A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Body of Christ

The following is the address given by the Rev. Daniel K. Dunlap on the occasion of his installation as Rector of The Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd, Tomball, Texas on November 12, 2009.
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Auspicious occasions, such as this, often begin with a quote gleaned from a great spiritual classic. With the big announcement this week from Rome that the Vatican was joining together with scientists to explore the implications to the Christian faith of the possibility of life on other planets, I couldn’t think of a more appropriate classic to quote from than that great 20th century spiritual classic – Douglas Adam’s A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. In the last chapter of Adam’s book comes this final entry from the Hitchhiker’s Guide:

“It said: The History of every major Galactic Civilization tends to pass through three distinct and recognizable phases, those of Survival, Inquiry and Sophistication, otherwise known as the How, Why and Where phases. For instance, the first phase is characterized by the question How can we eat? the second by the question Why do we eat? and the third by the question Where shall we have lunch?’’’

We laugh because we know that there is a great deal of truth in this statement, perhaps not on the Galactic level (that we yet know of at least), but certainly in the human sphere: Survival, Inquiry, and Sophistication – the “how,” “why” and “where” phases of our human experience. Such applies not only to great civilizations, and our own empty stomachs from time to time, but also to communities (dare I say to parishes as well).

In April 2008, our parish, The Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd, Tomball, TX, suffered what many simply refer to as “the split.” (I like to call it “the departure.”) We went from being a parish that had arguably been in the “sophisticated” phase to one that was forced back into the phase of “survival.” Those of you who were here during that time (and I’m happy to say that we have active members who were not with us yet) will remember that first parish meeting with Bishop Wimberly, then-Canon Doyle, and Bob Biehl after “the split.” I was at the meeting, more out of curiosity and moral support than any sense of commitment or responsibility at that point. But the foremost question on people’s minds was “how?” How can we continue? How can we survive as a parish? How can we go on? How do we do church?

By the grace and mercy of God, through the support of the diocese, and through the commitment of those who remained, and the leadership of a great vestry and a great team of ministry leaders (there are, of course, many names we can mention here…), Good Shepherd as a parish did survive. Our prayers did not go unanswered. In the subtle ways that the Spirit moves among the people of God, we found answers to the question “how,” though, admittedly, we still have quite a way to go before we can completely live into those answers. However, what we have learned so far is what we read about this evening in the book of Numbers, Chapter 11; namely that the Spirit of God does not reside solely on the designated leader of the people, Moses (or in our case the rector of a parish), but rather comes upon others who share the burden of ministry. God says to Moses of the seventy elders, “I will take some of the spirit that is on you and put it on them; and they shall bear the burden of the people along with you so that you will not bear it all by yourself” (cf. Numbers 11:17).

We have a long way to go, but certainly in the past year we have re-learned the “how” of being a parish again, and I believe the lessons we have learned make us a much healthier parish at that, where the people of God share in the burden of ministry, and where hospitality means all are invited and included at the Table again. I think a moment like is a reason to celebrate, not my new ministry, but our new ministry.

A great part of the answer to “how phase” took place in the discernment process that led to the adoption of our new Core Values and Mission Statement. I want you to look at the cover of your bulletin tonight. It’s a different cover than what we’ve been using on Sunday mornings. It includes a logo (see above), a Celtic cross design on which our five Core Values are emblazoned: (1) WORSHIP, the very center of our common life together; and radiating out from the cross, on the outside circle or nimbus, are (2) FAMILY, (3) CHRISTIAN FORMATION, (4) OUTREACH, and (5) HOSPITALITY. Each of the Core Values on the nimbus is in a dynamic, overlapping, and fluid relation to the others, and all flow from the center—from WORSHIP, our Eucharistic celebration at the Altar of Christ. I want you to get accustomed to this logo. Memorize these Core Values; internalize them. These are what the “new” Good Shepherd is about. In large part, these Core Values answer the “how” questions for us. Yet I would be remiss if I did not also point out the glaring omissions on the last page of your bulletin, in the Ministry Leaders section where the word “OPEN” marks the place where a name should go under two categories: Fellowship and Outreach. This does not mean where not doing these things. But how much more effective would we be if we had people to take on these tasks? Core Values are not static statements. Merely saying so does not make it so. Rather they are living statements, ideals that should continually challenge us; values that we need to live into.

