one of the surest ways to discover God’s movement in yourself and in the world is to look out for manifestation of the fruits of the Spirit around you. Not pineapples and kumquats, but love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). Sure, Paul cribbed these from Roman philosophers, but they are nonetheless indicators of health and hope. Spiritual wisdom knows no creed.

In the midst of grief, overwork, financial worry, depression, anxiety, it is good to look for the fruits. They are there in subtle ways and in unexpected people and places.

Reverend Lisa Hunt, Rector

I was in a conversation this week in which I was talking with a lawyer and a finance professional about how fees for service are determined. The finance person said that the market will set the price. The attorney abjured saying that in legal practices, if one attorney starts cutting fees there is a race to the bottom on the prices. Valuation is a critical question.

In Sunday’s gospel lesson from Luke, Jesus talks about the cost of discipleship. He insists, “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, saying, `This fellow began to build and was not able to finish'(Luke 14:25-26).

The cost of discipleship is steep. Jesus goes on to say that it requires giving up all one’s possessions.

How important is it to us to be a disciple of Jesus? What price are we willing to pay?

The movement from country club church to discipleship can be steep. The transformation from the certainty of ideology to the ambiguity of the gospel can be overwhelming. The exchange from habitual spirituality to conscious choice can be extreme.

Each of us must count the cost and know that we get what we pay for.

Luke 14:25-33

Now large crowds were traveling with Jesus; and he turned and said to them “Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? If he cannot, then, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace. So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.”

The Reverend Lisa Hunt, Rector

One of the challenges of being a minority is that people often expect you to “represent” your group. The burden of that role and those projections can be overwhelming. One moves from being a person to embodying a category.

Whether it’s being the only Black person in a room—especially onerous in church settings or being the only LGBTQ person who is out in a family or being the only Republican at the artist mixer, the emotional, physical, and spiritual cost can be significant. This sense of being an outlier is lonely and burdensome to one’s soul.

There are some groups we are a part of that we may never name aloud. For example, those of us who have had abortions or miscarriages may share our experience with very few people, if any. This in spite of the fact that 1 in 5 pregnancies end in miscarriage. No one would suspect that talk of reproductive health strikes so many of us so close to the bone.

Recently I attended a retreat in which the facilitator reminded the group that each of us has a reproductive health story, along with a faith story. In this group there were stories of infertility, abortion, miscarriage, sex work, and abuse. Looking at this group on the surface, you would not think that all this pain abided in it. It was not obvious that this group represented so much.

In this Sunday’s gospel, Jesus is invited to attend a fancy dinner at which folks are vying to have places of honor. He extols the attendees to take the lowest seats. That if we want to be great, we need to be least. Jesus takes the lowest seat because that is where there is most company. Nobody must ‘represent’ because we are all there.

Let’s take our place at the table.

The Reverend Lisa Hunt, Rector

THE COLLECT FOR PEOPLE AND PLACE

O God, the Creator, who provides nests for birds and burrows for foxes, open us to your dreams and visions for this land and its people. Empower us in wisdom to join with partners and build spaces that serve communities. Embolden us to . . . Go. Partner. Build for Light. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Recently in Sunday worship, we read in the gospel of Luke that Jesus sent out 72 disciples in pairs to go everywhere he planned to visit. His direction to his friends was to go two by two, to offer peace, to be about the work of listening and healing, and to return (Luke 10:1-23). Using this text as the basis for prayer and theological reflection, a group of 15 disciples from St. Stephen’s met in July to ground our community spiritually as we begin the process of implementing the Trinity Wall Street Mission Real Estate grant for pre-development services. The fruit of this retreat was the command to Go. Partner. Build for Light.

