“A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a long journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter.”
And the camels galled, sore-footed, refractory,
Lying down in the melting snow.
There were times we regretted
The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,
And the silken girls bringing sherbet.
Then the camel men cursing and grumbling
And running away, and wanting their liquor and women,
And the night-fires going out, and the lack of shelters,
And the cities hostile and the towns unfriendly
And the villages dirty and charging high prices:
A hard time we had of it.
At the end we preferred to travel all night,
Sleeping in snatches,
With the voices singing in our ears, saying
That this was all folly.Then at dawn we came down to a temperate valley,
Wet, below the snow line, smelling of vegetation;
With a running stream and a water-mill beating the darkness,
And three trees on the low sky,
And an old white horse galloped away in the meadow.
Then we came to a tavern with vine-leaves over the lintel,
Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver,
And feet kicking the empty wine-skins.
But there was no information, and so we continued
And arrived at evening, not a moment too soon
Finding the place; it was (you may say) satisfactory.

All this was a long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.

~T.S. Eliot

Scripture always surprises me. I am sixty-four and I am always seeing new things. Today my surprise came in the story of the wise men. I have always read the story and believed that the only one driven by fear and jealousy was King Herod. This year I heard for the first time that all Jerusalem was filled with fear at the prospect of the birth of a king in Bethlehem. Perhaps this was pointing to the future when the religious leaders and crowds of Jerusalem would cry for the death of Jesus after the triumphal entry of their king that we celebrate on Palm Sunday. Once again the motivator was fear and jealousy. This contrasts with the Gentile wise men from the east who were “overjoyed” when they found Jesus in the arms of his mother, Mary. It made me reflect on how I will approach Jesus the king. Will I be filled with fear or overjoyed? Fear doesn’t lead to good places. Joy leads to worship.As CCA enters into a time of discernment I think these thoughts are relevant. Will we operate out of fear or joyfully trust that the Lord is King and therefore in control? Our beloved church finds itself in a fairly rare situation. Fr. Matt is our Priest in Charge. Many would love to see him become our next rector. It is impossible to have an objective search process with him as one candidate among many. Our bishop understands this and has made provision for just this circumstance. The congregation will use the information and profile from our last search. However, this material needs to be updated to accurately reflect the congregation as it is right now. Once we have identified our core values, passions, and dreams for the future, the vestry will produce a Ministry Description that describes the leader we are seeking. This will be submitted to the bishop for approval. With all that in place, we will then interview Fr. Matt and see if our dreams match his. If everything lines up, the vestry will elect Fr. Matt to be our next rector.

Some may ask why we need to go through with this process. Why can’t we just hire Fr. Matt right now and call it a day? That would not be fair to the congregation nor would it be fair to Fr. Matt. Fr. Matt needs to have the mandate that a search process and a clear call will give him in order to lead effectively. The congregation needs to have the opportunity to think about who we are and where we want to go. Part of the process will be to develop a five-year plan. This helps the congregation to build a vision for a healthy future. In avoiding this process, the congregation could easily be focused on the past out of fear rather than confidently and joyfully building a vision for the future.

I am looking forward to the next few months with anticipation. I am really looking forward to listening to your hearts. CCA has been blessed with many strong leaders and a great vestry. I love working with Doug as Senior Warden and Beth as Junior Warden. This congregation has been blessed by years of solid teaching. I have seen a hunger to serve and tremendous generosity. Our future is bright as long as we continue to seek the Lord and to build his kingdom. Let us leave Herod and his fears behind. The king is born in Bethlehem. May we be overjoyed to follow his star and find him and trust his most gracious rule.

May you have a blessed Epiphany,

 †Bishop Mark