The Holy Spirit Leads Us into the Future
The Reverend Shearon Sykes Williams, Pentecost 2, June 22nd, 2025
“The Holy Spirit Leads Us into the Future”
“But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith….There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all are one in Christ Jesus.” Galatians 3: 23-29
This past Wednesday, the wardens and I sent out a parish email letting everyone know about my retirement on Sept 14th. This announcement was the culmination of many months of careful discernment. I have been praying and thinking about this for a long time, and as hard as it is to be preparing to leave you, I feel very confident that it is the right time for both Saint George’s and for me. I will be turning 65 in August and Saint George’s is in a very healthy place. The vestry just approved our new strategic plan, we have experienced amazing growth over the last several years, there is so much joy and vitality, our lay leadership is strong and committed, and our staff is wonderful. The Holy Spirit has brought all these things together to make this the right time for a transition. Saint George’s is poised to go into the future, moving from strength to strength. We will have 3 more months together, which will give us time to prepare for a smooth transition and it will also give us ample time to say good-bye to each other, as hard as leaving you will be for me. That is so often the way it is with discernment. When the Holy Spirit has called us to a new direction in our lives, it is very challenging to let go of what has been in order to embrace the future, but we have the assurance that Jesus is with us as we step out in faith. And that my dear friends, is everything.
And as the Spirit leads Saint George’s into the future, we know that grace will flow abundantly. Our diocese has a well-defined transition process. An interim rector will be called by the vestry and that person will begin shortly after I leave. A search committee will be formed and the vestry will call a new rector in a year or so. Your continued health and vitality will be a creative partnership between you and the Holy Spirit, God’s action and your loving response. There are 3 things that will help to keep this wonderful community strong and enable you to continue to flourish. And they are faithfulness, generosity and love. Faithfulness, generosity, and love, three things that Saint George’s excels at. You know what these things look like because you are already doing them. Faithfulness looks like continuing to come to church and praying every day, praying for each other, praying for Saint George’s transition, and praying for this hurting world. Generosity looks like giving of your time to support God’s work here, it means continuing to give financially as generously as you are able, which undergirds the ministry here and beyond. Love looks like treasuring your relationships here at Saint George’s, asking how people are really doing when you see them each Sunday, and checking on people when they aren’t here. Our life here at Saint George’s matters. It matters more than ever. What we have here is very precious and it has to be tended and nurtured, by each of us as we follow Jesus. And when we leave this place each Sunday, we take Saint George’s spirit of graciousness into an increasingly hostile world. As we do that, our reading from Paul’s Letter to the Galatians shines a bright light on our way.
“..the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. For in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith….As many of you were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves in Christ . There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all are one in Christ Jesus.” Galatians 3: 23-29
Paul is writing to his friends in the churches he founded in Galatia to remind them that when they were baptized, their life in Christ became their new identity. The distinctions of race, class, and gender no longer separated one from the other. There was no more hierarchy. And that was very good news to people, that inclusive message was a huge draw for disenfranchised people living in the highly stratified and codified social structure of Roman culture. In the church, everybody mattered. Everybody. No one was “less than” another.
The early Christians started out as a subculture within Judaism, but by the time Paul wrote the Letter to the Galatians, non-Jewish converts, were starting to outnumber Jewish ones. So the central issue in Galatians is what the relationship was between faith in Jesus and adherence to the law of Moses. Should Gentile Christians have to fulfill the requirements of the Hebrew law? And Paul argues vehemently, that no, absolutely not. The law was given to the ancient Israelites so they would not go astray, so that they would remain in right relationship with God, but after Jesus came into the world, all of that changed. Instead of having access to God by following all of the rules, we now have access to God through faith in Christ. Through baptism, “there is no longer Jew or Greek,” only followers of Jesus, loving each other as he loves us.
In Galatians, Paul was trying to help some of the earliest Christians understand how radical their new life in Christ was. And that is what we strive to do here at Saint George’s, 2,000 years later. We believe that inclusion is a Gospel imperative. Every single person who walks through our doors is a beloved child of God. We try to create a gracious and loving space for everyone. And we invite people to experience Christ within this space, to come to faith in him and grow in faith in him over time. Everybody matters. No one is less than. Jesus love is a universal love and following him means that we are called to love others as he loves us. And each church has her own way of living that out. The Holy Spirit has blessed Saint George’s with a particular spirit of authenticity, joy, love for one another and service to the world. That spirit is exceedingly precious. My prayer for you is that you will continue to cherish it, nurture it, and never take it for granted.
“…There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all are one in Christ Jesus.” Galatians 3: 23-29
