A sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on December 31, 2006, based on John 1:1-18
This past week, we celebrated the birth of a baby boy to a young mother and her protective husband. Matthew, Mark and Luke, the so-called ‘Synoptic” or ‘same view” Gospel writers, were all keen to present the human side of the Nativity with specific details and genealogies that we can relate to humanly, at a certain point in time. Now comes John and tells us in philosophical and poetic terms who exactly this Jesus was: the Word of God, the only-begotten son of the Father, full of Grace and truth.
Just to set the context, John was Jesus’ best friend, the ‘beloved disciple’, the who leaned upon his breast at the Lord’s supper, who received Mary as his own mother at the crucifixion when the other disciples were cowering in fear. This is John, who received the Revelation from Jesus on the Isle of Patmos, who was the youngest of the disciples, and who lived the longest and was the last surviving eye-witness to the ministry of Jesus. This man had a very important message to his world about the God-Nature of the man we call Jesus, the Christ.
During John’s lifetime, Gnosticism had come to be a huge focus of attention in the church. It was the notion that God was God and Man is Man and never the two shall meet. Gnostics viewed the Incarnation as a scandal, and even at the extreme edge, saw Judas as the hero of the Gospel narrative – someone who had the courage to recognize that God and Man do not belong together in the same human being, and therefore the Divine had to be liberated from the flesh – violently if necessary.
Gnostics used the concept of the Logos to indicate a creative principle, by which the world was created. But this Logos was not understood to be a Person, but an impersonal force or organizing idea; certainly not a Person. John’s Prologue to his Gospel comes as a broadside against this Greek philosophy and totally redefines the terms of discussion about the Divine. John tells us that “in the beginning was the Word – the Logos – and the Word was with God and the Word was God.
In just a few sentences, John captures Truth about God that has never been surpassed for its literary beauty and theological concision. The opening words echo Genesis, “In the beginning” – but the first book of the Bible focuses on the actions of God creating through his pronouncements. God Speaks and the world comes in being. In John’s Gospel, we see that the spoken Word of God is actually a Person, Jesus. This Logos, the Second Person of the Trinity became flesh and dwelt among us. God took on Flesh and became Emmanuel, God with us. In a word, he was Incarnated, clothed with flesh. This is the Event we celebrate in Advent, the coming of the Word into the world.
But John also wants us to understand that in and through Jesus everything came into being that has come into being, and apart from Him, nothing has come into being. He is reinforcing the Genesis message of God’s creative mastery over our lives. God speaks and the world comes into existence. The universe is not the result of random chance operating in a vacuum. Our lives are not random events in a senseless material world, but rather highly specific actions of an Absolute and Sovereign God, one to whom we owe allegiance and fealty as our Maker, and to whom we will give an account of all our actions.
Contrast this with what we call Postmodernism. Postmoderns don’t believe in any Logos, or in Truth as an objective category. Truth is constructed in your head, according to your experience, your likes and dislikes. There is little or no sense of recognizing an authority outside of oneself as having any claim or demand upon me. Freedom is the highest value. Nothing should ever get in the way of what I want to do. Everyone’s opinion is equally valid; it’s as if folks are saying to God, “I’ve got a right to my opinion – even if you do claim to be God.”
Postmoderns believe that every path is valid as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone. Toleration is the highest interpersonal value. To assert that there is such a thing as Truth is to gain for yourself the label of Intolerant or Bigot – the unforgivable secular sin. I actually heard one of my colleagues at work say to another colleague, very seriously, “I have no tolerance for Intolerance!” I wanted to go up to her and say, “Here’s yer sign!”
Now back to John for a little black and white theology. Jesus, he says, is our Life and this life is the light of men. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not and never will be able to overtake it. Jesus came to a people who sat in darkness awaiting the fulfillment of the prophetic Word. They were yearning to be free of the oppression of the Romans. But Jesus came to His own people and they did not recognize Him. Instead, just as they did to all the other prophets, they killed Jesus. But the great loss of the Jewish people was our gain. For while the Jews rejected Christ, ‘as many as did receive Him, he gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in his name’(v.14). This is a clear cut case of something either being True or Not. Jesus is either the Messiah or Not. The postmodern wishes to assert, “That’s not true for me”, as if one’s acknowledgment of facts is sort of like picking out an outfit: “Does this alb make me look fat?”…
Postmoderns can’t stand the idea that something is True and something else is not true. Yet at the same time, they can’t quite get away with just making things up as they go. They want to have something behind their preferences to back them up. So they bring in Science, or more to the point pseudo-science and try to say things like “Being Gay is Genetic”, not realizing that the Word of God never bases values or ethics on genetics. When the Bible says “Don’t lust, fornicate or commit adultery” there is no sympathy whatsoever for any special pleading that I may be heterosexual and so have to Lust, fornicate and commit adultery. “I can’t help it, it’s my genes…” doesn’t cut it with God.
Truth is all about Judgment. Alexander Solzehitzen says “One word of Truth outweighs the Universe. When Truth comes to us, it judges everything that isn’t True by virtue of its simple existence. Truth separates Good from Bad, Reality from Unreality and the perfect from the imperfect. Truth can be our ‘enemy’ as it exposes the lies and deceptions in our lives. That’s why people reject God’s free offer of salvation; it exposes their own lies and self-deceptions.
But in Jesus, Truth and Grace come together. Jesus is described as being full of Grace and Truth. Because He lived a sinless life, Truth has been satisfied in Him. Because he offered himself freely on our behalf, we receive Grace instead of judgment. Grace is undeserved favor. It’s what you get when you don’t get what you deserve. It comes as a gift, not because of anything we have done.
One of the great things that happen when we receive Christ as Savior is that we receive the gift of adoption as Children of God. Not only are we forgiven of our sins, but we become part of the family. We receive Grace upon Grace. While the Jewish people claimed to be the sons of God through being descended of Abraham, we Christians are born not of Blood, nor by any action of our own wills, says John, but by the gracious will of God. We are born of the Spirit. That is, God makes alive those who receive Jesus as Christ and Savior. Believing in Christ is not a work of the will of man, but an acceptance, a recognition, or appropriation of something God has graciously provided – Salvation. Those who receive Christ as Lord are born of the Spirit and legally adopted into the family of God, becoming joint-heirs along with Jesus, of the Grace of Life.
Folks, this is what the world needs desperately. Some of us met at 1410 Charleston Avenue on Friday to walk through the house and to pray over the property. While we in the midst of praying, a man named Tom walked up to us and said, “I saw you all praying over here and I thought I’d come and get some of that for me. I’m an alcoholic and I need to be free from alcohol”. So we laid hands on Tom and prayed for him. And while we know that addictions are insidious and usually require years of work to maintain sobriety, we also know that virtually everyone who kicks an addiction starts with a sense of spiritual poverty and ends up having a spiritual renewal. People like Tom and Walter from last week need God with them to help them overcome the terrible pull of drugs and alcohol. They’re not looking for a Postmodern philosophy that affirms them in their dysfunction, they need the New Birth that comes through believing in Christ as Savior.
In Acts 13:33, Paul preaches in Antioch and refers back to Ps. 2:7. “Thou art my Son, Today I have begotten Thee”. Here, Paul uses the word begotten to refer to God having raised Jesus from the Dead. Hebrews 1:5 quotes the same verse, again invoking the sense of God begetting His son in the act of raising Him from the Dead and seating him at the right hand of the Father. In a similar way, we are begotten as God’s sons when we are saved from the death-grip of Sin over us. And this is why Jesus Christ came into the world – to save sinners by raising them from death.
We, who have been saved by His redeeming grace need to reach out and take that same redeeming Grace into our world and help people like Tom and Walter find the fullness of Grace upon Grace which comes to us through Jesus, God’s only son, the One who is close to the Father’s heart and has made him know to us. Amen.
Saturday, December 30, 2006
Saturday, December 23, 2006
Madonna, the Blessed
A sermon delivered on December 24, 2006 at All Saints Anglican Church, based on Luke 1:39-56.
Ralph was sending his 23 year old secretary to the post office to buy stamps, and Ralph’s wife asked her to get a sheet of Christmas stamps while she was there. The secretary was happy to do that. When she returned from the post office, she showed Ralph’s wife the nice Christmas stamps with snowflakes on them. She said, “I chose these because the other Christmas stamps had a picture of Madonna and that child she adopted.”
Such is the level of general knowledge about Mary. Even in church circles we often don’t quite know what to make of this icon of a woman. We know she’s important, but our impressions of her are largely formed in reaction over against the Roman Catholic view. We know she has a special place in our faith as the Mother of Jesus, but mostly our approach to her is to send her a Hallmark Card on Mother’s Day with a generic message, “Thanks for everything, Mom.” But since the Scriptures record her words, “All generations will call me blessed”…, we really owe it to ourselves as Christians to think about this woman more seriously and to understand what place she can play in our faith. Thus, the title of this message is “Madonna, the Blessed”.
I’ve often wondered about the Magnificat, the song Mary sang upon meeting Elizabeth. How could a 15- year-old unschooled girl come up with such amazing poetry so full of exalted praise of God and prophetic unction?! Where did she get that kind of language? I think the answer is that she knew the Scriptures and was blessed by that knowledge. Listen to this and see if it sounds familiar:
1 "My heart rejoices in the LORD; in the LORD my horn [a] is lifted high. My mouth boasts over my enemies, for I delight in your deliverance.
2 "There is no one holy [b] like the LORD; there is no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God.
3 "Do not keep talking so proudly or let your mouth speak such arrogance, for the LORD is a God who knows, and by him deeds are weighed.
4 "The bows of the warriors are broken, but those who stumbled are armed with strength.
5 Those who were full hire themselves out for food, but those who were hungry hunger no more. She who was barren has borne seven children, but she who has had many sons pines away.
6 "The LORD brings death and makes alive; he brings down to the grave [c] and raises up.
7 The LORD sends poverty and wealth; he humbles and he exalts.
8 He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap; he seats them with princes and has them inherit a throne of honor. "For the foundations of the earth are the Lord’s; upon them he has set the world.
9 He will guard the feet of his saints, but the wicked will be silenced in darkness. "It is not by strength that one prevails;
10 those who oppose the LORD will be shattered. He will thunder against them from heaven; the LORD will judge the ends of the earth."He will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed."
This is from I Samuel Chapter 2, the Prayer of Hannah, mother of Samuel, which she sang when she was told she would conceive a child. It’s fairly easy to see the similarities between the two songs. In addition there are numerous references to the Psalms. All in all, the Magnificat contains some 15 references to other Scripture passages. All of which means that Mary was very familiar with the Bible, most likely singing the Psalms and other canticles daily with her family during their devotions. Thus her spontaneous song to the Lord was informed by her deep familiarity with Scriptural songs. Mary waxed poetic because she knew the Bible – and as a consequence also knew God. Like Mary and her family, we would do well to make the reading and memorization of Scripture a daily part of our lives. If we do, we will receive a great blessing, and be ready to react to life’s circumstances with Scriptural responses.
Mary was also Blessed in her Belief. Her attitude of Belief is especially evident as she interacts with Gabriel. You’ll remember that Mary responds to the news from the angel with the question, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” Compare this with her Uncle Zechariah’s response to Gabriel: “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years?”
On the surface, these questions are very similar. But Zechariah is struck dumb and told that he would not speak until John was born because he did not believe Gabriel’s words. In contrast, Mary’s question is answered with an explanation of how the Holy Spirit will overshadow her and cause her to conceive a holy child. Her response is, “Fiat”, or “Let it be to me according to your word”. Mary is blessed because she believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord (Lk.2:45). This attitude of Belief and Acceptance is what attracted the special favor of God Almighty and caused Gabriel to address her as ‘Favored One”, Full of Grace.
Mary’s “Yes” to God is the model for our own belief. If we can put aside our “Yeah, right!” attitude of unbelief and entrust ourselves over into God’s care, we too will be blessed by knowing God and enjoying His salvation, just as the Scriptures say that if we believe with our hearts and confess with our mouths that Jesus is Lord, we will be saved (Romans 10:9). The way to be saved is always the same:
*Believe that Jesus Christ is the Savior; come into the world to save Sinners,
* repent of your sins and
* confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord to the Glory of the Father. If you’ve never done this, I urge you to do it today! Be blessed like Mary and Believe!
Finally Mary is Blessed in her Position. By virtue of her “YES” to God, Mary became the mother of Jesus - God in the flesh. Because she bore our Lord in her body, she is known as the Theotokos – the God Bearer. This title was officially recognized at the Council of Ephesus in 431 AD. Mary is not a mere womb for hire, but an active participant in God’s plan of Salvation. She of all people is chosen as the one who will impart to Jesus his human nature, allowing him to become the God-Man. As a result, her soul is filled with joy, she magnifies the Lord and her spirit rejoices in God. She is blessed in her position as the Theotokos.
In birthing Jesus, Mary also secures for herself the position of the Second Eve: the “Mother of all the Living”, that is, all who exercise faith in Christ and gain eternal life. What the first Eve lost for us through her disobedience, the second Eve bought back for us through her willing cooperation with God. Thus, she becomes our true Mother in the faith, and even the personification of the Church itself. Mary is blessed to be known as the first and best Christian.
Because of her special closeness to Jesus, she is also seen to have a position as Representative of the poor and oppressed. This can be seen at the wedding of Cana in John chapter 2. Mary comes to Jesus and says, “They have no wine” (Jn. 2:3). Mary brings this need to Jesus’ attention with the implicit belief that he can and will do something about it. Her simple observation is understood as a statement that the people have no Salvation, no “wine which makes the heart of man glad”. There is an implicit request in her statement: “Save them!” “Make some wine!” Thus, Mary is seen to have a special place as an Intercessor with God on our behalf.
Now this has caused no little controversy between Anglicans and Roman Catholic Christians - especially when she is spoken of as a “Co-mediatrix”, even though this is not the official doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church.
As Anglicans, we can affirm that Mary can indeed intercede for us. She is part of the Communion of Saints just like every other believer who has passed on to be with God. But she is just like us: She was not sinless. She needed Salvation herself and recognized it in the Magnifcat, addressing God as “my Savior”.
Jesus Christ is the One true mediator between God and Man. We needn’t go through Mary to get to God as an additional mediator, yet her position as Mother of Jesus allows her to say, “They have no wine”; to be the unique spokeswoman for all of humanity, pleading with her Son for Justice, with the implicit assumption that Jesus will answer us out of his goodness and mercy.
She also speaks to us as her children, “Do whatever he tells you” (Jn 2:5). You could base your entire Christian life on this one statement and do very well indeed.
In summary, Mary is blessed above all women, indeed of all Christians. She embodies the fullest expression of the life of Grace. She was blessed in her Knowledge of the Scriptures and her personal holiness, she was blessed in her Belief, which allowed her to say Yes to God, and she is now ever-blessed in her position as the Theotokos, the God-Bearer, our Mother in the faith, and the spokeswoman of the poor and the oppressed. In a word, she combines in her person both Joy and Justice.
Adapting a sentence from the Seattle Statement of the Anglican Roman Catholic International Commission: “…when joy is joined with justice and peace … we rightly share in the economy of hope and grace which Mary proclaims and embodies.” Amen.
Ralph was sending his 23 year old secretary to the post office to buy stamps, and Ralph’s wife asked her to get a sheet of Christmas stamps while she was there. The secretary was happy to do that. When she returned from the post office, she showed Ralph’s wife the nice Christmas stamps with snowflakes on them. She said, “I chose these because the other Christmas stamps had a picture of Madonna and that child she adopted.”
Such is the level of general knowledge about Mary. Even in church circles we often don’t quite know what to make of this icon of a woman. We know she’s important, but our impressions of her are largely formed in reaction over against the Roman Catholic view. We know she has a special place in our faith as the Mother of Jesus, but mostly our approach to her is to send her a Hallmark Card on Mother’s Day with a generic message, “Thanks for everything, Mom.” But since the Scriptures record her words, “All generations will call me blessed”…, we really owe it to ourselves as Christians to think about this woman more seriously and to understand what place she can play in our faith. Thus, the title of this message is “Madonna, the Blessed”.
I’ve often wondered about the Magnificat, the song Mary sang upon meeting Elizabeth. How could a 15- year-old unschooled girl come up with such amazing poetry so full of exalted praise of God and prophetic unction?! Where did she get that kind of language? I think the answer is that she knew the Scriptures and was blessed by that knowledge. Listen to this and see if it sounds familiar:
1 "My heart rejoices in the LORD; in the LORD my horn [a] is lifted high. My mouth boasts over my enemies, for I delight in your deliverance.
2 "There is no one holy [b] like the LORD; there is no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God.
3 "Do not keep talking so proudly or let your mouth speak such arrogance, for the LORD is a God who knows, and by him deeds are weighed.
4 "The bows of the warriors are broken, but those who stumbled are armed with strength.
5 Those who were full hire themselves out for food, but those who were hungry hunger no more. She who was barren has borne seven children, but she who has had many sons pines away.
6 "The LORD brings death and makes alive; he brings down to the grave [c] and raises up.
7 The LORD sends poverty and wealth; he humbles and he exalts.
8 He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap; he seats them with princes and has them inherit a throne of honor. "For the foundations of the earth are the Lord’s; upon them he has set the world.
9 He will guard the feet of his saints, but the wicked will be silenced in darkness. "It is not by strength that one prevails;
10 those who oppose the LORD will be shattered. He will thunder against them from heaven; the LORD will judge the ends of the earth."He will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed."
This is from I Samuel Chapter 2, the Prayer of Hannah, mother of Samuel, which she sang when she was told she would conceive a child. It’s fairly easy to see the similarities between the two songs. In addition there are numerous references to the Psalms. All in all, the Magnificat contains some 15 references to other Scripture passages. All of which means that Mary was very familiar with the Bible, most likely singing the Psalms and other canticles daily with her family during their devotions. Thus her spontaneous song to the Lord was informed by her deep familiarity with Scriptural songs. Mary waxed poetic because she knew the Bible – and as a consequence also knew God. Like Mary and her family, we would do well to make the reading and memorization of Scripture a daily part of our lives. If we do, we will receive a great blessing, and be ready to react to life’s circumstances with Scriptural responses.
Mary was also Blessed in her Belief. Her attitude of Belief is especially evident as she interacts with Gabriel. You’ll remember that Mary responds to the news from the angel with the question, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” Compare this with her Uncle Zechariah’s response to Gabriel: “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years?”
