Richard Workowski Tribute to Bp. Royal Grote

In Memoriam: The Most Rev. Royal U. Grote, Jr.

Dominus regit me

by the Rev. Richard W. Workowski

Our Presiding Bishop, the Most Rev. Royal Upton Grote, Jr passed from earth to his heavenly home on Thanksgiving morning, 3 months after his 70th birthday.  His death was a shock to everyone.  Because he was a close personal friend, Pastor Bill Smith has asked if I would be willing to address the parish & speak of our beloved Bishop.

Joan & I, & Pat Smith knew Bp Grote when we was just a seminarian & we had no idea, after his ordination to the Diaconate & then the Presbyterate, that he would ever be elevated to the Episcopal Office----not because he lacked the intellect, but rather because he was just such a regular guy.  Happily, that trait of fun & honesty & restraint & wisdom was always a hallmark of his fine character.  He was always a person of deep personal piety, prayer, interest in evangelism & missions, financial integrity, and commitment to the Reformed Episcopal Church, the Bible, and the Book of Common Prayer.

When others in the Reformed Episcopal Church said “No” to expanding our Reformed Episcopal witness to the West Coast—especially California, Texas, Roy Grote dared to go against the grain, stepped out in faith, & said YES, We Will Go!---he believed the fields were ready for harvest—and he was right.

Joan & Roy worked hand in hand in the financial matters of this fledgling venture---often with no money or funding except what came from the Bishops own wallet.  First there was the SJNA—the Special Jurisdiction of North America,--& as more & more churches began to be founded & flourish under the pastoral care of this wise shepherd of the sheep,---the SJNA became the BNCE—The Board of National Church Extension, which in turn became the Diocese of Mid-America, the most successful diocese in the United States & Canada.  And almost single-handedly it was due to the vigilance & hard work & vision & prayer of Bishop Grote.  He looked to His Heavenly Father, to Jesus his Savior, & to the Holy Spirit for his leading & guiding & sustaining power.  

I remember being invited to participate in his Episcopal Consecration in New Jersey; & on other occasions to visiting his parish of St Lukes.  On various occasions we went to their mountain retreat in the Pocono Mtns, ---and Joan & I, with Roy & Ellen, going out for dinner, & even staying at their home overnight.  His youngest son, Jacob, had to give up his bed for me---& I don’t that the young fellow was especially happy to have his bedroom invaded.  Joan & I attended, in TX, the wedding of their daughter Ellen, & in so many ways---in the Diocese, in the General Councils, in personal & loving ways, to be a part of his life.

When he became Presiding Bishop, I personally felt that as Captain of the Ship, he would guide us away from the rocks & shoals & dangerous waters that were drawing ever closer to our beloved Reformed Episcopal Church. This past summer I shared with him, in a written format, my concerns.  In October he attended, in Williamsburg, VA, the 60th anniversary of the womens Spiritual Enrichment Conference & preached a fine sermon outlining a strategy for progress & growth in our Church.  And at that same conference he took the time to spend over an hour with several of us who had expressed alarm & concern over the direction, as we perceived it, in the Church.  Again, his counsel was pastoral, gentle & restrained---& he felt that the Lord of the Church was still Lord of the Church & that He would guide His Church in His way. Nevertheless, the 3 of us felt that with Bp Grote at the helm, we would weather any storm that might come.  

Then, a little later that month, again in Virginia, at St Jude’s in Richmond for our annual Diocesan Synod, he again reiterated his plan for growth & progress for the future of the RE Church.  We were all grateful for his progressive attitude & his firm resolve, & looked ahead to the future with confidence, with our Presiding Bishop demonstrating solid leadership, ---a guiding light for a bright future.  Our prayer & our plan was for him to be our Presiding Bishop for a long & successful role & venture.

However, in the Providence of God, he was not to be Presiding Bishop but for a very short time.  His mantle of leadership will now fall on other shoulders & I pray that our Sovereign God & King will raise up others for the challenges & opportunities that lie before us.

More than any of us can realize, we have lost a sterling & wise leader.  He now rests from his labors & enjoys the radiance of heaven & the presence of his Eternal Savior.  

He leaves behind his family & his beloved wife Ellen.  May we remember them in our prayers, remembering Jesus’ words, “I Am the resurrection & the life.”

My closing words are from St Matthew, 25:21-- “Well done, thou good & faithful servant,……enter thou into the joy of thy lord.”    + + +

Now in the Time of this Mortal Life

Now in the Time of this Mortal Life

First in Advent

Collect of the Day: Almighty God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which thy Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the quick and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal, through him who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, now and ever. Amen.

