THE ANGLO-CATHOLIC GENTLEMAN

The following homily was preached on July 30, 2023, being the Feast of the 174th Anniversary of the Consecration of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church (Lappans Road), Boonsboro, Maryland at its 9:00am Rite I Eucharist.

Collect of the Day: “O Almighty God, to whose glory we celebrate the dedication of this house of prayer: We give thee thanks for the fellowship of those who have worshiped in this place; and we pray that all who seek thee here may find thee, and be filled with thy joy and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.”

Readings: 1 Kgs. 8:22-30; Ps. 84; 1 Pet. 2:1-5, 9-10; Matt. 21:12-16

Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD…spread forth his hands toward Heaven; and said…“Hear the supplication of your servant and of your people Israel, when they pray toward this place…and when you hear, forgive.”—1 Kgs. 8:22, 30

[Jesus] said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer.’”—Matt. 21:13

In the Name of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. Amen.

            On October 8, 1848 in a small stone schoolhouse in nearby Fairplay, the Rev. Robert H. Clarkson, a Deacon and teacher at the College and Grammar School of Saint James, officiated the first Episcopal services for the local residents. It proved to be a thriving missionary venture. So successful was the mission that in the months that followed it was determined that the next steps were for the group to formally organize themselves as an Episcopal parish and raise funds for the building of a church. Dr. James T. N. Maddox, our parish’s principal lay founder, gave an acre of his farmland upon which this very building stands. By February 1849 a contract was signed with a local carpenter; Bishop William Whittingham, the Fourth Bishop of Maryland, laid the building’s cornerstone that April; and on July 25, 1849, being the Feast of St. James the Apostle, Bishop Whittingham returned to consecrate this building under the patronage of St. Mark the Evangelist. In an amazingly short span of time, the ambition of our founders to build a beautiful church near the crossroads for the worship and glory of God was realized.[1]

            The Church is the community of all who have responded to God’s call to become His sons and daughters. It is therefore not a building but instead God’s people in relationship with Him and each other through Him. But when many people think about the Church they often first think of buildings and for good reason. They are special structures specifically constructed for the preaching and hearing of God’s Word and administration of the sacraments. There are people who have longtime generational links with the buildings wherein happened some of the most important events of their families’ lives. Church buildings are special places built to point us to the love and mercy of God. Their unique furnishings, vessels, and stained-glass windows aid us in our collective journey to God’s Kingdom. Hence, church buildings have a particular function in our lives as God’s people.

            That is the reason why we are today celebrating the anniversary of the consecration of this church building. For 174 years in this original building has God’s Word been preached and heard, souls saved and baptized into the Faith, and Christians married and funeralized. Much has happened within these walls for the sake of Christ’s Gospel. As I read Father McGinley’s history of St. Mark’s, the most evident fact that came from its pages was how this church was established, built, and has functioned throughout its history on its love of God. The love that God has, in turn, shown for His people here has been the driving force of parishioners offering, as we heard Peter say, “spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 2:5). The hearts of many have been and continue to be, to quote John Wesley, “strangely warmed” by God in this place.

            Hearts changed by God for His greater glory is what King Solomon prays for in today’s Old Testament lesson. In his dedicatory prayer of the First Temple, Solomon asks that God’s absolution be offered to his people who have died, still living, and yet to be born. He prays that God’s favor and protection will be the testament throughout the world of how the God of Israel is the one true God. King Solomon prays for God to “hear the supplication of your servant and of your people Israel, when they pray toward this place…and when you hear, forgive.”

            I can only imagine the hopes, dreams, and prayers that Bishop Whittingham, our First Rector Joseph Passmore, Dr. Maddox and our other founders themselves expressed before the altar of God for this place and its people 174 years ago. Their hopes, dreams, and prayers surely were like those laid down before God by Solomon. The then Prayer Book directed the Bishop to offer this prayer after placing the Sentence of Consecration on the altar: “Grant that all who shall enjoy the benefit of this pious work may show forth their thankfulness by making a right use of it to the glory of Thy blessed Name.”[2]  

            That is what today’s Gospel lesson calls us to remember. Jesus’ cleansing of the Temple reminds us during celebrations like this that our buildings and we ourselves should be temples dedicated to the worship and glory of God. All that we think, say, and do inside our buildings really matters. When our actions inside our buildings fail to exhibit God’s goodness, becoming stumbling blocks to His mission work, we make profane what is supposed to be holy. We must always keep before us God’s Word brought to life in Jesus. It is a reminder that will keep God’s perfect praise being offered within these walls and God equipping us for the work of ministry outside of them for years to come.

            And here we are, 174 years in the building our founders and past generations worshipped God. A common theme I’ve heard in many of your stories about this place is how you felt very welcomed, whether it was in the 1980s, the early 2000s, or as recently as last month. We have our respective reasons for coming to this place. Whatever your reasons are, to be welcomed to God’s house is to be given a glimpse into His eternal Kingdom. From such welcome, through the Holy Ghost, God comes among us. As our founders did long ago, we too can be vulnerable to God here, making known our hopes and fears and bearing out our hearts to Him in prayer. Good, holy, and transformative things have happened within these walls. By God’s grace, they still will happen.

            But the wonderful things and healing we experience in this place can’t be the only thing. We must go forth from it in love and service for the Lord, taking Christ who we meet here out into the world for others to see and meet. To gather in this building, hear God’s Word, and be nourished by Him through the sacraments is to experience the means through which God gives us grace to witness to His enduring love out in a world in much need of Him. Frank Weston, who served as the Anglican Bishop of Zanzibar from 1907 until his death in 1924, said regarding missionary service

You have your Mass, you have your altars, you have begun to get your tabernacles. Now go out into the highways and hedges, and look [for] Jesus in the ragged and the naked, in the oppressed and the sweated, in those who have lost hope, and in those who are struggling to make good. Look for Jesus in them; and when you have found Him, gird yourself with His towel of fellowship and wash His feet in the person of His brethren.[3]  

            At the end of today’s Gospel, Jesus heals the blind and the lame who came to Him in the Temple. These hurting people excluded from God’s house by respectable church folk were welcomed into that very same house by God Himself, incarnate in Jesus. Not only is a church building a house of prayer, but one for all people to come in and encounter the God of grace.

            To God be the glory for the 174 years of ministry that has taken place within and from this sacred space. In the words of St. Augustine of Hippo, I pray that

What we see, here…in these material walls, [will] be done spiritually in our souls…As stone and wood have been perfected by the work of [human] hands, so must our human nature be finished by the grace of God unto the perfection of His own beauty.

May all our lives become as pleasing in God’s sight as this lovely place, His holy house.

In the Name of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. Amen.

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[1] Charles R. McGinley, The Story of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Washington County, Maryland, 1849-1974 (Tri-State Printing, Inc., 1974), pp. 8-11.

[2] The Book of Common Prayer (1789), p. 354.

[3] H. Maynard Smith, Frank, Bishop of Zanzibar: Life of Bishop Frank Weston, D.D. 1871-1924 (Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge, 1926), p. 302.