Barefoot Soul

Mindset Flesh vs. Mindset Spirit

2011-07-10T14:54:00.000-07:00

A Sermon delivered to St. Timothy Lutheran Church, Charleston, WV on Sunday July 10, 2011 and based on Romans 8:1-11.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!

On December 10, 1996 Jill Bolte Taylor experienced a stroke. A malformed artery in her brain ruptured and within 30 minutes, she was reduced from a highly functioning, PhD level neuro-scientist to a functional infant, curled up in a ball on her bedroom floor. Somehow, in the process, she managed to call a coworker, who quickly figured out what was happening to her and called for help.

Jill spent the next 8 years recuperating from her stroke and eventually reached a level she considers ‘full recovery’. Because of her understanding of brain functioning and anatomy she was able to write a compelling and detailed narrative of her stroke and recovery, which she entitled “My Stroke of Insight”. One of the truly amazing things she describes is the shutdown of the left hemisphere of her brain, which left her completely in her ‘right mind’.

Her right hemisphere was not affected by the stroke, so it naturally took over and became foremost in her awareness. In her right brain functioning, she reported that she felt an overwhelming sense of peace and well-being. She no longer had the perception of being a solid person with boundaries around her physical self, but felt as if she were a liquid and that she was united with the energy of everything in the universe.

She imagines that she experienced a sort of ‘Nirvana’. It was beautiful and peaceful beyond description – and she loved it! … so much so that choosing to re-engage her left brain and all its functions during her rehabilitation was very difficult indeed.

Bolte says that what characterizes the left brain is constant ‘chatter’. The left brain supplies the constant ‘self-talk’ which orients us to who we are, where we are, and where our body begins and ends. It houses our speech centers as well as the functions which allow us to read and think in a linear fashion and experience time sequentially.

With the right brain, it’s just the opposite. Instead of words, it thinks in pictures. The right brain is very in tune with the emotional content of our experiences – but it doesn’t have a category for Time. When in our right brain, we feel that time stands still and that we are One with the universe, completely non-judgmental and at peace with ourselves and others. The Right Brain is extremely aware of the essential connectedness of all things. ….

Now to illustrate how these two halves work, I’d like to ask you to help me with a little demonstration. I’d like the right half of the congregation ( my left) to repeat this word: “Peace.” Now the Left half (my right) of the congregation I’d like to repeat the word “Chatter”

Here’s how I’d like you to do this: Right Brain repeat P-E-A-C-E softly and slowly over four counts.

Left Brain repeat “Chatter!” quickly in a staccato fashion:

“Chatter! Chatter! Chatter! Chatter!” over four beats.

You can immediately see that the Left brain pretty much dominates most of the time unless we tell it to chill and allow the right brain functions to come forward.

With apologies to the health care professionals in the congregation today, we might say the Right Brain lives in what the Bible calls ‘the Peace of God that surpasses all understanding’ (Phil. 4:7), or what our text for today terms: “the mind set on the Spirit’ (Rom. 8:6).

God wants us to be in our ‘right’ mind - to be focused on the things above and upon His Peace - but there’s a bit of a paradox here:

As beautiful as it is for one’s Right Brain to dominate, without the left brain, there would be no definition of Human Being! We would live in a perpetual womb of peace and tranquility and have no motivation whatever to proceed beyond the ecstasy of the present moment, no reason to even protect ourselves from lethal attack because we would have little capacity to respond in a coherent way. So the challenge is: how to get the two minds to work together?

In the wisdom of God, we have a bridge between the two halves of our brain, called the Corpus Callosum, which enables the two parts to communicate and make us fully functioning humans, capable of living in the world.

Jill Taylor had enough of her left brain function and memory left that she knew she had to get back her full Left Brain Capacity in order to Live. Using this bridge between the two halves she was able to choose to recover, but also to become aware of the undesirability of certain aspects of her Left Brain, namely: being self-critical, judgmental of others, impatient and arrogant. Jill remembered the unpleasantness of this type of behavior and decided she did NOT want to recover many of these behaviors.

In the language of our lesson from Romans, she did not want her mind to be set on The Flesh, but on more spiritual and humane values that make life with others possible and even pleasant.

Let’s think about this a little more pointedly in terms of a very ‘fleshy’, very Left Brain activity: Worry, or what Taylor calls “Left-Brain Loops'

Many of us find ourselves consumed with worry about the future, worry about our children, worry about our finances, worry about our marriages. Worry Worry Worry. We are often completely distracted - even to the point of tears. Presumably it’s because we’re allowing our Left Brain to dominate – just giving in to the natural state of things.

But also consider that it’s our Left brain that has to process and apply something 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).

So, probing a little deeper, we can ask, “Why do we fail to enter into the peace that comes with (rationally) trusting God?

Let me suggest that somehow, we perceive a positive value in our worry, anxiety and fear. This seems nonsensical. Surely we would think that there is no positive value in worry and fear.

But wait. “Perceive” is the important word here.

I would submit to you that worry – ‘setting our minds (left-brain) on the flesh’ gives us a perception – a false one - that we are doing something to prevent bad things from happening! The Left-brain thinks: “If I just go over this one more time, I can stop the catastrophe!” The only problem is that this simply doesn’t work – does it?! So why do we do that?!

Here, I think, is a key to understanding this dilemma: Our brains really don’t know the difference between reality and fantasy. If you imagine something happening, your body responds as if it really IS happening.

Olylmpic athletes know this is true and can profitably spend as much as 40% of their practice time mentally rehearsing their sport – the Body responding as if it were really skiing downhill or swimming to break a world record! Our bodies serve our brains faithfully and so carry out physical action in accordance with what the Brain dictates – even if it’s an imagined disaster!

And this is exactly what happens during WORRY. We become absolutely convinced that something terrible, something life-threatening is about to happen and we believe it is up to us to fend it off! … Because our bodies serve our brains faithfully, the body begins to act on this life-threatening event!

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. Worse, they can actually kill us slowly over time.

In other words, the Mind set on the Flesh is DEATH! Just like the Scripture says!

To illustrate this, think of taking a drive on a muddy country road. You come to a quagmire and get stuck up to the axles in mud. If your vehicle could be compared to your body and brain, the wheels (your body) would quickly report that they were stuck and couldn’t get out. The engine (your brain) would respond 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.

Action Needed

What then, would actually get our car out of the mud? We could try to put something under the wheels to increase the traction, maybe also increasing the weight to the drive wheels somehow, or we could call someone to pull us out of the mud. In a word, we would have to take Action. Action is the antidote to Anxiety. But it must be effective action, not the illusory action of simply speeding up with no effect, not just empty ‘Chatter’. 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.

One 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.

As Christians, of course, the best Action available to us is prayer. Prayer is a decision to tell the Left brain to chill out! It’s a decision to cross the Corpus Callosum bridge and set oneself in our right (spiritual) mind!

Prayer is also talking to Someone who has the Power to do something about our problem! Eph 3:20 tells us that “God is able to do “exceedingly abundantly above all that we think or imagine”…

Left Brain, you’ve just met your match!

The Creator of the Universe is bigger than your understanding of your problems! He’s not limited by your puny imagination of how these problems can be fixed! The God who figured out how to defeat our SIN problem by sending His own dear Son to die for us on the Cross certainly has no difficulty figuring out how to fix your money problems or your issues with your spouse or children!

But we somehow have to get our Left Brain to acknowledge this and to stop trying to be so ‘responsible’. Yes, that’s right, ‘responsible’.

I believe that the reason we have so much trouble with Worry is because it masquerades as ‘Christian Responsibility”.

This false “responsibility” is based on the wrong assumption that I am in charge of the Universe and that I must do something about impending disaster. - as if God had died recently and left me in Charge.

Well, I have news for you. God is still alive! I checked the obituaries this morning and didn’t find his Name in there! ( mine wasn’t either).

God is Alive !!! And because He’s alive and In Charge of all things, I can talk to Him about the things that worry me. I can give it over to Him, knowing that He has both the Power and the Resources to do something about it! I can stop my ineffective and puny attempts to fix my problems! I’m FREE to be ‘irresponsible’ – as I TRUST GOD for what I need!

So this is the way out of our two-brain dilemma:

Be ‘Irresponsible’ … by Trusting God.

The only hitch being that you have to take the time to calm the Chatter of the Left Brain and set your mind on the Spirit. The usual way to do this is to practice Silence – to turn off the noise of the outer world and dial down the Chatter in your head in order to ‘cross the bridge’ over into your Right Mind, so that you can focus on God and on His Peace.

This is why it’s so important to have a ‘Quiet Time’ during the day at some point.

Most people find that morning is a good time to quiet oneself – but you can – and should - take time during the day to dial down and set your mind on the Spirit. “In returning and rest you shall be saved: in quietness and in trust shall be your strength” says Isaiah (30:15). Returning to God and resting in Him is what helps us to keep our sanity in the midst of a Chattering and crazy world. Setting your mind on His Spirit is life and health and peace, just as our text tells us. ( Romans 8:6).

So, just to leave you with a taste of peace, let’s have both halves of our congregation act as if we are ‘Right Brains’ and say “Peace” together.

“P-E-A-C-E, P-E-A-C-E, P-E-A-C-E,” ….

Now may the Peace of God which surpasses understanding, guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus, and may Quietness and Trust be your Strength, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, AMEN.

America

2011-07-10T14:50:00.000-07:00

A Sermon delivered to Zion Chapel Lutheran Church, Letart, WV on July 3, 2011

I thought it might be well if we would think for a few minutes about the idea of America: what does it mean for us as Christians? What does God have in mind for our country, and What should we do as Christians in the society where we find ourselves?

In his book, “Liberty and Tyranny”, author Mark Levin reminds us that the Declaration of Independence appeals to ‘the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God” Further, “We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”

He reminds us that the founders of our country were not merely men of the Enlightenment, but also highly educated, well-informed men who ‘excelled at reason and subscribed to science, but worshiped neither'. They were men who knew the Bible well, and who actually believed that the Creator God was the source of our existence and our ability to reason.

Despite denominational differences, the founders were men who were thoroughly steeped in the Judeo-Christian tradition. This means that they understood that human beings are Created – by a good and loving Creator – in HIS image, that is: that we have the capacity to make real choices for good or for evil, that we have the ability to reason and come to rational conclusions and that although God created us perfectly, we are Fallen – and thus the Image of God within us is radically marred in every facet of our existence. We are, as Martin Luther would have said, in Bondage to sin. We have no ability to make ourselves right with God on our own. We don’t even have the ability to muster up faith if He doesn’t help us through His Holy Spirit.

We are fallen people in need of a Savior, not Good people in need of assistance. No matter what kind of political solutions that people come up with to improve human interactions or relations, there is no such thing as perfecting human beings. We can either be fallen people who try to do things our way, or we can be fallen people who try to do things God’s way and ask for His help in doing them. Being perfect is not one of the choices available to us. No political system can perfect the essential nature of man.

That’s the bad news. The Good News is that when people are REDEEMED, when they come under the power and guidance of God’s Holy Spirit, they have the capacity to Govern Themselves.

This was a huge idea in the 18^th Century. People didn’t need Kings to rule over them as Tyrants. They could be free UNDER GOD to order their own affairs and thus create a Good and even EXCEPTIONAL Society – a City Set on a Hill as it has been said many times.

This City set on a hill could be an example to all other societies and peoples. It could show the world what it meant to order one’s whole culture according the principles of the Gospel – but without compulsion! Without forcing people to do what is right, but because they had voluntarily set themselves under the Gospel and would be guided ‘through the night with the light from above’ as Irving Berlin so eloquently put it.

Now this does not mean that people are angels – that they will never sin, never go against the righteous law placed within their hearts. Our understanding of the fallen-ness of man means that people will tend to fail in every way they possibly can. So laws and institutions are set up for dealing with man’s failures. Sinfulness is a constant. You can count on it. By way of corollary, we can also say that no political system that overlooks this stark reality can prosper.

To put it another way, we can never go back to the Garden of Eden. When Adam and Eve were driven out because of their rebellion against God, he placed an angel and a flaming sword to guard the entrance so that they could never try to go back! Anybody who ignores this will quickly find themselves disappointed.

Totalitarian regimes such as Communism, Socialism and Fascism ultimately fail because they place too much emphasis on building a perfect society on earth. They are, if you will, heresies of the Christian faith. They try to establish the Peaceable Kingdom without God as Father, Christ as Savior, and the Holy Spirit as Guide.

As a result– a small elite group of super-powerful people impose their utopian vision on everyone else. Their regimes have to resort to police action to enforce their aims on unwilling people. Simultaneously, this same elite group ignores the principles they are supposed to be espousing and becomes corrupt,‘feathering their own nests’.

Barry Goldwater, in his 1964 speech accepting the Republican nomination for president declared that ‘those who elevate the state and downgrade the citizen must see ultimately a world in which earthly power can be substituted for Divine Will, ...this Nation was founded upon the rejection of that notion and upon the acceptance of God as the author of freedom.”

So – as Christians, we believe that God is our Creator, that he has created us in his own image and endowed us with certain unalienable rights. These rights, Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness, are ours by birth into the human family – even though we are all fallen from the perfection of God. Even though we conspire to take advantage of others or deprive them of their basic rights because we are sinful.

The State that acknowledges this and tries to order its laws and customs to this basic reality will prosper.

As we have said before, any regime that denies God or ignores Him as the Giver of our rights, will by nature end up coercing people into doing what the All-powerful God-State demands, thus depriving people of their basic rights.

Today, we are living in a culture that increasingly demands absolute freedom any outside constraint. People today have confused Liberty – the freedom to act independently UNDER GOD, with License – the unfettered freedom to do whatever one wishes to do – provided of course that it doesn’t ‘hurt anybody else’. And this last piece of nonsense passes for a moral principle because people think that their own personal, private actions do not affect the body politic.

Contrast this with Gal.5:13-15: For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

The Gospel of Jesus Christ demands that we think about how our private actions will impact others!

Recently, we have been treated to the ignominious example of a Congressman from NY, who shall remain blessedly nameless. This person thought he could send lewd pictures to women – over a public form of communication, email and Facebook – and think that it was nobody else’s business. Then he had the audacity to try to lie his way out of it and tell us that it was nobody’s business but his own!

Thankfully that piece of hypocrisy came crashing down around his ears, and he is now holed up in a rehab center somewhere being disabused of his stupidity.

As Christians, we understand that no action is ever merely private. Everything we do has an impact on the whole. We live our lives ‘in conspectu Dei’ – under the gaze of God. He sees our every action, knows the thoughts of our hearts, and judges our intentions according to his absolute righteousness. He knows that our every action and thought tend towards evil because we are fallen, and for this reason, he has provided us a Savior Jesus Christ, who can free us from our moral dilemma.

It is because we are fallen and sinful that Presidents of the United States have from time to time declared Days of Repentance and fasting, knowing that the Bible admonishes us to turn from our wicked ways, to repent and to seek His face, so that our nation can be established and saved from wicked people who would seek to destroy us.

But just as Presidents have understood the need for righteousness, they also understood that no one church or sect has the corner on righteousness. As a result America is the most tolerant of places. WE understand that the State may not ESTABLISH one denomination for an entire people. Citizens should be free to worship God after the manner of their own conviction and choosing. This is an essentially Christian idea, which is not understood in non-Christian societies. It is one of those essential ideas that makes America a City set on a Hill, an exception to other cultures, and a guide for all others.

Today however, we live in a time when those in charge politically give a certain amount of lip service to the idea of AMERICA, while simultaneously trying to change it into something else - namely a society that does not acknowledge God as Creator and giver of unalienable rights.

This project is bound to fail. But before it does, it will try to squeeze us all into its mold. As Christians, we can see what’s coming down the pike- Persecution. Friends, it’s only a matter of time before an all-powerful State tries to silence our Christian witness. It’s only a matter of time before those who hate Christ will accuse those of us who love Christ of being hateful and exclusionary when we proclaim the Gospel.

It’s only a matter of time when meeting publicly to worship God will become an activity regulated by the STATE.

Why do I say that? Because it’s already happening in China and Russia, and because day by day we seem to be losing our sense of national identity as a People who have covenanted with God to free under His laws and Grace.

What is to be done? In a phrase, ‘raise your voice.’ Alexander Solzhenitsyn, in his book The Gulag Archipelago describes what is was like to be hauled off by the KGB in the middle of the day for being an outspoken critic of the Soviet regime. He says that he went along quietly with them because he was convinced of the rightness of his cause and that all would be eventually worked out according to the laws of the state. After being sent to prison for many years, he realized he was wrong about going quietly. Looking back, he wished that he would have spoken up, would have screamed bloody murder as he was being hauled off. He was not so naïve to think this would have saved him, but he could at least have alerted others to the monstrous crime that was being perpetrated on him – and upon them.

While we don’t have secret police hauling us off to prison for our Christian belief yet, we do have people being prevented from having Bible studies in their home because of ‘zoning laws’. We do have people trying to excise any mention of God from the public discourse in the name of ‘freedom from religion.’ We do have immoral people shoving their immorality down our throats, forcing us to accept as normal, aberrations such as ‘Gay’ marriage that have been universally condemned for 2000 years.

Friends, the time has come for us to speak up – loudly – and stand for our inalienable rights and to acknowledge the Creator God who gave us those rights. This weekend when you have your family get-togethers, don’t just grill some hamburgers and hot dogs, THANK God for the amazing privilege you have been given to live in AMERICA. Beg God to preserve us from tyranny and repent for being lackadaisical about the Freedoms we enjoy.

Thank a Veteran for fighting for our freedoms – and fight for them yourselves in whatever way you can.

Renew your commitment to your country and your God.

If you do so, you will be blessed and you will be counted among][= those who preserved the sacred trust of Liberty that our forefathers won for us and passed along to us.

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

The Eucharist: Super Bowl for the Ages

2011-02-06T16:26:00.000-08:00

A Sermon presented to St. Timothy Lutheran Church, Charleston, WV on Super Bowl Sunday, February 6, 2011

Grace to you and peace from God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit!

I'm honored to be here on this 'secular high holy day', Super Bowl Sunday -
and very honored to be filling in for Pastor Mahan while he's away. It's a little like stepping into the (very big) shoes of a famous quarterback- a great privilege, but kind of intimidating too! So – pray for me as I speak to you and we'll make it through just fine.

You know, the Super Bowl is the biggest sporting event of the entire year.
Last year more than 106 million Americans tuned in – qualifying it as the Most Watched event in US TV history. It’s possible that the Super Bowl may also be the most-watched event globally as well. Even people who don't like football tune in to watch the half-time show and the commercials!

A couple of weeks ago, I talked with Frank Giardinia, who has been to the Super Bowl many times as a Christian Broadcaster. He informed me that the Super bowl is not just the Super bowl of Football, but it's also the Super Bowl of Advertising, of Broadcasting and of Celebrity Gathering.

It's a HUGE EVENT!!! Everybody pulls out all the stops in an effort to make a Deal, make a Name or make History. The Super Bowl embodies all the glamour – and dark underbelly - that any worldly event could possibly offer. It's the epitome of worldliness if you will.

By way of contrast, what we do here every Sunday at the Lord's Table is really the epitome of the Christian Life. Our worship of God is the high-point of our existence and the source of our ongoing renewal as Christians. So we have a clear distinction between the World System and its outlook on the one hand, and the Christian understanding of reality on the other.

So what I'd like to talk to you about today is the topic, 'Eucharist, Super Bowl for the Ages”, comparing and contrasting the Super Bowl with the Eucharist, drawing out a few similarities and differences, and in the process, showing that the Eucharist is where we as Christians experience weekly the victory of the Lord Jesus Christ over sin, death and hell.

First Comparison: Time of Event
With Green Bay playing at Dallas, and with it being so cold in Dallas this week, it brings to mind a memory that is really seared into my consciousness: It's 1967. I'm 11 years old and my dad and I are watching what has become known as the “Ice Bowl”. The Green Bay Packers are playing the Dallas Cowboys at home in Green Bay.

It's snowing to beat the band and 15 degrees below Zero. Dallas has a 3 point lead, and in the last few seconds, Green Bay quarterback Bart Starr takes the ball and lunges over the end zone to score a touchdown and win the game. ...And the crowd goes Wild!!!

That memory has a place in my psyche that lives outside of time. I can recall it vividly, and it's almost as if it happens anew every time I think about it.

Here's another memory. It's really a series of memories – sitting down at my grandmother's table and eating Thanksgiving dinner – but before we eat, we always have to take The Picture. It's always the SAME Picture – always taken from the same point of view – only the faces change from year to year.

It's almost like all those years of memories meld into ONE essential memory – and time sort of becomes irrelevant.

I tell you these two stories to help us begin to understand that there's something unusual going on with our perception of TIME – both in the Super Bowl and the Lord's Supper.

The first painfully obvious thing about the Super Bowl is that it's not a one-day, three-hour event, but a veritable 'season' unto itself. We have the two-week media lead-up to the event, the pre-game advertising for it, the pre-game analyses on game -day, the Game itself, and then the post-game shows and replays, the Sweatshirts, Mugs and Poster commemorating the event – all of which is designed to illustrate the nature of Eternity for us!

Only a little more seriously, I've also been talking with my daughter, Leah, who lives in Ft. Worth. She refers to 'Super Bowl Week” - or really about ten-days which incorporate all manner of training sessions, broadcasts, and partying leading up to the Main Event. Apparently, if you want to go to an exclusive party with players and other celebrities, you can buy your way in for about $2500! – just for an average ticket!

The partying lasts the whole week. In this way, it's really like a Jewish feast, lasting many days. And like a Jewish feast, it happens annually. Once a year, we are subjected to the run-up to this Grand Sporting Event – and all the hoopla that goes with it.

Those who play the game and those who get caught up in the game participate in a Great Tradition that is renewed each time the Game is played. That story about Bart Starr and the Green Bay Packers is part of that Great Tradition – an event that becomes larger than life, somehow existing outside of Time. In a way, every Super Bowl game becomes part of that larger-than-life Tradition.

It doesn't seem to matter whether the game itself is boring, whether the half -time entertainers come out on stage on walkers, or whether or not there are wardrobe scandals – The Great Game goes on, and the Tradition is renewed.

And if for some tragic reason your team doesn't get to the Super Bowl or loses, Hope continues to spring eternal and the fans look to Next Year, imitating the Jewish people, who always hope to celebrate Passover in the Holy City and say to one another, “Next year in Jerusalem...”
The point is that participation in the Super Bowl alters our perception of Time and illustrates for us the concept of 'Anamnesis'. This is the Greek word used to translate Jesus' word, 'remembrance', as in 'Do this in Remembrance of me.”

'Anamnesis' comes from the same root word as ‘Amnesia’ – but it's the opposite and more. If Amnesia is 'forgetting’, 'Anamnesis' is not just simple 'remembering', but it's the sort of remembering you practice when you gather around the Table at Thanksgiving or at a family reunion – and you recall family members from the past.

It's almost as if they are present during the event – whether it's my saintly but strong-willed Grandma Walker, or family outlaw Uncle Ben, who used to run moonshine during the depression, or Great Aunt Maxine who died of cancer when she was in her 30's, or Walt, myfather, who died in 2009 of ALS – they're all mystically present in that ongoing celebration of the Thanksgiving meal. And it's the same way with the Lord's Supper - the Eucharist: 'Thanksgiving' in Greek.

At the Lord's Table, we're at the Great Thanksgiving meal of Christians. Just like Thanksgiving at Grandma's house gathers all the generations together into one great memory, so too, all the saints that ever lived are gathered together in a Great Cloud of Witnesses, (Heb. 12:1) joining with the Angels and Archangels and all the host of heaven who forever sing Holy! Holy! Holy! to proclaim the greatness of God's Name.

At this meal the past is transformed into the Present. It is as if Jesus himself were saying the Words of Institution and we are gathered with him around the table. When he says 'Do this in remembrance of Me’, he asks us – right now- to join with Him in his Passion, to radically identify with him as joint-heirs of the Grace of Life, to be united with him, and to let His Life unite us with God.

But it's not only the past that is transformed, but the Future as well. Paul tells us in I Corinthians 11: 26 that “as often as [we] eat this bread and drink the cup, [we] proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.” (ESV)

We look forward to the future when He returns and we sit down with him at the Marriage Feast of the Lamb and celebrate his Ultimate Victory over Sin, Death and Hell. The Meal we eat today not only brings the past into the present and anticipates the future, but also Participates in the Future.

When we eat this Thanksgiving Meal, we get a 'foretaste' of the feast to come. This is what we sing about at the Offertory: ...'Grace our table with your presence, and give us a foretaste of the feast to come.' It's like when my Dad would raid the dressing as Mom was making it. He tasted the same dressing we would eat at the meal. So too, the taste you get at this table is the same stuff you will eat in Heaven! In fact, during this brief time of ‘Eucharist’, we actually enter that heavenly realm as we 'lift up our hearts to the Lord.'

The Past the Present and the Future all come together in a kind of 'Super Bowl of the Ages' where Jesus, our Victor, leads us and all the Saints and Angels in a celebration of his death, resurrection and ultimate triumph over Sin, Death and Hell.

All of this is what happens when we eat this Eucharistic Meal together. We step out of “Chronos” – regular time, and enter “Kairos”, God's Time. And when we do, the Kingdom of God Comes. Christ, the conquering Hero sits on the right hand of God the Father Almighty and reigns as Lord of the Universe, not only in Heaven, but wherever human beings put him on the Throne of their lives. And that brings me to the next major comparison -

The Nature of the Conflict
It's been said that one of the reasons Football is so popular is that it's really about War. In Football, two teams strap on their armor and implement their strategies and defenses against each other, hoping to prove who has the better stuff, who is the Victor. As a spectator, watching the game gives me an opportunity to invest ultimate passion in my team without consequence. If my team wins I'm happy, if it loses, I'm sad – but the next morning I get up and go to work, do some arm-chair second-guessing, and get on with life. Barring some craziness from drunken fans, no one will burn or pillage Charleston as a result of the Super Bowl!

By contrast, the consequences of the Eucharist are Real and potentially life-threatening. When you eat that bread and that drink that wine, you declare that you’re in the Lord's Army.
When you eat this meal, you take up 'The Sword of the Lord' and put on the uniform of the King; you take the field on the Lord's Team. There is no War by Proxy here! We are all on the starting team, and we are all on the field of battle all the time! As the saying goes,” We're IT. There is no B Team'!”

