Sunday, April 29, 2007

The Good Shepherd

A Sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church, Barboursville ( AM)
and Anglican Church of the Risen Lord, Charleston, 9PM).
Based on: John 10:22-39


As we begin talking about our passage today I’d just like to set the context for us. In John chapter 9, Jesus had healed a man born blind, whom the Pharisees promptly tossed out of the Synagogue, thus showing themselves to be very poor shepherds of the sheep of Israel indeed. It’s like the old Hymn we sing, “Beating up the Sheep, Beating up the Sheep. We shall come rejoicing, beating up the sheep.”

Now, in John chapter 10, Jesus is contrasting himself with the Pharisees. They are thieves, who try to come in the sheepfold by the side door to steal. Jesus is the Good Shepherd, who faithfully leads the sheep, even to the point of giving up his life for them. While the Pharisees are interested in power and control, Jesus says “I came that they might have life and might have it abundantly” (Jn. 10:10). His focus is totally other-directed and service oriented.

In using this metaphor of the Good Shepherd, Jesus is employing an image that the Pharisees would certainly have known well. Psalm 100 says, “we are His people and the sheep of His pasture… v. 3. And there is Psalm 23: The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want… to name just a couple.

In using this language, Jesus is making an implicit claim to be God, and is also harshly criticizing the Pharisees. In verses 4 and 5, he says “…he goes before them and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow”. (This is reiterated in verse 27: “My sheep hear my voice and I know them, and they follow me.)

Then Jesus starts talking about laying down his life and taking it up on his own authority (v. 18). The Pharisees are really divided now, and they start accusing Jesus of having a demon or being insane. So they ask Him pointedly, “if you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” (v. 24). However, this question is not asked from faith, but as a ploy to catch him in a miscue and so enable them to condemn Jesus.

But Jesus gives them no satisfaction. He rebuffs them and basically tells them that they aren’t of His flock, that God doesn’t know them, and they’re goin’ to hell. He wraps it up with a definitive statement, “I and the Father are One.” And the Jews take up stones to kill him because “he made himself out to be God. (v. 33). They know blasphemy when they hear it. They do not believe Jesus is just a harmless good teacher. No! They are furious because he is making a clear claim to Deity.

And here, let’s point out that as you witness to those who do not know Christ, this is a key passage. Is shows very clearly that Jesus understood himself to be at one with God, not just in some generic sense, but so specifically that the Jews try to kill him on account of Blasphemy.

Now notice that Jesus says, I give them eternal life (v.28). He didn’t claim to have been enlightened like the Buddha. He didn’t go sit under a tree and achieve Nirvana through a life-long quest for spiritual breakthrough. No, he is claiming Ontological unity with a personal God – the Father Creator – and asserting that He, the Son, is at One with the Father and that Eternal Life is found in Him! Now that is a tall claim! Jesus gives us eternal life.

Not only that , but the passage today shows us Gods’ personal, individual interest in us . Verse 29: “My Father, who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them from my hands. “

We call this the Perseverance of the Saints. In Romans 8:38 and 39 we read: “Nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God.” God will persevere with us and keep us in His love because He loved us and chose us for salvation. This in turn points us to the doctrine of Predestination. Article 27 of the 39 articles of Religion, The Book of Common Prayer, page 871, says:

“Predestination to Life is the everlasting purpose of God, whereby (before the foundations of the world were laid) he hath constantly decreed by his counsel secret to us, to deliver from curse and damnation those whom he hath chosen in Christ out of mankind, and to bring them by Christ to everlasting salvation, as vessels made to honour. Wherefore, they which be endued with so excellent a benefit of God, be called according to God’s purpose by his Spirit working in due season: they through Grace obey the calling: they be justified freely: they be made sons of God by adoption: they be made like the image of his only-begotten Son Jesus Christ: they walk religiously in good works, and at length, by God’s mercy, they attain to everlasting felicity…”


We are called according to God’s purpose (Romans 8:28,29), which is to conform us to the Image of Christ; God foreknew us before the foundation of the word. This means that he loved us particularly. Foreknew …”means ‘whom he set regard upon’ or ‘whom he knew from eternity with distinguishing affection and delight’, and is virtually equivalent to ‘whom he foreloved” (emphasis added) (The Five Points of Calvinism: The Meaning of Foreknew in Romans 8:29. ed. Steele and Thomas).

