A Sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on June 28, 2009 at the Convent Chapel of St. Mary's Medical Center in Huntington, WV, and based on 2 Corinthians 8:1-15, Deuteronomy 15: 7-11 and Psalm 112.
8:1 We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, 2 for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. 3 For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, 4 begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints— 5 and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us. 6 Accordingly, we urged Titus that as he had started, so he should complete among you this act of grace. 7 But as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all earnestness, and in our love for you —see that you excel in this act of grace also.
8 I say this not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine. 9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich. 10 And in this matter I give my judgment: this benefits you, who a year ago started not only to do this work but also to desire to do it. 11 So now finish doing it as well, so that your readiness in desiring it may be matched by your completing it out of what you have. 12 For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have. 13 For I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened, but that as a matter of fairness 14 your abundance at the present time should supply their need, so that their abundance may supply your need, that there may be fairness. 15 As it is written, “Whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack.” (ESV)
Today, I’d like for us to consider something I think would please the Lord greatly: becoming a “Generosity – Driven” Church. Here are three B’s around which we may organize our thoughts:
The Basis for Generosity
The Barriers to Generosity
The Benefits of Generosity
But first a story:
Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove tells about a church he knew that “decided to launch a building campaign. They were a healthy church with a good pastor, and new members kept coming every month. It was a rural congregation whose size was somewhat limited by the community that surrounded it. If every living soul for five miles around found Jesus, they could probably have still fit in their building. But some folks in the congregation had heard about church growth and started thinking that they needed to build a larger sanctuary along with new classrooms and ‘multi-purpose’ space. So they launched a building campaign.
Through the denomination they hired a fundraising expert who organized an ambitious effort, seeking to raise millions of dollars. But after the church had been at it a number of years and reached only about half of the goal, they decided to end the campaign. Some people felt like it was a failure. They didn’t have enough money to build their big new building. But since they could still fit in the old one, they looked around and asked what else they might use the money for.
It turned out that one family that had come to the church during this time of growth didn’t have much money. The father was disabled, and they struggled to make ends meet. But the church was genuinely glad to have them and really enjoyed the gifts they brought to the community. So the church decided to use some of the money from the campaign fund to build that family a house.”
I think the pastor’s name was Ty Pennington…
But seriously folks…Hartgrove goes on to allow as how there is nothing wrong with building meeting spaces when a church needs it, but he concludes that “a generosity-driven church that builds houses for the poor will never have to worry about church growth. A church that pours itself out as Christ gave himself for the church will always be budding with new life. (“New Monasticism”: pgs. 104-105)
With that example in mind, let’ look at our first ‘B”: The Basis for Generosity
Verse 9 of 2 Cor. 8: “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.”
Phillipians 2:3-8 expands upon this idea in this way: “Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
The Basis for Generosity is first and foremost God’s generosity in sending Jesus Christ to empty himself out of all his divine prerogatives, take on human flesh and live and die for sinners such as us – while we were still sinners! (Romans 5:6). Now that’s Generosity!
By way of contrast, let’s go on to consider what Generosity is NOT based upon:
1) Generosity is not based on what you have – on wealth or riches.
In our passage from Second Corinthians 8: 1-3, Paul tells of the
…”grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. 3 For they gave according to their means, as I can testify - and beyond their means…”
The context for this remark was that in the years 45-47 AD, there was a general famine in the Mediterranean world, but especially in Syria. Crops failed and as a result it was almost impossible to find bread in Jerusalem. The people were starving – and money didn’t help because coins couldn’t scare up grain. So Paul spent a considerable amount of time – maybe up to a couple of years – trying to collect food for those in Jerusalem. This was a formidable task because he had to actually collect the food itself and transport it over hundreds of miles.
Now the Macedonian church was going through a ‘severe test of affliction’ itself. The people were extremely poor. Not just poor, extremely poor. Their giving went beyond their means and became an overflowing wealth of generosity. 2 Cor. 8:12: “For if the readiness [to give] is there, it is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have.”
Generosity is NOT based on our means.
2) It follows logically that Generosity is not based on having a great financial plan for the future. The Macedonians didn’t evaluate their portfolios and then decided how much they could give based on their projected rate of return, market conditions, etc. Their giving was based on a heart of compassion that sought to help others even more pressed than them. This was an ‘act of grace” (v.7). They were determined to give even though they could not see provision up ahead. Therefore, their basis of giving must have been confidence in God and His ability to provide rather than what they could see or plan. This doesn’t preclude planning, but –
Generosity is NOT based on having a great financial plan.
3) Finally, true Generosity is not based on compulsion. The Macedonians begged earnestly for the favor of contributing to the needs of the saints in Jerusalem of their own accord (v. 3). This was not by way of command (v.8), but voluntary giving - the same as that shown by the saints in Jerusalem in the very early days of the church, when the saints were “selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. (Acts 2:45).
Contrast this with State taxation. Government programs to help the poor cannot truly be said to be Generous because they are based on the coercive power of the State to extract your money whether you want to give or not. Rather, Paul sees this as a matter of fairness:
13 For I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened, but that as a matter of fairness 14 your abundance at the present time should supply their need, so that their abundance may supply your need, that there may be fairness. 15 As it is written, “Whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack.”
True Generosity is Not compulsory.
To summarize our first 'B' then: the Basis for Generosity is Christ’s example of self-giving, thankfulness for what God has done, Confidence in God as Provider, Compassion for others, and a desire to participate in what God is doing.
Now let’s look at some Barriers to Generosity
Our reading from Deut. 15:7-11 says : “If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, 8 but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be. 9 Take care lest there be an unworthy thought in your heart and you say, ‘The seventh year, [Jubilee] the year of release is near,’ and your eye look grudgingly on your poor brother, and you give him nothing, and he cry to the Lord against you, and you be guilty of sin. 10 You shall give to him freely, and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him, because for this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake. 11 For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.’
Need is say more? The first barrier to Generosity is Hardness of Heart.
Closely akin to this is Greed. I can’t give because I want stuff, status, or prestige.
This past week I talked to a woman whose heart desire was to stay at home with her kids. Her husband, however, insisted that she go to work full time, even though he himself was making hundreds of thousands of dollars. Worse – when she protested and asked what it was they needed her income for – he couldn’t even say. He wanted money for the sake of prestige and status – not even to buy toys. Greed like this is excessively wicked and God will judge it severely.
Next on our list of barriers is Fear
“What if the economy goes bad?” “What if …Wait a minute! The economy IS bad! What if it gets worse? What if we can’t pay our bills?! What if, What if, What if the sky falls in?! Somehow, I just don’t think this argument would hold much weight with the Macedonians. You see, generosity is based in confidence in God as Provider, no matter what the circumstances. Fear is never a legitimate reason not to give in God’s economy.
Then there is perhaps a more subtle barrier: the challenge to give wisely. It’s possible to give badly – with strings or expectations attached. In Spencer, where my mother and my sister live, there are two Methodist churches within a block of one another. One church has a large endowment which is earmarked for the maintenance and upkeep of the building. The problem is that the money can’t be used for anything else. So the membership keeps dwindling and they can’t pay their monthly bills or fund Outreach ministry– but they have a well-kept building!
Gifts of money can create unhealthy relationships or circumstances. Throwing money at problems can create other problems in its wake. It takes true discernment to give wisely.
So the need to give wisely is a potential barrier to true Generosity – but it’s no excuse. We are still expected to be Generous.
But enough with barriers and problems; on to the Benefits of Generosity
Psalm 112, beginning in verse 5:
5 It is well with the man who deals generously and lends;who conducts his affairs with justice.6 For the righteous will never be moved;he will be remembered forever.7 He is not afraid of bad news;his heart is firm, trusting in the Lord.8 His heart is steady; he will not be afraid,until he looks in triumph on his adversaries.
9 He has distributed freely; he has given to the poor;his righteousness endures forever;his horn is exalted in honor.
The Generous person will be blessed with
Stability
A Righteous Legacy
Confidence
Triumph over enemies
Power
Verses 1-3 of Psalm 112 also add the following benefits:
Great Offspring
Wealth
Riches
Righteousness
Let’s look at these verses now:
“1 Praise the Lord!Blessed is the man who fears the Lord,who greatly delights in his commandments!2 His offspring will be mighty in the land;the generation of the upright will be blessed.3 Wealth and riches are in his house,and his righteousness endures forever.”
Note the exuberance of the Psalmist’s praise. In 2 Cor 8: 2, we find a wonderful phrase to describe this: “Abundance of Joy”.
An excellent benefit of Generosity is Abundance of Joy.
This week, I have watched this Generosity in action as we have had a crew from the World Changers working at Hope House. In talking to the crew members, we learned from one joyful woman, Pam, that this was her 10th World Changers trip in as many years!
Another lady on the crew, Ginger, told us how her church of some 300 people sent 60 of its members to work in Huntington this week! And 11 of them were from her own immediate and extended family! This is extravagant Generosity. And its reward is Joy.
Friday night we went to the World Changers wrap-up dinner and Worship Service at Huntington High School. Believe me, there was lots of enthusiasm and joy in the crowd as they worshipped the Lord and told of experiences they had had during the week.
This kind of giving also leads to Growth in Faith. Generosity opens up opportunities to see God work in ways that we could never imagine. Generosity increases Faith.
It also produces a Good Testimony in the world.
On Monday, I met a young man named Marcel, who lives with his girlfriend, Letitia, three doors down from Hope House. Marcel starts his days by sitting out on the front stoop and drinking beer from a bottle in a paper bag. Over the course of five days, I talked with Marcel numerous times and even had the opportunity to invite him into Hope House at one point. He looked around and after the tour, he told me in slurred speech, “You guys sure are doin’ a great thing here. After you get this done, we should have a party – a good one, not a bad one, you know. We’ll get together and celebrate. …”
Because we as a congregation have been generous in the Fairfield community, we have a good reputation with nonbelievers. Over the course of time, I fully expect that some, if not many, will come to know Christ – largely because we have sown into the life of the community generously thus creating a Good Testimony.
So to return to our challenge or call – It pleases God for us to become a Generosity – Driven Church.
I do believe that we are generous already. When you look at the numbers on our financial report every month, I think you would have to agree that we are generous. But I think we have room to grow in this.
