Seeing Being and Doing

A Sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on All Saints Day, 2009 at the Convent Chapel of St. Mary's Medical Center, Huntington, WV and based on Ecclesiasticus 2: 1-11

In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, AMEN.

Because there was Benedict, there was Gregory. Because there was Gregory, there was Augustine. Because there was Augustine, there was Canterbury. there was Canterbury, there was Anglicanism – and us, All Saints Anglican Church. But it was nearly not so. For it seems that Augustine got cold feet on the way to the land of the Angles.

Author Albert Holtz tells the story in his book “A Saint on Every Corner”: “as Augustine and his little band traveled overland through Gaul, they began to hear disturbing tales of the savage and murderous English natives. They heard graphic details of the strange customs and the unpronounceable tongue that awaited them. There were sailor's hair-raising reports of the treacherous currents and killer storms that lay in wait for them in crossing the English Channel. It seemed the list of hazards grew longer by the day.”

Finally the “missionaries' enthusiasm evaporated and they held a meeting to discuss whether their mission was really such a good idea after all. [Apparently] their caution won out and they elected to send Augustine back to Rome to explain to Pope Gregory how impossible their mission was and to ask for permission to return to their monastery in Italy.”

Fortunately for us, Gregory was having none of it and told Augustine to high- tale it back to England and not come back until he had accomplished his mission! ... Today, says Holtz, “these monks are venerated as great pioneers and saints”, but it's somehow comforting to know that “they too, were subject to an occasional case of cold feet! Like the rest of us, they were susceptible at times to discouragement and doubt”.

I can relate! I've told you all before – only half in jest, that I'd almost rather do anything but trust God... meaning that following God and doing things His way requires that I 'Trust in him" (Eccl.2:6). As I do so, "he will help me and make my ways straight". Sounds a lot like Prov. 3:5,6: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths." But trusting the Lord often brings trials, and we should be prepared for this.

The writer of Ecclesiasticus admonishes us:
“My child, when you come to serve the Lord, prepare yourself for testing. Set your heart right and be steadfast, and do not be impetuous in time of calamity...(2:1,2) One wonders if Augustine had ever heard these words – and if he had, did he just forget them momentarily – or did he really not know that he had to be prepared for hardship in the service of the Lord? ... I tend to think he just got cold feet momentarily.

Surely he would have read Paul's letter to the Ephesians – just as we read it together today – and he most likely would have known the Beatitudes by heart. His knowledge of God's Word would have given him a Vision of Life in the Kingdom.

This vision of the Kingdom is one which sees that God the Father loves us and has sent Jesus Christ his Son, to reconcile us to Him, to unite all things in him, to give us an inheritance sealed in the Holy Spirit, and to accompany that inheritance with wisdom, enlightenment about God, and immeasurable power coming from the right hand of God the Father, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. (Eph 1:1-23).

Only a Great Vision could have inspired Augustine and his little band to set off to England in the first place. And only a Great Vision could have stiffened up their backbones to go back once they had doubts. Because they saw something the World did not see, they were willing to forsake all and give themselves to a seemingly impossible mission. Because they did, we are sitting here today.

So we thank God for the Saints who went before us, who made it possible for us to worship God in Spirit and in truth. And we look to their courageous example as a challenge to See what they saw, to Be what they were and to Do what they did. Appropriately enough then, we are focusing today on Seeing, Being and Doing as Saints of God.

Seeing
In their book, Resident Aliens, Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon challenge us to think about the Beatitudes that we read today as a 'vision of the 'in-breaking of a new society' – a picture of the way God IS. The Beatitudes, they say, are not a strategy for achieving a better society, they are a Picture, a Promise, an imaginative example of life in the Kingdom of God. (pg. 84)

The Beatitudes show us a picture of blessedness diametrically opposed to the wisdom of the World. Jesus says that we are blessed when we are poor, sad hungry and hated. The World says we are blessed when we are rich, happy sated and well-connected. Jesus shows us a Vision of blessedness that depends upon God for sustenance; the World demands that we be Self-Sufficient. The Picture Jesus shows us is a picture of what heaven on earth would look like. It's a foreshadowing of how things will be when all is summed up in Christ, but it's also a picture of how the Church is to look now. It's a picture of a peculiar people, living in a peculiar way because they See something the World does not see. In Sum: they see that 'in Christ, God has already made history come out right.” (Resident Aliens, pg. 87)

In other words, Christians see that God is moving history towards fulfillment and redemption, reconciliation of all things in the Beloved – and ultimately to a New Heaven and a New Earth. We, as the Saints, or 'called-out' ones of God, know that we have been called out of seeing the World as our all-in-all. We are a community - a 'resident alien colony' that affirms a different reality than the World.

Instead of worshiping money, power, position and security; instead of accepting the world's claim to be all there is and accepting its demand that we worship It as Ultimate Reality, we, as the Saints of God, worship the One who IS Provision, Peace, Shalom and Victory. Instead of trusting in what we can SEE with our physical eyes, we as the Saints of God, see a true Vision of Reality with the eyes of our heart.

We look up to Christ crucified and see One who was willing to give up everything worldly for the JOY set before him. We see in Christ God's self-giving LOVE and we learn that freedom comes from doing the will of another, peace comes from submitting to a violent death, and power is perfected in weakness. What we see looks like foolishness or madness to the world. What we see is the END of the world and the beginning of the Kingdom of God established here and now.

We are a people who See something different than the world sees.

Being
We are also a people who understand our Being differently than the worldlings around us. The people of the World see themselves as having erupted out of a primordial soup by chance over the course of unimaginably long periods of time. Religions and traditions of the past developed to help people deal with their ignorance and superstitions, but through the rise of Science and Technology, belief in the supernatural or the miraculous has largely been discredited. Old sources of Authority have been shrugged off and people have been set free to pursue their own understandings of life and morality.

The average person has become so thoroughly independent that it is now a secular 'sin' to suggest that there is something called Truth that is bigger than myself and which demands my allegiance. Since all 'truths' are equally valid it has now become 'hateful' to proclaim that some things are right and some things are wrong.

This past week, our President signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act which creates additional penalties for violent crimes motivated by the victim's "actual or perceived" gender, "gender identity," sexual orientation, or disability" - all of which sounds upright, until you realize that "evangelist Michael Marcavage, director of Philadelphia-based Repent America, was one of 11 Christians who were jailed and charged with a hate crime for carrying Bible verse banners and preaching at a 2004 homosexual pride event in Philadelphia. The charges were later dismissed -- and in 2008, the state's Supreme Court ruled the law had been passed illegally by the Pennsylvania legislature. (Jim Brown, OneNewsNow, 10/29/2009)

But it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that the recent federal legislation is a new incarnation of the Pennsylvania law and is, as Marcavage says, 'an effort to silence Christians.' In an ironic twist then, those who seek freedom for themselves are willing to imprison those who use their freedom to dissent from the demand for absolute license.

Granted, not everyone is so militant. The basic attitude of most folks towards Truth today is that of someone who has a not-too-compelling hobby that they dabble at once in a while. Moral behavior has been so privatized that almost everything is now merely a lifestyle choice – with the exception of murder, child molestation, being a Nazi or a wife-beater, or listening to the Great Satan himself, Rush Limbaugh.

The only trouble with this radical sort of Freedom is that life becomes rather trivial and meaningless. The World cannot affirm an essential meaning and goodness in human Being because it thinks it arose by accident. Religion and Spirituality are essentially props to secular existence; they have value only insofar as they 'help' us – or assist us to feel more comfortable in our Worldly life, keeping the despair at bay.

But our understanding of ourselves as Christians is fundamentally different from the World's. We believe that God had us in mind when he began the Creation and that we as the Church embody God's highest plan for Creation – to have intimate fellowship with those He has created and to bring them up into himself in a Love relationship – to create a community of Saints if you will. We understand that the physical world and everything in it was created to facilitate our love relationship with God – and thus we have a sense of security and Meaning in our Being.

We ARE because God made us. We live and move and have our being because we live and move and have our being IN GOD. We understand that we were made to love God and thus Worship is central to WHO we are in Christ. We believe that in worshiping God we are most truly ourselves and that in the Eucharist that we BECOME what we already are: the Body of Christ. As we worship God around his table, we come together with all the Saints who have ever lived and we cry out Holy, Holy, Holy Lord, God of heaven and earth. We cast down our crowns before him and He receives our love and worship, giving us Himself in return – most especially in the Body and the Blood of his own dear Son.

Thus, our worship of God can be thought of as part of our essence as Human Beings. We exist to Worship and to receive back God's love in return. Since the Eucharist embodies the self-giving love, we are most truly ourselves at the moment of Communing with our God. The Eucharist is the wellspring of our existence and we cannot live without it. At this table, we become what we are: God's people, created before the foundation of the world to be Saints - those 'called out' of the World.

Doing
Our fundamental identity as the Saints of God is to be a worshiping community. Thus, Worship is the fulfillment of the first great Commandment: Love the Lord your God with all your heart mind soul and strength.

The second commandment gives us our marching orders in the world: love your neighbor as yourself. God loves us and gives Himself to us through the Incarnation and the Sacraments. He now commands us to give Christ to the world the same way he did: Incarnationally and Sacramentally.

Look around you Saints. You are the Presence of Christ in the World. Because God has placed His Holy Spirit within you, you are Sacramental - an outward sign of an inward and spiritual reality, and a means of communicating God's Grace – you are the living, moving means of God's grace to this world. God incarnates you with Himself and Communicates Himself to the world through You! That means that your basic vocation as a Christian is to be a minister and missionary. You are the hands and feet of Christ. You are the A team. That's all, there ain't no B Team. If the world is to know Christ, it will come to know Him through YOU. Just like Augustine and his little band, You are to Tell what you know and Give what you Got.

It's an exciting and daunting challenge. Especially when we face so many struggles ourselves. We're surrounded by family problems, problems at work, financial problems, sickness and death. Each day seems a struggle just to keep body and soul together, much less run around and save the world!

And yet, this is what we are called to do: to love and serve God by loving and serving the world. We are to embody Christ and to communicate His love to the world through our words and our work. If we fail to do so, we have simply and basically failed to be what we are – Christ's body on earth.