We were marked, ordained by God for salvation. It’s not that God simply knew who would respond to the offer of salvation ahead of time, but that there is a continuum of God’s action (v. 29). ‘Those he foreknew, he also predestined, to be conformed to the image of his son…v. 30 and those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.”

Notice that all these verbs are in the past tense. God’s sees it all as having already been accomplished. Since he stands outside of Time, he can look at all the moments of our life at once and see them all as if they had already happened. He sees the beginning and the end at once. Its’ already done.

Now what about Free-Will? Here’ what Article 10 of the 39 Articles says about Free Will:

X. Of Free-Will.

“The condition of Man after the fall of Adam is such, that he cannot turn and prepare himself, by his own natural strength and good works, to faith, and calling upon God. Wherefore we have no power to do good works pleasant and acceptable to God, without
the grace of God by Christ preventing us, that we may have a good will, and working with us, when we have that good will.”

Our natural will is bound to choose death, but somehow, God gives us the grace and freedom to choose Life. God sees it all and knows it, is Sovereign over it all at once. In His Sovereignty, he actively chooses us individually to receive the gift of faith, to be saved and to be kept against the day of Christ’s return.

I really believe that God is the Author of Salvation. He calls us to believe and He gives us the grace to believe. This means that he gives us the actual freedom to choose him. Without this grace, our natural inclination keep us away from God. We don’t know who he has chosen unto salvation, but we do know He wants to use as channels of saving grace for other people. Our job is to share the Good News, so that others might respond to it and be saved. This is the mechanism of salvation: God saves us by His righteous right hand and he keeps us in His love. Knowing this should give us great comfort.


Okay, so God is the author of salvation: He chooses us to come to faith and He keeps us in the faith…but “what about those who fall away from the faith? Jesus did say that not everyone who came to him saying, Lord, Lord would be saved – even those who did miracles in Jesus’ Name. Paul also complains that some of his fellows have fallen away. “Demas has loved the world…

Two Answers:

One: not everyone who professes faith, is actually a Christian. You can say you believe, but never have actually made the commitment.

Two: It’s also true that we can chose how obedient or close we want to be to Him. As sheep, we can wander off, causing the Good shepherd to come looking for us. We can be inattentive and not listen very closely to His voice. We can be disobedient and luke-warm, or even hard-hearted. We can choose to love buildings and traditions and comfort more than Jesus. We can be bad sheep.

Article X of the 39 Articles:

XVI. Of Sin after Baptism.

“Not every deadly sin willingly committed after Baptism is sin against the Holy Ghost, and unpardonable. Wherefore the grant of repentance is not to be denied to such as fall into sin after Baptism. After we have received the Holy Ghost, we may depart from grace given, and fall into sin, and by the grace of God we may arise again, and amend our lives. And therefore they are to be condemned, which say, they can no more sin as long as they live
here, or deny the place of forgiveness to such as truly repent.”

The latter sentence is a response to those who say that Christians never fall into sin. Just because you’re a Christian doesn’t mean that you never sin, nor that God won’t forgive you. You can choose to sin even though you are a Christian.

But I think everything depends upon God’s Sovereign Action in our lives.

I believe that if He did not keep me, I would fall away quickly. It’s hard enough to be obedient and close to God when we’re really trying, much less when we are bent on our own will! I need Jesus to hold on to me!

My own response to God’s love is important and determines the level of closeness I attain with Christ. You can chose how intimate you want to be with God. And the key to being close to Christ is to listen to His voice. Are we listening? Do you know Him well enough to discern His voice from your own voice – or even form the Devil’s? Do you know the difference between something you really want and the thing that God wants?