And Thanks be to God, every time we eat this meal, we are reassured that 'our team wins'! I don't know about you, but I desperately need that reassurance. Life is hard and it often seems like the Devil is winning.

It's tempting to forget who I am in Christ and what he has done for me; tempting to give in to despair when the hard times come and I suffer without knowing why; tempting to give up believing that Christ will come again and set everything to rights.

I need to have my confidence restored, to know that my team wins – that I’m still on the team and that my Captain cares for me. I need for my wounds to be healed, to be nourished and to have my gumption pumped up so that I can go out there and do what he has told me to do – love and serve Him in the World! All this is what I get when I sit down and eat with Jesus and my brothers and sisters in Jesus.

But I would be remiss if I did not mention a caution in all this.
Paul warns us in 1 Corinthians 11:27-30, that “Whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord.” We are to examine ourselves before eating and drinking. 'For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.”

If you take the bread and cup in an unworthy or thoughtless way, you can get sick or even die! (v 30). Unlike the Super Bowl, whose heroes may live on in an ultimately inconsequential Hall of Fame, there are Real and Eternal consequences at the Eucharist. And unlike the Super Bowl, where we have to wait till Game Day to see who wins, we KNOW the Outcome of our contest. Our side WINS!

And that brings us to our Third and last comparison:

The Impact of the Contest.
We've said before that the Super Bowl does not impose Life Changing Consequences on its spectators. That may not necessarily be true for those on the field. They experience countless sprains, breaks, bruises and traumas - …..and that's just among the cheerleaders! … It's much worse for the actual players!

Playing the game can have life-changing consequences for those on the field.
And the same is true for us Christians who participate in this Eucharistic Feast. If you join the army, you will fight, and will probably get hurt. You may even die. This is what we call being a Martyr – being a witness for the Faith, even to the point of death.

Being a Martyr means living “Eucharistically” - being driven to Mission out of thanksgiving to God for what he has done for us.

For example - Bruce Olsen was an 18 year-old Lutheran from Minnesota. One day at church he heard a dynamic missionary presentation that changed his life and propelled him go the Motilone Indians of Columbia. In his first contact with the Indians they shot an arrow through his leg and left it to fester until it just about killed him. With God's help, Bruce managed to flee his captors and return to safety, where he healed and eventually went back to live among this same tribe!
For FIVE YEARS he lived quietly with the Motilones, never mentioning Jesus Christ. At last he found the opportunity he was looking for, and he was able to share the Gospel of Christ with 'Bobbie', a key member of the clan. Bobbie understood the Gospel and decided to 'hang his hammock in Jesus”, finding safety in God. He in turn told the story of Jesus to the rest of the tribe and helped them understand the mystery of death, suffering and rebirth in Christ. As a result, nearly the entire tribe became Christians.

As a result, they stopped their constant war with neighboring tribes and even shared the Gospel with them, learning how to exist peacefully, and with Bruce's God-Inspired help, making the transition from Stone Age to Space age in a matter of a few short years.

Bruce Olsen paid a high initial price to bring the Motilone Indians into the Kingdom of God.
Not only was he shot, but he was separated from his family for years at a time. His beloved fiancé also died along the way, and there were many times he thought about quitting and going home. But his sacrifice paid off; the people came to Christ in droves and he himself eventually became an advocate for the indigenous peoples of Columbia and a nationally recognized spokesman for them. In the process, he became a political force to be reckoned with - and a target for rebels intent on fighting for their anti- government cause.

So although he had already paid a price for the Gospel, Bruce paid yet another martyr's price on behalf of the native peoples of Columbia. He was kidnapped by rebels and held captive for many months. He was forced to cook for his captors and be their medic when they were hurt. And he was tortured nearly to death in an attempt to convert him to the rebel's side. At one point, he was bleeding badly, and because the rebels wanted to use him as political bait, one of their own gave blood to keep him alive.

It was truly a schizophrenic experience; one day being tortured and the next day healed by the very same captors.

But the Lord was with him and in the process of enduring these hardships he became a 'blood brother' to the rebels. They allowed him to teach them to read, and hundreds eventually accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

Bruce Olsen joined the Army of the Lord. He went into battle and he endured suffering and hardship on behalf of his Captain, Jesus. And through Him, the Lord Jesus has won decisive victories. This was his calling. But it's also your calling and mine as well – to strap on the battle gear and to win mighty victories for our God out of Thanksgiving for what he has done for us.
And that's what you sign on for when you sit down at this table!

Listen to what we will pray during Communion. This comes from Setting 5 in the blue book, 'With One Voice', pg 37.

'It is he, our Lord Jesus, who fulfilled all your will and won for you a holy people: he stretched out his hands in suffering in order to free from suffering those who trust you.'

'It is he who [was] handed over to a death he freely accepted
in order to destroy death,
to break the bonds of the evil one,
to crush hell underfoot,
to give light to the righteous,
to establish his covenant and
to show forth the resurrection. '…

(And the crowd goes wild!!...)

Christ the Victor has accomplished all this on our behalf; this is what we celebrate at His Table!
At the Eucharistic Table, we step out of human time and into God's time. We become what we eat, The Body of Christ. We renew our covenant with God, and we raise the Victory shout of the Army of the Lord.

When you watch the Super Bowl this afternoon and evening I hope you enjoy it and that your team wins. But I also hope you remember that Greater is He who is in us – who died for us, was resurrected, who ascended into heaven and ever lives to make intercession for us - than he who is in the world!

Greater is our Eucharistic Jesus-Feast than the other guy's Super Bowl, both now and ever and unto the ages of ages.

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

Called to Follow Him

2010-10-04T04:55:00.000-07:00

A Sermon delivered to The Company of Jesus at its Profession of Vows Service,
Friday October 1, 2010, The Close Retreat Center, Somerset, KY.

We are here tonight to receive Vocations - to receive those who are answering Jesus' call, "Come follow me..." . His call is to follow Him and become fishers of men, yes, but first and foremost to simply Follow Him.

Just like the first disciples heard the call, left everything and followed Jesus , we too have heard the call and have left the comfort of our former ways to follow Him as disciples and monastics.
The essential call is not "instrumental": 'follow me, so that - You can win people, build a church, or change the world. But it's first and foremost a call to follow Christ. As Benedict says in the Prologue to his Rule: the voice of the Lord invites us, in His lovingkindness to find 'the way of life' - which is precisely Christ.

When St. Anthony heard the call, he left all and followed Christ into the desert - primarily so he could know God better - listen to God better by going to a place where there was nothing else to do but listen. Benedict and Francis too spent significant amounts of time alone in caves just to be with Christ and to hear from him.

As 'Third Order' folks, our call is not quite so radical. Our calling is to remain in place , to follow Christ by staying put in our jobs, our families and ministries -to use all that we have for Him, where we are, but mostly to follow Him, - just for HIM.

While Christ calls everyone to follow him, this calling to monastic life is not for everyone. Not everyone hears Christ calling him or her to follow in the manner of Francis and Benedict. But we are disciples who hear the voices of these Brothers, and we respond to the calling to follow Christ in this monastic way because - - - well we don't know exactly why - why just have to.

Something about it just makes sense to us. It's not the external trappings of robes and scapulars, cinctures and rosaries - it's that we see a life that makes sense, a life that fits our particular personality, a life based in refreshing wisdom, a life centered in Christ.

When we listen to Benedict exhort us to 'Greet everyone as if they were Christ' , and to turn our whole life into the Work of God; when we listen to Francis exhort us to love simple things and to leave aside attachments to this world; when we think about following Christ, Francis and Benedict are two brothers who show us the way. Their sisters, Clare and Scholastica also show us the same ways, but through their own unique perspectives.

We look at the lives of these saints, and we are inspired to follow Christ right where we are. We know that we have not begun to touch the sanctity of men and women who have literally given up everything, but we are inspired. We can see what it looks like for a human being to be Christlike; we relate to the pain and pathos of choosing a misunderstood way - monasticism - in order to walk out a calling to something we can only half explain.

Some object to the form of following Francis or Benedict. 'Why follow a man when you can to directly to the God-Man, Christ?

And the answer is: "Because these men and women are US and they show us how to follow Jesus. And for that we love them. And we follow them as they teach us to follow Christ.

Tonight we will receive the initial vows of new postulants and affirm the life Vows of two who have walked out this life faithfully for the past five years.These Brothers and Sisters will make a Vow. they will 'swear on oath" ('sacramentum' in Latin), making a solemn pledge to follow Christ in the manner of St. Benedict or St. Francis - really both, as our Order blends the two Charisms.

But unlike parties who enter into a contract, these brothers and sisters will not just exchange goods or services, they will make an exchange of Persons. They will give themselves to Christ, just as Christ gives himself to us by taking on human flesh, living among us, dying for us and rising so that we might walk in newness of life.

'Deep calls to deep' says the Psalmist and so it is tonight. The Holy Spirit of God has searched out our deep heart desire and has shown us a way to receive this desire. By making their vows, these postulants are giving themselves to God and receiving back Jesus Christ in their place.
This deep calling is not for anything other than Love. It is always a mistake to think that monasticism is supposed to accomplish something in order to justify its existence. Indeed the response to the call of Jesus to this life is 'just because' and needs no other explanation. It's not instrumental like everything in the world, so the world cannot understand it.

In a sense, we are the Ultimate Hippies. Those of the 60's and 70's wanted to drop out, tune in and turn on to some imagined ideal of a primitive Good Life a life lived 'just because'. But instead of dropping out and turning on through drugs, sex and rock 'n roll, we are seeking 'life and good days' by staying put, living a life that challenges the values of the world system merely by existing and living as we do.

If there is a justification for the monastic life, it is that it shows the world an alternate way to live, a way that lives into the essence of Human Being, convicting the world of its shallowness, explaining the world to itself.

"This is the Way, walk ye in it", says Jesus to us. And we in our turn say to the world: 'Christ is the Way the Truth and the Life'. Follow Him - for his own sake; follow him to find out what your life is really all about and how to live fully human.

If we ourselves live out this calling authentically, we will draw others to Him so that they can have fullness of life: good measure, pressed down and overflowing, just as Jesus said.

My brothers and sisters, your vocations are truly a sign of hope and joy to the whole world. I am pleased and privileged to receive your professions and to charge you to Follow HIM as He calls to you through Francis and Benedict. AMEN

A Farewell Statement

2010-07-18T11:14:00.000-07:00

A Statement given to All Saints Anglican Church after our regular worship on July 18, 2010

Dear Saints,
Over the past two months, I've had occasion to do some deep reflection about my own sense of calling and my place of ministry in the Kingdom of God. As a young Christian, I initially considered becoming a Pastor, but later discerned this was not my calling and instead trained to become a Christian Counselor. Thanks be to God, he has allowed me to serve Him in various counseling settings since 1984.

In 1995, I was introduced to the Rule of St. Benedict and collaborated with with St. Luke's Episcopal Church to create the 8th Day Life Center, a healing ministry based on Benedict's Rule. That experience affected me profoundlyl and eventually led me to make my profession as a Benedictine in the Company of Jesus and become ordained as a priest - both in 2002.

Although it was exciting to be equipped to serve the Lord’s Supper, I was always uneasy about being a ‘priest with no Table’. I didn't feel called to be a church planter per se, but in 2006, the Episcopal Church began to explode in earnest and several of you called me to be your spiritual leader. I accepted that challenge because I love Anglicanism and wanted an Anglican church where Cindy and I could worship in 'spirit and in truth'.

Over the last three years it has been a joy to worship with you as we blend “Word, Sacrament and Spirit”. It has also been a joy to work on reclaiming Hope House from the devil’s clutches. A couple of recent shootings in the vicinity have highlighted just how urgent the need is, and have reaffirmed my desire to make an impact in what seems to be the epicenter of violence in Huntington. At the same time, I have been amazed by the number of new vocations coming into the Company of Jesus – and especially by young men and women who want to ground their ministries around their monastic callings.

During Bishop Loomis’ visit, I talked with the Vestry about all of this and how I had come to the conclusion once again that parish ministry is not my primary calling. Instead, I feel very much called to spend more time advancing the Company of Jesus and also to develop a new expression of the 8th Day Life healing ministry.

Cindy and I have been very privileged to serve in the founding and establishment of All Saints Anglican Church. We also look forward with excitement to what God will do in our midst through this new adventure. Please pray for us as we launch out into the deep. We love you all and hope to continue our relationships with you even as we refocus our ministry.

Together with Him, for the Gospel,
Fr. Andrew and Cindy Counts

Mary and Martha

2010-07-18T11:05:00.000-07:00

A Sermon Delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on July 18 2010, at the Convent Chapel of St. Mary's Medical Center, Huntington, WV and based on Luke 10:38-42:

38 Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. 39And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. 40 But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” 41 But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, 42 but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.” (ESV)

Have you ever gotten into your car and automatically turned on the radio? Perhaps it's always on and you don't even think about the need to turn it on...Have you ever come home to an empty house and turned on the TV - just to have some noise or a human voice going on in the background? Have you ever just stopped and observed how NOISY our world is?

If so, you may have also tried to enter in to some level of silence. Maybe you just get tired of the incessant voices that come over the media - You turn them off and just bask in the relative quiet, alone with your thoughts. It can be a pretty nice respite from time to time.
But what about practicing silence regularly - or taking in a big chunk of silence all at once? Maybe that's a little more difficult.

In today's Gospel reading, we have a contrast between one busy, noisy sister and another who practiced silence - so that she could listen to Jesus. Jesus tells Martha that she is anxious and worried about many things, and that Mary has chosen the good portion by quietly sitting at his feet. On the surface this looks like a categorical endorsement of a reflective temperament vs. a more active one.

But there are a couple of variables that enter in here that are perhaps not immediately apparent.

The first has to do with temperament itself. We've said before in other messages that Temperament seems largely God-given. And various personality types are drawn to various expressions of spirituality. So, I don't think that in this instance, Jesus is categorically saying that active people are inherently less spiritual than contemplative people. In fact, here's a kind of prayer that Martha might pray as she is doing her housework:

Martha's Prayer
Lord of all pots and pans and things,
Since I've no time to be
A saint by doing lovely things,
Or watching late with thee,
or dreaming in the dawnlight,
Or storming heaven's gates,
Make me a saint by getting meals
and washing up the plates.
(quoted in Wm. Barclay, The Gospel of Luke, Daily Study Bible Series, pg. 141,142).

One of the great insights put forward by St. Benedict is that the Work of God, the Opus Dei, is not just our times of formal liturgical prayer and private 'quiet times' - but that even our driving, our sweeping, our mowing or the activities of our daily occupations can be made into a prayer through a simple intention to praise God in all our works. You can practice the Presence of God by getting meals and washing plates just as surely as you can by storming heavens gates and watching late. It all depends on what kind of an attitude you bring to your work.

In Martha's case we can imagine her bustling around with such intensity that Jesus could walk quietly in the room and sit down - and along would come Martha telling him to lift his legs while she runs the sweeper!

She was determined that nothing and nobody would get in the way of making a nice meal for Jesus - even Jesus! The attitude we bring to our activities matters!

And it's certainly possible for one personality type to look down on another. We can perhaps imagine Mary sneering at Martha and saying, "See...he likes me best!"

This is also not a good attitude to bring to our time with Jesus!

No, our individual preferences in prayer and spirituality are all acceptable to God as we offer them up in humility.

But there is something else going on in this Gospel story - something that we don't hear in the selected passage. And that is the context of Jesus' visit to Mary and Martha. Remember, in Luke Chapter 9, Jesus had been Transfigured and counseled by Moses and Elijah about his earthly mission. He warns his disciples that "The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.” (v.21) He repeats the warning in v. 44: "The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men."

Jesus' focus as he came to the town of Bethany was on his death!

Therefore, it's likely that he was pensive and may have needed some peace and quiet to collect his thoughts. Mary and Martha and their brother Lazarus were his good friends, so he may have gone to their home looking for some calm before the coming storm.

But Martha didn't know that. All she knew was that Jesus had come to her home and that the most important thing was entertaining him in a suitable style! She was trying to be kind to Jesus by rushin' and fussin' - but that was precisely what Jesus did not want! (Barclay, pg.142).

William Barclay comments on this passage, "With the cross before him and with the inner tension in his heart, he had turned aside to Bethany to find an oasis of calm away from the demanding crowds if only for an hour or two, and that is what Mary gave him and what Martha, in her kindness, did her best to destroy!"

Mary understood - and Martha did not.

Barclay goes on, "Here is one of the great difficulties in life. So often we want to be kind to people - but we want to be kind to them in our way; and should it happen that our way is not the necessary way, we sometimes take offense and think that we are not appreciated."

"If we are trying to be kind the first necessity is to try to see into the heart of the person we desire to help - and then to forget all our own plans and to think only of what he or she needs." (Barclay, pg. 142).

Jesus loved Mary and Martha - but Martha made a self-centered fuss over him, while Mary understood him and gave him what he needed.

Mary minimized the noise in her life so that she could focus on Jesus - God's Word (Logos). She practiced listening in the midst of her life so she could hear the voice of God. But one can easily imagine that this attentive listening was not merely silent, but that there may have been a conversation going on with Jesus. Mary might well have asked questions or made comments. Even if she didn't speak, there was no doubt an active engagement with the words Jesus spoke. Her silence fostered a dialog and communion with God, that Martha missed because she was so intent on accomplishing her agenda.

And so it is that if we truly want to hear God, we must draw apart in silence on a regular basis in order to have space and time to converse and commune with Him.

Thomas Merton, in his book Springs of Contemplation, reminds his Christian readers that 'it is terribly important for us to be clear about our silence,' ... 'The tyranny of noise always has a will behind it...

There is a note of supreme injustice in noisemaking; the noise made by one person can compel another person to listen."

Anyone who has ever heard the insistent thump-thump of a car's subwoofer coming down the street knows the truth of that statement.

Speaking of his own context as a Trappist, Merton says that "the monastery's service to the world might simply be to keep a place where ...people might be silent together."

But I wonder whether this actually may be the birthright of all Christians, exemplified by Mary sitting at Jesus' feet? Of all people, we have God's ear. He delights in our presence and is much more willing to give than we are to receive.

Why then are we so reluctant to cultivate silence?

I think it's because we know we will hear Something - and that Something may make us uncomfortable; may compel us to face an unpleasant truth about ourselves; may demand that we take actions that challenge our easy illusion of being in control of our lives!

Silence is dangerous! But if it's true that God speaks to us in silence, then it's also true that what he speaks is Truth and Life - even if we perceive the Word to be hard or difficult.

I encourage you then to practice silence regularly - not only exterior silence - turning off the radio or TV, but active inner silence as well - becoming aware of the interior noise and learning to silence this as we release the distractions into the Great Silence who is God himself.

In other words, as we become aware of interior distractions such as gluttony, impurity, avarice, sadness, anger acedia, vanity and pride - we dash them on the Christ, my Rock (Psalm 137:9) and take these thoughts 'captive to the obedience of Christ' (2Cor. 10:5).

As an example of this, when I begin to quiet myself to listen to God, I almost immediately think that it would be nice to have a bologna sandwich. I attend to that thought, but I don't give in to it. Rather, I dash it against Christ and take it captive. I don't reprimand myself for having the thought, but I release it into Christ and cease to let it disturb me. Then I move on, simply dealing with each thought as it comes up, until such time as I can find a clear space to listen attentively to God.

It's definitely work - but it's definitely worth it!

It is, as Jesus says 'the good portion', 'the better part', the 'one thing needful' in our lives.
All of us have numerous distractions, numerous time commitments. And we all feel lost and alone at times.

A couple of days ago, David Frederick reminded us of a prayer by Thomas Merton. I'd like to close with it because every time I encounter it, I am reminded about how clueless I am, but how loving our heavenly Father is.

Try to read this slowly and make it your own prayer. Try to enter into that interior silence and face the uncertainty of your life, but then also pay attention to the hope and trust that arises at the end. And remember that you are never alone - that you are at the feet of Jesus and he will protect and guide you.

From Thomas Merton, A Prayer
My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
Nor do I really know myself,
and the fact that I think that I am following your will
does not mean I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you.
And I hope that I have that desire in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.
And I know that if I do this, you will lead me by the right road
though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore will I trust you always though
I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.
I will not fear, for you are ever with me,
and will never leave me to face my perils alone.

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

The Fight of the Century: Flesh vs. Spirit

2010-06-27T18:25:00.000-07:00

A Sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on June 27, 2010 at the Convent Chapel of St. Mary's Medical Center, Huntington WV.

Text: Galatians 5:1, 13-25

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.
Walk by the Spirit

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.

Introduction

On June 13, 1935, in Madison Square Garden, an epic boxing match took place between a formerly 'washed- up' fighter named James Braddock, and the seemingly invincible Champ, Max Baer. Baer had previously killed two men in the ring and was so vicious that the fight's promoter, James J Johnston, forced Braddock and his agent to watch a film of Baer in action - just so he could claim 'informed consent' if Braddock too was killed!

We can imagine the newspapers and radio announcers of the day plugging the upcoming match as 'The Fight of the Century...!!"

And indeed it likely was! In one of the biggest upsets in boxing history, Braddock, the 'Cinderella Man" defeated Max Baer to become the heavyweight champion of the world, winning for himself the hearts and imaginations of every poor and downtrodden man, woman and child in Depression-era United States.

Like Braddock, we Christians are engaged in a fight with a formidable opponent - our flesh! We could even say that the Battle of the Flesh vs our Spirits is the 'Battle of the Century' - or the "Battle of our Lives" if you wish.

Like Paul, in Romans Chapter 7, we 'know that we are 'of the flesh, sold under sin....and that 'nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. We 'desire to do what is right, but don't have the ability to carry it out. (vv.14,18).

Hebrews 12:1 refers to 'the sin which so easily besets us - a certain type of sin that keeps flaring up, unique to each one of us, that causes us difficulty time after time. This is where we get the concept of the 'Besetting Sin'.

So when we talk about the opposition of Flesh and Spirit, we're often referring to this 'Fight of the Century' between our Besetting Sin and our better spiritual natures, between what I desire to do and what I actually do.

Today we might actually identify better with the language of 'addiction' rather than 'besetting sin' because addiction and 'relapse' may better convey to us the ongoing struggle we have - and the sense of frustration that can grow out of such a repetitive cycle of success and failure.
Biblical examples of addictions or besetting sins would include the foolish young man from Proverbs who falls prey to alcoholism.

-King David's serial adultery might today be called 'sexual addiction'.

- King Saul, David's nemesis, might reasonably be labeled a 'rage-a-holic'. - not to mention being demonized!

-King Solomon writes in Ecclesiastes, about multiple excessive behaviors: Feasting to the point of Gluttony, he became a 'foodie'.

-Amassing huge sums of gold, houses, slave garden and parks, he became a shopaholic with a capital S!

Name your issue and he probably did it - in large part because he had the time and money to pursue his indulgences. Most of us don't have such huge resources at our disposal, so we have to concentrate on one or maybe two issues - and these are determined by several factors:

Factors affecting our besetting sins:

-Our nature or temperament
-Our nurture, or family background
-Our circumstances, including our current stresses

Regarding our temperament, we can be either outgoing or introverted, driven or relaxed, dominant or submissive, feelings oriented or thinking oriented. Temperament, or one's 'bent' seems to be largely innate. Our 'god-given traits lend themselves to particular kinds of besetting sins:

The outgoing and dominant person might be prone to exaggeration and running roughshod over others' feelings.

The withdrawn, submissive person to silent resentments and anger.

And the overly analytical person to insensitivity.

We tend to think that others are like us, and so have a hard time comprehending how others can fall into certain sins. Of course, we like to frame our own besetting sins as some sort of virtue.

"I'm not a workaholic, I'm diligent!"

'I'm not lazy, I just know the value of relaxation..' and on and on.

In terms of our Nurture, we can learn to play different roles in our families:
Hero/Golden Child
Angry Rebel
Lost Child
Victim
Pleaser

These are some ways we learn to make it through life as we grow up in our families. And each behavior pattern in turn lends itself to various besetting sins.

Then finally, our circumstances can cause an otherwise latent or potential sin to manifest under stress. Work pressures might lead to gambling problems. Financial pressure to theft, or family conflicts to compulsive eating.

Paul says that the remedy for these conflicts is to "walk by the Spirit". If we do so, we "will not gratify the desires of the flesh." (Gal. 5:13) However, even when we try to walk by the Spirit, we often 'see in [our] members another law waging war against the law of [our] minds...making [us] captive to the law of sin that dwells in [our] members." (Rom. 7:23).

We can find ourselves crying out, like Paul, "O Wretched man that I am who will deliver me from this body of death?"...and despair of ever getting the Victory.

Martin Luther, in his famous commentary on Galatians comments on this pattern:
"Do not despair if you feel the flesh battling against the Spirit or if you cannot make it behave. For you to follow the guidance of the Spirit in all things without interference on the part of the flesh is impossible. You are doing all you can if you resist the flesh and do not fulfill its demands."
He goes on to tell how he almost despaired of his salvation because of the persistence of carnal feelings:

"When I was a monk I thought I was lost forever whenever I felt an evil emotion, carnal lust, wrath, hatred, or envy. I tried to quiet my conscience in many ways, but it did not work, because lust would always come back and give me no rest. I told myself: "You have permitted this and that sin, envy, impatience, and the like. Your joining this holy order has been in vain, and all your good works are good for nothing." If at that time I had understood this passage, "The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh," I could have spared myself many a day of self- torment. I would have said to myself: "Martin, you will never be without sin, for you have flesh. Despair not, but resist the flesh." ...

Luther shows us an almost paradoxical acceptance of our fleshiness, while challenging us to gain mastery over the flesh. Our struggles drive us to Christ:

"The Christian feels the unholy condition of his heart, and it makes him feel so low that he cannot trust in his good works. He therefore goes to Christ to find perfect righteousness. This keeps a Christian humble."

