Entering the Promisied Land

Today, October 1, 2006 a small band of intrepid souls met at the Barboursville (WV) Community Center in order to worship together for the first time. Before worship, we had a brief liturgy that called the people together to declare their intent to form a parish. A letter of welcome from Archbishop +Mark Camp was read, and a Call was extended to myself and to Deacon Mark Goldman to be ministers of the new group.

We had a reading from Joshua 3: 5-9; 15 -17 describing how the children of Israel were led by the priests across the Jordan river. A piece of blue fabric was laid on the floor to symbolize the Jordan, and we symbolically
crossed it together. We then used a festive Celtic Eucharist to celebrate the new ministry.

Here is the text of my sermon:

Well… here we are. After years of outrage, and months of thinking and planning, here we are meeting together as a body of people so new we haven’t even figured out what to name ourselves.

Like the people of Israel, we often felt as if we were wandering in the wilderness and that perhaps we would die before ever experiencing any part of the vision we carried to worship God in Spirit and Truth in the company of other faithful, orthodox Christians after the Anglican style.

Not just that, but to experience fellowship with one another around the Lord Jesus Christ – to be transformed into his image and to help others come to the saving knowledge of the Truth and to be transformed themselves - To live in a community of disciples of the Lord Jesus. This has been a hope and a dream of mine for a long time. I think it has been for you as well.

Now we find ourselves crossing Jordan and entering into that promised, hoped for land. But just like Israel, we find that Canaan is in sore need of development!

From our Scripture reading from Joshua, I’d like to draw out Three Steps for us:

One: Just like the people of Israel, we have to be willing to Step Out in faith and put our feet into the river before the miracle occurs. In fact, just like Israel, your priest and deacon have indeed stepped out in the water before you. Five years ago I entered the Convergence movement and began the discernment process for holy orders in the Communion of Evangelical Episcopal Churches. About two years ago, Deacon Mark felt the call to Holy Orders, was ordained a deacon, and is now working on ordination as a priest himself. All this was done completely in faith, without the financial support of a diocese or the reasonable expectation of serving a parish. God compelled us to put our feet into the river before telling us what would happen in the future. It was arduous and we often felt out of place even while trying to obey God.

Now we are joining together, going down in the river bed. The waters have piled up and we are walking into the new land together. We are stepping out in faith that God will lead us, take care of us, and provide for us in ways that we cannot even begin to imagine now.

Two: The Promised Land is full of Promise and challenge. We can reasonably expect that God will richly bless us as we cross over. Yet we should also expect the challenges that come with any new project – the obstacles to overcome and setbacks to redress even as we move ahead as a parish. There are enemies in the Land, the greatest of which is our own selves. Just as the Pogo comic strip advised many years ago “We have met the enemy – and he is us!”

Remember that of all the people who left Egypt, only two, Joshua and Caleb actually entered the Promised Land. The others had allowed themselves to become intimidated by the Giants in the Land and turned back into the wilderness. They had become weary as they wandered in the desert, longing for the meat they had enjoyed in Egypt. They even asked, “Why did we come out of Egypt?” (Numbers 11:20.). There is a real human tendency to become tired and discouraged; to look back and long for the good old days when we used to have such a great place to worship, such a big and active congregation and such nice things. But in fact, there is nothing to go back to. We must be careful to keep looking ahead and to the Lord.

The path we are entering is long. But I fully expect that we will see real miracles along the way: We will grow spiritually, watch people be saved, witness healings, and see wonderful transformation in our lives. But I also know that the Promised Land is a place of battle. Wherever you take a bold stand for God, you will have to fight the Great Enemy, Satan, who hates us and wants us to fail. The apostle Peter tells us that our “enemy, the Devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.” We are told to “Resist him, and remain firm in our faith.” (I Pet. 5:8,9). And James (4:7) assures us that if we do in fact resist the devil, he will flee from us.

We are called as the people of God to take on the full armor of God (Eph. 6: 10-20), to join the fight, and to collaborate with God in the battle to save souls – our own included. This is an active process that demands everything that we have as Christians. Our job is to help people find the Lord so that they don’t end up in Hell as Jesus so vividly reminds us. We must Step Up to the Challenge!

Finally, we desire to Step Into the Promise. The Promise involves being ‘salty’ people in the World. In Jesus’ day, salt could be evaporated out of sea water, or it could be mined from deposits in the earth, in which case it wasn’t always very pure. It could actually lose its salty flavor if it sat around too long in damp conditions. Then it wasn’t any good and had to be thrown out. Salt must be pure to be valuable.

Jesus said that he came to give people Abundant Life. This is a life purified by the Salt of God’s Word, a life purified by the Gospel. To step in the Promise Land means to allow the salt of the Gospel to purify your life over time to such an extent that you become like Jesus and are Transformed into His Image like a living Icon of Christ. This involves Purity and Holiness, wholeness of life. When we have this Life, we become truly salty and cause others to thirst after the Water of Eternal life. That’s how it is when we Step Into the Promised Land.

So friends, here we are. We have Stepped Out in faith ( actually lurched forward). Now we need to Step Up to the Challenge before us. If we do so under God’s guidance, we will Step Into His Promise and become a life-giving, healing community of believers. Amen.

At this point, I asked everyone to come forward, one by one, to be anointed with oil – the Old Testament symbol of God’s Choosing, and the New Testament symbol of the empowering of the Holy Spirit. "Consider this to be the Stepping Up phase", I said, "And that you are asking God to equip us now for the next phase of our journey." With that we had a peaceful and holy time of ministry followed by a joyful Eucharist.

After worship, we had coffee and decided upon a name for the new work: All Saints Anglican Church. Stay tuned for more!