On the surface, these questions are very similar. But Zechariah is struck dumb and told that he would not speak until John was born because he did not believe Gabriel’s words. In contrast, Mary’s question is answered with an explanation of how the Holy Spirit will overshadow her and cause her to conceive a holy child. Her response is, “Fiat”, or “Let it be to me according to your word”. Mary is blessed because she believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord (Lk.2:45). This attitude of Belief and Acceptance is what attracted the special favor of God Almighty and caused Gabriel to address her as ‘Favored One”, Full of Grace.
Mary’s “Yes” to God is the model for our own belief. If we can put aside our “Yeah, right!” attitude of unbelief and entrust ourselves over into God’s care, we too will be blessed by knowing God and enjoying His salvation, just as the Scriptures say that if we believe with our hearts and confess with our mouths that Jesus is Lord, we will be saved (Romans 10:9). The way to be saved is always the same:
*Believe that Jesus Christ is the Savior; come into the world to save Sinners,
* repent of your sins and
* confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord to the Glory of the Father. If you’ve never done this, I urge you to do it today! Be blessed like Mary and Believe!
Finally Mary is Blessed in her Position. By virtue of her “YES” to God, Mary became the mother of Jesus - God in the flesh. Because she bore our Lord in her body, she is known as the Theotokos – the God Bearer. This title was officially recognized at the Council of Ephesus in 431 AD. Mary is not a mere womb for hire, but an active participant in God’s plan of Salvation. She of all people is chosen as the one who will impart to Jesus his human nature, allowing him to become the God-Man. As a result, her soul is filled with joy, she magnifies the Lord and her spirit rejoices in God. She is blessed in her position as the Theotokos.
In birthing Jesus, Mary also secures for herself the position of the Second Eve: the “Mother of all the Living”, that is, all who exercise faith in Christ and gain eternal life. What the first Eve lost for us through her disobedience, the second Eve bought back for us through her willing cooperation with God. Thus, she becomes our true Mother in the faith, and even the personification of the Church itself. Mary is blessed to be known as the first and best Christian.
Because of her special closeness to Jesus, she is also seen to have a position as Representative of the poor and oppressed. This can be seen at the wedding of Cana in John chapter 2. Mary comes to Jesus and says, “They have no wine” (Jn. 2:3). Mary brings this need to Jesus’ attention with the implicit belief that he can and will do something about it. Her simple observation is understood as a statement that the people have no Salvation, no “wine which makes the heart of man glad”. There is an implicit request in her statement: “Save them!” “Make some wine!” Thus, Mary is seen to have a special place as an Intercessor with God on our behalf.
Now this has caused no little controversy between Anglicans and Roman Catholic Christians - especially when she is spoken of as a “Co-mediatrix”, even though this is not the official doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church.
As Anglicans, we can affirm that Mary can indeed intercede for us. She is part of the Communion of Saints just like every other believer who has passed on to be with God. But she is just like us: She was not sinless. She needed Salvation herself and recognized it in the Magnifcat, addressing God as “my Savior”.
Jesus Christ is the One true mediator between God and Man. We needn’t go through Mary to get to God as an additional mediator, yet her position as Mother of Jesus allows her to say, “They have no wine”; to be the unique spokeswoman for all of humanity, pleading with her Son for Justice, with the implicit assumption that Jesus will answer us out of his goodness and mercy.
She also speaks to us as her children, “Do whatever he tells you” (Jn 2:5). You could base your entire Christian life on this one statement and do very well indeed.
In summary, Mary is blessed above all women, indeed of all Christians. She embodies the fullest expression of the life of Grace. She was blessed in her Knowledge of the Scriptures and her personal holiness, she was blessed in her Belief, which allowed her to say Yes to God, and she is now ever-blessed in her position as the Theotokos, the God-Bearer, our Mother in the faith, and the spokeswoman of the poor and the oppressed. In a word, she combines in her person both Joy and Justice.
Adapting a sentence from the Seattle Statement of the Anglican Roman Catholic International Commission: “…when joy is joined with justice and peace … we rightly share in the economy of hope and grace which Mary proclaims and embodies.” Amen.
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Dealing with Anxiety God's Way
Philippians 4:4-9
December 17, 2006
All Saints Anglican Church
When I was growing up, our family used to visit Grandpa and Grandma Walker at their farm in Spencer West Virginia. The farm was 8 miles from the nearest black top road and sometimes when it came time to go home, and it had been raining, the road was so slick and muddy we couldn’t make it up the first hill to go back home. Try as we might, the tires just couldn’t get enough traction and we spun and spun to no avail. Grandpa used to walk down to the barn and get the tractor, hook up a chain to the front of our car and pull us up that slick hill. After that we seemed to be able to get along home. But without the power assist from the tractor, we would have still been there!
Many of us find ourselves in similar circumstances mentally: consumed with anxiety about the future. We worry about our children, worry about our finances, worry about our marriages – we’re stuck in the slick mud and we don’t seem to be able to extricate ourselves. Yet Jesus said that if we would trust Him, and seek first the Kingdom of God we would have peace and all the things we worry about would be added to us ( Mt. 6:33). Why do we fail to enter into the peace that comes with trusting God?
First let’s ask another question: What positive value does my worry, anxiety and fear serve? … Positive value? This seems a nonsensical question. Surely we would immediately respond by saying that there is no positive value in my worry and fear. But wait. Let’s also start with the premise that we wouldn’t do this unless it gave us some perceived sense of value. “Perceived” is the important word here. I would submit to you that anxious worry gives us a (false) perception that we are doing something about a problem.
To illustrate this, I’m thinking of another drive our family took out to Mulberry Ridge in January of 1968. We got stuck up to the axles in mud. The more Dad tromped on the gas, the more the wheels spun and dug us deeper into the mud. We finally had to get out and walk the rest of the way. Later, we came back and put rock under the wheels to increase traction, and finally got out of the mire.
If we could compare this situation to our body and brain in anxiety - the wheels (your body) quickly report that they’re stuck and can’t get out. The engine (your brain) responds by speeding up and putting out more power to the wheels. The wheels spin and spin, but are still stuck. Now the brain thinks it is doing its job quite well, but the body is screaming out, “No, No! We’re burning up back here! Stop!” This is a picture of someone stuck in chronic anxiety, constantly stimulated by adrenaline, holding on to the illusion that speeding up will solve the problem, but threatening to burn out through the effects of stress on the body.
Our worry gives us a perception that we’re doing something about being stuck, but this is a cruel illusion and intuitively we know it. We alternately condemn ourselves for pursuing this illusion, but feel compelled to hang on to it out of concern for what will happen if we let go.
Here is a key to understanding this dilemma: We are absolutely convinced that something terrible, something life-threatening is about to happen and it is up to us to fend it off. Our bodies serve our brains faithfully and so carry out physical action in accordance with an impending disaster. The digestion shuts down, blood is pumped to the extremities. The heart beats faster and the respiration speeds up. We are fully engaged in the classic fight or flight response, ready to take up the challenge. The only problem is that the disaster has not actually taken place and our bodily preparations are an exercise in futility. Just as Mark Twain said, “the Worst Things in my life never happen…”
We need to deal with Anxiety God’s Way to keep this type of stressing from slowly killing us.
Here then is the first important point in dealing with Anxiety God’s way: Rejoice in the Lord. (Teach the chorus.)
Now remember who is saying this. It’s Paul; the same Paul who was beaten and thrown into jail along with Silas in Philippi (not WV) for preaching the Gospel and upsetting the people. The same Paul who was singing God’s praise at midnight when an earthquake suddenly destroyed the jail they were in. This is a guy who knew how to praise God in the tough places (cf. Acts 16:25). Paul and Silas were rejoicing in the Lord, not in their circumstances. They were rejoicing in God’s character, power and presence, not in their circumstances. They were rejoicing that they had been found worthy to suffer for the sake of the Gospel, not fretting over their circumstances. And as a result, they saw the deliverance of God in a dramatic way. Although they were stuck in a big way, they didn’t let there circumstances determine their response, or alter their faith in God. They rejoiced in the Lord.
The second point in dealing with Anxiety is to Pray. Often, we hear people say, “the only thing we can do now is pray” – as if this is a desperate last-ditch effort. To the contrary, prayer is the first and best thing we can do.
Prayer is talking to Someone who has the power to do something about our problem! God is able to do “exceedingly abundantly above all that we think or imagine” (Eph 3:20). Therefore, giving the problem over to Him is like kicking the problem upstairs; He’ll definitely do Something about it! But this means that we will have to make an adjustment in our thinking; we will have to give up being Junior God of the Universe!
You see, we often behave as if God had died recently, leaving us in charge! And because we know that our resources are pathetically limited, we also know we are in deep trouble. Therefore, Anxiety is a “reasonable” response to our dilemma! If I worry enough, I can somehow fend off the train wreck waiting to happen. But if you will check the obituaries in your local newspaper, you’ll quickly see that God’s name is not there - nor is it ever likely to appear. And since God is alive and much bigger and more powerful than I, He knows what to do and how to accomplish it. He doesn’t need my help!
Worry and anxiety masquerade as Christian Responsibility. But this “responsibility” is based on the false assumption that I am in charge of the Universe and that I must do something about the impending disaster. Because God is alive and in charge of all things, I am now free to stop my own ineffective worry. I must take the time to listen and heed what He plans for me, but I am now free of the overwhelming responsibility of the world’s problems. So think of prayer as the freedom to be “irresponsible” by entrusting yourself and your circumstances over to God.
Pondering, or changing your thoughts, is the next important point. We are to think on things that are good, true pure lovely worthy of praise and excellent, not lament how terrible our situation is. In the lingo of counseling and psychotherapy, we call this cognitive restructuring: Restructuring your thoughts to line up with the way things really are, not according to the false, distorted lies the Devil whispers to us. Instead of “Awfulizing” – “This is bad, this is terrible, this is awful, I’m going to die” – we need to practice telling ourselves the things that are true about God and ourselves, such as God is trustworthy and powerful. He is able to do help in time of need, if we only trust Him. The children of Israel did this when they recounted all the many mighty deeds God had done for them in bringing them out of Egypt, across the Red Sea and into the Promised Land. They were restructuring naturally negative thoughts into a rehearsal of God’s goodness and power, dwelling on the good, the true, beautiful, the excellent and the praiseworthy. Thus their confidence in God was built up.
Then finally, we are to Practice what we have learned. Paul exhorts his readers to follow him. Remember he could assert this because he had demonstrated the ability to do it in prison while bleeding and full of pain. He tells the Philippians to model themselves on him and practice what they have seen him do. And what he did was to practice his faith by Rejoicing, Pray and Pondering. He also practiced his faith by being active and doing things. In a word, he took Action.
Action is the antidote to Anxiety. But it must be effective action, not the illusory action of simply speeding up our thoughts with no effect. To go back to our car in the mud for a moment, if we want to get unstuck, we have do something that will actually accomplish a result. We have to go get the tractor and get pulled out, or we have to put something under the wheels to increase traction so that we can get out of the mud. Simply speeding up the wheels will not work, however well-intentioned. To translate this to our physical existence, somehow we must find an activity that both brain and body will accept as Action in order to reduce our anxiety. Happily, efficacious Action is both simple and easily accomplished.
Of course Prayer is Action because you are giving the problems to Someone who can do something about the problem. But another very simple Action is to write things down on a piece of paper. Especially late at night, or when we are tossing and turning in our beds, worrying about something, it is very helpful to actually get up out of bed and write down the things that worry us. Then we sketch out possible courses of action we think might fix the problems. When everything is laid out on paper, our brains will accept the notion that we have done something and we can go on to the business of falling asleep. We have made a tentative plan and written it down. This writing is the difference between planning and anxious worry. A plan can be written down, anxious worry cannot.
Beyond writing things down, it is necessary to actually do something; make arrangements to pay an outstanding bill, talk to someone you’ve been at odds with, complete a project you’ve been putting off. Do something that will relieve you of the need to worry.
Time doesn’t permit an exhaustive treatment of this topic, but I’ll just add one thought to tie our discussion in to Advent. Paul says not to worry; the Lord is at hand. During Advent, we think about both the first and second comings of our Lord. If we think on the latter too much, we can easily become distressed about the state of the world and what terrible thing will happen next.
Brothers and Sisters be anxious for nothing, but pray with thanksgiving in your hearts. Let your requests be made known to God – and His peace, the Peace that surpasses all understanding will guard your heart and your mind in our Lord Christ Jesus. Amen.
December 17, 2006
All Saints Anglican Church
When I was growing up, our family used to visit Grandpa and Grandma Walker at their farm in Spencer West Virginia. The farm was 8 miles from the nearest black top road and sometimes when it came time to go home, and it had been raining, the road was so slick and muddy we couldn’t make it up the first hill to go back home. Try as we might, the tires just couldn’t get enough traction and we spun and spun to no avail. Grandpa used to walk down to the barn and get the tractor, hook up a chain to the front of our car and pull us up that slick hill. After that we seemed to be able to get along home. But without the power assist from the tractor, we would have still been there!
Many of us find ourselves in similar circumstances mentally: consumed with anxiety about the future. We worry about our children, worry about our finances, worry about our marriages – we’re stuck in the slick mud and we don’t seem to be able to extricate ourselves. Yet Jesus said that if we would trust Him, and seek first the Kingdom of God we would have peace and all the things we worry about would be added to us ( Mt. 6:33). Why do we fail to enter into the peace that comes with trusting God?
First let’s ask another question: What positive value does my worry, anxiety and fear serve? … Positive value? This seems a nonsensical question. Surely we would immediately respond by saying that there is no positive value in my worry and fear. But wait. Let’s also start with the premise that we wouldn’t do this unless it gave us some perceived sense of value. “Perceived” is the important word here. I would submit to you that anxious worry gives us a (false) perception that we are doing something about a problem.
To illustrate this, I’m thinking of another drive our family took out to Mulberry Ridge in January of 1968. We got stuck up to the axles in mud. The more Dad tromped on the gas, the more the wheels spun and dug us deeper into the mud. We finally had to get out and walk the rest of the way. Later, we came back and put rock under the wheels to increase traction, and finally got out of the mire.
If we could compare this situation to our body and brain in anxiety - the wheels (your body) quickly report that they’re stuck and can’t get out. The engine (your brain) responds by speeding up and putting out more power to the wheels. The wheels spin and spin, but are still stuck. Now the brain thinks it is doing its job quite well, but the body is screaming out, “No, No! We’re burning up back here! Stop!” This is a picture of someone stuck in chronic anxiety, constantly stimulated by adrenaline, holding on to the illusion that speeding up will solve the problem, but threatening to burn out through the effects of stress on the body.
Our worry gives us a perception that we’re doing something about being stuck, but this is a cruel illusion and intuitively we know it. We alternately condemn ourselves for pursuing this illusion, but feel compelled to hang on to it out of concern for what will happen if we let go.
Here is a key to understanding this dilemma: We are absolutely convinced that something terrible, something life-threatening is about to happen and it is up to us to fend it off. Our bodies serve our brains faithfully and so carry out physical action in accordance with an impending disaster. The digestion shuts down, blood is pumped to the extremities. The heart beats faster and the respiration speeds up. We are fully engaged in the classic fight or flight response, ready to take up the challenge. The only problem is that the disaster has not actually taken place and our bodily preparations are an exercise in futility. Just as Mark Twain said, “the Worst Things in my life never happen…”
We need to deal with Anxiety God’s Way to keep this type of stressing from slowly killing us.
Here then is the first important point in dealing with Anxiety God’s way: Rejoice in the Lord. (Teach the chorus.)
Now remember who is saying this. It’s Paul; the same Paul who was beaten and thrown into jail along with Silas in Philippi (not WV) for preaching the Gospel and upsetting the people. The same Paul who was singing God’s praise at midnight when an earthquake suddenly destroyed the jail they were in. This is a guy who knew how to praise God in the tough places (cf. Acts 16:25). Paul and Silas were rejoicing in the Lord, not in their circumstances. They were rejoicing in God’s character, power and presence, not in their circumstances. They were rejoicing that they had been found worthy to suffer for the sake of the Gospel, not fretting over their circumstances. And as a result, they saw the deliverance of God in a dramatic way. Although they were stuck in a big way, they didn’t let there circumstances determine their response, or alter their faith in God. They rejoiced in the Lord.
The second point in dealing with Anxiety is to Pray. Often, we hear people say, “the only thing we can do now is pray” – as if this is a desperate last-ditch effort. To the contrary, prayer is the first and best thing we can do.
Prayer is talking to Someone who has the power to do something about our problem! God is able to do “exceedingly abundantly above all that we think or imagine” (Eph 3:20). Therefore, giving the problem over to Him is like kicking the problem upstairs; He’ll definitely do Something about it! But this means that we will have to make an adjustment in our thinking; we will have to give up being Junior God of the Universe!
You see, we often behave as if God had died recently, leaving us in charge! And because we know that our resources are pathetically limited, we also know we are in deep trouble. Therefore, Anxiety is a “reasonable” response to our dilemma! If I worry enough, I can somehow fend off the train wreck waiting to happen. But if you will check the obituaries in your local newspaper, you’ll quickly see that God’s name is not there - nor is it ever likely to appear. And since God is alive and much bigger and more powerful than I, He knows what to do and how to accomplish it. He doesn’t need my help!
Worry and anxiety masquerade as Christian Responsibility. But this “responsibility” is based on the false assumption that I am in charge of the Universe and that I must do something about the impending disaster. Because God is alive and in charge of all things, I am now free to stop my own ineffective worry. I must take the time to listen and heed what He plans for me, but I am now free of the overwhelming responsibility of the world’s problems. So think of prayer as the freedom to be “irresponsible” by entrusting yourself and your circumstances over to God.
Pondering, or changing your thoughts, is the next important point. We are to think on things that are good, true pure lovely worthy of praise and excellent, not lament how terrible our situation is. In the lingo of counseling and psychotherapy, we call this cognitive restructuring: Restructuring your thoughts to line up with the way things really are, not according to the false, distorted lies the Devil whispers to us. Instead of “Awfulizing” – “This is bad, this is terrible, this is awful, I’m going to die” – we need to practice telling ourselves the things that are true about God and ourselves, such as God is trustworthy and powerful. He is able to do help in time of need, if we only trust Him. The children of Israel did this when they recounted all the many mighty deeds God had done for them in bringing them out of Egypt, across the Red Sea and into the Promised Land. They were restructuring naturally negative thoughts into a rehearsal of God’s goodness and power, dwelling on the good, the true, beautiful, the excellent and the praiseworthy. Thus their confidence in God was built up.