Robert Shnase, in his book, “Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations” says that ‘Extravagantly Generous congregations emphasize mission, purpose, and life-changing results rather than shortages, budgets and institutional loyalty”. …”They emphasize the Christian’s need to give more than the church’s need for money. They teach, preach, and practice proportional giving with the goal of tithing. …They speak of joy, devotion, honoring God, and the steady growth of spirit that leads to greater [and greater] generosity.” (pg 119).
I think that sounds like an exciting way to approach giving – and I hope you do too.
So how shall we proceed? How do we become “Generosity-Driven”?
Start with the Tithe. If you’re not tithing already, make a plan to become a tither. This is the one area where God specifically invites us to test him: Malachi 3:10-12: “Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. 11 I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil, and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the Lord of hosts. 12 Then all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight, says the Lord of hosts.”
Put God to the test and see if He will not provide for you as you give generously. Plan to increase your giving one per cent per year until you have reached the Tithe – and see if the Lord does not provide for your every need.
Our commitment to AMIA is that we participate in the 10-10-10 plan. We all tithe to the church. The Church tithes to AMIA, and AMIA sends a tithe to Rwanda, granting 50% of its monies back to local ministries. This is where our $9500 grant for the HVAC system at Hope House came from. We benefited from others’ generosity and we in turn we must be a blessing to others.
But even beyond ‘paying our dues’ to AMIA, as a congregation, let’s begin to think about this notion of Extravagant Giving. What would the Lord have us to do that we would become more and more known as a Generosity-Driven Church? Let’s commit to praying about it and ‘put God to the Test” and see if He does not open the windows of heaven – even to the point where we have to say “Enough, Lord, stay your hand.”
Let’s become Macedonians, characterized by Abundance of Joy who give ‘beyond our means because we know that God’s means can never be exhausted. Amen? Amen.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Monday, June 15, 2009
Death is Swallowed up in Life
A sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on June 14, 2009 at the Convent Chapel of St. Mary's Medical Center, Huntington, WV and based on II Corinthians 5:1-10.
Recently I spoke with a woman who had lost her daughter in a sudden, tragic accident. She was beside herself with grief, totally preoccupied with thoughts about what she might have or could have done to prevent the death - even though she was no where near her daughter when the accident occurred. She was in shock, unable to grasp the reality that her daughter was gone. And she was also afraid because while she was basically sure of her daughter’s character and knew that she had made a personal confession of faith, the young woman hadn’t gone to church very regularly. In addition, there were a couple of other things that caused the mother worry that her daughter might not make it to heaven because of gaps in her Christian ‘resume’. She was distraught over the destruction over her daughter’s ‘earthly house’ and fearful over the status of her ‘heavenly dwelling” as Paul might have phrased it.
In the midst of her confused feelings, she was actually right to be concerned. As we read in our passage from 2 Corinthians, we are creatures of two dwellings: 1) the earthly tent, our physical body, and 2) our heavenly dwelling, a building made by God, our resurrection body( I Thess. 4:13-18; Rev. 21:1-22:5) The first is flimsy, subject to corruption and death. The second is eternal, solid, a “building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”
In the earthly tent we are conscious that there is more to be had, and so we groan and long for the day when we are ‘further clothed’ with the heavenly existence so that we may not be found naked – a likely reference to the so-called intermediate state between death and the believer’s resurrection in which we live as disembodied spirits while we await resurrection. We groan for the mortal to be “swallowed up by life”. Yet we are also very much this-world centered and it’s really difficult at times to imagine what it would be like to be ‘absent from the body and present with the Lord’. Nevertheless, for thousands of years, Christians have thought of themselves as ‘Pilgrims’(Hebrews 11:13), strangers or exiles on a journey through this life, whose citizenship is in heaven (Phil. 3:20).
Joan Chittister has a wonderful description of this kind of pilgrim mentality. She describes pilgrim people as those who have a ‘Barefooted Soul’, who walk through this life awake, alert, Grateful, and only partially at home.
The folk song “Poor Wayfaring Stranger” also comes to mind. The plaintive lyrics speak of passing through a world of trouble on the way to see one’s parents and find a place of release from suffering.
I'm just a poor wayfaring stranger
Traveling through this world below
But there's no sickness, toil or danger
In that brith world to which I go.
I'm going threre to see my father
I'm going there no more to roam
I"m just a goin' over Jordan
I'm just a goin' over home.
Now, I grant you that the thinking expressed in this song is almost entirely negative. Life is hard, full of trials, deprecations and self-denial. There is a palpable sense of longing to be released from the struggle. I’m guessing that most of us don’t see life that way. Our culture has created such material comforts for us that our basic outlook about life is that it is Good. If we have trouble along the way, this is an aberration. In our culture, people write books about ‘why bad things happen to good people’, and spend hours debating why God allows evil things to happen in the world. If we fail, we expect someone to bail us out. We just can’t allow life to be Hard.
But as we can see – and feel – through the Wayfaring Stranger song, there is another more somber way of approaching life – one that understands that life is basically difficult and hard – and that suffering in this life is no surprise. This approach does not shake the fist at God, wondering why He allows hardship. Rather it looks forward to going ‘over Jordan’ and being released from suffering and death.
Now you might say, “That seems like an awfully negative way to view life – especially in view of all the good things there are to enjoy in life.” And you’re right. You and I live lives that the kings and nobility of the past couldn’t even imagine. We have so much material comfort that we often can’t relate to an outlook that sees life as hard or full of toil – something to be released from – a world we are traveling through on the way to somewhere else.
As Christians, I think we have a basic conflict within ourselves. How do we live here in this world, while we are traveling to another world? How do we take care of, and work for real change in this world, when ‘it’s all going to burn’ someday? Isn’t it all just futile?
And the answer is, “No, it’s not futile.” And that’s because there is a connection between this life and the next. What we do here really matters. The Kingdom of God is in our midst and God really does care for this world. Our eventual destination is not just “Heaven”, but Heaven on Earth – a New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven in which we live in resurrection bodies just the same as Jesus has (Rev. 212:2). This current world will eventually be recreated, but it has also been ‘invaded’ by God, and His Kingdom exists here and now.
Author Gustave Aulen refers to this as the “eschatological present” – life that happens between the first coming of Christ and his eventual return, life that sees the future in the now, and calls things that are not as if they already are (Romans 4:17) - life lived as a ‘caretaking Pilgrim’ if you will – someone who’s just passing through, but makes the world better as he goes.
So, that’s all pretty abstract. How does it relate to my daily life?
I’d like to suggest four directions for us out of this passage:
1) Have Faith
2) Please God
3) Remember Judgment
4) Expect a Crown
Let’s take them one by one and consider some ways we might apply these points.
Have Faith.
Paul tells us that we ‘walk by faith, not sight’ (v.7). Hebrews 11:1 says that … “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen”. Faith is Certainty in another reality that causes us to do things that don’t make sense to the world – such as spending your whole life building an ark when there’s not a rain cloud in sight, or refusing to bow down to an Emperor and dying because of it.
The important thing to remember about faith is that we don’t just endorse a set of ideas, or place our confidence in our faith itself, but that we Know Someone personally. As a result of this personal knowledge of Jesus Christ, we do certain things.
We don’t just passively possess faith, we actively exercise it. We are told to be courageous in the face of difficulties, to act and to be comforted and built up by the deposit of the Holy Spirit within us. We must believe God when he tells us that this world is not our ultimate home and that if we leave this body, we will be with Him. We are to have or exercise Faith.
Please God
Next, we are to Please God. What is it that pleases Him?
James 1:27 says, “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” In other words, care for those who cannot care for themselves and live a pure lifestyle. Micah 6:8 says it this way: “He has shown thee O man, what is good and what the Lord requires of thee, but to do justice and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God.”
We are to be just and merciful in our dealings with others – to treat everyone as if they were Jesus – and to be humble in our relationship with God. That means that we seek him through an attitude of listening prayer and ‘do whatever he tells us’ (John 2:5) – even if it seems contrary to what we think we want. After all, just think about the number of times your own parents wanted you to do something that you didn’t like, but which later turned out to be good for you. Those who serve the Lord in humility please him. Those who pursue their own way do not.
Remember Judgment
We must all appear before the judgment seat, or ‘bēma’ (Grk) of Christ. The bema was the tribunal bench in the Roman courtroom, where the governor sat while delivering his judgments. If you were to go to the Corinthian forum today, you could actually see the remains of such a bēma, which still exist. Like a Roman judge, Christ sits on the seat of Judgement,and when we die we stand before Him “so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil” (v. 10). Everything we do matters. Every act has consequences for good or ill – and we are responsible to Christ for all of it.
It is important to remember however, that believers face a different sort of judgement than non-believers. When the Christian is judged, he pleads the blood of Christ as His righteousness; he comes before Christ as a brother, already accepted by virtue of the finished work of Christ on the cross. The Christian’s works may be found to be ‘wood, hay, stubble, or precious jewels, gold and silver (1 Cor. 3:12-15). Our reward depends upon how faithfully we have built upon the foundation of Christ. Works that glorify our Lord receive a reward; works built on self are burned up as if going through a fire (v. 15). The believer is saved, but his works may perish.
Expect a Crown
Revelation 4:10 describes how the saints cast their crowns before the Lord. Here are five different types of crowns that that we might receive based on our works:
(1) The Crown of Righteousness
2 Tim. 4:8: 8 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. This crown is for those who are living "soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world" (Tit. 2:12).
(2) The Incorruptible Crown or "Victor's Crown"
1 Cor. 9:25: And every man that strives for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.”
(3) The Crown of Rejoicing or "Soul Winner's Crown"
1 Thess. 2:19, 20: For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you? For you are our glory and joy.
Phil. 4:1: Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved.
(4) The Crown of Life or "Martyr's Crown" (Js. 1:12; Rev. 2:10).
For those who suffer and give their lives for the gospel:
James 1:12: 12: 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.
Revelation 2:10: 10 Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.
(5) The Crown of Glory or "Pastor's Crown" (1 Pet. 5:2-4).
There’s even a crown for pastors, or ‘under-shpeherds’:
1 Peter 5:2-4: 2 shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; 3 not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. 4 And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. …So – expect a crown.