This is why we need to celebrate All Saints Day. We need to remember exemplars of the faith who have demonstrated how to pour themselves out in the world for love of God and their neighbors. We also need to remember that the good we do in the world is not simply Social Work. The good works we do are done 'to a person' as Mother Teresa used to say -that is, to Christ.

If we See correctly – if we have a right Vision of the World, we will see ourselves as Christ's body, ministering to Christ in all people. We will seek the welfare of our city, our nation, and the world, not so much to prop up the the man-made structures of the world, but to bring God's love into the world, so that all people may know Him and enjoy Him forever.

This is a tough job because the World is fundamentally opposed to God. The world doesn't want to submit itself to the Lordship of Christ- and it especially doesn't want you to remind it that there is a God to worship apart from the World. That's why the world will persecute you and tell you to SHUT UP! Go Away! Leave us to pursue our path of destruction! We're Happy that way!
The Bible tells us that all who desire to live Godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. And so we shall. Friends, we are coming into a time, when Christians will more and more be pressured to shut up, go along, and get along with the World. If we love our God and we want to be faithful to Him, we cannot do this. And that will mean difficulty for us.

The witness of the Saints who have gone before us is that they persevered – sometimes under fair conditions, often under persecution. We must do what they did if we are to be found faithful - we must share our Vision that God is All in all, and that He is reconciling all things to Himself in Christ. We must pray for those who can't see this vision. We must minister to a hurting world as if we are ministering to Christ Himself. And we must always remember who we are: Creatures of God, our Father, created in Christ Jesus for Love and Good Works (Heb. 10:24).

We may struggle with difficulty and doubt. We may even try to turn around and go back like Father Augustine. But we must go forward for Christ and we must trust Him as we go.
I don't think I can do better than to repeat today's admonishment from Ecclesiasticus:

My Child,when you come to serve the Lord,
prepare yourself for testing.
Set you heart right and be steadfast,
and do not be impetuous in time of calamity.
Cling to him and do not depart,
so that your last days may be prosperous.
Accept whatever befalls you,
and in times of humiliation be patient.
For gold is tested in the fire,
and those found acceptable, in the furnace of humiliation.
Trust in him, and he will help you;
make your ways straight, and hope in him.
You who fear the Lord, wait for his mercy;
do not stray, or else you may fall.
You who fear the Lord, hope for good things,
for lasting joy and mercy.
Consider the generations of old and see:
has anyone persevered in the fear of the Lord and been forsaken?
Or has anyone called upon him and been neglected?
For the Lord is compassionate and merciful;
he forgives sins and saves in time of distress.

May God help us in our Seeing, our Being and our Doing. AMEN.

Come Follow Me

A sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on October 11 at the Convent Chapel of St. Mary's Medical Center, Huntington, WV, based on Mark 10:17-27

"One night, when Peter Pettinaio of the Third Order was praying in the Cathedral of Siena, he saw Our Lord Jesus Christ enter the church, followed by a great throng of saints. And each time Christ raised his foot, the form of his foot remained imprinted on the ground. And all the saints tried as hard as they could to place their feet in the traces of his footsteps, but none of them was able to do so perfectly. Then St. Francis came in and set his feet right in the footsteps of Jesus Christ." (from The Little Flowers of St. Francis, quoted in The Lessons of St. Francis by John Michael Talbot, pg. 251).

Thomas a Kempis, in his book, "The Imitation of Christ", said this about Il Poverello, "Francis sought not only to follow the words of Christ, he wished also to imitate the life of Christ as perfectly as he could, and he willed that his friars too should 'follow the footsteps of our Lord Jesus Christ."

October 4th is the Feast Day of St. Francis - and since we are so close to this anniversary, I'd like to consider some of the ways that Francis followed His Lord and in turn inspired others to follow him.

Francis heard the words that Jesus spoke to the Rich Young Ruler, "Come, Follow Me", and he obeyed them literally. He was a Rich Young Ruler himself and he heard the call of Christ in the present tense, desiring to know the joy of following his Lord as nearly as humanly possible. He did, in fact leave everything and follow Christ, giving with abandon to the poor - and he experienced the hundredfold blessing that Jesus talked about.

Francis also inspired others to follow Christ in love and simplicity - so much so that he had to create thee separate orders - one for men, another for women and a Third Order for those who wished to follow his Rule of Life but needed to stay in their families and Secular jobs. All of them heard the same words of Jesus, "Come, follow Me."

These are the words Jesus speaks to us. He calls us to follow Him. Sometimes the call comes with an admonition to leave everything, to sell all that you have. Sometimes, as in the case of Third Order people or like the demoniac set free by Christ, the admonition is to stay with your people and tell all that Christ has done for you (Luke 8:38,39).

But the call is still the same, "Come, follow me." Whether we stay at home or go away, the call is still to abandon yourself and follow Christ.

In the past several weeks, I have been privileged to preside at two Profession Services - one in Lexington, Ky, and one in Chattanooga, TN, in which five young men joined the Franciscan chapter of the Company of Jesus, promising to follow Christ by taking seriously the vows of Poverty, Chastity and Obedience that Francis himself observed. (We also had two Benedictine professions, but that's a story for another day.)

One of our newest Company of Jesus members, who made his Franciscan profession last year at our joint retreat at the Cabin in Virginia said this about wanting to become a Franciscan:

"I became aware of the Company of Jesus...when I began a search for some way to formalize my desire for a deeper prayer life and accountability in spiritual discipline. ...I am most intrigued by your dedication to sacramental life and how you have founded a community based on prayer, scripture, sacrament and the monastic tradition of learning and service, and yet be open to those who must... live in the secular world. ... I feel that a deeper, more formal commitment to prayer, worship, study and service would...be a faithful response to how I perceive God is calling me at this time."

This man has lived out his profession for one year now. He recently renewed his vows and here is what he wrote to me about what the past year has brought him:

Dear Father Abbot Andrew:
It pleases me greatly to submit this report to you as we are at the anniversary of my Service of Profession of Vows as a Franciscan in the Company of Jesus. As I look back over this year it is clear that God has been present in very clear ways - and I have experienced much joy as a result.Honestly, the year did not look like it would begin well. My trip up to the service in Virginia was one fraught with difficulties and some despairing moments. I had recently taken a career change which promised to be wonderful but was not working out that way. After nearly 40 years in public education I took a job with my church as a parish administrator. Lacking the skills or aptitude for that line of work I was failing miserably at it.

Friendships I had over a number of years at church became strained and my relationship with my pastor became so difficult that I began to attend another church. The difficult economy made the prospect of finding another job frightening as well. In addition, my marriage of 4 years was troubled. It was an odd time to go on a retreat weekend and the invitation to attend seemed so out of keeping with the circumstances that it was either a cruel irony or an moment of Grace sent in the midst of much anxiety. I went with Grace and elected to accept and attend the retreat. Because money was tight, I went to my pastor and asked for money to attend. I have never asked for a handout before and this seemed, at the time, like another in a line of humiliations but, either by faith or dogged determination I went ahead and did it.Much of the weekend is a blur to me now. There was a moment though where I began to understand where God was working in the midst of all this. At lunch on Saturday I was joined in conversation by Fr. Mark who asked some usual "getting to know you" sort of questions. I confided in him that I had at one time explored becoming a priest and had actually graduated from a seminary program with a Masters in Theology degree. We continued our conversation and had prayer time for several hours after lunch. It was the beginning of a relationship of spiritual direction between Fr. Mark and me. It was the vehicle though which God often spoke in our weekly conversations and marked many moments in a time I refer to as "desert time." I left the weekend on a very high note and was filled with joy all the way home.

Unfortunately, when I pulled into the driveway and unpacked the car my wife said at my taking out my monastic habit, "What's with the monkey suit?"

I crashed right back down to the earth that I had left for the weekend.My return to work showed no improvement. Our finances did not improve. Our communications remained poor. I continued to not be able to go to our church. My relationship with my pastor remained strained. But some things did begin to happen. Weekly, Fr. Mark and I would talk and pray. We understood this to be a time in the desert and to come to terms with that. I read scriptures about Jesus' time in the desert and meditated on the Desert Fathers. I began to follow along with Daily Prayer from the Northumbria Community on the Internet. Things began to follow a pattern.

There was something about this experience that was requiring me to look at the various callings and responses in my life. In reading and thinking about Francis I was no longer able to feel sorry for myself about what I perceived to suffering in my life. What had previously been perceived as victimization at least had the possibility of being a time of Divine cleansing.Out of this difficult time there came the realization that "if there is anything you want, then you must give it away." If I wanted love, I must love. If I wanted peace, I must bring peace to situations and others. If I wanted prayers, I must pray. It became a rule of life for me to follow.

During this time I decided to once again use my seminary training. It had been a long time. My church was not a place where that was particularly welcome for a variety of reasons so I began to offer my talents at a non-denominational church... The pastor there... was particularly curious about and interested in such things as liturgy, church history, the Emerging Church Movement, monasticism and, of course, the Bible and worship.

We began teaching a class on the development of the early church creeds. We team taught and it was great. During this time a homeless guy began attending ...and we were able to enter into his life and him into ours. I began to meditate on and ponder the phrase "the least of these". My prayers began to ask what it meant to be among "the least of these" and how I might, indeed, be the least of these in ways myself. It all seemed very....well,.... Franciscan!

There were two major decisions last year that I think reflect God's saying to me, "On this day I give you a choice between life and death. Choose life." The first life choice decision was the one to go to the profession service. The other was a decision to have bariatric "lap band" surgery.
I had taken a trip to my doctor for a normal checkup and we talked a bit about my weight. I was "morbidly obese" (medical terminology for my condition), I was taking approximately 35 pills a day for diabetes, cholesterol, blood pressure, asthma, arthritis and other related things. I told my doctor that I thought I would like to live 10-20 years longer (I was 61) and his response was a shocking, "I'm not sure if I would count on that."

After that shocking remark I asked him about lap band surgery because a friend of mine had had it and was very pleased and successful. His eyes lit up and we arranged for me to make plans to have the surgery taken care of. "You are a perfect candidate," was the phrase I heard over and over again from the doctors and surgeons I talked to. I had the surgery in February and have lost 70 pounds with 30 more to go. I feel like I have indeed new life and have been granted a great gift that God surely was a part of.