Then finally, we are to Practice what we have learned. Paul exhorts his readers to follow him. Remember he could assert this because he had demonstrated the ability to do it in prison while bleeding and full of pain. He tells the Philippians to model themselves on him and practice what they have seen him do. And what he did was to practice his faith by Rejoicing, Pray and Pondering. He also practiced his faith by being active and doing things. In a word, he took Action.
Action is the antidote to Anxiety. But it must be effective action, not the illusory action of simply speeding up our thoughts with no effect. To go back to our car in the mud for a moment, if we want to get unstuck, we have do something that will actually accomplish a result. We have to go get the tractor and get pulled out, or we have to put something under the wheels to increase traction so that we can get out of the mud. Simply speeding up the wheels will not work, however well-intentioned. To translate this to our physical existence, somehow we must find an activity that both brain and body will accept as Action in order to reduce our anxiety. Happily, efficacious Action is both simple and easily accomplished.
Of course Prayer is Action because you are giving the problems to Someone who can do something about the problem. But another very simple Action is to write things down on a piece of paper. Especially late at night, or when we are tossing and turning in our beds, worrying about something, it is very helpful to actually get up out of bed and write down the things that worry us. Then we sketch out possible courses of action we think might fix the problems. When everything is laid out on paper, our brains will accept the notion that we have done something and we can go on to the business of falling asleep. We have made a tentative plan and written it down. This writing is the difference between planning and anxious worry. A plan can be written down, anxious worry cannot.
Beyond writing things down, it is necessary to actually do something; make arrangements to pay an outstanding bill, talk to someone you’ve been at odds with, complete a project you’ve been putting off. Do something that will relieve you of the need to worry.
Time doesn’t permit an exhaustive treatment of this topic, but I’ll just add one thought to tie our discussion in to Advent. Paul says not to worry; the Lord is at hand. During Advent, we think about both the first and second comings of our Lord. If we think on the latter too much, we can easily become distressed about the state of the world and what terrible thing will happen next.
Brothers and Sisters be anxious for nothing, but pray with thanksgiving in your hearts. Let your requests be made known to God – and His peace, the Peace that surpasses all understanding will guard your heart and your mind in our Lord Christ Jesus. Amen.
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
“Fruity Christians” Comparative Study
Compare the Similar Phrases in the following passages:
I Thessalonians 3: 11 Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you, 12 and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, 13 so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.
Philippians 1 Paul and Timothy, servants [1] of Christ Jesus,To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers [2] and deacons: [3] 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.3 I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, 4 always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. 6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. 7 It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. 8 For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. 9 And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, 10 so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
Luke 3:8 Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. … Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” 10 And the crowds asked him, “What then shall we do?” 11 And he answered them, “Whoever has two tunics [2] is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise.” 12 Tax collectors also came to be baptized and said to him, “Teacher, what shall we do?” 13 And he said to them, “Collect no more than you are authorized to do.” 14 Soldiers also asked him, “And we, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or by false accusation, and be content with your wages.”
I Thessalonians 3: 11 Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you, 12 and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, 13 so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.
Philippians 1 Paul and Timothy, servants [1] of Christ Jesus,To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers [2] and deacons: [3] 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.3 I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, 4 always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. 6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. 7 It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. 8 For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. 9 And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, 10 so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
Luke 3:8 Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. … Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” 10 And the crowds asked him, “What then shall we do?” 11 And he answered them, “Whoever has two tunics [2] is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise.” 12 Tax collectors also came to be baptized and said to him, “Teacher, what shall we do?” 13 And he said to them, “Collect no more than you are authorized to do.” 14 Soldiers also asked him, “And we, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or by false accusation, and be content with your wages.”
Fruity Christians
A Sermon Delivered to All Saints Anglican Church, based on Phil 1: 1-11
As I was doing my research for this sermon, I began to be struck by several phrases: I Phil 1:9, Paul prays that "your love may abound more and more” This reminded me immediately of last week’s reading from
I Thes. 3:12, where the apostle prays that “you may increase and abound in love.”
In verse 10 of Phil. I, we have the admonition to be “pure and blameless”. In I Thes. 3:13, we read the phrase “blameless in holiness”. Then there is the phrase “day of Christ Jesus in Phil 1:6, and the parallel “coming of our Lord Jesus” in I Thes. 3:13.
Additionally, we have “all the saints” in Phil 1:1 and “all His saints” in
I Thes. 3:13.
The last phrase that struck me was “Fruit of Righteousness”: Phil 1:11. This is what ties everything together and links it to the Gospel reading Lk 3:8,9, in which John tells the crowds of people to “bring forth fruits in keeping with repentance”. The Baptist compares people with trees, who must bear good fruit or are cut down.
So, here again are the phrases:
Abound in Love
Pure and blameless
Coming of our Lord
All the saints
Fruit of Righteousness.
As we study the Bible, one way that the Lord speaks to us is by leading us down a trail, sort of like being on a scavenger hunt. We read the Word and listen attentively. We keep our eyes peeled for signs along the way, and as we do, He gives us insight into the Bible and His will for us. Now, I know that these clues have not all come together into a coherent meaning yet, but I hope to begin to show that to you now.
John the Bapist is also very specific to say that doing Justice to your fellow man is a fruit of repentance. Giving to those who don’t have and not cheating people are fruits of righteousness. They come about through Repentance - and John proclaimed a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
But John quickly goes on to tell the people that One greater is coming, one whose sandals he is not worthy to untie. When he comes “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire” Luke 3: 16. And indeed later in the same chapter we read how Jesus was baptized and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form; and a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son, with you I am well pleased.” 3:22.
Of course Jesus was completely righteous already, but submitted to John’s baptism in order to ‘fulfill all righteousness’ – and he was Baptized with the Holy Spirit.
Now, here is where we begin to pull it all together:
(Here, I passed out "Fruit of the Loom" thermal shirt packs bearing Post-It labels of each of the 9 fruits of the Spirit. After passing them out, I asked the people who have them what the label said. Some said“Fruit of the Loom”. But then others listed Love, Joy, Peace… etc.)
So what you have in your hands is the Fruit of the Loom… but also the Fruit of the Spirit. Gal 5: 22 tells us that the fruit of the Spirit is: Love Joy Peace Patience Kindness, Goodness Faithfulness Gentleness and Self Control. John told the people that the fruit of righteousness was to do justly to your neighbor. But here we have a list of qualities which describe the character of one who bears the Fruit of the Spirit.
Significantly, the fruit of the Spirit is not something we can manufacture on our own steam. Going back to Galatians 5 vv 19-21, we see that the ‘works of the flesh’ are: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. These are the qualities of the self-centered, flesh indulgent person, namely, all of us. Unless you get some kind of power assist and help from above this list is what you and I act out. This is our Sin nature, our (worse than) beastly self.
Ephesians 5:18 tells us not to be drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit – that is to be directed or controlled by the Holy Spirit. It’s not a suggestion; it’s a command in the Imperative voice. Don’t do this, do that. So how do we do that?
Here’s the progression:
1) Repent of your sins. In our liturgy we will soon hear the admonishment, ‘ye who do earnestly repent ye of your sins…”
Turn around and go the other way. That’s what repentance means literally.
2) Be baptized for the remission of our sins. Go down in the water to show that you are dying to sin and are being raised to walk in newness of life, now cleansed of your offenses against God.
3) Bring forth fruit in keeping with Repentance by being Filled with the Holy Spirit, just as Jesus was. Do works of social justice, but also Abound in Love and be Holy, Pure and Blameless – walking in love with God and your neighbor. Bear the Fruit of the Spirit: ( Have the congregation members shout them out.)
If you do this you will show yourself to be one of his Saints, or ‘called out ones’.
Then, when the Day of the Lord comes, you will have a place in His kingdom along with all the other saints who have gone on before us. (Here it is well to know that the Day of the Lord is an “unveiling” (Apokolypsis, Grk.).
And the key to it all is Repenting and being Filled with the Spirit.
When we repent of our sins, the Holy Spirit comes to live inside of us. This is really the Baptism of the Spirit. Every believer has it, despite how Pentecostals use the term. As a Christian, the Holy Spirit is the Life of Christ within you. But you can choose how much you want to be directed and controlled by the Spirit – a little bit, or perhaps not at all… - or you can be like a sailboat, being pushed along by the power of the wind, pneuma, Spirit. Believe me, it’s a lot more fun than trying to do it on your own. And it’s the only real way you can bear forth fruit in keeping with repentance.
So let’s give this a try. In a few moments we’ll confess our sins according to the form in our liturgy. Then after that, we’ll take a few moments to ask the Holy Spirit to fill us and direct us.
So what are the Fruits of the Spirit again?.... Alright. Now go out there and be Fruity Christians! Amen.
{The shirts were collected and combined with other items to be taken to the Barboursville Veterans Home.}
As I was doing my research for this sermon, I began to be struck by several phrases: I Phil 1:9, Paul prays that "your love may abound more and more” This reminded me immediately of last week’s reading from
I Thes. 3:12, where the apostle prays that “you may increase and abound in love.”
In verse 10 of Phil. I, we have the admonition to be “pure and blameless”. In I Thes. 3:13, we read the phrase “blameless in holiness”. Then there is the phrase “day of Christ Jesus in Phil 1:6, and the parallel “coming of our Lord Jesus” in I Thes. 3:13.
Additionally, we have “all the saints” in Phil 1:1 and “all His saints” in
I Thes. 3:13.
The last phrase that struck me was “Fruit of Righteousness”: Phil 1:11. This is what ties everything together and links it to the Gospel reading Lk 3:8,9, in which John tells the crowds of people to “bring forth fruits in keeping with repentance”. The Baptist compares people with trees, who must bear good fruit or are cut down.
So, here again are the phrases:
Abound in Love
Pure and blameless
Coming of our Lord
All the saints
Fruit of Righteousness.
As we study the Bible, one way that the Lord speaks to us is by leading us down a trail, sort of like being on a scavenger hunt. We read the Word and listen attentively. We keep our eyes peeled for signs along the way, and as we do, He gives us insight into the Bible and His will for us. Now, I know that these clues have not all come together into a coherent meaning yet, but I hope to begin to show that to you now.
John the Bapist is also very specific to say that doing Justice to your fellow man is a fruit of repentance. Giving to those who don’t have and not cheating people are fruits of righteousness. They come about through Repentance - and John proclaimed a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
But John quickly goes on to tell the people that One greater is coming, one whose sandals he is not worthy to untie. When he comes “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire” Luke 3: 16. And indeed later in the same chapter we read how Jesus was baptized and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form; and a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son, with you I am well pleased.” 3:22.
Of course Jesus was completely righteous already, but submitted to John’s baptism in order to ‘fulfill all righteousness’ – and he was Baptized with the Holy Spirit.
Now, here is where we begin to pull it all together:
(Here, I passed out "Fruit of the Loom" thermal shirt packs bearing Post-It labels of each of the 9 fruits of the Spirit. After passing them out, I asked the people who have them what the label said. Some said“Fruit of the Loom”. But then others listed Love, Joy, Peace… etc.)
So what you have in your hands is the Fruit of the Loom… but also the Fruit of the Spirit. Gal 5: 22 tells us that the fruit of the Spirit is: Love Joy Peace Patience Kindness, Goodness Faithfulness Gentleness and Self Control. John told the people that the fruit of righteousness was to do justly to your neighbor. But here we have a list of qualities which describe the character of one who bears the Fruit of the Spirit.
Significantly, the fruit of the Spirit is not something we can manufacture on our own steam. Going back to Galatians 5 vv 19-21, we see that the ‘works of the flesh’ are: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. These are the qualities of the self-centered, flesh indulgent person, namely, all of us. Unless you get some kind of power assist and help from above this list is what you and I act out. This is our Sin nature, our (worse than) beastly self.
Ephesians 5:18 tells us not to be drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit – that is to be directed or controlled by the Holy Spirit. It’s not a suggestion; it’s a command in the Imperative voice. Don’t do this, do that. So how do we do that?
Here’s the progression:
1) Repent of your sins. In our liturgy we will soon hear the admonishment, ‘ye who do earnestly repent ye of your sins…”
Turn around and go the other way. That’s what repentance means literally.
2) Be baptized for the remission of our sins. Go down in the water to show that you are dying to sin and are being raised to walk in newness of life, now cleansed of your offenses against God.
3) Bring forth fruit in keeping with Repentance by being Filled with the Holy Spirit, just as Jesus was. Do works of social justice, but also Abound in Love and be Holy, Pure and Blameless – walking in love with God and your neighbor. Bear the Fruit of the Spirit: ( Have the congregation members shout them out.)
If you do this you will show yourself to be one of his Saints, or ‘called out ones’.
Then, when the Day of the Lord comes, you will have a place in His kingdom along with all the other saints who have gone on before us. (Here it is well to know that the Day of the Lord is an “unveiling” (Apokolypsis, Grk.).
And the key to it all is Repenting and being Filled with the Spirit.
When we repent of our sins, the Holy Spirit comes to live inside of us. This is really the Baptism of the Spirit. Every believer has it, despite how Pentecostals use the term. As a Christian, the Holy Spirit is the Life of Christ within you. But you can choose how much you want to be directed and controlled by the Spirit – a little bit, or perhaps not at all… - or you can be like a sailboat, being pushed along by the power of the wind, pneuma, Spirit. Believe me, it’s a lot more fun than trying to do it on your own. And it’s the only real way you can bear forth fruit in keeping with repentance.
So let’s give this a try. In a few moments we’ll confess our sins according to the form in our liturgy. Then after that, we’ll take a few moments to ask the Holy Spirit to fill us and direct us.
So what are the Fruits of the Spirit again?.... Alright. Now go out there and be Fruity Christians! Amen.
{The shirts were collected and combined with other items to be taken to the Barboursville Veterans Home.}
Sunday, December 03, 2006
The Two Sides of Prophecy
This Sermon was delivered on December 3 to All Saints Anglican Church, Barboursville, WV. It is based on Zechariah 14:4-9; Luke 21:25-31
If you’ve ever been a parent of teenagers, or worked closely with young people, who know what it’s like to spot trouble up ahead and to want to prophecy: …”If you don’t shape up, you’re going to…come to no good, waste your life, or perhaps even die.
When God sends prophets to his people, He’s doing a similar thing. The first phase of Prophecy is a Warning. ‘If you don’t change your ways Israel, calamity will come upon you. The worst calamity was the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile of her people into 70 years of Babylonian captivity – all because of the disobedience of His people.
But because God is gracious and desires relationship with his people, He also gives us words to encourage Hope, just like a coach or a Scout leader who looks at a young person’s potential and sees that something good will come of their lives. Through predictive words of Prophecy, God gives people glimpses of what’s up ahead so that they may preserver in the present and keep on pressing toward the eventual goal – victory over adversity.
Through the Prophet Zechariah God told Israel what was coming. He gave them specific things to watch for to keep them looking up and ahead. Many of them pertain to the success of a rebuilt Jerusalem. For under King Darius of Persia, Israel had been allowed to return home to Jerusalem and begin rebuilding. Under Nehemiah and Ezra, the work prospered but wasn’t completed. King Zerubbabel completed the basic restoration of the city and started in on building the Temple, but the people were struggling to keep up the work after just a month of labor and so the prophets Haggai and Zechariah encouraged them with visions that God had shown them. The immediate purpose of the visions was to let the people know they would succeed in their task of rebuilding - and so the stories of Jerusalem being filled with the returning exiles from Babylon and that God Himself protecting Jerusalem were very comforting and inspiring.
But into the mix, the Lord also adds details that can only point toward Jesus. In the Chapter 3 of Zechariah, we have the vision of Joshua – Yeshua – Jesus the High priest clothed in filthy garments, but then having those garments removed – symbolizing the forgiveness of our sins in one day (v.9). The Coming of the Branch of David is foretold, who will be the Messiah, the promised one. He will be pierced and a fountain (filled with blood) will be opened. (12:10; 13:1-9).
Chapter four contains visions of a candlestick (the house of God being built by Zerubbabel, and later , the Church bearing light to the world) and two Olive trees – Joshua and Zerbubbabel initially, and later echoed as the two witnesses in Revelation 11. The descendant of Zerubbabel, the Branch, Jesus, will build a more glorious House in the future.
Rev. Halley, in his Bible Handbook also points out that are specific glimpses of Jesus Christ in Zechariah:
His Atoning Death for the Removal of Sin. (3:8-9;13:1)
As Builder of the House of God (6:12)
His universal Reign as King and Priest (6:13;9:10)
Triumphal Entry (9:9 cf.Mt. 21:5; Jn. 12:15)
Betrayal for 30 pieces of silver (11:12, cf. Mt. 27:9,10)
His Deity(12:8).
His Hands Pierced (12:10;13:6 cf. Jn. 19:37)
A Smitten Shepherd (13:7, cf. Mt 26:31, Mk 14:27)
These, says Halley, are all instances that refer specifically to the Personal, Visible, Bodily, Literal return of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the coming Day of The Lord, which is a reckoning and a full revelation of his Sovereign Kingship.
Last night we went to see the movie, the Nativity. Coming out of this movie left Cindy and I both very pensive – even more so than going to see The Passion. There was a feeling of “I just want this thing to be over”. This is the sort of longing that we feel as we look for His coming. It must also have been what the people of Israel felt as they waited for the first Advent, or appearing of Jesus: How long O lord? It is expressed well in the Hymn O Come O Come Emmanuel – the sense of longing for his Coming.
Prophecy sets up a hope that the suffering of the present time will eventually come to a close. It helps us to believe that the yoke of the oppressor will be broken.
Ps 2 comes to mind: “Come let us break their bonds, Let us cast off their yokes… You shall break them with a rod of Iron…
The prophecy is that the Shoot of Jesse, the Branch of David will rise up and help his people cast off the yoke of oppression. But the yoke of oppression is not just the political ruler, it is Sin itself, which enslaves us to the power of the evil one.
