An article from the Cathedral Times
by
the Very Reverend Samuel G. Candler,
Dean of the Cathedral of
St. Philip
What a grand and glorious and wide-ranging Sunday we had last week! As
usual, the Cathedral held services throughout the Sunday, starting at
7:45 a.m. and concluding after the 7 p.m. service; and, as usual, those
services contained all sorts and conditions of
humanity.
But what else was going on? The Holy
Eucharist Instruction Class"”some 60 children and their parents and
friends"”attended the 8:45 service together, observing the conclusion of
their six-week course. We were observing Scout Sunday, and Boy Scouts
read the lessons and prayers. Our youth, throughout the morning, were
collecting food and donations in two large barrels"”one labeled New York
Giants and the other labeled New England Patriots. (Again, as usual, the
Cathedral parish put more donations in the barrel of the winning Super
Bowl team!)
St. Anne's Guild was helping us stock the
food pantry of Buckhead Christian Ministry (as we will throughout the
month of February). At 4 p.m., our Cathedral Choir helped us observe the
Feast of the Presentation with a Candlemas Procession (its true date
was February 2, but we moved its observance to Sunday
afternoon).
We heard fine sermons throughout the day,
but I repeat here some words from my own sermon at 8:45"”titled "All
Things to All People." The Cathedral represented the manifest glory of
Jesus Christ in great ways on Sunday!
"Throughout my
ministry as a priest, as I have tried to serve God's people, and God's
church, advisers and consultants have insisted to me that I cannot be
all things to all people. "You must choose your specialty, your
particular call, your particular mission," they say"”especially
advertising advisers, "After all, you can't be all things to all
people."
But I tend to dismiss those advisers and
consultants, who take their lead from too constrained a vision, who
don't start with the glory of God. On the one hand, I know they are
partly right. They are right in that by myself, I cannot be all things
to all people. By myself. But on the other hand, I believe that "to be
all things to all people" is a vision, even a goal. It is a vision
inspired by St. Paul himself, when he wrote to the Corinthians (9:23, "I
have become all things to all people.")
... I admit
that, today, no one person of us can be all things to all people. By
ourselves, we cannot represent the fullness of God. But together.
"Together" is a different story. When we are together, black and white,
young and old, liberal and conservative, Patriots fans and Giants fans,
something happens ...
Ultimately, it is God who can
be all things to all people. It is Jesus who became incarnate and so
became the fulfillment of all the various hopes and needs of every
person in the world. God meets all our hopes and fears, when God touches
us in Jesus Christ. It is Jesus, who is all things to all people, so
that he might save some. Individually, we cannot be all things to all
people; but, together, we can be the Body of Christ."
(from the sermon of Sam Candler on February 5, 2012, titled,
"All Things to All People." Read it all here.)
The Very Reverend Sam Candler