Well, the year has brought many other things that I feel are an outgrowth of my becoming a Franciscan. My pursuit of the "the least of these" has led me to working weekly at a homeless feeding ministry called "Five Loaves". I have been called upon to preach sermons.. in the absence of [our] Pastor. I have recently taught a class on the book "Resident Aliens" by Stanley Hauerwas and Will Wilamon. A group of guys and myself have been meeting Wednesday mornings in a group called The Dead Guys (dead unto sin). Before I left [my previous]church I was regularly lay reading, chalicing and working the sound board and computer projection equipment for services. Now I am part of the worship team at [my new church] and have even taken up my old guitar and am playing weekly. Pastor Juan has asked me to speak about being a Franciscan at chapel at the Christian School where I used to teach and where he still works.

He has also asked me to come in my habit and assist with Communion at Father's House. I also have begun a blog called CrossPeace Community which I hope develops into a dialogue about serving others in the name of building Christ's Church.

A final piece of the puzzle of this year that has been very important in my exploring the notion of "the least of these" is that I left my job at the church last May and began working as a teacher at a juvenile group home run by Methodist Home for Children. These kids truly are the least. They are abused, have criminal records and are incarcerated. Many of them are functionally illiterate and have actually had very little formal schooling in their lives. It continues to be a wonderful experience working with them and serving them.

Because of some health issues my wife has, and because I reached retirement age this fall I have taken Social Security but work part time at the home and will continue to do so. It is definitely part of my charism as a Franciscan. I guess a final, final piece of this story is the relationship between my wife Becky and me. We have struggled and continued to do so but we both feel that God has brought us together and that one cannot discern the value of a relationship by gaging its ease. Becky fully supports and encourages me in my calling as a Franciscan and we both laugh when I take out my "monkey suit" God is good.

Now folks, this is what it sounds like to live out the call of Christ to 'Come, follow me." It's not easy, frilly, or especially 'holy' or 'saintly' in any sort of sentimental way. There's a lot of hard stuff in this story. But there's also Joy. Joy in walking away from things that weren't working and into new things that do work.. Joy in discovering lack of gifting in administration and in reaffirming gifts in teaching and serving at-risk kids. Joy in struggling through health issues and marital issues and financial struggles - and Joy in pressing into a life of prayer.

This is a story I think Francis and Jesus both smile about. It's a story that incorporates the basic building blocks of the Christian life: Worship, Community, Formation and Mission. It's a story that is really a template for Christian discipleship. And it's a story that I believe God is actively working into each one of us at All Saints Anglican Church.

Of course, the details of your story are specific to you. But it is my fervent hope and expectation that each one of us has a story of personal transformation to tell. Developing such a story takes hard work and tenacity. You can't tell of God's goodness unless you hold on through the tough times. And you also have to be honest about yourself and your struggles if you want to report about your Joy in Christ.

Friends, this ain't for sissies. It's hard, but it's Good.
It's real and substantial. It's what draws people to abandon all and follow Christ.
Today, I want to challenge you. Can you be as real and as honest as our Compan of Jesus
brother?
Will you hang in there with Christ while he transforms you into his own image?
Will you serve him with the same reckless abandon that Francis had and that our brother has shown in the midst of everyday life?

Let's ponder this seriously - and answer affirmatively.

May God grant us the grace and the comfort to hear this word and live it out.
AMEN.

Avoiding Hand, Foot and Eye Disease

A sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on September 27th, 2009 at St. Mary's Medical Center Convent Chapel, Huntington, WV, and based on Mark 9:38-48.

O be careful little hands what you do
O be careful little hands what you do
There's a Father up above
And He's looking down in love
So, be careful little hands what you do.

O be careful little feet where you go
O be careful little feet where you go
There's a Father up above
And He's looking down in love
So be careful little feet where you go.

O be careful little eyes what you see
O be careful little eyes what you see
There's a Father up above
And He's looking down in love
So be careful little eyes what you see

The Bible tells us in Psalm 139:14, that we are "fearfully and wonderfully made." God has created our human body with amazing capabilities - which correspond perfectly to the physical world we live in. He's given us eyes to see the beauty around - two eyes, in fact, so that we can see in stereo and judge distances correctly. Eyes that can look around to see good things to eat, beauty to behold, and dangers to avoid. Our eyes are miracles of design and function, and glories which speak of the creative power of our God.

Our hands feature an opposable thumb - perhaps one of the key things that distinguish us from the animals - especially those found in Gary Larsen's cartoons.

And our feet are marvelously constructed so that we can walk upright, run and jump with amazing dexterity.

The members of our physical body work together for the good of the whole body; any impairment in one part affects the whole. (cf. Rom. 12:5; I Cor. 12:12). Jesus uses the metaphor of body parts in our Gospel lesson today, warning us that if our hands or feet or eyes cause us to stumble, we should cut them off or pluck them out in order to avoid hell. Since this is alarming thing to think about, the title of today's message is "Avoiding Hand Foot and Eye Disease".

The Bigger Picture
As we begin, let's think of the larger context of this passage.
In Mark 8:31-9:1, Jesus is talking to the disciples about his impending death.
He admonishes them that: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it.

He's getting ready to go to Jerusalem and face the cross. Six days later he goes up on the mountain and is Transfigured (9:2-13) - again in preparation for his death. He comes down off the mountain of transfiguration and is immediately confronted with the disciples inability to exorcise a demonized boy (9:14-29) and he again warns of his upcoming death (9:30-32).
The disciples argue about who is the greatest in the kingdom (9:33-37) and Jesus shows them a child and tells them that "If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” ... and that “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me...(37).

Ever astute, the disciples ask about someone casting out a demon in Jesus' name and again, Jesus makes reference to 'the little ones who believe in my name', warning that whoever causes such a one to sin would be better off if he were thrown into the sea.

So the big picture is about Death: what Jesus' death will accomplish,what we have to do to avoid eternal death, and what it is that ultimately pleases God.

Jesus speaks about cutting off your hand or your foot and of plucking out your eye - but this is clearly not literal. As he does so often, he is speaking metaphorically, using the offending members as examples of bigger issues in our lives. So, let's look at the Hand, the Foot and the Eye respectively, asking what they represent in our lives with a view towards understanding what we must do to avoid stumbling through them.

Interpreting Symbols
When I was at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, one of the most interesting classes I took was Psychological Testing. In this class, we learned about something called 'Projective Tests' where the subject looks at pictures, tells stories or draws pictures of things, such as a House a Tree or a Person. The idea is that the subject 'projects' themselves into the picture or story. The job of the tester is then to interpret the meaning of the symbols projected. In order to help interpret the test, we had to look in a handbook that gave us suggested meanings as deduced through research into these tests.

For example, when interpreting a drawing of a person, we consider how old the draw-er is, whether they have included all the parts of the body, whether any parts of the body are exaggerated, whether there are marks or wounds on the body, and what kind of story the draw-er tells about the figure they have drawn. You collect your observations and you look in the handbook, which gives you various suggestions based on research findings. Then, using that information, you develop your hypothesis about what is going on with the person you are evaluating.

Hands
Broadly speaking, hands represent Power to interact with the physical world - how much power I think I have, whether that power is in proportion to my ability and my surroundings, and whether or not I have a realistic assessment of my relative power. Hands also represent our Work or our labors in life, especially for the Lord.

Once, many years ago, I was working with a four year old boy. He was fascinated by the Hulk comic character. In his play, he would imitate the Hulk and stomp around the room exclaiming in a deep voice, "I am the Hulk. I weigh four-hundred pounds and I can crush you!" Not surprisingly, when he drew a person, it looked like the Hulk and it had HUGE hands. This little boy came from a troubled family situation, where things were pretty chaotic and he was powerless to change things. In his drawings and fantasy play, he was projecting power that he wished he had.

"If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off." How can our hands cause us to stumble? Basically through various forms of injustice, such as:

Grabbing what is not ours: Genesis 3:22:Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” Adam and eve reached out to take what wasn't theirs and people have been stealing ever since.

Physical Violence: Genesis 16:12
He [Ishmael] shall be a wild donkey of a man, his hand against everyone and everyone's hand against him, and he shall dwell over against all his kinsmen.”

Presumptuous Self-Sufficiency: as in our reading from James 4:13-17:
... “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. ...you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting [in the work of your hands] is evil."

Sloth or Inactivity: Proverbs 6:10
"A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest..."
We stumble through our hands when we work unjustly against others, or when we fail to work for righteousness, prompting James (5:6) to conclude: ..."whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin". So it is with the sins of the Hand

The Foot: Represents freedom, mobility, the power to run from harm and to walk with the Lord.
St. Benedict describes what he called 'Gyrovagues', which is a made-up word consisting of Latin for 'circle' combined with Greek for 'wander'. Literally, people who wander around in circles. Their feet wander from place to place, always restless, never submitting to a settled way of life, running away from problems, not being accountable to anyone; being licentious, refusing to stay put.

It reminds me of the Glenn Campbell song, "Gentle on My Mind":
"It's knowing that your door is always open
And your path is free to walk
That makes me tend to leave my sleeping bag rolled up
and stashed behind your couch
And it's knowing I'm not shackled
By forgotten words and bonds
And the ink stains that have dried upon some line
That keeps you in the backroadsBy the rivers of my mem'ryThat keeps you ever gentle on my mind..."

She's so gentle on his mind, that he feels no need to actually live with her!
Our feet can cause us to wander off the path and stop walking with others and with the Lord.

Eye
Jesus said that the "eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light," Matthew 6:22. The eye speaks of the ability to see what is right, to look beneath the surface of things to the truth beneath, and the ability to catch a vision of what God would have us to do in life.

By contrast:
The devil tempted Eve by appealing to her eyes, or her desire for spiritual understanding and power: "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil" (Gen. 3:5)
..." when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths" (Gen. 3:6,7).

Sin entered the world through the lust of the eyes, through desire for what is seen.

1John 2:15-17 warns:
"Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world.". Jesus spoke in parables that the wicked might see but not perceive (Mark 4:12). The eye needs to be connected with the heart to work correctly.

