Remember September 11? I know, that’s a silly and almost stupid question. How could we forget? How could we ever forget? But, the truth is, we are indeed beginning to forget. Yes, I remember that day so very well. I remember it as vividly as remember the date President Kennedy was shot. I saw the second plane blast into the second tower. I saw it live on television and not on tape delay. I will never ever forget that sight or that day. Nor will anyone of us.

What we are beginning to forget, however, is the fear that almost immediately began to envelop our nation, our world and even ourselves. Would there be more planes, more terrorists, more of the same? And if so, when? Then almost immediately came the anthrax scare. We were afraid to even open our mail. But time has quickly passed and the fear has subsided and has almost gone away. The one remnant is the time it takes to board a plane. But we are not all that afraid anymore. For the most part that is good even though there are those who, for political purposes, want us to be afraid.

When there is no longer a sense of urgency about something, complacency can quickly set in. I bring this up for several reasons. First, today’s Gospel is a reminder that each of us is called to bring others to Jesus, to lead others into the faith. We are all fishermen. There is no time when we can be satisfied with our catch. There is always to be a sense of urgency about who we are and what we are to be about. When we lack that sense of urgency, when we believe all is well or all is good enough or we have enough, we will simply stop fishing.

The second reason I bring this up is that both we as a parish and as a church must rekindle a sense of urgency about our ministry and our mission. To use a former Bishop’s of mine’s terms, we must be Bold in Christ. Boldness requires a sense of urgency. Why be bold if there is no emergency, if there is no need, if there is no impending problem, let alone disaster, on the horizon? But there is. The life of the church, the life of our parish, the life of our faith depends on our taking this emergency situation seriously.

I know, you are probably thinking, "What emergency situation? A budget that was about 1% out of balance is no big deal. The church is going strong. We’re doing great outreach. Read the parish report, Bill, and you’ll see. How can you say that the situation is serious, that we need emergency measures to deal with it?" That’s what you’re thinking, isn’t it? I know it is. You know why I know? Because that is how I think as well.

I read the same parish report that you read and concluded that things really are going well. We should be proud, I think to myself; I even say to you. Yes, we can do more. Yes, we can be better. But all in all, all is well. So let’s make the meeting short, enjoy lunch together and maybe we can get home and enjoy the afternoon. The truth is, there is no real sense of urgency among us, is there?

Yet, in many ways we live in fearful times. Perhaps the enemy today in our world is not the Taliban or terrorists. Perhaps the enemy for us at Christ Church and our Diocese is not the devil or radical religions. Perhaps, as Pogo said, we have met the enemy and he is us. The enemy all along has been our own lack of urgency, our own sense of complacency.

When things are going "well enough", we are almost always tempted to leave "well enough" alone. That is all any enemy, no matter who that enemy is, that is all the enemy needs. September 11 in so very many ways was the result of our complacency. We truly believed no one would ever do to us what someone did September 11. But again, we like complacency. We do not like to be about having a sense of urgency. It is too nerve wracking, too difficult, too stressful. Who wants to live on red alert all the time?

Yet, if we are to continue the analogy of being fishermen, we must be about being urgent. We will never have enough fish to ever allow us to stop fishing, not for food and not for the faith. The only attitude that will be sufficient to remain in a state of urgency and not complacency is the attitude of boldness. We must not be afraid to do what we have to do to live our faith, grow in our faith and share our faith with others.

The problem, as well all know, is that absent a perceived crises or emergency – like persecution for the early church or September 11 for us – it is truly difficult to get anyone to be excited about much of anything, let alone believe there is an urgent need to be bold. I am not that good of a preacher or motivator. Besides, understanding the need to be bold is an intellectual response not an emotional one.

So where does that leave us as we near five years together? Well, it means we cannot rest on any laurels even if we believe we have laurels to rest on. We cannot be satisfied with what has been or what is but must be urgent about what can be and must be. On a very mundane level we must be bold about three urgent areas of our life of faith.

First we must be even more urgent about inviting and including more and more people into our community. We Episcopalians are not good at evangelism, at inviting people to come to church with us. I think this is because we are, by and large, introverts – Libby Slappey being an obvious exception. Thank God for the Libby’s among us. We have so much to share, you and I, and there are people who need what we have. They are waiting for our invitation.

Second, we must provide and take advantage of more and better opportunities to equip and enable ourselves to live out our faith in this unsteady and confusing world in which we all live. We will be taking a survey during our meeting about educational opportunities and needs. Too many of us were raised with the belief – or the assumption – that once we were confirmed, we need no longer learn. That’s like quitting school in junior high. We wouldn’t get very far in this world with that limited formal education. Doesn’t our faith demand the same?

And third, we must continue to support one another as we are sent out from this place to those places where we live and move and have our being, sent out to love and serve the Lord. Fellowship activities, small groups, bible studies and the like are important both in community building and in faith building. We need to become part of such groups and activities.

None of this an easy task, but it is an urgent one. We can accomplish it only, only, only if we overcome our tendency to be complacent and bravely begin to be bold in Christ. That will demand personal sacrifice, yes. It will mean giving more of our time and talent. It will mean taking a risk by going outside our comfort zone on occasion. The people in today’s Gospel who dropped everything to follow Jesus took a great risk, yes. But they were rewarded in so many ways for doing so. So will we. So will we. And that’s the truth.