Christian writer Denina Hudson says this about Righteousness:

‘You’re not righteous when you feel spiritual and blessed.
Neither are you righteous when you’ve failed miserably, you’ve come to the end of yourself and you’re ready to repent and get yourself right with {God}.
The true test of a righteous man working his way in righteousness is when he’s in the middle of his fight, he knows it’s not over, but he gets before [God] anyway because he knows [God] knows his heart.
(Denina Hudson) http://www.christian-truth-ministry.com/Denina

True to the spirit of the Fight, the righteous person slogs it out, even when feelings go against him.

Turning now to some practicalities, here are some tips on How to deal with Besetting Sin:

4 Be's:

1) Be Sincere ('without chaff') about overcoming the sin. Don't secretly hold on and enjoy the sin. In fact, Hate the sin that keeps you bound.
2) Be assured of God's love for you in the midst of your struggle:
Romans 5:8,10,11: "but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. ... if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
3) Be assured of your inability to deal with it in your own strength. As long as you have flesh, your flesh will be weak.
4) Be patient, this is going to take a while.

4 Do's:

1) Do ask for help, God first, then other people. (Prayer and counsel).
2) Do Tell God how it is with you, as honestly as you possibly can - however bad it is.
3) Do sit still and listen to whatever God tells you as you focus on His Word.
4) Do whatever he tells you. ( John 2:5, Mary's directive to the servants at Cana.)

Repeat as needed!

Regarding #3 above, here's Luther again on the role of the Scriptures in this fight:
"When the flesh begins to cut up the only remedy is to take the sword of the Spirit, the word of salvation, and fight against the flesh. If you set the Word out of sight, you are helpless against the flesh. I know this to be a fact. I have been assailed by many violent passions, but as soon as I took hold of some Scripture passage, my temptations left me. Without the Word I could not have helped myself against the flesh."

As Hebrews 4:12 says, "... the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart."

A Final Illustration:

In the last movie of the Lord of the Rings series, 'The Return of the King', at the last stand of the Conflict, Aragorn and Gandalf are gathered with Legolas, Eomer, (and his twin sister Polymer...) and Gimli the dwarf, discussing how to mount one last diversion against Lord Sauron in order to give Frodo more time to destroy the Ring. As they mull over the plan, Gimili reflects, ..."Certainty of death... Small chance of success... What are we waiting for!"

As Christians, we too have a certainty of death - but with a difference. We have the certainty of Christ's death on the cross, the Finished work of God on our behalf, which justifies us once for all.
Then we have the certainty of the death of our Old Man, with its sinful inclinations: "And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. (v. 24).

Notice that although this is couched in the past tense - 'have crucified' - yet there is a sense of ongoing struggle. Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. (Luke 9:23).

Dying to self is a daily process, one that will last your whole life. As such, this mortification is intimately connected to our sanctification - the ongoing process of becoming more and more like Christ. Paradoxically put, the more you die, the more you live.

Now, as to success - we have a better hope than Gimli. We know that 'it is God who works in [us], both to will and to work for his good pleasure' (Phil. 2:13). Therefore we engage the fight to 'work out [our] own salvation - not only with fear and trembling, but also with Confidence, the confidence that God works all things together for the Good of conforming us into the image of his Son (Romans 8:28,29).

It's not just up to us! Romans 8:26 &27 ..." the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God."

God Himself, in the person of the Holy Spirit is interceding for us, praying the Father for the Success we need in this fight!

Therefore - - Chance of Success? - Great!!!

So what are we waiting for??!!!

If an ugly little imaginary dwarf named Gimli can muster the chuztpah to face certain death for the sake of saving Middle Earth from Ultimate Evil, and if a formerly washed up fighter could risk death for the sake of a Heavyweight Boxing Title, how much more should we as Christians, who have the assurance of Christ's Victory over Death and the certain hope of the Resurrection be confident in our fight against our own besetting Sin!

Friends, Fight to Win! AMEN!

Trinity Sunday 2010

2010-05-30T05:22:00.000-07:00

A Sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on May 30 2010, at the Convent Chapel of St. Mary's Medical Center.

Today is Trinity Sunday, the one day a year when we pay particular attention to the nature of God - the idea that there is One God, but three persons within the Godhead. Since the very earliest days of the church, Christians have had a hard time understanding this concept. The Jews of Jesus' day strongly emphasized the unity of God, to such an extent that many early Christians had a difficult time with the idea of personal distinctions within God.

The word 'Trinity' is not actually found in the Bible, but was first used by the Latin theologian, Tertullian, in about AD 225 to explain the idea that God was 'one in essence - not one in Person'. A hundred years later, the Council of Nicea (325AD) met to respond to the teachings of a man named Arius - where we get the term 'Arianism'. The council of Nicea was led by the church father Athanasius, who helped develop the Nicene Creed, which describes Christ as "God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance (homoousios) with the Father."

Although the council of Nicea pretty much settled the matter, there was still controversy around this doctrine for several more decades. However, after the fifth century, all branches of the Christian faith accepted the doctrine.

St. Augustine grappled with this idea and described the Trinity as comparable to the three parts of an individual human being: mind, spirit, and will - three distinct aspects, yet inseparable and together constituting one unified human being.

Icon painters looked for ways to help people understand the doctrine, but were put off by the prohibition against depicting God directly, so they turned to the story of the hospitality of Abraham, who was visited by three wanderers (Gen. 18:1-8).

"And the Lord appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day. He lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing in front of him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth and said, “O Lord, if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree, while I bring a morsel of bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on—since you have come to your servant.” So they said, “Do as you have said.” And Abraham went quickly into the tent to Sarah and said, “Quick! Three seahs of fine flour! Knead it, and make cakes.” And Abraham ran to the herd and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to a young man, who prepared it quickly. Then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared, and set it before them. And he stood by them under the tree while they ate." (ESV)

The painters who depicted this story included many details -- the figures of Abraham and Sarah, a servant killing a calf in preparation for the feast, the rock, the tree of Mamre, and the house (tent) -- all in an attempt to be as faithful as possible to the text.

But look at this reproduction of the most famous of all Trinity icons, that painted by the Russian Andrei Rublev in the 14th century.

Rublev has omitted all the narrative details of the story, including Abraham and Sarah, and only painted the three angels. By doing this he wanted to convey the Unity and Indivisibility of the three persons of the Trinity. Some people have objected to this, saying that Abraham was visited by the pre-incarnate Christ and two angels, so some icon painters painted Christ as the middle angel and set him apart either by a halo with a cross, by enlarging his figure, giving him widely spread wings, or a scroll in His hand.

Jurgan Moltmann, comments that in Rublev's version, 'the three divine persons are seated at a table. In the slight inclination of their heads toward each other and in the gestures of their hands, a deeper unity of the three is suggested. A chalice on the table symbolizes the sacrifice of the Son on Golgotha for the redemption of the world. ...

it is impossible to tell which is the Father, Son or Spirit. In this way, the painting expresses the ultimate un-representability of the triune God. (Moltman, Sermon on the Trinity.)

So although people have tried to illustrate the concept of the Trinity, it is fundamentally impossible to really represent God. He is just too big, and the concept is just too hard for us. But even though we will never be able to plumb the depths of God's being, we can definitely know that God is relational.

Moltman puts it this way: "the triune God is a social God, rich in internal and external relationships. It is only from the perspective of the trinitarian God that we can claim that “God is Love,” because love is never alone. Instead, it brings together those who are separate while maintaining their distinct characters."

In John 16, Jesus lays out this inter-relatedness :
Verse 5: "...I am going to him who sent me, (namely, the Father, v. 10).
In verse 7, he tells the Disciples, "I will send him [the Helper, Paraclete, the Comforter, the one, 'just like me'] to you.

Verse 10: I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer...

The Holy Spirit is to complete the teaching work of Jesus: (v.12)“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15 All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

Add John 5:19 to the mix:
Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise."

The sense is of continuous intercommunication and cooperation, complete harmony among equals - each with a role to play, but each in complete agreement with the other two.

Phillip asked Jesus to show them the Father, and Jesus replied, "Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. ... I am in the Father and the Father is in me."

The Son is not only the exact representation of the Father, but He speaks and acts on the authority of the Father:

"The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works."

Again we see a complete unity of message and purpose - in the midst of diversity.
I'd like to relate this concept to some examples from our daily lives - with the caution that they are not really analogies of the Trinity - the comparison to the God who is 'one essence but Three Persons" quickly breaks down, but I still think they are useful comparisons.

The United States of America
According to our national slogan, "E Pluribus Unum", we become one people out of many backgrounds; one nation in the uniting of 13 - now 50 - independent states. Of course, the United States of America is not a Person, but the ideal of the founders was for us to come together despite our differences.

The Church
The Church is to be one as Jesus and the Father are one (John 17: 21: ...that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us....). We are to function as His Body: (Romans 12:4,5: For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.)

I Cor: 12:12 "For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ."

I Cor.12:27:"Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it."

Unity in Diversity. The church as a picture of the Trinity.

Many people are grievously offended by the fact that there are so many denominations. Yet, how can it really be otherwise, given that God is so vast and people have had so many different experiences in God, so many ideas about how to worship Him - and so many quarrels about who is right!

Because we are sinful, we will never have complete unity. Because God is big, no one way of worshiping Him will ever be adequate to do Him justice. There must be some basic things we agree upon - and that's why we have Creeds - so that we can say that some expressions are truly Christian, and some are not.

So, while we differ from the Orthodox in our understanding of who exactly sends the Holy Spirit - Father only vs. Father and Son - we still recognize them as Christians because they embrace the Trinity - unlike Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses and Unitarians, who deny the Trinity.
Our unity around the basics of the Creeds defines us a members of the same household.

Marriage
Marriage also provides us a picture of unity in diversity:
Eph. 5:28-33: ..." husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” (Gen. 2:24) This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband."
Jesus quoted Genesis 1:27 and 2:24 in regard to Marriage: (Mark 10:6-8 and Mt. 19:, 45): "But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh.

Again, the comparison to the Trinity breaks down because in marriage, we still have two separate persons joined together by covenant and union, while in the Trinity we have Three Persons, but one essence.

So, there are three comparisons to the Trinity. How does this work itself out in our practice as Christians?

Let's start with our Worship

Anglican worship is very trinitarian. From the opening acclamation, to the Gloria, to the

Doxology, to the Sanctus and the Communion prayer, one hears many references to the Trinity. And as a local parish we say that we emphasize the Liturgical/Catholic/Sacramental,
the Evangelical or Word-based understanding of the faith, and the Spirit-led, or the Charismatic, roughly mirroring Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Our focus is both on the transcendent God, who is high and lifted up, receiving the praise of all creation, and on the immanent or Present God, who is Emmanuel, God with us.
Devotionally, as I read the Bible, I want to allow the words to become the Word of God to me - to allow the concepts I am reading to become life-giving 'manna' from heaven, speaking to me in my current life situation right now. I want the 'Logos' Word of God to become the 'Rhema' word of God to me, that I might become transformed by the renewing of my mind.
Psychologically, I want my mind to learn to think God's thoughts, my emotions to be conformed to those of Christ, and my will to be transformed so that I can choose to obey even when it's hard.

Responding to God's love, I want to give of myself - my time, my talents, and my treasure, I want to realize that the focus of my giving is God. I am giving back to the Father, through Jesus the Son, as I am led by the Spirit, just as God first loved me and gave His Son to die for me. I give in response to a God who gives me Himself. The hymn by William How puts it this way: "We give thee but thine own, whatever the gift may be. All that we have is Thine alone, a trust O Lord from Thee." (We Give Thee but Thine Own. How, 1864).

This giving includes service to our world. Through God's Spirit, we take Christ to our world. Through our good deeds, we proclaim the Good News that Christ has come to seek and save that which was lost - namely the whole world! .

In their book, The Externally Focused Church, Rick Rusaw and Eric Swanson relate that 'When the Communists took over Russia in 1917, they vigorously persecuted the church, but did not make Christianity illegal. The Constitution of 1918 (chapter 5, article 13), in face, guaranteed a freedom of religion. But the Communists did make it illegal for the church to do any good works. No longer could the church fulfill its historic role of feeding the hungry, educating the young, housing the orphan, or caring for the sick. The state would handle those duties. What was the result? After seventy years, the church in Russia was largely irrelevant to the communities in which it dwelt. take away service, and you take away the church's power, influence, and evangelistic effectiveness. The power of the gospel is combining its life-changing message with selfless service "( pg. 118).

We proclaim the Good News through our actions, in addition to our verbal proclamation. Our goal is for all the world to know the Joy of Loving and serving God, the joy of abiding in God, and he in us, just as it says in the trinitarian pattern of I John 4: 13-16:

"By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

Ultimately it comes back to the two great commandments: Love God, and Love your neighbor. I pray that as we contemplate our great God and his great love for us, that our capacity for loving God and others may increase and that we might truly abide in Him and He in us, just as The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit are one and abide in each other. AMEN.

Wait for the Promise, Go in the Power

2010-05-30T05:17:00.000-07:00

A sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on Pentecost Sunday, 2010 at the Convent Chapel of St. Mary's Medical Center, and based on Acts 2:1-11 and Joel 2: 28-32.

When our girls were small, we had a Tri-Color Shelty, a little collie type dog that is very smart, and who responds well to training. The reason I know that is not because our dog was well-trained - it wasn't - but because as Cindy and I would walk in Ritter Park, we used to observe a couple who would train their own Shelty.

We used to see this couple often and we would observe them in every stage of the process: arriving in the car and unloading themselves and the dog, preparing for their training session by setting up little cones in a sort of course, walking the dog, giving him commands, and then finally packing up and leaving to go home. It was a sort of liturgy I suppose.

This whole process made a big impression on us. We used to admire how dedicated the couple was to this training, how well-behaved the dog was - and even how the little dog seemed to take pride in this work they were doing. We used to think to ourselves, "Wow, look what we could do with Sarah..." and then we stopped to think how much time this process took - and we settled for the less well-behaved dog, who was also less time-consuming!

At any rate, one of the training excercises we used to observe was what I might call Stop, Wait, Go. The man or the woman would walk the dog, then come to a full stop, give the command to 'Wait' and then another command to 'Go'. Dog and owner seemed to flow together as one unit - and it really was an interesting - even beautiful - thing to watch.

Well, while it may sound a silly, I think there is a lesson for us here regarding the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives. I've coined a slogan for it:

'Wait for the Promise, Go in the Power"

First, the Wait part.

The background of our reading from Acts 2 is, of course, Acts 1, beginning in verses 4 and 5:
"And while [Jesus was] staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

So, just like the dog owners in the park, Jesus basically said to the disciples, "Sit! Stay!" "Wait " - just about the hardest thing in the world to do! - Especially if you've just seen your Lord taken up bodily into heaven ...which was the very next thing that happens after Jesus tells them to Wait.

Jesus ascends to heaven on Mount Olivet, 'a Sabbath days' journey from Jerusalem ( not very far at all), and the disciples return to Jerusalem. Picking up in v. 13 of Acts Chapter 1: "And when they had entered, they went up to the upper room, where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the son of James. 14 All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.

Obeying, they take up their vigil, all gathered together in one place, devoting themselves to prayer.

After choosing a replacement apostle for Judas (Matthias), the day of Pentecost arrives. They're still gathered together in one place. (Acts 2:1), when the Holy Spirit shows up like tongues of flaming fire, sounding like a locomotive tearing through the room. They all start speaking in tongues, preaching the mighty works of God to "Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians" (Acts 2:9-11), in fulfillment of that prophecy from Joel that he would "pour out [His] Spirit on all flesh..." (Joel 2:28 ff).

They sat still, they waited and they received the promised Holy Spirit, which in turn enabled them to preach the mighty deeds of God in power.

In his sermon on Pentecost, the apostle Peter explains to a bewildered crowd:
"This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing" (Acts:2: 32,33).

In other words, 'You just saw us get what God has been promising us for hundreds of years!"
Peter goes on to admonish the crowd to "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." Again, he makes reference to the Promise:

Acts 2:39 "For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”

The result of his simple and powerful preaching is the salvation and immediate baptism of 'about three thousand souls". After Waiting for the Promise and receiving it, Peter Goes in the Power of the Holy Spirit with tremendous results! And this pattern immediately becomes a lifestyle for the new believers:

Acts 2:42:
And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. In other words, the devoted themselves to a lifestyle of active, participatory waiting. They weren't just sitting back watching TV and playing video games. They were engaged in a work together - the work of waiting on the Lord. This work extended to taking care of one another:

"And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. (Acts 2:44,45)
This work went hand in hand with "attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes,

The ultimate result was that the believers "received their food with glad and generous hearts.
As they praised their God (v. 47) they found favor with all the people.
..."awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

All in all, pretty remarkable. Remarkable enough for even secular people to catch the ideal and try to make it into an idol of secular government.

But there's a crucial ingredient to making this pattern of life work: The Holy Spirit.

The believers waited upon the Lord. He filled them with the Spirit of Promise, and then he sent them out into the world to serve Him in Power. I think this is a basic pattern for Life in the Spirit. It's a pattern that results in getting something from God, and then doing something for God.

We've recently been studying NT Wright's book, "Simply Christian". Here's what he says in his chapter on God's Breath of Life:

"God doesn't give people the Holy Spirit in order to let them enjoy the spiritual equivalent of a day at Disneyland. ...the point of the Spirit is to enable those who follow Jesus to take into all the world the news that he is Lord, that he has won the victory over the forces of evil, that a new world has opened up, and that we are to help make it happen." (pg. 122).

Immediately before his ascension, Jesus tells the disciples:
"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts1:8).
The gift of the Holy Spirit is a gift for witness, ministry and outreach - a gift for 'external focus' as Rick Rusaw and Eric Swanson would say.

In their book entitled "The Externally Focused Church", these authors
quote a second century writer who reflected on what the church was to the world of AD 150:
"As the soul is to the body, so Christians [are] to the world." (Epistle of Mathetus to Diognetus, Chapter 6, v. 25).

Imagine what the church of that day must have done in their world to be viewed as the 'soul of the world' ! ...

Rusaw and Swanson also describe how the church is viewed in our own day:
"There is no question that the church has been marginalized in our society. ...The church is seen...as an 'island of piety, surrounded by a sea of irrelevance.' ... [it] is generally not viewed as an important part of the fabric of the community. In most places the church has lost any voice on the issues and needs facing the community. The church isn't on the list of resources community leaders consult when looking for assistance in resolving the challenges they face." Pg. 104.

This past week, I received a letter from Chief of Police Skip Holbrook asking me and others to attend a presentation of the High Point Drug Market Intervention Strategy. The presenters from High Point NC will be Major Marty Sumner and Pastor Sherman Mason. The presentation will be held at Antioch Missionary Baptist Church. The letter goes on to say, "You are an important stakeholder in the future implementation of this innovative community based strategy. Your attendance for the presentation would be greatly appreciated."

What a contrast! Instead of being seen as irrelevant and beside the point, here's a case in which the church is taking an active role and pastors from the community are being invited to participate.

Why is this? It's because Pastor Mason and others like him in the High Point church got involved in an important local need.

It's because those of us in Mission Tri-State have created relationships with our local community leaders, praying for them personally and regularly over many years. It's because at least some of our Huntington churches have taken on an 'External Focus', reaching out beyond our own walls to seek the welfare of our city. It's because local pastors who get this letter from Skip Holbrook will rearrange their schedules to be at this presentation.

Through the prophet Jeremiah , the Lord told the exiles in Babylon to 'seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile.' They were told to Pray to the Lord for it because if it prospers, you too will prosper." (Jer. 29:7).
Notice that the strategy involved prayer. I would relate this back to the 'waiting on Promise', the first part of our equation.

The Church is, first and foremost a worshiping community. We come to this place each Sunday to hear God's Holy Word, to be fed with spiritual food and to be empowered by God's Spirit - so that we can then 'love and serve the Lord' in the world. Without being built up in the Spirit, we cannot go out in the Spirit. So Worship is first and foremost.

But as Rusaw and Swanson write, their is an increasing conviction among Christian leaders from around the globe 'that effectiveness is not measured by what happens inside the church but rather by the impact the people of the church have on their communities.' (EFC, pg. 16).
Folks, we of All Saints Anglican Church have been given the privilege of impacting our community far beyond our numbers. If you watched the news last night or read the paper today, you would have seen the story about Hope House packed with grieving people seeking solace in their loss. If you could have been there last night, you would have seen a cross section of our community gathered together, along with our mayor and our police chief, experiencing the relevance of the church in our city.

You may not think of this as 'spirit empowered' ministry, but it is. It has to be. It could not happen without the power of God's Spirit.

Today I would like to challenge us to be willing to be of service to our communities, wherever we live. But I'd also like to challenge us to take some time and 'wait for the promise of the Spirit', so that we may be empowered for the service God expects of us.

Right now, in the presence of God, I would like for us to quietly wait upon the Spirit. This will be our ministry time today. We're going to invite the Holy Spirit to come and empower us as we wait upon Him.

I invite you to come to the altar, or to kneel at your place, to stand in prayer or even to walk around and pray if you wish. But let's take some time and actively wait upon the Lord.

Let's pray:
'Holy Spirit, we now invite you to come and minister to us. We give you permission to do something within us that we cannot imagine. Fill us now with your grace and your power to do the work you have given us to do, to love and serve you serve you as faithful witnesses of Christ our Lord."

Come Holy Spirit.

On Receiving God's Good Things

2010-05-09T14:10:00.000-07:00

A Sermon Delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on May 9, 2010 at the Convent Chapel of St. Mary's Medical Center, Huntington, WV
The Sermon began with listening to the first minute a four seconds of 'Somthin's Comin' from West Side Story,, ending with, 'it's going to be great!"

Have you ever felt like that - felt that something was coming just up ahead? You didn't know what, you just knew that it was coming - but you had to wait for it....?

Well, that what it must have been like for the Jewish people of Joel's day. In the 2cnd chapter of his book, vv. 24 and following, Joel conveys the following promise to his people:

24 “The threshing floors shall be full of grain;the vats shall overflow with wine and oil.25 I will restore to you the yearsthat the swarming locust has eaten,the hopper (Locust), the destroyer, and the cutter,my great army, which I sent among you. 26 “You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied,and praise the name of the Lord your God,who has dealt wondrously with you.And my people shall never again be put to shame.27 You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel,and that I am the Lord your God and there is none else.And my people shall never again be put to shame.

WOW! Something's Coming! Something big! Something Awesome! Something Good!
Restoration, Plenty of good stuff to eat - and the Lord's Presence with His people to boot! How Great! For once it's good to be Jewish!

The feeling must have been the same as what Tony was singing about in West Side Story: Something Good is coming!

Of course, we as Christians know that the Good Thing being predicted was really Jesus. He is the ultimate fulfillment of all God's Promises, just as it says in 2 Cor: 1:20: "For all the promises of God find their Yes in him..."!

Jesus was the one who would rebuke the devourer - namely the Devil and his minions: Sin and Death, ushering in the Kingdom of God and the Lordship of Christ. All the promises of God find their Yes in him!

But I think that we as Christians can also relate to the Jewish people in the sense that we have yet to see the ultimate fulfillment of God's Kingdom - the re-creation and renewal of all things.

This is what John was talking about in Revelation 21l 22 - 22:5:
22 And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. 23 And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. 24 By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, 25 and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. 26 They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. 27 But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life.

The River of Life
22:1 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 3 No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. 4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.

We too as Christians have Something REALLY Good to look forward to!

Here again, the promise involves good stuff to eat - a Fruit of the Month Club, Some Kind of Awesome Aloe Vera leaves - and the very presence of God manifested so intensely that we won't need the sun or moon or stars any longer! - It's comin'!

But, you know, as wonderful as all that stuff is for the future, there's also the present reality that God wants to give us good stuff now as well. His plan is to bless us in our coming in and our going out.

Deuteronomy 28:
1-6 If you listen obediently to the Voice of God, your God, and heartily obey all his commandments that I command you today, God, your God, will place you on high, high above all the nations of the world. All these blessings will come down on you and spread out beyond you because you have responded to the Voice of God, your God:
God's blessing inside the city,
God's blessing in the country;
God's blessing on your children,
he crops of your land, the young of your livestock, the calves of your herds, the lambs of your flocks.
God's blessing on your basket and bread bowl;
God's blessing in your coming in,
God's blessing in your going out.

7 God will defeat your enemies who attack you. They'll come at you on one road and run away on seven roads.
8 God will order a blessing on your barns and workplaces; he'll bless you in the land that God, your God, is giving you.
9 God will form you as a people holy to him, just as he promised you, if you keep the commandments of God, your God, and live the way he has shown you.
10 All the peoples on Earth will see you living under the Name of God and hold you in respectful awe.

11-14 God will lavish you with good things: children from your womb, offspring from your animals, and crops from your land, the land that God promised your ancestors that he would give you. God will throw open the doors of his sky vaults and pour rain on your land on schedule and bless the work you take in hand. You will lend to many nations but you yourself won't have to take out a loan. God will make you the head, not the tail...

The rewards and blessings of living faithfully in covenant with God are many. He pours out his abundance upon His people because of his own joy in giving. And when you start to list out those benefits, it soon becomes amazing and overwhelming.

God's Goodness to All Saints Anglican Church
So - with all that in mind, I'd like to begin pointing out four material things that are signal blessings to us as a congregation.

1) Christ Pantokrator Icon: Written for us by Elsie Hosie of St. George Greek Orthodox Church after attending one of our prayer meetings. To commission an original icon like this would be very costly. God laid it upon Elsie's heart to do it for us without charge!. It speaks to us of Jesus himself - God's own free gift to us - the best thing he ever gave us.

2)Yesterday, God sent us Bezalel and Oholiab in the form of Bill and Clara Clay, who worked most of the day at Hope House, installing an 'Aumbry', a little cabinet in the wall - a custom that dates back to medieval times, when the Lords of castles would put their weapons in a hidden place within a wall. Our Aumbry will contain our 'weapon' ( 2Cor. 10:4) the consecrated body and blood of Christ, the visible reminder of His Presence with us - and that there is 'power in the blood'!

3) Several weeks ago, I got a call from Christine Habrle, former weekend TV News anchor from Charleston, who is doing a Master's Degree in Digital Media. As an assignment for one of her classes, she had to analyze the media presence of a church and make recommendations. She wrote this 30 page paper about us and is now helping us to update our Digital media plan so that we can be more effective in communicating Good News electronically.