This requires closeness with the Shepherd, which we develop through spending time listening to Him closely: reading His Word, being quiet before him, praying, and receiving counsel from other godly Christians. These are all ways that we begin to know the shepherd’s voice. Make it your life’s ambition to know the Shepherd’s Voice!

Brothers and sisters, Listen to the Shepherd. He is good. He loves you. He will faithfully guide you because He is God. Follow his voice and He will protect you, and no one will be able to snatch you out of His hand. Amen.

Sunday, April 22, 2007

Goin' Fishin'

A Sermon delivered at All Saints Anglican Church, April 2, 2007, Year C, and based on John 21:1-14


They say that a bad day fishing is better than a good day in the office.

Apparently, Peter must have had the same philosophy, because shortly after the resurrection, he announces ( KJV) “ I go a-fishing.” Or, in the closely-linked Appalachian version” I’m a goin’ fishin’. His buddies Thomas, Nathaniel, James, John and two others quickly decide to join in. They climb in the boat, and head out to fish all night – and come up with nothin’. Zip, Zilch, Nada, Nothin’.

Now, it’s unlikely that Peter et al were going back to the fishing trade on a permanent basis, but they probably did need something to keep body and soul together. Jesus had Risen and appeared to them, but over a forty day period, these appearances were sporadic. So, whether out of boredom, or just simple financial need, they go back to the familiar trade for a night. What was really happening though was that Jesus was setting them up for a reprise of their initial call to become fishers of men.

God really does have a sense of humor – perhaps even verging on being a practical joker. Here these poor guys are out there all night, with nothing to show for their efforts – not even one little minnow! And Jesus tells them to let down their nets on the right side for a catch. This is an object lesson of the Christian faith.

To mix a metaphor, John 15: 1 ff tells us that Jesus is the Vine and we are the branches. If we stay connected to him, we bear much fruit, for apart from him, we can do nothing. (v.5). The disciples found out how this verse applies to fishing that night. We may understand that in their own wisdom and strength, they tried to do what they knew to do. It wasn’t sin, but it wasn’t the result of specifically abiding in the vine. As a result, there was no result. This is the way it is in the Christian life: You can take a notion to do something that seems right and reasonable, but if it’s not the result of being led by the Lord, you will have no fruit.

Instead, we are to ‘fish on the right side of the boat”. That is, we are to do what Jesus tells us. Remember the story of Mary asking Jesus for wine at the wedding of Cana – and how she tells the servants to “do whatever he tells you”… That’s a simple formula for leading a successful Christian life.

But we might quickly point out that in order to ‘do what he tells you’, you must be listening! And for all their lack of success fishing, the disciples were listening. We can only imagine what they must have been thinking as Jesus tells them to put down their nets on the other side of the boat. But they obeyed and as a result, they pulled up a multitude of fish – so much so that the boat was ready to capsize.
And in an odd detail, we are told that there are 153 fish to be precise. We accept this by faith, even though fishermen are known to exaggerate… Another allegorical note: the net held. Jesus intends for us to keep the fish we catch!

Now Peter realizes it is the Lord directing the catch, and he grabs his outer garment and plunges into the sea, swimming the 100 yards to shore. He finds Jesus making breakfast, fish and bread. Christ feeds the disciples and then he is suddenly gone.


This story illustrates graphically what we as the Lord’s disciples are to do: we are to be fishers of men, winners of souls, makers of disciples. We are to multiply our efforts! 2 Tim. 2:2 tells us the pattern: “what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men [and women] who will be able to teach others also.”

Most churches in America today are not into addition, not multiplication. Most of the growth in churches comes from transfers, not from making new believers. That is not what Jesus told us to do! We are to win new believers and to make disciples, who will in turn go out and make new converts and disciples. If we were really being faithful to this pattern, we would grow geometrically, not just one by one.

Admittedly, this is a harder task than just transferring Christians from other churches. But it’s vital that we do so! There are still 75,000 people in the immediate area who are literally going to Hell in a handbasket without the Lord. If we don’t fish for them, part of the responsibility for their souls will rest on us.