Again, the four directives are:
Have Faith
Please God
Remember Judgment
Expect a Crown
In wrapping up, I’d like to go back to the grieving mother I mentioned at the beginning. During a time of healing prayer the Lord showed her a picture of her daughter walking off with Jesus, and then turning back towards her mother and smiling. In this very brief visual image, she apprehended the essential truth that her daughter had left her earthly tent and was headed off with Jesus towards her heavenly dwelling. At that point, the mother was able to let go of her confused struggle and find peace by letting go and allowing her daughter to be cared for by Jesus.
Each one of us is headed for our heavenly dwelling as well. May God grant us the grace and comfort of the Holy Spirit as we live with one foot in each world, awaiting his Glorious coming, and groaning to be clothed with Resurrection Life. AMEN.
Recently I spoke with a woman who had lost her daughter in a sudden, tragic accident. She was beside herself with grief, totally preoccupied with thoughts about what she might have or could have done to prevent the death - even though she was no where near her daughter when the accident occurred. She was in shock, unable to grasp the reality that her daughter was gone. And she was also afraid because while she was basically sure of her daughter’s character and knew that she had made a personal confession of faith, the young woman hadn’t gone to church very regularly. In addition, there were a couple of other things that caused the mother worry that her daughter might not make it to heaven because of gaps in her Christian ‘resume’. She was distraught over the destruction over her daughter’s ‘earthly house’ and fearful over the status of her ‘heavenly dwelling” as Paul might have phrased it.
In the midst of her confused feelings, she was actually right to be concerned. As we read in our passage from 2 Corinthians, we are creatures of two dwellings: 1) the earthly tent, our physical body, and 2) our heavenly dwelling, a building made by God, our resurrection body( I Thess. 4:13-18; Rev. 21:1-22:5) The first is flimsy, subject to corruption and death. The second is eternal, solid, a “building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”
In the earthly tent we are conscious that there is more to be had, and so we groan and long for the day when we are ‘further clothed’ with the heavenly existence so that we may not be found naked – a likely reference to the so-called intermediate state between death and the believer’s resurrection in which we live as disembodied spirits while we await resurrection. We groan for the mortal to be “swallowed up by life”. Yet we are also very much this-world centered and it’s really difficult at times to imagine what it would be like to be ‘absent from the body and present with the Lord’. Nevertheless, for thousands of years, Christians have thought of themselves as ‘Pilgrims’(Hebrews 11:13), strangers or exiles on a journey through this life, whose citizenship is in heaven (Phil. 3:20).
Joan Chittister has a wonderful description of this kind of pilgrim mentality. She describes pilgrim people as those who have a ‘Barefooted Soul’, who walk through this life awake, alert, Grateful, and only partially at home.
The folk song “Poor Wayfaring Stranger” also comes to mind. The plaintive lyrics speak of passing through a world of trouble on the way to see one’s parents and find a place of release from suffering.
I'm just a poor wayfaring stranger
Traveling through this world below
But there's no sickness, toil or danger
In that brith world to which I go.
I'm going threre to see my father
I'm going there no more to roam
I"m just a goin' over Jordan
I'm just a goin' over home.
Now, I grant you that the thinking expressed in this song is almost entirely negative. Life is hard, full of trials, deprecations and self-denial. There is a palpable sense of longing to be released from the struggle. I’m guessing that most of us don’t see life that way. Our culture has created such material comforts for us that our basic outlook about life is that it is Good. If we have trouble along the way, this is an aberration. In our culture, people write books about ‘why bad things happen to good people’, and spend hours debating why God allows evil things to happen in the world. If we fail, we expect someone to bail us out. We just can’t allow life to be Hard.
But as we can see – and feel – through the Wayfaring Stranger song, there is another more somber way of approaching life – one that understands that life is basically difficult and hard – and that suffering in this life is no surprise. This approach does not shake the fist at God, wondering why He allows hardship. Rather it looks forward to going ‘over Jordan’ and being released from suffering and death.
Now you might say, “That seems like an awfully negative way to view life – especially in view of all the good things there are to enjoy in life.” And you’re right. You and I live lives that the kings and nobility of the past couldn’t even imagine. We have so much material comfort that we often can’t relate to an outlook that sees life as hard or full of toil – something to be released from – a world we are traveling through on the way to somewhere else.
As Christians, I think we have a basic conflict within ourselves. How do we live here in this world, while we are traveling to another world? How do we take care of, and work for real change in this world, when ‘it’s all going to burn’ someday? Isn’t it all just futile?
And the answer is, “No, it’s not futile.” And that’s because there is a connection between this life and the next. What we do here really matters. The Kingdom of God is in our midst and God really does care for this world. Our eventual destination is not just “Heaven”, but Heaven on Earth – a New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven in which we live in resurrection bodies just the same as Jesus has (Rev. 212:2). This current world will eventually be recreated, but it has also been ‘invaded’ by God, and His Kingdom exists here and now.
Author Gustave Aulen refers to this as the “eschatological present” – life that happens between the first coming of Christ and his eventual return, life that sees the future in the now, and calls things that are not as if they already are (Romans 4:17) - life lived as a ‘caretaking Pilgrim’ if you will – someone who’s just passing through, but makes the world better as he goes.
So, that’s all pretty abstract. How does it relate to my daily life?
I’d like to suggest four directions for us out of this passage:
1) Have Faith
2) Please God
3) Remember Judgment
4) Expect a Crown
Let’s take them one by one and consider some ways we might apply these points.
Have Faith.
Paul tells us that we ‘walk by faith, not sight’ (v.7). Hebrews 11:1 says that … “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen”. Faith is Certainty in another reality that causes us to do things that don’t make sense to the world – such as spending your whole life building an ark when there’s not a rain cloud in sight, or refusing to bow down to an Emperor and dying because of it.
The important thing to remember about faith is that we don’t just endorse a set of ideas, or place our confidence in our faith itself, but that we Know Someone personally. As a result of this personal knowledge of Jesus Christ, we do certain things.
We don’t just passively possess faith, we actively exercise it. We are told to be courageous in the face of difficulties, to act and to be comforted and built up by the deposit of the Holy Spirit within us. We must believe God when he tells us that this world is not our ultimate home and that if we leave this body, we will be with Him. We are to have or exercise Faith.
Please God
Next, we are to Please God. What is it that pleases Him?
James 1:27 says, “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” In other words, care for those who cannot care for themselves and live a pure lifestyle. Micah 6:8 says it this way: “He has shown thee O man, what is good and what the Lord requires of thee, but to do justice and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God.”
We are to be just and merciful in our dealings with others – to treat everyone as if they were Jesus – and to be humble in our relationship with God. That means that we seek him through an attitude of listening prayer and ‘do whatever he tells us’ (John 2:5) – even if it seems contrary to what we think we want. After all, just think about the number of times your own parents wanted you to do something that you didn’t like, but which later turned out to be good for you. Those who serve the Lord in humility please him. Those who pursue their own way do not.
Remember Judgment
We must all appear before the judgment seat, or ‘bēma’ (Grk) of Christ. The bema was the tribunal bench in the Roman courtroom, where the governor sat while delivering his judgments. If you were to go to the Corinthian forum today, you could actually see the remains of such a bēma, which still exist. Like a Roman judge, Christ sits on the seat of Judgement,and when we die we stand before Him “so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil” (v. 10). Everything we do matters. Every act has consequences for good or ill – and we are responsible to Christ for all of it.
It is important to remember however, that believers face a different sort of judgement than non-believers. When the Christian is judged, he pleads the blood of Christ as His righteousness; he comes before Christ as a brother, already accepted by virtue of the finished work of Christ on the cross. The Christian’s works may be found to be ‘wood, hay, stubble, or precious jewels, gold and silver (1 Cor. 3:12-15). Our reward depends upon how faithfully we have built upon the foundation of Christ. Works that glorify our Lord receive a reward; works built on self are burned up as if going through a fire (v. 15). The believer is saved, but his works may perish.
Expect a Crown
Revelation 4:10 describes how the saints cast their crowns before the Lord. Here are five different types of crowns that that we might receive based on our works:
(1) The Crown of Righteousness
2 Tim. 4:8: 8 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. This crown is for those who are living "soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world" (Tit. 2:12).
(2) The Incorruptible Crown or "Victor's Crown"
1 Cor. 9:25: And every man that strives for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.”
(3) The Crown of Rejoicing or "Soul Winner's Crown"
1 Thess. 2:19, 20: For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you? For you are our glory and joy.
Phil. 4:1: Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved.
(4) The Crown of Life or "Martyr's Crown" (Js. 1:12; Rev. 2:10).
For those who suffer and give their lives for the gospel:
James 1:12: 12: 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.
Revelation 2:10: 10 Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.
(5) The Crown of Glory or "Pastor's Crown" (1 Pet. 5:2-4).
There’s even a crown for pastors, or ‘under-shpeherds’:
1 Peter 5:2-4: 2 shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; 3 not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. 4 And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. …So – expect a crown.
Again, the four directives are:
Have Faith
Please God
Remember Judgment
Expect a Crown
In wrapping up, I’d like to go back to the grieving mother I mentioned at the beginning. During a time of healing prayer the Lord showed her a picture of her daughter walking off with Jesus, and then turning back towards her mother and smiling. In this very brief visual image, she apprehended the essential truth that her daughter had left her earthly tent and was headed off with Jesus towards her heavenly dwelling. At that point, the mother was able to let go of her confused struggle and find peace by letting go and allowing her daughter to be cared for by Jesus.
Each one of us is headed for our heavenly dwelling as well. May God grant us the grace and comfort of the Holy Spirit as we live with one foot in each world, awaiting his Glorious coming, and groaning to be clothed with Resurrection Life. AMEN.
Sunday, June 07, 2009
Trinity Sunday 2009
A sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on Trinity Sunday, June 7, 2009, at the convent Chapel of St. Mary's Medical Center, Huntington, WV.
Almighty Creator, who hast made all things,
The World cannot express all thy glories,
Even though the grass and the trees should sing.
The Father has wrought so great a multitude of wonders
That they cannot be equaled.
No letters can contain them, no letters can express them.
He who made the wonder of the world
Will save us, has saved us.
