Year A - Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany, February 29, 2023
Do Justice, Love Kindness, Walk Humbly with your God
Before the sermon and annual report, Dean Clark read a portion of A pastoral word from Presiding Bishop Michael Curry on the death of Tyre Nichols. The full text from Presiding Bishop can be found here.
In honor of the Beloved Trinity: God, Son, and Holy Spirit.
What is our call, as a congregation, by the Holy Spirit? The prophet Micah answers us: to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.
Discerning the invitation of the Holy Spirit requires introspection. We must know where we are before understanding where we are led. I believe our core identity springs from our published history: Church in the Middle of the Street. That title refers to a time when the original wooden structure on this site was lifted off the foundation and placed in the middle of N. 18th Street making room for the construction of this stone structure. It’s a dramatic image and helps envision our mission in Christ.
Our place in Omaha is in the middle of the street, to be in the way. Not as an obstruction, but a guidepost.
Trinity Cathedral was founded by pioneers – lay people, not clergy – carving a new city on the banks of the Missouri. Our particular history is wrapped in a courageous pioneer spirit married to passionate care for our children. This space is adorned with an unusual number of memorials honoring children who died. Grief is embedded in our tradition, the grief of mothers and fathers for those who were taken too young by violence and illness: some as infants, some as young adults in their prime. The grief etched into our brass and stone wails beside the grief of the Nichols family in Memphis.
Trinity Cathedral cannot heal Memphis, but we can make a difference in Omaha.
We are called to lean into our pioneer beginning and carve a new future for our city, our neighborhood. We are called to care for the children at Central High School and to tackle the plague of hopelessness they suffer: beset by violence, policies that undermine public schools, and a culture more interested in profit than relationship. Teenagers need our attention and our love.
This past year, we’ve revived our worship experience, adding new services and special events, our Deacon’s Report shows the attendance details. Our music program is blossoming and reaching congregations and audiences beyond these walls. We are strengthening our public presence in Omaha, planting the seeds of our gospel witness. We wrestled with our building project, Cathedral Commons, pivoting with a changed world to put right aging infrastructure and reshape our spaces for a new season. With an economic downturn, we are committing to greater discipline in stewardship of our financial and property resources.
The Chapter and I, with other lay leaders, have made a lot of adjustments this year. Including rearranging our visions for staffing. There are details in the Annual Report.
The changes in staffing, ministries, and the Cathedral Commons project are faithful to the exciting vision you conceived in 2018 to become the Cathedral in Omaha for our entire community without exception and for the wider diocese. I am confident as we continue in the middle of downtown we are in the way as a guidepost of welcome and hope for all of Omaha.
We possess a legacy of tenacious commitment and all we need accomplish our call is to do justice, and love kindness, and walk humbly with our God. Amen.
Dean Vanessa Clark+