Subsequently, a small group met to craft a prayer which will ground our work over the next several months. Our Vestry and the Mission Real Estate Team invite you to use it in your personal devotions and we will be praying it in all our small groups and in public worship throughout this fall. The Mission Real Estate Team is chaired by Dwight Wolf and includes Tyler Swanson, Dan Maxwell, John Siegel, David Kelley, Rose Farrar, Lucy Cockrum, Susan Hawes, Owen Tredennick, Chris Nelson, and Kevin Dalrymple. Their ministry is to guide us in seeking a possible developer for our land for its highest and best use to support our ministries now and into the future. Carol Keating will be launching a contemplative prayer ministry to provide spiritual focus and strength for this work. You will be hearing more about that opportunity soon and you are invited to join in.

Over the summer the Project Oversight Committee has been engaged in moving our mission forward also. While COVID slowed our design process for our new building, the Project Oversight Committee has completed the schematic design, did multiple iterations of value engineering, and changed the scope of our architecture program in response to supply chain impacts, and increasing costs of labor and building materials. The new program is within our budget. The Project Oversight Committee will embark on design development in the next several weeks.

Jesus is sending us out to prepare for his ministry in our time and place. As his disciples, we are empowered to bring peace, to listen and to heal. You will be receiving information and invitations to go, partner, and build for light in the next month. This is an exciting season which will bring joy.

The Reverend Lisa Hunt, Rector

Last Saturday my husband and I went to have our pictures taken to renew our passports. Standing in front of the plain white background, with my glasses removed, I was prepared for a mug-like shot. What I saw startled me. I looked like a total crispy critter.

While no one looks good in a passport photo, after all you can’t take a posed selfie, I resembled a refugee from WWII. I had ignored the signs on my face of fatigue and stress.

Jesus made a point of going away. The press of the demanding and sick crowds drew his energy. The exercise of ministry could be lonely and draining. Solitude provided restoration.

One of the Ten Commandments is to keep holy the Sabbath day. God rested after creating the world. Why would we think that we could survive otherwise?

In the heat of this summer, I hope you take the example of our Lord and the Holy One and rest. My hope is that my break will lead me into looking like I belong to the land of the living too!

The Reverend Lisa Hunt, Rector

There are seasons when the Bible readings we are assigned in our lectionary for use on Sundays align with our contemporary situation in an uncanny way…I think that’s why we refer to it as the living Word. This summer we are spending time with the prophets–Amos and now Hosea. These prophets were railing against religious hypocrisy, economic injustice, and political corruption. The prophets’ words and actions are designed by God and the prophets to provoke. Metanoia, change, conversion, repentance, justice, these are the ends God has in mind.

But the vehicles the prophets use to communicate their God’s eye view of the world is at times painful.

This Sunday we will hear of Hosea’s marriage, a prophetic action. In this first chapter, God instructs Hosea to marry Gomer, a woman who is variously described as a prostitute, a wife of whoredom, a promiscuous woman, an unfaithful wife, a whore, depending on your translation. The action is meant to illustrate Israel’s infidelity to their covenant with God.

In this post-Dobbs world in which we are inundated by news of states racing to see who can be most draconian in their restrictions and prosecutions (persecutions), I see a throughline from Hosea to now.

 Our Scriptures come out of a patriarchal culture which saw women and their sexuality as lesser and, simultaneously, threatening. In our current debates we would include the marginalization of girls, transmen, and intersex persons as affected by patriarchy as well. The assumption that cis gender men are God-like and the rest of us are fallen is a distortion.

There is no doubt that Hosea is a hard text. The challenge for us today is seeing beyond the patriarchal language and assumptions of gender to the call to justice.

The Reverend Lisa Hunt, Rector

A group of parishioners who spanned several generations gathered last Saturday in the Havens Center to pray for the work we are about to embark upon through the auspices of our Mission Real Estate grant from Trinity Wall Street. The Scripture we meditated upon was the sending of the 70 in Luke’s gospel. The disciples are to go in pairs to conduct reconnaissance to prepare for Jesus, to take nothing with them, to keep focus on their destination, to offer peace and to stay where they are welcomed. They return excited by their power to cast out demons, to heal, and to stomp on scorpions. Jesus reminds them that the important thing is that they are part of the kingdom of heaven.

