You speak in my heart and say, “Seek my face.”  Your face, Lord, will I seek. (Psalm 27:11)

“It takes a lifetime of awareness to know that what is standing before you is God.        

  God shows up all the time.

God comes to us all the time.

God is present all the time.

God is incarnated in every fiber of life.”

Yet “most human beings would not recognize reality if it dropped on top of their heads.  Most human beings would not recognize reality even if they ate it for breakfast. And you can imagine, most human beings do not recognize that the earth, that life, is filled with the presence of God 24/7….           

It takes a lifetime of awareness to know that what is standing before you is God.”[i]         

 Those words come from a sermon by the Rev. Mark Bozzuti-Jones, which I came across online this week. They connected powerfully for me with these words from today’s Psalm: You speak in my heart and say, “Seek my face.” Your face, Lord, will I seek. You speak in my heart and say, “Seek my face.” Your face, Lord, will I seek. If Bozzuti-Jones is right – and he is – knowing that God’s face is standing before you is the work of a lifetime’s awareness. But also, if he is right – and he is – seeking God’s face is something we can do at any time, because “life is filled with the presence of God 24/7.”

So this morning, our Annual Meeting morning, I want to tell you some of the places where I see God standing before us at Grace-St. Paul’s at this juncture in our life -- with challenge, with love and with hope. Of course, my awareness is far from perfect – I still have much of that lifetime’s work to do. There is much more of God’s face to be seen than I see; much more to be named than I can name. But here are three places I am aware of God standing before this congregation now; places where God invites us to seek God’s face.

The first place God stands before us is the call to mission. God stands before us in the person of Jesus, calling us as he called the disciples in this morning’s Gospel to follow him in bringing the Good News of God’s love into the world. God stands before us in the call to mission in many ways -- care for the needy in our several outreach ministries; fishing for people by inviting and welcoming newcomers into this community of faith in Christ.

But I want to focus on just one place where I see God standing before us – with a challenge. Last Sunday, Mother Susan preached about the fact that our Budget as adopted by the Vestry includes a commitment for only half of our Fair Share to the wider mission of the Church through our giving to our Diocese. But that giving to the Diocese is one of the main ways the mission of the Church gets carried out. Susy spoke of how the “further we get from the [local] parish budget, the more money moves to missionary giving” -- and that our budget as presently constituted seriously short-changes that missionary work. I know that since the Vestry’s budget meeting two weeks ago, some of you have responded to the call to give so that we can fund that work fully, and I am grateful. But we still have a long way to go. God stands before us still, with this challenge to live our mission.

The second place I see God standing before us – or more accurately, before you – is in the call to a new future that my announcement back in Advent that I will conclude my ministry here this year set in motion. Again, I’m reminded of today’s Gospel: Jesus stands before Simon, Andrew, James and John and calls them to leave their old life and to follow him on a new path. So. too, Jesus stands before you, the people of Grace-St. Paul’s, calling you into a new future.

And already, I see you responding. For the first time in several years, we have more nominees for Vestry than positions to fill. Parishioners are stepping into leadership roles in other ways: At its Budget meeting, the Vestry established a Communications Committee, which Allie Graham is heading up, and a Fund-Raising Committee that Dani Reed is leading. There is renewed energy among others for the critical work of Evangelism that can help the parish grow. Members of the Vestry have been contacting you to get input about future direction for the parish and to ask you to give to support our mission. In these ways and more, you have already started moving toward the new future that you and God will make together after Susy and I have moved on. And I have every confidence that that future will be bright. This is a healthy parish with good leaders. And God is standing before you all the time, 24/7.

 Last, I want to say something of where I see God standing before me today. God is standing before me in you. This week, as I read through the reports of the ministries of the parish that are contained in our Annual Meeting booklet, I was struck by how many are filled with the names of people in this parish, your names:   Staff and Vestry members, Nominees for parish offices;  Members of numerous committees; Church School, VBS and Youth Group leaders;  Readers, acolytes, ushers, eucharistic ministers, altar guild members, and musicians; ECW and GFS members.  There is even one of our departed members whose name occurs more than once – Mary Burgess, whose bequest will support our ministry both within and beyond the parish for years to come.         

In all of these names, in all of you, I see God standing before me; I see the face of God in your faces,      the faithfulness of God in your faithfulness, the love of God in your love.  It is my prayer for you that in the year to come, you, too, will seek and see God’s face in one another as you travel on the new path God is calling you to.  And I pray that you will see God not only in one another, but in every challenge, in every gift, in every face that comes before you: “It takes a lifetime of awareness to know that what is standing before you is God.”  God bless you with that awareness, this year, and for your lifetime.