Christmas greetings dear Michiganders East and West.

As we approach the Feast of the Nativity I remind us of a reading from the Letter to Titus as one of the propers appointed for Christmas Day:

“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all”. Titus 2:11

I sometimes think that God is afraid I won’t get it. One year, twenty minutes before a Christmas Eve service was to begin, a woman and her two small children showed up at the church to ask for food. Another year, a young woman of 17 called me on Christmas Eve to tell me she was pregnant and terrified to tell her parents.  Then there was another Christmas Eve when I drove into the church parking lot, to find a young man standing on the parish hall landing, who had just been released from prison and had no money to get home.

Based on such circumstances, perhaps you are thinking that I am going to say that Christmas is about helping people. Well, yes, but it is much more and goes far deeper. It seems that God is trying to tell me that the truth of the Manger is found precisely in people like the three I mentioned, and the sermons this preacher needs to hear or see are those right in front of me. The “grace of God has appeared” in these broken, vulnerable people. They are the presence of Christ, are Christ, and it is as if God is saying, “If you cannot see me in them, then neither will you see me in the Manger.”

In the Manger, God becomes touchable and seeable, flesh and blood. It also means that becomes woundable and killable, thinking ahead to Good Friday. Yet, taking that risk, God has appeared and does appear in broken bread and a cup of wine, in a newborn child or a family feast, in a kind word spoken or in Holy Scriptures, in a pregnant teenager, a man just released from prison, or a hungry family.

The Manger proclaims that God loves us in our full humanity and is, for us, in brokenness as well as joy. My hope is that we will be willing to touch the Christ, however they appear, knowing the Christ-Child who first comes to touch us. Secure in God’s embrace, we embrace the world he came to save, wherever and however God shows up.

A holy and blessed Christmas to all.

Bishop Skip

Saludos navideños estimados Michiganders del este y oeste.

Al acercarnos a la fiesta de la Natividad, recuerdo una lectura de la Carta a Tito como uno de los apoyos designados para el día de la Navidad:

“Porque ha aparecido la gracia de Dios, que trae la salvación a todos”. Tito 2:11

A veces pienso que Dios tiene miedo de que no lo consiga. Un año, veinte minutos antes que comenzara un servicio de Nochebuena, una mujer y sus dos hijos pequeños se presentaron en la iglesia para pedir comida. Otro año, una joven de 17 años me llamó en Nochebuena para decirme que estaba embarazada y que le aterrorizaba decírselo a sus padres.  En otra Nochebuena, entré en el estacionamiento de la iglesia y me encontré a un joven en el rellano del salón parroquial que acababa de salir de la cárcel y no tenía dinero para regresar a casa.

Basándose en tales circunstancias, quizá esté pensando que dirá que la Navidad consiste en ayudar a la gente. Bueno, sí, pero es mucho más y va mucho más allá. Parece que Dios está tratando de decirme que la verdad del Pesebre se encuentra precisamente en personas como las tres que he mencionado, y los sermones que este predicador necesita escuchar o ver son los que tengo delante de mí. La “gracia de Dios se ha manifestado” en estas personas rotas y vulnerables. Son la presencia de Cristo, son Cristo, y es como si Dios dijera: “Si no puedes verme en ellos, tampoco me verás en el Pesebre”.

En el Pesebre, Dios se hace tocable y visible, de carne y hueso. También significa que se convierte en herible y matable, pensando en el Viernes Santo. Sin embargo, asumiendo ese riesgo, Dios se ha aparecido y se aparece en el pan partido y en la copa de vino, en un recién nacido o en una fiesta familiar, en una palabra amable pronunciada o en las Sagradas Escrituras, en una adolescente embarazada, en un hombre recién salido de la cárcel o en una familia hambrienta.

El Pesebre proclama que Dios nos ama en nuestra plena humanidad y está, para nosotros, tanto en el quebranto como en la alegría. Mi esperanza es que estemos dispuestos a tocar a Cristo, aparezcan como aparezcan, conociendo al Niño-Cristo que primero viene a tocarnos. Seguros en el abrazo de Dios, abrazamos el mundo que Él vino a salvar, dondequiera y comoquiera que Dios se manifieste.

Una santa y bendita Navidad para todos.

Obispo Skip

It Came Upon a Midnight Clear by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100191 Artist: http://incompetech.com/

Dear People of Eastern and Western Michigan,

It seems appropriate that on this Feast of Saint Andrew the Apostle, and right on the cusp of Advent, that I send you a word of greeting in the name of our Savior, Jesus.

It is with a grateful heart that I have accepted the invitation of each diocese’s Standing Committee, and will walk with you once again for a time as your Assisting Bishop. When I was ordained a bishop in 2001, then Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold gave me a framed statement from St. Augustine. It reads:

“For you I am a bishop, but with you I am a Christian; one is an office, accepted; the other is a gift, received. One is danger; the other is safety. If I am happier to be redeemed with you than to be placed over you, then I shall, as the Lord commanded, be more fully your Servant.”

It is with such an attitude that I seek to walk the way of faith with you these next months. You are a remarkable people who have endured much. I want to honor the faith that is clearly present among you and in you. My hope is that we will have the opportunity to celebrate well all God in Christ is doing, and will be doing, among us. When given the opportunity, I seek to call forth that grace so abundantly present, name it when I see it, and with you, stay rooted in gratitude that springs forth in joy and hope.

Below you will find a short reflection that I offer, hoping it grounds us in the work we have before us.

Blessings and peace,

The Rt. Rev. Skip Adams
Assisting Bishop
The Episcopal Dioceses of Eastern and Western Michigan

St. Andrew the Apostle

November 30, 2023

“Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” So says Matthew 4:19 in the Gospel appointed for this Feast of St. Andrew. Some would call him the first missionary in the company of disciples. One of the two main images for mission and ministry in the New Testament is that of fishing. The other is that of a shepherd.

I am drawn to the fishing metaphor in the context of remembering St. Andrew, whom we know along with his brother Peter, was a fisherman. It will not be a surprise for some of you that I find the image of fishing compelling, as I am a passionate fly fisher. If you need evidence, all you need to know is that a rainbow trout appears on the front panel of my green set of Eucharistic vestments.

What may be a surprise, however, is that when my mind goes to fishing, it also goes to grace, that unmerited, undeserved gift of God. Norman Maclean, in the novella “A River Runs Through It,” says it best: “My father was very sure about certain matters pertaining to the universe. To him, all good things—trout as well as eternal salvation—come by grace and grace comes by art and art does not come easy.”

When I wave a bamboo fly rod in the wind, made from a living grass by loving hands through a process of drying, splitting, milling, sanding, gluing and varnishing that takes 300 to 500 hours of crafting; cast a fly that I wrapped and tied to a hook through the manipulations of my own fingers; use feathers and hair from animals of God’s creation that once had blood coursing through their veins; and watch a sleek muscular trout rise to take it, that I am told has been virtually unchanged in the gene pool for 2 million years; that is grace, it is art, and it is never easy.

We pray in the Collect for this day that we would have the same grace given to Andrew to readily obey the call of Jesus Christ. Christian ministry is pure grace, it is an art and it is never easy. Yet it is joy, for it is the self-emptying way of the cross bringing hope to all.

Almighty God, who gave such grace to your apostle Andrew that he readily obeyed the call of your Son Jesus Christ, and brought his brother with him: Give us, who are called by your Holy Word, grace to follow him without delay, and to bring those near to us into his gracious presence; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Icon Image: Apostle Andrew, the Holy and All-Praised First-Called via the Orthodox Church in America.