As the group discussed, walked in silence, and shared spiritual wisdom, the group was asked to come up with a charge which will inform the Mission Real Estate team as it begins its ministry. The charge is to go; partner; build for the light. Under the leadership of Dwight Wolf, a team has been commissioned to create a prayer for our community which will undergird our discernment and to create a request for proposal for a real estate professional who will work with us through this pre-construction phase. Our grant will culminate in the search for a developer who will work with us to build our vision.

This is not a re-hatching of work we have already done. We are not starting from scratch. The Vestry and Board of Trustees have decided to move forward constructing a new facility and exploring the possibility of building out the second phase of our masterplan–leveraging the value of our land for additional ministry.

You will be part of this charge as the Mission Real Estate will lead a process of focussing our vision and listening to potential ministry partners. The call is to prepare for the church for the next 100 years. We know our call now is to: Go. Partner. Build for Light!

The Reverend Lisa Hunt, Rector

In 1983 Joseph Cardinal Bernardin, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Chicago, used the biblical image of Jesus’ tunic which was saved by his executioners, a seamless garment, as recorded in John 19:23, to illustrate the moral principle of the sanctity of human life. Bernardin insisted that issues such as abortion, euthanasia, capital punishment, war, social and economic injustice demand a consistent application of moral principles which protect the dignity of every human being.

Last Friday, the United States Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade, a ruling which had articulated a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion. This decision is a source of rejoicing for many Christians and an occasion for deep lament for many others.

While recognizing that abortion is a tragedy, the Episcopal Church has always supported legal, safe abortion. Further, our church has held that the decision to terminate a pregnancy should be between a pregnant person, their doctor, and when desired, a member of the clergy. To choose is a matter of conscience. In 2018 the General Convention added that our church supports legislation which would ensure health care for all, regardless of ability to pay or gender. We also voted to support research into safe, effective contraceptives and health care matters specific to women.

Laws that restrict the exercise of a woman’s conscience regarding her body violate her dignity as a human being in our church’s theology. Such is the impact of the rescinding of Roe v. Wade.

We as Christians cannot proclaim the sanctity of life when we ignore the humanity of women, LGBTQIA people, and people of color. We cannot proclaim that we are pro-life when we refuse to pay higher taxes to make provision for children who will be born with gross anomalies, as progeny of incest and rape or “merely” in poverty. We cannot turn a blind eye to the privatization of foster care where profit will be made off the backs of black and brown children; just as was done to their fathers in our prisons.

As Christians in Texas, we will have to decide how to hold our state government accountable for the impact of fraying the seamless garment through the passage and implementation of laws that turn us against one another. Whether we are rejoicing or overcome with grief, together we will have to decide how we respond to our neighbors who will now find themselves suffering and alone.

The Reverend Lisa Hunt, Rector

This week I got a lovely email from an old friend in the Diocese of Texas with whom I worked on issues of LGBTQ inclusion, along with Muffie Moroney, a long time member of St. Stephen’s who died this year. My friend was giving thanks for our friendship and for strides made together. It gave me heart. I recalled how far we have come.

As we enter into Pride activities this weekend and ordain our two seminarians, Lizzie Robbins and Josh Kulak, as deacons, I am mindful that God never calls us to go out all alone. Elijah finds Elisha. Jesus calls the Twelve. Paul has Silas. Two by two is the way we do.

It took a movement and individual witness to move the country and the Church into greater justice. Spirituality is not deepened by individual prayer alone–ask anyone who has lived through COVIDtide. We need companionship along the way to lend strength, heart and wisdom.

I hope that you can drink in joy this weekend as Houstonians walk together to illustrate what justice looks like for LGBTQIA people. Join us for worship this Sunday at 10:30 as we accompany Josh and Lizzie as they exercise their ministries as deacons for the first time. We walk together.

The Reverend Lisa Hunt, Rector