The Eye can betray Pride: Proverbs 21:4:
"Haughty eyes and a proud heart, the lamp of the wicked, are sin."
Through our eyes, we can judge others hypocritically: "Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?" Luke 6:41.
So, then, the eye causes us to stumble through Unrighteous Desire - which in turn leads us to Pride, Greed and Lust and Hypocrisy.
What should we do instead?

Hands:
Cleanse your hands and purify your heart so that you can resist the Devil", says James (4:8). Another way to say this is to humble yourselves and draw near to God. Let Him convict you of sin; ask for forgiveness when you are wrong, and keep a clear conscience with God.
Ecclesiates 9:10: "Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might..."
Colossians 3:23: "Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men"...
Use your hands to work for God, who is your real boss, no matter who you work for.

Feet:
Walk with the Lord. Deuteronomy 5:33 says: "You shall walk in all the way that the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live, and that it may go well with you, and that you may live long in the land that you shall possess."

Colossians 1:10: "... walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God."

Micah 6:8: He has told you, O man, what is good;and what...the Lord require[s] of you: ... to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

God is your Creator. He loves you and wants to have a daily relationship with you. The right use of your feet is to walk with God day in and day out.

The Eyes:
Let the commandment of the Lord give light to the eyes, says the Psalmist (19:8,)
Use your eyes to see the Truth of God; let God show you his truth by pondering his commandments and by reading His Word daily.

Look unto Jesus, Fix your eyes on Him as the author and perfecter of your faith (Hebrews 12:2). Don't trust in anything else: money, houses, cars, stock portfolios, or other people. Jesus alone is our Savior. Everything else is "wood, hay and stubble" (1 Cor 3:12), unreliable and unsatisfying in the end.

Be Like Simeon who was able to say at the end of his life:
Lord, you now have set your servant free. For these eyes of mine have seen the Savior, whom you have prepared for all the world to see - a Light to enlighten the nations and the glory of your people Israel. Luke 2:29-32.

Summary:
Take care with your hands, your feet and your eyes. The Father up above is looking down in love, for as the Psalmist sings, his love and His commandments are :

More to be desired are they than gold,
more than much fine gold, *
sweeter far than honey,
than honey in the comb.
By them also is your servant enlightened, *
and in keeping them there is great reward (Psalm 19:10,11).
AMEN.

4 'Alls' for Life in the Spirit

A Sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on August 30, 2009 at the Convent Chapel of St. Mary's Medical Center, Huntington, WV, and based on Eph 6:10-20:

The Whole Armor of God
"10Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 11Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 12For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 13Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. 14Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. 16In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; 17and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, 18 praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, 19 and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak."


When I was kid, I used to watch old movies with my friends after school, including Grade z Gladiator movies made in Italy, Hercules, various super heroes, and … The Three Musketeers.
I can vividly remember them gallantly crossing their swords and crying out together, “All for One and One for All!”
It was a rallying cry, urging the Musketeers on into war. In a similar way, the Apostle Paul urges us to take up the full armor of God, and issues a rather similar exhortation that we'll call
“4 Alls for prayer in the Spirit”. Namely:

1) all times
2) all prayer
3) all perseverance
4) all the saints

These ‘alls’ come from v. 18 of our reading from Ephesians Chapter 6, in which Paul instructs believers in prayer, and this verse comes in the context of Paul’s exhortation to believers to Put on God's armor because we are engaged in spiritual warfare.

Verse 12: “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” The evil we see manifested around us starts as a spiritual force.
We are by nature spiritual beings who have a physical body. We are enfleshed spirits. Therefore, to keep a truly Christian outlook and mindset, we must think in spiritual terms. Not to think spiritually is to be led by the flesh, as Paul tells the Corinthians:

“But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way.” (I Cor. 3:1)

Flesh and Spirit are contrasted here as opposing one another. The flesh is understood as an evil principle that dwells within me and which can drag me down into sin, but the Spirit is the source of life and peace, as in Eph 5: 18: “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit”…

To be focused on the flesh at its worst is to indulge in debauchery, excess, or pleasures of the flesh which dissipate our life energy, or which may cause us to be addicted to various substances or actions, such as gambling or drinking. In a more subtle way, we become fleshly when we seek to be self-sufficient and do things “my way' without any thought of the Lord or what He wants.
We may not be engaging in any gross or carnal sins, but I guarantee that every one of us struggles with self-centeredness and self-sufficiency every day. It's as natural to us as breathing. And that's the point: it's natural or fleshly. We don't have to think about it or choose it, we do it as the default setting.

To be filled with the Spirit is the opposite of being fleshly. It's God’s plan for us to become fruitful as Christians. The result of being filled with the spirit is found in Eph. 5:19,20:

“…addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.”

So then, the primary fruits of the spirit are gratitude to God and worship of God, accompanied by mutual submission to our brothers and sisters in Christ – in other words, the fulfillment of the two great Commandments: Love God and Love others.

To be led by the Spirit is to be directed by and controlled by the Spirit, just as Jesus was when he was here on earth. His continual practice was to only do what he saw the Father doing and to speak that which the Father wanted him to speak. In Henry Blackaby's terminology, Jesus observed what God the Father was doing, and joined him in it.

If we are to emulate Him and do greater things than he did, we must be Spiritually minded and we must be led by and directed by the Spirit. We do this on a day to day basis primarily through prayer.

To pray in the Spirit is to pray in cooperation with the Holy Spirit. We are not naturally able to do this and we are pitifully limited when it comes to understanding God’s will for us, but Thanks be to God, …”the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. “ (Rom. 8: 26, 27)

So we really don’t know what we’re doing when we pray, but Prayer is the fuel that starts us up and keeps us going as a Christian, and it is the vehicle that God has determined to use in order to get things done. So Paul instructs us when to pray, how to pray, and for whom to pray in this very short teaching on prayer ‘in the spirit”.

Let’s look at each of these All’s individually:

1) All Times: We are to pray always, in all circumstances (v.16), to pray without ceasing (I Thes. 5:17), (Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.) In Luke 18:1, Jesus tells us that we “ought always to pray...
So how do we do that?

2) All Prayer
One of the oldest applications of this exhortation to pray always is called the Jesus Prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” This is simple and basically says everything we need to say in prayer. And it has been used as the basis for continual prayer for thousands of years. One technique of applying this is to use of prayer rope and to intersperse the Our Father along with the Jesus Prayer. The idea is to practice this to such an extent that it becomes the “Prayer of the Heart”, as natural as breathing. TheAnglican Rosary is based on this idea.

But there are perhaps as many ways to pray as there are people. Here are some possible ways we can pray:

Memorize Scripture and pray it back to God.
Sing to the Lord in Prayer
Pray in a 'Prayer Language”
Pray while you walk around the neighborhood
Pray over every step you make while you slowly walk around your
yard or garden.

Read a passage of Scripture slowly and then stop when something stands out to you, contemplating it and then praying over it to God. (Lectio Divina)

Use a map of the World to pray over hotspots and the work of different churches or ministries. Last week, we prayed for Justin and Hunter, who will be studying in Evanston and Scotland respectively. Our friends, Larry and Cathy Westfall will also be travelling to Scotland to help establish a church so we could go to Mapquest pray over Illinois and Scotland.

Write out a list of answers to prayer and thank God for them.
Pray in concert with others for revival – as we did during the Divine Experiment.

Establish a prayer room– as we wish to do at Hope House and then line up as many people to pray as possible, establishing a 24/7 approach to prayer. The Moravians have actually had a prayer room going continuously for 130 years! Now that's prayer without ceasing!

Pray the daily offices using the forms from the Book of Common Prayer. Last night Cindy and I had the interesting experience of logging on to Skype and praying Compline with a group of folks from Chattannooga! The list is endless.

Our prayer is worship in the Spirit, just as Jesus said in John 4: 23, 24: “But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship is spirit and truth.”

Moving on to the third of our 'Alls”, we must pray with:
3)Peseverance: In Luke 18:1 Jesus tells us that we “ought always to pray and not lose heart.” Much of our prayer will be dry, dusty, cold and mechanical. It's just part and parcel of being human, made of dust. We can't endure very much excitement or extraordinary spiritual experience. It wears us out. Therefore, we should expect that our prayers will be routine.
This is not sinful or unspiritual. Many people who criticize Christians for praying mechanically have never tried to pray regularly much less always. Anyone who has every tried to pray frequently can tell you that the human body does not cooperate well with regular or constant prayer. It gets tired and is easily distracted. God knows this and is not offended. What he likes is when we press through the tiredness and pray anyway!

Francis DeSales had this to say about dryness in prayer:
“Be willing to accept dryness and lack of consoloations for however long they last. Beat upon the heavens with your cry but, at the same time, preserve a kind of holy indifference. “God, I will endure this as long as you want me to. Just support me.”...This kind of prayer, the prayer which we force ourselves to make, is most acceptable to God. “ (The Committed Life, pg.138).

Finally, 4) All the Saints:
Paul shows us the way here as in many of his letters he tells the believers he is praying for them:
Romans 1:10: ...”without ceasing I mention you always in my prayers”...
Phil 1:3,4: “ I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy”...
Col. 1:3: “We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you”...
Col. 4:12: “Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you, always struggling on your behalf in his prayers”...
1 Thes 1:2: “We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers”...
2 Thes. 1:11,12: “To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ”.

We echo this in our prayer cycle during the prayers of the people, praying not only individual prayer needs, but for other churches on our list. We pray for 'all the saints' – yet another reason why our church name is significant, and possibly why it is such a popular name for Anglican churches.

Summary
God is looking for people who want to know Him, who want to communicate with Him and Cooperate with him in his work. The way we do this is to Pray in the Spirit. I invite and challenge us all to Pray always, in all manner of prayer, with all perseverance, for all the saints. As we do this we will indeed become God's intimate friends and partners in His work. AMEN.

No Rotten Words

A sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on August 9, 2009 at the Convent Chapel of St. Mary's Medical Center, Huntington, WV, and based on Ephesians 4:25-5:2.

Complete the following sentence: Sticks and stones may break my bones, but ….(words will never hurt me.)
True? … Not so much.

I think all of us can remember experiences like this one. You’re playing on the school playground and the smartest and most athletic kid in the class repeatedly upbraids you for mistakes you make, calling you stupid. You put up a brave front at the time, but afterward you run home and pour out your heart to your mom, cut to the quick, almost inconsolable. You then remember this incident for the next 43 years!

