Head of School Joy McGrath ’92 gave this homily at the annual Opening of School chapel service at Old St. Anne's Church in Middletown on September 11, 2022.

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The readings from the service:

Exodus 32:7-14

The Lord said to Moses, "Go down at once! Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have acted perversely; they have been quick to turn aside from the way that I commanded them; they have cast for themselves an image of a calf, and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, `These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!'" The Lord said to Moses, "I have seen this people, how stiff-necked they are. Now let me alone, so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them; and of you I will make a great nation."

But Moses implored the Lord his God, and said, "O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say, `It was with evil intent that he brought them out to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth'? Turn from your fierce wrath; change your mind and do not bring disaster on your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, how you swore to them by your own self, saying to them, `I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.'" And the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people.

The Epistle

1 Timothy 1:12-17

I am grateful to Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because he judged me faithful and appointed me to his service, even though I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners-- of whom I am the foremost. But for that very reason I received mercy, so that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display the utmost patience, making me an example to those who would come to believe in him for eternal life. To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

The Gospel

Luke 15:1-10

All the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to Jesus. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, "This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them."

So he told them this parable: "Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, `Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.' Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

"Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, `Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.' Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."

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The homily:

How many of you have lost something this week?

How many of you have lost more than one something?

Now let me ask you, how many of you have made a mistake this week?

Did you exclude someone from an activity? Did you insult someone? Did you miss a commitment?

Think about why you made the mistake. Was it because you were lost?

Because: what does it mean to be lost? To get turned around, lose our direction, lose track of our bearings, our values, what we know is right. We talk about having a “moral compass,” and what is a moral compass, but the way we keep to the path and do what is right. But we all make mistakes. Our moral compass wobbles, and we are lost for a moment.

Luke, who wrote today’s gospel, tells two parables about lost things. The first asks, what would you do if you had 100 sheep, and one was lost? Luke’s answer: You would leave the 99 sheep who are not lost, and you would search and search until you found that one sheep and bring him back, rejoicing. Similarly, Luke recounts the story of the woman who had 10 coins, and losing one, turns her house upside down looking for the lost coin. And then, having found the coin, the woman invites her friends and neighbors over for a party.

In the parables, we are the lost sheep, the lost coins. It is God who doesn’t give up on us. God seeks us out, even when we have lost our way. Both parables end with rejoining and celebration, as well they should: It is amazing promise God makes to us—he will never give up on us, even when our compass wobbles.

Our theme in the chapel this year is “practicing faith.” Today’s scriptures prompted me to reflect on that theme. You all know I am a big fan of practice. In all that we do at St. Andrew’s: we practice.

Yet, how do we practice faith? I would ask you to consider the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin. Is there any greater expression of faith than believing in the lost so much that we not only strike out for territories unknown to find them, but that we also leave behind everything else that is known? It is risky, right?

Yet this is what we do on dorm, in the dining hall, on our teams. If someone offends us, or puts themselves outside the group, we bring them in. If someone is alone, we keep company with them. We must never lose faith with each other. We try to learn each other, see each other, understand each other. If necessary, we find each other and we bring each other back. And in the process, we are less and less likely to lose one of our own. Together, we get better.

But practicing faith is not easy. Sometimes emotions run high, we hurt one another; we get hurt ourselves. In the Old Testament reading, the Israelites have seriously lost their way, they are worshiping a false god, and making a big mistake. The fact that they are also lost and wandering in the desert just underscores their situation. The escape from Egypt is shaping up to be a fail of, well, Biblical proportions.

God is angry with the Israelites, and rightly so. They’ve hurt him. But Moses pleads with God: “Change your mind,” he says. “Change your mind and do not bring disaster on your people.”

Remember: I said on Wednesday that what we do here in chapel is consider unanswerable questions. And I believe today’s Old Testament reading presents us with one such question. We are to obey God, we are to follow God—and then Moses, questions God to God’s face, so to speak! Our faith is not an unquestioning one.

Here, I consider our classrooms. As we study and learn, we cannot embrace orthodoxies of any kind. Although your teachers and fellow students deserve your unflagging respect, they are not hegemons or autocrats—nor are your texts, your books, your theorems. We can and must question everything. It is how we learn—in dialogue, in conversation. Ironically, it is in questioning God that Moses keeps his people, the Israelites, together. And to be sure, Moses is hard on the Israelites as well—constantly pointing out their failings, hounding them to be better as they wander—some might say lost—in the desert. And with his constant questioning and criticism, which is rooted in humility and love, Moses and his people become un-lost. They find their way. He dies within sight of the Promised Land.

And in some ways, this practice, this constant questioning, becomes the hallmark of the Judeo-Christian faith. Later, the teachings of Christ will also possess this counterintuitive bent—because let’s be honest, if all of your worldly wealth consists of 100 sheep, and you leave 99 of them behind to find the one obtuse sheep that wandered off—well, that doesn’t make a whole lot of common sense. But it is all based in one assumption: that we are flawed people, that we ALL make mistakes. Any one of us, on any given day, will be that lost sheep. And behind this is the idea that even when we are lost, we are loved, we are valued, we are worthy.

And this, then, brings us to the letter from Timothy:

Timothy is well aware of his shortcomings. He was kind of a disaster, even, “a man of violence.” Yet, he writes, “I received mercy.” Mercy, grace, faith, and love—all this he received from God. He goes on, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners--of whom I am the foremost. But for that very reason I received mercy.”

Timothy says: I am flawed, I have made mistakes, I have been lost. But Jesus has been merciful, patient, loving.

All of us, lost and flawed and imperfect, are meant to take this as a pattern and a practice for our own lives. It is my hope that in our school, even as we question and consider and question and critique, even as we make mistakes (small and large) that hurt others, we must just as surely remain patient and loving. We will practice giving grace and extending mercy to one another, knowing we will all be lost, at one time or another, and in the hope that we will all be found—by each other—again and again. And this is cause for celebration, as we look forward, rejoicing, to the year to come.

Amen.