It is not too great a toil to praise the Trinity
Purely, humbly, in skillful verse
I should delight to give praise to the Trinity
In the Name of the Father and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The little poem I just quoted comes from Wales and probably originated some time in the ninth century. I found it in a book called ‘A Celtic Psaltery’, compiled by David Adam, who is the vicar of the Holy Island in Northumbria and who has written or compiled 15 books about Celtic spirituality.
In preparing for this day of marking Trinity Sunday, my thoughts immediately gravitated to the Celts because as a culture, they seem to have had an intuitive understanding of ‘threeness’, even before the Gospel reached their shores.
Author Timothy Joyce notes that an awareness of ‘threeness’ was explicit in the pagan worship of the goddess Bridget, ‘who appeared in three forms: the goddesses of fire, of poetry, and of fertility, all three named Bridget!” Later, when the Celts became Christians, “this Trinitarian consciousness permeated Celtic spirituality An awareness of the threefold God shaped prayer after prayer, and a triad way of expressing prayer became common as well.” Joyce goes on to illustrate how “One such ritual prayer was a practice immediately following the birth of a child. The baby was carried in a circle around the room three times in the direction of the sun. Then it was handed over a fire three times in purification, and finally three drops of water were placed on its head. Thus was the child marked with the Trinity prior to its formal baptism.” (Celtic Christianity, A sacred tradition, a vision of hope, pgs. 19, 20).
Now I don’t know about you, but my understanding of the Trinity is considerably less ‘organic’ than this – although come to think of it, my wife comes from a family of three girls, Cindy and I had three girls – and my oldest daughter has three children – so maybe there is an organic connection to the Trinity in our family after all… and perhaps that family metaphor is apt.
“The God whom the Celtic peoples know is above all the Godhead who is Trinity, the God whose very essence is that of a threefold unity of person, three persons bound in a unity of love… [this] speaks …of harmony, unity, interrelationship, [and] interdependence…’ says Esther de Waal in her book, The Celtic Way of Prayer (‘CWP’pg. 38).
Our Western intellectual tradition leads us to view the Trinity in a rational, ‘scientific’ mode, as a sort of problem to be solved rather than as a mystery to be celebrated. Our minds tend to trip on this mystery, and instead of increasing our faith in God, this doctrine may actually become a stumbling block to us.
What Celtic spirituality offers us is an understanding of the Trinity that is natural, immediately accessible, and which can be understood in metaphors from common life, as in these lines from the Poem Book of Gael, complied by Eleanor Gull(quoted in de Waal, pgs. 39, 40)
“Three folds of the cloth, yet only one napkin is there,
Three Joints in the finger, but still only one finger fair.
Three leaves of the shamrock, yet no more than one shamrock to wear,
Frost, snow-flakes and ice, all in water their origin share
Three Persons in God; to one God alone we make prayer.”
This homey understanding of the Trinity resorts naturally to song and poetry in order to express deep mysteries that cannot really be understood or parsed intellectually, but which can actually be lived out intimately.
Esther de Waal says it well for us: “I want to be able to take my Trinitarian understanding into my daily life, into my praying and living, and words such as this help me to do that.” (CWP, pg. 45).
She’s talking about things like starting your day by splashing your face with water three times in honor of the Trinity – or crossing yourself “in the name of the Father, the son and the Holy Spirit” before you turn on your computer or begin a new work. She’s talking about contemplating the Trinity and then having words available to us such as the traditional prayer that an Irish woman might have used to bank the household fire at night:
The sacred Three
To save,
To shield,
To surround
The hearth,
The house,
The household
This eve,
This night,
Oh! This eve,
This night,
And every night,
Each single night.
Amen. (CWP pg. 48).
Do you have a relationship with the Trinity like this? …Me neither. It’s just not a part of my cultural equipment to think this way – even though I am trying to apply some of these ideas in my daily life. This is why we need words to help shape our thought process. Words such as the Nicene Creed, which we recite every Sunday – or the Athanasian Creed, which we will use today at the end of this sermon. Words such as this opening verse from a hymn by St. Columba:
The High Creator, the Unbegotten Ancient of Days,
Was without origin of beginning, limitless,
He is and He will be for endless ages of ages,
With whom is the only-begotten Christ, and the
Holy Spirit,
Co-eternal in the everlasting glory of divinity.
We do not confess three gods, but say one God,
Saving our faith in three most glorious Persons.
(Quoted in CWP, pg. 45).
Words such as these concerning the Trinity from St. Patrick:
“[Our God] has a Son co-eternal with himself and similar in all respects to himself; and neither is the Son younger than the Father, nor is the Father older than the Son; And the Holy Spirit breathes in them; Not separate are the Father and the Son and Holy Spirit.”
Who among us thinks this way naturally? Nobody – which is why we need these exalted and poetic words to help shape our thinking and our praying.
And here let me make a short defense for our liturgical style of worship. Our culture has come to denigrate Words and despise repetition. Words have been so devalued that important concepts in Religion, Politics and Morality commonly get swept under the carpet during debates with moronic phrases like “Whatever…”
Folks, Words matter. They matter because they convey meanings that are really important. But they also matter because they are beautiful and because the beauty of words feeds our soul. Our Bible contains books of Poetry and Wisdom. There are quotations from ancient hymns, and Songs, or Canticles, sung at important times by people like Moses, Mary, Simeon and Isaiah.
Compared to these wonderful Canticles, our normal daily vocabulary is pathetically limited when it comes to expressing depth and beauty in prayer.
We also think that ‘spontaneous’ prayer is superior to written prayer because it “comes from heart” and is more immediate. I’m not denying this and I do think spontaneous prayer is important, but we are also creatures who need input from outside ourselves to shape our spirituality and to help us to have vocabulary to express grander concepts than, “Just help us to have a good day today Lord,” or “God please heal us” or “Give us the money we need.”
Our liturgical prayers are carefully crafted to express deep truths in beautiful ways so that we can have something interesting to say to God – and so that our spirits may be nourished by the music of Words. We memorize and pray Songs and poetry from Scripture, as well as Collects and other prayers, because we believe in the Word, the Logos, but also because we believe in words as meaningful and spiritually helpful to us.
Liturgical worship is word based in both of these senses of ‘Word”. And on a day like Trinity Sunday, we need beautiful and precise words to help us grasp mysteries such as the Trinity.
Returning to our subject, I think the real importance of the Trinity in our daily lives is to help us understand the interrelatedness of all things and to help us grasp that God is not a distant and far-off impersonal Concept, but a deeply personal relational being who is with us in our everyday activities and who wants to be part of our daily lives. This is what the Celts seem to have grasped intuitively – that God is indeed Emmanuel – ‘With us”. He is indeed a ‘very present help in time of trouble (Ps. 46), a comfort to our souls, an Illuminator of words and the Word, as well the One who convicts us of our sins and graciously forgives us. He is the Creator God who pours out his gifts upon us abundantly each day and the One to who all praise and honor is due. He is the One we respond to in love –just as our Celtic Prayer of Dedication so beautifully expresses it:
“I am giving Thee offering with my whole thought,
I am giving Thee Love with my whole heart,
I am giving Thee affection with my whole devotion.
And I am giving Thee my soul, O God of all Gods.”
I pray for us that we may all enjoy this deeply personal affection for, and devotion to our God. May we also enjoy the Celtic appreciation for ‘threeness’ and for the poetry and music of our liturgical worship. In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. AMEN.
Almighty Creator, who hast made all things,
The World cannot express all thy glories,
Even though the grass and the trees should sing.
The Father has wrought so great a multitude of wonders
That they cannot be equaled.
No letters can contain them, no letters can express them.
He who made the wonder of the world
Will save us, has saved us.
It is not too great a toil to praise the Trinity
Purely, humbly, in skillful verse
I should delight to give praise to the Trinity
In the Name of the Father and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The little poem I just quoted comes from Wales and probably originated some time in the ninth century. I found it in a book called ‘A Celtic Psaltery’, compiled by David Adam, who is the vicar of the Holy Island in Northumbria and who has written or compiled 15 books about Celtic spirituality.
In preparing for this day of marking Trinity Sunday, my thoughts immediately gravitated to the Celts because as a culture, they seem to have had an intuitive understanding of ‘threeness’, even before the Gospel reached their shores.
Author Timothy Joyce notes that an awareness of ‘threeness’ was explicit in the pagan worship of the goddess Bridget, ‘who appeared in three forms: the goddesses of fire, of poetry, and of fertility, all three named Bridget!” Later, when the Celts became Christians, “this Trinitarian consciousness permeated Celtic spirituality An awareness of the threefold God shaped prayer after prayer, and a triad way of expressing prayer became common as well.” Joyce goes on to illustrate how “One such ritual prayer was a practice immediately following the birth of a child. The baby was carried in a circle around the room three times in the direction of the sun. Then it was handed over a fire three times in purification, and finally three drops of water were placed on its head. Thus was the child marked with the Trinity prior to its formal baptism.” (Celtic Christianity, A sacred tradition, a vision of hope, pgs. 19, 20).
Now I don’t know about you, but my understanding of the Trinity is considerably less ‘organic’ than this – although come to think of it, my wife comes from a family of three girls, Cindy and I had three girls – and my oldest daughter has three children – so maybe there is an organic connection to the Trinity in our family after all… and perhaps that family metaphor is apt.
“The God whom the Celtic peoples know is above all the Godhead who is Trinity, the God whose very essence is that of a threefold unity of person, three persons bound in a unity of love… [this] speaks …of harmony, unity, interrelationship, [and] interdependence…’ says Esther de Waal in her book, The Celtic Way of Prayer (‘CWP’pg. 38).
Our Western intellectual tradition leads us to view the Trinity in a rational, ‘scientific’ mode, as a sort of problem to be solved rather than as a mystery to be celebrated. Our minds tend to trip on this mystery, and instead of increasing our faith in God, this doctrine may actually become a stumbling block to us.
What Celtic spirituality offers us is an understanding of the Trinity that is natural, immediately accessible, and which can be understood in metaphors from common life, as in these lines from the Poem Book of Gael, complied by Eleanor Gull(quoted in de Waal, pgs. 39, 40)
“Three folds of the cloth, yet only one napkin is there,
Three Joints in the finger, but still only one finger fair.
Three leaves of the shamrock, yet no more than one shamrock to wear,
Frost, snow-flakes and ice, all in water their origin share
Three Persons in God; to one God alone we make prayer.”