Words have amazing power to hurt us – which is why the Apostle Paul tells us emphatically: “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” (Eph. 4:29). Let’s hear this same verse in several different versions.


Here’s the New American Standard:
“Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear.”

The New International Version: 29Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.

The Message: 29Watch the way you talk. Let nothing foul or dirty come out of your mouth. Say only what helps, each word a gift.

The Amplified Version: 29Let no foul or polluting language, nor evil word nor unwholesome or worthless talk [ever] come out of your mouth, but only such [speech] as is good and beneficial to the spiritual progress of others, as is fitting to the need and the occasion, that it may be a blessing and give grace (God's favor) to those who hear it.

(Note: Many different versions of the Bible can be viewed easily at biblegateway.com; or crosswalk.com)

The Greek word sapros, translated in the ESV as “Corrupting” also applies to“bad” (putrid) fish (Matt. 13:48) or “bad” (rotten) fruit (Luke 6:43), hence the title for today’s sermon: “No Rotten Words”. I was also thinking about “Yucky Ucky Words… but you get the drift.
As a professional counselor, I think I could build an entire practice on this one verse. All of us get in trouble because of the words we use. The Apostle James warns us:
5 So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! 6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. 7 For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, 8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 9 With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. 10 From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. (James 3:5-10).

YOW! This is an example of having a problem with the parts of the Bible you do understand! The Tongue is set on fire by Hell, full of deadly poison, rotten to the core, a restless evil! Whoever can tame it is a perfect, or whole, complete person. The rest of us suffer because of the things we say to one another.

God’s Purpose for our Communication:
In today’s reading from Ephesians we not only see a description of unwholesome communication, but several key purposes that God desires for our conversation:

V. 25: Be Truthful: Speak the truth to one another
V. 26: Be Angry: But use your anger for righteous purposes.
V. 29: Build up Others: (Edification)
V. 29: Give Grace to Others
V. 32: Express Kindness
V. 32: Extend Forgiveness

This type of communication has an overall goal: To walk in love, imitating our Savior, and to be unified with others. The practice of these virtues will lead to a wholesome church and family life, confounding the Devil, who always seeks an opportunity.

So, our challenge is before us. What I’d like to do for the rest of our time together today is outline some observations about why we so easily get off the track and use rotten language, and then offer some suggestions about how to get back on track when we get derailed.

Relapse Triggers
In the world of Drug and Alcohol recovery, the concept of Relapse Triggers is central. These are the things that predispose us to failure. They’re very mundane and are often summarized with the acronym HALT: Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired.

In our family, we used to see these things very acutely when our children were small. We’d have them out in public and they would get tired and hungry and then just suddenly have a meltdown – usually in the most embarrassing situations.

When my daughter Lindsey would get angry with her sister Leah, she would lash out at her verbally with an intense hiss that sounded like a wildcat. I used to call her Little Miss Oral Aggression – a title which would hardly fit her today, by the way.

I think you can supply plenty of your own examples to illustrate the point that we are frail physical creatures and our bodily needs can easily lead us to ‘tongue failure”.

Failure to Communicate
Clint Eastwood had a famous line in one of his movies. Fill in the blank again: “What we have here is a: (failure to communicate).
The most common thing I observe in my counseling work is that we fail to communicate because we so easily get off the subject.
We do this because we tend to ramble in our statements, to verbally attack each other and to become defensive when attacked.

Let’s just take a common scenario. Both parties start off with good intentions as they talk about something potentially problematic, such as how to use money. Almost immediately conflict arises in the mere statement of “The Problem”. Someone uses the word “You” and follows it with a criticism couched in a generalization: “You never spend money the right way”. You always spend money the wrong way”. You never save enough. You always save too much…etc., etc.

There are at least four things wrong with these types of statements.

1) They start with the word “You”, making whatever follows PERSONAL.

2) They use generalizations which cannot possibly be universally true. Too much for what? What is the right way ? The Wrong way?

3) They fail to specify the actual problem. What specifically are you complaining about?

4) They contain no suggestions about how to solve the problem.

We could say that these statements are “semantically ill-formed”. They don’t really convey meaning accurately. They are faulty or Rotten.

Because our statements are faulty, they lead others to misunderstand us and to become defensive. When we hear sentences that start with the word “You”, we immediately brace ourselves for a possible attack - even when what follows is positive.

If a personal attack does come, we then immediately put up our defensive shields and mount a counter attack: “Oh, yeah! So’s your Old Lady…” It’s a “1,2” action: 1) Defend, 2) Counterattack.

This quickly degenerates into name-calling and raised voices.

Now if we had any sense, we’d stop at this point. Someone would say, “You know what, I think this is getting out of hand. We need to stop and regroup.”

But, no. In our desire to be right and to WIN, we keep on going, usually making things worse by the minute. We defend and counterattack back and forth, and before long we have completely forgotten what it was we were talking about. Instead of trying to solve a problem, we are now “fighting about fighting” – and no one wins. And by the way, the unwritten rule about arguing is “The first person to raise his or her voice loses.”

In other words, you lose your credibility when you yell. The other person quickly observes that you’re out of control and they conclude that they don’t have to listen to anything else you say. You lose – even if you’re right!

So that’s a pretty good description of some things we do wrongly as we try to communicate. What should we do instead?

Here are four suggestions to address the four errors we mentioned before.
1) Use the passive voice. The active voice is very clear and direct: “I deposited money in the bank.” The subject acts directly on the object. Easily understandable.

But the active voice can also take the form of a direct attack: “You spent all my money!”

It’s often better to state a problem in the passive voice.
Instead of saying “You spent all my money!”, use the passive form to avoid the personal attack: “There’s a problem with our finances.” Or, if you want to really take a ‘one-down’ position:
“I have a problem with my checkbook.”

If this seems a bit contrived to you, just ask yourself whether the goal is to express your anger at the other person, or whether you want to solve the problem. The answer to this question may help with the motivation to ‘think first, talk later”.

2) Be specific. The old saying is: “All Generalizations are false, including this one.” Avoid using the big ‘universal qualifiers” such as ‘always’ and ‘never’. Instead of “all my money”, specify 20 dollars, 200 dollars or 2000 dollars, etc.

3) State the problem in concrete, specific terms (again using the passive voice to avoid personalizing the accusation) “On Tuesday at 4:00 pm I got a call from the bank saying that they are going to freeze all our accounts”…

4) Be specific with your request to solve the problem. Now I say ‘request’ because every time you communicate with someone, there is an underlying, embedded request: “Will you please listen to me?” is perhaps the most basic request we make of casual acquaintances and friends. With family, the request is: “Will you please love me?” These are broad, assumed requests. The specific form of the request might be “Will you please love me by helping me solve this bank problem?” We don’t normally state this underlying request, but it’s important to know it’s there because even when you are addressing a problem, you are actually asking for something good from the other person – their time and attention, their cooperation in solving a problem.

Then when we do make the actual proposal to solve the problem, it must be stated specifically: “Will you please sit down with me tonight after supper and look at the bank statement?” Will you please help me set up a budget?”

If you are asking for something more personal, use the same technique. Don’t say, “Will you please love me more?” Instead ask:” Will you please talk to me, or hug me, or go for a walk with me?” The cardinal rule is: “If you want it, you have to ask for it.’ Don’t assume the other person knows what you need and will simply supply your need when you want it, without you having to ask for it. That’s called ‘mind-reading’ and it just doesn’t work.

Remember, you are asking for something good, so ask for it in a good way. Instead of using the rotten form: “Why don’t you ever…” use: “Will you please…” You are much more likely to get what you want if you ask for it positively and specifically.

The corollary to this is that if someone else is asking you something in a general way, ask: “What specifically can I do to make it better for you?” The goal is to get the request stated in concrete, behavioral terms such as: “I would like you to pray with me right now about our finances.” This is a ‘doable’ request.

You can even ‘check it out’ to make sure you understand the request: “So… you want me to pray with you right now about this?” If the other person nods their head up and down and says, “Yes.” you’ve hit pay dirt and you’re well on your way to solving the problem.

This is especially true if you are being personally attacked. If they say, “You’re bad or wicked!” You respond (not sarcastically) “In what way do you think I am bad or wicked?” This, I believe is a concrete way we can “turn the other cheek” as Jesus said. The goal is to get the complaint stated as clearly and specifically as possible and then to actually solve the problem with a specific solution.

The very most important things to communicate are Apology and Forgiveness. If you tell me I have sinned against you, I MUST, as a Christian, seek your forgiveness and make specific restitution if possible. If I ask you to forgive me, you as a Christian, MUST forgive me and reckon the offense “Paid in Full” by the blood of Christ. The request for, and extension of Forgiveness is Christian Communication par excellence and it’s what keeps us unified as family, friends and church members.

In almost every case, the use of these communication techniques will help you fulfill the ‘ministry of reconciliation’ and help you actually get what you want more often than not.

Summary
These are just a few pointers that relate to the most egregious ways that we let Rotten words come out of our mouths. Remember again that the goals of our communication with others are to:

Speak the truth to one another
To use our anger for righteous purposes
To Build up Others
To Give Grace to Others
To Express Kindness
To Extend Forgiveness

If you do these things, you will show yourself to be a mature, Christ-like person, one who not only says they love God, but actually demonstrates it in conversations with others.

May God give us Grace to practice this discipline – and Grace to extend to each other as we do so. AMEN.

Believe

A sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on August 2, 2009 at the Convent Chapel of St. Mary's Medical Ctr., Huntington, WV and based on John 6:24-37


So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum, seeking Jesus.

25 When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” 26 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27 Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” 28 Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” 30 So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? 31 Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” 32 Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”

35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.


I believe it will rain today…

I can’t believe I found a parking place right by the door!

I believe you’re right about that …

My neighbor believes in reseeding his lawn every fall.

You wouldn’t believe how long it took me!

The undersecretary for congressional obfuscation replied, “I believe so, Senator…”

We use the word ‘believe’ in many different ways, some of them casual and offhand, some of them more thoughtful and considered. Throughout the Bible, God tells us to believe in Him. Today we’re going to consider some of the consequences of Belief and Unbelief in this message entitled “Believe!”

