From the Pulpit: Active Faith

Most people think of "faith" as a noun — you either have it or you don't. Provost Jan Naylor Cope said maybe we should think of it more as a verb.

Preaching from James’ exhortation to be “doers of the word, and not hearers only,” Jan recalled how her parents found a place for local prisoners to worship — right next to them in the tiny mission church of her youth.

You don’t have to be a grand cathedral to do transformative things when the spirit of God empowers you to do holy work. James beckons us to be doers of the word and not hearers only,If God is putting something on your heart—perhaps a new ministry or just getting involved in a ministry—I can assure you this cathedral is heartily engaged in radical welcome, feeding the hungry clothing the naked, tending the sick, soothing the suffering, and yes, even visiting the prisoners.

Talk to us about it. Go on our website, look for the congregation tab, and you will see there are so many ways that together we can come together and make a difference, touching lives one at a time. Frederick Buechner reminds us that this kind of work is “what we most need to do and what the world most needs to have done.”

So today, as you explore the essence of faith, I invite you: Come together, everyone. Let us have an act of faith to be doers of the word, touching and transforming this broken and hurting world, one person at a time.