The people of Israel yearned for a deliverer who would set them free from their political enemies.: In Zerubbabel’s time and following, it would have been the Medes and the Persians, the Babylonins, the Greeks and the Romans, and those such as Herod who collaborated with the Romans. But into this system arrives Jesus and becomes the Hope of the Nations in that he has come to his people and set them free – from Sin and all its enslaving effects. As a result, we may now worship God in Freedom and peace, despite whatever political turmoil exists around us.
Even as the Jewish people looked ahead to the promised Messiah, so too must we look ahead to a promised time of ultimate deliverance. Our impulse is to cry out How long O Lord – will you forget us? How long will you hide your face? How long must I bear grief in my soul, This sorrow in my heart day and night? How long shall my enemy prevail? (Ps 12).
But the same Psalmist goes on: “As for me I trust in your merciful love. Let my heart rejoice in your saving help. Let me sing to the Lord for his goodness to me, singing Psalms to the Name of the Lord the most High.
We are to have hope in the saving help of our God, who sustains us with his goodness and who help us to sit in the darkness waiting for his second advent. Those who waited patiently and expectantly for his saving help were Awake to the irruption of God into their lives. They won the victory because of this perseverance. They placed their faith in their God and because of it, will one day come back with Jesus in a great triumphal procession.
Just like Coach Pruett and the Marshall football team, when they won their first Championship. The whole town turned out to watch them in a great victory parade. All of Huntington had become one in yearning that some day, our disappointment and grief would culminate in eventual success. It was as if the Marshall community was saying “O Come O Come O Thundering Herd”… We are like that in our waiting upon the return of Christ. We are to be Awake and Watching, Alert to the signs of His coming and hopeful that it will one day come about.
Zerubbabel, Jeremiah, Joel , Micah and Jesus himself have given us signposts of Christ’s Coming. WE are to heed these signs as the Day approaches. We say that the return of Christ is Imminent: It could happen any time, suddenly. But there is evidence to think that there will even be time to prepare for His return after some key events begin to take place. For it seems that there will be a gathering of the nations against Israel and a victory over the City, but just when the enemies of Jerusalem are getting ready to divide up the spoils, then the Lord will come in the Clouds with all His saints in Victory, leading captivity captive and ushering in the great and Terrible Day of the Lord in which Jesus shall be the Light and Judge of the World and every knee will bow before him in worship.
Brothers and sisters, the time approaches. Make room in your heart for Jesus. Watch hopefully and expectantly for His return. Be ready for Him to Come Again. Amen.
If you’ve ever been a parent of teenagers, or worked closely with young people, who know what it’s like to spot trouble up ahead and to want to prophecy: …”If you don’t shape up, you’re going to…come to no good, waste your life, or perhaps even die.
When God sends prophets to his people, He’s doing a similar thing. The first phase of Prophecy is a Warning. ‘If you don’t change your ways Israel, calamity will come upon you. The worst calamity was the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile of her people into 70 years of Babylonian captivity – all because of the disobedience of His people.
But because God is gracious and desires relationship with his people, He also gives us words to encourage Hope, just like a coach or a Scout leader who looks at a young person’s potential and sees that something good will come of their lives. Through predictive words of Prophecy, God gives people glimpses of what’s up ahead so that they may preserver in the present and keep on pressing toward the eventual goal – victory over adversity.
Through the Prophet Zechariah God told Israel what was coming. He gave them specific things to watch for to keep them looking up and ahead. Many of them pertain to the success of a rebuilt Jerusalem. For under King Darius of Persia, Israel had been allowed to return home to Jerusalem and begin rebuilding. Under Nehemiah and Ezra, the work prospered but wasn’t completed. King Zerubbabel completed the basic restoration of the city and started in on building the Temple, but the people were struggling to keep up the work after just a month of labor and so the prophets Haggai and Zechariah encouraged them with visions that God had shown them. The immediate purpose of the visions was to let the people know they would succeed in their task of rebuilding - and so the stories of Jerusalem being filled with the returning exiles from Babylon and that God Himself protecting Jerusalem were very comforting and inspiring.
But into the mix, the Lord also adds details that can only point toward Jesus. In the Chapter 3 of Zechariah, we have the vision of Joshua – Yeshua – Jesus the High priest clothed in filthy garments, but then having those garments removed – symbolizing the forgiveness of our sins in one day (v.9). The Coming of the Branch of David is foretold, who will be the Messiah, the promised one. He will be pierced and a fountain (filled with blood) will be opened. (12:10; 13:1-9).
Chapter four contains visions of a candlestick (the house of God being built by Zerubbabel, and later , the Church bearing light to the world) and two Olive trees – Joshua and Zerbubbabel initially, and later echoed as the two witnesses in Revelation 11. The descendant of Zerubbabel, the Branch, Jesus, will build a more glorious House in the future.
Rev. Halley, in his Bible Handbook also points out that are specific glimpses of Jesus Christ in Zechariah:
His Atoning Death for the Removal of Sin. (3:8-9;13:1)
As Builder of the House of God (6:12)
His universal Reign as King and Priest (6:13;9:10)
Triumphal Entry (9:9 cf.Mt. 21:5; Jn. 12:15)
Betrayal for 30 pieces of silver (11:12, cf. Mt. 27:9,10)
His Deity(12:8).
His Hands Pierced (12:10;13:6 cf. Jn. 19:37)
A Smitten Shepherd (13:7, cf. Mt 26:31, Mk 14:27)
These, says Halley, are all instances that refer specifically to the Personal, Visible, Bodily, Literal return of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the coming Day of The Lord, which is a reckoning and a full revelation of his Sovereign Kingship.
Last night we went to see the movie, the Nativity. Coming out of this movie left Cindy and I both very pensive – even more so than going to see The Passion. There was a feeling of “I just want this thing to be over”. This is the sort of longing that we feel as we look for His coming. It must also have been what the people of Israel felt as they waited for the first Advent, or appearing of Jesus: How long O lord? It is expressed well in the Hymn O Come O Come Emmanuel – the sense of longing for his Coming.
Prophecy sets up a hope that the suffering of the present time will eventually come to a close. It helps us to believe that the yoke of the oppressor will be broken.
Ps 2 comes to mind: “Come let us break their bonds, Let us cast off their yokes… You shall break them with a rod of Iron…
The prophecy is that the Shoot of Jesse, the Branch of David will rise up and help his people cast off the yoke of oppression. But the yoke of oppression is not just the political ruler, it is Sin itself, which enslaves us to the power of the evil one.
The people of Israel yearned for a deliverer who would set them free from their political enemies.: In Zerubbabel’s time and following, it would have been the Medes and the Persians, the Babylonins, the Greeks and the Romans, and those such as Herod who collaborated with the Romans. But into this system arrives Jesus and becomes the Hope of the Nations in that he has come to his people and set them free – from Sin and all its enslaving effects. As a result, we may now worship God in Freedom and peace, despite whatever political turmoil exists around us.
Even as the Jewish people looked ahead to the promised Messiah, so too must we look ahead to a promised time of ultimate deliverance. Our impulse is to cry out How long O Lord – will you forget us? How long will you hide your face? How long must I bear grief in my soul, This sorrow in my heart day and night? How long shall my enemy prevail? (Ps 12).
But the same Psalmist goes on: “As for me I trust in your merciful love. Let my heart rejoice in your saving help. Let me sing to the Lord for his goodness to me, singing Psalms to the Name of the Lord the most High.
We are to have hope in the saving help of our God, who sustains us with his goodness and who help us to sit in the darkness waiting for his second advent. Those who waited patiently and expectantly for his saving help were Awake to the irruption of God into their lives. They won the victory because of this perseverance. They placed their faith in their God and because of it, will one day come back with Jesus in a great triumphal procession.
Just like Coach Pruett and the Marshall football team, when they won their first Championship. The whole town turned out to watch them in a great victory parade. All of Huntington had become one in yearning that some day, our disappointment and grief would culminate in eventual success. It was as if the Marshall community was saying “O Come O Come O Thundering Herd”… We are like that in our waiting upon the return of Christ. We are to be Awake and Watching, Alert to the signs of His coming and hopeful that it will one day come about.
Zerubbabel, Jeremiah, Joel , Micah and Jesus himself have given us signposts of Christ’s Coming. WE are to heed these signs as the Day approaches. We say that the return of Christ is Imminent: It could happen any time, suddenly. But there is evidence to think that there will even be time to prepare for His return after some key events begin to take place. For it seems that there will be a gathering of the nations against Israel and a victory over the City, but just when the enemies of Jerusalem are getting ready to divide up the spoils, then the Lord will come in the Clouds with all His saints in Victory, leading captivity captive and ushering in the great and Terrible Day of the Lord in which Jesus shall be the Light and Judge of the World and every knee will bow before him in worship.
Brothers and sisters, the time approaches. Make room in your heart for Jesus. Watch hopefully and expectantly for His return. Be ready for Him to Come Again. Amen.
Sunday, November 26, 2006
The Real Lion King
The following sermon was delivered on Christ the King Sunday,November 26, 2006 at All Saints Anglican Church, Barboursville, WV. It is based on: Daniel 7: 9-14; Jn 18: 33-40
Speaking to the Observer Music Monthly Magazine recently,Sir Elton John said religion lacked compassion and turned people into "hateful lemmings".The PRESS ASSOCIATION reports: In a candid interview for a dedicated Gay issue of the magazine he shared his views on topics as varied as being a pop icon to Tony Blair's stance on the war in Iraq.He said there was a lack of religious leadership, particularly in world politics, and complained that people do not take to the streets to protest any more.Sir Elton said: "I think religion has always tried to turn hatred towards gay people. Religion promotes the hatred and spite against gays."Organised religion doesn't seem to work. It turns people into really hateful lemmings and it's not really compassionate."
"But there are so many people I know who are gay and love their religion. From my point of view I would ban religion completely. (drudgereport.com: 11/11/2003)
So…Sir Elton shows his compassion by desiring to ban religion and instead he would give us protests in the street and the following philosophy:
“From the day we arrive on the planet, and blinking, step into the sun,
There’s more to see than can ever be seen, more to do than can ever be done.
There’s far too much to take in here, more to find than can ever be found.
But the sun rolling high through the sapphire sky keeps great and small on the endless round.
Chorus:
It’s the circle of life. And it move us all , through despair and hope,
Through faith and love, ‘til we find our place
On the path unwinding in the circle, the circle of life.
Some say eat or be eaten, Some say live and let live
But all are agreed as they join the stampede
You should never take more than you give.
Some of us fall by the wayside and some of us soar to the stars
And some of us sail through our troubles
And some have to live with the scars.
"The Circle of Life" Lyrics by Tim Rice.
Mix this rich theological formula with a little Hakuna Mattata and you’ve got the stirring life philosophy of Tim Rice and Elton John, composers of the music for Disney movie, the Lion King. (Sir Elton, we should say, who recently has pronounced that churches and religions are dangerous and ought not be allowed to exist!)
Yes, it’s the circle of life – and it goes round and round in an endless cycle of birth and death. There’s no particular reason for it, it just happened to evolve that way by random chance – but nevertheless we have to make sense out of it. We believe that life is sacred, even though we scorn anyone who takes the Sacred seriously – and we know we all have a holy obligation to not take more than we give and to recycle our waste – because after all, we’re all part of the circle of life.
And can you feel the love tonight? It is where we are.
It’s enough for this wide-eyed wanderer That we got this far
And can you feel the love tonight How it’s laid to rest?
It’s enough to make kings and vagabonds Believe the very best.
There’s a time for everyone If they only learn
That the twisting kaleidoscope Moves us all in turn
There’s a rhyme and reason to the wild outdoors
When the heart of this star-crossed voyager Beats in time with yours.
Yes, - it’s enough to make kings and vagabonds believe the very best.
And that, of course, was the lyric to the life-changing song, “Can you feel the Love tonight?” by the same duo who gave us the previous stirring philosophy.
What a load of happy hogwash! And this from the man who brought you:
His wise pronouncement that religion is dangerous and ought to be abolished!
Friends, our readings for today couldn’t be more opposed to Mr. John’s stress-free philosophy, but they do make for good sermon illustration material. Because we live in a world that has cast off the burdens of belief in a Supreme King and Judge, the inhabitants of planet earth are faced with the unenviable task of trying to figure what the deuce this life is about.
Without a notion of a transcendent God who created all things and who Rules and upholds all things by His power, what we are left with is the current New Agey, goopy, quasi-worship of the Earth, - known as GAIA to the religiously minded. For those who have tossed aside the ‘worn-out’ doctrines of the church with all the talk of Jesus as the King of Kings, blood sacrifices, the end of time, etc, there is little choice left, but going back to the old philosophy of an endless round of seasons, which never culminate in anything, but which must be valued and respected because of their ancient inevitability. Also, without a notion of a Creator God who stands apart from his creation, the world and everything in it becomes the subject of worship.
Again, GAIA is the personification of Earth, our mother. But keep in mind, that GAIA isn’t really understood as a personal being in the same way the YHWH is. She is more like the Greek Gods, who basically personify all human vices writ large. No, the worship of GAIA is more akin to Pantheiem – the belief that all things are God, or perhaps a little more technically Panentheism – the belief that God is IN all things.
This is very akin to what we call ANIMISM – the belief that all things have a spirit and must be respectfully treated because of it.
Disney has done us the great service of illustrating this last belief system in the movie Pocahontas – reminding us that the trees have spirits.
At any rate, (post)modern world is in a fix. Humans know there is actually something that makes them different from animals. Intuitively, they know that Man is Noble and has a unique place of mastery over the world and everything in it. But at the same time, humans also know there is something very wrong with humans. We don’t live in harmony with each other like the animals do. Oh, yes, there is the endless cycle of birth and killing other animals to survive, but this is orderly, instinctual and amoral. Animals obey the Law of the Jungle. There is a Lion King who reigns for a season, and then is deposed when another younger challenger comes along. The whole creation operates in a vast well-ordered cycle in which there is an amazing economy and presesrvation of everything. It’s bloody, true , but predictable and efficient – unlike Man, who wants more than he needs, rapes the land and the forests for what he wants, and doesn’t clean up after himself. I tell you, it’s enough to drive a Mother (Earth) to distraction!
Faced with this dilemma and adrift without any moorings of absolute Truth today’s ‘postmoderns’ are naturally drawn back to more primitive times and places where people seemed to be able to get along better with Nature. Native American Culture, Native African Cultures, the philosophies of the East – all appeal to the inward awareness that Man is out of sorts with himself and with the natural order. If something isn’t done, we will all die from Global Warming! Not that it really matters much, of course. Again, keep in mind that we’re all just random products of chance who stumble through the world vaguely trying to come up with some sort of meaning to hold our lives together. It’s an endless cycle – and really rather depressing when you stop to think about it.
So much so, in fact that the Buddhists and the Hindus are driven to great lengths to try to escape the endless cycle of birth, suffering, death and reincarnation. Cant’t say that I blame them, for in a way they are right: without a Creator who has a Goal or Telos in mind for the universe, Life is essentially meaningless, an endless Circle.
And this is where we part company with Hindus, Buddhists, Earth Worshipping GAIAists, Wiccans, pantheists, panentheists, animists and plain old pleasure seekers. Instead of this random cycle of accidental life, we do in fact believe that God, the Father, the Ancient of Days Created the World and Human beings for a purpose: namely to live in harmony with our creator and all the created things. That’s why postmoderns have such a hankering for order and harmony – it resides with the human heart as a latent aspect of the Image of God within us. Also within us is the terrible knowledge that we have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God; that left to our own devices we will and have destroyed everything good around us through our own greed and ignorance.
Postmoderns have a real sense of guilt about their role in the downfall of the world. That’s why they are so concerned about Global Warming. They know that we are responsible for our own downfall and that we have also taken the physical world down with us. Therefore, we need to do something to redeem and save the world. Enter Earth Day, extreme environmentalism, mandatory saving of resources, and the popular outrage over the unconscionable use of the earth’s resources. It’s an attempt to atone for Original Sin and to restore the physical order to rights.
But that attempt is doomed to failure because it tries to do something that only God can do – to Save the World from itself, to Judge the failures of the Human Race, to bring this whole bloody mess to a conclusion and to recreate the world anew, sinless and pristine, restoring Harmony with other living beings and God again. This is the reason why we talk about Christ as King.
In the Judeo-Christian conception of Reality, God, YHWH is the Ancient of Days. He is Holy or set-apart from the universe. As Creator and Sovereign sustainer of all things, He asserts an ultimate demand of fealty from his subjects. In our rebellion, we seek to shake off his Claim on us and live according to our own whims. This we call ‘Freedom’. But the pursuit of that Freedom leads us away from our Creator and shuts us up in an endless cycle of death, which, despite the croonings of Elton John, is not glorious, but is rather something to be escaped.
Because we are creatures, we don’t have the wherewithal to save ourselves and thus it was necessary for God Himself to prepare and send us a Savior – His own dear Son, Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, the Lion of Judah, the True Lion King.
Bless our God, for he has not only provided us a means of salvation from our sins, but he provided us the way to end this whole cycle of futility through the establishment of the Kingdom of God.
The Kingdom of God was something Jesus talked about a lot. But the Kingdom he described was an odd thing, for unlike the kingdoms that we know about , his was not of this world’. His purpose was to usher in the Kingdom of God, but not to rule over the political landscape as we know it. Instead, Jesus asserts that wherever a human being recognizes the Ancient of Days as Lord, and human beings as rebellious enemies in need of saving through the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, then the Kingdom of God comes to earth within the soul of that person, and Jesus begins his Kingly reign in the heart of that redeemed person.
Because Jesus died for the sins of the whole world, ‘to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed. Daniel 7: 14.
Now to be sure, there are those who do not recognize the Lordship of Christ in our time. The Bible is very clear that these unrepentant people are enemies of God who will not escape punishment, perhaps not here, but surely in the great summation of all things when Jesus is presented to the Ancient of Days, the court sits down for judgment, the books are opened and every one comes before God to receive the just punishment or reward for their actions – either to blessedness because of their faith in Christ, or to eternal separation from God because of their rebellion.
Again, we who name the Name of Jesus as our Savior and King, already enjoy the benefits of the Kingdom of God operative right now. Through the blood of Christ we are cleansed from our sins, adopted into the family of God, given the family Visa card, changed into the family likeness (just like our older brother) and given the promise of spending eternity in unbroken fellowship with that same fearsome Ancient of Days – now transformed into a loving Father through His own atoning work on the Cross.
Pretty Grand stuff I’d say. Lots better than an endless cycle of Elton John songs. Surely that’s evidence for the existence of Hell right there!