4) The Hope Quilt. ( get an assistant to help display the quilt) by Sr. Connie Mershon of the Company of Jesus and her friends, Mary and Charlie Snyder, from Charleston. It has the word HOPE built into the quilt pattern. It reminds us that: "Hope does not disappoint because of the Holy Spirit that has been poured out ...(Romans 5:1)

Non Material Good Things
Let me also list some good things that are coming our way this coming week for the Day of Hope on Saturday May 15:

First of all, the Venue: The Byrd Clinical Center is again allowing us to use their facility without charge - courtesy of a little skid-greasing from our own Richard Crespo!
And here is a list of people who are participating in, or planning to attend our event:

-Mary Lyons, the woman who spearheaded raising a $50,000 reward fund, and who has personally prevailed upon each of the families of the fallen teens to attend this service and to get behind Hope House.

-The Huntington High School Junior ROTC, under the direction of Major David Clark, who have faithfully volunteered their time for four years now.

-Mayor Kim Wolfe, who will deliver a proclamation about Day of Hope in Huntington - and who personally approved our Permit for Amplified Sound!

-Chief of Police Skip Holbrook, who will be at another event earlier that day, but will join us somewhat later in the service.

-Mr. Tim White of the Huntington Weed and Seed program, who sent out our announcement about Day of Hope on official letterhead - and who personally shows off Hope House to visiting out-of-towners when he wants to show them what Weed and Seed means in concrete community terms.

- Professional Violinist Hannah Burbery, and our own professional music teacher Cynthia Counts to accompany her.

-Hannah's husband, Dr. Tim Burbery of Marshall University's English Department, and Aimee Slash Chapman to read the names of the murdered.

-Mr. Chris Dehner, Music director from Jefferson Avenue Church of God to lead us in praise and singing.

-Reverend Reginald Hill, pastor of Antioch Missionary Baptist Church, who will speak on the topic "Healing and Reconciliation".

-Rev. Mike Greider, Mission Tri-State and Rock of Grace Church, who will deliver the pastoral prayer.

-Audley Kilburn - Rock of Grace church - but also Christian-at-large and prayer warrior extraordinaire!

-The family of Steven L Ferguson, who will be on hand to witness this year's award to Mr. Thomas Kincaid, resident of Huntington since 1955 and 'Dean of the Street Mayors" ( tell story from Weed and Seed meeting): "I'm the mayor of this street, that's who!"

-Rev. Gary Brydie of the Glorious Church of God in Christ, and Mr. Leon 'Do-bug' White, both former Steven L Ferguson Memorial Award winners, who sit on the board of the Neighboring Initiative, and who will give this year's award to Mr. Thomas Kincaid.

-Special Thanks to Marcia Smith, through Clara Clay, who is providing a wonderful vacation time-share package to the winner of the Steven L Ferguson award.

-Bridge Ministries, INC. who will provide our sound system and tech support as well as perform an Offertory - and who, since January, have worked construction miracles at Hope House. (

Here are some other people who have or are blessing us:
-Curtis Johnson of the Huntington Herald Dispatch, who has always been very supportive and given us many stories over the years.

-Tom Roten and WVHU radio, who always gives us time each year, and who interviewed me on-air last Thursday morning.

-Mayor Jean Dean and her radio program, who is always supportive as well.

-Mr. Bill Smith, Cabell County Supt. of Schools, who affirmed to me on Friday that he plans to attend and who has forwarded information about our service to his publicist.

I am reminded of Psalm 68: 19, (KJV): Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation.

I love the image expressed here - that God is loading us down with benefits!

As I said earlier, the first and foremost benefit he gives us is Himself - and his own body and blood poured out for us. We will experience that benefit in just a little while at the Lord's Table.

The Rite I Communion prayer alludes to this loading of blessings: .." having in remembrance his blessed passion and precious death, his mighty resurrection and glorious ascension; rendering unto thee most hearty thanks for the innumerable benefits procured unto us by the same" ...

I don't have time to list them all out, and couldn't even if I had the time, but here are

Seven Benefits of our Faith:
1. Forgiveness of our sins. Were we have missed the mark, or 'stepped over the line', God has forgiven us. Closely related to this is the idea of Atonement - that Christ as atoned for our sins, allowing us to be 'at one' with the Father.

2. Salvation, God has saved us, has brought us into wholeness, and is brining wholeness to us through Christ.

3. Justification, we have been declared to be 'in the right' by the judge of our souls. The certificate of debt against us has been set aside and we are free from the burden of our Sin.

4. Sanctification, we have been 'set aside' and made Holy - and we are continually being transformed into the image of Christ.

5. Deliverance from the bondage of sin and from the false attempts of the Devil to keep us bound in sin, shame and failure.

6. Healing of our souls from the wounds we have sustained in the past, and also healing of our minds, our thinking, and even physical healing.

7. Empowerment for Ministry through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. This is what Jesus was talking about in the Gospel lesson today - that he has given us the "Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you" and give us the gift of Peace.

All of these things are God's gracious gifts to us. The emphasis is on GRACE. We don't earn any of the benefits he give us. Our work for Him does not in any way add to our worthiness to receive his benefits. In fact it's just the opposite:

Romans 5: 8-11:
but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Think about this! Even if you have never been very bad in your life, you and I are all rebels at heart. We get it from our first parents.

Despite that, God gave himself to us! It's amazing, incomprehensible! Paul goes on to explain:
(Romans 5:9) Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

The same God that saved us while we were enemies, has reconciled us to Himself through the finished work of Jesus Christ on the Cross.

Our enemy, the Devil, would like us to forget all the benefits the Lord has given us, to steal away our joy, and even to kill us if possible. He's an unfair enemy and He uses every trick in the book -
even ourselves - to fight against us!

Our charge as Christians is to 'resist him, firm in our faith' (1Pet.5:9). One of the ways we do that is by remembering all his benefits and affirming our belief in His Goodness towards us.
And we're going to do that right now. I'm going to have you stand with me and resist the Evil One by declaring aloud all the good things that God has done for us. I've given you long lists of things that God has done.

I'd like each of you to do the same. I'd like you to think about the benefits that Jesus has procured for us and upon our adoption into God's family, I'd like you to say in your own words something about the benefits that God is giving us personally and as a church. You praise the Lord and declare all his benefits.

Go ahead right now. ......

AMEN.

Ordination

2010-05-09T13:57:00.000-07:00

A Sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on April 25, 2010 at St. Mary's Medical Center Convent Chapel based on Numbers 27:12-23

Opening Collect (BCP)
O God, whose Son Jesus is the good shepherd of your people: Grant that when we hear his voice we may know him who calls us each by name, and follow where he leads; who, with you and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Joshua to Succeed Moses

12 The Lord said to Moses, “Go up into this mountain of Abarim and see the land that I have given to the people of Israel. 13 When you have seen it, you also shall be gathered to your people, as your brother Aaron was, 14 because you rebelled against my word in the wilderness of Zin when the congregation quarreled, failing to uphold me as holy at the waters before their eyes.” (These are the waters of Meribah of Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin.) 15 Moses spoke to the Lord, saying, 16 “Let the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation 17 who shall go out before them and come in before them, who shall lead them out and bring them in, that the congregation of the Lord may not be as sheep that have no shepherd.”

18 So the Lord said to Moses, “Take Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay your hand on him. 19 Make him stand before Eleazar the priest and all the congregation, and you shall commission him in their sight. 20 You shall invest him with some of your authority, that all the congregation of the people of Israel may obey. 21 And he shall stand before Eleazar the priest, who shall inquire for him by the judgment of the Urim before the Lord. At his word they shall go out, and at his word they shall come in, both he and all the people of Israel with him, the whole congregation.” 22 And Moses did as the Lord commanded him. He took Joshua and made him stand before Eleazar the priest and the whole congregation, 23 and he laid his hands on him and commissioned him as the Lord directed through Moses. (ESV)

In today's reading from Numbers we see the beginning of what we now call Ordination. "Moses did as the Lord commanded him. He took Joshua and made him stand before Eleazar the priest and the whole congregation, and he laid his hands on him and commissioned him as the Lord directed through Moses (vv.22,23).

Let's look at the text in our bulletin and ask some questions.
Why did Moses do that? ..."that the congregation of the Lord may not be as sheep that have no shepherd.” v. 17

Why would they be without a shepherd? Because Moses was about to die.

Why was Moses about to die? v. 14: Because he 'rebelled against [God's] word in the wilderness of Zin when the congregation quarreled, failing to uphold [Him] as holy at the waters before their eyes.”

How did Moses do that?
By striking the rock to bring water out for the people instead of speaking to it. Numbers 20:8:
“Take the staff, and assemble the congregation, you and Aaron your brother, and tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water. So you shall bring water out of the rock for them and give drink to the congregation and their cattle.”

VERSUS:

11 And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice, and water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their livestock.[He had struck the rock previously but this time he was supposed to speak to it. It's a wonder that striking the rock worked. Why didn't it just not work?]

Whose idea was it to pick a successor?
Moses V. 15: Moses spoke to the Lord, saying, 16“Let the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation...

Who actually picked the successor?: God: v. 18: So the Lord said to Moses, “Take Joshua the son of Nun...

Why was Joshua chosen?
Because he was "a man in whom is the Spirit" v. 18

How was the ordination service to take place? V. Moses was told to "lay your hand on him. 19 Make him stand before Eleazar the priest and all the congregation, and you shall commission him in their sight. 20You shall invest him with some of your authority,
Why was this done publicly and before the priest? v.20" that all the congregation of the people of Israel may obey."

What would Joshua do? 17 [he] shall go out before them [the congregation] and come in before them, [he] shall lead them out and bring them in..." that the congregation of the Lord may not be as sheep that have no shepherd.”

What was Joshua's basic job? To be a shepherd.

The Importance of Shepherding

Joshua's basic job was to be a shepherd - and so it is with all ordained people. Let's look at some words together:

Pastor = Shepherd in Latin.
Greek Synonym: Poimeen = 'Pastor' Eph. 4:11, 1Pet.2:25; 5:1-4, Acts 20:28.

But several other Greek are used in the Scriptures, and these terms are interchangeable:
Episkopos, 'overseer, or bishop': Titus 1:7, Phil. 1:1, Acts 20:28
Presbuterous - presbyter, or 'elder" I Pet. 5:1, Tit. 1:5, Acts 20:17, 1 Tim, 4:14.
And there is the verb "Poisteemi", which means 'to rule" I th. 5:12, 1 Tim 5:17.

We can quickly see that the terms that relate to ordained ministry describe things that Joshua was to do - to lead the people in and out, to exercise authority, and to protect and guide the people.

But something that strikes me about Joshua is that he is a type of Christ. His job description reminds me of Isaiah 40:11: ( I can here the music from the Messiah in my ear)

11 He shall lead his flock like a shepherd...he will gather the lambs in his arms;he will carry them in his bosom,and gently lead those that are with young.

This sounds like John 10:
The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. ... I am the door of the sheep. ... If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture... 11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep...

So although terms like Overseer, Bishop and Ruler are used to describe the ordained, the term Shepherd or Pastor really trumps the others because the overall sense is leading, guiding and protecting, as opposed to Lording it over or exercising power over others.

Unfortunately many of us have experienced Bishops who are less than pastoral. The poet Dante relegated bishops to the lowest level of his Inferno!

I think he did so because the Bishop is supposed to be a pastor first and foremost. However, if a pastor misuses his authority, he betrays the trust placed in him, and he becomes an instrument of the Enemy - and at least according to Dante, subject to damnation.

And here, let me just insert a plug for our leaders in the Anglican Mission. Both Doc Loomis, our Bishop, and Peter Matthews, our network leader are true pastors. Mark and I have interacted with them enough to know their heart attitudes - that they truly care for those entrusted to them. While they're not flawless, being flawless is not part of the job description. If it were, there would be no pastors or network leaders or Bishops. At any rate, we are truly blessed to have leaders who really care about us.

Now back to Moses and Joshua:
So... Moses ordained Joshua. If you've been following closely, however, you'll notice that Joshua was not ordained to priestly ministry, but to governmental, civic, and military leadership. Priests were chosen from among the Levites- they inherited their position through birth. But Joshua - and Moses were called out specially by God for their particular tasks.

The Notion of Calling.
Time doesn't permit us to go into a complete study of God's calling. But just think back to Moses and the burning bush. God spoke to Moses through the bush and called him to go down to Egypt and deliver his people. (Exodus 3).

Moses was given cool superpowers, a staff of office (a crozier if you will) and even an assistant, his brother Aaron, to validate his calling and authority.
The initial call happened in private, but there were signs to go with the calling, which signified that Moses was truly God's representative.

And this is essentially what Moses did for Joshua by calling him out publicly, having him stand before the priest, and laying hands on Joshua. His ministry was being confirmed before the people.

The Three Orders of Ordained Ministry
In our episcopal style of church governance there are the three orders:
Deacon, from Diakonos, meaning servant or minister.
Priest, from Presbuteros, meaning elder or presiding officer.
Bishop, from Episkopos, meaning overseer.

While they all have their own particular spheres of activity, yet the overall purpose for these orders is to shepherd the people. Without this 'care of souls' aspect, the orders are reduced to simple power-mongering over others.

Serving as a Deacon, Priest or Bishop is a sacred trust, one that can be thought of as sacramental. In the Anglican tradition, Ordination is not a Sacrament per se, but a 'sacramental rite'.

On the Nature of Ordination:
William Wake was the Archbishop of Canterbury between 1657 and 1737.
Here is what he said about the the nature of ordination:

The imposition of hands in Holy Orders, being accompanied with a blessing of the Holy Spirit, may perhaps upon that account be called a kind of particular Sacrament. Yet since that grace which is thereby conferred, whatever it be, is not common to all Christians, nor by consequence any part of that federal blessing which Our Blessed Saviour has purchased for us, but only a separation of him who receives it to a special employ, we think it ought not to be esteemed a common Sacrament of the whole Church, as Baptism and the Lords' Supper are. (William Wake, An Exposition of the Doctrine of the Church of England, Article XV, pp. 45ff.).

In other words, Ordination is sacramental, but it is not for all Christians and therefore is not on the same level as Baptism and Communion. So there's the basic outline of the meaning and purpose of ordination. If there had been news reporters around in the days of Joshua's ordination, they would have undoubtedly crowded around him and asked, "Joshua, how do you feel?"

While it's impossible for us to really know that, I do think it's possible to guess how Joshua might have felt. As someone who has been through this process personally, I can tell you that there is probably no experience that is as disconcerting, humbling or exciting as discerning a call to ministry and then being tested and finally ordained.

For many people, the call to ministry is deeply embedded in who they are as a person. Like the prophet, Samuel, they hear the call to ministry early in life and this calling becomes an essential life-long identity. Usually in this case, public acknowledgment through ordination is universally recognized by others and accepted as a 'fait acompli'. For someone like this, it's almost a relief to be ordained.

In other cases, the calling to ministry comes right in the midst of doing something else. Gideon was busy threshing wheat when God called him to deliver Israel from the Philistines. And remember that Moses was occupied with tending sheep on the backside of the desert when God called him.

Fr. Mark and I are species of the latter type. We were minding our own business as professional counselors when the Lord began to place within us a conviction that we were supposed to do something else.

For me, Fr. George Landry from Sparta, Tennessee was God's vehicle of calling. On January 1, 2001, Cindy and I were visiting with friends in St. Albans - folks we had come to know through the 8th Day Life Center ministry. Fr. George was also a guest and during our conversation about the 8th Day work, Fr. George pointed out that I really needed to have the sacramental aspect available in my ministry and that I should consider 'reading for holy orders.'

At that moment, what appealed to me about ordination was celebrating the Eucharist and pronouncing absolution during confessions. Church planting, preaching and administration were definitely not on my radar screen in 2001. But in 2006, as you well know, something happened. We were suddenly thrust together into formation of All Saints Anglican Church. And not only do I get the joy of celebrating the Eucharist, but all the joys and challenges of church leadership as well.

To paraphrase Winston Churchill, "Never have I been so wrong, so often, about so many things, in the sight of so many, since I became a minister."

Part of this I accept as going along with the turf, and part of it terrifies me.
Moses was not allowed to see the promised land because of one impulsive thing he did - striking the rock instead of speaking to it. Nothing is easier than to fail as a minister. Nothing is harder than to constantly face up to your weaknesses and to fix your mistakes.

On the other hand, nothing is cooler than to participate in what God is doing in the life of a congregation and a community. Do you think Joshua didn't have a Miller Time moment after the Battle of Jericho - oh yeah! And after he succeeded in bringing Israel into the land and settling them successfully, do you think he looked back with satisfaction on his life's work? I'm sure he did. Ordained ministry carries with it deep resposibility pain and even suffering, but deep, deep reward as well. And that's why it's so important to actually be ordained publicly.

Here are five things that happen during ordination according theologian Martin Chemnitz:

1) Public Testimony: ...the rite of ordination is nothing else than the kind of public testimony by which the call of that person who is ordained is declared before God and in His name to be regular, pious, legitimate, and divine.

2) Commitment of Ministry: By that rite, as by a public designation of declaration, the ministry is committed in the name of God and of the church to him who has been called.

3) Solemn Vow: By this very thing also, as by a solemn vow, he who has been called becomes obligated to the church in the sight of God to render the faithfulness in the ministry that the Lord requires in His stewards, regarding which He will also judge them. (I Cor. 4:2)

4) Authorization to Teach: The church is reminded that it is to recognize that this pastor has divine authority to teach, and to hear him in the name and place of God.

5) Church's Intercession: ...and this is the most important: That rite is to be observed for this reason, that the whole church might, by common and earnest prayers, commit to God the ministry of him who is called, that He, by his Holy Spirit, divine grace, and blessing, might be with his ministry. ( Chemnitz, MWS, Sec. 29, p. 136.)

This is, in essence, why Joshua had to be ordained before all the people. Again, even though his was not to be a priestly ministry, he needed all these five elements so that he could be effective. And you'll notice, if you study his life, that Joshua was one of the few leaders in the Bible who had no blot or stain on his ministry record. From first to last he was completely faithful. This I think points again to his role as a type of Christ, but I also find it encouraging to think that one can indeed faithfully discharge their duty as a minister over the course of a lifelong work. Billy Graham would be an example of long-term faithfulness in our own day.

Now, just a word about Women's Ordination. This comes out of the policy and resource notebook from the Anglican Mission and can also be found on the website. Here it is verbatim:

Summary of AM position on Women's Ordination:
"Based on a careful study undertaken by the Rt. Rev. Dr. John Rodgers, the Anglican Mission in America determined that the most faithful response to the witness of Scripture and its teaching on headship would dictate that women be ordained only to the diaconate. While recognizing that the Church is presently seeking further clarity in this matter, the important concept of "headship" proved to be the most critical issue for us as we developed our policy on the issue of women's ordination.

In 2007, the Anglican Mission expanded its structure at the request of Archbishop Kolini by creating the Anglican Mission in the Americas, an umbrella organization made up of three entities: The Anglican Mission in America (AMiA), the Anglican Coalition in Canada (ACiC) and the Anglican Coalition in America (ACiA). The Anglican Misson's umbrella organization embraces two countries (the US and Canada) as well as two positions on the ordination of women. The ACiC and the ACIA ordain women to the priesthood, as does the Province of Rwanda, while the AMiA maintains its policy of ordaining women only to the diaconate." ( AM website)

Again, all this relates back to the basic job of the ordained person: to shepherd the flock of God.
When the apostle Paul was traveling to Jerusalem for the last time, he stopped in Ephesus to say goodbye to the church (Acts 20:17-36). He describes is part his ministry among them:
"“You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, 19 serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews; 20 how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house, 21 testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. ... 27 for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God." ...and then he admonishes them for the last time:

28 Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood..."
It is my fervent hope that I and Mark and all who are called to ordained ministry within our church may live up to this high calling in Christ.

I'd like to end with an ordination prayer by an early church father, Clementina: (Clementina, Homilies, Hom. III. Ch. LXXII, ANF VII, p. 251).

O Thou Ruler and Lord of all, Father and God, do thou guard the shepherd with the flock. Thou art the Cause, Thou the Power. We are that which is helped; Thou the helper, the physician, the savior, the wall, the life, the hope , the refuge, the joy, the expectation, the rest, in a word, thou art all things to us. In order that we may attain eternal salvation, do thou co-operate, preserve, protect. Thou canst do all things. For thou art the Ruler of rulers, the Lord of lords, the Governor of kings. Do thou give power to the president to loose what ought to be loosed, to bind what ought to be bound. Do Thou make him wise. Do Thou, as by his name, protect the Church of Thy Christ as a fair bride. For thine is eternal glory. Praise to the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost to all ages. Amen.

Resurrection Day 2010

2010-04-04T05:46:00.000-07:00

A Sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on Resurrection Day, April 4, 2010 at the Convent Chapel of St. Mary's Medical Center, Huntington, WV.

Salutation: Psalm 118:24:
On this day the LORD has acted; we will rejoice and be glad in it!

On Good Friday, my wife, Cindy, went with her mother, her aunt and our daughter Lindsey to Three Mile Blue Creek, near Clendenin. Cindy thought she was going to visit relatives, but what she was actually doing was sermon reconnaissance. This became apparent yesterday morning when I was doing her debriefing and realized she had come home with at least two good stories for my sermon today.

Here's the first story. While Cindy was conversing with her relatives, she asked about the graveyard up on the hill behind the home place that belonged to her mother's father, Grandpa Brown. She asked if the people laid to rest there were actually buried in caskets - or were they in pine boxes? Aunt Louise clucked and replied that yes, they were buried in caskets, and some of them even had vaults - except Great Grandma Brown, who always said she didn't want a vault because she was afraid she wouldn't be able to get out on the Resurrection Day!

Friends, we are gathered here today to celebrate the fact that the stone vault could not hold Jesus!

On this day the Lord has Acted! Christ arose from the grave - and because of his breaking forth - no vault will hold us on our resurrection day either! Great Grandma Brown has nothing to worry about. On that great day when we are all raised with Christ and seated in the heavenly places, no power on earth or below earth or in the heavens will be able to keep us in the grave. Our bodies will rise in the same way Christ arose. All things will be made new.

And all things are changed even now.

As writer Alex Davis says: "Christ's Resurrection changes everything!...A resurrected Christ creates a new world. This idea cannot be tamed and should not be taken for granted. It is an earth-shaking idea. God raised Jesus from the dead - and he promises to raise you as well!"

The idea of the Resurrection is such good news - such GREAT news - that it cannot be fathomed no matter how many years we celebrate it. It is the BEST news possible, and it ought to cause us to shout, to jump up and down and turn back flips for JOY! Even get up early on Sunday morning to celebrate! - and not just because there's a chocolate bunny in my Easter basket!

You will not surely die! Satan used this line to deceive Adam and Eve, but it has actually come true! We shall live forever in the presence of the Living God, in a world that has been completely reset, recreated, put right, made whole - even better than they were meant to be originally!

Yet we sometimes respond to this news as if we're asleep! We've heard it so many times, it just seems commonplace, dull or boring.

Alex Davis again:

"Inasmuch as we are asleep, let us awake! Inasmuch as our capacities to be charged with childlike delight at God's gospel have atrophied, let them revive! And inasmuch as we are dead in our pride, lusts, fears, and despair -let us rise in Christ! The dawn has come. The new day has begun. Let us greet it as people who behold, with ever-increasing awe, a resurrected God."
(Alex Davis, quoted in Mosaic Holy Bible, pg. 132.)

The ability to respond with Childlike delight. Would to God that we could renew it and keep it going. Like the little girl who told about the resurrection by saying,

"It was a miracle when Jesus rose from the dead and managed to get the tombstone off the entrance." ...

or like the little boy who had a unique answer for the pastor one Easter Sunday morning...
Seems that as the pastor was preaching the children's sermon, he reached into his bag of props and pulled out an egg. He pointed at the egg and asked the children, "What's in here?""I know, I know!" a little boy exclaimed, -

"pantyhose!"

or the young lady who explained to her Sunday School teacher that...

...Jesus died for our sins, then came back to life again. He went up to Heaven but will be back at the end of the Aluminum. His return is foretold in the book of Revolution."

Ah, to be a child again! To experience delight - and maybe some confusion at the wonder of our faith! - On second thought perhaps we're more childlike in our faith than we think...

The ability to respond with childlike wonder even extends to those who may be overtly questioning God and His purposes.

A couple of weeks back, I told you about a conversation I had with a young lady who raised almost every possible objection to the Gospel in the course of a one-hour discussion. During that discussion, I spoke with her on the intellectual level about some of the classic arguments for the faith, and she seemed intrigued if not convinced.

The next time I talked with her, she had become rather desperate. She hadn't slept for three days. Her mind was racing and she was seriously worried that she might jump off a bridge just to stop her suffering. I was really concerned about her and offered to pray for her.

"Well, it couldn't hurt, I guess," she replied.

So I explained that I would use oil to make the sign of the cross on her forehead and that this would be similar to the Passover, when the children of Israel took the blood of the lamb and put it on their doors and windows, so that the angel of death would passover them and spare the life of their first born. By praying for her, we would ask the Lord to see the oil on her head and cause Death to passover her too.

So we prayed - very simply - and waited a bit, not knowing what to expect, but just knowing that everything else had been tried and she was still suicidal and couldn't rest. So after the prayer, she sat there for a moment and then she exclaimed, "Wow, I feel like I just took a Xanax!"

"Is that good or bad?" I asked cautiously.

"That's good!" she said. "I feel peaceful - calm - just relaxed. That's so cool!"

I had to agree with her. That was very cool. And I have to say it was the first time I had ever heard anyone describe the effects of prayer as feeling like they had just taken a Xanax!
This is how childlike delight sounds. It's enthusiastic - and simple. It inspires good humor and faith in those who observe it. I know it did for me. After that prayer and response to it, my sense of childlike delight in the Lord was renewed for the rest of the day! And she herself seemed to walk out of the office on a cloud.

The third time I saw this young lady, she was actually open to hearing more about God and the Gospel and she reported that while she had not been to church since she was 7, she had made arrangements to be in church with her aunt this Sunday!

