I bring you greetings from Anaheim, California, home, as you know, of Disneyland, and home, for the last two weeks or so, to the General Convention of The Episcopal Church. I hereby report to you that The Episcopal Church is alive and well, living and thriving in that Via Media, the Middle Way, which is so very Anglican.

Here are some of the facts: the General Convention of the Episcopal Church is the largest bicameral legislative body in the world, with over 800 members of the House of Deputies alone. It meets once every three years, for ten days. In this General Convention just past we considered over three hundred separate pieces of legislation, each of which passed through a legislative committee, had a hearing at which the opportunity for testimony was given, and was brought to the floor together with a report from its committee. Resolutions were discussed and debated on the floors of the House of Deputies and the House of Bishops, and when action was taken the resolution went to the other House for action. Only resolutions that pass both houses are put into effect.

The nature of the resolutions varied widely. Some addressed the work of The Episcopal Church overseas, through missionaries, through Episcopal Relief and Development, and in support of the Millennium Development Goals. Some addressed the work of the church in this country, setting budget priorities and naming commissions that will work through the coming triennium. We considered the worldwide environmental crisis, the worldwide economic crisis, and the canons of The Episcopal Church. And, yes, you may have heard, we considered the blessing of same-sex unions and the question of who is eligible to enter the discernment process for ordained ministry as a deacon, priest, or bishop. But really, really, despite what you may have heard in the secular press, this convention was not all about sex.

The theme of the convention was “ubuntu,” an African word that translates roughly as “I in you and you in me,” or “I am because you are.” It means that no one can truly exist in a solitary condition: our existence depends on community, on one another. This is an idea that is pretty different from prevailing American culture that elevates the individual above all else. It is, though, an idea that fits well with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

As one example of ubuntu in the gospels, look at today’s reading. It begins with Jesus exercising good boundaries. He and his disciples had worked hard, and Jesus decided that they needed some time off. I’m sure they did. Unfortunately, they were well known, and when they arrived at the place they had planned to rest, they were met with more of the crowds, who had hurried on foot and arrived ahead of the disciples and Jesus.

Here was Jesusʼ dilemma: ignore the crowds, who were like sheep without a shepherd, in order to give himself and his disciples some much-needed rest, or respond to the needs of those in front of him in a way that only he could respond? He made an ubuntu decision. He recognized that ignoring the crowds would mean ignoring himself and his call. He chose to extend himself further, and to ask his disciples to extend themselves a little further, to serve those who had worked so hard to come into his presence.

Sometimes, we are called to extend ourselves. Sometimes, when we are about the work of the gospel, we are called to work, a little harder or longer or in a different way than we thought we could.

Other times, we are called to wait, longer than we might have wished, even when we believe we have the gifts to move forward. This is what happened to David. He was ready, willing, and able to build a magnificent temple for God. He cleared it with his prophet, Nathan. He must have been very excited. But then, God had a little talk with Nathan. It seems that God had other ideas about the temple, that God's plan was for someone else to build it, not David. God assured David, through Nathan, that Israel would have a special place, and that David's offspring would be king. But David was not to build the temple that he longed to build to the glory of God. David had to wait. In a moment of ubuntu, David understood that it was not all about him and his proposed temple.

Paul's message to the Ephesians is an ubuntu message, as well. Where before Christ, there were divisions between circumcised and uncircumcised, between Gentiles and Jews, now in Christ all are one, equal members of the household of God. The whole household of God is a structure, built with Christ as the cornerstone, the apostles and prophets as the foundations, and each member an integral part, joined together and growing into a holy temple in the Lord. Ubuntu.

Ubuntu and the legislative process don't necessarily seem to fit together. The legislative process requires taking sides and debating, and then voting either yes or no. You can't vote “ubuntu.” And yet, ubuntu was present at the General Convention. Sometimes, like David, we want to build a temple, or to legislate something to be the way we want it, or the way we think God would want it. And sometimes the Holy Spirit moves through the legislative process and says: slow down. This isn't your task right now.

Other times, the Holy Spirit asks us to extend ourselves, as Jesus and the disciples did, even when they were tired. We may be asked to reach a little farther to understand another's position, or to keep working together when we are exhausted and want a day off. And always, we are reminded, as Paul reminds the Ephesians, of who is included in ubuntu. That we are all, as different from one another as we may be, part of one another. That we are all important parts as we grow, together, into a temple of the Lord.

Let us, here at All Saints, strive to be truly the church. In the spirit of Ubuntu, let us extend ourselves when God asks us to, let us wait, when God asks us to wait, and let us always remember to include others, as different as they may seem to be from us.