Suddenly, our parish finds itself in the “why” phase – Inquiry. Now, perhaps it’s because I’m a history and philosophy type, but I really like this phase. I glory in it! Asking ourselves questions like “why” do we do the things we do? “Why” is the world the way it is? “Why” does God allow this to happen in our lives and not that? “Why” does God loves us? “Why” does God love me? “Why” can’t I always feel the love of God in my life? “Why” do we exist at all? This is the bulk of what we do in church. It is the reason we gather together, we read the Scriptures, we confess the Creeds, we baptize our children, and partake of the bread and wine in the Eucharist. (There is a reason why our Anglican tradition refers to the sacraments as “holy mysteries.”) The why-phase is the most dynamic and exciting of all the phases. It shares in the vulnerability of the “how” (the survival phase) because those in the why-phase realize how precariously close they are to falling back into the how-phase. However, those in the why-phase are also able to look beyond it into the next phase: the where-phase – the phase of “sophistication” (in Adams’ terminology), but what I think for our purposes may be better called phase of “fulfillment.”

But here’s the secret of living successfully in the why-phase: the why-phase reaches no conclusion before its time. It is content to live in the tension of the preliminary. A parish or a church in this phase must live in the humility that some “why” questions are not easily answered and that we as the People of God are called to explore such questions side-by-side with people with whom we may not always see eye-to-eye. (This of course is the unique calling of The Episcopal Church and those of us who have made the decision to stay in it. It is the unique calling of our parish.) Those in the why-phase are content merely to fulfill Christ’s commandment to “love one another as Christ has loved us” (cf. John 15:12). Such people exemplify a love that, in the words of St. Paul, is sincere, hating the evil, while clinging to what is good; a devotion to one another in brotherly love, honoring others about themselves. Such a people never lack zeal, but are full of spiritual fervor in serving the Lord. They are joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. They share with those in need and practice hospitality. They bless those who persecute them, when cursing would be so much easier to do. They rejoice with those who rejoice, and mourn with those who mourn. They live in harmony with each other, and are willing to associate with the downcast and the outcast; never repaying evil with evil, but seeking to live at peace with all people. (See Romans 12:9-17.)

May we never ever leave the why-phase, at least on this side of the Resurrection. That is my prayer for Good Shepherd. Why? Because the next phase is fraught with presumption, danger and strife. Those in the why-phase are always conscious of how close they are to falling back into the “how-phase,” the phase of survival. Those who presume to have moved on to certainty – into a supposed sophistication phase – have coddled and soothed themselves into thinking that they are safe. They have forgotten how close they are to the how-phase. As Douglas Adams informs us in his sequel to The Hitchhiker’s Guide (appropriately entitled The Restaurant at the End of the Universe): “There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened.”

My friends, it has happened. We’ve experienced it right here. One fateful day in April 2008, the universe as we knew it, the universe that so many of us thought we had finally figured out, instantly disappeared, only to be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable! …And more wonderful, mysterious, and beautiful, I might add. The sophisticated phase is not a phase that we can presume to enter, nor can we afford as a parish ever to be tempted into believing that it is attainable in this life. Those churches or parishes who do actually end up killing the spirituality of their fellowship ironically by making it too spiritual! According to author and theologian, Simon Chan (Spiritual Theology), such churches, in believing they have all the answers (or at least the answers to all the really, really important issues in life), seek to impose these “answers” on others. They begin to exist purely for their own spiritual ends; ironically opening themselves up to an even greater danger, since any minor infraction becomes an infringement that demands radical action. Simon Chan writes, “Fellowships that seek to preserve the purity of the ‘New Testament church’ are more likely to experience ugly schisms than are churches that have no such pretensions.”

Douglas Adams quips, “When all questions of space, time, matter and the nature of being have been resolved, only one question remains – Where shall we have dinner?” (The Restaurant at the End of the Universe). Well, some have chosen to have their “dinner” at another table, around another altar. Whatever else we may be tempted to think of those folks who left us, we need to remember that their universe disappeared on that fateful day in April 2008 as surely as did ours. They too had to re-enter the how-phase. Let us pray remember to pray for them, that they too will be content to remain in the why-phase and not be in such a hurry to answer the “whys,” lest they rush headlong back into the “where.”

My friends, I cannot begin to tell you how thankful I am to be part of this wonderful adventure into the unknown of this enormous universe that God has created for us to explore. I thank our God for his grace and I thank his people for their support. For some mysterious reason he chose me to be your guide as we “hitchhike” our way through parish life in the Body of Christ. I would never presume to tell you that I will always know where we are going. I can only commit to you tonight that on this leg of the journey we will get wherever we are going together.