The Resurrection of Christ made this possible on two levels. Number 1), Christ's power to heal and to comfort got this young lady's attention -

and number 2), He himself was drawing her in to worship Him on this Resurrection Day. And He did this through one of his followers.

Here's another wonderful thing that has happened as a result of the Resurrection: Now that Christ has begun to reign as King, he has Deputized us, his followers, as agents of his Kingdom. We now have been given authority to act as His emissaries. His authority enables us to re-enact the Passover - to make the sign of the cross over the 'house' (person) we wish him to spare, and to see his glory and power revealed as he passes over and preserves that life.

Because Christ, the Sacrifice Lamb took the punishment that rightly should have fallen upon us - and because he rose in power from the dead, the Father has given Him all Authority in heaven and on earth, and he, in turn, has given us his Authority to do what he did, described by Peter in Acts 10:38:

"He (Jesus) went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil..."

Peter goes on to say, "And we are witnesses of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree, but God raised him on the third day...(vv.39, 40).

Therefore, since he has been raised, and "He is Lord of all", the right response is for the disciples to "preach good news of peace through Jesus Christ" (v. 36).

And so it is for us. The right response to the Resurrection is threefold:

To be Joyful
To be full of childlike delight, and
To Preach and Heal in Jesus' Name, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

If we live this out, we get to see all kinds of wonderful things happen, and we can say, like the young lady, "That's so cool!"

Now I'll tell you the second story Cindy came home with on Friday.

Cindy's cousin Steve and his wife, Gail, also live "up Three Mile". In April of 2009, we learned that Gail had been diagnosed with Stage 3 cervical cancer - with some suspicious spots on her liver. At the time, the doctors thought it was curable and she underwent radiation and chemo for 6 weeks. This was a very grueling process and it caused her to lose her strength.

At the end of this round of treatment the plan was to do internal radiation, but after scans were done, it was discovered that the spots on her liver had shrunk - indicating that they were malignant. And now there appeared no hope. the doctors didn't want to do any further treatment and advised her to think in terms of months, not years.

Gail says she was heartbroken as she thought about leaving her husband and her children. She still got up and went to her job as a mail carrier each day, bu all she could do was go to work, come home and collapse on the couch - then get up and do it all again the next day. One Friday as she was delivering mail, she felt burdened and stopped her truck right in the middle of the road, and told the Lord she just wasn't ready to go.

In the quiet of that moment, she heard the Lord speak to her very plainly, "I know how you feel." She sensed His Presence very strongly and was amazed as He went on to tell her that he was born to die for her and to carry her sins. Right then, she felt as if her broken heart was cured. - but even so, she knew she was still deathly ill.

Sunday morning she woke up very burdened to have her church pray for her. But because they were starting Revival and had a guest choir and evangelist there, the time wasn't right. Sunday evening service came, and the same thing happened - but this time, she just had to have prayer, so after the preaching and singing were over, she asked her pastor and others to anoint her and pray for her healing.

As they prayed over Gail, she felt a wave sweep over her, starting at the top of her head and moving through the rest of her body, bringing with it a great sense of relief. She KNEW she had been touched!

Within a few days, her strength returned and she was back to full strength, working a full day and then coming home and doing housework as well. Three weeks later, when her regular scans were done, the lesions on her liver were 'just sitting there'. Her blood work was perfect and no cervical tumors were visible.

The doctor was surprised - but Gail wasn't. She didn't tell him what had happened until afterward - just so she could see his surprised reaction.

Now Gail and her husband, Steve, travel the state, reporting to the churches who were praying for her about all the Lord has done for them. She had had visions ministering with her husband, but had no idea how it would come about. Little did she think it would take a deadly illness to bring about such a ministry!

And she finds herself talking to people at the Pharmacy, the grocery, on her mail route - everywhere - about what the Lord has done for her. It's the natural response to his great work in her life!

.... How's that for Cool?!

And it's all because Jesus was Resurrected!

On this day the LORD has acted; we will rejoice and be glad in it!

I'd like for us to respond to all this good news by saying Charles Wesley's hymn Christ, the Lord is Risen Today as a litany. Each line of the poem is followed by the exclamation "Alleluia"! Since we haven't been able to say it for the past 6 weeks, let's do it up right. I'll say a line, and you respond with 'Alleluia!"

1. Jesus Christ is risen today, Alleluia!
Our triumphant holy day, Alleluia!
Who did once upon the cross, Alleluia!
Suffer to redeem our loss. Alleluia!
2. Hymns of praise then let us sing, Alleluia!
unto Christ, our heavenly King, Alleluia!
who endured the cross and grave, Alleluia!
sinners to redeem and save, Alleluia!
3. But the pains that he endured, Alleluia!
Our salvation have procured, Alleluia!
Now above the sky He's King, Alleluia!
Where the angels ever sing. Alleluia!
4. Sing we to our God above, Alleluia!
praise eternal as his love, Alleluia!
praise him, all ye heavenly host, Alleluia!
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, Alleluia!

Finally, let's put our hands out together and join in the All Saints cheer,
"Yay, God!"

AMEN!

God's Resume

2010-03-07T11:29:00.000-08:00

A Sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on March 7, 2010 at the Convent Chapel of St. Mary's Medical Center, Huntington, WV , and based on Luke 13:1-9, 1 Cor. 10:1-13 and Psalm 103

Imagine for a moment that the United States of America had been invaded and overtaken by another Empire nation - such as China. Imagine that there was a Chinese governor over the Tri-State region and that there were Chinese soldiers everywhere looking over your shoulder, always ready to take advantage of you, to steal things from you - and even imprison you if you got out of line.

If you can imagine this, you can know a little of what it must have been like for the people of Israel to be ruled by the Romans. As Americans, we wouldn't want another nation to rule over us. There would probably be those among us who would mount insurrections. Charismatic leaders would rise up and try to lead movements against the oppressor - only to be cut own in their prime by ruthless local governors.

This is the kind of thing that happened with some regularity in the Jewish nation under the Romans. The story of the Maccabees is just such a story. And the illustration Jesus uses in Luke 13 is another. It's a story about a group of rebels who rose up and were ruthlessly killed, apparently as they worshiped in the Temple.

These rebels not only resented the occupying Roman force, they knew the Scriptures, which promised that one day God would raise up Messiah, and he would come to overthrow the oppressor and usher in a time of peace and prosperity. This was a promise they had from God - and the habitual thought pattern of the entire nation was to look for the ONE whom God had chosen to lead this uprising. As a result, there were many 'messianic' movements afoot at the time of Christ.

The thing they had in common was a desire to bring deliverance from Rome - in the power of their own strength! They wanted a Savior - but they wanted it on their own terms, in their own image.

The Hebrews at the time of Christ were just like the Hebrews in the time of the Exodus. No sooner had Moses gone up to Mt. Sinai - and stayed gone for 40 days - than the people rebelled and left the God who had revealed himself to Moses as 'I am that I am'.As Moses was on the mountain getting the Law, his people were down on the plain making an idol in the form of a Golden Calf, and engaging in gluttony, drunkenness and sexual immorality - arranging their lives on their own terms!

When God didn't act quickly enough for them, they took matters into their own hands and did whatever they wanted. And the result was disastrous.Paul reminds us that, "The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play' ... and that "twenty-three thousand fell in a single day." (I Cor. 10:8)

Uprising and rebellion were part and parcel of the Hebrew national experience. Unfortunately, the rebellion was against God, even though Israel had miraculous outpourings of God's power and presence! Even though they had the sacraments if you will - Baptism as they passed through the Red Sea, and Communion as they ate the manna and drank water from the Rock (Paul identifies this as the Rock of Christ) that Moses had struck for them. Even with the overt demonstrations of God's power, and his ongoing, daily provision of manna - it still wasn't enough to keep the people faithful.

And lest we think that we as Christians are immune from such behavior, Paul warns us: 'We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer'.(1 Cor. 10:9,10). He is referring to two other episodes in the life of the Hebrew people:

The fiery serpent story is in Numbers chapter 21. During the conquest of Canaan, the people 'became impatient' and complained that they had no food or water and the Lord sent fiery serpents among them, killing many.

The grumbling he refers to happened in Numbers 16, where Korah and his followers led the people to grumble and complain against Moses. The result was that the very earth opened up and swallowed the 250 rebel leaders.And then the next day 14,700 people died from plague because they had displeased the Lord through their grumbling about the 250 rebels dying!
It's sobering to think that even though we as Christians have been forgiven, that it's still possible to displease God. According to Paul, there are four key ways to displease Him - all drawn from the life experience of Israel and their various rebellions:

How to Displease God

1) Idolatry

2) Immorality

3) Testing God

4) Grumbling

Idolatry looks pretty simple on its face - worshiping an idol of our own making. We might want to pass over this one thinking that we're off the hook because we don't worship Golden Calves, but it's easy to fall into various kinds of idolatry.

What about worshiping an 'American Idol'? Hollywood seems to be very good at producing idols meant for mass consumption. Is that idolatry?Or if you don't actually idolize a pop star, what about idolizing another person? What about looking to someone else as your source of comfort, strength or inspiration in such a way that they become a sort of quasi-god in our lives?What about worshiping technology - or efficiency - or Education - or trees and mountains?Anything that we put in the place of God becomes an idol to us. And all of it displeases God.

Immorality can become an idol to people as well, because if you don't worship the living God, one option is to worship yourself and your own sexuality. The good gift of sex is elevated out of its proper place and asked to do something it was not intended to do - become the most important thing in our lives. The result is to cheapen and denigrate the gift.Our culture - our world - is rife with this kind of idolatry.

Testing God is a bit more 'subtle'. It only involves complaining that God is not doing things as we would like - and then insisting that we get what we want instead of what God provides for us. This one gets personal because I know from my own experience that I'm not that fond of Reality. There are a lot of things in life that I would rather be different. We could call this the 'Burger King' temptation - "Have it your way." Speak up for what you want. Complain to the management. Demand you rights! Sounds pretty American, doesn't it?

Grumbling is associated with another word, "murmuring". Both words have a sort of onomatopoeia quality - they sound like the thing they represent:grumblegrumblegrumble, murmurmurmurmur. This is a kind of malignant complaining that incites other people to rebellion. Not high-minded rebelling against an oppressive regime so much as rebellion by self-willed or self-impressed people against leaders they don't like.Again, Korah is the example - one who led others to revolt against God's chosen leaders. This displeases God because it destroys community and leads to infighting.

By contrast, Jesus and Psalm 103 tell us:

How to Please God

1) Repent

2) Bear Fruit

3) Keep God's Covenant

4) Bless the Lord.

Within the context of our Gospel reading, repentance meant something for Israel as a nation. If you remember back to the Galileans who died by the hand of Pilate and then realize that 'the fig tree' is often used as a symbol of the nation of Israel - what you get is the idea that God's people had become rebellious, self-willed, hard and unfruitful. They were demanding that the national destiny be ushered in by their own plans, in their own time.

Jesus was warning his people here that unless they allowed themselves to have their hardness broken up - to allow the nurturing rain of God's spirit to water their roots and and the fertilizer of God's word to fortify them, causing them to bear the fruit of righteousness - that they would be cut down!Unless Israel repented of its demand for national deliverance and accepted God's true Messiah, Yeshua, they would perish! Israel needed to repent of their self-will - and we do too! Repentance is prerequisite for pleasing God.

Bearing fruit means believing in the One God sent to redeem the world and allowing Him to redeem us, to change us, and to work through us. For Israel, that would have meant not only repentance, but accepting Christ as Savior and Lord.

For Christians, who have accepted Christ's Lordship, this also means allowing ourselves to be directed and controlled by the Holy Spirit so that we bear fruit. Paul lists the fruits of the spirit in Galatians chapter five: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control.

If these fruits are evident in our lives, it means that we have been, and are being saved. If we don't bear fruit, it's a sign that the Life of God does not flow through us - and that we may be in danger of death - either creeping deadness through lack of spiritual interest, actual physical death through the impact of sin in our lives, or metaphorical death, through the loss of career or position due to wrong actions.

For an example of this you don't have to look much farther than the news. Last week, Governor Patterson of New York, and two of the state's Congressmen, Charlie Rangel and Eric Massa, were all in the news because of ethical problems. They are being forced to either resign their positions or forgo running for another term. They are being cut down because their fruit is rotten. They didn't learn anything from the slew of Republicans that got into similar trouble a number of years ago, and so they are repeating the same mistake - with the same result.
Keeping God's covenant, of course, is the antidote to bearing rotten fruit.Thy Word have I hid in my heart, that I may not sin against Thee, says the Psalmist (119). And Paul tells us that if we "walk by the Spirit, and [we] will not gratify the desires of the flesh' and so will please God. Walking with the Lord daily, pleases Him.

Finally, the thing that really pleases God is our worship. Psalm 103 exhorts us to 'Bless the Lord' and to 'forget not all his benefits." It kind of sounds like a Resume with bullet points. So, I've taken the Psalmist's words and rearranged them into a sort of modern business style resume, with the idea that Remembering God's Resume is a way of Pleasing Him. So here it is:

Resume 103

The Lord

Address:Throne in heaven, Dominion over all (v.19).

Career Goal:
To execute righteousness and judgment for the oppressed (v.6).

Character:The LORD is full of compassion and mercy, slow to anger and of great kindness. (v.8)Management Experience:Hosts of angels and ministering spirits do his will (vv.20,21).

Value Added:

*He forgives all your sins

*Heals all your infirmities (v.3)

*He redeems your life from the grave

*Crowns you with mercy and loving-kindness (v.4)

*He satisfies you with good things,

*Renews your youth like an eagle's (v.5)

References:
He made his ways known to Moses and his works to the children of Israel.(v.7).

We are to bless the Lord - to speak good things about Him. Give it a try right now. Using 'God's Resume' as an example, take some time to Bless the Lord, just as it says in Psalm 103.
It'll make you feel better - an I'm sure it will please God. AMEN.

Temptation: Preparing for God's Best

2010-02-21T18:41:00.000-08:00

Luke 4:1-13(14a)

What is the BEST that God has for you - and me?
To be happy?
To be wealthy?
To be Trouble-Free?
To fulfill yourself?

How about this:
To know God,
to Worship Him in Spirit and Truth,
to find our deepest humanity in Him,
To reflect His image,
And to participate with him in the work of redeeming the world.

Sounds pretty good, right? So, how do we do this?
Sign up for a class?
Read some books,
Write a term paper?
Maybe go on a retreat? ...

How about - all the above - but add these to the personal work of transformation that God wants to do in us, a work of the heart, not only the head, - a work that can only be accomplished by teaching life lessons - some of which involve Temptation.

Now usually we see Temptation as something to be avoided and feared. Jesus even taught us to pray: 'lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil'...
Temptation is in fact a solicitation by the Evil One to get us to do wrong.
So we - not incorrectly -see Temptation as something bad.

However, in our Gospel lesson today we see Jesus practicing a different attitude towards his own temptation. Let's look at the text from Luke 4:

Verse 1and 2: And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil...

Jesus had just been baptized - and the Holy Spirit had descended upon Him like a dove. He was full of God, full of the Holy Spirit. And a voice came out of heaven saying, "You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased”( Luke 3:22). He was affirmed by God the Father audibly and his standing with God could not have been better.

And yet, the very next thing that happens is that Jesus is led by the very same Holy Spirit out into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil for 40 days!
Like my daughter Leslie might say, "What's the 'dealio'?!"

Well, the dealio seems to be that God had a mission for Jesus to accomplish.
Remember John 3:16? God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life."
That mission pitted him against the devil's plans for the human race - to kill us and to pull us down to hell where he could torment us forever.

In order to be prepared for this Mission, Jesus spent 30 years in obscurity, being trained in the righteous habits of Jewish life. Of course, this life revolved around the Law of God - the Torah, which includes the Law proper , the prophets, the wisdom literature - and especially the Psalms, which Jesus would have prayed daily. This training would have allowed Jesus to be able to say with the Psalmist, "Thy Word have I hid in my heart, that I may not sin against Thee" (Psalm 119:11). Daily immersion in God's Word would have produced not only head knowledge, but a heart appreciation and Love for God the Father, and for the Spirit.

(One does have to wonder if Jesus - being the Logos, the Word of God himself would have had to memorized Scripture like the rest of us, or perhaps just knew it inwardly from the beginning...)

Intimate knowledge of God's Word would have led Jesus to see that God intends Life and Blessing for us - and that the Law of God is just that - a Great Blessing for God's people, leading to Life.

He most emphatically would not have seen the Law as a series of Rules to be observed legalistically. He shows us this later on as he castigates the Pharisees for setting themselves up as arbiters of just such a legalistic approach to Jewish life.

No, Jesus loved the Law and knew it led to God's Best for humanity - Life and Blessing.

Armed with this intimate knowledge of God and trust in Him, he allows himself to be led out into the desert to fast and to be tempted by Satan.

Of course, the Lenten fast is an imitation of this Jesus Fast in the wilderness.
And just as Jesus was tempted by the devil, so we too can expect to be assaulted by old Cloven Hoof. But we need to understand what Jesus understood about Temptation: that it does not come to us because God hates us or is trying to trip us up so he doesn't have to give out too many tickets to Heaven, but rather -that God allows Temptation comes to us through Satan, so that, like Jesus, we may be purified and prepared for our own mission up ahead: participating with God in redeeming the world.

So why Temptation? Why not just an elaborate video game where you just play it over and over until you master the levels - and where if you die, your character just comes back to life digitally?

I think it has to do with the exalted place of Human Beings in God's Scheme.
You see, most of the time, we humans are so intent on avoiding pain and creating comfort for ourselves that we fail to comprehend the privilege that God has bestowed upon us: to be co-heirs of the Grace of Life, co-regents with him - and better yet - Friends of God!

This is a very high calling! It's one so exalted and full of import, that we would much rather avoid it most of the time, and settle for something in life that would put us just slightly above the family dog - happy, well-fed, free from hard choices, and blissfully unconcerned about 'The Meaning of Life".

Temptation comes to ask the question,"Do you want to be LIKE GOD - or to you want to settle for something smaller?

If you want be LIKE GOD, it's not going to be easy. We as humans have a lot of baggage to overcome. In Psalm 51, David says, 'Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.(v.5)

Being born into sin means that we 'miss the mark' by default. It's our natural setting - what we do without training or thought.

Righteousness, however, takes preparation and training - as well as constant practice to keep up the skill. And there are always new lessons to learn!
That's why we God allows Temptation - to purify us, to train us - and to prepare us for God's Best: Participation in the Divine Nature and Mission.

Now, that does not mean that we are to seek out temptation. No need to go to the dog track and hang out to see if you can resist the temptation to gamble - or worse. Nor is there any reason to think that God is the author of our sufferings when we are tempted and fail. NO - James 1:13-15:

13Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. 14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 15Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.

Our own inner rottenness sets us up to be tempted. This is what theologians call 'concupiscence" - an intense desire, longing, lust or passion. The word itself comes from the Latin, combing the prefix 'con' or 'with', plus 'cupid' or 'sexual desire', along with 'essere', or essence - a state of being.

Concupiscence is the translation from the Greek epithumia, which simply means a strong desire.

If you want to know what Concupiscence looks like in real life, just think about Tiger Woods. Here's a guy who already has a beautiful wife and two kids, more money than he knows what to do with, and Talent on Loan From God! The guy has it all. But apparently, he just couldn't keep from wanting more - which in this case has led to him having less; less of a marriage and family, less money, and less reputation in the world. It's crazy!

But that's the nature of Sin - choosing to pursue a strong desire, long, lust or passion, even though it doesn't make a bit of sense. In a word, Sin is the choosing Second-Best.

This brings us back to the nature of Temptation - which is an opportunity to choose between God's best or Satan's second-best. If we choose God's way, we are strengthened by the struggle and better prepared for what lies up ahead. Choose Satan's way, and we find ourselves falling into a pit of death and destruction.

Two Biblical Examples.
To illustrate the real-life outworking of this choosing, let's compare and contrast Sampson and Ruth.

Sampson was a spoiled brat, the product of an elderly couple who knew their son was going to be great shakes in Israel. As he grew up, he must have gotten everything he wanted because when it came time to choose a wife, he said to his parents:“I saw one of the daughters of the Philistines at Timnah. Now get her for me as my wife.” (Judges 14:2).

Go get her - just like that - even though she's a Philistine!

Verse 3: But his father and mother said to him, “Is there not a woman among the daughters of your relatives, or among all our people, that you must go to take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?” But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, for she is right in my eyes.”

I want her - now go get her for me! Pretty cheeky!

Now the passage does say that God was seeking an opportunity against the Philistines - but the results of Sampson's concupiscence were that he ended up having to kill 30 men and his wife was given to another. And all this even before he meet up with Delilah! I think we know the rest of that story well enough to realize that Sampson's lust led to his death.

Again, even though God used his failure to strike Israel's enemies, who can know what God might have done through Sampson had he lived out his Nazrite vows, and chosen God's best for his life?

Contrast him with Ruth, a Moabite woman who had married an Israelite, but was widowed early in life. Because of her love for her mother in law, Naomi, Ruth utters the famous lines, often repeated at weddings:

“Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God" (Ruth 1:16).

Out of loyalty, Ruth leaves her own country to return to Israel with Naomi. When they get there, Naomi coaches Ruth about how to present herself to Boaz, their 'kinsman-redeemer', so that they may be married. In effect, Naomi tells Ruth, "Go get him!" -which she does. The result of Ruth's obedience and loyalty is that she marries Boaz, father of Jesse, father of David, father of ...Jesus Christ!

Ruth could have legitimately stayed in Moab and sought a husband from her own people. That's what her sister in law did - and it was alright. But look at this for a moment as a Temptation - the temptation to choose between what appears to be right in the eyes of men and what the Lord must have been calling her to do. Because Ruth was faithful and met the temptation head-on she was prepared for inclusion into the people of Israel and of becoming a great grandmother to Jesus himself!

Meeting temptation successfully prepares us for God's Best - something exceedingly better than anything we can ask or imagine. (Eph. 3:20).

Jesus mets his temptation successfully and he was prepared for his ministry - his death, resurrection and ascension to the right hand of God the Father - a pretty good reward for faithfulness!

He resists the temptation to fulfill his own bodily hunger, and instead trusts God for his daily bread.

He resists the temptation to grab worldly power and instead becomes King of Kings and Lord of Lords
And he resists the temptation to test God, and instead puts the Evil One to flight, just as James says, "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you" (James 4:7).

Jesus met each of these temptations successfully, and as a result, 'returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee' (Lk.4:4) to begin his ministry. And we are the benefactors - for ever and ever and unto the 'ages of ages' as the Orthodox would say.

Let's go back now and highlight the circular pattern Jesus went through:
Full of the Holy Spirit,
He was Led by the Spirit
He was tempted by an Evil Spirit, and
He returned full of the power of the Holy Spirit. (Lk. 4:14)

Thus Christ's Temptation was a prelude to ministering in the power of the Spirit. If we are steadfast, our temptations too can become prelude to greater fruitfulness and more powerful ministry.

What to Expect
The old saying goes, Fore warned is fore-armed. What can we expect in the midst of Temptation? Subjectively we can expect to feel:
1) Consternation: Questioning What is happening to me? Why?
2) Feeling alone and isolated.
3) Desperate, wondering if you will ever get out of this? Will it last forever?

But along with the subjective fears and trepidations, we can also expect to be comforted and blessed.

1Cor, 10:13: says, "No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it."

You're not alone. Others have gone through similar things. God is your way of escape. Run into Him, and you can endure through the temptation, not just run away.

James 1:2-4:
Count it all joy, my brothers,when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.' Verses12-14 of the same chapter: "Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him."

The Crown of Life comes to those who remain steadfast - just like Jesus did!

We can expect to be driven to the Word for comfort, strength, and for 'ammunition'.

Eph. 6: 10-18. (Notice the emphasis on God's Word and the power of the Spirit):

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.

Meeting temptation successfully requires us to be armored up and full of prayer.

Because of our increased devotion to prayer during trial and temptation, we can also expect to see remarkable answers to our prayer, sometimes even humorously.
Story: A number of years ago, a single friend told me about her struggle with a relationship she was having. She was very strongly attracted to this gentleman, but inwardly she had some reservations. She told me that she had been praying about it and the Lord answered her prayer in a funny way.

The man friend came in from out of town and the couple were at my friend's place for the evening. She had wanted to create a romantic atmosphere so she had placed candles all over the place. After a nice dinner, they became engrossed in an inspection of her Simmons Beauty Rest Mattress. Somehow along the way, one or more of the candles was turned over, but they didn't notice because they were otherwise occupied.
All of a sudden, flames began to shoot up from dust ruffle and they suddenly realized the merits of a water bed! Well, the smoke detector went off and they jumped up in shock. My friend grabbed a small fire extinguisher and her friend grabbed a nearby bottle of water - and they went to work dousing the flames. In a matter of moments the fire was out, but the bed was a sodden, smoldering mess - and the evening literally went up in smoke. - And that was the end of that relationship. Prayer answered!

It was an absurd way to learn the lesson, but my friend was built up in her faith and she become 'battle-hardened' - ready to take on the next temptation.

By meeting temptation successfully, we can expect to be prepared for:
Increased effectiveness in ministry, and
Further battles - they get harder - but the miracles are greater!

One of the reasons for this is that Satan typically 'overplays' his hand. At some point, the adversary uses too much power, reveals too much, so that one who is spiritually sensitive can see what is going on. The enemy drops the fancy disguise and lashes out in rage, startling us into an awareness of the evil we are confronting. The flames leap up and everything becomes clear!

But thanks be to God, the most wonderful thing we can expect is to have the Presence of God with us. Jesus said in Mt. 28:20, ..." behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

This is our 'Ace in the Hole' during temptation - knowing that God is with us and will never forsake us.

Friends, Temptation does not come from God, it's not God's first choice for us. Temptation is a solicitation from our Enemy to choose second best and so use our God-given freedom for our own harm. But God, in his wisdom, knows how to turn even the temptation to evil into a good thing for our benefit.

Jesus showed us the way to resist Temptation successfully. It has all to do with being full of God's Word and Spirit. If we imitate Jesus in these two things, and call out to Him for help in the midst of our struggle, He will help us, and use the temptation to make us stronger for His kingdom.