This homey understanding of the Trinity resorts naturally to song and poetry in order to express deep mysteries that cannot really be understood or parsed intellectually, but which can actually be lived out intimately.
Esther de Waal says it well for us: “I want to be able to take my Trinitarian understanding into my daily life, into my praying and living, and words such as this help me to do that.” (CWP, pg. 45).
She’s talking about things like starting your day by splashing your face with water three times in honor of the Trinity – or crossing yourself “in the name of the Father, the son and the Holy Spirit” before you turn on your computer or begin a new work. She’s talking about contemplating the Trinity and then having words available to us such as the traditional prayer that an Irish woman might have used to bank the household fire at night:
The sacred Three
To save,
To shield,
To surround
The hearth,
The house,
The household
This eve,
This night,
Oh! This eve,
This night,
And every night,
Each single night.
Amen. (CWP pg. 48).
Do you have a relationship with the Trinity like this? …Me neither. It’s just not a part of my cultural equipment to think this way – even though I am trying to apply some of these ideas in my daily life. This is why we need words to help shape our thought process. Words such as the Nicene Creed, which we recite every Sunday – or the Athanasian Creed, which we will use today at the end of this sermon. Words such as this opening verse from a hymn by St. Columba:
The High Creator, the Unbegotten Ancient of Days,
Was without origin of beginning, limitless,
He is and He will be for endless ages of ages,
With whom is the only-begotten Christ, and the
Holy Spirit,
Co-eternal in the everlasting glory of divinity.
We do not confess three gods, but say one God,
Saving our faith in three most glorious Persons.
(Quoted in CWP, pg. 45).
Words such as these concerning the Trinity from St. Patrick:
“[Our God] has a Son co-eternal with himself and similar in all respects to himself; and neither is the Son younger than the Father, nor is the Father older than the Son; And the Holy Spirit breathes in them; Not separate are the Father and the Son and Holy Spirit.”
Who among us thinks this way naturally? Nobody – which is why we need these exalted and poetic words to help shape our thinking and our praying.
And here let me make a short defense for our liturgical style of worship. Our culture has come to denigrate Words and despise repetition. Words have been so devalued that important concepts in Religion, Politics and Morality commonly get swept under the carpet during debates with moronic phrases like “Whatever…”
Folks, Words matter. They matter because they convey meanings that are really important. But they also matter because they are beautiful and because the beauty of words feeds our soul. Our Bible contains books of Poetry and Wisdom. There are quotations from ancient hymns, and Songs, or Canticles, sung at important times by people like Moses, Mary, Simeon and Isaiah.
Compared to these wonderful Canticles, our normal daily vocabulary is pathetically limited when it comes to expressing depth and beauty in prayer.
We also think that ‘spontaneous’ prayer is superior to written prayer because it “comes from heart” and is more immediate. I’m not denying this and I do think spontaneous prayer is important, but we are also creatures who need input from outside ourselves to shape our spirituality and to help us to have vocabulary to express grander concepts than, “Just help us to have a good day today Lord,” or “God please heal us” or “Give us the money we need.”
Our liturgical prayers are carefully crafted to express deep truths in beautiful ways so that we can have something interesting to say to God – and so that our spirits may be nourished by the music of Words. We memorize and pray Songs and poetry from Scripture, as well as Collects and other prayers, because we believe in the Word, the Logos, but also because we believe in words as meaningful and spiritually helpful to us.
Liturgical worship is word based in both of these senses of ‘Word”. And on a day like Trinity Sunday, we need beautiful and precise words to help us grasp mysteries such as the Trinity.
Returning to our subject, I think the real importance of the Trinity in our daily lives is to help us understand the interrelatedness of all things and to help us grasp that God is not a distant and far-off impersonal Concept, but a deeply personal relational being who is with us in our everyday activities and who wants to be part of our daily lives. This is what the Celts seem to have grasped intuitively – that God is indeed Emmanuel – ‘With us”. He is indeed a ‘very present help in time of trouble (Ps. 46), a comfort to our souls, an Illuminator of words and the Word, as well the One who convicts us of our sins and graciously forgives us. He is the Creator God who pours out his gifts upon us abundantly each day and the One to who all praise and honor is due. He is the One we respond to in love –just as our Celtic Prayer of Dedication so beautifully expresses it:
“I am giving Thee offering with my whole thought,
I am giving Thee Love with my whole heart,
I am giving Thee affection with my whole devotion.
And I am giving Thee my soul, O God of all Gods.”
I pray for us that we may all enjoy this deeply personal affection for, and devotion to our God. May we also enjoy the Celtic appreciation for ‘threeness’ and for the poetry and music of our liturgical worship. In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. AMEN.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Jesus Prays for His Disciples
A Sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on May 24, 2009 at the Convent Chapel of St. Mary's Medical Center, Huntington, WV, based on John 17:11b-19:
"Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. 13 But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. 14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth." (ESV)
Today’s gospel reading is a portion of Jesus’ last recorded prayer before going to Calvary. It is his only recorded extended prayer, his so-called “High Priestly” prayer for himself and his disciples before dying on the cross. This particular section pertains to the church itself and we learn several key things about ourselves as the church that we may summarize in the following statement:
God keeps, sanctifies and unifies his people who live in the world so that they may take the Truth of God to the world without becoming like the world.
Now, regarding the keeping power of God, we observe that in verse 11, Jesus hands his disciples back to God. God has given followers to Jesus and he has guarded and kept them while he was on earth (verse 12). None was lost except Judas, and this was ordained before hand.
This is a team effort in which The Father and The Son work together to birth and protect their creation, the church. Christ has faithfully imparted God’s Word to his disciples, and his desire for them is that they experience the same unity that He himself enjoys with the Father - that his people may have His joy as they live in the world. Jesus also asks God to ‘sanctify’ his people (v.17) – to make them holy or ‘set apart’ so that they may be kept as a unique and ‘otherworldly’ people, even while they are in the world.
Now, let’s ask ourselves a question. Up to this point, what is that the followers of Jesus do or accomplish? …. Nothing. This is a conversation a takes place within the Godhead in the Garden of Gethsemane – while the disciples are mostly sawing logs. (With the exception that someone must have been awake enough to overhear this prayer…). In a couple of sentences Jesus has spoken volumes. He has told us that Salvation is a Gift of God; that God protects His people so that they may continue in the faith, and that Joy is the result of being united to God and to one another. All this is pure Gift, pure Grace.
Salvation comes from God. Perseverance in the faith comes from God. Unity comes from God. Sanctification comes from God. They are all Gifts, which are wonderful in and of themselves but which have a purpose – to enable God’s people to accomplish something ‘in the world’.
Now another question: What is ‘the World’ ? In his commentary on John, William Barclay says the world is “human society organizing itself apart from God”. Again: human society organizing itself apart from God. Perhaps the most famous example of this from the Old Testament is the Tower of Babel story, in which the people take it upon themselves to build a tower ‘reaching to the heavens’ – totally without regard for whether or not God in Heaven wants to be reached by means of a tower – so that they might make a name for themselves and be great. This is what the Greeks would have called Hubris – overweening pride. So then, to be worldly, means that you yourself are in charge of your own life, completely apart from what God desires for you.
From this definition, I hope you can see that the essence of worldliness is not what you eat or drink, not what you wear, whether or not you wear makeup, or put rings on your fingers. The essence of worldliness is the tendency towards self-sufficiency and doing things ‘my way’.
Now having said that, it is also true that having the ‘stuff’ of the world has a tendency to seduce us into thinking that we are in charge of our lives. Having a regular job with a regular income gives me the illusion of control. Being able to buy things whenever I wish can divert me from discomfort so that rather than turning to God for my deepest needs, I settle for some new clothes, a toy or some passing entertainment to dull my pain. Stuff is not bad in itself, but stuff can lure me into thinking there is nothing higher than stuff – and this is worldliness: organizing my life as if God did not exist.
Jesus prays for us to avoid this fate. He wants us to be intimately connected with God, to be like branches on the vine which only bear fruit as they stay connected to the vine. This is holiness, sanctification, dedication to God. It’s the only thing in life that produces True Life. And Jesus wants this for us more than anything.
Our Mission
But while being connected to God is wonderful in itself, we have also been given a job to do – to share that Wonder with others. Verse 18: “As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.” In Matthew 28:18, Jesus expands upon this sending: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Now notice that he didn’t say “Give them informational brochures’ or ‘post a website’ with this information and let it go at that. No. The Commission is deeply personal and labor-intensive: Make disciples. Baptize them. Teach them. Do this for a long time – until the end of the age.
Friends, this is the Work of the Kingdom and every one of us is commissioned and expected to do it. This is what we are to do. And I’ll remind you again that most people come to church because they are invited. They’re invited by someone they know and they come because they know someone. What does this mean for you and I? It means that we have to be out there in the world getting to know people.
How are we going to do that? In one of our recent small group conversations, we agreed that most of us don’t really know any non-believers. Because of our busy work lives, and our participation in church activities, we don’t spend time with people in the world. We don’t know any Worldlings. Or if we do, we don’t want to spend time with them because their lives are worldly.
Often, churches look to the clergy to be the ‘evangelists’. Some clergy are indeed ‘evangelists by gifting, but certainly not all. Ephesians 4:11,12 gives us this model: “And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ…” The work of the ministry belongs to each one of us. The Great Commission commissions every one of us as believers to do the work.
The work then, involves growing in holiness, being connected to The Vine so that when you go out into the world, the world does not co-opt you, but rather, you have Life to impart to the world.
Our 8th Day Life Groups are meant to help facilitate your growth in the faith and help you as you go out into the world ‘doing the stuff’.
In terms of our personal outreach, each one of us, me included, needs to think about how we meet our unchurched or unsaved neighbors and then how to engage them in an ongoing relationship. Mind you, I’m not just talking about inviting them to church – although that’s fine. But most likely, they won’t come unless they know you. So, logically, you have to get to know them. For the sake of reinforcing one method of doing this, I’d like to reiterate the SHOT Principle:
SHOT Principle for Growth:
Go Somewhere together.
Ask for Help with a ministry.
Share a meal at Our house.
Visit Their house; share Testimony.
