On a sunny and warm Monday morning, a spirit of cheerfulness and hopeful expectation filled the air as the conference staff from EPA and GNJ gathered for their first worship service with Bishop Moore-Koikoi.
Eric Drew and David Beverly led a spirited round of praise and worship. And then Amani Tafari, Executive Assistant to the Bishop, rose to read the scripture. The text was 1 Peter 5:1-7, from the Message. It spoke, in plain terms, of Peter’s hopes and expectations for the leaders of the church and the good news that both grounds our hope and empowers us to do the hard work of being our true selves. (Read it here.)
It was a text well chosen, resulting in one of those moments when the Holy Spirit moves and the scripture leaps off the page, speaking directly into very present concerns.
Bishop Moore-Koikoi took her cues from the text and spoke in plain terms of the sin that can trip us up when a new bishop arrives, anxiously putting on airs to try and impress the bishop. She admonished those present to choose instead to simply be themselves.
She began by framing this present moment within God’s eternal plan and design: “God has been working this out—for me to be here—I believe, since the beginning of time. When God was dreaming who I might become when he was knitting me together in my mother’s womb, God was doing the same for each one of you. Dreaming about this day, that we all would be here to bring God glory.”
She continued, echoing Peter’s main points: “Be content with who you are… don’t put on airs. God’s strong hand is on you; He’ll promote you at the right time,” and acknowledged the reality in the room: “I know what it’s like to be on conference staff when a new bishop is assigned to your annual conference. I’ve experienced the excitement and the anxiety… This is my concern: that the anxiety of having a new bishop may throw you off your game.”
Naming the anxiety stripped it of its power, at least for the moment, creating space for the bishop to name what she’d prefer instead. “I want you to feel comfortable just being yourselves. Don’t expend undue time and energy trying to figure out what I expect of you. I’m gonna let you know what I expect of you. There will be no doubt.”
“I want to be as transparent as I can be, so that you can be who you are. This is why this is so important, each one of you are fearfully and wonderfully made. Be content with that. God has gifted each one of you. Be content with that. It’s not about trying to impress me as bishop. It is about trying to be faithful to who God created you to be.
You see, when you are content with who you are. You come to the table with a sense of humility, because you know it’s not about you, it’s about God. What God has given to you, how God has gifted you, how the Holy Spirit has moved among all of us. It’s about God, it’s not about you. You can’t make yourself shiny enough to please God. You won’t ever be trained well enough to please God. It’s a matter of God’s grace. Your faithfulness to cooperate with God’s grace that makes you shiny and trained and equipped to do this work that we are called to do.”
The message was simple, pastoral, and profound in its effect. It reframed the anxiety of welcoming a new bishop in light of God’s promises, and refocused attention on our daily calling, to be who we are. To be faithful each day, in doing what God has called us to do, exactly how God has called each one of us to do it.
As she moved toward her conclusion she proclaimed, “It’s not about me. It’s about God. It’s not about any of you all. It’s about God. The blessing is that God has brought us together with our different experiences, our different gifts, our different ways of being, and God has said ‘This is gonna be good. I can’t wait to see how these folks work things out together.’
She ended by reminding everyone of the truth within which we all stand. “Cause God was mighty care-full when God created you, you can be care-free, and be who you are.”
As we enter this new season with our new episcopal leader, may we trust that God was indeed careful in creating us, and may that trust free us to be who we are, and to serve joyfully in all the places God sends us.