Recovery Sunday, Saint Mark’s Episcopal Church, September 20, 2026, Joanna Seibert
The year is 1934. The western edge of Little Rock is Mississippi, a dirt road. Saint Mark’s will not be founded for almost twenty more years. In New York City, Sam Shoemaker is the rector of Calvary Church in Manhattan’s Gramercy Park neighborhood. Shoemaker is considered one of the best preachers of his generation, and tape and radio networks have syndicated his sermons for decades. Shoemaker is the leading Episcopal clergy associated with an interdenominational spiritual movement called the Oxford Group, whose American headquarters are at Calvary Church. The Oxford Group is a Christian spiritual renewal program in the 1930s, teaching spiritual practices such as surrender to God, moral inventory, confession to God and another, prayer, restitution to those harmed, and reaching out to help others. Shoemaker brings the Oxford Group spirituality to Calvary Rescue Mission, an outreach project that serves meals to the homeless and houses up to 57 men.
At Calvary Rescue Mission, Shoemaker meets Bill Wilson, an alcoholic New York stockbroker who tries for years to quit drinking with willpower and becomes seriously involved in sobriety efforts after his drinking nearly kills him. After a visit from a longtime alcoholic friend, Ebby Thacher, who is in recovery through the Oxford Group meetings, and meetings with a physician, Dr. Silkworth, Wilson begins to believe that his recovery may come through a spiritual awakening, a new understanding of God, and a reorientation of his life. A spiritual solution. Silkworth also teaches Bill Wilson that his alcoholism is a disease, not a moral failing, but involves a physical craving or allergy, an inability to stop after one drink. The second part of the disease is that one abuses alcohol because it initially gives relief from difficulty dealing with life on life’s terms. But then alcohol becomes the problem.
In December 1934 at Silkworth’s Hospital, Bill Wilson has a spiritual experience where he prays desperately, asking for God’s help and saying he will do anything to stop drinking. His room blazes with light, and he feels a profound sense of peace and God’s presence. Wilson never drinks again. He continues to meet with Shoemaker, who teaches him the Oxford Group spiritual principles, including surrender, making a decision to turn your life over to God, taking an inventory and confessing to God and one other person the wrongs you have done, praying to God to change, making amends, continuing to pray and meditate daily, and reaching out to help others. Wilson models the principles of the Oxford Group to bring about 12-step recovery. Bill Wilson credits Shoemaker as the key source of the ideas underpinning 12-step Principles.////
November 1990, the year St. Margaret’s was started I realize I have become an alcoholic and that alcohol is interfering with my life. Despite all my willpower, I cannot control my drinking. Alcohol is starting to control my life. Soon, it will be interfering with my work as a physician. I call a therapist, who calls a friend who takes me to a 12-step recovery meeting.
Mother’s Day, May 2016. Ten years ago, when we return to St. Mark’s. New York City. I am at Shoemaker’s Calvary Church, now Calvary-St. George, for a celebration of Shoemaker’s influence in providing a framework for the 12-step programs on the 75th anniversary of the founding of AA. One of the highlights of the weekend is attending a 12-step meeting in Shoemaker’s office, looking out his windows and realizing that perhaps here in this office, a program develops to save my life, and the lives of so many friends, before we were born./ This indeed is the Holy Spirit at work.////
Several of the lessons today remind me of stories I have heard in Recovery rooms. These people have given me permission to share their stories.
In Exodus, God gives the Israelites bread and meat daily, just enough for that day.
This is Mary’s story: “I am 19 when I realize I can not ‘party responsibly’ anymore. I thought I was still in control—until I began breaking promises to everyone I loved. In AA, someone told me the only thing to do is to show up and stay sober for today. I don’t have a plan for my whole life, but I can handle the next hour. Eventually, I start telling the truth, asking for help, and learning that recovery isn’t winning a prize—it’s learning how to live.”
In Matthew’s reading of the workers who come late, I hear William’s story: “I didn’t believe I deserved a second chance. I thought I was too far gone—too late. When I finally came to AA, I expected punishment. But the message was different: grace is for everyone, anytime. People in recovery don’t ask how perfect I’ve been; they ask how I am doing. I begin to see myself the way God must see me: not as a lost cause, but as someone being brought back—one day at a time. I came late, but mercy still found me. I don’t feel like I ‘earned’ this sobriety. I keep receiving it—again and again.”
We also have friends in Al-Anon.
Joan writes: “I came to Al-Anon because my life had become organized around someone else’s addiction. I was constantly calculating what I could say, hide, or fix—so our family could feel safe. I thought, ‘If he would just stop, I’d be okay.’ But Al-Anon helped me see that my worry isn’t love—it is fear in disguise. I learn to set boundaries, stop trying to control what I can’t, and take care of myself as part of the solution. That doesn’t mean I give up. It means I replace my panic with honesty. My peace began—one day at a time.”
Finally, I share Judith and John’s story as parents of an addicted teenager.
“We went to Al-Anon because we were wearing ourselves out trying to ‘manage’ our child’s addiction. We wanted to prevent the next disaster. We wanted to fix it with the right words, the right consequences. But Al-Anon helped us see that our love had become control—and control never leads to recovery. We learned to care deeply while letting our daughter be responsible for her own choices. We learned boundaries. We learned to speak honestly and to stop rescuing when rescue wasn’t helping. Slowly, fear turned to hope. We didn’t lose love—we found a healthier way to love.”//
St. Mark’s has an active Recovery group. Many of us meet on the first Wednesday at 5:30 pm in the chapel with other church members to celebrate a 12-step Eucharist. This Eucharist affirms the church’s support for people in recovery and helps those not in recovery learn about the spirituality of the 12 steps. If you or a family member needs recovery, we can connect you with help. Today’s forum on Recovery Sunday focuses on the spirituality of the 12 steps. I hope our time today has helped you realize that this church and the Episcopal Church specifically have played a significant role in 12-step Recovery. We will continue our Recovery ministry sessions with a book study of Richard Rohr’s Breathing Underwater on Wednesday nights in Schieffler Hall at 6, starting this Wednesday, September 23.//
I give thanks today for the many people in this church in Recovery who teach me and so many others that together we can do what we cannot do alone, as we pray together/ to become the people/ God created us to be. Amen