I’ve got more of the SHOT card here today if you would like another one. Again, I recommend that you write down on the other side of this card the names of people you will personally pray for and personally engage by means of the SHOT approach.
Do you remember the figure 75,000? Do you recall that more than 80 percent of people in our area do NOT go to church on Sunday morning? And do you remember that 5 out of 10 people who do not go to church DO have some sort of church background?
When you seek the lost, you are not seeking total strangers. They are most likely church people who simply drifted away. These people need to be re-engaged as disciples and it’s our job to do it.
So, my prayer for us all is that God will indeed keep, sanctify and unify us who live in the world so that we may take the Truth of God to the world without becoming like the world. Amen.
"Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. 13 But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. 14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth." (ESV)
Today’s gospel reading is a portion of Jesus’ last recorded prayer before going to Calvary. It is his only recorded extended prayer, his so-called “High Priestly” prayer for himself and his disciples before dying on the cross. This particular section pertains to the church itself and we learn several key things about ourselves as the church that we may summarize in the following statement:
God keeps, sanctifies and unifies his people who live in the world so that they may take the Truth of God to the world without becoming like the world.
Now, regarding the keeping power of God, we observe that in verse 11, Jesus hands his disciples back to God. God has given followers to Jesus and he has guarded and kept them while he was on earth (verse 12). None was lost except Judas, and this was ordained before hand.
This is a team effort in which The Father and The Son work together to birth and protect their creation, the church. Christ has faithfully imparted God’s Word to his disciples, and his desire for them is that they experience the same unity that He himself enjoys with the Father - that his people may have His joy as they live in the world. Jesus also asks God to ‘sanctify’ his people (v.17) – to make them holy or ‘set apart’ so that they may be kept as a unique and ‘otherworldly’ people, even while they are in the world.
Now, let’s ask ourselves a question. Up to this point, what is that the followers of Jesus do or accomplish? …. Nothing. This is a conversation a takes place within the Godhead in the Garden of Gethsemane – while the disciples are mostly sawing logs. (With the exception that someone must have been awake enough to overhear this prayer…). In a couple of sentences Jesus has spoken volumes. He has told us that Salvation is a Gift of God; that God protects His people so that they may continue in the faith, and that Joy is the result of being united to God and to one another. All this is pure Gift, pure Grace.
Salvation comes from God. Perseverance in the faith comes from God. Unity comes from God. Sanctification comes from God. They are all Gifts, which are wonderful in and of themselves but which have a purpose – to enable God’s people to accomplish something ‘in the world’.
Now another question: What is ‘the World’ ? In his commentary on John, William Barclay says the world is “human society organizing itself apart from God”. Again: human society organizing itself apart from God. Perhaps the most famous example of this from the Old Testament is the Tower of Babel story, in which the people take it upon themselves to build a tower ‘reaching to the heavens’ – totally without regard for whether or not God in Heaven wants to be reached by means of a tower – so that they might make a name for themselves and be great. This is what the Greeks would have called Hubris – overweening pride. So then, to be worldly, means that you yourself are in charge of your own life, completely apart from what God desires for you.
From this definition, I hope you can see that the essence of worldliness is not what you eat or drink, not what you wear, whether or not you wear makeup, or put rings on your fingers. The essence of worldliness is the tendency towards self-sufficiency and doing things ‘my way’.
Now having said that, it is also true that having the ‘stuff’ of the world has a tendency to seduce us into thinking that we are in charge of our lives. Having a regular job with a regular income gives me the illusion of control. Being able to buy things whenever I wish can divert me from discomfort so that rather than turning to God for my deepest needs, I settle for some new clothes, a toy or some passing entertainment to dull my pain. Stuff is not bad in itself, but stuff can lure me into thinking there is nothing higher than stuff – and this is worldliness: organizing my life as if God did not exist.
Jesus prays for us to avoid this fate. He wants us to be intimately connected with God, to be like branches on the vine which only bear fruit as they stay connected to the vine. This is holiness, sanctification, dedication to God. It’s the only thing in life that produces True Life. And Jesus wants this for us more than anything.
Our Mission
But while being connected to God is wonderful in itself, we have also been given a job to do – to share that Wonder with others. Verse 18: “As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.” In Matthew 28:18, Jesus expands upon this sending: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Now notice that he didn’t say “Give them informational brochures’ or ‘post a website’ with this information and let it go at that. No. The Commission is deeply personal and labor-intensive: Make disciples. Baptize them. Teach them. Do this for a long time – until the end of the age.
Friends, this is the Work of the Kingdom and every one of us is commissioned and expected to do it. This is what we are to do. And I’ll remind you again that most people come to church because they are invited. They’re invited by someone they know and they come because they know someone. What does this mean for you and I? It means that we have to be out there in the world getting to know people.
How are we going to do that? In one of our recent small group conversations, we agreed that most of us don’t really know any non-believers. Because of our busy work lives, and our participation in church activities, we don’t spend time with people in the world. We don’t know any Worldlings. Or if we do, we don’t want to spend time with them because their lives are worldly.
Often, churches look to the clergy to be the ‘evangelists’. Some clergy are indeed ‘evangelists by gifting, but certainly not all. Ephesians 4:11,12 gives us this model: “And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ…” The work of the ministry belongs to each one of us. The Great Commission commissions every one of us as believers to do the work.
The work then, involves growing in holiness, being connected to The Vine so that when you go out into the world, the world does not co-opt you, but rather, you have Life to impart to the world.
Our 8th Day Life Groups are meant to help facilitate your growth in the faith and help you as you go out into the world ‘doing the stuff’.
In terms of our personal outreach, each one of us, me included, needs to think about how we meet our unchurched or unsaved neighbors and then how to engage them in an ongoing relationship. Mind you, I’m not just talking about inviting them to church – although that’s fine. But most likely, they won’t come unless they know you. So, logically, you have to get to know them. For the sake of reinforcing one method of doing this, I’d like to reiterate the SHOT Principle:
SHOT Principle for Growth:
Go Somewhere together.
Ask for Help with a ministry.
Share a meal at Our house.
Visit Their house; share Testimony.
I’ve got more of the SHOT card here today if you would like another one. Again, I recommend that you write down on the other side of this card the names of people you will personally pray for and personally engage by means of the SHOT approach.
Do you remember the figure 75,000? Do you recall that more than 80 percent of people in our area do NOT go to church on Sunday morning? And do you remember that 5 out of 10 people who do not go to church DO have some sort of church background?
When you seek the lost, you are not seeking total strangers. They are most likely church people who simply drifted away. These people need to be re-engaged as disciples and it’s our job to do it.
So, my prayer for us all is that God will indeed keep, sanctify and unify us who live in the world so that we may take the Truth of God to the world without becoming like the world. Amen.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Mother's Day 2009
A sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on May 10, 2009 at the Convent Chapel of St. Mary's Medical Center, Huntington, WV.
Last week, as Fr. Mark was preaching about Psalm 23, I had a very pleasant memory flood back into my mind – that of my mother teaching me the 23rd Psalm at night before I went to sleep. This was a regular occurrence at our house between the ages of about 7-11 or so. She would come in and say nighttime prayers with me and teach me various passages of Scripture, say the Lord’s Prayer, etc. It was sort of an informal catechism I suppose.
Growing up, we were Methodists, so Mom also told me about Susannah Wesley - how she taught her children Latin and Greek as well as classical studies, how she influenced her sons John and Charles, and how she became known as the Mother of Methodism. I think I was supposed to put it together that Mom was following in the great Methodist tradition by trying to get me to learn a few psalms and prayers before bedtime. And I guess to some extent I did, because I still remember the things she taught me before bed – evidence for the powerful impact of a mother on her children.
At any rate, today is Mother’s Day, and we want to spend some time lauding Mothers as they so richly deserve. As you likely know, Mother’s Day and West Virginia have a rich history.
According to the Mother’s Day Central web site:
“Anna Reeves Jarvis held the first official celebration of mothers, in her home state of West Virginia in 1858. She instituted Mothers' Work Day to raise awareness about local sanitation issues. During the Civil War, she expanded the scope of Mothers' Work Day to include sanitary conditions on both sides of the battlefield…”
In 1905, Anna Reeves Jarvis passed away and her daughter, Anna Jarvis, took up her mother's torch. Anna swore on her mother's gravesite that she would realize her lifelong dream of creating a national day to honor mothers. In 1907, Anna launched her campaign by handing out white carnations to congregants at her mother's church, St. Andrew's Methodist Episcopal, in Grafton, West Virginia. In 1908, her mother's church acquiesced to Anna's request to hold a special Sunday service in honor of mothers - a tradition that spread the very next year to churches in 46 states. In 1909, Anna left her job and dedicated herself to a full-time letter-writing campaign, imploring politicians, clergymen and civic leaders to institute a national day for mothers.
In 1912 …West Virginia adopted an official Mother's Day; two years later, the U.S. Congress passed a Joint Resolution, signed by President Wilson, establishing a national Mother's Day emphasizing the role of women in their families …Ever since, Mother's Day has been celebrated by Americans on the second Sunday in May.” (Mother’s Day Central.com).
So, I would like to help us celebrate Motherhood on this second Sunday of May by referencing some mothers who point to three typical characteristics of the godly mother: their capacity to teach, their role as defenders of righteousness, and their power in intercession.
The first characteristic we have already mentioned. Mothers are, of course, natural teachers. From the moment of birth, mothers teach their children intimately through a thousand small interactions – from learning to suck at the first hour of birth, to learning one’s alphabet before going to school – as Susannah Wesley taught her children, mothers are constantly teaching. Their influence is both didactic and moral in that a mother’s godly influence can sometimes carry an entire family.
Cindy’s grandmother was such a woman - someone who was very devout and who would go up on the hill to ‘pray through’ when she had something pressing on her mind. As an example, during World War Two, one of her sons was missing in action. Marthie went up on the hill and prayed loud and long until she finally got the answer she was looking for. She came down off the hill convinced that her son was coming home. – And sure enough – he did come home, being the only soldier from his company to survive because he was taken prisoner of war. Understandably, such as woman shows a formidable profile to her offspring – and even to this day, her faith inspires her extended family. Marthie, through her personal devotion to God, taught her family that God was the source of her being and her provision. He was the one to go to first, and the One to whom the family owed allegiance for providing all good things. She taught her family well and she was a powerful intercessor.