The Collect for the first Sunday in Advent is from 1549 and was written by Archbishop Thomas Cranmer.

One year on Christmas Eve night, I went to Walmart to pick up something we needed for the next day. To my great surprise I found that the employees had begun putting the Valentine Day candy on the shelves.

The only sense of time commercial interests have is maximizing the time sell products. They begin the Christmas season as soon as they can clear the shelves of Halloween costumes and candy.

A lot of individuals have a similar sense of time. They start watching the holiday movies - all with the same plot - on the Hallmark Channel beginning November 1. They start listening to Christmas music about the same time. The consequence is that by the time Christmas Day arrives they are tired of Christmas and feel sick from engorging themselves on Christmas things for 2 months before Christmas arrives.

We as church observe Advent. That does not mean we ignore Christmas during this Season. Simultaneously we look backward, forward, and inward - backward to our Lord’s first coming, forward to his second coming, inward to our response to his first coming and readiness for his second coming.

The collect for the first Sunday in Advent teaches us there are two times - now and the last day; two comings - Christ’s first coming and his second coming; and two kinds of life - mortal and immortal.

1. Now. Our western calendar marks two great ages: B.C., the time from Adam till the coming Christ and A.D., the years our Lord, from his first coming and the establishment of his kingdom till his second coming which marks the end. But the Bible marks time in another way, too. There is the age of now, which began with the Fall of Adam and Eve and will continue till the end when Christ comes, and the age of the world to come.  

• The characteristic of the age of now is that life is mortal. We surely have been reminded of mortality this week. A young man for whom we had long prayed, Tyler Wiseman, died at the beginning of the week. Then we received word that our good and godly Presiding Bishop, the Most Reverend Royal Grote, had died. He went to bed Wednesday evening and was found the next morning to have passed away overnight.

God had warned Adam and Eve that, if they rebelled against him by eating the fruit of the tree of which he had commanded them not to eat, they would surely die. They disobeyed and ate the fruit. They did not die immediately after their sin, but they immediately became mortal, and not only they, but all of us who have descended from them. St. Paul wrote: “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned -- …(Romans 5:12). There is nothing more irrational than to deny the reality and certainty of death, but denial is characteristic of our culture. The truth is that life is fragile, unpredictable, and sure to end.

• It was now in the time of this mortal life that God’s Son Jesus Christ came to visit us. At Christmas we celebrate the story of Mary and Joseph, of Bethlehem’s stable, of Mary’s giving birth to her Son, of the Shepherds and Angels. But the point of it all is that the Son of God, Jesus Christ, came to visit us in great humility. The eternal Son became one of us. He condescended to be born of a woman, in humble circumstances, to share our weakness, particularly our mortality. He was like us in every way except for sin. He could die and did die. And the point of it all was to be our Savior from sin.

2. Grace.  And so we ask that God would give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness and put upon us the armor of light.

• That request is taken directly from today’s Epistle lesson:

Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires (Rom. 13:11-14).

• This time of our mortal life is time for Christians to wake up from spiritual sleep. This age is hurrying on towards its end, and the day of full and final salvation will soon arrive. So we should get rid of all the sinful works that belonged to our old life in the kingdom of darkness, all the sins. This is no time for such gross sins as drunkenness, orgies, sexual immorality, and indulgence in sinful sensuality. It is also time for us to get rid of sins we may not take so seriously - quarreling and jealousy. All these things belong equally to the kingdom of darkness. We should not make any provision for the sinful flesh in order to gratify its desires - whether those desires are indulging in bodily sins of sexual immorality or are indulging in inward sins of pride and selfishness which are manifested as jealousy and quarreling.  It is now time for us to put on the armor of the kingdom of light, to live consistently with the reality that we are united to Christ by faith.

St. Paul emphasizes repeatedly the contrast between the darkness of sin and the light of righteousness as he urges Christians to be and do what they are in Christ. He wrote to the Thessalonians:

For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night. 8 But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation (1 Thess. 5:5-8).

He wrote to the Ephesians:

...at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them (Eph.5:8-11).

• On the one hand Paul recognizes that Christians are capable of gross wickedness - such as drunkenness and sexual immorality. Christians are also capable of ugly inward sins such as pride and jealousy. We should not be terribly surprised when Christians fall into such sins. But St. Paul calls us to see these things for what they are - the works of Satan’s dark kingdom and a total contradiction to the life of Christ’s kingdom of light.

