Do the Right Thing
6/6/2010
The Reverend Paul J. Kowalewski, Ph.D.
The Second Sunday after Pentecost--"Baccalaureate Sunday"
Forty-two years ago, the "then" Rector, Fr. Sam D'Amico, and the people of Saint James' Church, established a parish school as a mission of this church. On the first day of school in 1968, four kindergarten students and one teacher moved into a humble little apartment on Gramercy Street and Saint James' Episcopal School was born. Over the years there's been quite a change, hasn't there? Our school has grown to be a vital institution in the life of this parish and this city serving over 300 students from pre-school to grade six.
Today we gather to celebrate our annual Baccalaureate Sunday--a day in which we honor all those in the parish who are graduating from various institutions, but especially a day to particularly recognize our own Saint James' graduates. Today we bless them and send them onto their next step in life. And so, today, I'd like to take this sermon time to address a question I have been reflecting upon ever since I first came here as your rector five years ago. My question is this? Why do we have a parish school? What does it mean when we say that Saint James' School is a mission of Saint James' Church?
The fact is that most parishioners of Saint James' in the City who sit in these pews on this Sunday morning who sit here this morning don't have children in the school--some have never even been inside the school. So how does the fact that we have a school make any difference to you?
Or, if you are a Saint James' student or parent sitting here today, you may have wondered what it means that the church is involved in the education of your children? How does the fact that Saint James' is a parish school influence what the school is all about? So, after five years of observation and reflection I'd like to offer you some answers to those questions.
Some might think that we have a parish school so that we can churn out good Episcopalians. From an early age we get to indoctrinate young minds, drilling Episcopal Church dogma into them, increasing membership in the church. Well, the major problem with this explanation is that, unlike some denominations, there really isn't any Episcopal Church dogma or doctrine to drill into anyone. There is no catechism of the Episcopal Church that everyone is expected to learn. So, no the reason Saint James' is a parish school is not so we can make children into Episcopalians.
Others might think that the primary reason we have parish school is so that we can prepare students to get good grades and score well on standardized tests so that when they graduate from our school they can get into the very best middle schools and high school and colleges. Well, of course we want our children to excel academically and we want them to advance in their academic careers because of their time here--that goes without saying. But I'm not sure that the "primary" reason this church has a school is to prepare our kids to get into good schools when they graduate.
So why do we have a parish school? My answer begins with recognizing that there is a difference between "education" and "formation." When you learn math and science and history--that's education. Whereas "Formation" is the process whereby a young person learns how to live a sane and whole life--formation is a process whereby a young person is placed in a setting in which he or she learns how to be in healthy, respectful and harmonious relationships with other human beings. Education and formation go hand in hand. And, while education is certainly important in a school like ours, for me the primary reason we have a parish school is to help provide our students with an ongoing opportunity to be formed and fashioned as healthy whole people of good will.
As Christians, we follow a life path that is modeled after the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Jesus devoted his entire life to respecting the dignity of every human being whom he encountered. I like to say that Jesus lived a life that can be summed up and characterized by the phrase: "radical hospitality." For Jesus, no one was ever thrown away. Jesus went out of his way to be sure that everyone had a place at the table of life. The poor, weak, social outcasts, treated with the same dignity as the rich, powerful, and famous. And so this is the life path for any who are his disciples to this very day. We are to be practioners of "radical hospitality.
Here at Saint James' Episcopal Church--Saint James' in the City, our common life together is founded upon and directed by this cornerstone principle of "radical hospitality." We are one of the most diverse churches in this country--we do our very best to be a church of open doors--a church of Holy Welcome. Saint James' in the City is made up of people of many different races and tribes, colors and ages, differences in sexual orientations and socioeconomic background. We value and cherish our rainbow of diversity and, even when we disagree, we all sit together at this common Eucharistic table trying our best to share a common life and ministry.
And that's why our school is so important to the mission of this church, because the school mirrors the values and mission of this church. Our school is one of the ways in which we carry out and apply our mission, as day by day and week-by-week our students are formed and fashioned in the virtue and practice of "radical hospitality."
There is a plaque outside my office that spells out the core beliefs of Saint James' School. Three of those core beliefs virtually jump off the page at me whenever I read them: (1) In an urban setting we rejoice in the gifts and challenges of our diversity; (2) We learn to value different cultures by engaging with different others; and (3) along with our emphasis on strong intellectual preparation, we help our students become empathetic, actively compassionate people who will use their talents in service to others--sounds like this could have been written by Jesus himself.
But these core beliefs about valuing differences and serving others are more than a bunch of words on a plaque. I see these beliefs lived out and applied in our school community every single day of the year as I walk the halls, teach in a classroom, watch the students and our faculty and administration as they learn and pray and eat and sing together--so many different types of people, from so many different backgrounds, all being formed and fashioned to be actively compassionate human beings, immersed and marinating in a daily environment of radical hospitality, so that when they leave here they can go out into a fractured and divisive world and make it a better pace--and that, my friends, is why we have a parish school.
A few years ago, I was meeting with small groups of parishioners to talk about their perceptions of the parish--what they value about the church today, their visions for the future. I asked one of the groups to tell me something about the parish that they particularly appreciated. A young and very articulate high school boy in the group was among the first to respond. He was an alumnus of our school and was now finishing up at one of the more prestigious high schools in LA. I was so impressed with his response that I can still clearly remember what he said: "The thing I most appreciate about Saint James' Church is that it provided me with the opportunity to attend Saint James' school." He continued on by saying: "I have learned a lot in the schools I attended after graduating from Saint James, but it was at Saint James' School that I learned how to do the right thing in life."
Yes, at Saint James, in his most formative years he leaned something about the value of respect, compassion and service, and it was a life lesson that stuck with him and would stick with him for always. This vibrant, articulate young man--so obviously gifted and talented--imagine what good he is doing and what contribution his life of active compassion and radical hospitality might make for this world of ours.and he learned it right here at Saint James' School.
On this Baccalaureate Sunday, I think about the thousands of Saint James' alumni, men and women who are just like that young man. I think about those thousands of alumni who once sat in this church on a Baccalaureate Sunday and then went out into the world to do the right thing. I think of those Saint James' alumni who are in the world today and in their own way are making a broken, divided world a better place because of their formation here at Saint James' School. And when I think of that, I am so very proud and so grateful that this church has such a noble and important mission as our school.
So, today, I hope everyone here--parishioner, non-parishioners, students, parents, if you're on the School Board or if you have never even been in the school building, I hope you will all join me in this sense of pride and gratefulness for a school that helps us all to do the work that God has given us to do.
Now it's your turn, class of 2010. Now it's your turn to be sent out from here. Go into the world, let there be no outcasts, live in harmony, mend divisions, work for justice and peace, serve the needs of others. Go and make this world a better place. Now go and do the right thing. Amen.
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