Bishop Dan Herzog’s Sermon
to the Leaders of the Religious Orders at the CAROA Opening Eucharist

“Now many signs and wonders were done among the people through the apostles” — Acts 5:12

Signs and wonders generally are an embarrassment. We hate it when we see some of these evangelical groups engaging in signs and wonders. The only thing probably worse than that is Episcopalians engaging in signs and wonders. One of the things we hate about signs and wonders, of course, is that they are not under out control. The other thing that critics of signs and wonders point to is that they are all temporary. Of course they’re temporary. Every person Jesus ever healed or raised from the dead ultimately go sick and died again. Jesus’ participation in funerals ruined every funeral he ever attended, and in the end, they still died.

I think the embarrassment and the temporary nature of signs and wonders are much like Religious, who in many ways are like Religious, who in many ways are an embarrassment, perceived as odd, peculiarly attired, not under the management of the Church, and whose tenure, by nature, is temporary. And yet, in many ways both sights and wonders and Religious point to the Kingdom. They point to a healing which issues ultimately in a salvation which begins in the body and finds its summit in the spirit. If we read on in this account which we heard in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 5:14ff), the perpetrators are, of course, ultimately imprisoned, then unexpectedly unleashed by God, as are Religious. Constantly, people try to imprison you in perceptions and in stereotyped roles; and God continues to unleash you for the service and power of His Kingdom.

The word the Apostles received when they were unleashed was “Stand in the Temple, speak to the people the words of this life,” and that’s what you do, inside and outside the confines of the Church. You are one of the few groups who can operate casually and freely in almost all circles. It’s a special grace. It’s a unique opportunity. The love of which you speak, and the life of which you speak is that life and love described so clearly in John 3:16 which is so indiscriminate love of which you are free purveyors.

That’s the wonderful news that we get to share, to which we give evidence in the signs and wonders of your lives, and your witness of holiness, dedication, and sacrifice — that you become an icon, as uncomfortable as that must be. You become a hope for all the rest of us, and you model the life to which we are all called.

An engineer friend of mine many years ago, utterly detached from every hyman emotion that was ever known, once said to me, “You know, the Church has always been strongest when we had two tiers of membership.” I said, “I don't understand what you mean.” He said, “When there is a tier that represents a holiness to which we can all aspire in this world, it becomes an encouragement to all of us. ” In his own analytical mind, I think he hit on something which is a test of the value and importance of the religious life in our Church in the 21st century. You are indeed empowered by God to be among the signs and wonders, and spread the Good News, that you might stand in the midst of the Temple and tell the people of this life.