Repairers of the Breach

Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt;
   you shall raise up the foundations of many generations;
you shall be called the repairer of the breach,
   the restorer of streets to live in. (Isaiah 58:12)

To date, I have officially retired as an active deacon in the Episcopal Church not once, but twice. Once on Easter Day 2023 and once on Christmas Eve 2025. Yet, despite these “retirements”, here I am back again!

Yes, I am still plugging away as God’s servant; a deeply committed messenger conveying, as best I can, through word and deed the compassion, caring, and love that Christ commanded his disciples to offer to all God’s beloved children. Knowing Christ in my heart and soul and taking the Christ within me into the world to share with others.

There is no doubt in my mind that although periodically retired I am still a deacon. My diaconal vows continue as my life’s guidepost:

My sister every Christian is called to follow Jesus Christ,
serving God the Father, through the power of the Holy Spirit.
God now calls you to a special ministry of servanthood
directly under your bishop. In the name of Jesus Christ, you
are to serve all people, particularly the poor, the weak, the
sick, and the lonely. (BCP p. 542)

This vow expressed as part of the Ordination of a Deacon liturgy in the Book of Common Prayer coincides almost exactly with the Social Work Code of Ethics, which since my graduation from the Yeshiva School of Social Work at the age of 27 has also been my life’s guidepost:

The mission of the social work profession is rooted in a set of core values. These core values, embraced by social workers throughout the profession’s history, are the foundation of social work’s unique purpose and perspective:

service

social justice

dignity and worth of the person

importance of human relationships

integrity

competence (excerpt, Social Work Code of Ethics) 

Several months ago, The Rev. Canon Leonard L. Hamlin, Sr., Washington National Cathedral’s Canon Missioner and Minister of Equity & Inclusion preached a compelling message; it reminded us that as Christians and Christian communities, regardless of how challenging, we are called to be “repairer’s of the breach.” Repairers of that ever-widening gap between those who live in faith and hope secure in the knowledge of God’s unending love and those who walk in silent darkness alone, isolated, and crushed by the chaos of the world in which we live. Repairing the breach; that is our work; that is our mission. 

Canon Hamlin’s sermon has not departed my head nor my heart. As a deacon, active or retired, as a therapist seeking to heal those who have experienced a distressing life trauma(s), and perhaps most importantly as a Christian the concept of “repairer of the breach” so accurately and succinctly defines my life’s “call.”

 The call to be a repairer of the breach reminds me of God’s words spoken to the Israelites as they fled from the oppressive slavery of pharaoh, “You shall be holy for I am holy.” (Lev. 22:26); and “For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all peoples who are on the face of the earth.” (Deut. 7:6)

 Years later St. Paul recalled God’s words when he reminded Christian communities struggling to maintain their faith in the midst of ridicule and rejection that they were, in essence, chosen to be repairers of the breach, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” (1 Peter 2:9-10)

 “A holy people.” People who are chosen by God to be his treasured possession. People who are called to live in and through God’s wonderful light bringing compassion and love into a world darkened by chaos, fear, and anger.

 Sometimes, perhaps I should say frequently, it is hard to remember that we are today’s holy people, that it is we who now are called to be repairers of the breach. Moreover, it is often difficult to define what being a holy people means when facing the frightening and complex situations in which too often we find ourselves. And it is certainly a challenge to identify exactly which breach we are called to repair – there are so many – and once identified exactly how do we repair the breach? What does that even mean?

 I have served as your deacon for only a few short years, but in that brief and busy time it has been my privilege to be embraced by a community dedicated to being a holy people. A community built and sustained by God’s treasured people. A community steadfast in its mission to be a light in the darkness. The compassion and love that shines as you tend to one another and as unceasingly you go into the world shining God’s love and light into the lives of so many different community members is ever-present and all encompassing.

I often wonder if you recognize that you are “repairers of the breach?” Do you consider yourselves to be the lamp that stands atop the lampstand shining your light before others and glorifying God? (Matt. 5:15–16) Do you fully comprehend the strength and power of your very being as a Christopher committed to God’s mission in the world? God’s call for you, and me, to be “repairers of the breach.”

As we move together into the new liturgical year and as we once again anticipate the greatest of all gifts, the incarnation, let us celebrate the arrival of our new rector and the beginning of a new chapter in the life of St. Christopher’s and all of us Christopher’s as “repairers of the breach.” Let our light as God’s beloved people shine brightly in “all the streets.”

 Shalom, Clelia+