From the sermon delivered by Rev. Mary Bea Sullivan on the Sunday of Angie’s departure:
In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.
And that wind/ruah/breath of God has blown in and through the people of God from the beginning of creation. Its Wisdom guided the People of Israel… Swept over Mary, carrying the Word made Flesh Swept over the early disciples of Christ as they gathered that Pentecost morning, accused of inebriation, but in fact, they were drunk with the Spirit.
That same wind of God swept over a young mother, Angie Wright, who chose to go to seminary, not to become a pastor OR preacher, but to to study and figure out what exactly she believed! She thought she would always do social justice work, that her “call” was to do that work in the context of the church, and not to be a pastor. She was so convinced of this, she even tried to get out of taking a required preaching class.
But ruah, breath of God stirred in Angie’s heart a wind that could not be denied. Angie, as one unique manifestation of the image and likeness of God, could not deny the stirrings of the Spirit.
In 1999, through Angie and a handful of others, God created the dream of Beloved Community Church, a place where ALL PEOPLE ARE CELEBRATED AS PRECIOUS CHILDREN OF GOD. The Spirit stirred in LeNard’s heart as he chose to move beyond the pain and rejection of unjust church experiences and together with others, create soul-stirring music here at Beloved. That same Spirit stirs in Angie and LeNard’s love for one another.
May the power of the Spirit has been, and still is, palpable here at Beloved…many hearts have been moved throughout these past 16 years. Living out Jesus’ call for JUSTICE and COMPASSION; embodying the church’s WITNESS TO CARING FOR ONE ANOTHER, honoring the DIVINITY OF EVERY HUMAN BEING.
People have shown up to worship together, pray for sick friends and family, feed the homeless, create care teams around those in need, celebrate babies being born, and babies returning home. Beloved is a space where poets share their stories, and musicians sing their songs.
One by one, God called us to participate, some for a short season, some for more than a decade. Some to provide solace, like the feeling we have LISTENING TO A FAVORITE SONG; others agitation, like sand in a shell that manifests a great pearl.
All welcomed as beloved children of God—“once a beloved, always a beloved” Angie is quick to say. In the beginning, who could have known what God was stirring? That’s what crazy faith is all about. That’s what, as Bishop Michael Curry calls it, the “Jesus movement,” is all about. The Jesus movement is about being crazy Christians; crazy with love, crazy with faith, crazy with acceptance of difference, crazy with generosity.
And here you are Beloved Community Church celebrating 16 years of crazy faith! Under Angie’s leadership, and with God’s help, against all odds, you have persevered in keeping the doors open, even when the coffers were near empty, even when the roof was blown off of this building, you ministered to one another and to the greater community.
God’s Spirit is still stirring here, in all of our hearts individually and collectively in the heart of this beautiful, diverse congregation. And my friends, it is natural for us to experience a whole range of feelings about these next steps that Angie is taking and that this congregation is taking. We might feel sad; mad, we might feel anxious about the unknown that lies ahead, or excited about new possibilities, we might feel all of these things at the same time.
Myrtle Deed writes, “When you can’t see straight ahead, it’s because you’re about to turn a corner.” Angie is about to turn a corner; and Beloved is about to turn a corner. That is both scary and exciting.
But I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created 2 thing, will be able to separate us—ANY OF US, from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. There is no corner we turn alone…
One of my favorite sayings is a UCC slogan, “God is still speaking.” Yes God is—God will continue to speak through Angie in whatever new is awaiting her; God will continue to speak through Beloved Community Church in whatever new is awaiting you.
New beginnings are preceded by endings. Hanging in the in-between time of this already, but not yet can be challenging. And, we have the experience of the history of the people of God, and your history here at Beloved to know that God is always calling us forward in love. You my friends, beautifully embody that Love.
I want to share with you a poem from Hermann Hesse which speaks to beginnings and endings:
As every flower fades and as all youth
Departs, so life at every stage,
So every virtue, so our grasp of truth,
Blooms in its day and may not last forever.
Since life may summon us at every age
Be ready, heart, for parting, new endeavor,
Be ready bravely and without remorse
To find new light that old ties cannot give.
In all beginnings dwells a magic force
For guarding us and helping us to live.
Serenely let us move to distant places
And let no sentiments of home detain us.
The Cosmic Spirit seeks not to restrain us
But lifts us stage by stage to wider spaces.
If we accept a home of our own making,
Familiar habit makes for indolence.
We must prepare for parting and leave-taking
Or else remain the slave of permanence.
Even the hour of our death may send
Us speeding on to fresh and newer spaces,
And life may summon us to newer races.
So be it, heart: bid farewell without end.
And know my friends as you bid farewell to your beloved Angie as your pastor, she will forever carry you in her heart; and you will forever carry her in your hearts—all united as one beloved family in Christ.
That Spirit which swept over the face of the waters, swept over Mary, flamed the fires that Pentecost morning, the Spirit which first drew Angie, and you to be a part of this Beloved community, is present in each of us still.
The Spirit, the Advocate which Jesus promised to his disciples is still stirring and will carry Angie, and each of us individually, and Beloved as a community, as we turn our corners.
AMEN
Rev. Mary Bea Sullivan
January 10, 2016
Beloved Community Church