Moses’s mother Jochebed (Ex. 6:20) illustrates an aspect of motherly character - the capacity for fearless political resistance – but it is important to say that this political action is always activated by concern for one’s immediate family. And so there is another characteristic of godly womanhood at play here – the deeply personal nature of morality. While men tend to be consumed with abstract principles, women, and especially mothers seem to know intuitively what is right or wrong – always in the context of the family life. Jochebed knew the decree of Pharaoh that all the male children were to be killed, but she disobeyed this command because her flesh and bone were at stake. Instead she managed to find a way for her son to be adopted by Pharaoh’s daughter – and then given back to her to nurse! Pretty shrewd.
I think we can also see this trait evidenced in the midwives of Moses’ era. They too flaunted the commandment. They did not fear Pharaoh, but I imagine that he was very annoyed by them and may have even feared them as a determined lot. Their political action was based on the immediacy of the personal connection with children, not on some abstract principle.
The career of a mother is tinged by sadness. Her children are always going away from her. Mom gets 9 months to have her child all to herself, and after that it’s one major separation after the other; first birth, then being pulled away to go to school, then off they go to get married, and in some cases – notably Mary the mother of Jesus, her son goes off to be killed. It’s a trajectory of separation – and mothers suffer exquisitely from this constant experience of being separated from their children.
Along this same line, I’d like to mention that although this is a day of celebrating motherhood, this is also a day that is very, very difficult for many women who desire to be mothers, but have not been able to conceive, for those who have lost children due to miscarriage, and for those whose children have died before reaching the age of majority. This was brought home forcibly to me last week, when I sat with a woman who showed me an extensive scrapbook dedicated to her miscarried child.
The scrapbook detailed every step of this woman’s pregnancy, and included several poems describing her emotions along the way. In the book she chronicles her joy in becoming pregnant, her sense of anticipation and then her horror and devastation during the miscarriage and subsequent D&C she had to undergo. She wrote about her anguish and the challenge to her faith, her anger and her pain – but in the end she finds the grace to let go and give the child up to God. Reading through this scrapbook of remembrance was both a privilege and a prod to my own faith. It sensitized me anew to the pain associated with the loss of a child, and helped me realize that Mother’s Day is an occasion to remember and reach out to those who suffer because they have lost a child or yearn to have one.
Now in the Old Testament, Hannah is such a mother. She was, you’ll remember, a woman who had a hard time conceiving a child. Because she was one of two wives, her rival, Penninah tortured Hannah about being childless. Hanna was ashamed of this and decided to devote herself to prayer until she was able to conceive, making a vow to God that if she had a child, she would dedicate him to the Lord. This she did, becoming the mother of Samuel the prophet. Hannah shows us a character that is desperate for God to answer, tenacious in prayer, and steadfast in carrying out her vows to the Lord. In Jewish teaching she is often considered a paradigm of the godly woman.
Then too we think about Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist, who was a godly woman, married to a godly man, and who again illustrates the pain of being childless. She and her husband are chosen to come the parents of John the Baptist because of their righteousness before God, and their tenacious faith, even in their advanced years. They are emblematic of faithfulness in the face of a barren condition and thus are teachers to Israel. When Elizabeth conceives, she says, in Luke 1:25: “Thus the Lord has done for me in the days when he looked on me, to take away my reproach among people.” God comes to her as a representative of the Jewish nation. He sees her affliction and her groaning, and he comes to her to take away her reproach. Thus she teaches her nation how to look for Messiah.
Finally, we come to Mary, whom we have already mentioned briefly. Mary was, of course, an upright young woman. When Gabriel comes to her with the announcement of her impending pregnancy, he greets her by saying, “Greetings, (or “hail”) O favored one, the Lord is with you!” a foreshadowing of the child she would bear – Emmanuel – God with us.
I her response to Gabriel, Mary teaches us how to be Christians. “Be it done to me according to your will” she says. This is the response to God that ushers a person into the Kingdom, and it is the same response that keeps us on the path with God throughout our Christian lives. We will never go wrong if we say to God, “Be it done to me according to your will.”
Mary teaches us to be a defender of justice in her song of praise to God. She shows that she has a political consciousness when she says:
“He has shown strength with his arm;he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts;he has brought down the mighty from their thronesand exalted those of humble estate;he has filled the hungry with good things,and the rich he has sent away empty.” (Luke 1:51-53)
By participating with God in the birth of Messiah, she becomes a defender of righteousness and an exponent for Justice.
Then too her intercessory capacity is illustrated in a very domestic way when she goes to Jesus at the wedding of Cana (John 2) and says to him, “They have no wine.” I love this simple statement because every son or husband knows immediately what was going on here. That simple statement was no mere observation, it was a demand! Jesus got it right away and he replies, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” He knew that his mother expected him to do something about it.
She was interceding for her friends in that very personal way that only mothers manifest – the request that is no request, but rather an expectation. Her terse instruction to the servants: “Do whatever he tells you.” is a wonderfully multi-layered. It is really spoken to Jesus with an implied threat: “You better do something…” It is a statement that conveys a knowledge of Jesus that goes beyond faith and becomes certainty. It’s as if she is saying, “Look, we both know you are the Christ, the son of the living God. Now do something!” Her ‘intercession’ for the newlyweds is based in her certainty about the true identity of Jesus.
And in that simple command, “Do whatever he tells you.” Mary teaches us a wonderfully simple way to follow Jesus. Just listen up and do whatever he tells you!
I hope that in these reflections you can see that our observance of Mother’s Day isn’t just a greeting card holiday, but a profound acknowledgement of a mother’s role in teaching us, in defending righteousness, and in interceding before our God.
I’d like for us to respond by taking our your insert containing the Magnificat. Let’s honor Mary, the mother of our faith, and all other mothers by saying together this powerful song:
Mary's Song of Praise: The Magnificat (Luke 1:47-55)
“My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name.And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”
Last week, as Fr. Mark was preaching about Psalm 23, I had a very pleasant memory flood back into my mind – that of my mother teaching me the 23rd Psalm at night before I went to sleep. This was a regular occurrence at our house between the ages of about 7-11 or so. She would come in and say nighttime prayers with me and teach me various passages of Scripture, say the Lord’s Prayer, etc. It was sort of an informal catechism I suppose.
Growing up, we were Methodists, so Mom also told me about Susannah Wesley - how she taught her children Latin and Greek as well as classical studies, how she influenced her sons John and Charles, and how she became known as the Mother of Methodism. I think I was supposed to put it together that Mom was following in the great Methodist tradition by trying to get me to learn a few psalms and prayers before bedtime. And I guess to some extent I did, because I still remember the things she taught me before bed – evidence for the powerful impact of a mother on her children.
At any rate, today is Mother’s Day, and we want to spend some time lauding Mothers as they so richly deserve. As you likely know, Mother’s Day and West Virginia have a rich history.
According to the Mother’s Day Central web site:
“Anna Reeves Jarvis held the first official celebration of mothers, in her home state of West Virginia in 1858. She instituted Mothers' Work Day to raise awareness about local sanitation issues. During the Civil War, she expanded the scope of Mothers' Work Day to include sanitary conditions on both sides of the battlefield…”
In 1905, Anna Reeves Jarvis passed away and her daughter, Anna Jarvis, took up her mother's torch. Anna swore on her mother's gravesite that she would realize her lifelong dream of creating a national day to honor mothers. In 1907, Anna launched her campaign by handing out white carnations to congregants at her mother's church, St. Andrew's Methodist Episcopal, in Grafton, West Virginia. In 1908, her mother's church acquiesced to Anna's request to hold a special Sunday service in honor of mothers - a tradition that spread the very next year to churches in 46 states. In 1909, Anna left her job and dedicated herself to a full-time letter-writing campaign, imploring politicians, clergymen and civic leaders to institute a national day for mothers.
In 1912 …West Virginia adopted an official Mother's Day; two years later, the U.S. Congress passed a Joint Resolution, signed by President Wilson, establishing a national Mother's Day emphasizing the role of women in their families …Ever since, Mother's Day has been celebrated by Americans on the second Sunday in May.” (Mother’s Day Central.com).
So, I would like to help us celebrate Motherhood on this second Sunday of May by referencing some mothers who point to three typical characteristics of the godly mother: their capacity to teach, their role as defenders of righteousness, and their power in intercession.
The first characteristic we have already mentioned. Mothers are, of course, natural teachers. From the moment of birth, mothers teach their children intimately through a thousand small interactions – from learning to suck at the first hour of birth, to learning one’s alphabet before going to school – as Susannah Wesley taught her children, mothers are constantly teaching. Their influence is both didactic and moral in that a mother’s godly influence can sometimes carry an entire family.
Cindy’s grandmother was such a woman - someone who was very devout and who would go up on the hill to ‘pray through’ when she had something pressing on her mind. As an example, during World War Two, one of her sons was missing in action. Marthie went up on the hill and prayed loud and long until she finally got the answer she was looking for. She came down off the hill convinced that her son was coming home. – And sure enough – he did come home, being the only soldier from his company to survive because he was taken prisoner of war. Understandably, such as woman shows a formidable profile to her offspring – and even to this day, her faith inspires her extended family. Marthie, through her personal devotion to God, taught her family that God was the source of her being and her provision. He was the one to go to first, and the One to whom the family owed allegiance for providing all good things. She taught her family well and she was a powerful intercessor.
Moses’s mother Jochebed (Ex. 6:20) illustrates an aspect of motherly character - the capacity for fearless political resistance – but it is important to say that this political action is always activated by concern for one’s immediate family. And so there is another characteristic of godly womanhood at play here – the deeply personal nature of morality. While men tend to be consumed with abstract principles, women, and especially mothers seem to know intuitively what is right or wrong – always in the context of the family life. Jochebed knew the decree of Pharaoh that all the male children were to be killed, but she disobeyed this command because her flesh and bone were at stake. Instead she managed to find a way for her son to be adopted by Pharaoh’s daughter – and then given back to her to nurse! Pretty shrewd.
I think we can also see this trait evidenced in the midwives of Moses’ era. They too flaunted the commandment. They did not fear Pharaoh, but I imagine that he was very annoyed by them and may have even feared them as a determined lot. Their political action was based on the immediacy of the personal connection with children, not on some abstract principle.