• It is not that we tear off the rags of the kingdom of darkness and put on the new clothes of the righteousness of light in order to  save ourselves so that we say to God, “Look, God, I used to be bad, but now I’m good. Now you can accept me.” No, but we see why Christ came to visit us in great humility. He came to save us from our sins. That means salvation from the guilt and condemnation of our sins. But Christ did not come to save us from our sins in order to leave us in our sins. He came to cleanse us from the dirt of sin and to clothe us inwardly and outwardly with the new, clean clothes of righteousness.

If we have received God’s grace, asked for and received the forgiveness of our sins because Jesus died for us, we now see sin as the greatest enemy of our happiness - not just of our eternal salvation but of our present, this-world happiness. So we earnestly ask our Lord to give us grace to cast away the works of darkness and to put upon us the armor of light.

3. Then. Our present lives are not ends in themselves. They are a prelude to the life to the come. We have looked back to Christ’s first coming. We have looked inward to our response to his coming. So now we look forward to the end of this present age of mortality. We joyfully anticipate the time when Christ, who came first in great humility and became one with us to gain our salvation, will come again in great majesty. Then he, who came to deliver us from judgment, will sit as Judge to judge all who have lived.

• And what do we look forward to? We will rise to life immortal. St. Paul explained:

For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.  When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

“Death is swallowed up in victory.”

“O death, where is your victory?

    O death, where is your sting?”

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the

law.  But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory

through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 15:53-57).

The blessing of life beyond the touch of mortality and death is ours through the work of Jesus Christ. He came in great humility to save us from sin, to enable to cast off the works of darkness and put on armor of light. He will come again in great majesty, and we will rise to immortal life. To Jesus Christ, along with the Father and the Holy Spirit be all honor, praise, and glory now and forever. Amen.

Don't Forget to Remember

Don’t Forget to Remember

Sunday next before Advent (Or, "Stir Up Sunday")

Collect: Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may by thee be plenteously rewarded; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Homily Text: Psalm 103:1,2,22 Praise the LORD, O my soul; and all that is within me, praise his holy Name. 2 Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits...praise thou the LORD, O my soul.

There are things you better be sure to remember. If you’ve got a an interview for a job or a place in graduate school, you better not forget the place, day, and time. If you’re married you better figure out a way to remember the anniversary of your marriage. If you’re a teengager and desparately want your driver’s license, you better remember enough of what’s in the driver’s manual to pass the test. If you’re as old as I am,  you are constantly being asked to remember your birthdate and Social Security number.

• Do you ever engage in “self-talk”? Some people almost compulsively engage in self-condemning talk to themselves. They make a mistake at work, and in their head they hear the voice of a parent saying, “See, you always mess  up. You’re a failure.” They do something dumb, and they berate themselves saying, “You’re so stupid; you can’t do anything right.” Cognitive-behavioral therapists think that they can help people by changing the way they think, and part of changing the way people think is by changing their self-talk. When they make a mistake, instead of saying to themselves, “See,  you’re a failure,” they should say, “You made a mistake; everybody makes mistakes. See if you can fix it; if not, move on.” There’s a big difference between “I’m a failure” and “I made a mistakes.”

• In Psalm 103 David engages in a healthy kind of self-talk. He urges himself to do something that is both a duty and a blessing. It’s the kind of thing a husband does, when he reminds himself, “Tell you wife how much you love and appreciate her.” It’s the kind of thing husbands tend to forget to day. If you ask him, “Do you love your wife?” he will answer, “Of course, I do.” If you ask him, “When did you last tell her?” He may have to say, “I don’t remember.” It’s a good thing to express your love for and admiration of  your wife. It’s good for her. Good for you. Good for the marriage. So the husband records on the disc of his brain, “Tell your wife you love and appreciate her.    

• David talks to himself to remind and urges himself to praise the Lord. He begins the Psalm, “Praise the LORD, O my soul,” and in verse two repeats to himself, “Praise the LORD, O my soul.” He ends the whole Psalm the same way he began, “Praise thou the LORD, O my soul.” It is both a duty we owe to God and a blessing to ourselves to praise the LORD, so David reminds himself and to “praise the LORD.”