So the conclusion is: Make Jesus King of your life as well as Savior. That means bowing your knee to him and submitting everything to Him in worship and praise, and receiving back eternal Life as your reward.
If you can never point to a specific time when you have bowed the knee of your heart to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, I invite you to do so now saying the words of the so-called Jesus Prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.” If you can say those few little words in sincerity, then you have become a citizen of the Kingdom of God, an heir to the Throne and a brother or sister to all believers everywhere. If you’d like prayer or counsel, please write to me at andrewcounts56@msn.com AMEN.
Speaking to the Observer Music Monthly Magazine recently,Sir Elton John said religion lacked compassion and turned people into "hateful lemmings".The PRESS ASSOCIATION reports: In a candid interview for a dedicated Gay issue of the magazine he shared his views on topics as varied as being a pop icon to Tony Blair's stance on the war in Iraq.He said there was a lack of religious leadership, particularly in world politics, and complained that people do not take to the streets to protest any more.Sir Elton said: "I think religion has always tried to turn hatred towards gay people. Religion promotes the hatred and spite against gays."Organised religion doesn't seem to work. It turns people into really hateful lemmings and it's not really compassionate."
"But there are so many people I know who are gay and love their religion. From my point of view I would ban religion completely. (drudgereport.com: 11/11/2003)
So…Sir Elton shows his compassion by desiring to ban religion and instead he would give us protests in the street and the following philosophy:
“From the day we arrive on the planet, and blinking, step into the sun,
There’s more to see than can ever be seen, more to do than can ever be done.
There’s far too much to take in here, more to find than can ever be found.
But the sun rolling high through the sapphire sky keeps great and small on the endless round.
Chorus:
It’s the circle of life. And it move us all , through despair and hope,
Through faith and love, ‘til we find our place
On the path unwinding in the circle, the circle of life.
Some say eat or be eaten, Some say live and let live
But all are agreed as they join the stampede
You should never take more than you give.
Some of us fall by the wayside and some of us soar to the stars
And some of us sail through our troubles
And some have to live with the scars.
"The Circle of Life" Lyrics by Tim Rice.
Mix this rich theological formula with a little Hakuna Mattata and you’ve got the stirring life philosophy of Tim Rice and Elton John, composers of the music for Disney movie, the Lion King. (Sir Elton, we should say, who recently has pronounced that churches and religions are dangerous and ought not be allowed to exist!)
Yes, it’s the circle of life – and it goes round and round in an endless cycle of birth and death. There’s no particular reason for it, it just happened to evolve that way by random chance – but nevertheless we have to make sense out of it. We believe that life is sacred, even though we scorn anyone who takes the Sacred seriously – and we know we all have a holy obligation to not take more than we give and to recycle our waste – because after all, we’re all part of the circle of life.
And can you feel the love tonight? It is where we are.
It’s enough for this wide-eyed wanderer That we got this far
And can you feel the love tonight How it’s laid to rest?
It’s enough to make kings and vagabonds Believe the very best.
There’s a time for everyone If they only learn
That the twisting kaleidoscope Moves us all in turn
There’s a rhyme and reason to the wild outdoors
When the heart of this star-crossed voyager Beats in time with yours.
Yes, - it’s enough to make kings and vagabonds believe the very best.
And that, of course, was the lyric to the life-changing song, “Can you feel the Love tonight?” by the same duo who gave us the previous stirring philosophy.
What a load of happy hogwash! And this from the man who brought you:
His wise pronouncement that religion is dangerous and ought to be abolished!
Friends, our readings for today couldn’t be more opposed to Mr. John’s stress-free philosophy, but they do make for good sermon illustration material. Because we live in a world that has cast off the burdens of belief in a Supreme King and Judge, the inhabitants of planet earth are faced with the unenviable task of trying to figure what the deuce this life is about.
Without a notion of a transcendent God who created all things and who Rules and upholds all things by His power, what we are left with is the current New Agey, goopy, quasi-worship of the Earth, - known as GAIA to the religiously minded. For those who have tossed aside the ‘worn-out’ doctrines of the church with all the talk of Jesus as the King of Kings, blood sacrifices, the end of time, etc, there is little choice left, but going back to the old philosophy of an endless round of seasons, which never culminate in anything, but which must be valued and respected because of their ancient inevitability. Also, without a notion of a Creator God who stands apart from his creation, the world and everything in it becomes the subject of worship.
Again, GAIA is the personification of Earth, our mother. But keep in mind, that GAIA isn’t really understood as a personal being in the same way the YHWH is. She is more like the Greek Gods, who basically personify all human vices writ large. No, the worship of GAIA is more akin to Pantheiem – the belief that all things are God, or perhaps a little more technically Panentheism – the belief that God is IN all things.
This is very akin to what we call ANIMISM – the belief that all things have a spirit and must be respectfully treated because of it.
Disney has done us the great service of illustrating this last belief system in the movie Pocahontas – reminding us that the trees have spirits.
At any rate, (post)modern world is in a fix. Humans know there is actually something that makes them different from animals. Intuitively, they know that Man is Noble and has a unique place of mastery over the world and everything in it. But at the same time, humans also know there is something very wrong with humans. We don’t live in harmony with each other like the animals do. Oh, yes, there is the endless cycle of birth and killing other animals to survive, but this is orderly, instinctual and amoral. Animals obey the Law of the Jungle. There is a Lion King who reigns for a season, and then is deposed when another younger challenger comes along. The whole creation operates in a vast well-ordered cycle in which there is an amazing economy and presesrvation of everything. It’s bloody, true , but predictable and efficient – unlike Man, who wants more than he needs, rapes the land and the forests for what he wants, and doesn’t clean up after himself. I tell you, it’s enough to drive a Mother (Earth) to distraction!
Faced with this dilemma and adrift without any moorings of absolute Truth today’s ‘postmoderns’ are naturally drawn back to more primitive times and places where people seemed to be able to get along better with Nature. Native American Culture, Native African Cultures, the philosophies of the East – all appeal to the inward awareness that Man is out of sorts with himself and with the natural order. If something isn’t done, we will all die from Global Warming! Not that it really matters much, of course. Again, keep in mind that we’re all just random products of chance who stumble through the world vaguely trying to come up with some sort of meaning to hold our lives together. It’s an endless cycle – and really rather depressing when you stop to think about it.
So much so, in fact that the Buddhists and the Hindus are driven to great lengths to try to escape the endless cycle of birth, suffering, death and reincarnation. Cant’t say that I blame them, for in a way they are right: without a Creator who has a Goal or Telos in mind for the universe, Life is essentially meaningless, an endless Circle.
And this is where we part company with Hindus, Buddhists, Earth Worshipping GAIAists, Wiccans, pantheists, panentheists, animists and plain old pleasure seekers. Instead of this random cycle of accidental life, we do in fact believe that God, the Father, the Ancient of Days Created the World and Human beings for a purpose: namely to live in harmony with our creator and all the created things. That’s why postmoderns have such a hankering for order and harmony – it resides with the human heart as a latent aspect of the Image of God within us. Also within us is the terrible knowledge that we have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God; that left to our own devices we will and have destroyed everything good around us through our own greed and ignorance.
Postmoderns have a real sense of guilt about their role in the downfall of the world. That’s why they are so concerned about Global Warming. They know that we are responsible for our own downfall and that we have also taken the physical world down with us. Therefore, we need to do something to redeem and save the world. Enter Earth Day, extreme environmentalism, mandatory saving of resources, and the popular outrage over the unconscionable use of the earth’s resources. It’s an attempt to atone for Original Sin and to restore the physical order to rights.
But that attempt is doomed to failure because it tries to do something that only God can do – to Save the World from itself, to Judge the failures of the Human Race, to bring this whole bloody mess to a conclusion and to recreate the world anew, sinless and pristine, restoring Harmony with other living beings and God again. This is the reason why we talk about Christ as King.
In the Judeo-Christian conception of Reality, God, YHWH is the Ancient of Days. He is Holy or set-apart from the universe. As Creator and Sovereign sustainer of all things, He asserts an ultimate demand of fealty from his subjects. In our rebellion, we seek to shake off his Claim on us and live according to our own whims. This we call ‘Freedom’. But the pursuit of that Freedom leads us away from our Creator and shuts us up in an endless cycle of death, which, despite the croonings of Elton John, is not glorious, but is rather something to be escaped.
Because we are creatures, we don’t have the wherewithal to save ourselves and thus it was necessary for God Himself to prepare and send us a Savior – His own dear Son, Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, the Lion of Judah, the True Lion King.
Bless our God, for he has not only provided us a means of salvation from our sins, but he provided us the way to end this whole cycle of futility through the establishment of the Kingdom of God.
The Kingdom of God was something Jesus talked about a lot. But the Kingdom he described was an odd thing, for unlike the kingdoms that we know about , his was not of this world’. His purpose was to usher in the Kingdom of God, but not to rule over the political landscape as we know it. Instead, Jesus asserts that wherever a human being recognizes the Ancient of Days as Lord, and human beings as rebellious enemies in need of saving through the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, then the Kingdom of God comes to earth within the soul of that person, and Jesus begins his Kingly reign in the heart of that redeemed person.
Because Jesus died for the sins of the whole world, ‘to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed. Daniel 7: 14.
Now to be sure, there are those who do not recognize the Lordship of Christ in our time. The Bible is very clear that these unrepentant people are enemies of God who will not escape punishment, perhaps not here, but surely in the great summation of all things when Jesus is presented to the Ancient of Days, the court sits down for judgment, the books are opened and every one comes before God to receive the just punishment or reward for their actions – either to blessedness because of their faith in Christ, or to eternal separation from God because of their rebellion.
Again, we who name the Name of Jesus as our Savior and King, already enjoy the benefits of the Kingdom of God operative right now. Through the blood of Christ we are cleansed from our sins, adopted into the family of God, given the family Visa card, changed into the family likeness (just like our older brother) and given the promise of spending eternity in unbroken fellowship with that same fearsome Ancient of Days – now transformed into a loving Father through His own atoning work on the Cross.
Pretty Grand stuff I’d say. Lots better than an endless cycle of Elton John songs. Surely that’s evidence for the existence of Hell right there!
So the conclusion is: Make Jesus King of your life as well as Savior. That means bowing your knee to him and submitting everything to Him in worship and praise, and receiving back eternal Life as your reward.
If you can never point to a specific time when you have bowed the knee of your heart to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, I invite you to do so now saying the words of the so-called Jesus Prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.” If you can say those few little words in sincerity, then you have become a citizen of the Kingdom of God, an heir to the Throne and a brother or sister to all believers everywhere. If you’d like prayer or counsel, please write to me at andrewcounts56@msn.com AMEN.
Sunday, November 19, 2006
The Coming of the End
November 19, 2006
All Saints Anglican Church, Barboursville, WV
Mark 13:14-23, Daniel 12: 1-13
Some months ago, I remember loaning a novel to a female friend of mine. I was surprised when she immediately turned to the back of the book and began reading the last page. “What are you doing?!” I exclaimed. “I’m reading the ending so I can tell if I want to read the rest of the book,” she calmly explained.
In an odd sort of way, this story relates to our readings today, and to the coming of Christ - the exception being that while the end of our story with Jesus is pretty clear – namely eternal fellowship and bliss with God in a resurrected body on a new Earth - the path to getting there is doggedly confusing. Indeed, when reading the parts of the story that describe the signs of the end – Daniel, the words of Jesus, Revelation etc. – no less a Saint than Augustine said, in his Summa Theologica: “…it is not easy to know what these signs may be: for the signs of which we read…refer not only to Christ’s coming in judgment, but also to the time of the sack of Jerusalem, and to the coming of Christ in ceaselessly visiting His Church.” (Volume III, Supplemental Question 73).
Our readings today show God to be the author of Literature, layering meaning upon meaning, showing us glimpses of future events in symbolic or representative actions – giving us a sort of puzzle to work out concerning the end of all things.
Specifically, Jesus was asked in the beginning of Mark 13 about his prophecy that the Temple would be destroyed. The disciples wanted to know when these things would come about. Jesus launches into a description of the travails and persecutions his followers could expect: earthquakes, wars, famine, civil strife – and all these things would be just the beginning of the troubles. He encourages them to persevere, but in verse 14, he says something that no doubt puzzled them.
“But when you see the abomination of desolation standing where it ought not to be … then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains”. Knowing their own history, the disciples would likely have remembered the reference to Daniel’s prophetic use of the term abomination of desolation and to its eventual fulfillment recorded in the book of I Maccabees – how the wicked ruler Antiochus Epiphanes had, in 168 BC, erected an altar to Zeus in the Jewish temple, thus profaning it.
But the disciples did not know that Jesus was referring to an event that would happen within their lifetimes – the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD by the Roman general Titus. The historian Josephus, in his “Wars of the Jews”, tells us that the city was completely obliterated, and that afterward it appeared ‘never to have been inhabited”. Jesus was warning of this catastrophe, and his warning must have been heeded later, because when the Romans came, the entire Christian community fled en masse, crossing the Jordan river and going up into the mountains to the city of Pella, where they were preserved without loss. (The 144,000 from Revelation?).
But there is more to Jesus’ statements in Mark 13 and the parallel chapter Matthew 24, than just a warning for the Christians to flee the destruction of Jerusalem. No, he repeatedly says things like, “But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory” (Mk 13:24, 25). This is the part of the Nicene Creed we refer to when we say He will come again in Glory to judge the living and the dead…”
So I’m sure the disciples must have been completely bumfuzzled by this kind of language, and even today we struggle with it.
The Greek word for ‘coming’ is “Parousia”, and the Greek word, ‘Eschaton’ means ‘the end’.
At the Eschaton, the end of all things, Jesus will have his Parousia, and will come again to gather up his saints from the four winds and begin to judge the earth. Associated with this, we are told that there will be a great Tribulation such as the world has never seen.
The Theological viewpoint reflected by the popular book series, “Left Behind”, is called Pre-Tribulation, Pre-Millenial Rapture. Its basic understanding of the future is that things will continue to get very bad in the world until Christians are suddenly raptured out of the world and the Antichrist appears. Daniel’s term abomination of desolation is widely acknowledged to refer to this same Antichrist. And his cryptic phrase ‘a time, times and a half’ is understood as meaning that there will be a period of apparent peace for the first three and one half years of Antichrist’s reign. After this there will be three and a half years of outright terrible Tribulation. All told, this period will last seven years and is known as the Great Tribulation.
At the end of the seven years, comes the battle of Armageddon in which the enemies of God are defeated, Satan is locked up for 1,000 years while Christ rules with His faithful believers during the “Millenial” Kingdom on earth. After this, Satan is released from prison and defeated in battle again. The earth is destroyed by fire and the New Jerusalem comes down out of heaven and all the dead are resurrected, either to blessedness or to eternal damnation. …This is the kind of scope we’re talking about when we say the “coming’ or ‘Parousia’ of Christ.
Now to be sure, there are differing versions of what will happen in the end. Some believe that there is no “Rapture” at all, and that believers will not be caught up in the air with Christ. There are also those who advocate for a Mid-Tribulation, or a Post-tribulation rapture.
Regarding the Millennium, or Thousand Year reign, there are those who don’t believe there will be a Millennium at all, that the events of AD 70 were the culmination of the Judgment Jesus spoke of and that we are now living in a figurative ‘millennial’ period and that the reign of Christ refers to the idea that He reigns ‘wherever loving hearts enthrone him” until the final culmination of all things at the very end.
My own view is that there will indeed be a 1,000 year period of time during which Christ reigns on earth. I hope that Believers will be Raptured before the Tribulation, but based on the history of the world, especially the 20th century, I’m not so sure. It wouldn’t surprise me if believers did indeed go through that Tribulation. They sure didn’t escape the Holocaust.
But if I focused on all of this too much, I think I would find myself distracted and terrified. I think there is another way to live, and that this other way has much to do with another sense of the word “parousia”. For you see, Parousia also means ‘Presence’. And it is precisely the Presence of Christ that we celebrate every time with take Communion.
Although the events of the future may hold terrors for us, we need not fear, for Christ tells us that He is with us always, even to the end of the age. We have his indwelling Parousia (presence) in the form of the Holy Spirit. But we also have the Parousia of Christ in the Bread and Wine of Communion. We feed on this Presence and it strengthens us and fills us with hope. It also leads us to Heaven itself, for in the Eucharist, we “Lift up our hearts” to Heaven, and Heaven comes down to us in a family reunion that foreshadows the great Marriage feast of the Lamb in the New Jerusalem.
Therefore, we don’t need to be overly concerned with the minute events of the future. Rather, our focus can be on the here and now. After all, Jesus tells us that not even He himself knows when His return is scheduled. It’s strictly a need-to-know business.
Having said that, however, there is an important caveat: we must be like good Boy Scouts, practicing Watchfulness in order to “Be Prepared”. We are to live this day without regard for tomorrow, yet realize that Christ will come again to judge the living and the dead. Our deeds here on earth really matter and our future depends upon them. If we acknowledge Him before men, he will acknowledge us. If we deny Him before men, He will deny us. It is because of this awesome knowledge that you and I have launched out into the deep and have separated ourselves from a form of religion that claims to be Christian, but which long ago morphed into something else.
Because we know that Christ will come again, we do acts of kindness and compassion, we fight against injustice and oppression, drug abuse and murder, and we unite to do all the good we can for as long as we can, knowing that we are doing our deeds as unto Christ Himself.
So brothers and sisters, Love God and Love your neighbor. Don’t get too caught up in thinking about the end times, but do realize that it’s very possible we will go through some very, very rough things before Christ comes again. Be ready for Him to come, but in the meantime, enjoy indwelling presence via the Holy Spirit, and His weekly coming in the Eucharist. Feed on Him in your Hearts with faith with Thanksgiving and be Glad. Amen.
All Saints Anglican Church, Barboursville, WV
Mark 13:14-23, Daniel 12: 1-13
Some months ago, I remember loaning a novel to a female friend of mine. I was surprised when she immediately turned to the back of the book and began reading the last page. “What are you doing?!” I exclaimed. “I’m reading the ending so I can tell if I want to read the rest of the book,” she calmly explained.
