October Sermon Series "Why I Come To St. Hilary's"

Today's sermon, the first of our series, is a reflection by Dan. The readings refered to are Psalm 37:1-10 and Luke 17:5-10

A few weeks back, Pastor Terri asked if I would share some thoughts on why I attend St. Hilary’s. My initial answer was --- we come to St. Hilary’s because it is close to our house. I then realized Pastor Terri was looking for a bit deeper meaning. She wanted to know in what way is St. Hilary’s important to me and how the ministries we participate in impact my life.

As I sat down to think about why I really like attending St. Hilary’s, I thought back to the first time Sharon and I visited here. It was approximately 20 years ago and it was infact because St. Hilary’s was close to our house. We were originally married at St. Martin’s in Des Plaines. We lived relatively close to St. Martins but then moved to this area. We quickly found it challenging to get the kids ready and out the door for the drive to church. One day after driving by St. Hilary’s for many years, we decided to give it a try.

It is also important to note that I grew up in a Roman Catholic Church with a large congregation. At the time we started coming to St. Hilary’s, it was about the same size congregation as St. Martin. The two churches combined were hardly 25% of the size of the church I grew up in. Growing up, I guess I was like many kids my age; I went to church on a weekly basis (mostly because my parents required it). I would go to church, spend my required weekly hour -- and then head out, not to think about church again until that hour came around the following Sunday.

St. Hilary’s was a different experience. One of the things I pride myself in is learning from others. I have done that all my life whether it was in school, my personal life, business life, or here at church. Initially when we joined St. Hilary’s, I continued to put in my weekly hour. And then I noticed this congregation was different than others. The key difference was it appeared that the people of St. Hilary’s really care – care about one another, the church, the local community, and the world community at large.

About ten years ago, St. Hilary’s had a extensive Lenten Program. For the first few years, I attended the group dinners, Stations of the Cross, and then listened to inspiring stories from fellow parishioners. These were remarkable stories about every day people who either over came difficult life challenges or were currently enduring challenges. They spoke of addictions, family crisis, death of loved ones, and faith moving experiences. Then Father Crist asked me to participate and present my story – at first I was hesitant to say yes because I did not know what I could share with this group that was relevant and inspiring. While I was pondering my decision, my schedule at work changed and I had to go out of town on the day he asked me to speak. So it turned out to be a convenient excuse to not have to get up and share my life with others. Well Father Crist, like another priest I know, was persistent. He asked me to speak on another day and I was hard pressed to say no. At that time, the only station I wanted to talk on was the fifth station – Simon helps Jesus. I felt I could easily relate to that as I always enjoyed helping others.

I did not spend a lot of time praying back then about my assignment, but I was hoping it would be the fifth station of the cross. I at least remember asking God if he would be so kind to make it an easy station so I could talk intelligently to the group. As you might expect, when the envelope showed up in the mail, my station to talk on was the fifth station. Recognizing my luck has never been that good, to hit the jackpot on 1 out of 14 certainly was much more than luck. In fact, I almost did not open the envelope as I was confident it was the fifth station. That experience had a big impact on me and since then I have learned that I could depend on God to answer my call. I put my trust in God, and like our psalm today reminds us:
“put your trust in the Lord and do good…take delight in the Lord and he shall give you your heart’s desire. Commit your way to the Lord and put your trust in him…”
About this same time, I decided I needed to get more involved. I started as a lay reader. Then I began to usher, and then a chalice bearer. I started to participate in other activities around the church including vestry warden, and enjoyed activities that involved helping others. A little over six years ago, a partner and I started a new business after 24 years with the same company. One of our core values was ensuring we give back to the community. We established our Convergint Social Responsibility Day. On that day, we go into the community and give back to those less fortunate than we are. To date we have donated over $1 Million in our time and materials to help our local communities. We have successfully created a culture whereby all of our colleagues give back and help, when and where they can. Another area that I have recently become involved in - is becoming a mentor for a minority high school student in an inner city school. While this is new, I expect it to be a rewarding experience as I help mentor a motivated minority high school student who needs to beat the odds to make it to College. I attribute a lot of what I have done relative to helping others to the lessons I have learned from the many excellent examples in this church.

In our Gospel reading today, the disciples ask Jesus for more faith and he tells them they have faith enough. What they need is not more faith, but rather the ability to do and continue doing what God calls from all of us. Faith results from people who are open to and are doing what God has initiated in us. We live in a world that usually chooses to ignore or worse, trample the weak. However, God calls us to respond to and lift up the weak. (Remember Jesus is speaking to the disciples, but as I talk about us, we are the disciples of today)…by referring to slaves Jesus is asking the disciples to reflect on their own experience – slaves in Jesus’ day had much work to do and they could not rest until their work was done. God expects the same of the disciples, there is much work to do to bring forth God’s kingdom and justice (i.e. all people should be healthy, fed, cared for; God asks us to love God, love self, love others)…as odd as this example seems to us it is really about reminding the disciples that what they desire, --- faith, ---- is within their reach. They are to respond to the challenges of life and faith from their own experiences (of God, faith, life) and they must strive to do God’s work. We should not just settle for things and accept them as they are (poverty, disadvantaged groups) rather we are to do something to change that.

As we all know, St. Hilary’s is a small church – but I have learned it is not a matter of how large a congregation is, rather, how committed it is to doing that which God expects of us. Because of the excellent example all of you set each day along with many of your predecessors, I am a much better person in faith being part of this congregation.