May God grant us grace to appropriate the gifts he has given us in order to successfully meet and overcome every temptation. In the name of the Father and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. AMEN.

Transfiguration: Heaven and Earth Meet.

2010-02-15T03:11:00.000-08:00

A Sermon Delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on February 14, 2010 at the Convent Chapel of St. Mary's Medical Center, Huntington, WV, and based on Ex. 34: 29-35,I cor 12;27-13:13and Luke 9:28-36.

On April 12, 1961, Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin made history by becoming the first man to orbit the earth. A couple of days after his return to earth, someone asked him about God and space. He is quoted as saying, "I looked and looked but I didn't see God."

...To which a wag in Moscow replied, " If you could not see him on earth, how could you see him in space?"

If Yuri Gagarin had read our passages today, he would have realized that you have to go up on a mountain to see God...

Moses went up Mt. Sinai 7,497 feet, and Jesus most likely went up Mount Hermon, which rises 9,166 feet above the plain of Galilee. That's pretty high... Maybe Gagarin was right to look for God in space...

Most of us would immediately agree with the Moscow wag, that Gagarin made the fundamental mistake of looking for God - a spirit- in a physical place - 'up there' in space.

We've read the Sermon on the Mount, where it says, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." (Matthew 5:7). We know from this that seeing God is something spiritual - a faculty of the True Imagination, if you will. One should not look for a spirit in a physical place. It just won't work.

But in spite of our spiritual knowledge and insight, we as Christians often go on to make a similar mistake in our day to day lives. We live as if there were no connection between what we see around us and the God we say we believe in. We become defacto Deists, who believe that God is 'up in heaven' and we are 'down' here - and never the twain shall meet. God must have just wound up the universe in the beginning, like the proverbial watchmaker, and let the whole thing run on its own, completely divorced from our current reality. How else can we explain why things on earth are so rotten and broken? Why else does God not come 'down' and put things right?

Following this line of reasoning causes us to think about the purpose of Jesus' life and death as providing us a way of escape from this crummy ol' world. We see Christ's ministry as opening a way for us to 'go to heaven' when we die - to give us eternal respite from the cares of this world and to help us retire to a beatific garden-like setting 'in the sweet by and by'.

A lot of people, Christians included, look at this brochure-like vision of heaven and think to themselves, 'That sounds really boring.' I can't imagine just hangin' out on a cloud for eternity playing a harp and chillin' out - even if it's a very beautiful place. There's got to be something more.

They're right - because: God did not send Jesus to die for us so that we could go to Heaven when we die!

What the Transfiguration of Jesus and the shining face of Moses tell us is that God and Heaven aren't 'up there', far away, in outer space, or on the other side of the grave, but are close by, 'very present' as the Psalmist (46) would say, and that God's dimension, what we call 'heaven' is a whole lot more interesting and present than we think.

In Luke chapter 9, verse 27, Jesus tells his disciples, "But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God.”

Peter and James and John are the ones Jesus was talking about. These were the guys who, in the very next verse, go with Jesus up the mountain and see The Kingdom of God arrive as Jesus was transfigured! This is another way of saying they went into God's dimension - Heaven - and saw Jesus for what he really was - God incarnate.

They saw Jesus talking with Moses and Elijah, representatives of the Law and the Prophets - men who themselves had had unusual home-going experiences. The disciples, of course, misinterpreted the event and wanted to create a theme park on the spot. They didn't realize they were seeing what hundreds of generations had longed to see - the revelation of the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in Heaven. They had no idea that they were watching the beginning of the fulfillment of God's purpose on the earth - 'the renewal of the entire cosmos, of heaven and earth together', as NT. Wright says (Simply Christian. pg. 85.)

Foreshadowing
Now the story of Moses and the Exodus is a foreshadowing of God's ultimate purpose. God leads the people of Israel out of Egypt, the land of bondage - and towards the promised land of Canaan - a land flowing with milk and honey - a place where things are as they should be - where life on earth is restored to a semblance of the original balance God intended.

The Exodus of Israel anticipates the exodus of Jesus. During his conversation with Moses and Elijah, Jesus talks with them about his 'departure'. The Greek word for this is - surprise - 'Exodus'. As Jesus departs this earthly life through death he will lead the human race out of the bondage of sin and into the New Life of the Kingdom of God. And just as Moses' face shone after receiving the Old Covenant from God, Jesus shone as this New Covenant was being discussed.
And as he did so, he illustrated that Heaven is not far from us, not up there, but near, just on the other side of this visible reality. He showed us that the division between God's dimension - Heaven - and ours is thin, that it can be breached rather easily, at will, by God. Heaven overlaps and interlocks with Earth.

Some Caveats
Now this doesn't indicate some sort of pantheistic conception of reality - that EVERYTHING is God or that God is IN everything. But it does indicate that any idea of God being far off or heaven being somewhere you go after you die is simply mistaken and inadequate. The Truth is far more interesting and amazing. The truth is that "in Jesus of Nazareth, heaven and earth have come together once for all." ( Wright, pg. 94).

Not only that but "The whole point of Jesus' work was to bring heaven to earth and join them together forever, to bring God's future into the present and make it stick there." (SC :g. 102)
And here we're talking about the future consummation of all things. Because even though we are asserting that heaven and earth have been joined together in Christ, we also assert that 'Christ will come again' and that he will finally set up his Kingdom on Earth - a new earth, heaven on earth - the place where God and man will dwell together in such a way that we no longer need the Sun by day or the moon by night, but God himself will be our light. (Rev. 21:23) In Jesus's own person, The Lion of Judah and the Lamb of God lie down together, ushering in the Peaceable Kingdom. (Is. 65:25).

Until that time of final consummation, we live in between the times and God calls us to be people who live at the intersection of time and eternity.

I've told the story before about when I was in college at Marshall, taking a philosophy class. We were systematically studying all the major world philosophies and religions. Each system of ideas was accompanied in the text book by a little diagram illustrating the interaction of the Temporal things and the Eternal things. Systems based on materialist thinking were all 'temporal' and no eternal, while religions such as Buddhism or its older cousin Hinduism were all eternal, the temporal things being mere illusions.

Finally when we got to Christianity, the diagram in the book included a cross, bridging the temporal and eternal. The professor explained it by saying that in the cross of Christ, you have a place where time and eternity meet.

Suddenly, a light bulb went on in my head. I could see that all the other world religions and philosophies were imbalanced on one side or the other, but in Christianity, both come together in perfect balance. The Cross was the only way to bridge the gap - for heaven and earth to come together in some sort of dynamic interaction. This provided me the unlikely intellectual basis for becoming a Christian ( I'm pretty sure I'm the only student that ever came to faith through Dr. Slaate's class...)

And this is why I'm excited about what we're discussing today. I'm excited because the coming together of Heaven and Earth in Christ helps me make sense out of Life: Who I am and what I should do.

Who am I? Who are we as people?

We are God's creatures, created in His image for a loving relationship with Him. But we are fallen; the Image of God within us has been marred by Sin. Even so, every person still bears that indelible imprint of the Divine - and God has taken it upon himself to redeem that image by sending His Son Jesus Christ to hang on the Cross between heaven and earth in order to reconcile us to God once for all. Having been redeemed, God has placed His Spirit within us Christians to transfigure us into the Image of Christ, just as surely as Christ was revealed to be God's only begotten son on the Mount of Transfiguration.

One of the lyrics from the Battle Hymn of the Republic says in part,
"In the beauty of the lilies, Christ was born across the sea, with a glory in his bosom that ________(transfigures) you and me...."

From 'glory to glory', we are being transformed (transfigured)into the image of Christ through the active work of God's Holy Spirit. (2 Cor. 3:17,18, NASB). But unlike Moses who had to put a veil over his face to shield the Israelites from God's reflected Glory, we who turn to Christ have the veil [of unbelief] removed from our faces and are able to behold the glory of the Lord. (vv. 12-18).

The Holy Spirit of God brings heaven and earth together within us so that we now become outward and visible signs of an inward and spiritual grace - and the means of God's grace for others. That is to say, sacramental vessels of God's love to the people of the world.

Here's where our Mission comes in. Because Heaven and Earth have been joined together within us, God has given us the privilege of participating with Him in redeeming this world.
Granted, it's a challenge to see the world as a target of God's redeeming work. Just look at the near daily tragedies around us: Earthquakes in Haiti, Murders on our streets, drug and alcohol addictions everywhere. It's tempting to see the world in Deistic terms - God up in a remote heaven and us down here struggling just to survive.

But this is where we need to look with the eyes of faith and see God at work in the world, joining heaven and earth.

Where do we see this happen?
In other Christians
In our Worship- at the Communion table and the reading of the Word
In our Discipleship and Service

Since this is Valentine's Day, I've got to tell you that the first time I realized that heaven had come down to earth was the day I met Cindy. - and when she kissed me for the first time, I KNEW I was getting a foretaste of heaven on earth!

Although this is corny, it is still true that we glimpse the Divine in other people, especially Christians, and especially our spouses. Marital love was invented so that we could understand what God's love for us is like. Paul reminds us in Ephesians 5:30-32 that, "we are members of his [Christ's] body. 31“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church."

As wonderful as romantic love is, it is temporary and will eventually be replaced by the fulfillment of total union with God in the Resurrected state. Jesus tells us in Matthew 22:30: "For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven." Married love is a glimpse, a foretaste of heaven on earth.

Our Worship
This foretaste is also seen during our Worship, in which we eat the bread of heaven and drink from wine of the Marriage feast of the Lamb, joining together with all the saints who have ever lived, anticipating that great Day in the future.

Heaven touches us as we read and listen to God's Word - the Logos, Jesus Christ. The eternal Word, the Old and New Covenant speaks to us now if we will but listen. And as we listen to the Covenant proclaimed, God renews us and causes that Word to grow up within us, changing our mind and hearts into conformity with His will.

Greensboro
When we were in Greensboro for Winter Conference, we got to see a very dramatic example of this in two ways. On Wednesday evening the conference began with a grand Eucharist, complete with a vast congregation, scores of vested clergy, exuberant praise music, a colorful procession. Archbishop Kolini preached and Moses Tay of Singapore celebrated. It was really a high point of Anglican worship in all its grandeur.

But on Sunday morning, about 150 of us who were stranded by the snow, gathered in a small theater there at the hotel and we experienced another wonderful expression of Anglican worship: stripped down, bare, Bp. Sandy Greene was the celebrant, in collar, but also dressed in street clothes, with only a stole for vestment, a bare table with a cup and a plate for the communion, One guitar player - with no amplification, no programs, no song lyrics and NO Worship Booklets!

Bishop Doc Loomis preached a simple, but moving sermon, while Archbishops Kolini and Tay sat on either side of the theater, and world-renowned theologian J.I. Packer listened from his seat near the back, giants of the faith listening unobtrusively, just like the rest of us - who were joining together in a style of worship that had formed us into a family, despite our very different backgrounds from all over the world. Contemplating this sight moved me profoundly. I felt that I was experiencing a little bit of heaven on earth.

We also see heaven meet earth as we follow Christ.

Jesus told his disciples that were some standing before him who would not taste death until they see the kingdom of God.” (Lk. 9:27) But this was just after he told them that “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. (Lk. 9:23,24)
To be a disciple of Jesus and to see the Kingdom of God is also to be a person who is willing to suffer for the Gospel. Seeing Heaven on Earth doesn't come cheaply.

Finally, we see heaven and earth come together in our service for Him.

N.T. Wright says, 'If Jesus has been raised, that means that God's new world, God's kingdom, has indeed arrived; and that means we have a job to do. (Simply Christian, pg. 115.) Our job is to be the hands and feet of Christ - the manifest presence of God to our world.

We are to learn to participate with God in the task of reclaiming this fallen world through the power of God's Spirit, - who is Himself the down-payment or foretaste (Grk Arrabon) of our inheritance - and to set to right things that are wrong. We are to be the instruments by which God transfigures the world.

The Good News is that Jesus Christ is Lord, " that he has won the victory over the forces of evil, that a new world has opened up , and that we are to help make it happen." (Wright, pg. 124)
As God's church, we are now the new Temple, the living stone built together (1 Pet. 2:5), the place where heaven and earth meet. When Paul says that we are 'the body of Christ and individually members of it',(1 Cor 12;27), this indicates that we are to participate in God's plan. We are to be his hands and feet in implementing His plan. Our mission is to live in the intersection between heaven and earth - the thin place that the Celts were so enamored of.

Hope House is such a thin place - a place that was subjected to the futility of sin and death, but is now being reclaimed for the Kingdom, a place where Heaven and earth will meet in the Tabernacle we have helped God create. It is an anticipation, a foretaste, Arrabon, of a world set right - a proclamation of the love and power of God acting in the world here and now.
And, of course, not only Hope House, but everything we do in the power of God's Spirit to advance the Kingdom is just such an Arrabon.

As often as we pray the Lord's Prayer, we say, 'Thy Kingdom Come on earth as it is in heaven...
Our task is to be God's hands and feet, helping this prayer to become a reality. May God, in His infinite mercy, assist us to see the new Kingdom reality of heaven on earth with the eyes of our hearts, and join Him in the work of bringing in His kingdom here and now. AMEN.

God Uses People to Tell His Story

2010-01-09T12:38:00.000-08:00

A Sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on January 10, 2010 at the Convent Chapel of St. Mary's Medical Center, Huntington, WV and based on Acts 10: 34-38 and Luke 3:15-22.

Phone Search
Last Christmas, my son-in-law, Eric, bought my daughter, Leslie, an I-Pod Touch. She really liked it and showed me some of the things it could do: Of course, it played MP3s, but it also had the capacity to get the Internet via WiFi. It had a button you could push and get your email instantly at any Hot Spot. And - it had a scheduler!

When Leslie showed me how you set the time by moving little dials on the screen, my eyes glazed over, I went into a sort of trance, and I said robotically, "I want that"...

I had been looking at the I-Phone, but just really couldn't quite justify paying an additional $30.00 for the Internet access each month. But with the I-Touch, I could get most of the functionality of the phone and not have the extra fee. I had a little phoIN that I liked pretty well, and between the two gadgets, I figured I could do everything I needed to do electronically.

So I bought an I-Touch, and was really happy with it.

Then I lost my phone.

I still couldn't justify the extra Internet expense, but I really needed a phone, so I bought a cheap phone - and hated it. The buttons were too small. It didn't sound good. The menus were hard to navigate - and it was not pleasant in general. So I went back to looking at the I-phone again.

I analyzed my family plan bill - and I realized that my daughter Leslie was using very few voice minutes, - but a huge number of texts - so it made sense to decrease the basic plan minutes, cut the bill - and voila - I could suddenly justify the I-Phone!

So this Christmas, I got one - and I told my friend Lisa about it. She was looking at upgrading hers too. Her whole family was going to get Blackberrys, but she just wasn't sure she liked the Blackberry. So when I told her I liked my I-phone, she went to the ATT store and checked it out.

Lo and behold, when she saw the Calculator - she was mesmerized! Her eyes glazed over and she went into a sort of trance, and said robotically, "I want that." ... And so she bought one.

Eric told Leslie, and Leslie told me and I told Lisa...
And all of us have been insufferable ever since. Our close friends and family members have had it up to their eyeballs with our gushing about our phones. (Have I showed you pictures of my grandchildren?)

Well, there's a parallel in this story to our reading from Acts today. And the main point to remember is that "God Uses People to tell His story." Two sub-points also under gird this main point:

"God empowers us through Baptism" and

"God leads us by the Holy Spirit."

Let's go to our text from Acts for some background.

Background

Acts Chapter 10 tells the story of Cornelius, a Roman soldier, who lead the 'Italian Cohort" in Joppa - right on the Mediterranean coast. A cohort usually consisted of 600 men, but sometimes there were as many as 1000 in a cohort. The leader of a cohort was paid about 5 times as much as an average soldier - so this was a very responsible position which was well compensated.

As a cohort leader, Cornelius commanded respect. But he was also a devout man who gave alms generously and who prayed daily with his family. He was not only personally good, but he also influenced others around him to be good and devout.

So, one day, Cornelius was praying, and an angel appeared to him and told him that his prayers had been answered and that he should send some men to go find this guy Simon, who would then come and tell Cornelius what he needed to know about God. Cornelius obeyed the angel and sent hia men off to find Peter, who was having visions of unclean animals and resisting God's directive to 'take, kill and eat."

Right after the vision, Peter heard a knock at the door. It was the men from Cornelius. They introduce themselves by saying, "Cornelius, a centurion, an upright and God-fearing man, who is well spoken of by the whole Jewish nation, was directed by a holy angel to send for you to come to his house and to hear what you have to say.” (Acts 10:22)

Simon goes along with the men. And when he gets to Cornelius' house, he tells him how unlawful it is for a Jewish person to hang out with Gentiles, and then asks him, in effect, 'What do you want?"

Clueless in Joppa

You gotta love Peter. He'd been with Jesus for 3 years. He had seen innumerable miracles, witnessed the death and resurrection of Christ, received the Great Commission to go make disciples of all nations - - - and he asks Cornelius "What do you want?" After all that he's seen, he's still clueless. Cornelius has to prompt him as to why he was there.

But Peter finally gets it. He realizes that there is no distinction between Jews and Gentiles, and shares the bare - bones Gospel account with Cornelius. And not only with Cornelius but Scripture tells us that he had assembled his 'close friends and family' to hear Peter's message.

God told Peter the Gospel message. God also told Cornelius to send for Peter to tell him the message. And Cornelius told his close friends and family to come hear the message. ... Sounds a little like a cell phone plan: "Friends and Family"...has a sort of ring to it don't you think?

Not Angels, Angles!

Now God could have chosen to use Angels to share the message. After all, the very word means "Messenger". Angels have a lot going for them as message bearers. They look cool, they're very articulate, and they have cool super-powers that enable them to go anywhere at the speed of light, pass through walls and strike people dead if need be. If it would have been me, I'd have used Angels, for sure.

But God chooses to use People to spread the Gospel message - people like Peter - good old clueless Peter. Peter, who wasn't very smart, wasn't very well educated, didn't speak very well, and could be counted on to do the wrong thing at the wrong time. You can't get much less qualified than Peter - except for two main qualities: Peter was available - and he loved God.

God uses available, passionate people to spread the Word. With apologies to Pope Gregory the VI th, he uses ANGLES not ANGELS... Anglicans not Angels - to touch people. This is what we call The Great Commission: "Go into all the world and make disciples, teaching them to obey all that I have commanded. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Mt. 28:18.

This is a command. It's not limited by our qualifications, education, sex or ethnicity. Jesus just tells us to go out and DO IT. And that's what Peter did - he obeyed the summons and shared the Gospel with Cornelius out of obedience.

Now to be sure, Cornelius and his family were an easy audience. They were primed and ready for the message, unlike people today. Let's consider the profile of Cornelius as a God Fearing Seeker and then contrast him with the profile of what I'll call the "De-churched spiritual Seeker."

Cornelius a God-Fearing Seeker

Acts 10 describes Cornelius as a:

-'Devout man who feared God with all his household',
-One who 'gave alms generously to the people'
-And 'prayed continually to God'

He was was what was known as a 'semi-proselyte' - someone who observed the spirituality of Judaism and may have even gone to synagogue, but who had not been circumcised or officially joined the faith. He was well-respected in the Jewish Community because of his upright character and lifestyle.

Barna on Gen Xers

Now contrast the unchurched who have never really attended much or the 'De-Churched' who have left church for some reason. According to a 2006 George Barna poll, among baby busters- or Gen Xers - people in their thirties:

-Only 3 out of 10 believe in absolute truth.
-50% say ethics and morals are based on 'what is right for the person'
-They're twice as likely as baby boomers to view a sexually explicit movie
-Two and a half times more likely to have sex outside of marriage,
-Three times more likely to have viewed pornography online.

"The morality of the under-forties set mirrors a society where divorce, crime, single-parent households, and suicide are much more prevalent than thirty years ago when the Boomers grew up." (pg. 71,72 in "Quitting Church" by Julia Duin).

This group is not nearly as interested in the traditional questions about capital-T Truth, or so called 'evidential apologetics' as their parents.

Todd Hunter, former head of the Vineyard Association of Churches, leader of the Alpha Course and newly ordained AMIA Bishop, was interviewed for the August 2009 edition of Christianity today about his approach to reaching non-churched people. He was asked about the role of evidential apologetics. Here's what he said:

"I don't hear people asking, "How do I know Jesus rose from the dead?" anymore. But I do hear young people outside the church asking, "Is the church a force for good or a force for evil?" The New Atheism is questioning the essential goodness of the church."

Remember, this is among people who likely grew up in church and then dropped out.

Why People don't go to Church

When Lifeway Christian Resources polled 469 'formerly churched adults in 2006 about why they had left church, the most common reason for not attending was:

Busy Schedules - followed by:

Disenchantment with the pastor or the church.

Unlike Peter, who had a receptive audience for the Gospel message, you and I face an increasingly hostile audience as we go out representing the church.

Peter's audience was interested in being rightly related to the one true God.
People today prefer to create their own God.

Peter's audience felt the need to be Good.
People today often prefer to feel good than do good.

Peter's audience was willing to listen and learn.
People today often resent the notion that you have something to say.

It's a tough environment out there. And yet, people are also very desperate for spiritual answers in their lives. They are looking for Truth, they just don't seek it the same way previous generations did. This is where we, as Gospel Messengers need some help - the same help that Peter had: Baptismal empowerment from God, and the leading of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus' Baptism as our Model

Today, we celebrate Jesus' baptism. John was puzzled when Jesus came to him to be baptized but Jesus said that it was necessary for him to be baptized in order to "fulfill all righteousness" (Matthew 3:15). I think that one reason for Jesus' Baptism was that it demonstrated the type of relationship that believers would have with God, through Christ.

John was baptizing for the repentance of sins, and while Jesus had no Sin to be cleansed, yet when he came up out of the waters of Baptism, the Holy Spirit descended upon him and a voice came from heaven saying, "You are my Son, with Beloved; with you I am well-pleased" (Luke.3:22).

Going down into the waters of Baptism cleanses us from sin, but it also establishes a family relationship where none existed before. Through Baptism, God accepts us into his family and confers upon us his fatherly favor. The Holy Spirit also formally takes up residence within us, sealing us in God, while empowering us for living and serving. This is why a Bishop anoints the newly baptized, 'marking them as 'Christ's forever'.

Those who have been through this process as adults know how powerful it can be. For those who were baptized as infants, the church has always sought to teach them the Faith and then ask them to 'confirm their faith' - to make it their own - usually around the age of 13.

The bishop's confirming prayer over us reiterates the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives and asks for empowerment and anointing to help us fulfill our role in God's kingdom. Thus, our Baptism empowers us for ministry, just as Jesus was empowered through his own Baptism.

The Leading of the Holy Spirit

Finally, the Holy Spirit Leads us, just as he lead Peter. Most likely the leadership of the Holy Spirit in your life will be much more subtle than what Peter and Cornelius experienced. Your angel may whisper to you instead of giving you a dramatic dream or open vision. Therefore, it's important to pay attention and to listen for that 'still small voice', which often comes as a hunch or a prompting or a 'coincidence' ("Godincidence", as my friend David Green used to say).

As an example of a Godincidence, on Thursday evening, I came home early because of the snow. Instead of arriving home around 9pm , I got home about 4:30, and Cindy asked me if I wanted to go to the store with her. I felt prompted to go, even though the market was only two blocks away and Cindy was only going to get a few items. When we got back to the house and parked the car, our neighbor across the street called out to me, "Would you come up here on the porch?"

I was somewhat wary, but I went up anyway, and my elderly neighbor with a bad hip explained to me that a young man had come to his door, forced his way into the house and became more and more belligerent as he drank a bottle of nasty rot-gut Rum. The neighbor had tried to call the police, but each time, the young man prevented him.

Finally, just before we pulled up in our car, the man had passed out on the floor, and the neighbor was able to get away from him. When he called me up on the porch, it was to ask me to call the police - which I was more than happy to do with my dandy new phone! But just after we called the cops and reported the situation, the drunk guy comes stumbling out of the house in his sock feet and just a T- shirt - no coat. I think he realized that I was interfering with his terrorizing of my neighbor and he started rambling on about shooting me if I got in his way.

Fortunately he was too drunk to even put on his shoes, much less shoot anybody - and before too long, he decided he was done with us and trundled off through the snow in his sock feet off to his apartment, just behind my neighbor's house!

In a little while the police showed up and took the young man off to jail and all was well. But what might have happened if I had not listened to the urge to go the store with my wife? What a trifling decision - yet it could have been the difference between life and death!

Friends it's important to listen to your hunches - no matter how seemingly insignificant. It might be the voice of the Holy Spirit leading you to help someone get saved or be safe!

Conclusion

So - God uses people to share His Gospel Message - You and me. God empowers us for ministry through our Baptism, and He leads us by the Holy Spirit... This is how God helps us to fulfill the Great Commission.

The Divine Encounter

Also, starting tonight, we will be participating in a 21-day "Divine Encounter" along with a number of other churches from our area. The purpose of this time is to help us to grow in intimacy with our God and to help us to learn to listen to that still small voice better. There will be a kickoff service this evening beginning at 6pm at Jefferson Avenue Church of God, midweek services at Christ Temple on three successive Wednesday evenings, beginning this coming Wednesday, and Friday morning prayer services at the First Congregational Church in Ceredo, starting at 7am in the morning.

I have a prayer guide booklet for each family, and I encourage you to use this next three weeks as a sort of mini-Lent, cleansing yourself and being attentive to the leading of God's Spirit - especially in regards to what he would have you do individually to spread His message.

May God use us, His people, empower us and lead us by his powerful right hand - with or without cell phones...
Amen.

Leap for Joy

2009-12-20T11:01:00.000-08:00

A Sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on the Fourth Sunday of Advent, 2009 (December 20) at the Convent Chapel of St. Mary's Medical Center, Huntington, WV, and based on Luke 1:39-56.