Our Gospel lesson today ends with Jesus’ powerful assertion:
“I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”

He addresses this statement to a crowd whom he had just fed miraculously the day before and who had sought Him out to get some more of that good free food. He calls them out on their transparent greed and admonishes them to labor for the food that endures to eternal life - food that He himself will give them; the food from Heaven, which they are to receive as they do the work of God, namely to believe in him whom God has sent – Jesus.

As always, the crowd displays amazing spiritual depth and insight as they ask, …”what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform?”

They don’t realize that they are reenacting the same error that their ancestors made in the wilderness. They just got done eating the loaves and the fishes, the manna from heaven if you will – and they haven’t the slightest clue that pita bread ain’t the real Bread that God has to offer. They saw the sign, but seeing didn’t see!

This crowd illustrates the tragicomic effects of unbelief: spiritual dullness, preoccupation with the belly, and eventual death through lack of true spiritual food.

Jesus is trying to help them understand the blessings of belief in him – Life and Fullness – but they just don’t seem to get it. They are spiritual blockheads. But lest we be too judgmental, let us consider that those of who say we believe may actually struggle with truly believing ourselves.
In the latest issue of Christian Counseling Today magazine, Josh McDowell writes about the “The Beliefs that Impact Everyday Life” He reports about the “Third Millennium Teens” study done by the Barna Research Group, which reveals some startling information. Among the group of teens surveyed, religious beliefs and spirituality were found to be very important. 70% surveyed attended some church youth group and 80% claimed to be Christians.

The Vast majority [of this group] (80%) believes that God created the universe and 84% believe that God is personally involved in people’s lives. Yet in spit of these orthodox views:

63% also believe that Muslims, Buddhists, Christians, Jews, and all other people pray to the same god, even though they use different names for their god.

87% believe Jesus was a real person who came to earth and 78% believe He was born to a virgin;

yet nearly half (46%) believe He committed sins, and over half (51%) say He died but did not rise from the dead!

48% of teenagers today believe that it doesn’t matter what religious faith you associate with because they all believe the same principles and truth;

58% believe that all religious faiths teach equally valid truth.

67% suspect that there is ‘no way to tell which religion is true”!

Religious Smorgasbord

McDowell comments that these teens are “putting together their own religious canon in a smorgasbord style, believing it is best to pick and choose from the various ideas, concepts of God, and religions around them and construct a tailor-made ‘faith’ that’s just right for them. That way, it will be theirs personally and will offend no one.”

“….the majority of young people have been conditioned to believe that truth is not true for them until they choose to believe it. That’s why 81% claim that ‘all truth is relative to the individual and his/her circumstances.”

Their pragmatic idea that ‘what works right now is right for now’ will eventually lead them down a path of self-destruction” says McDowell. (Quoted in Christian Counseling Today Vol. 16, No. 3.)

Remember, this is a description of teens who mostly identify themselves as Christians! The study goes on to describe the practical effects of unbelief in teens’ lives. Young people who lack a basic biblical belief system are:

· 36% more likely to lie to a friend.
· 48% more likely to cheat on an exam
· 200% more likely to steal
· 200% more likely to physically hurt someone
· 300% more likely to use illegal drugs, and
· 600% more likely to attempt suicide

When the Bible says ‘The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23), this is what it looks like. And while this study described teenagers, it doesn’t take much imagination to extend this description out to adults. We see it all around us in the constant public scandals and swindles that come to light almost every day. Overt Unbelief is harmful to individuals and to our society as a whole. But the Postmodernist smorgasbord approach to spiritual things that accepts anything as true is also harmful because it rejects Ultimate Truth altogether. Postmodern Relativism is very absolute about the idea that ‘All truth is relative’. Practitioners of this philosophy says things such as:

“The crisis of this moment has … do with the great Western heresy - that we can be saved as individuals, that any of us alone can be in right relationship with God. It’s caricatured in some quarters by insisting that salvation depends on reciting a specific verbal formula about Jesus. That individualist focus is a form of idolatry, for it puts me and my words in the place that only God can occupy, at the center of existence, as the ground of all being.” (Kathryn Jefferts Schori in an address at the recent Convocation of the Episcopal Church).

Any belief system is acceptable to relativists – Buddhist, Hindu, Green - except one that insists on personal belief in Jesus Christ as the only Savior and Lord. When it comes to an exclusive belief in Christ, this must be denounced as heresy and ruthlessly pushed out.
Our own Fr. Peter Schoew has experienced this first hand, having been deposed as a priest in the Episcopal Church for not renouncing his ordination vows when he and his colleagues were found to be too conservative. This is only the most blatant form of persecution. What we must grieve over is the more subtle effects of this intolerance on those who are left to live in this toxic environment.

Here are a few points to emphasize about unorthodox beliefs:

· Heretical, non-orthodox beliefs are corrosive to vibrant faith.
· Continued exposure to unbelief deadens the spirit and leads us away from the Lord.
· Ongoing, undiscerning exposure to unbelief leads not only to deadening of true faith, but to persecution of those who really do believe.
· We must stand for truth for our own sake so that we may experience the fullness of what God has for us – Intimacy with Him, and being fed and watered by His Spirit.
· We must stand for Truth for the sake of those whose faith has been eroded through merciless destruction of True Belief.
· We must remember that those who sit under false teaching suffer.

Example: Our friends in the Worldwide Church of God for almost 30 years. There were captive to a legalistic and false doctrine and they are still grieving over it after coming out 15 years later!

God Himself grieves over those who are being lead astray.

We must pray for them that God might open the eyes of their hearts so that they might experience the Joy of Knowing and Loving Jesus.

But we must also pray for ourselves – that God would daily renew our faith and help us to act upon what we say we believe.

When Jesus says Believe, it is not a suggestion; it is a command. Failure to believe results in eventual hardening of the heart and death – eternal separation from God. As you are hearing this message, the angels are recording your receipt of it and you will be held accountable.

But that is to focus on the negative. What I’d like to leave you with today with are
Three A’s of Belief:

Assent
Accept
Apply

Intellectual Assent means agreeing with God or ‘confessing’ - ‘saying the same thing’ about the Gospel message. Assent acknowledges the plausibility of Belief.

Acceptance goes beyond Assent and opens the door of the heart to Jesus, who stands knocking and waits for admission. Acceptance means placing my trust in Christ as a trustworthy Savior.

Finally, Applying belief means taking the message I have heard and applying the principles to my life in concrete ways. The apostle James says, ‘Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works ‘(Jas 2:18). In other words, put your money where your mouth is. If you say you believe in Christ as your Lord and Savior, prove it by your actions.

Belief in God and Jesus Christ is very important. Despite what some Marine Biologists may say, Belief in Christ in not heretical. In fact Believing is mentioned 84 times in the book of John alone. Listen to a few of the references from John Chapter Six:
John 6:35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
John 6:40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
John 6:47 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.

Belief is what makes you a Christian!

So having said all this, the only thing left to do is to extend an invitation. If you have never believed in Christ, never placed your faith and trust in Him to be your Savior and Lord, now is the appointed day of Salvation. I invite you to pray silently with me this prayer for the Salvation of your soul:

“God, I believe that you exist and that You reward those who diligently seek You. I believe that you sent Jesus Christ to live and die for me so that I shall not perish but have everlasting life with you. Please forgive me of all my sins. Cleanse me and renew a right spirit within me. Give me the joy of your salvation and send your Holy Spirit to live within me. Make me your disciple Lord. Change me and use me as you will – and all for your Glory, through Jesus Christ and in His name I pray.”

If you prayed that prayer with me, rejoice for your name is written in the Book of Life and all the angels in heaven are rejoicing over you right now! Please let me know of your assent and acceptance of Christ so that we might begin to help you apply your new belief in Christ.

AMEN.

Prophetic P's and Q's

A sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on July 12, 2009 at the Convent Chapel of St. Mary's Medical Center, Huntington, WV and based on Amos 7:7-15.

Amos 7:7-15
7 This is what he showed me: behold, the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand. 8 And the Lord said to me, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A plumb line.” Then the Lord said,
“Behold, I am setting a plumb linein the midst of my people Israel;I will never again pass by them;9 the high places of Isaac shall be made desolate,and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste,and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.”
10 Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear all his words. 11 For thus Amos has said,
“‘Jeroboam shall die by the sword,and Israel must go into exileaway from his land.’”
12 And Amaziah said to Amos, “O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, and eat bread there, and prophesy there, 13 but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king's sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom.”
14 Then Amos answered and said to Amaziah, “I was no prophet, nor a prophet's son, but I was a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs. 15 But the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’

Introduction
When we were homeschooling our daughter Lindsey, we bought a Latin language program for her. Initially, I tried to help her out with her vocabulary words, and I noticed that our basic question words in English: Who What Why, When… seemed to all have Latin counterparts that start with Q. Now I’m no Latin scholar, but I’d like to use a little device today from Latin to help us explore the subject of Prophecy – Old Testament and New.

The basis for this message is our reading from Amos today (7:7-15) in which Amos sees a vision of the plumb line and talks briefly about his role as a prophet. With apologies to the Latin scholars in our midst, I would like for us to consider some Prophetic P’s and Q’s. Namely:

The Personnel of Prophecy or Qui (Who?)
The Purpose of Prophecy – or Quare (Why?)
The Product of Prophecy: Quod (What?)

But first the setting for our passage from Amos:

Personnel (Qui): Amos, a shepherd from the Tekoa who is also a dresser of Sycamore fig trees. He is not a ‘professional’ ‘prophet for profit’ but an ‘amateur’, not a “prophet or the son of a prophet” but someone God called out for a special purpose –

Purpose (Quare): to speak to the northern tribes of Israel about their injustice and unfaithfulness and to warn them about the judgment to come:

Product (Quod): The product that Amos produces is a Prophecy from God, the ‘Word of the Lord”, ‘oracles’ of impending judgment that begin with “Thus says the Lord”, or “Hear this word”. These oracles descry cruelty and oppression by Israel’s neighbors, but also contain accusations and warnings against Israel itself.

In this prophecy there are also Visions with explanations. Our reading today from Amos chapter 7 contains the vision of the plumbline. Earlier in the same chapter are pictures of Locusts coming to eat up the crops and fire devouring the land. The prophetic word comes with metaphorical visions of what the Lord is doing or will do.

