Readings for the Day:
Sermon:
Original Manuscript:
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Last week, as I learned from our Diocese’s social media, Pottstown cited Christ Episcopal Church for a zoning violation for failing to follow the town’s definition of a church. This was because the church was providing food and other supplies to those in need. Now their definition of a church is “a building wherein persons assemble regularly for religious worship and that is used only for such purposes and for those accessory activities as are customarily associated therewith.”
Nevermind that the state shouldn’t be telling us who we are as a church. They clearly failed to read our Gospel lesson from Matthew today. Worship means to venerate or honor, and Jesus tells us that doing so is feeding the need, giving drink to the thirsty, welcoming the stranger, clothing the naked, comforting the sick, and visiting those in prison. When we do so, we are doing so for Christ Jesus our Lord.
At the very least, these are some of the “accessory activities” “customarily associated” with the church. In doing these actions, we love our neighbor, and as we say at the start of the Eucharist, we are called to “love God with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your mind” and to “love your neighbor as yourself” for “on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
This is who we are called to be as a church: a place that loves God and through that love shows love to our neighbor. Let no one tell us otherwise.