But how do we win them? Largely through relationship building. While it’s true that many people are saved in revivals and evangelistic campaigns, it’s a demonstrated fact that most people come to church because they were invited by a friend – someone they have history with, someone whom they trust enough to respond to. Are we developing this type of relationship with any non-believers? Do we invite them to church or to small group? Do we pray with them, or have bible study with them? Do we believe what John wrote about his Gospel? – “these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (Jn. 20:31).

Friends, Jesus is Life. Without Jesus, there is no true Life. Let me urge you to meditate on this truth and to ask God to open up opportunities for you to share this life with your friends and loved ones. If we can get into a habit of thinking this way, we will grow – not just additively, but geometrically. Not just for the sake of having a big church, but for the sake of winning the world for Christ.

Let’s Pray: Father, we know that apart from you we can do nothing. We also know that in You is life and the Life is the Light of Men. Help us, O God, to be faithful witnesses of the Life. Please direct us to help those who do not know you to find you. Assist us with the power of your Holy Spirit to be your witnesses. Bring in new souls to your Kingdom through us for the Glory of your Name, and the life of the World. We ask it all through the wonderful Name of Jesus. Amen.

Thursday, April 12, 2007

On Seeing my first Post-Feminist Movie

Normally, I’m not a fan of Will Ferrell. The most charitable adjective I can use to describe his chosen roles to date is ‘painful’. So, it was with a sense of real trepidation that I agreed to watch Ferrell’s new movie, “Stranger than Fiction”. Here’s the blurb from the back of the case:

“…Harold Crick [is] a lonely IRS agent whose mundane existence is transformed when he hears a mysterious voice narrating his life. With the help of Professor Jules Hilbert, Harold discovers he’s the main character in a novel-in-progress and that the voice belongs to Karen Eiffel, an eccentric author famous for killing her main characters in creative ways. Harold must quickly track down Eiffel and stop her before she conjures up a way to finish him off.”

When Harold begins hearing Eiffel’s voice narrating his life, it quickly drives him to distraction. He consults with a psychiatrist, who diagnoses schizophrenia and recommends medication. Harold refuses the meds, but asks the shrink what she would do if she actually were hearing a narration and wasn’t crazy. “Well, I suppose one would consult with a professor of literature,” she opines.

So Hilbert, the literature professor, rather than the shrink, becomes Harold’s mentor as he tries to negotiate through his ordeal. The implicit message is that Psychiatry doesn’t have the answers. Our lives are mytho-poetic, not medical in nature. Therefore, we need wisdom, not pills to guide us. It’s reminiscent of C.S. Lewis’ old professor in his Chronicles of Narnia series.

At any rate, author Karen Eiffel narrates Harold out of his obsessive compulsive lifestyle and into a love affair with a hostile but attractive young woman he is sent to audit. While finding love Harold also finds Eiffel and reads her novel about his life. Everything she has typed has come to pass. The ending, however, is handwritten and has not yet happened. Harold discovers how he will die and much to Eiffel’s surprise and consternation comes back to her saying that he loves her book. He even agrees that there is no other way for it to end.

Fearfully, Eiffel types in the ending, except for the word ‘dead’. She has consigned Harold to dashing in front of a bus in order to save a young boy who has wandered into the path of the oncoming vehicle. Harold is hit by the bus, and lies there suspended between life and death while Eiffel agonizes over what she has done. She decides to forego killing Harold, later explaining to Professor Hilbert that she just couldn’t do it. All her other characters, she says, die without knowing their fate. Harold, by contrast, knows his fate, but walks into it willingly. “We kind of need more men like that…” she says.

As far as I can tell, this is the first real Post-Feminist movie. The Feminist project started out with rejecting the power of white males, especially dead white male authors (including God). It continued with exorcising men out of women’s lives and thrust women into all the power positions that men have traditionally occupied. In the process, women were forced to ‘do it all’: have a career, be a wife and a mother, keep house, and be sexy to boot. The only problem was that it all got too overwhelming, and men didn’t respond as much as they should have. They kept on being men! And women kept on wanting them despite their recalcitrance! It seemed like a hopeless muddle.