It’s also significant to note that Amos uses many different literary techniques. The introduction to Amos from the ESV online says… …”the dominant literary form is satire, with the usual elements of objects of attack, a satiric vehicle …, a satiric norm or standard by which the criticism is conducted, and a prevailing satiric tone… In addition… Amos is a master of smaller forms such as metaphor and simile, epithet (“you cows of Bashan,” 4:1), parallelism, rhetorical questions, and parody … Other genres that find a place in the book include saying or proverb, doom song, woe formula, and visionary writing."

So Prophecy in the Old Testament is a literary product, an art form replete with the techniques of artistry, that stands on its own as Art. All of this is an attempt to get the people’s attention, to call them to repentance and have them return to the Lord before it’s too late and doom comes upon them. Prophecy is ultimately rooted in God’s love and concern for his people. Prophecies in the Old Testament are stern poems from a loving God to his errant children which contain accusations and judgments, but also promises and encouragement – if only the people turn back.
The most successful example of Prophecy I can think of is Jonah at Nineveh. Jonah delivers the prophecy, and the people repent and worship the Lord. Mission Accomplished.

However, unlike Nineveh, when Amos delivers his prophecy, the priest Amaziah, tells him to get lost and go prophecy somewhere else – not exactly the right way to receive God’s Word! Old Testament Prophecy is meant to produce a result – Repentance.

Importantly,the success of the prophecy is not gauged by the result, but upon the faithfulness of the prophet to deliver the message.

Prophecy in the New Testament
In the New Testament prophecy takes on a more varied complexion. Just taking a brief look at the Gospel of Luke gives us several types:

Chapter 1: The Angel Gabriel prophecies to Zechariah about the birth of John the Baptist , who will …” turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.”

Gabriel also prophecies the birth of Jesus to Mary (1:33,34) “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
When John is born, his father, Zechariah sings the song, sometimes referred to as the “Benedictus”, prophecying over John:

You, my child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High, *
for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way,
To give people knowledge of salvation *
by the forgiveness of their sins.

The ancient Simeon also prophecies in song after having seen the baby Jesus. In the song we call Nunc dimittis: (Luke 2:29‑32)

Lord, you now have set your servant free *
to go in peace as you have promised;
For these eyes of mine have seen the Savior, *
whom you have prepared for all the world to see:
A Light to enlighten the nations, *
and the glory of your people Israel.

Coming to John the Baptist, he really is the embodiment of the Old Testament type of prophet. In fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy, he cries out in the wilderness, preparing the way of the Lord, saying

8 Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. … “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or by false accusation, and be content with your wages.” … “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
Clearly, this is the classic prophetic message: Repent and believe – or else!

Jesus himself can be thought of as a Prophet in this mold, especially when he foretells the destruction of Jerusalem in and his eventual return in Luke 21:

20 “But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near. 21 Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let those who are inside the city depart, and let not those who are out in the country enter it, 22 for these are days of vengeance, to fulfill all that is written. 23 Alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days! For there will be great distress upon the earth and wrath against this people. 24 They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive among all nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles…

25 “And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves, 26 people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world. For the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 27 And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. …

So even in the New Testament there are Old Testament “Thus says the Lord “ types of prophecy. But when we come to the letter 1 Corinthians, we encounter something new. Paul says,

“Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.”

Suddenly, prophecy is no longer just for the capitol ‘P’ prophet, but it has become a gift to the church and something for us to seek. Paul speaks in the imperative voice. This is a directive, something you should do. Prophecy is for all of God’s people, not just the selected prophet. We as Christians are all God’s prophetic Personnel. (Qui)

Quare - Why?, For what purpose?
1 Cor 14:3: …the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation. …the one who prophesies builds up the church. As an unbeliever hears prophecy,”he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you.”

So, again we see that the purpose of prophecy is to call people to repentance and worship of God.

Now the Product itself. Another New Testament example of prophecy is in Acts 21:10:

10 While we were staying for many days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. 11 And coming to us, he took Paul's belt and bound his own feet and hands and said, “Thus says the Holy Spirit, ‘This is how the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.’”

We have seen before that a prophet often receives a vision and then is given a meaning for that vision. Here the prophet acts out the prophecy and then provides the meaning. The actual prophesy then consists of visions or metaphorical actions that give a message of warning or hope to the recipient.

Prophecy may also be addressed to individuals in order to encourage them. It’s not unusual for a prophet to call someone out and then tell what is going on in their lives, and afterwards give a message of encouragement. This is sometimes called ‘reading your mail’. It can be embarrassing in a way, but it’s also amazing when someone who doesn’t know you accurately tells what is going on in your life and then gives you an encouragement to go on – especially when you’re having a tough time. The purpose again is to build up the church.

I’d like to now actually enter into this process briefly. Last week after our service, Cindy told me that while Peter Schoew was giving a Scripture reference and Jim was playing the piano, she had had a vision. She was reticent to share it, but I asked her to write up what she felt the Lord was showing her so that she could share it with us today.

Cindy’s Vision
Last Sunday, after Fr. Peter shared about his gift and the scripture that inspired his “spirit song” then Jim began to play his offertory – God called to my memory the focus of my prayers at the last Friday night Mission Tri-State prayer meeting.

In that prayer meeting with all the lovely incense and quietness God was showing me his spirit moving through the “desolate” parts of our city between Hal Greer and 20th St. As his spirit moved from house to house I would see houses repaired, cleansed, and lights go on and glow warmly from the windows. I watched this happen to many homes until I came to one particular house where the spirit stopped. It was a familiar place that I pass when crossing town. There the young men sit on the porch or saunter on the side walk and street in front of this house. I usually get a little nervous when I pass by here. There the spirit stayed. I could see no repair, cleansing or lighting going on here. God just stopped there – so with some effort, I prayed for the young men.

This one is hard because I don’t like to see young men sitting around on a porch. I think they should be out working. The young men there look bored, listless and possibly dangerous. Sometimes I am scared of these men especially when they walk in the street without looking to see if a car is coming. I found it hard to persevere in prayer for them because I did not want to “see” them. That was the vision at the Friday night prayer meeting…

Now back to the present. Jim was playing the offertory and I was meditating on the scripture passage Fr. Peter had copied for us

“ Give ear, O God, and hear; open your eyes and see the desolation of the city… We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy. O Lord, listen! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, hear and act! For your sake , O my God, do not delay, because your city and your people bear your Name.” Daniel 9:18 - 19

So the Lord brought me back to the young men on the porch. As Jim played (and Jim I believe you were mediating God’s spirit) -- the Lord began to give me His heart for the young men – tears formed in my eyes and I thought I would openly begin to weep, but I took a deep breath and “regained composure.” But now I began to pray in earnest for the young men on that porch. I saw them as “lost boys” -- lost in every way. The closest some have been to their fathers is the night they were conceived. They’ve not grown up with a father to teach them the way of men, and they don’t know the fatherhood of God. But God was showing me how much he loves them and wants them to be a part of his family. God hasn’t forgotten them and he doesn’t want us to forget them either…

Explication:
To summarize, let’s note the several aspects of what Cindy has shared with us and see how our P’s and Q’s apply.

Personnel is obvious – but just a note on this. Cindy does not consider herself a ‘prophet’ – just someone who got a vision. I think the Lord is developing this gift in her, but she’s a regular person, a Christian just like the rest of us.

The Purpose of her vision seems to be to call attention to God’s heart of compassion towards those we could call Lost Boys and to spur us on to mission.

Finally the Product consists of a

-A Vision
-Sparked during worship service (music gift and scripture teaching in play)
-The propohecy includes the prophest’s initial response, but also
-God’s perspective –his heart, compassion
-In response the prophet weeps and repents, she has a new perspective, and new compassion for the lost.
-Lastly, a Mission orientation is stressed,– we as the Church are admonished to reach out to these “Lost Boys’.


Not many of us used to speaking out such prophecies in church, but I hope that will change in time. We may not be ‘prophets for profit’, or be called to go stand in front of kings or presidents to call out injustice or oppression, but we are all called of God to respond to his leading however it may come. In this case, we are to ‘Seek to prophesy. …’ I hope today’s lesson will help us to mind our P’s and Q’s regarding prophecy and that the Lord will grace us with more of it – for the up-building of our church. May it be so. In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Becoming a 'Generosity-Driven Church

A Sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on June 28, 2009 at the Convent Chapel of St. Mary's Medical Center in Huntington, WV, and based on 2 Corinthians 8:1-15, Deuteronomy 15: 7-11 and Psalm 112.

8:1 We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, 2 for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. 3 For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, 4 begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints— 5 and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us. 6 Accordingly, we urged Titus that as he had started, so he should complete among you this act of grace. 7 But as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all earnestness, and in our love for you —see that you excel in this act of grace also.

8 I say this not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine. 9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich. 10 And in this matter I give my judgment: this benefits you, who a year ago started not only to do this work but also to desire to do it. 11 So now finish doing it as well, so that your readiness in desiring it may be matched by your completing it out of what you have. 12 For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have. 13 For I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened, but that as a matter of fairness 14 your abundance at the present time should supply their need, so that their abundance may supply your need, that there may be fairness. 15 As it is written, “Whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack.” (ESV)


Today, I’d like for us to consider something I think would please the Lord greatly: becoming a “Generosity – Driven” Church. Here are three B’s around which we may organize our thoughts:

The Basis for Generosity
The Barriers to Generosity
The Benefits of Generosity

But first a story:

Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove tells about a church he knew that “decided to launch a building campaign. They were a healthy church with a good pastor, and new members kept coming every month. It was a rural congregation whose size was somewhat limited by the community that surrounded it. If every living soul for five miles around found Jesus, they could probably have still fit in their building. But some folks in the congregation had heard about church growth and started thinking that they needed to build a larger sanctuary along with new classrooms and ‘multi-purpose’ space. So they launched a building campaign.

Through the denomination they hired a fundraising expert who organized an ambitious effort, seeking to raise millions of dollars. But after the church had been at it a number of years and reached only about half of the goal, they decided to end the campaign. Some people felt like it was a failure. They didn’t have enough money to build their big new building. But since they could still fit in the old one, they looked around and asked what else they might use the money for.

