Homily By Craig Justice at Education For Ministry (EFM) Graduation Ceremony at St. Peter’s Church Del Mar, CA May 29, 2005

It has been the tradition of our EFM program at St. Peter’s that the graduates are allowed to design their graduation ceremony, so we had a few requests: that our graduation would be incorporated into a regular church service on the weekend (instead of during the week); red wine would be used for communion; the folk-music band would play at the 9 a.m. service; and that we could give a witness talk on the EFM experience. Father Steve, in his generosity, consented to all these requests … but he upped the ante. Since he was planning to be away this weekend, he asked us to step in and give the homily. That’s not what we bargained for, but on the other hand, after four years of EFM class, if we (or more specifically I) couldn’t make a few intelligent comments about today’s readings, then I might as well just start the course all over again back at year one.

Let us pray: Come Holy Spirit, come… may the words from my lips and meditations of my heart be inspired by your divine wisdom, and be heard by open minds and open hearts in our congregation. AMEN.

I’m here to talk about snails and wine. Snails and wine, you ask? Is he going to talk about French cuisine? No, I’m not going to talk about Julia Child’s cooking, but I am going to talk about recipes …recipes for leading life. The good life. Life built on a rock-solid foundation.

Our readings today give us several recipes for the good life.

In today’s old testament lesson from Deuteronomy, Moses urges us to “lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul …” These words come at the end of the giving of the law … after the people of Israel have been given the 10 commandments, and all the other laws to govern tribal life. But we are being asked to do more than recite commandments and learn the laws. We are urged to go deeper. We are told to put the words into our heart and into our soul.

The EFM method of theological reflection described by Beverly a moment ago is an exercise for applying theological lessons and church history to our everyday lives. And if I’m thinking theologically about everyday events – such as gardening, sending e-mails, painting the house, doing the laundry – and doing it often enough, then the thoughts and words are entering my mind, entering my heart, and entering my soul.

As Brian Tracy and Earl Nightingale, two of the leading consultants on achieving personal success in our pop-culture put it, “You become what you think about most of the time.” How many of us try to do regular exercise? Maybe a little jogging, stretching, a few push-ups, tennis, golf, perhaps swimming, surfing or just going for a walk? Most of us try to do some kind physical exercise if not every day, then several times a week, because we know exercise is good for our health. Likewise with theological reflection – thinking theologically is good for our minds and our souls, and the act of reflection on a regular basis will bring our hearts and souls in closer alignment with the will of God. Since we do tend to become what we think about most of the time … shouldn’t we be thinking theologically … at least a little more often?

The 31st Psalm we recited earlier in the service is one of my favorites – and not just because it has my name – Crag -- in it. Do you recall the words: “Be my strong rock, a castle to keep me safe, For you are my crag and my stronghold … into your hands I commend my spirit.”

Likewise in today’s Gospel reading, Jesus uses the metaphor of the strong rock. The words are: “Every one then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house upon the rock; and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.”

Jesus’ words come at the conclusion of the Sermon on The Mount, during which we are given the beatitudes, the Lord’s Prayer and other recipes for living our lives --

Theological Reflection is one of the tools – or recipes-- for building a house on a rock-solid foundation.

Four years ago during my first year in the EFM class – which seems just like yesterday --our instructors Deacon Gloria and Trudy gave us an assignment … to take an ordinary incident in our lives that week, and to reflect on it. This is where we get to the snails. That weekend, I was working in the garden at our house when I found a snail on one of the ripening peaches in my peach tree. It was bad enough having those critters eat flowers and other plants, but invading my peach tree was the last straw! (After all, didn’t the Lord give us dominion over the garden in Genesis?) So, with fire in my eyes and “breathing threats and murder” I began rounding up the snails. The first ones I picked up and threw across the road into the bushes of the neighboring school where they could do no harm. I gathered up more of them and dropped them into the recycle bin filled with grass clippings. Finally, I thought I would teach these snails a lesson. Have you ever been to an escargot farm in France? It’s true, snails are grown and harvested there– so I had the idea (since it was Sunday and the barbeque was fired up) that I would put a few of the snails on the grill. I did, and they started to cook. (Our dog thought they tasted pretty good.)

What happened next is interesting …a still small voice inside asked, “Why are you doing this?” It occurred to me cooking live snails on the fire for the sport of it was uncalled for. I declared a truce with the snails, and realized I had an interesting topic for reflection to share with my classmates. As I began to think about this more, I recalled the story of the Road to Damascus and Paul’s conversion from persecutor of the Christian movement to supporter. I also thought about the dark side of human nature, and how a “normal” person could become so cruel, and do monstrous things to another living creature. I’m happy to say that today, the snails are my friends; I am no longer cooking up escargot. I even go out of my way to move snails off of my driveway so I don’t run them over with the car. Carrying the reflection one step further, I ask myself, if I can be so kind as to show an act of generosity to a snail, what about another human being? And so my life as an amateur theologian began.