In an odd sort of way, this story relates to our readings today, and to the coming of Christ - the exception being that while the end of our story with Jesus is pretty clear – namely eternal fellowship and bliss with God in a resurrected body on a new Earth - the path to getting there is doggedly confusing. Indeed, when reading the parts of the story that describe the signs of the end – Daniel, the words of Jesus, Revelation etc. – no less a Saint than Augustine said, in his Summa Theologica: “…it is not easy to know what these signs may be: for the signs of which we read…refer not only to Christ’s coming in judgment, but also to the time of the sack of Jerusalem, and to the coming of Christ in ceaselessly visiting His Church.” (Volume III, Supplemental Question 73).
Our readings today show God to be the author of Literature, layering meaning upon meaning, showing us glimpses of future events in symbolic or representative actions – giving us a sort of puzzle to work out concerning the end of all things.
Specifically, Jesus was asked in the beginning of Mark 13 about his prophecy that the Temple would be destroyed. The disciples wanted to know when these things would come about. Jesus launches into a description of the travails and persecutions his followers could expect: earthquakes, wars, famine, civil strife – and all these things would be just the beginning of the troubles. He encourages them to persevere, but in verse 14, he says something that no doubt puzzled them.
“But when you see the abomination of desolation standing where it ought not to be … then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains”. Knowing their own history, the disciples would likely have remembered the reference to Daniel’s prophetic use of the term abomination of desolation and to its eventual fulfillment recorded in the book of I Maccabees – how the wicked ruler Antiochus Epiphanes had, in 168 BC, erected an altar to Zeus in the Jewish temple, thus profaning it.
But the disciples did not know that Jesus was referring to an event that would happen within their lifetimes – the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD by the Roman general Titus. The historian Josephus, in his “Wars of the Jews”, tells us that the city was completely obliterated, and that afterward it appeared ‘never to have been inhabited”. Jesus was warning of this catastrophe, and his warning must have been heeded later, because when the Romans came, the entire Christian community fled en masse, crossing the Jordan river and going up into the mountains to the city of Pella, where they were preserved without loss. (The 144,000 from Revelation?).
But there is more to Jesus’ statements in Mark 13 and the parallel chapter Matthew 24, than just a warning for the Christians to flee the destruction of Jerusalem. No, he repeatedly says things like, “But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory” (Mk 13:24, 25). This is the part of the Nicene Creed we refer to when we say He will come again in Glory to judge the living and the dead…”
So I’m sure the disciples must have been completely bumfuzzled by this kind of language, and even today we struggle with it.
The Greek word for ‘coming’ is “Parousia”, and the Greek word, ‘Eschaton’ means ‘the end’.
At the Eschaton, the end of all things, Jesus will have his Parousia, and will come again to gather up his saints from the four winds and begin to judge the earth. Associated with this, we are told that there will be a great Tribulation such as the world has never seen.
The Theological viewpoint reflected by the popular book series, “Left Behind”, is called Pre-Tribulation, Pre-Millenial Rapture. Its basic understanding of the future is that things will continue to get very bad in the world until Christians are suddenly raptured out of the world and the Antichrist appears. Daniel’s term abomination of desolation is widely acknowledged to refer to this same Antichrist. And his cryptic phrase ‘a time, times and a half’ is understood as meaning that there will be a period of apparent peace for the first three and one half years of Antichrist’s reign. After this there will be three and a half years of outright terrible Tribulation. All told, this period will last seven years and is known as the Great Tribulation.
At the end of the seven years, comes the battle of Armageddon in which the enemies of God are defeated, Satan is locked up for 1,000 years while Christ rules with His faithful believers during the “Millenial” Kingdom on earth. After this, Satan is released from prison and defeated in battle again. The earth is destroyed by fire and the New Jerusalem comes down out of heaven and all the dead are resurrected, either to blessedness or to eternal damnation. …This is the kind of scope we’re talking about when we say the “coming’ or ‘Parousia’ of Christ.
Now to be sure, there are differing versions of what will happen in the end. Some believe that there is no “Rapture” at all, and that believers will not be caught up in the air with Christ. There are also those who advocate for a Mid-Tribulation, or a Post-tribulation rapture.
Regarding the Millennium, or Thousand Year reign, there are those who don’t believe there will be a Millennium at all, that the events of AD 70 were the culmination of the Judgment Jesus spoke of and that we are now living in a figurative ‘millennial’ period and that the reign of Christ refers to the idea that He reigns ‘wherever loving hearts enthrone him” until the final culmination of all things at the very end.
My own view is that there will indeed be a 1,000 year period of time during which Christ reigns on earth. I hope that Believers will be Raptured before the Tribulation, but based on the history of the world, especially the 20th century, I’m not so sure. It wouldn’t surprise me if believers did indeed go through that Tribulation. They sure didn’t escape the Holocaust.
But if I focused on all of this too much, I think I would find myself distracted and terrified. I think there is another way to live, and that this other way has much to do with another sense of the word “parousia”. For you see, Parousia also means ‘Presence’. And it is precisely the Presence of Christ that we celebrate every time with take Communion.
Although the events of the future may hold terrors for us, we need not fear, for Christ tells us that He is with us always, even to the end of the age. We have his indwelling Parousia (presence) in the form of the Holy Spirit. But we also have the Parousia of Christ in the Bread and Wine of Communion. We feed on this Presence and it strengthens us and fills us with hope. It also leads us to Heaven itself, for in the Eucharist, we “Lift up our hearts” to Heaven, and Heaven comes down to us in a family reunion that foreshadows the great Marriage feast of the Lamb in the New Jerusalem.
Therefore, we don’t need to be overly concerned with the minute events of the future. Rather, our focus can be on the here and now. After all, Jesus tells us that not even He himself knows when His return is scheduled. It’s strictly a need-to-know business.
Having said that, however, there is an important caveat: we must be like good Boy Scouts, practicing Watchfulness in order to “Be Prepared”. We are to live this day without regard for tomorrow, yet realize that Christ will come again to judge the living and the dead. Our deeds here on earth really matter and our future depends upon them. If we acknowledge Him before men, he will acknowledge us. If we deny Him before men, He will deny us. It is because of this awesome knowledge that you and I have launched out into the deep and have separated ourselves from a form of religion that claims to be Christian, but which long ago morphed into something else.
Because we know that Christ will come again, we do acts of kindness and compassion, we fight against injustice and oppression, drug abuse and murder, and we unite to do all the good we can for as long as we can, knowing that we are doing our deeds as unto Christ Himself.
So brothers and sisters, Love God and Love your neighbor. Don’t get too caught up in thinking about the end times, but do realize that it’s very possible we will go through some very, very rough things before Christ comes again. Be ready for Him to come, but in the meantime, enjoy indwelling presence via the Holy Spirit, and His weekly coming in the Eucharist. Feed on Him in your Hearts with faith with Thanksgiving and be Glad. Amen.
Sunday, November 12, 2006
Not 'Lucre-ist', Eucharist!
This sermon is based on I Kings 17:8-16 and Mark 12:41-44. It was delivered on November 12, 2006 at All Saints Anglican Church in
Barboursville, West Virginia.
Note: After the initial prayer, our acolyte was directed to come forward and get a basket full of dollar bills. The basket was passed around with instructions for everyone to take a dollar out of the basket. When everyone had a dollar, they were admonished:
“This bill is life indeed. Take, eat, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.”
After the laughter died down, the message commenced:
This dollar bill represents the world and all it has to offer. The world tells us that if we will just feed upon its riches that our souls will be full and satisfied. But what do you think? Will your dollar bill taste good as you chew on it? Will it satisfy your hunger and feed your physical body? No? Well, in the same way, neither will the other Stuff in your life feed your soul. Rather, if you attempt to feed yourself on this false food, you will become malnourished and eventually die.
As Christians we have another view on this dollar bill. Again, think of this bill as representing the world and everything in it- all of your life. Before we handed out the dollars you didn’t have a dollar in your hand. In Christian terms, because of the Fall, our life was taken away from us and we did not have true Life, but rather the false appearance of life.
Now, instead of trying to eat that dollar bill, think of yourself receiving as a Gift from God, giving thanks for it, and offering it back to Him. ( Later, we will actually ask you to do this.) Then, imagine God multiplying what you have offered him in ways that none of us can imagine. This is the Christian Gospel – not a “Lucre-istic” feast, but a Eucharistic feast – one which we see symbolized for us in our readings today.
We have stories about two Widows, two marginalized, helpless people, who really had nothing materially. To be a widow in Jewish culture was to be a person who lived hand to mouth. A widow could not engage in a trade per se, could not compete in the marketplace openly, but rather had to rely upon a son to take care of her, or to glean fields, as Ruth and Naomi did. It was a tenuous existence at best.
And in the case of the widow of Zaraphath, we have the additional hardship of drought in the land. Why a drought? Because the prophet Elijah had declared there would be no rain, or even dew for a period of years, until he himself gave the command. Why such a harsh pronouncement? Because King Ahab had plunged the nation into unrighteousness. During his reign, …”he did evil in the sight of the Lord, more than all who were before him” (I Kings 16:30 ff.) He also set up an altar to worship Baal (a phallic god representing the worship of one’s own genitals), and married Jezebel the wicked. In short, Ahab did the exact opposite of what God required for righteousness. And this in turn was what caused Elijah to make his pronouncements upon the land.
So, as if widows and other helpless people didn’t have it hard enough, now there was a famine in the land and people were dying of starvation. In fact, the widow in our story was getting ready to bake up the last little bit of bread she could make, and after that she fully expected to die. At that very moment, along comes Elijah and asks her to give her a drink and make him a cake to eat! ( Our modern ears can hear echoes of Jesus and the Samaritan woman – “Give me a drink…” Jn. Chapter 4.) Elijah makes the startling prediction that the oil and flour would not run out until the rain returned. Most astonishingly, the woman apparently just accepted this and went to make the bread. I suppose she had heard about Elijah and may have reasoned that anyone who could stop the rain could also conjur up some oil and flour. At any rate, she accepted this provision from Elijah, and she enjoyed the multiplication of these meager resources for the duration of the drought.
But let’s back up a bit and notice that God had commanded Elijah to go to Zaraphath saying, “Behold, I have commanded a widow to there to feed you”. (v. 9). God chose a widow, a marginalized person with no resources, who was about to die…to provide for His prophet! How upside down things are in God’s economy ! Elijah was not sent to a wealthy landowner who could easily have taken care of his needs, but rather to someone who could not possibly provide for him out of her own resources. Elijah obeyed and went to Zaraphath, not questioning God’s rationale; the widow obeyed, not questioning Elijah’s sanity. In both cases, their obedience resulted in Life for many who were affected by their actions. “…she and he and her household ate for many days” (v. 15).
Fast forward now to the widow that Jesus observed giving her offering in the Temple. Everyone else contributed out of their abundance, but Jesus tells us that this widow gave everything she had to live on. In other words, she put in all of her Life as an offering. Perhaps she too was so near death that she decided to give her last little bit and then lay down and die. Or perhaps – she had grasped the reality that “All things come from Thee, and from Thine own have we given Thee”. Perhaps she understood her vocation as a Priest.
Alexander Schmemann, in his book, “For the Life of the World” says, “The first, the basic definition of man is that he is the priest. He stands in the center of the world and unifies it in his act of blessing God, of both receiving the world from God and offering it to God – and by filling the world with this eucharist, he transforms his life, the one that he receives from the world, into life in God, into communion with Him.” (pg. 15).
“All that exists is God’s gift to man, and it all exists to make God known to man, to make man’s life communion with God.” (pg. 14). If we understand this, then our natural response should be to bless God for the gifts received. We are to Know that all things come from Him, to Name each blessing and to Possess all things as trustees of the Life God has given us. Let’s look at a contemporary version of how a priestly approach to things results in Life for many.
In her book, Where Wonders Prevail, Joan Webster Anderson tells the story of Bill and Hannah Lords of Stanwood, Washington who, after raising six children, decided to devote themselves to working with the poor. They gave away all their household things and opened a storefront coffeehouse that they called The Refuge. They lived in the back rooms of the storefront and applied Bills’ wages as a truck driver to their work with the homeless of Everett, Washington.
“Our desire was to give one hundred percent of ourselves for the Lord,” said Hannah. And so they did, ministering to everyone who walked through the doors.
One day, a group of young people had come to help out, they were all caught up in a really sweet time of worship as the day began. The prayer continued until noon and they all felt as if they were suspended between heaven and earth. Hannah realized however, that ‘she had left Bill’s lunch on ‘low’ in their rusty oven. By now it would be a dismal dried-up mess: Two small slices of meatloaf and a little scoop of mashed potatoes from last night’s dinner. How could she possibly feed everyone with this little bit?
But she and her daughter, Linda, went ahead and set twelve place settings anyway. Hannah prepared to place a tiny dollop of food on each plate. She hated not to serve everyone, so the little bit would just have to do. But when she dipped into the pan of dried- up meatloaf with her serving spoon, she pulled up two large juicy slices of meatloaf! And the original slices were still in the pan! Astonished, Hannah moved to the next plate, and dipped her spoon again. Two more juicy slices of meatloaf appeared! On and on it went until all twelve place settings held servings.
The same thing happened with the mashed potatoes. She dipped into a dry stiff crust, and pulled up fluffy servings of moist potatoes! Twelve plates full!
Impulsively, Hannah remembered she had some frozen lettuce. As she broke off chunks of the frozen green leaves for a garnish, they turned into fresh crisp leaves on the plates!
Everyone who came to the table was amazed by what happened. They all rejoiced and gave thanks for the remarkable provision of God’s bounty. (I don’t know if there was any mayonnaise to go along with the meal…). Commenting on the experience, Hannah said, “Linda and I hated to leave the praise going on in the outer room, but in serving others we had been given an experience that would cause us to praise Him even more!” (pg. 142).
Remember the feeding of the 5,000? And the similar feeding of the 4,000? Sound familiar? Those episodes were meant to be illustrations of this Eucharistic action we are talking about. At the Last supper, Jesus took, bread and wine, and when he had given thanks over them, he gave them to his disciples and told them to eat; that these elements of food and drink were his very lifeblood given for them and for the life of the world.
So here is the Gospel message: All things were given to mankind in the beginning as gifts for Communing with God, but man rejected God’s instructions for the right use of the world and attempted to make the fruit of the Tree Of Knowledge of Good and Evil to be his food. In so doing the whole human race became a slave to the material world and experienced a true spiritual death. Adam and Eve attempted to eat dollar bills and so had no Life.
Into this situation of despair and death comes Jesus and offering Himself, emptying Himself of all His divine prerogatives ( Phillipians 2:7) and giving of himself to be the Food and Drink of new and unending Life in God. Jesus gave us our Life back. He didn’t give us something extra to make our life better. He gave us Life in all its fullness. Everything in our lives has been redeemed so that we now may enjoy Communnion with God again.
But our right enjoyment and use of the world depends upon understanding this Eucharistic pattern and our priestly role in the world. We are not to be revelers at the world’s “Lucre-istic” orgy, but to be a kingdom of priests who receive everything gratefully from God, give thanks over it and offer it back to God, so that it might be multiplied and become Life for many. Remember this every time you give your offerings and partake of Communion. In Him is Life!
Now hold up your dollar bill. Silently, in your heart give thanks to God for all of your Life and offer this back to God.
In application of our lesson today, I would like for these dollar bills to be offered as the first donation toward the purchase of the house on 1410 Charleston Avenue in Huntington. The house is listed with Fannie Mae for $17,900. We’re going to gather these dollar bills up as a special seed offering, and as we do so I would invite you to add any of your additional dollars to it – only dollar bills now please, of any denomination. And I would challenge us to eventually raise a ten percent down payment - $1790.00 as our initial commitment to creating HOPE House, a place that will memorialize four fallen young people and serve as the headquarters of an organization that will help to reverse a pattern of death and give Life instead.
An offering was taken and consecrated it to the special work saying,
“All things come from Thee O Lord and from Thine do we give unto Thee”. Amen.
Note: The congregation of 22 people offered up $255.00 for this special intention. Thanks be to God!
Barboursville, West Virginia.
Note: After the initial prayer, our acolyte was directed to come forward and get a basket full of dollar bills. The basket was passed around with instructions for everyone to take a dollar out of the basket. When everyone had a dollar, they were admonished:
“This bill is life indeed. Take, eat, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.”
After the laughter died down, the message commenced:
This dollar bill represents the world and all it has to offer. The world tells us that if we will just feed upon its riches that our souls will be full and satisfied. But what do you think? Will your dollar bill taste good as you chew on it? Will it satisfy your hunger and feed your physical body? No? Well, in the same way, neither will the other Stuff in your life feed your soul. Rather, if you attempt to feed yourself on this false food, you will become malnourished and eventually die.
As Christians we have another view on this dollar bill. Again, think of this bill as representing the world and everything in it- all of your life. Before we handed out the dollars you didn’t have a dollar in your hand. In Christian terms, because of the Fall, our life was taken away from us and we did not have true Life, but rather the false appearance of life.
Now, instead of trying to eat that dollar bill, think of yourself receiving as a Gift from God, giving thanks for it, and offering it back to Him. ( Later, we will actually ask you to do this.) Then, imagine God multiplying what you have offered him in ways that none of us can imagine. This is the Christian Gospel – not a “Lucre-istic” feast, but a Eucharistic feast – one which we see symbolized for us in our readings today.
We have stories about two Widows, two marginalized, helpless people, who really had nothing materially. To be a widow in Jewish culture was to be a person who lived hand to mouth. A widow could not engage in a trade per se, could not compete in the marketplace openly, but rather had to rely upon a son to take care of her, or to glean fields, as Ruth and Naomi did. It was a tenuous existence at best.
And in the case of the widow of Zaraphath, we have the additional hardship of drought in the land. Why a drought? Because the prophet Elijah had declared there would be no rain, or even dew for a period of years, until he himself gave the command. Why such a harsh pronouncement? Because King Ahab had plunged the nation into unrighteousness. During his reign, …”he did evil in the sight of the Lord, more than all who were before him” (I Kings 16:30 ff.) He also set up an altar to worship Baal (a phallic god representing the worship of one’s own genitals), and married Jezebel the wicked. In short, Ahab did the exact opposite of what God required for righteousness. And this in turn was what caused Elijah to make his pronouncements upon the land.