It turned out that one family that had come to the church during this time of growth didn’t have much money. The father was disabled, and they struggled to make ends meet. But the church was genuinely glad to have them and really enjoyed the gifts they brought to the community. So the church decided to use some of the money from the campaign fund to build that family a house.”

I think the pastor’s name was Ty Pennington…

But seriously folks…Hartgrove goes on to allow as how there is nothing wrong with building meeting spaces when a church needs it, but he concludes that “a generosity-driven church that builds houses for the poor will never have to worry about church growth. A church that pours itself out as Christ gave himself for the church will always be budding with new life. (“New Monasticism”: pgs. 104-105)

With that example in mind, let’ look at our first ‘B”: The Basis for Generosity

Verse 9 of 2 Cor. 8: “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.”

Phillipians 2:3-8 expands upon this idea in this way: “Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

The Basis for Generosity is first and foremost God’s generosity in sending Jesus Christ to empty himself out of all his divine prerogatives, take on human flesh and live and die for sinners such as us – while we were still sinners! (Romans 5:6). Now that’s Generosity!

By way of contrast, let’s go on to consider what Generosity is NOT based upon:

1) Generosity is not based on what you have – on wealth or riches.

In our passage from Second Corinthians 8: 1-3, Paul tells of the
…”grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. 3 For they gave according to their means, as I can testify - and beyond their means…”

The context for this remark was that in the years 45-47 AD, there was a general famine in the Mediterranean world, but especially in Syria. Crops failed and as a result it was almost impossible to find bread in Jerusalem. The people were starving – and money didn’t help because coins couldn’t scare up grain. So Paul spent a considerable amount of time – maybe up to a couple of years – trying to collect food for those in Jerusalem. This was a formidable task because he had to actually collect the food itself and transport it over hundreds of miles.

Now the Macedonian church was going through a ‘severe test of affliction’ itself. The people were extremely poor. Not just poor, extremely poor. Their giving went beyond their means and became an overflowing wealth of generosity. 2 Cor. 8:12: “For if the readiness [to give] is there, it is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have.”

Generosity is NOT based on our means.

2) It follows logically that Generosity is not based on having a great financial plan for the future. The Macedonians didn’t evaluate their portfolios and then decided how much they could give based on their projected rate of return, market conditions, etc. Their giving was based on a heart of compassion that sought to help others even more pressed than them. This was an ‘act of grace” (v.7). They were determined to give even though they could not see provision up ahead. Therefore, their basis of giving must have been confidence in God and His ability to provide rather than what they could see or plan. This doesn’t preclude planning, but –

Generosity is NOT based on having a great financial plan.

3) Finally, true Generosity is not based on compulsion. The Macedonians begged earnestly for the favor of contributing to the needs of the saints in Jerusalem of their own accord (v. 3). This was not by way of command (v.8), but voluntary giving - the same as that shown by the saints in Jerusalem in the very early days of the church, when the saints were “selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. (Acts 2:45).

Contrast this with State taxation. Government programs to help the poor cannot truly be said to be Generous because they are based on the coercive power of the State to extract your money whether you want to give or not. Rather, Paul sees this as a matter of fairness:

13 For I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened, but that as a matter of fairness 14 your abundance at the present time should supply their need, so that their abundance may supply your need, that there may be fairness. 15 As it is written, “Whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack.”

True Generosity is Not compulsory.

To summarize our first 'B' then: the Basis for Generosity is Christ’s example of self-giving, thankfulness for what God has done, Confidence in God as Provider, Compassion for others, and a desire to participate in what God is doing.

Now let’s look at some Barriers to Generosity

Our reading from Deut. 15:7-11 says : “If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, 8 but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be. 9 Take care lest there be an unworthy thought in your heart and you say, ‘The seventh year, [Jubilee] the year of release is near,’ and your eye look grudgingly on your poor brother, and you give him nothing, and he cry to the Lord against you, and you be guilty of sin. 10 You shall give to him freely, and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him, because for this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake. 11 For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.’

Need is say more? The first barrier to Generosity is Hardness of Heart.

Closely akin to this is Greed. I can’t give because I want stuff, status, or prestige.

This past week I talked to a woman whose heart desire was to stay at home with her kids. Her husband, however, insisted that she go to work full time, even though he himself was making hundreds of thousands of dollars. Worse – when she protested and asked what it was they needed her income for – he couldn’t even say. He wanted money for the sake of prestige and status – not even to buy toys. Greed like this is excessively wicked and God will judge it severely.

Next on our list of barriers is Fear

“What if the economy goes bad?” “What if …Wait a minute! The economy IS bad! What if it gets worse? What if we can’t pay our bills?! What if, What if, What if the sky falls in?! Somehow, I just don’t think this argument would hold much weight with the Macedonians. You see, generosity is based in confidence in God as Provider, no matter what the circumstances. Fear is never a legitimate reason not to give in God’s economy.

Then there is perhaps a more subtle barrier: the challenge to give wisely. It’s possible to give badly – with strings or expectations attached. In Spencer, where my mother and my sister live, there are two Methodist churches within a block of one another. One church has a large endowment which is earmarked for the maintenance and upkeep of the building. The problem is that the money can’t be used for anything else. So the membership keeps dwindling and they can’t pay their monthly bills or fund Outreach ministry– but they have a well-kept building!

Gifts of money can create unhealthy relationships or circumstances. Throwing money at problems can create other problems in its wake. It takes true discernment to give wisely.
So the need to give wisely is a potential barrier to true Generosity – but it’s no excuse. We are still expected to be Generous.

But enough with barriers and problems; on to the Benefits of Generosity

Psalm 112, beginning in verse 5:
5 It is well with the man who deals generously and lends;who conducts his affairs with justice.6 For the righteous will never be moved;he will be remembered forever.7 He is not afraid of bad news;his heart is firm, trusting in the Lord.8 His heart is steady; he will not be afraid,until he looks in triumph on his adversaries.
9 He has distributed freely; he has given to the poor;his righteousness endures forever;his horn is exalted in honor.

The Generous person will be blessed with

Stability
A Righteous Legacy
Confidence
Triumph over enemies
Power

Verses 1-3 of Psalm 112 also add the following benefits:

Great Offspring
Wealth
Riches
Righteousness

Let’s look at these verses now:
“1 Praise the Lord!Blessed is the man who fears the Lord,who greatly delights in his commandments!2 His offspring will be mighty in the land;the generation of the upright will be blessed.3 Wealth and riches are in his house,and his righteousness endures forever.”

Note the exuberance of the Psalmist’s praise. In 2 Cor 8: 2, we find a wonderful phrase to describe this: “Abundance of Joy”.

An excellent benefit of Generosity is Abundance of Joy.

This week, I have watched this Generosity in action as we have had a crew from the World Changers working at Hope House. In talking to the crew members, we learned from one joyful woman, Pam, that this was her 10th World Changers trip in as many years!

Another lady on the crew, Ginger, told us how her church of some 300 people sent 60 of its members to work in Huntington this week! And 11 of them were from her own immediate and extended family! This is extravagant Generosity. And its reward is Joy.

Friday night we went to the World Changers wrap-up dinner and Worship Service at Huntington High School. Believe me, there was lots of enthusiasm and joy in the crowd as they worshipped the Lord and told of experiences they had had during the week.

This kind of giving also leads to Growth in Faith. Generosity opens up opportunities to see God work in ways that we could never imagine. Generosity increases Faith.

It also produces a Good Testimony in the world.

On Monday, I met a young man named Marcel, who lives with his girlfriend, Letitia, three doors down from Hope House. Marcel starts his days by sitting out on the front stoop and drinking beer from a bottle in a paper bag. Over the course of five days, I talked with Marcel numerous times and even had the opportunity to invite him into Hope House at one point. He looked around and after the tour, he told me in slurred speech, “You guys sure are doin’ a great thing here. After you get this done, we should have a party – a good one, not a bad one, you know. We’ll get together and celebrate. …”

Because we as a congregation have been generous in the Fairfield community, we have a good reputation with nonbelievers. Over the course of time, I fully expect that some, if not many, will come to know Christ – largely because we have sown into the life of the community generously thus creating a Good Testimony.

So to return to our challenge or call – It pleases God for us to become a Generosity – Driven Church.

I do believe that we are generous already. When you look at the numbers on our financial report every month, I think you would have to agree that we are generous. But I think we have room to grow in this.

Robert Shnase, in his book, “Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations” says that ‘Extravagantly Generous congregations emphasize mission, purpose, and life-changing results rather than shortages, budgets and institutional loyalty”. …”They emphasize the Christian’s need to give more than the church’s need for money. They teach, preach, and practice proportional giving with the goal of tithing. …They speak of joy, devotion, honoring God, and the steady growth of spirit that leads to greater [and greater] generosity.” (pg 119).

I think that sounds like an exciting way to approach giving – and I hope you do too.

So how shall we proceed? How do we become “Generosity-Driven”?

Start with the Tithe. If you’re not tithing already, make a plan to become a tither. This is the one area where God specifically invites us to test him: Malachi 3:10-12: “Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. 11 I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil, and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the Lord of hosts. 12 Then all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight, says the Lord of hosts.”

Put God to the test and see if He will not provide for you as you give generously. Plan to increase your giving one per cent per year until you have reached the Tithe – and see if the Lord does not provide for your every need.

Our commitment to AMIA is that we participate in the 10-10-10 plan. We all tithe to the church. The Church tithes to AMIA, and AMIA sends a tithe to Rwanda, granting 50% of its monies back to local ministries. This is where our $9500 grant for the HVAC system at Hope House came from. We benefited from others’ generosity and we in turn we must be a blessing to others.

But even beyond ‘paying our dues’ to AMIA, as a congregation, let’s begin to think about this notion of Extravagant Giving. What would the Lord have us to do that we would become more and more known as a Generosity-Driven Church? Let’s commit to praying about it and ‘put God to the Test” and see if He does not open the windows of heaven – even to the point where we have to say “Enough, Lord, stay your hand.”

Let’s become Macedonians, characterized by Abundance of Joy who give ‘beyond our means because we know that God’s means can never be exhausted. Amen? Amen.