39 In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, 40 and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. 41 And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, 42 and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! 43 And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. 45 And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”

Mary's Song of Praise: The Magnificat

46 And Mary said,
“My soul magnifies the Lord,47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,48 for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed;49 for he who is mighty has done great things for me,and holy is his name.50 And his mercy is for those who fear himfrom generation to generation.51 He has shown strength with his arm;he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts;52 he has brought down the mighty from their thronesand exalted those of humble estate;53 he has filled the hungry with good things,and the rich he has sent away empty.54 He has helped his servant Israel,in remembrance of his mercy,55 as he spoke to our fathers,to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”

56 And Mary remained with her about three months and returned to her home. (ESV)

This past week I've been contemplating a number of disparate readings, events, music and film: The Gospel, The Copenhagen Summit, The Health Care machinations, The Christmas music of Sting, a current movie, and Mother Teresa's reflections on her Life for the Poor.

I've noticed a huge contrast in approach to the world's problems. Like the ill-fated builders of the tower of Babel, the nations of the world have met in Copenhagen to try to fix the global climate and Congress has been trying to hammer out a scheme to fix the ailing health care system. Their attempts to address the world's problems are desperate, filled with duplicity and greed, and blatant in their intention to micro-manage people's lives. There is anger and frustration with those who don't want to go along with the Grand Plan.

Everywhere, people observe what Stings sings about in his song, 'Lullaby for an Anxious Child":

"The world is broken now,
All in sorrow
Wise men hang their heads."

Sorrow, brokenness and despair are the natural conditions of the world. Joy is not its default setting.

But reading the Good News this week from Luke, we find this very thing: Joy!

In Chapter 1, vv39-41, after the angel Gabriel had announced to Mary that she was to be overshadowed by the Holy Spirit and bear a child called Jesus, we learn that she "arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb." In verse 44, Elizabeth explains that when the sound of Mary's greeting came to her ears, the baby in her womb leaped - for joy.

Unlike the world, the Christian default setting is indeed Joy.

The baby leaped for joy in Elizabeth's womb. (Remember, the baby was John the Baptist, the very same scary prophet that called the pharisees a brood of vipers.) John leaped for Joy when he sensed the presence of Jesus within Mary.

And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, she was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!" (vv. 41, 42) She too was filled with Joy.

And then Mary gets into the act and sings, “My soul magnifies the Lord,and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior...(v.47)

You see, Joy comes to us when we recognize and acknowledge the Presence of Jesus in our midst. And Advent is all about preparing for and acknowledging this wonderful Presence.

The pop singer Sting is a self-proclaimed agnostic, but he sings this wonderful traditional lullaby called "Balulalow":

"O my dear heart, young Jesu sweet,
Prepare thy credle in my spreit (sic)
And I shall rock thee in my heart
and never more from thee depart.

But I shall praise thee evermore
With sangis sweet unto thy glore
The knees of my heart shall I bow,
And sing that rich Balulalow."

Joy and Praise come in when we welcome Christ and bend the knees of our hearts to Him.
So, let me ask you some questions: Today, does your spirit rejoice and leap over Jesus? Do you know Him personally? Do you recognize Him in others? And does the joy of knowing Jesus in your heart cause you to serve him by serving others with Joy? I hope so, for the Leap of Joy is what makes life worthwhile and meaningful.

In the book of her collected sayings, 'My Life for the Poor," Mother Teresa describes the inner joy of Knowing Jesus:

"To me Jesus is my God.
Jesus is my Spouse.
Jesus is my Life.
Jesus is my only Love.
Jesus is my All in all.
Jesus is my Everything."

"A joyful heart is the normal result of a heart burning with love," she says (pg. 40). "Joy is prayer. Joy is strength. Joy is love."

The love of Jesus is what causes our hearts to leap with joy.

So let's ask the question again, "Has your heart ever leaped with joy in recognizing Jesus?"
It's possible that you may not have had a dramatic conversion experience where you went from night to day, despair to joy in a moment. Maybe the joy of Jesus grew within you gradually as your parents raised you in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

But maybe somewhere along the way, you have had other experiences of Joy which looked or felt like something else - namely a call to service.

When I drove past 1410 Charleston Avenue one August morning in 2006 and was arrested by that For Sale sign in the yard, it didn't really feel like Joy. Actually, it was profoundly troubling. My heart leaped in recognition, but it was more like and instant understanding that something had changed within me in a moment - that I was being called to something I could not fathom at the time. This too is Joy - but it's a call to give out the Joy we have been given.

When Cindy and I sat down with Tina Ward and Jasmine and watched little Kion throw a football like he was born to it - something leaped within my heart. I had a vision of him playing college football - it must have been God, because I saw him playing for WVU - and I'm a four-generation Marshall man! I saw a whole life of potential in a two year old and longed for that potential to be realized, not snuffed out like his uncle Donte's was, when he died in the driveway at 1410 Charleston Ave.

Maybe you felt it too when you picked an item from the Angel Tree. Is this not the recognition of Jesus? Yes, I believe it is. And the joy we give out has an impact upon the world. Mother Teresa again:

"Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls." (MLFP, Pg. 40).

The joy we receive from God through Christ propels us out "into the world to love and serve Him" by ministering to the lost, the broken and lonely one soul at a time.

Unlike the kingdoms of this world, which scheme on a global level, trying to change the masses, we Christians are called to love our neighbors as individuals, one at a time, often in obscurity and seeming insignificance.

For some reason, God actually seems to enjoy obscurity. Mary, lived in an obscure town in an obscure country. She said yes to bearing one child - and her child was born in still more obscure stable. He lived an obscure life. But this Child named Jesus went on to change the world!

Last night, Cindy and I went to see the movie "The Blind Side" a true story about a wealthy white Christian family that adopts a young black man and helps him go on to become a football hero. There's a moment in the film, where Leanne, the mother, comes face to face with the knowledge that Michael has never had his own bed in all his almost 18 years of life. Leanne is profoundly affected by this stark fact and has to go into the other room and sit down. I believe it is at that moment that her heart leaped - and she realized that she would have to really 'prepare a credle in her heart' for Michael and so welcome him -as if he were Christ in distressing disguise, as Mother Teresa puts it.

One family welcomed one young man into their hearts. Did they change the world?

In another scene from the Blind Side, we hear Leanne's voice talking and see the newspaper clippings about all the young men she had read about in the newspaper who had had wonderful athletic talent and potential, but whose lives were cut short by gang and drug related violence. At the end of the sequence, she comments that she had taken in one such young man - and he didn't die. Instead he reached his potential - and is going on to affect many lives himself. Can there be any doubt that Leanne and her family changed the course of history?

'What we do is nothing but a drop in the ocean. but if we don't do it, the ocean would be one drop less", says Teresa. When we serve as if we are 'doing it to Jesus' we profoundly change the world. We can even win souls.

"Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls", says Mother Teresa.

She goes on to tell how an atheist came to the Home for the Dying in Calcutta and watched a sister care for a dying man covered with maggots.

"The [atheist] stood there, watching the sister and then he returned and said, "I came here godless. I came here full of hatred. I am going full of God. I have seen god's love in action. I have seen that through those hands of that sister, through her face, through her tenderness, so full of love for that man. Now I believe." (Pg. 42). The atheist's heart leaped for joy when he saw Jesus in action.

As did the heart of a Hindu man who came to the Home for the Dying and said, "Your religion must be true. Christ must be true if he helps you to do what you're doing."

Joyful service is a silent apologetic for the Gospel. It helps people encounter Jesus.

But as always, it's easier to hear inspiring service than to practice it. It's easier to love a million people in Africa than it is to love one cranky neighbor next door. The challenge is always to start where you are right here and now. That's why in our Advent meditations we have emphasized listening to what God may be leading us to do in our own neighborhoods and circles of acquaintance.

During our Wednesday evening devotions, we have heard a number of inspiring testimonies about how God has directed some of us into service opportunities such as adopting a Muslim child, having lunch with a group of friends and praying for an agnostic at work. I believe that, even now, He is leading us to reach out to the un-churched, the spiritually confused, the lonely and the poor - right around us.

As I have announced previously, to give us more time to discern and follow his leading, we will suspend our 8th Day Life Groups between Christmas and Lent. As we do this, who knows how our hearts will leap in response to Jesus?!

I urge you to open yourselves to recognize the presence of Christ in our midst - personified in one another, in the reading and hearing of the Logos, in the bread and wine, and in the face of the poor around us, whether they be financially or emotionally poor. Let the Holy Spirit cause your heart to leap, and then rejoice that the Mighty One will do great things in you, just as he did for Mary.

I'd like to have us close now by saying responsively a sort of litany adapted from My Life for the Poor, entitled This is Jesus to Me:

Jesus is:
The Word - to be spoken
The Truth - to be told.
The Way - to be walked.
The Light - to be lit.
The Life - to be lived.
The Love-to be loved.
The Joy- to be shared
The Sacrifice- to be offered.
The Peace- to be given.
The Bread of life-to be eaten
The Hungry - to be fed.
The Thirsty - to b satiated.
The Naked - to be clothed.
The Homeless - to be taken in.
The Sick - to be healed.
The Lonely - to be loved.
The unwanted-to be wanted.
The Leper-to wash his wounds.
The Beggar-to give him a smile.
The Drunkard - to listen to him.
The Mental-to protect him.
The Little One - to embrace him.
The Blind-to lead him.
The Dumb- to speak for him.
The Crippled - to walk with him.
The Drug Addict-to befriend him.
The Prostitute - to remove from danger and befriend her.
The Prisoner - to be visited.
The Old - to be served.

May God give us the grace of His Holy Spirit to receive Jesus and allow our spirits to Leap with Joy. AMEN.

Sting on Christmas

2009-12-13T04:43:00.000-08:00

This past week, I've been listening with great interest to music by an artist that I have been aware of, but consciously avoided - Sting!

After hearing a snippet of him singing Gabriel's Message, I bought the album (at Starbuck's!) and started listening in earnest. I soon realized that I purchased not only some very different Christmas music - but a full postmodern commentary on Christmas itself. Here are some selected comments from the liner notes of 'If on a Winter's Night':

"Since the first millennium the festival of Christmas has become the central and defining event of the winter season: the story of Christ's birth contains many magical elements, prefigured by ancient prophecy: the god king born among animals in a stable, the mysterious star in the East, the three Wise Men, King Herod and the Slaughter of the Innocents, Mary and Joseph and the conundrum of the Virgin Birth. I appreciate the beauty of these stories and how they have inspired musicians and poets for many centuries . It was my desire to treat those themes with reverence and respect, and despite my personal agnosticism, the sacred symbolism of the Church's art still exerts a powerful influenced over me."

"Implicit in the story of the birth of Christ is the knowledge of his death and his subsequent Resurrection. This is what connects it to the secular songs about the cycle of the seasons. We are reminded that there is light and life at the center of the darkness that is Winter - or conversely, that , no matter how comfortable we feel in the cradle, there is darkness and danger all around us."

"The magical quality of the Christian story is not diminished by the knowledge that much of the myth of Christmas seems to have been superimposed upon an ancient matrix. ...For me it was important to draw parallels between the Christian story and the older traditions of the winter solstice. ...These myths and stories are our common cultural heritage, and as such need to be kept alive through reinterpretation within the contest of contemporary thinking, even if that thinking is essentially agnostic. ...all of us need our myths to live by.. "

These comments are very instructive to those of us who want to understand how thoughtful non-Christians view Christmas - and the Christian faith itself. Christianity is seen to be mythic in the same way the older pagan stories of the WinterSolstice are mythic. There is an appreciation for the 'beauty' and power of the stories, but an attitude of personal agnosticism. And there is some genuine insight into the mystery of Christ's Incarnation, Death and Resurrection. Finally, Sting acknowleges the power of the Chrisitan story over him. I imagine that it would quite stimulating to sit down and have a chat with him about The Faith. But it seems to me it would be very difficult to move him from his thoughtful Agnosticism to personal faith - indeed only God can do this, I know.

We need to pray that God Himself would open the eyes of the heart so that people like Sting can understand the true power and beauty of the Christian story - not just as story, but as reality!

What Repentance is FOR

2009-12-06T05:57:00.001-08:00

A Sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on December 6, 2009 (II Advent) at teh Convent Chapel of St. Mary's Medical Center, Huntington, WV.

Collect: Merciful God, who sent your messengers the prophets to preach repentance and prepare the way for our salvation: Give us grace to heed their warnings and forsake our sins, that we may greet with joy the coming of Jesus Christ our Redeemer; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Readings:
Baruch 5:1-9
Take off the garment of your sorrow and affliction, O Jerusalem,
and put on forever the beauty of the glory from God.
Put on the robe of the righteousness that comes from God;
put on your head the diadem of the glory of the Everlasting;
for God will show your splendor everywhere under heaven.
For God will give you evermore the name,
"Righteous Peace, Godly Glory."
Arise, O Jerusalem, stand upon the height;
look toward the east,
and see your children gathered from west and east
at the word of the Holy One,
rejoicing that God has remembered them.
For they went out from you on foot,
led away by their enemies;
but God will bring them back to you,
carried in glory, as on a royal throne.
For God has ordered that every high mountain and the everlasting hills be made low
and the valleys filled up, to make level ground,
so that Israel may walk safely in the glory of God.
The woods and every fragrant tree
have shaded Israel at God's command.
For God will lead Israel with joy,
in the light of his glory,
with the mercy and righteousness that come from him.

Luke 3:1-6
In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, 2 during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 3 And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 4 As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet,

“The voice of one crying in the wilderness:‘Prepare the way of the Lord, [1]make his paths straight.5 Every valley shall be filled,and every mountain and hill shall be made low,and the crooked shall become straight,and the rough places shall become level ways,6 and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’”

Something to Sing About
When I was young, my parents would often take us to a performance of the Messiah at Christmas time. One famous pair of arias from that work is: Comfort, ye my people/Every Valley Shall be exalted. - based on Isaiah 40:4. It's for a tenor voice, and there's this wonderful way that Handel treats the melody.

When he gets to the world 'exalted', the tenor sings exal-al-al etc. The song itself imitates the nature of what the Lord will do. The valleys will be exalted, every mountain and hill made low, the cro - oked straight and the rough places plain.

There's also a dramatic part in Comfort ye my people". The music pauses and the tenor sings: "The voice of one crying in the wil-derness, Prepare ye the way of the Lo-rd. make straight in the desert, a high-way. For our G-od! (Bum-Bum.)

As Christians, we've learned to associate the 'one crying in the wilderness' with John the Baptist. He was crying in the wilderness - and the people were going out to him to be baptized for the forgiveness of their sins. His was a ministry of calling people to repentance - of asking people to make their hearts straight before God.

John is not a real warm-fuzzy kind of guy. It's true he did wear wild animal pelts for clothing, but his demeanor was not exactly meek and mild. It was more like,

"COME OUT HERE YOU MISERABLE SINNERS! CONFESS YOUR SINS! FLEE FROM THE WRATH TO COME! - RIGHT NOW!

Maybe the closest thing that many of us can relate this to would be going to the principle's office to be rebuked for some infraction. I remember one time when I was in junior high school, acting up in class and being sent down to Mr. Maturen's office. (He was actually the Vice-Principle). It wasn't a real pleasant experience.

I think John the Baptist was his cousin.

He was kind of a hatchet-faced sort of man. He didn't smile very much, and you wondered whether or not his face wasn't permanently cast into a frown. When you went to Mr. Maturen's office, you knew you were going to be "called on the carpet" - 'dressed down' - 'taken down a notch'. Yelled at!

Believe me, when I went to his office, I was not rejoicing that I was going to get the book thrown at me. Being happy or joyful was the farthest thing from my mind at that time. And believe me, too, that I wasn't so much interested in confessing and repenting of my sins, as I was finding a way out of the trouble!

By way of contrast, Cindy tells about one of her sisters, who seemed to have a penchant for being bad at times. When the tension would get too great, she would almost beg to be whipped. She just wanted to hurry up and get it over and clear the air, so things could get back to normal. (Both Cindy and I were amazed by that behavior.)

Cindy's sister probably had a better understanding of repentance than either Cindy or I: Confess the crime, take the whuppin', cut the tension and get back on the right track! She knew there was something on the other side of repentance - in her case 'normalcy'. But thinking about it as Christians, we know God wants something infinitely better for us: JOY! And that's what we are going to talk about today: Joy - because that's what repentance is For.

Baruch, Jeremiah and Isaiah
Now let's go back and look at our texts. There's an interesting similarity between our reading from Baruch and the quotation from Isaiah found in our Gospel reading: Baruch says, "For God has ordered that every high mountain and the everlasting hills be made low and the valleys filled up, to make level ground"...

Sounds pretty similar to the text from the Messiah aria from Isaiah 40:1 quoted in Luke: "Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill made low. The crooked straight, the rough places plain..." ( KJV) Some writers think that Baruch's writing depends upon the book of Isaiah for its content - and judging from the two sentences we just quoted, they're probably right.

At any rate, Baruch was Jeremiah's scribe. He was the one who actually wrote down the prophecies. The book that bears his name is from the Old Testament Apocrypha. Scholars call it a 'deutero-canonical' book. That means 'second-string' - not quite up to snuff, not accepted by everyone. Although his book has some beautiful and powerful passages, and we read it out in church, yet it is not included in the canon of scripture. In this case, it's likely because Baruch was the scribe, not the prophet himself and so his work lacked prophetic authority.

Regarding the circumstances of Baruch's writing - he was with Jeremiah from before the siege of Jerusalem, when the prophet tried to warn the people of what was coming: wrath, destruction of the city, and exile to Babylon.

Sadly, the people ignored the warning and disaster came upon them. The city was destroyed and the best of the people were exiled to Babylon. After the destruction, Jeremiah continued to live in Palestine for a time, and then went to Egypt, where he probably stayed until he died. Baruch was likely taken to Babylon and lived their until he died.

His words that we read today are addressed to the Jewish people in the midst of their bitter captivity. They are words of hope, words of promise to a beaten- down people, words that indicate that the tide is about to turn in their favor.

"Take off the garment of your sorrow and affliction, O Jerusalem,
and put on forever the beauty of the glory from God.
Put on the robe of the righteousness that comes from God;
put on your head the diadem of the glory of the Everlasting;"

Take off something and put on something. Take off sorrow and mourning and put on joy. This sounds similar to Isaiah 61:3: "To grant those who mourn... a garland instead of ashes, The oil of gladness instead of mourning..."

The mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting (NASB). Joy and Gladness; these are the results of Repentance. These are the things that the Lord wants us to have in abundance.

In our readings today, we can also see several other marvelous things He wants for us:
Beauty
Glory
The Robe of Righteousness
Splendor
Peace
Godly Glory
Joy
Mercy
Righteousness
Laughter
Grace
Peace
Purity
Blamelessness
The Fruit of Righteousness

Quite a list, eh?! These things add up to more than just mere happiness. They indicate something deeper than pleasure when something goes right at work, satisfaction when you've had a fun day, or excitement when Marshall or WVU wins a game. These characteristics are indicative of being reconciled with God - something that only comes about through repentance.

Now the most dramatic story of repentance I can think of in the Gospels is the story of the Prodigal son. When this young man got to the lowest point of his life, He came to his senses and went back to his Father and said, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.”

As we know from hearing the story many times, the father " felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. He told his servants to bring the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, so they could celebrate (Lk. 15:11-32). The son came into his father's joy after he had repented.

In the story of Job, a righteous man loses everything. He longs to plead his case before God, but when God shows up and starts asking Job questions, such as: “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?Tell me, if you have understanding" (Job 38:4), Job can only respond by saying:

..."I have uttered what I did not understand,things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.
I had heard of you [God] by the hearing of the ear,but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself,and repent in dust and ashes.”Job 42: 2-6).

It's the Hebrew equivalent of saying, "Well, shut my mouth!"

Most of us can relate to this. I see it all the time in my counseling practice - especially as people deal with sexual abuse in their backgrounds. They suffer, and God doesn't respond to their suffering the way the think He should. They withdraw from God, and seek solace in material things, promiscuous relationships or drug and alcohol abuse. And then, during healing prayer, when we invite Christ to come into a picture of the abuse, invariably they say, "I see him now....He was there all along, I just couldn't see it."

How often we do this. We jump to conclusions about things we don't understand and we get all bollixed up and stuck. This is a clue to repent - to be like Job and say, "Shut my mouth!" - To give up trying to make it come out the way I think it should - to acknowledge that God is God and I'm not. To repent of our Pride and Self-Sufficiency.

We need to get to a place where we can be like the psalmist who said,

"O Lord, my heart is not lifted up;
my eyes are not raised too high;
I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me.
But I have calmed and quieted my soul,
like a weaned child with its mother;
like a weaned child is my soul within me. (Psalm 131:1,2)

This is what it sounds like to be repentant: calm and quiet, unstuck, In that quiet place of listening all of a sudden you can realize that God is in charge after all.

The psalmist admonishes us:
O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore. (Psalm 131:3)

In other words, Repent of the Sin of Frank Sinatra! Stop doing it your way! Put your trust in the Lord. Do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and he will make your paths straight. Prov. 3:5)

The Bible promises us that when we repent, when we turn around and walk the other way, that he will forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We might have to take a whuppin like Cindy's sister did, or get dressed down, like I did in Mr. Maturen's office, but the goal is not to weigh us down and discourage us, but to lift us up, to turn us around and get us going in the right direction, to to lead us with joy, in the light of [God's] glory, with the mercy and righteousness that come from him, to exalt every valley, bring down every mountain, straighten the crooked, smooth out every rough place and to 'restore to us the joy of our salvation" (Ps. 51).

Jane's Story
Last week, we received an amazing phone call from a woman we have known for many years. Let's call her Jane. We met Jane and her husband 'John' through church during our days at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Jane had grown up in a very rigid environment and struggled with being rigid and obsessive herself. John too was rather compulsive and driven, having been raised in poverty. Money and security were very important to both of them, but it was also obvious they had a heart for ministry.

Despite their strugles, they really were kind and gracious people and we hit it off with them as a couple. We spent a lot of time with them when we lived close and after we both moved away, we've have been as involved with them as you can be when you live hundreds of miles apart from each other.

Up until about ten years ago, John always worked in the business world and he had well-paying corporate type jobs. But we always knew his heart was in ministry. He finally became sick and tired of the work that he was doing and launched into full-time ministry - much to Jane's consternation. She just couldn't see how they could support their family and make it financially with him in this very insecure ministry.

Sure enough, finances became very tight, and they didn't make it very well financially. Jane's world began to crumble and she began to lose hope that things would ever be different. When we talked to her she sounded flat emotionally and she began to develop some real severe emotional problems. Her husband questioned whether she was actually a Christian, and we wondered ourselves.

Some time in the last six months, Jane reached a breaking point. Everything within her just came to a screeching halt. In her desperation, she finally broke down and called out to God. She told Cindy that her prayer went something like this:

Jane's Prayer:
"God, I'm not even sure you're out there, but if you are, will you reveal yourself to me, even if it means tearing down everything I have ever believed about you? "

She said that after she prayed that prayer, she was emotionally spent and numb. As she sat there, exhausted, she began to have a dawning realization that she wasn't alone. Over the coming days and weeks, God began to show her, in many small ways, that he really was there with her and for her. She began to understanding that He is actually taking care of her.

He also impressed upon her this profound truth: "Ultimately, all anger is anger at God."

This allowed her to repent of her anger at God and become like that weaned child on its mother's lap. So, even in her pain she began to have joy. Even though her marriage was teetering on the brink of failure, God began to minister hope to her and give her a will to go on. He began to lead her to books that taught her about His true nature. He gave her a close friend that she could confide in - an Anam Chara - who listened well and kept her confidence. Her walls began to come down, and now, by God's grace she is starting to sound like a faithful Christian for the first time in her almost six decades of life!

And it's all because she was willing to repent, to say to God, "Shut my mouth! - and teach me about You!

God is answering her prayer - because He wants her to experience JOY! He is helping her to make the crooked straight and the rough places plain, to enlarge her heart so that she has a place for Jesus, a place where the God of the Universe can love and nurture her as one of His own dear children. This is what repentance is all about - what its' FOR - in a word, JOY!

Friends, this same God is calling out to you. Today, if your hear His voice speaking to you, I urge you, like the Psalmist, not to harden your heart as the people of Israel did (Ps 95), but to repent - so that you may know JOY!

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

Zechariah's Endtime Prophecy

2009-11-29T13:40:00.000-08:00

A Sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on the first Sunday of Advent, November 29, 2009. Given at the Convent Chapel of St. Mary's Medical Center in Huntington, WV and based on Zechariah 14:4-9:

On that day his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives that lies before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley, so that one half of the Mount shall move northward, and the other half southward. 5 And you shall flee to the valley of my mountains, for the valley of the mountains shall reach to Azal. And you shall flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the Lord my God will come, and all the holy ones with him.

6 On that day there shall be no light, cold, or frost. 7 And there shall be a unique day, which is known to the Lord, neither day nor night, but at evening time there shall be light.
8 On that day living waters shall flow out from Jerusalem, half of them to the eastern sea and half of them to the western sea. It shall continue in summer as in winter.
9 And the Lord will be king over all the earth. On that day the Lord will be one and his name one.

Times aren't what they used to be...
Two clay tablets dating back to 2800 BC were recently unearthed at Babylon in an archaeological dig. They both commented on the trends of the day. One read: 'Times are not what they used to be". The other tablet reflected a major concern of the people of the time. Their complaint: "The world must be coming to an end. Children no longer obey their parents and every man wants to write a book."

Concern about the end of the world - Eschatology - seems to be an enduring topic of speculation. This past Wednesday evening, some of us were chatting about the movie 2012 - in which the Mayan calendar abruptly ends, bringing with it world-wide cataclysm - much to the delight of the movie's special effects people.

Other recent movies ranging from Independence Day to the Transformers to Wall-E treat this fascination in their own ways - all of them dystopic - the opposite of Utopic.

People just seem love to predict the End of everything. In 960 AD, Bernard, a visionary in the former German state of Thuringia, announced that the world would end on Good Friday in 992AD. It didn't.

Nor did the end time arrive as Mary Bateman of Leeds, England, said it
would. In 1806, Bateman claimed that her hen was laying eggs inscribed
with the words, "Christ is coming". When Bateman began selling
"tickets" to heaven for a shilling each, she was arrested, convicted
and hanged! (Think about that - some people actually bought a ticket!)
The world did not end - though it did for Mary.