So, as if widows and other helpless people didn’t have it hard enough, now there was a famine in the land and people were dying of starvation. In fact, the widow in our story was getting ready to bake up the last little bit of bread she could make, and after that she fully expected to die. At that very moment, along comes Elijah and asks her to give her a drink and make him a cake to eat! ( Our modern ears can hear echoes of Jesus and the Samaritan woman – “Give me a drink…” Jn. Chapter 4.) Elijah makes the startling prediction that the oil and flour would not run out until the rain returned. Most astonishingly, the woman apparently just accepted this and went to make the bread. I suppose she had heard about Elijah and may have reasoned that anyone who could stop the rain could also conjur up some oil and flour. At any rate, she accepted this provision from Elijah, and she enjoyed the multiplication of these meager resources for the duration of the drought.
But let’s back up a bit and notice that God had commanded Elijah to go to Zaraphath saying, “Behold, I have commanded a widow to there to feed you”. (v. 9). God chose a widow, a marginalized person with no resources, who was about to die…to provide for His prophet! How upside down things are in God’s economy ! Elijah was not sent to a wealthy landowner who could easily have taken care of his needs, but rather to someone who could not possibly provide for him out of her own resources. Elijah obeyed and went to Zaraphath, not questioning God’s rationale; the widow obeyed, not questioning Elijah’s sanity. In both cases, their obedience resulted in Life for many who were affected by their actions. “…she and he and her household ate for many days” (v. 15).
Fast forward now to the widow that Jesus observed giving her offering in the Temple. Everyone else contributed out of their abundance, but Jesus tells us that this widow gave everything she had to live on. In other words, she put in all of her Life as an offering. Perhaps she too was so near death that she decided to give her last little bit and then lay down and die. Or perhaps – she had grasped the reality that “All things come from Thee, and from Thine own have we given Thee”. Perhaps she understood her vocation as a Priest.
Alexander Schmemann, in his book, “For the Life of the World” says, “The first, the basic definition of man is that he is the priest. He stands in the center of the world and unifies it in his act of blessing God, of both receiving the world from God and offering it to God – and by filling the world with this eucharist, he transforms his life, the one that he receives from the world, into life in God, into communion with Him.” (pg. 15).
“All that exists is God’s gift to man, and it all exists to make God known to man, to make man’s life communion with God.” (pg. 14). If we understand this, then our natural response should be to bless God for the gifts received. We are to Know that all things come from Him, to Name each blessing and to Possess all things as trustees of the Life God has given us. Let’s look at a contemporary version of how a priestly approach to things results in Life for many.
In her book, Where Wonders Prevail, Joan Webster Anderson tells the story of Bill and Hannah Lords of Stanwood, Washington who, after raising six children, decided to devote themselves to working with the poor. They gave away all their household things and opened a storefront coffeehouse that they called The Refuge. They lived in the back rooms of the storefront and applied Bills’ wages as a truck driver to their work with the homeless of Everett, Washington.
“Our desire was to give one hundred percent of ourselves for the Lord,” said Hannah. And so they did, ministering to everyone who walked through the doors.
One day, a group of young people had come to help out, they were all caught up in a really sweet time of worship as the day began. The prayer continued until noon and they all felt as if they were suspended between heaven and earth. Hannah realized however, that ‘she had left Bill’s lunch on ‘low’ in their rusty oven. By now it would be a dismal dried-up mess: Two small slices of meatloaf and a little scoop of mashed potatoes from last night’s dinner. How could she possibly feed everyone with this little bit?
But she and her daughter, Linda, went ahead and set twelve place settings anyway. Hannah prepared to place a tiny dollop of food on each plate. She hated not to serve everyone, so the little bit would just have to do. But when she dipped into the pan of dried- up meatloaf with her serving spoon, she pulled up two large juicy slices of meatloaf! And the original slices were still in the pan! Astonished, Hannah moved to the next plate, and dipped her spoon again. Two more juicy slices of meatloaf appeared! On and on it went until all twelve place settings held servings.
The same thing happened with the mashed potatoes. She dipped into a dry stiff crust, and pulled up fluffy servings of moist potatoes! Twelve plates full!
Impulsively, Hannah remembered she had some frozen lettuce. As she broke off chunks of the frozen green leaves for a garnish, they turned into fresh crisp leaves on the plates!
Everyone who came to the table was amazed by what happened. They all rejoiced and gave thanks for the remarkable provision of God’s bounty. (I don’t know if there was any mayonnaise to go along with the meal…). Commenting on the experience, Hannah said, “Linda and I hated to leave the praise going on in the outer room, but in serving others we had been given an experience that would cause us to praise Him even more!” (pg. 142).
Remember the feeding of the 5,000? And the similar feeding of the 4,000? Sound familiar? Those episodes were meant to be illustrations of this Eucharistic action we are talking about. At the Last supper, Jesus took, bread and wine, and when he had given thanks over them, he gave them to his disciples and told them to eat; that these elements of food and drink were his very lifeblood given for them and for the life of the world.
So here is the Gospel message: All things were given to mankind in the beginning as gifts for Communing with God, but man rejected God’s instructions for the right use of the world and attempted to make the fruit of the Tree Of Knowledge of Good and Evil to be his food. In so doing the whole human race became a slave to the material world and experienced a true spiritual death. Adam and Eve attempted to eat dollar bills and so had no Life.
Into this situation of despair and death comes Jesus and offering Himself, emptying Himself of all His divine prerogatives ( Phillipians 2:7) and giving of himself to be the Food and Drink of new and unending Life in God. Jesus gave us our Life back. He didn’t give us something extra to make our life better. He gave us Life in all its fullness. Everything in our lives has been redeemed so that we now may enjoy Communnion with God again.
But our right enjoyment and use of the world depends upon understanding this Eucharistic pattern and our priestly role in the world. We are not to be revelers at the world’s “Lucre-istic” orgy, but to be a kingdom of priests who receive everything gratefully from God, give thanks over it and offer it back to God, so that it might be multiplied and become Life for many. Remember this every time you give your offerings and partake of Communion. In Him is Life!
Now hold up your dollar bill. Silently, in your heart give thanks to God for all of your Life and offer this back to God.
In application of our lesson today, I would like for these dollar bills to be offered as the first donation toward the purchase of the house on 1410 Charleston Avenue in Huntington. The house is listed with Fannie Mae for $17,900. We’re going to gather these dollar bills up as a special seed offering, and as we do so I would invite you to add any of your additional dollars to it – only dollar bills now please, of any denomination. And I would challenge us to eventually raise a ten percent down payment - $1790.00 as our initial commitment to creating HOPE House, a place that will memorialize four fallen young people and serve as the headquarters of an organization that will help to reverse a pattern of death and give Life instead.
An offering was taken and consecrated it to the special work saying,
“All things come from Thee O Lord and from Thine do we give unto Thee”. Amen.
Note: The congregation of 22 people offered up $255.00 for this special intention. Thanks be to God!
Sunday, November 05, 2006
Loving God and Loving your Neighbor
This sermon was delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on November 5, 2006. It was based on
Mark 12: 28-34
The notable theologian, Mark Twain as once asked, “Mr. Twain, do you have trouble with the parts of the Bible you don’t understand?” Twain answered, “No…I have trouble with the parts of the Bible I do understand!”
Today’s Gospel is an example of something I understand, but have a hard time applying. It’s really very simple, isn’t it? Love God and Love your neighbor. But when we start trying to apply these ideas in our daily lives, somehow things get difficult.
The early Christians proclaimed “Kurios Ieosus”, Jesus is Lord. To them it was a direct contradiction of “Kurios Caesar”, “Caesar is Lord”, or master of my life. It was a life-altering identification with Jesus as Ruler of my life. The consequence for making this proclamation was frequently death. You didn’t say “Jesus is Lord” unless you were prepared to die. That’s a pretty clear picture of putting God first in your life. But what about today, when there are few if any real serious consequences of trying to make God first in your life?
If I love God, shall I read the Bible to the exclusion of every other book- as some have actually done? If I can read some books, which ones, and for how much time during the day? Does this include magazines?
How about movies and TV? Is it OK to watch sports on TV – or even to go to sporting events?
If I love God, should I go to church to the exclusion of all else?
Should I keep a rigid set of rules that will demonstrate to everyone who much I do indeed love God?
And when it comes to loving my neighbor, that means the people who live beside me, right? Even the ones who bother me so much? The ones I can’t stand, or the ones I never see often enough to know who they actually are? Does “neighbor” include the people down the street, across town, in the next town or city, state, country, etc.?
Also, when I think about loving my neighbor as myself, what does that mean? Should I give away everything I own for the benefit of those around me? How much stuff shall I own? How much can I get along without? Should I jump into my neighbor’s business and try to help them fix their problems – or is that beyond the prescription of what Jesus commands?
These are just some of the questions about how to apply the two greatest commands.
In the Old Testament God told the people what to do. First, he gave them Ten Commandments that summarized the entire intent of the Law. That is to say the Ten Commandments have to do with one’s relationship with God and then with those around me.
The detailed instructions about worship and sacrifice, including how to construct the temple, how to conduct sacrifices, how to dress the priests, what to do on the Sabbath, etc are all about how to show one’s devotion to God. But the instructions are a trap – one that the Jewish nation fell into, and one that many people today also fall into. It’s the trap of fulfilling the letter of the Law without observing the Sprit.
You see, the Levitical Law was actually meant to cause people to fail. The Law was meant to show people how difficult it would be to try to live a perfect life, pleasing to God. At the same time, built into the ceremonial law was a foreshadowing of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who would fulfill all the ceremonial aspects of temple worship and sacrifice while at the same time fulfilling all the Levitical commands completely.
Jesus did live a perfect life under the Judaic Law, but He was the only one who ever did it. The rest of us Christians are now under a system of grace in which we trust Jesus to be our righteousness before God, the righteous and holy judge. We no longer have to fear the wrath of God as Christians, but we are still tasked with becoming like Christ in all we do. (Romans 8:28,29). Even though we rely on Grace, we still need to apply effort to our faith. So I would suggest to you that there is wisdom in an ancient practice called living according to a Rule of Life.
Loving God through a Rule of Life
For thousands of years now people such as Benedict and Francis have lived according to a Rule of Life. The word Rule come from the Latin “Regula” – straightedge or guide. By contrast, the Latin word for Law is “Lex” as in Lexus, meaning a car that Lawyers drive… But seriously – the Levitcal code was Lex, while a Rule of Life is Regula. There is a fundamental difference.
St. Benedict and St. Frances are two spiritual fathers who wrote down Rules of Life, not because they were trying to accomplish their own righteousness through the Law, but because they understood that it was important to have guidelines that would help them fulfill their quest for personal holiness. A Rule of Life can be flexible. Especially in Benedict, we can see an attitude that says,“ This is the way we always do it, except when we find a need to do it differently…and by the way, if you can figure out a better way to do it, go right ahead.”
Francis took Jesus as his literal model for godliness and simply did everything that Jesus did, including giving other people the shirt off his back and receiving the Stigmata. He initially said that his Rule of Life was nothing more than the Gospel itself. Later on, he was compelled by his followers to write down rules for those wishing to follow him in his radical lifestyle ( First and Second Order monks and nuns), and for those who wished to stay in their secular lives and follow a so-called Third Order Rule.
A Rule of Life addresses all the things that are important to help us live the way Jesus lived and become the kind of person that Jesus was. Thus it includes such things as what kind of prayer we practice, and how often we will pray. How often I will worship. How much exercise and food I will consume. How much money I will spend on myself and give to others. In short, it becomes a blueprint for how I will live my life. But it’s important to note that a Rule of Life is something that an individual develops themselves on a voluntary basis, according to their own life circumstances.
For instance, I drive about 45 minutes to work each day. What will I do with that time? For me it has become a time when I can sing the daily offices and memorize Psalms. Sometimes I just keep silence and sometimes I listen to a program of particular interest to me. However, I almost never listen to the news as I drive along. I find it all very negative and biased anyway. So my drive time becomes something I actually accept and even look forward to at times.
When we complete our time and talent sheets, this is a sort of exercise in writing a limited Rule of Life. What will I do specifically for All Saints Anglican Church to help it fulfill the ministry that God has called it to? And so it goes. We develop guidelines for ourselves that will assist us to live out what we think is important, and those things that will help us to become more Christ-like
In our church life we are going to try to encourage both love of God and ones’s neighbor. We would like for every person in our church to love God with a deeply personal devotion that puts Him and His will first in our lives. We would like to be a “peculiar’ people who live differently from those of the world, who are merely selfish. To do this, we will encourage you to read your Bible and talk to God daily. We will ask you to learn to listen to God, and to become skilled at discerning His will – both through His written word and through the circumstances and people he brings into our lives.
We will ask you to refrain from Sin – those things that directly displease God and which humans are not really designed to do anyway. During Lent and Advent, we take on specific disciplines such as increased Bible reading, prayer or fasting in order to help us grow in our Love of God and our Neighbor. All these are aspects of one’s Rule of Life.
On to our Neighbors:
The first thing we need to do is to acknowledge the Painfully Obvious: My Neighbor is my neighbor. This includes those who live in close proximity to me, those who live in my town and state. In fact, every other person is really my neighbor, but especially those who lives are closely linked with ours, as the BCP puts it. How can we actively love these folks as our own selves?
How about Sharing the Good News with them or inviting them to come to church? Consider the following Stats:
Nationally 17.5% of the population goes to church
WV: 16.4% go to Church
Cabell County 20.7% go to church
Population of Cabell County: 94,031. 29,464 go to church. 74,943 stay home! Source: Dave Olson, 2005 study.’
We’ve got a potential population of 75,000 who could become Christians and start coming to church in one county alone!
How People Come to Christ:
Special Needs: 1-2%
Walk-in 2-3%
Pastor : 5-6%
Visitation 1-2%
Mass Evangelism 4-5%
Church Program 2-3%
Friend/Relative 75-90%
Source: The Master Plan for Making Disciples by Win Arn And Charles Arn.
The majority of people who make professions of faith in Christ do so because of the influence of a friend or family member. People who come to church do so because someone invited them personally. The greatest thing you can do for a friend is to help them come into a saving relationship with Christ.
Application: Write down on a sheet of paper: Oikos ( my circle of acquaintances or household). Who do you know? It would be really cool if so and so became a Christian. Pray for them. Invite them to church or to small groups
Small Groups can be the vehicle of inviting people to church and to Christ. Begin meeting in mid November : Friday the 10 or 17. Need a home to meet in.
Kids in the Kingdom
There are 75,000 people in Cabell County that aren’t going to church right now. Consider the following:
Probability of embracing Christ as savior:
32% for those between ages 5 and 12
4% for those between 13-18
6% for those 19 or older. Source: George Barna, Transforming Children into Spiritual Champions: Why Children should be your Church’s #1 Priority.
The clear message is that Children are where it’s at for the Church. Tie in to 1410 Charleston Avenue and the HOPE mentoring project. Go where the children are and be part of influencing them towards Christ!
Other Opportunities to Love and serve our Neighbors:
The Barboursville Veteran’s Home Thanksgiving/Christmas project.
Thanksgiving Sunday take gifts and do music after church?
What can you come up with? There are a thousand ways to serve God and love your neighbor. The above illustrations are only meant to be illustrative, and by no means exhaustive. As we go along, we will discover together what the Lord has for us to do. We’ll spend more time thinking about how to Love our God day by day, and how to love those around us who desperately need him as well.
So, here’s to understanding a few difficult things and then doing them.
AMEN.
Mark 12: 28-34
The notable theologian, Mark Twain as once asked, “Mr. Twain, do you have trouble with the parts of the Bible you don’t understand?” Twain answered, “No…I have trouble with the parts of the Bible I do understand!”
Today’s Gospel is an example of something I understand, but have a hard time applying. It’s really very simple, isn’t it? Love God and Love your neighbor. But when we start trying to apply these ideas in our daily lives, somehow things get difficult.
The early Christians proclaimed “Kurios Ieosus”, Jesus is Lord. To them it was a direct contradiction of “Kurios Caesar”, “Caesar is Lord”, or master of my life. It was a life-altering identification with Jesus as Ruler of my life. The consequence for making this proclamation was frequently death. You didn’t say “Jesus is Lord” unless you were prepared to die. That’s a pretty clear picture of putting God first in your life. But what about today, when there are few if any real serious consequences of trying to make God first in your life?
If I love God, shall I read the Bible to the exclusion of every other book- as some have actually done? If I can read some books, which ones, and for how much time during the day? Does this include magazines?
How about movies and TV? Is it OK to watch sports on TV – or even to go to sporting events?
If I love God, should I go to church to the exclusion of all else?
Should I keep a rigid set of rules that will demonstrate to everyone who much I do indeed love God?
And when it comes to loving my neighbor, that means the people who live beside me, right? Even the ones who bother me so much? The ones I can’t stand, or the ones I never see often enough to know who they actually are? Does “neighbor” include the people down the street, across town, in the next town or city, state, country, etc.?
Also, when I think about loving my neighbor as myself, what does that mean? Should I give away everything I own for the benefit of those around me? How much stuff shall I own? How much can I get along without? Should I jump into my neighbor’s business and try to help them fix their problems – or is that beyond the prescription of what Jesus commands?
These are just some of the questions about how to apply the two greatest commands.
In the Old Testament God told the people what to do. First, he gave them Ten Commandments that summarized the entire intent of the Law. That is to say the Ten Commandments have to do with one’s relationship with God and then with those around me.
The detailed instructions about worship and sacrifice, including how to construct the temple, how to conduct sacrifices, how to dress the priests, what to do on the Sabbath, etc are all about how to show one’s devotion to God. But the instructions are a trap – one that the Jewish nation fell into, and one that many people today also fall into. It’s the trap of fulfilling the letter of the Law without observing the Sprit.
You see, the Levitical Law was actually meant to cause people to fail. The Law was meant to show people how difficult it would be to try to live a perfect life, pleasing to God. At the same time, built into the ceremonial law was a foreshadowing of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who would fulfill all the ceremonial aspects of temple worship and sacrifice while at the same time fulfilling all the Levitical commands completely.
Jesus did live a perfect life under the Judaic Law, but He was the only one who ever did it. The rest of us Christians are now under a system of grace in which we trust Jesus to be our righteousness before God, the righteous and holy judge. We no longer have to fear the wrath of God as Christians, but we are still tasked with becoming like Christ in all we do. (Romans 8:28,29). Even though we rely on Grace, we still need to apply effort to our faith. So I would suggest to you that there is wisdom in an ancient practice called living according to a Rule of Life.