• David knows that perfunctory praise is neither accurate nor adequate. People can tell when you express your appreciation and affection toward them whether what you say is empty recitation or heartfelt praise. Sometimes managers go to seminars where they learn how important it is to encourage your employees by telling them you appreciate them. So they learn a new “management technique.” They come back and say things like, “Great job you’re doing!” or, “We appreciate you around here.” And the employee sees right through it. The employee understands that he is being “managed” and manipulated with words his boss doesn’t mean. It can be that way for us believers. We praise the Lord by saying the right words, but we say them coldly. So David reminds himself, “All that is within my praise his holy name.” He wants to praise the Lord sincerely and enthusiastically with all that is within him - with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength.

• David goes on to urge himself, “Forget not all his benefits.” Don’t forget the things the Lord has done for us, It might be more accurate for us to change the words from , “Come, ye thankful people, come,” than, “Come, ye forgetful people, come.” I have known ministers who have stayed with families for hour upon hour ministering to them and their dying loved one, and then conducted the funeral with real empathy for the family members. But then little Johnny gets the basket weaving award in 5th grade and the next Sunday a member of the family says, “How dare you not to have encouraged Johnny by being there when he got this year’s basket weaving award?” We believers can be that way toward God. We forget all that he has done for us, and we complain about what he has not done that we expected him to do.

• One of the greatest dangers with forgetfulness of God’s blessings is that it is the first step on the road to unbelief and forsaking God. In the book of Deuteronomy which is something like the last will and testament of Moses, Moses warns the people against forgetting what God has done for them.

Take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock, who fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end.  Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’  You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day.  And if you forget the Lord your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish. Like the nations that the Lord makes to perish before you, so shall you perish, because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God (Deuteronomy 8:11-20).

• I expect that, when you were little, and you got an invitation to a birthday party, your mother said, “Now don’t forget to say thank you. Not saying, ‘Thank you,’ is bad manners. So, if Mrs. Jones gives you a piece of cake or a cup of Koolaide, you say, ‘Thank you.’ And, when it’s time to leave, you go find Mrs. Jones and say, ‘Thank  you very much for inviting me. I had a very good time.’ ” When it comes to God, not saying thank you is not only bad manners; it is an indication of spiritual pride and decline. We end up praising ourselves that we are self-make, hard-working people, our own god who has provided the good things we have. In Deuteronomy, Moses reminded the people to thank the Lord. If you don’t remember and praise the Lord, you will remember and praise yourself. You will forget the commandments God has gave you to guide your life and to show you what a life of gratitude means.

• So David called on himself and on all God’s people, including us, to praise the Lord with our whole beings and not to forget that all that he has done for us.

• What David called on himself to do - what he called his people to do, what he calls us to do - he models for us in the Psalm. Let me highlight two things that David calls attention to - things that we can praise the Lord for as much, no, even more than David.

• The Lord’s gracious forgiveness.

The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger

and plenteous in mercy. He will not always

chide, neither will He keep His anger for ever. He

hath not dealt with us according to our sins, nor

rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as

the heaven is high above the earth, so great is

His mercy toward them that fear Him. As far as

the east is from the west, so far hath He

removed our transgressions from us (103:6-12)

God may discipline us for our sins, but his nature is always merciful and gracious. If he were a human parent we would say that is extremely patient with us as his children, and rather than being full of anger he is full of mercy. He does not continue to scold us or withdraw his fellowship because we have sinned. His dealings with us are not based on our wrongdoings.   God gives us what we deserve. His mercy is high as the heavens and he removes the guilt and condemnation of our sins as far as east is from west.

• The Lord’s fatherly mercy.

As a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth

them that fear Him. For He knoweth our frame; He remembereth that we are dust. As for man, his days are as grass; as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more. But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him, and His righteousness unto children’s children, to such as keep His covenant, and to those that remember His commandments to do them (103:13-18).

Some fathers have unrealistic expectations of their

children. They get angry when the one year old drops his cup of milk from the high chair. They expect the eight year old boy playing second base to be able to turn the double play or the eight year old girl to prepare a meal for the family. But God knows us. We are  made from dust - dust we are and to dust we must return. We are frail and weak creatures. We are here for while and then like the summertime grass we are gone. But God looks on us with compassion and understanding. He shows us his steadfast, unchanging, committed mercy all our days and even extends that to our children as we bring them up in the faith.

We are coming to partake of the  Eucharist. Do you know what “Eucharist” means? It means “Thanksgiving.” One of the meanings of the Eucharist is that we give thanks to God as we “do this in remembrance” of our Savior and all he did for our salvation. So, as you receive the bread and wine today, remember that Jesus gave thanks for both when he instituted this Holy Supper. As you take the bread, feed on him by faith in your heart with thanksgiving. As you take the cup, remember that Christ’s blood was shed for you, and be thankful.