The world didn't end all the times that the Jehovah's witness newspaper The Watchtower predicted it would.

And it didn't end in the 1970's when Hal Lindsey's Late Great Planet Earth created quite a stir, or in the 1980's when newspapers worldwide announced that Lord Maitrayea had arrived and would shortly usher in the End.

We are fascinated with the End. I think it may be in part that the Human Race remembers that we were created pure and whole, knows that we have made a hideous mess of things, and realizes that we will surely be judged accordingly.

Of course, for the last 2,000 years the words of Christ have echoed in our ears: “And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves, people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world. For the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory." (Luke 21: 25-27)

Even the most complacent among us are given pause by such statements.

As a prophet, Jesus stood as one in a long line who spoke of the end of all things. Today we are reading about Zechariah's prophecy of the End, some 500 years before Christ. Zechariah was given a series of dreams and visions on three very specific dates. In our calendar they are: October/November 520 b.c, February 15, 519 and December 7, 518, during the time of King Darius of Persia. Darius' predecessor, Cyrus had allowed the exiles of Israel to return to their land and begin the rebuilding of the temple under the leadership of Ezra and Nehemiah. But the Samaritans had objected to the work and there was a 14 year pause in building.

During that time, the people became discouraged and decided that building the temple was just not part of God's plan. Zechariah and his contemporary, Haggai, stirred up the people through their prophecies and the work was finally finished in 516 BC. Thematically, Zechariah's prophecies address the restoration of the Temple, the spiritual life of Israel at the time, but also the future events leading up to Messiah's return and reign - a vision of the End that places Christ on the throne.

For at least 2500 years then, this prophecy of the End of all things has been reverberating in the Judeo-Christian consciousness. It's obviously very different from the Mayan version of the End. But also very different from contemporary versions of the End, in which Global Warming or Cooling overwhelm the world - or in which a meteor crashes into the Earth, destroying everything.

Our understanding of the outcome of all things is very different from the world's various visions. And because of it, we live differently and have a different Hope for our lives. Just like the early Christians, we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord of our Lives and of the World. When we say "He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and his Kingdom will have no end"... we really mean it. We really believe that Jesus Christ will come to earth and reign.

In regard to Zechariah 14:4 and following, the Wycliffe Bible Commentary
says: "Words cannot express more plainly the personal, visible, bodily, literal return of the Lord Jesus Christ in power."

Zechariah said it this way:
"Then the Lord my God will come, and all the holy ones with him." (v.5)

Yet, right before he comes in glory to set up His kingdom, there will be yet another sack of Jerusalem. The nations that hate Israel will be drawn by their hatred to the city for one last attempt to annihilate it. And apparently they will almost succeed. In vv. 1-3 of chapter 14, Zechariah tells of the city being taken, the spoil divided and the women violated. But at that very moment, "the Lord will go forth." The Mount of Olives will be split in two, allowing the people to flee. Messiah will then stand on the Mount with his saints and decisively defeat all the enemies.
At that time, there will be unusual phenomena. Verses 6 & 7: "On that day there shall be no light, cold, or frost. And there shall be a unique day, which is known to the Lord, neither day nor night, but at evening time there shall be light.

John Calvin translated verse 7 this way: "The light shall not be clear, but dark" (literally, "condensation," that is, thick mist); like a dark day in which you can hardly distinguish between day and night. English Version renders it: "There shall not be altogether light nor altogether darkness," but an intermediate condition in which sorrows shall be mingled with joys. (Wycliffe Bible Commentary).

Going on in verse 8: "On that day living waters shall flow out from Jerusalem, half of them to the eastern sea and half of them to the western sea. It shall continue in summer as in winter.
9And the Lord will be king over all the earth. On that day the Lord will be one and his name one."What we are talking about of course is known as the Millennium - the 1000 year reign of Christ on earth. Although some try to deny that there will be a millennium and some say that we are currently in the millennium, passages such as Zechariah's cannot be explained away and really do point to a literal time of Christ reigning with his saints here on earth.

Please note that this period of time is NOT the "Blessed Hope" - that is our Resurrection at the very end of all things. The Millennium is a time when Christ will do what many people say they wish He would do: make things so that there will be no rebellion and that all the world will obey Him.

Because Satan will be bound (Rev.20:2) during this time, there will be no Adversary around to tempt people to rebellion, but note what Psalms 2 and 110 say about this time:

Psalm 2:7 I will tell of the decree:The Lord said to me, “You are my Son;today I have begotten you.8Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage,and the ends of the earth your possession.9 You shall break them with a rod of ironand dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.”

Psalm 110:
The Lord says to my Lord:“Sit at my right hand,until I make your enemies your footstool.”
2 The Lord sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter. Rule in the midst of your enemies

He will Rule with a Rod of Iron. That means that there will still be unbelievers present during the Millennium, but they will not be allowed to stir up trouble. Human society will be perfectly ordered here on earth as it is in Heaven -with Jesus being manifestly present.

Yet ultimately, this arrangement will not be adequate, because of the aspect of force involved - the mingling of joys and sorrows. God desires to dwell with his people in a loving relationship, not a coercive one. So to consummate everything, Satan will be released to rebel one final time. And one final time there will be a battle to end all battles.

God will decisively win this battle and the very End will come. All things will be burned up and the new Heaven and the new earth will come down out of Heaven. Believers will enter into the joy of their master and the Devil and all who follow him will be cast into the lake of fire - the second death. Thus will all things be summed up.

Eschatological Counterfeits
As you can imagine, the final state of things for the Devil is less than desirable. Although he knows his end is fixed he is fighting to the bitter end to take as many of us humans with him as possible. To that end, he counterfeits God's plan; he imitates what the Lord will do, and tries to make it seem as if the peaceable kingdom can be established here on earth by natural means.

Thus we have seen numerous attempts over the last 100 years to bring in such a millennial kingdom: The League of Nations under Woodrow Wilson, The Eugenics Movement of the 1920s and beyond, Adolf Hitler's Third Reich, the establishment of the United Nations, the worldwide Communist movement, and most recently Eco-fascism: the attempt to bring all nations together under the banner of Climate Change in order to create some sort of Worldwide governing body which can finally right the inequalities brought on by capitalism and Christianity - those 'rapacious' forces which have created poverty for millions and the destruction of the natural environment - or that's how the critique goes anyway.

It's all an attempt to create a counterfeit Kingdom - a unified world community that will finally 'do the right thing' by the poor, minorities and the environment; an attempt to atone for the crimes of the past via economic sanctions and create a secular shining city set on a hill - a return to Babel, a restoration of the Garden of Eden. It's a millennial kingdom without the King - Jesus.

As Christians, we know that attempt will ultimately fail. It must, because it is not based on the Lordship of the King of Kings. As Christians, we are resident aliens, citizens of a heavenly country, who will bow to no one but Christ. At some point that might put us in hot water with the secular authorities. If past history is any indication, some of us might even be required to die for our faith. At the minimum, we can expect things to heat up before Christ returns. According to Zechariah, we can expect the nations to gang up on Israel in an attempt to destroy her.

In the meantime, we are waiting for the Return of the King. We long for his return - and while we long for him, we prepare our hearts to receive him. As John Paul II said: To prepare our hearts to welcome the Lord...we must learn to recognize his presence in the events of daily life. Advent then is a period of intense training that directs us decisively to the One who has already come, who will come and who continuously comes".

Practicing His Presence in our midst means loving one another as Christians - who after all, carry the Spirit of God within them. It means doing good to all, but especially to the household of faith (Gal. 6:10). It means that we actively seek the welfare of our city (Jer. 29:7) - because in doing so we find our own welfare as well, and we in so doing, we extend the love of Christ to our community.

Practicing the Presence means voluntarily limiting our consumption of goods and giving to the poor -- because it is in the poor that Christ is especially seen and honored (cf. RB and Mother Teresa).

Practicing the Presence of Christ means respecting the Earth as God's creation and ourselves as His stewards. We don't worship the earth as our Mother, but we do honor her has our sister. Ps 24 says The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. ...The Lord is present everywhere and his creation speaks to us night and day if we will but listen to it (Ps. 19). Saving the planet is not the 'Sumum bonum - the highest of all goods - but it is a matter of stewardship and we would do well to consider how best to take care of God's Creation.

Finally, as Christians, we Worship. We celebrate and give thanks for His presence in our midst now and we look forward to Christ's return. We worship the One who will come again in glory - not anyone or anything else. We proclaim our allegiance to the High King of Heaven every time we come to church, witnessing to our confident belief in the One who Rules in our hearts. Thus, we worship as a subversive political act, an act which says emphatically that we will accept no earthly substitutes - ever - even in the face of death.

And just as Jesus was taken, broken and given for us, so we offer ourselves to Jesus, to be taken, broken and given to the world all the while longing for the second advent of our Lord.

Augustine said, " Give me one who yearns;...give me one far away in this desert, who is thirsty and sighs for the spring of the Eternal country. Give me that sort of man; he knows what I mean."

May we be people who know our End and who actively yearn for its revealing in Christ. AMEN.

Stars

2009-11-16T05:38:00.000-08:00

A Sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on November 15, 2009 at the Convent Chapel of St. Mary's Medical Center, Huntington, WV, and based on Daniel 12:1-4

The Time of the End:
12:1 “At that time shall arise Michael, the great prince who has charge of your people. And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never has been since there was a nation till that time. But at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone whose name shall be found written in the book.
2 And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. 3 And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.
4 But you, Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book, until the time of the end. Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.”

Several weeks ago, we used the metaphor of a sponge to describe the condition of some soggy Christians, who, like a sponge, Sit Soak and Sour.

In a subsequent sermon, Fr. Mark modified this to describe real, active Christians, who:

Sit, Soak and SERVE

Today, we have two more S’s to add to our list.
The fourth S comes from our reading from Hebrews (10:32) today:

"But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings,"

How does this suffering occur? By “ sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated.” And by “joyfully accept[ing] the plundering of your property,” (vv.33,34).

We have quoted before the verse: All who desire to live Godly in Christ Jesus will suffer – the ESV says ‘will be persecuted’ (2Tim. 3:12). The difficulty comes because (vs.1,2) in the last days … people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, 4 treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power.

They will not endure sound teaching, “but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. (2Tim 4:3,4).

Paul exhorts Timothy not to be discouraged by this, but rather to “be sober-minded, [to] endure suffering, [to] do the work of an evangelist, [and thus, to] fulfill [his] ministry.

Paul knew what he was talking about. Almost every time he opened his mouth to share the Gospel, somebody would throw rocks at him, beat him with rods, or start a riot. He knew that the World, the Flesh and The Devil would war against him and his message, and that it would be a fight to the death.

Going on in 2 Tim chapter 4, Paul says that he is ‘already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of [his] departure has come. He proclaims with confidence: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.’ (v.7) And he is looking forward to his reward: “Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing. “(v.8).

Referencing our reading from Hebrews again:
Paul has endured the suffering, done the will of God, and is looking ahead to receiving what is promised (Heb. 10:35), namely, the crown of Righteousness.

But there is something else promised to him – and us - that comes from our Daniel reading.
Because he has ‘turned many to righteousness’ and because he is wise, he will shine like the brightness of the sky above…like the stars forever and ever. (Daniel 12:3).

Think of it! To shine like the stars forever and ever! How wonderful and amazing!

In medieval times, a legend developed that "falling stars' actually fell to earth and became human. This legend is reflected in the movie, Stardust – in which a shooting star falls to earth and becomes a beautiful blond-haired woman, who shines when she is happy, and whose essence can confer renewed youth. CS Lewis also uses the star legend in his Chronicles of Narnia series. The adventuresome party who takes a Voyage on the ship Dawn Treader finds themselves on the “Island of the World's End.” There, the ancient ‘Ramandu’, and his daughter live on this Island where Aslan's Stone Table is preserved until the end.

When the crew of the Dawn Treader expresses consternation over why Ramandu seems to shine, he tells them:

"I am a star at rest...When I set for the last time, decrepit and old beyond all that you can reckon, I was carried to this island. I am not so old now as I was then. Every morning a bird brings me a fireberry from the valleys in the Sun, and each fireberry takes away a little of my age. And when I have become as young as the child that was born yesterday, then I shall take my rising again... and once more tread the great dance. Pg. 180

This is a picturesque treatment of our theme, but I think it does evoke some of the wonder of ‘shining like a star forever’. A little later in Ramandu’s narrative he tells the crew of the ship what they must do in order to un-enchant their mates, who have been put into a deep sleep. They will face great danger, but there is also the promise of Glory:

“Every man that comes with us shall bequeath the title ‘Dawn Treader’ to all his descendants - and when we land at Cair Paravel on the homeward voyage he shall have either gold or land enough to make him rich all his life” ( Pg. 185).

There is suffering ahead, but also the opportunity to Shine forever. In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul echoes this heavenly theme, tying it to the Resurrection:

"The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor. So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable." (1 Corinthians 15:41-42 NIV)

Now recall Daniel 12:2, 3:
And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. 3 And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.

In the Resurrection, Shining like the stars forever and ever is the reward for being wise and turning many to righteousness. Even, better, by ‘holding fast to the word of life’ and acting faithfully, the children of God ‘shine like stars in the universe’ now. They (we) become “Luminaries of the Cosmos” (Philippians 2:15, 16). Paul tells the Philippians to hold on “so that in the day of Christ – the Resurrection - [he] may be proud that [he] did not run in vain or labor in vain. He is willing ‘to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of [their] faith (v.17) because of the reward he anticipates when Christ appears.

Now, like Paul, I am eager that every one of us Saints in All Saints Anglican Church should shine ‘like a luminaries of the Cosmos’ – both now and in the Resurrection. How is this to happen? By being faithful in our Christian walk and by ‘turning many to righteousness.”

And how are we to turn many to righteousness? Is it not through helping people to know and love Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord? – Through fulfilling the Great Commission – through making disciples of all nations?

Yes it is! Isn’t that Great?! …

Yes – with the small little caveat that most of us Christians don’t know any non-believers.
It’s not that we may not know of some…It’s that we don’t know them well – spend time with them – or go where they go. And that’s generally because the longer we are Christians, the more likely it is that we hang out with other Christians - either because of our personal preference for like-minded, comfortable people like us – or because we are afraid of the influence of Worldlings – (which is not an unreasonable fear.)

We want to be ‘innocent and blameless’ like Paul says, but by segregating ourselves from the world, we don’t ‘turn many to righteousness.’ (God forbid that we don't do this because WE are Worldlings!)

We must have both if we are to receive the reward that Scripture promises. Just being innocent of evil is not enough to cause us to ‘shine like stars forever’. Our righteousness must result in service to the physical and spiritual needs of those in the world who are perishing – so that they may be ‘turned to righteousness”! Remember the third S in our series: ‘SERVE”?

And here, please understand that we’re not interested in a merely selfish reward – but we are striving for the pleasure of God – for knowing the joy of participating with Him in His redemptive purpose in this world – to bring many to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, to create a People for Himself, and to enjoy that People forever.

This is the GREAT DANCE that Ramandu was talking about: Bringing all things and people into the joy of knowing and serving God.

And this is where we have got to be willing to consider suffering for the Gospel.
In the United States of America, in 2009, so far, we still have great freedom to talk about our Faith. It’s true that there are some limitations: There are some circumstances in which we cannot speak openly. In the future there may be more. But for right now, the biggest threats we face are Inconvenience and Embarrassment.

It’s just too darn much trouble to go out there and spend time with the un-churched. We prefer to have cozy fellowship with each other, to study something nice – and then go home and live as if none of it matters!

Friends, unless they suddenly started going to First Baptist or Christ Temple last week and we don’t know about it, there are still 75,000 people at home this morning in Cabell County alone!
If we are going to be the Body of Christ, if we are really going to fulfill the Great Commission in our lifetime, - even if we just want our little church to grow, this is UNACCEPTABLE!

We MUST devout ourselves to reaching the lost! Each of us personally MUST do this!
Why? Because each of us will be personally held responsible by the God of Heaven for this!
And because we have something Wonderful to offer! Jesus! Life with God! Eternal Life beginning RIGHT NOW! Resurrection Life! Peace Freedom!

If we’re not willing to suffer a little discomfort or embarrassment for the sake of Christ and our perishing neighbors can we really call ourselves faithful? Can we really expect to Shine Like Stars forever when our efforts here on Earth for Christ are lackluster?

We have simply got to devote more time to personally reaching out to those around us!
We must find ways of developing enough trust with the ‘church-free’ people out there so that they are willing to hear our story and become inspired to want a relationship with God for themselves. This is our job as Christians: to make disciples - to turn many to righteousness!
That is why I feel an urgent and pressing need to focus our attention during Advent on this very thing. While we are meeting together for fellowship and devotions leading up to Christmas, I challenge us to think of ways that we will begin personal outreach to our neighbors – those in our ‘oikos’ or circle of acquaintances.

This includes those who are already Christians but for some reason have no church, those who are completely lost and have never made Christ Lord of their lives - and perhaps harder, those who are 'Church-Free', disillusioned or fed up with 'Churchianity'. Each one of these groups is ripe for discipleship.

I will warn you that this project will require your time. In a culture like ours, busy and hurried by many pressures and demands on our time, it may actually feel like suffering to give up some of your time for the sake of reaching the lost. But we MUST do it! Reaching out to your neighbors will require getting out of your regular routine and patterns so that you can meet and get to know new people.

Friday a week ago, several of us were picking up trash around the Hope House block. While we were chatting among ourselves, a young woman came up and spontaneously engaged us in conversation. She saw what we were doing and connected with us because she had done something similar in her previous town before moving to Huntington two months prior.
She was very pleasant and talkative and volunteered her email and phone number. So we invited her to come over to Hope House during our work day to see what we are doing there.
Had we not gone out of our way to do something that put us out there beyond our regular routine and comfort zone, we would never have met her. Now, we have the opportunity to begin to know her - and possibly help her to foster a relationship with God. And we'll have to continue to go out of our way to follow-up and try to stay connected.

Of course, this is just an example. There are certainly an almost infinite number of ways to meet and engage the people around you. The point is to do it! In the words of Todd Hunter, newly ordained AMIA missionary Bishop, to become a 'Church for Others".

I am personally committed to helping you in whatever way I can to accomplish this mission. I know that Father Mark and Father Peter are as well. If you need help in writing out your testimony, or need some knowledge you don't have, or you would like to have home Eucharists with your neighbors who don’t go to church - or you want to have an outreach prayer group or bible study – you say the word and we'll do whatever we can to help you make it happen. We cannot do it for you, but we can do it with you!

I think if we are really going to reach out we must multiply the impact of our small groups. For the past three years we have met and talked and studied and fellowshipped together,building up one another and learning more about our Faith. But just as the believers in Jerusalem were forcibly thrust out of the city during the siege of Jerusalem in 69,70 AD so we too may need to be thrust out of our comfortable little groups in order to accomplish our mission.

During the upcoming Advent season, I ask you to seriously think about and pray about taking the season between Christmas and Lent to 'do something different' for the Lord. To fore go your small group meetings in order to devote more time to developing your own unique outreach to your neighbors.

Let's listen to what the Lord would have for us, making ourselves available to him, offering yourself to Jesus as an instrument of his love so that we may be wise and turn many to righteousness and so shine like Stars forever and ever!
May God help us and give us the Grace we need! AMEN.

Seeing Being and Doing

2009-11-01T05:20:00.000-08:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Q & A on Healing

2009-10-18T06:23:00.000-07:00

An Interactive Sermon done with All Saints Anglican Church on October 18, 2009 at the Convent Chapel of St. Mary's Medical Center, Huntington, WV.

Q& A on Healing
This weekend we have been receiving teaching on Christian Healing from our brother, Father Peter Schoew. We have retreated from the world for a few hours in order to Advance towards the Kingdom - and this morning we continue our Advance. This is the quiz part of the weekend. So take out a piece of paper and a writing utensil and move away from your neighbor ... just kidding ... But we actually do have space in our bulletin if you'd like to take notes as we interact.

What I'd like to do is just review the material we covered by asking you some questions and having you respond with the answers. So -
first question:

If 'Healing' was our primary theme, what are some additional themes or categories of our teaching? - (Kingdom of God, Gifts of the Holy Spirit, Fruit, Love)

Who are we as Christians? (Children of God, Citizens of Heaven)

What role does Jesus play in the Kingdom of God? ( Messiah, Anointed One, Christ, King of Kings)
We talked about 2 A's regarding the Kingdom. What are they?
(Alignment and Assignment)

What slogan did Peter teach us regarding the two A's?
"Kingdom Alignment requires kingdom assignment."

Meaning?....
(If you are going to be aligned with the kingdom you should expect to be given a job or to be called on to pray for people)

Peter also talked about a B something. What was it (B Team)

What was the slogan he used re: the B Team?
(There is no B Team. .. in white robes waiting in the wings.)

What does this mean? (We're it. We are the A team.)

So, who does God use to extend His kingdom? ( US!We are God's Hands and Feet.)

Who is qualified to pray for the sick? (Everyone)

What kind of degrees must you have to pray for the sick? ( None)

What kind of ordination do you need to pray for the sick? ( None)

What is the job of the church's leadership re: spiritual gifts?
(Equip the saints for the work of ministry. Eph. 4:12. Recognize and draw out the gifts of the saints.)

So who are the ministers of this church? (All of us.)

Who owns the gifts? (God)

What are the gifts for? (Building up of the Body, Fruit Eph. 4:12)

What's more important, Gifts or Fruit? (Fruit)

What's the Greatest Gift? (Love. I Cor. 13:13)

What does John 3:16 say? (“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.)

Look at your Gospel reading for today. What does the last verse, Mark 10:45 say? ("For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”)

It's not in your insert, but does anyone remember what happens in Mark 10:46 and following? (Jesus heals Blind Bartimaeus)

Point: Healing is connected to God's Self-Giving). This is what I really want you to take away from the rest of our time this morning:
Healing flows from God's self-giving Love. If you don't remember anything else, I'd like you to remember this. Let's all say it together...
Healing flows from God's self-giving Love.

Now let's look at our reading from Isaiah 53: 4-12, but especially verses 4,5)
Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
5But he was wounded for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his stripes we are healed.

Notice (the underlined above) What tense are we talking about? Past.
What about "we are"? Present tense.

Going on. Look at v. 6, 7
6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he opened not his mouth.

Again we see the Past Tense. And Jesus is described as the Lamb of God, the 'Agnus Dei'

What do we learn about God's will for the Lamb in V. 10
(10Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;
he has put him to grief;...to make his soul an offering for guilt...)

What will happen 'Out of the anguish of his soul....?"
(V. 11: he shall see and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
make many to be accounted righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities.)

In v 12: What does the Lamb of God do for 'the many"?
"Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,
and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,
because he poured out his soul to death
and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
and makes intercession for the transgressors.

Does anyone know what the word 'Oblation' means? (Sacrifice. Firstfruits. Offering of our best to God. I think of it particularly as in the OT: a drink offering, 'poured out')
Jesus poured out his soul. He gave himself as an oblation to God. This is why in the Eucharistic prayer of Rite I, (BCP. pg. 334) we read:
"All glory be to thee, Almighty God, our heavenly Father, for
that thou, of thy tender mercy, didst give thine only Son Jesus
Christ to suffer death upon the cross for our redemption; who
made there, by his one oblation of himself once offered, a full,
perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction, for
the sins of the whole world;..."

What is our 'takeaway' from today's teaching?
(Healing flows from God's self-giving Love)

Let's think about some other wonderful verses from Phil. 2:5-7:

Phil 2:5-7 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, (ESV).

NASB: laid aside His privileges.
NLT: gave up his divine privileges
Young's Literal Translation: but did empty himself, the form of a servant having taken, in the likeness of men having been made,

He poured himself out, emptied himself out...And because he did so ...
"Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Phil 2:9,10).
Who is Jesus in God's Kingdom? (Lord of all)

What else?
Look at your reading from Hebrews 4: 12-16, especially 14:

"Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.
Who,What is Jesus?: ( Son of God, High Priest).

What can we expect to receive from this high priest?
(15For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.)

Jesus is our High Priest. He is also the Lamb of God, the Paschal Victim who gave himself for us and for our well-being.

In the Words of Institution of our Eucharistic Prayer, we say:
This is my body, blood, given for you... and:
These are the Gifts of God for the people of God.

Gifts - Given - Get it?
What is our takeaway lesson?
(Healing flows from God's Self-Giving Love.)

When we come to the Table of the Lord, we partake of His Gifts, His outpouring of Love for us.

Jesus said, "This do in remembrance of me."
When we eat the bread and drink of the cup we are doing something. We are participating in God's self-giving love - the love that heals us by the outpouring of the body and blood of Jesus, the Lamb of God.
Therefore, there is no better time or place to seek healing from God, than immediately after having made your Eucharist or thanksgiving.

In John Chapter 6, Jesus describes Himself as the Bread of Heaven, given, for the life of the world. (51)
In the Lord's Prayer, we pray, Give us this day, our daily Bread...

When we come to the communion table, we eat of our daily bread, the manna from heaven, our very LIFE.

Now, Fr. Peter also talked about our Inheritance as Christians.
What is it? Healing. Body Soul and Spirit.
Healing is described as 'The children's bread' in Mt. 15:26. It's part of our inheritance as Christians.

St. Augustine called the Eucharist, the 'Medicine of Immortality."
And so it is.

Friends, if God was willing to give his very best to us 'while we were still sinners', enemies of God, and to reconcile us through the death of His Son, how much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life and receive all things from our God (Romans 5:14, 8:32) - including our healing?

Friends, RUN to the Communion Table of the Lord!
Why? Because Healing...flows from God's Self-giving Love. AMEN.

Come Follow Me

2009-10-18T05:44:00.000-07:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Let's ponder this seriously - and answer affirmatively.

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

Avoiding Hand, Foot and Eye Disease

2009-10-09T13:37:00.000-07:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

4 'Alls' for Life in the Spirit

2009-08-30T04:11:00.000-07:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

No Rotten Words

2009-08-09T19:12:00.000-07:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This quickly degenerates into name-calling and raised voices.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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