One of my hobbies is winemaking, and one of my more recent reflections occurred as I was pressing 1,000 lbs. of grapes and witnessing the process by which grape juice is turned into wine. How could I not think about the miracle at Cana, the first sign in John’s gospel when water is turned to wine? I thought of Benedictine monks, some of the best brewers of all time … and found myself meditating as I continued with the manual labor…. I found myself praying that this wine could be put to some good purpose … that it would not lead to drunkenness … but would lead to joy and good health … and it occurred to me that the wine could be sold at the church market and the funds donated to Project Concern, and that some of the wine could be donated for a Bishop’s inauguration, and that part of the wine could be donated to the church for use at communion. So the wine today, a product of my sweat, my labor, my love, and a topic of theological reflection, is offered up today as a gift to the congregation.
An amazing thing happened at the 5 p.m. service yesterday. Call it a religious experience. As I knelt at the rail before the Alter and took a sip from the cup with communion wine, I was touched by the Holy Spirit, and tears filled my eyes. I hope that some of you might also experience the Holy Spirit today when you drink from the cup.

As best I could, I followed a recipe for crafting this wine. But as anyone who has ever tried to make something complicated when following a recipe knows, sometimes it works out sometimes it doesn’t. Following the recipe gives us a better chance for success, but there are never guarantees. Isn’t life just like that? We have the recipes – the laws-- given to us by Moses, we have the Sermon on the Mount and the Golden Rule given to us by Jesus, and we do our best to follow these. But in the end, we’re human, and we inevitably struggle along the way. Thank goodness there’s grace, as Paul’s letter to the Romans we read today reminds us, “We are justified by his grace as a gift ….”

What could be a better example of grace than my being here today at this pulpit graduating from the EFM course. I tried my best to keep up with 2,000 pages of reading and to attend all the classes … but there were so many nights when I opened that thick text-book, and was asleep a few minutes later with that book across my chest. If this had been a seminar course at UCSD, I would have been reprimanded for not completing the readings on time, for coming to class unprepared, for arriving late, for speaking heretical thoughts and for not knowing the answers when called upon. But if I think about it, our EFM class is like the Kingdom on Earth – the class is conducted in a loving, nurturing environment, where theological reflection is used as a recipe for personal growth. All are welcome to attend, and there is forgiveness for arriving late, and forgiveness for not completing the readings on time. And if our EFM instructors, who had every right to be angry with me could show grace -- undeserved forgiveness -- to their wayward student, imagine the utter joy in God’s kingdom, where there is forgiveness for much greater wrongs than skipping a lesson or killing a snail. Thanks be to God! Amen.

Draft Remarks of Beverly Roberts About the EFM Program

Good morning and thank you for inviting Craig and me to share with you a journey that started over four years ago called Education For Ministry or EFM.

This morning Craig and I will share with you the broad outline of what EFM is all about and the impact that it has had on us as wanderers on this journey. I will start by defining the process of an EFM education and Craig will follow with the homily.

“The educational premise of EFM is that we learn some things better by reflecting on what we have done than by listening to lectures.”

The seminar group is the nucleus of the EFM program. A group consists of 6 to 12 participants and a trained mentor. In our case we were blessed by the capable leadership of Trudy Ardizzone, a mentor with deep spiritual grounding and a leaders’ talent for drawing out of the group meaningful and stimulating discussion, while staying on point and guiding us to a satisfying, albeit often challenging, conclusion to each week’s discussion. A special thank you to Trudy for her dedication, preparedness, and humor as she nurtured us all through this process. Also to Deacon Gloria Perkins and Mary Waverick who have been mentors in the program.

Through study, worship, and reflection, EFM groups develop a greater understanding of how to prepare for a ministry to which we are called as baptized Christians. This process can be illustrated by this drawing of a two rail fence. One rail is the Christian tradition. The other is the collective experience of the group’s members. The rails are linked by fence-posts which represent the seminar sessions where life and study meet. The fence is grounded in the soil of regular worship, which is vital to the life of the group.

Through study, worship, and reflection each participant is given tools to determine individually how he or she will carry out our individual ministries in the world.

The EFM program is a four year curriculum, starting in early fall and proceeding for 36 weeks into the spring. We meet once a week for roughly 2 to 2.5 hours. The University of the South in Sewanee Tennessee has prepared the curriculum and study materials which we all follow; however, it is the preparedness of the mentor and group participants and the willingness to share our life experiences that gives the richness and meaningfulness to our time together.

The reading material for the four years is generally divided as follows: The first year we study the Old Testament from an historical perspective and a critical study of the Scriptures. The second year we study the New Testament and the Greek, Roman and Judaic cultures that influenced the writing of the books of the New Testament. The third year we explore church history and many of the great traditions that form the backdrop for our modern lives. The fourth year we study 19th and 20th century scholars and writers and learn more about our Anglican tradition, American church history and modern religions around the world. The curriculum and the recommended additional reading materials are rich and varied.

While the curriculum is important, the training to think theologically comes primarily from the theological reflection. We all struggled through this process with varying degrees of success and now have simple tools to apply to any question that we might encounter and think it through theologically, asking what would God have me to do in this circumstance.

Finally, our worship at the close of each evening was also rich and varied. The preparation and leadership of worship by each participant many times throughout the four years has made it easier to incorporate worship into our daily lives but also to have the courage to lead a small group in worship.

Returning to “The educational premise of EFM is that we learn some things better by reflecting on what we have done than by listening to lectures.” This process of study, reflection and worship has proven to be an effective way to learn.

What started out to be a modest endeavor to enroll a few lay people to explore their personal ministry in Christ, has now reached over 60,000 persons in 11 different countries. EFM has become an important part of the growth of the lay ministry throughout some of the world. I encourage you all to take advantage of this educational opportunity in your midst.