Knock and the door will be open, seek and you will find, ask and it will be given to you.
Knock? On what door do we knock?
Seek? Who or what is it that we seek?
Ask? What is it that we want given to us?
We knock on God's door and we are seeking God's presence and we want God's love. That is what all of us seek. That is what all of us want. We want to know that we are loved unconditionally.
That is why we come to this place, to this Episcopal Church Women's conference. We are seeking God's love in our lives and this is one of the places that we find it. We find it in the faces and the hearts of our sisters in Christ. When we are gathered together, we know without question that God has sought us out and has found us. We come to this place because we know as sisters in Christ that we are the body of Christ. We are many members with many gifts but we have the same spirit. We offer a variety of services but it is the same Lord we serve.
We come to this place because we feel connected to each other and we feel connected to God.
We wonder why others don't come as well. We wonder why our numbers are dwindling. Why can't they see what we see? Why can't they feel what we feel? Why don't they experience what we experience? Are they too busy to experience God's presence among the women gathered here? We want them to come to be with us. We know that they would find what they are seeking if they would just try us out. We worry about the future of our beloved ECW. We don't know what to do. What could we do differently that would make them want to come be with us?
Perhaps we should ask a different question instead. Not how do we get women to come to us, but how we can go to them? How do we take God's love to them instead of asking them to come to us to experience that love?
I know some young women at Trinity Episcopal Church in Tulsa. We go out to dinner or lunch occasionally. They sometimes come to church but not every Sunday. If anyone asked them if they were churched they'd say yes. If anyone asked where they were a member they would say Trinity. They plan to have their children baptized at Trinity but two were married recently and they chose to have a small private service in a vacation spot. But they wanted premarital counseling with one of our priests before they got married. They might not look or act like our traditional parishioner but they are connected to God through the Episcopal Church.
There is a group of twenty-something men and women who have been faithful to New Hope, an organization that works with children who have a parent in prison, for many years. They come and spend at least a week every summer working with and loving the children who come to camp. Some have a church home. Some don't. Some aren't even sure they believe in God. But they have a connection. They are giving God's love to the children they serve. They are connected to the Episcopal Church through New Hope.
Most of the children who have a parent in prison who come to New Hope each summer aren't Episcopalians. But they are connected to God through the Episcopal Church.
We come to this place because we know that we will find God's love in this place with our sisters in Christ. That is a good thing. We need to keep coming back, connecting with each other. But then we need to take this good thing back to our parishes and our communities and share it with those who aren't with us.
Do they have to come to us to be connected to us through Christ? Can we go to them? Can we listen to see what they need to experience God's love in their lives?
Our theme for this conference is "Here I am Lord". But a part of "Hear I am Lord" is listening. We have to listen to know where God is calling us. We have to listen to all of God's voices before we know where God is leading us.
We listen to God in prayer.
A friend of mine is a prayer warrior. When she prays she listens. Names are put on her mind and heart. She calls and writes those who God gives her just to say "I am thinking about you." Or "I love you."
We listen to God through listening to others.
Last fall a report came out from the Promise Alliance, an organization that was started by Colin Powell a decade ago. The report said that children need five "promises" to become healthy adults.
God has been speaking to me through this report. God is helping me be more intentional in my work with children who have a parent in prison.
We listen to God through our culture.
A few years ago, a black woman was telling me that she had to teach her children how to act when they got stopped by a policeman. It wasn't IF they got stopped but when they got stopped. The assumption is that they would get stop. As a white woman, it never occurred to me to have a conversation with my boys about being stopped by a policeman. And believe me they have been stopped. A lot!
God was speaking to me through the culture in which we live.
Listen! Can you hear? Can you hear God's voice calling?
God is speaking to us through the words of Isaiah t his morning.
God is sending us to bring good news
to the oppressed,
to bind up the broken-hearted...
How many of our sisters in Christ back in our home parishes are going through divorce and are broken-hearted? How many of our sisters in Christ have children or grandchildren they have lost to drugs, and just need to be bound up in arms of love?
God is sending us to proclaim liberty
to the captives,
and release to the prisoners;
How many of the young girls in our community are prisoners to sexual abuse, teen-age pregnancy, alcoholism, or losing a parent to prison?
God is sending us to comfort all who mourn;
How many widows do we have in our communities that need a garland of love around they neck? How many mothers or grandmothers have lost children in Iraq or to a madman with a gun?
"Here I am Lord."
Can we say, "Here we are Lord" if we don't then listen to where God is calling us to go? I do not believe that we are to say "Here we are Lord" and then sit back and wait for the women to come to us. "Here I am" is not the end of the story.
We are women. We are the body of Christ. We have God given gifts. The spirit of the Lord is upon us. We, the Episcopal Church Women of Oklahoma, have the power to change the world, to reconcile the world to God through Christ.
The question for us today is not how do we get women to join us but how do we join with other women to seek and find God's unconditional love.
Almighty and most merciful God, grant
that by the indwelling
of your Holy Spirit we may be enlightened and strengthened
for your service; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and
reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now
and for ever. Amen.