But in this movie, the whole dilemma is resolved and women discover what kind of man they want to have around – one who willingly sacrifices himself for the life of others. The author, Karen Eiffel, is impressed enough to let Harold live, and Harold’s girlfriend is ecstatic when she learns what he has done. The implication is that if a man will sacrifice himself for a total stranger, a woman can trust him to provide for her and be a good father. This is the key to successful family life and the roles men and women play within it.

A man must be strong enough to become a successful provider. But without love, his whole life becomes a string of obsessive-compulsive rituals. In discovering love, a man ties his labor to the success of the family, not just his own glory, and thus redeems or justifies his striving to succeed in the world. A woman who believes her man is both strong and self-sacrificing is willing to entrust herself to her husband and give of herself to bear progeny. Both woman and man may enter the marketplace to obtain income and meaningful work, but what ties their efforts together and helps them live together constructively is their mutual love and willingness to sacrifice themselves for the sake of the family.

I think the makers of this movie have unconsciously stumbled on to a message of hope. Unsurprisingly, it’s also the biblical pattern for family life. The only thing missing from Stranger than Fiction is the realization that even with mutual love and self-sacrifice, a lifestyle devoid of commitment to God is incomplete. I am hopeful, however, that Ferrell et al have found the way back from the Precipice and that pop culture may rediscover that God, Family and Country are in fact primal values that work for both men and women.

Saturday, April 07, 2007

How Wonderful is the Night

A Homily delivered to All Saints Anglican Church at the Easter Vigil
April 7, 2007

The Jewish Passover feast begins with this question:
Why is this Night Different from all Other Nights?
The answer is very concrete: On this night we eat matzah and bitter herbs; We dip parsely in salt water and horseradish in charoset; And we recite at the table as we eat.

In the prayers at the beginning of our service, we have an elaboration about this night:

“This is the night, when you[God]brought our fathers, the children
of Israel, out of bondage in Egypt, and led them through the
Red Sea on dry land.

This is the night, when all who believe in Christ are delivered
from the gloom of sin, and are restored to grace and holiness
of life.

This is the night, when Christ broke the bonds of death and hell, and rose victorious from the grave…


How holy is this night, when wickedness is put to flight, and
sin is washed away. It restores innocence to the fallen, and joy
to those who mourn. It casts out pride and hatred, and brings
peace and concord.

How blessed is this night, when earth and heaven are joined
and man is reconciled to God.” BCP, pg. 287.


These sentences make clear for us the connection between the Passover, which takes place at night, and the saving work of Christ, which also takes place in the dark of night, shortly before dawn. Our reading from Matthew reminds us that the women came to the tomb at early dawn and they found the tomb was already empty. This is the connection between the night of the Passover and the night of Christ’s resurrection. It’s reflective of the Jewish way of reckoning time from sunset to sunset, and is really a poetic, if not exactly literal connection. The other Gospels tell us that Christ arose at dawn, on the morning of the third day.

But this emphasis on night is why we have the Easter Vigil. It’s reminiscent of the Passover Seder in which the history of the Passover and Exodus is recounted. For the Jews, the Passover is a defining event each year. It serves to bring to mind again the great works of God in saving the Hebrew people, but it also serves to redefine and make present their heritage. It is what we call “anamnesis” – or remembrance.

But this anamnesis is not simply remembering something that happened long ago. Rather, this type of observance brings the past into the present and renews the event, making it once more Present.

And this is what we do as Christians each time we celebrate the Eucharist. We also have the heritage of the Passover and the Exodus as part of our spiritual legacy, but Jesus has now become for us our Passover, as we say in the liturgy, ‘Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us… therefore let us join the feast.’ In Jesus, our Eucharistic Feast, Heaven and earth are joined and man is reconciled with God. We too celebrate with all the saints that have ever gone before us and God makes the Passover a present event for us once more.

We also look forward to joining the Marriage feast of the Lamb in Heaven – and this too becomes present as we celebrate the feast. Heaven and earth are joined and man is reconciled with God.