Loving God through a Rule of Life
For thousands of years now people such as Benedict and Francis have lived according to a Rule of Life. The word Rule come from the Latin “Regula” – straightedge or guide. By contrast, the Latin word for Law is “Lex” as in Lexus, meaning a car that Lawyers drive… But seriously – the Levitcal code was Lex, while a Rule of Life is Regula. There is a fundamental difference.
St. Benedict and St. Frances are two spiritual fathers who wrote down Rules of Life, not because they were trying to accomplish their own righteousness through the Law, but because they understood that it was important to have guidelines that would help them fulfill their quest for personal holiness. A Rule of Life can be flexible. Especially in Benedict, we can see an attitude that says,“ This is the way we always do it, except when we find a need to do it differently…and by the way, if you can figure out a better way to do it, go right ahead.”
Francis took Jesus as his literal model for godliness and simply did everything that Jesus did, including giving other people the shirt off his back and receiving the Stigmata. He initially said that his Rule of Life was nothing more than the Gospel itself. Later on, he was compelled by his followers to write down rules for those wishing to follow him in his radical lifestyle ( First and Second Order monks and nuns), and for those who wished to stay in their secular lives and follow a so-called Third Order Rule.
A Rule of Life addresses all the things that are important to help us live the way Jesus lived and become the kind of person that Jesus was. Thus it includes such things as what kind of prayer we practice, and how often we will pray. How often I will worship. How much exercise and food I will consume. How much money I will spend on myself and give to others. In short, it becomes a blueprint for how I will live my life. But it’s important to note that a Rule of Life is something that an individual develops themselves on a voluntary basis, according to their own life circumstances.
For instance, I drive about 45 minutes to work each day. What will I do with that time? For me it has become a time when I can sing the daily offices and memorize Psalms. Sometimes I just keep silence and sometimes I listen to a program of particular interest to me. However, I almost never listen to the news as I drive along. I find it all very negative and biased anyway. So my drive time becomes something I actually accept and even look forward to at times.
When we complete our time and talent sheets, this is a sort of exercise in writing a limited Rule of Life. What will I do specifically for All Saints Anglican Church to help it fulfill the ministry that God has called it to? And so it goes. We develop guidelines for ourselves that will assist us to live out what we think is important, and those things that will help us to become more Christ-like
In our church life we are going to try to encourage both love of God and ones’s neighbor. We would like for every person in our church to love God with a deeply personal devotion that puts Him and His will first in our lives. We would like to be a “peculiar’ people who live differently from those of the world, who are merely selfish. To do this, we will encourage you to read your Bible and talk to God daily. We will ask you to learn to listen to God, and to become skilled at discerning His will – both through His written word and through the circumstances and people he brings into our lives.
We will ask you to refrain from Sin – those things that directly displease God and which humans are not really designed to do anyway. During Lent and Advent, we take on specific disciplines such as increased Bible reading, prayer or fasting in order to help us grow in our Love of God and our Neighbor. All these are aspects of one’s Rule of Life.
On to our Neighbors:
The first thing we need to do is to acknowledge the Painfully Obvious: My Neighbor is my neighbor. This includes those who live in close proximity to me, those who live in my town and state. In fact, every other person is really my neighbor, but especially those who lives are closely linked with ours, as the BCP puts it. How can we actively love these folks as our own selves?
How about Sharing the Good News with them or inviting them to come to church? Consider the following Stats:
Nationally 17.5% of the population goes to church
WV: 16.4% go to Church
Cabell County 20.7% go to church
Population of Cabell County: 94,031. 29,464 go to church. 74,943 stay home! Source: Dave Olson, 2005 study.’
We’ve got a potential population of 75,000 who could become Christians and start coming to church in one county alone!
How People Come to Christ:
Special Needs: 1-2%
Walk-in 2-3%
Pastor : 5-6%
Visitation 1-2%
Mass Evangelism 4-5%
Church Program 2-3%
Friend/Relative 75-90%
Source: The Master Plan for Making Disciples by Win Arn And Charles Arn.
The majority of people who make professions of faith in Christ do so because of the influence of a friend or family member. People who come to church do so because someone invited them personally. The greatest thing you can do for a friend is to help them come into a saving relationship with Christ.
Application: Write down on a sheet of paper: Oikos ( my circle of acquaintances or household). Who do you know? It would be really cool if so and so became a Christian. Pray for them. Invite them to church or to small groups
Small Groups can be the vehicle of inviting people to church and to Christ. Begin meeting in mid November : Friday the 10 or 17. Need a home to meet in.
Kids in the Kingdom
There are 75,000 people in Cabell County that aren’t going to church right now. Consider the following:
Probability of embracing Christ as savior:
32% for those between ages 5 and 12
4% for those between 13-18
6% for those 19 or older. Source: George Barna, Transforming Children into Spiritual Champions: Why Children should be your Church’s #1 Priority.
The clear message is that Children are where it’s at for the Church. Tie in to 1410 Charleston Avenue and the HOPE mentoring project. Go where the children are and be part of influencing them towards Christ!
Other Opportunities to Love and serve our Neighbors:
The Barboursville Veteran’s Home Thanksgiving/Christmas project.
Thanksgiving Sunday take gifts and do music after church?
What can you come up with? There are a thousand ways to serve God and love your neighbor. The above illustrations are only meant to be illustrative, and by no means exhaustive. As we go along, we will discover together what the Lord has for us to do. We’ll spend more time thinking about how to Love our God day by day, and how to love those around us who desperately need him as well.
So, here’s to understanding a few difficult things and then doing them.
AMEN.
Sunday, October 29, 2006
Mary and Martha Working Together
This sermon was given at the Profession Service of the Company of Jesus, 10/27/06 at Forest Avenue United Methodist Church, Chatannoga, TN. The text for the day was Luke 10:38-42.
In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen.
For nearly 800 years, lay people, religious, and priests who recognize a calling to follow Christ in the footsteps of St. Francis of Assisi have been striving to live the Gospel life in the world under the Third Order Rule of Francis. For some 1500 years, individual Christians have been offering themselves to Christ’s service by becoming Oblates of particular monasteries, focusing on prayer, work and service in their daily lives. Both Franciscans and Benedictines are interested in personal holiness, social justice and peace. Both are keenly committed to serving Christ and to letting nothing come before devotion to Christ.
At times there seems to be a sort of Mary/Martha split between the two Charisms. Benedictines initially appear more contemplative and stuck in one place, while Franciscans seems more active and Spirit-led. But a closer look reveals that this is a false dichotomy, and that we can easily find Benedictines who are actively engaged in teaching and other ‘secular’ pursuits, as well as Franciscans who live in a convent and have an intensely contemplative prayer life.
In the Company of Jesus, we are the happy recipients of two distinct but complementary spiritualities: the best of Francis and Benedict, Mary and Martha. All of us in the Company of Jesus are interested in an “Eschatological Existence” That is, we have been smitten with the idea of living our lives in a way that brings Heaven to earth. And while we all look forward to the blessings of the Celestial City, we also believe that it is possible to practice the Peaceable Kingdom now, before it arrives in its fullness here, or we go to meet it there.
In order to witness the New Jerusalem come down out of heaven and to see angels descending and ascending the ladder to heaven we must practice a cardinal virtue. Both Francis and Benedict agree that this virtue is Humility. Benedict thought Humility was so important that he devoted a long chapter to it in his Rule (#7) and describing its Tools – 74 in all in another chapter (4). Francis was so intent on following Christ literally that he stripped himself of every earthly privilege and emptied himself just as Christ did, walking naked into the world. Fro both men and their female counterparts Clare and Scholastica, Humility was the Key to living the Christian life – an Eschatological Existence in which Heaven is brought to earth by following a Rule of Life based on key values. Franciscans enumerates them as Poverty, Chastity and Obedience, while Benedictines express it through Obedience Stability and Conversion of Life (Conversatio Morum). Both sets of values express a desire to sit faithfully at the feet of Jesus while also serving Him in acts of Love in the world.
When Francis was first starting out in his monastic life, he used to say that the only Rule he and his brothers followed was the Gospel. By this he meant that simply following Jesus in his lifestyle of total dependence on God would produce an intimate acquaintance with Christ and personal transformation that also touches the world. Lady Poverty was the constant, sweet companion in this life, embodying the paradoxes of the Gospel, bringing riches out of weakness and joy out of misery. Benedict took Poverty for granted, insisting that none of his monks would own anything in private, but yet at the same time would have everything basic they needed to help them along the path of Holiness of life. Poverty was seen as the twin virtue of Humility, the basis for a true Conversion of Life, bringing the monk or nun into conformity and union with the Poor Christ.
Obedience to a Superior was considered by both our patrons to be a necessity. To listen to the abbot or the Minister General was to listen to God, thus denying oneself in imitation of Christ, and certainly requiring taking up the Cross! Monastics placed themselves under the authority of another in order to gain freedom from stubbornness, selfishness and self-centeredness – and to grow in Humility unto Christ. But Obedience is a two-way street. This is seen in Benedict’s admonition to his brothers to listen to the newest member of the Order during Chapter meetings, because often God speaks through the youngest member. Francis required holy obedience from his Friars, but at the end of his life was compelled to obey brother Leo, who insisted that he was loaning Francis a tunic that did not belong to him and so was forbidden to give it away or take it off! It is a measure of Francis’ growth in Humility that he was able to rejoice in obedience to his dear brother and disciple in the faith.
Finally, the vow of Chastity focuses stability and fidelity to our Lord- either through abstaining from sex altogether, or by remaining faithful to one’s spouse. The story is told of a young monk who arrives at a monastery. He is assigned to helping the other monks in copying the old canons and laws of the church by hand. He notices, however, that all of the monks are copying from copies, not from the original manuscript. So, the new monk goes to the abbot to question this, pointing out that if someone made even a small error in the first copy, it would never be picked up! In fact, that error would be continued in all of the subsequent copies.
The Abbot says, “We have been copying from the copies for centuries, but you make a good point, my son.” He goes down into the dark caves under the monastery where the original manuscripts are held as archives in a locked vault that hasn’t been opened for hundreds of years. Hours go by and nobody sees the old Abbot. So, the young monk gets worried and goes down to look for him. He sees him banging his head against the wall and wailing, “ We missed the ‘R’! We missed the ‘R’!”
His forehead is all bloody and bruised and he is crying uncontrollably. The young monk asks the old abbot, “What’s wrong, father?”
With a choking voice, the old abbot replies, “ The word was…CELEBRATE!”
So why choose this kind of life in America, in the 21st Century? As I have worked with new members coming in to the Company of Jesus, I see several things: First, a sense of being personally drawn to the faith and spirituality of one’s patron. Our members seem to feel that Christianity, as personified by Benedict or Francis, ‘fits’ me and my God-given termperament. There is also the feeling of being drawn inexplicably to this life despite faith backgrounds that are often almost diametrically opposed to my desired vocation. I attribute this to the active, drawing work of the Holy Spirit and the conviction that God is not done with the monastic expression of spirituality, but wants instead to do something in our day through these ancient forms of devotion.
In fact, I think part of this purpose is to reconnect us with generations of saints who have gone before us, growing toward perfection in their life in Christ. WE don’t have to reinvent the whell when it comes to following Christ. If you can think of it, someone has tried it! In Benedict and Francis, we have a near-compendium of everything that “works” in the spiritual life.
Lastly, making a profession or an oblation to a religious order expresses a desire for accountability and mentoring as a follower of Christ. The Celtic saints used to say that a Christian without a Soul-Friend is like a body without a head. Without a guide, it is easy to get off the track. Most of our members are ordained clergy. It doesn’t have to be that way. It’s not even ultimately desirable. Traditionally, most Friars, monks and oblates are lay people.” Yet, we see the desire for a deeper and more ordered spiritual life even among those who are “professional” Christians. In a word, I would describe this as a desire for Discipleship; a desire to fulfill the Great Commission in one’s own life, Obeying the Lord by following the wise and sure examples of our father and mother in the faith, bringing peace and justice to ourselves and those around us, bringing a little bit of Heaven to Earth in our daily acts of Humility and Love, being like Jesus in all things, and preferring nothing whatsoever to Him. Amen.
In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen.
For nearly 800 years, lay people, religious, and priests who recognize a calling to follow Christ in the footsteps of St. Francis of Assisi have been striving to live the Gospel life in the world under the Third Order Rule of Francis. For some 1500 years, individual Christians have been offering themselves to Christ’s service by becoming Oblates of particular monasteries, focusing on prayer, work and service in their daily lives. Both Franciscans and Benedictines are interested in personal holiness, social justice and peace. Both are keenly committed to serving Christ and to letting nothing come before devotion to Christ.
At times there seems to be a sort of Mary/Martha split between the two Charisms. Benedictines initially appear more contemplative and stuck in one place, while Franciscans seems more active and Spirit-led. But a closer look reveals that this is a false dichotomy, and that we can easily find Benedictines who are actively engaged in teaching and other ‘secular’ pursuits, as well as Franciscans who live in a convent and have an intensely contemplative prayer life.
In the Company of Jesus, we are the happy recipients of two distinct but complementary spiritualities: the best of Francis and Benedict, Mary and Martha. All of us in the Company of Jesus are interested in an “Eschatological Existence” That is, we have been smitten with the idea of living our lives in a way that brings Heaven to earth. And while we all look forward to the blessings of the Celestial City, we also believe that it is possible to practice the Peaceable Kingdom now, before it arrives in its fullness here, or we go to meet it there.
In order to witness the New Jerusalem come down out of heaven and to see angels descending and ascending the ladder to heaven we must practice a cardinal virtue. Both Francis and Benedict agree that this virtue is Humility. Benedict thought Humility was so important that he devoted a long chapter to it in his Rule (#7) and describing its Tools – 74 in all in another chapter (4). Francis was so intent on following Christ literally that he stripped himself of every earthly privilege and emptied himself just as Christ did, walking naked into the world. Fro both men and their female counterparts Clare and Scholastica, Humility was the Key to living the Christian life – an Eschatological Existence in which Heaven is brought to earth by following a Rule of Life based on key values. Franciscans enumerates them as Poverty, Chastity and Obedience, while Benedictines express it through Obedience Stability and Conversion of Life (Conversatio Morum). Both sets of values express a desire to sit faithfully at the feet of Jesus while also serving Him in acts of Love in the world.
When Francis was first starting out in his monastic life, he used to say that the only Rule he and his brothers followed was the Gospel. By this he meant that simply following Jesus in his lifestyle of total dependence on God would produce an intimate acquaintance with Christ and personal transformation that also touches the world. Lady Poverty was the constant, sweet companion in this life, embodying the paradoxes of the Gospel, bringing riches out of weakness and joy out of misery. Benedict took Poverty for granted, insisting that none of his monks would own anything in private, but yet at the same time would have everything basic they needed to help them along the path of Holiness of life. Poverty was seen as the twin virtue of Humility, the basis for a true Conversion of Life, bringing the monk or nun into conformity and union with the Poor Christ.
Obedience to a Superior was considered by both our patrons to be a necessity. To listen to the abbot or the Minister General was to listen to God, thus denying oneself in imitation of Christ, and certainly requiring taking up the Cross! Monastics placed themselves under the authority of another in order to gain freedom from stubbornness, selfishness and self-centeredness – and to grow in Humility unto Christ. But Obedience is a two-way street. This is seen in Benedict’s admonition to his brothers to listen to the newest member of the Order during Chapter meetings, because often God speaks through the youngest member. Francis required holy obedience from his Friars, but at the end of his life was compelled to obey brother Leo, who insisted that he was loaning Francis a tunic that did not belong to him and so was forbidden to give it away or take it off! It is a measure of Francis’ growth in Humility that he was able to rejoice in obedience to his dear brother and disciple in the faith.
Finally, the vow of Chastity focuses stability and fidelity to our Lord- either through abstaining from sex altogether, or by remaining faithful to one’s spouse. The story is told of a young monk who arrives at a monastery. He is assigned to helping the other monks in copying the old canons and laws of the church by hand. He notices, however, that all of the monks are copying from copies, not from the original manuscript. So, the new monk goes to the abbot to question this, pointing out that if someone made even a small error in the first copy, it would never be picked up! In fact, that error would be continued in all of the subsequent copies.
The Abbot says, “We have been copying from the copies for centuries, but you make a good point, my son.” He goes down into the dark caves under the monastery where the original manuscripts are held as archives in a locked vault that hasn’t been opened for hundreds of years. Hours go by and nobody sees the old Abbot. So, the young monk gets worried and goes down to look for him. He sees him banging his head against the wall and wailing, “ We missed the ‘R’! We missed the ‘R’!”
His forehead is all bloody and bruised and he is crying uncontrollably. The young monk asks the old abbot, “What’s wrong, father?”
With a choking voice, the old abbot replies, “ The word was…CELEBRATE!”
So why choose this kind of life in America, in the 21st Century? As I have worked with new members coming in to the Company of Jesus, I see several things: First, a sense of being personally drawn to the faith and spirituality of one’s patron. Our members seem to feel that Christianity, as personified by Benedict or Francis, ‘fits’ me and my God-given termperament. There is also the feeling of being drawn inexplicably to this life despite faith backgrounds that are often almost diametrically opposed to my desired vocation. I attribute this to the active, drawing work of the Holy Spirit and the conviction that God is not done with the monastic expression of spirituality, but wants instead to do something in our day through these ancient forms of devotion.
In fact, I think part of this purpose is to reconnect us with generations of saints who have gone before us, growing toward perfection in their life in Christ. WE don’t have to reinvent the whell when it comes to following Christ. If you can think of it, someone has tried it! In Benedict and Francis, we have a near-compendium of everything that “works” in the spiritual life.
Lastly, making a profession or an oblation to a religious order expresses a desire for accountability and mentoring as a follower of Christ. The Celtic saints used to say that a Christian without a Soul-Friend is like a body without a head. Without a guide, it is easy to get off the track. Most of our members are ordained clergy. It doesn’t have to be that way. It’s not even ultimately desirable. Traditionally, most Friars, monks and oblates are lay people.” Yet, we see the desire for a deeper and more ordered spiritual life even among those who are “professional” Christians. In a word, I would describe this as a desire for Discipleship; a desire to fulfill the Great Commission in one’s own life, Obeying the Lord by following the wise and sure examples of our father and mother in the faith, bringing peace and justice to ourselves and those around us, bringing a little bit of Heaven to Earth in our daily acts of Humility and Love, being like Jesus in all things, and preferring nothing whatsoever to Him. Amen.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)