We are reconciled to Him, in that our sin has been washed away, not merely covered. Our innocence before God is restored and we live in the wonderful knowledge that there is no condemnation now for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:1).

Our fears of death and hell have been overcome because Jesus “broke Hell wide open”, or as the Orthodox are wont to say, he “harrowed” hell, plundering it and spoiling the Devil’s lair.

As the first Author, God has written the story of Salvation with all the devices that modern novelists use: foreshadowing, parallelism, and typecasting, etc.. The Easter Story is meant to recall the Passover, and fulfill its ultimate message of salvation.

Thanks be to God for His wonderful creativity and for His grace in extending Salvation to us. Let us with Gladness then celebrate the beauty and different- ness of this night, rejoicing that the night of Death has become the dawn of Miracle. Amen.

Sunday, April 01, 2007

Work Begins on Hope House


On Friday March 30, we had the first work day at Hope House. It was an amazing and productive event. We had some 20 people from the Huntington Housing Authority's YouthBuild and adult construction training programs on hand to begin the 'demo' phase. We began the day with a moment of silence for the fallen teens, then unfurled a banner that reads; "Hope House: Turning Tragedy into Triumph". The banner is red with white lettering: red for the spilled blood, and white for Hope.

Our first project was to dig up the dead roots of bushes in the front of the house - symbolic of tearing our the roots of the problems that led to the kids being shot. Then, it was time to put the crew to work ripping out appliances in the kitchens and fixtures in the bathrooms, taking up old carpeting and flooring and filling up the dumpster the city had provided for the weekend.

Tom Proctor measured for news doors and windows, while Cindy and Lisa measured the rooms for a scale drawing of the house. Two of the coordinators from the YouthBuild program, Josh and Mark were very helpful in providing expert building advice. Josh, who just completed a degree in architecture crawled under the house to inspect the flooring, while Mark K. took a look at the electrical system, advising that he and Josh would both be happy to help rewire the house if we can get a certified electrician to take on the project.

Meanwhile, Andy and Tom, fielded questions from the News media. Channels 8, and 13 brought their camera crews, and the crew from PBS 33 was shooting almost all day, with a two hour break for lunch. The PBS crew came to church this morning and shot the entire service! Their extended story will appear as part of the News Magazine, "Outlook". (btw: Congrats to Fr. Mark Goldman, who celebrated his first Eucharist today!) The Herald Dispatch also sent out a reporter and a photographer and gave us a nice article in the Saturday paper.

Spiritual Impact

Many people recognize the need to reach the young people with the message of the Gospel. But as Matthew Watts points out, "Where the kids are, the church isn't, and where the church is, the kids aren't". In other words, to reach unchurched teens with the message of the Gospel, you have to go where they are! We certainly had a group of unchurched street kids in our house on Friday. And when it came time to pray at our regular time, 3:30, Mark took the lead to call everyone together and announce that anyone who felt comfortable could join us for prayer. All but 2 or 3 stayed and participated or observed as we prayed through our Hope House Liturgy (see attached). Kids that likely never darken the door of a church attended a prayer meeting in a place intimately known to them as a place of terror and death. When the news media asked them how they felt, they were able to reply that the house now feels like a welcoming place full of hope and new beginnings.

Blessing the Neighbors

We had so many people on hand, that we were able to devote a small crew to mowing lawns on either side of Hope house, blessing the neighborhood in addition to the property itself. Mike, the neighbor to the East was particularly thankful that we hauled away a large pile of old landscaping materials, and expressed his excitement about the good that was coming about.

All in all, it was a remarkable day - the first, we hope of many more. Youth Build will be coming in at various times to do smaller projects as they have time. We received a nice donation from West Virginia football player, Randy Moss, and will be able to buy some doors and other materials to get us started on our renovations. I am applying for a grant through a local foundation and hope that we might receive some more funds for materials. We are also waiting to hear about a corporate donation from 84 lumber.

The Lord is opening up many doors for witness and creating community. Please pray for this project, and pray for me, a sinner.