The career of a mother is tinged by sadness. Her children are always going away from her. Mom gets 9 months to have her child all to herself, and after that it’s one major separation after the other; first birth, then being pulled away to go to school, then off they go to get married, and in some cases – notably Mary the mother of Jesus, her son goes off to be killed. It’s a trajectory of separation – and mothers suffer exquisitely from this constant experience of being separated from their children.
Along this same line, I’d like to mention that although this is a day of celebrating motherhood, this is also a day that is very, very difficult for many women who desire to be mothers, but have not been able to conceive, for those who have lost children due to miscarriage, and for those whose children have died before reaching the age of majority. This was brought home forcibly to me last week, when I sat with a woman who showed me an extensive scrapbook dedicated to her miscarried child.
The scrapbook detailed every step of this woman’s pregnancy, and included several poems describing her emotions along the way. In the book she chronicles her joy in becoming pregnant, her sense of anticipation and then her horror and devastation during the miscarriage and subsequent D&C she had to undergo. She wrote about her anguish and the challenge to her faith, her anger and her pain – but in the end she finds the grace to let go and give the child up to God. Reading through this scrapbook of remembrance was both a privilege and a prod to my own faith. It sensitized me anew to the pain associated with the loss of a child, and helped me realize that Mother’s Day is an occasion to remember and reach out to those who suffer because they have lost a child or yearn to have one.
Now in the Old Testament, Hannah is such a mother. She was, you’ll remember, a woman who had a hard time conceiving a child. Because she was one of two wives, her rival, Penninah tortured Hannah about being childless. Hanna was ashamed of this and decided to devote herself to prayer until she was able to conceive, making a vow to God that if she had a child, she would dedicate him to the Lord. This she did, becoming the mother of Samuel the prophet. Hannah shows us a character that is desperate for God to answer, tenacious in prayer, and steadfast in carrying out her vows to the Lord. In Jewish teaching she is often considered a paradigm of the godly woman.
Then too we think about Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist, who was a godly woman, married to a godly man, and who again illustrates the pain of being childless. She and her husband are chosen to come the parents of John the Baptist because of their righteousness before God, and their tenacious faith, even in their advanced years. They are emblematic of faithfulness in the face of a barren condition and thus are teachers to Israel. When Elizabeth conceives, she says, in Luke 1:25: “Thus the Lord has done for me in the days when he looked on me, to take away my reproach among people.” God comes to her as a representative of the Jewish nation. He sees her affliction and her groaning, and he comes to her to take away her reproach. Thus she teaches her nation how to look for Messiah.
Finally, we come to Mary, whom we have already mentioned briefly. Mary was, of course, an upright young woman. When Gabriel comes to her with the announcement of her impending pregnancy, he greets her by saying, “Greetings, (or “hail”) O favored one, the Lord is with you!” a foreshadowing of the child she would bear – Emmanuel – God with us.
I her response to Gabriel, Mary teaches us how to be Christians. “Be it done to me according to your will” she says. This is the response to God that ushers a person into the Kingdom, and it is the same response that keeps us on the path with God throughout our Christian lives. We will never go wrong if we say to God, “Be it done to me according to your will.”
Mary teaches us to be a defender of justice in her song of praise to God. She shows that she has a political consciousness when she says:
“He has shown strength with his arm;he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts;he has brought down the mighty from their thronesand exalted those of humble estate;he has filled the hungry with good things,and the rich he has sent away empty.” (Luke 1:51-53)
By participating with God in the birth of Messiah, she becomes a defender of righteousness and an exponent for Justice.
Then too her intercessory capacity is illustrated in a very domestic way when she goes to Jesus at the wedding of Cana (John 2) and says to him, “They have no wine.” I love this simple statement because every son or husband knows immediately what was going on here. That simple statement was no mere observation, it was a demand! Jesus got it right away and he replies, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” He knew that his mother expected him to do something about it.
She was interceding for her friends in that very personal way that only mothers manifest – the request that is no request, but rather an expectation. Her terse instruction to the servants: “Do whatever he tells you.” is a wonderfully multi-layered. It is really spoken to Jesus with an implied threat: “You better do something…” It is a statement that conveys a knowledge of Jesus that goes beyond faith and becomes certainty. It’s as if she is saying, “Look, we both know you are the Christ, the son of the living God. Now do something!” Her ‘intercession’ for the newlyweds is based in her certainty about the true identity of Jesus.
And in that simple command, “Do whatever he tells you.” Mary teaches us a wonderfully simple way to follow Jesus. Just listen up and do whatever he tells you!
I hope that in these reflections you can see that our observance of Mother’s Day isn’t just a greeting card holiday, but a profound acknowledgement of a mother’s role in teaching us, in defending righteousness, and in interceding before our God.
I’d like for us to respond by taking our your insert containing the Magnificat. Let’s honor Mary, the mother of our faith, and all other mothers by saying together this powerful song:
Mary's Song of Praise: The Magnificat (Luke 1:47-55)
“My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name.And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”
Thursday, May 07, 2009
A Prayer for Families
A Prayer delivered to those assembled at the West Virginia State Capitol at noon on the National Day of Prayer, May 7, 2009
Lord God, almighty and everlasting Father: who created us in Your own image and set us in families to reflect your Image and nurture one another in love:
We commend to Your continual care the homes in which our people dwell. We confess before You that in our weakness and foolishness, we have failed to love one another as You loved us and gave Your own dear Son for us.
We have failed to impart to our children the knowledge and love of You, and instead have worshipped idols of our own making, reaping failure and brokenness - exposing our children to lives of futility and debt.
Forgive us Lord in Your mercy. Grant us grace to do your will and truly reflect your image – male and female – that we may raise up a godly heritage, steward your creation faithfully and enjoy Your Presence on earth as it is in Heaven.
For Your name’s sake, Lord, strengthen and revive us. Teach us to love one another. Give us courage to face our challenges, and wisdom to impart to our children. Pour out Your compassion, that we may reach out in love to those who are in trouble, need or affliction – that they may be comforted in their distress and know You as You are revealed in Scripture and the breaking of bread.
Lord we name before you the lonely, the homeless, the bereaved and the oppressed, those who have lost jobs and are idle, those who have jobs and are too busy, those who struggle and those who rejoice, those who seek companions and those content to be single. Remember and shield them all in your Love.
Lord, guide us and govern us in your grace, that in all the cares and occupations of our lives, we may not forget You but may remember that we are ever walking in Your sight. Hear our supplications Lord, and grant our prayers, not as we ask in our ignorance or , nor as we deserve in our sinfulness, but as you know and love us in your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN.
Lord God, almighty and everlasting Father: who created us in Your own image and set us in families to reflect your Image and nurture one another in love:
We commend to Your continual care the homes in which our people dwell. We confess before You that in our weakness and foolishness, we have failed to love one another as You loved us and gave Your own dear Son for us.
We have failed to impart to our children the knowledge and love of You, and instead have worshipped idols of our own making, reaping failure and brokenness - exposing our children to lives of futility and debt.
Forgive us Lord in Your mercy. Grant us grace to do your will and truly reflect your image – male and female – that we may raise up a godly heritage, steward your creation faithfully and enjoy Your Presence on earth as it is in Heaven.
For Your name’s sake, Lord, strengthen and revive us. Teach us to love one another. Give us courage to face our challenges, and wisdom to impart to our children. Pour out Your compassion, that we may reach out in love to those who are in trouble, need or affliction – that they may be comforted in their distress and know You as You are revealed in Scripture and the breaking of bread.
Lord we name before you the lonely, the homeless, the bereaved and the oppressed, those who have lost jobs and are idle, those who have jobs and are too busy, those who struggle and those who rejoice, those who seek companions and those content to be single. Remember and shield them all in your Love.
Lord, guide us and govern us in your grace, that in all the cares and occupations of our lives, we may not forget You but may remember that we are ever walking in Your sight. Hear our supplications Lord, and grant our prayers, not as we ask in our ignorance or , nor as we deserve in our sinfulness, but as you know and love us in your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN.
Tuesday, May 05, 2009
Our Response to Christ's Redemption
A Sermon Delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on April 26, 2009 at the Convent Chapel of St. Mary's Hospital, Huntington, WV
Our opening collect for today includes the following phrase: “Open the eyes of our faith, that we may behold him in all his redeeming work”…
We could ask, “What is all His redeeming work?”, or: “What does Jesus redeem?” and the basic answer is: ‘Everything that was lost in the Fall.”
What was lost in the Fall? First and most tragically, we lost fellowship with God. Human beings, who had been created for loving and covenantal relationship with the most High, fell out of intimacy with God through Sin. They – we – also fell out of fellowship with one another, with the physical environment, and even with our own selves. In short, through the Fall, we are alienated in every aspect of our lives.
But thanks be to God, through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the Cross, God has redeemed us – all of us. There is a slogan that goes: “God saves wholes not souls” – In other words He saves redeems ALL of life, not just disembodied spirits.
So what does it mean that God has redeemed me as a whole person? And how do I respond?
Well, firstly, through the work of Christ, God redeems our relationship with Him. The blood of Christ takes away sin, not just covers it. Therefore, we now have fellowship with God and this enables us to enter into the Holy of Holies and to freely Worship Him in spirit and in truth. The dividing veil is gone and we enter in as the People of God – his very plan for human beings all along. In Response to Christ’s redemption of our relationship with God, we practice the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving; we Worship. This is what defines us Christians: as the people of God, we are a worshipping community.
Then too, Christ redeems us from our own selves. Because we have been reconciled with God, our sins are forgiven and we can be at peace with our selves once more. There is healing for our deepest personal wounds in the blood of Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit. His plan for us is to look like Jesus – to transform us daily by the renewing of our minds and hearts. (Rom 12:2). In Response, we present ourselves before God in private devotion and in personal Bible study and reflection, as well as with other spiritual disciplines that lead to our transformation into the image of Christ. We practice Formation.
Next, we note that Jesus has redeemed our relationships with others. He came to bind up the wounds of the broken hearted, to proclaim freedom to prisoners and release to captives. (is. 61:1). This applies to the world of interpersonal and societal relations. Jesus redeems our relationships with other people.
In Response we enjoy the fellowship of other believers and we reach out to others with the healing power and Grace of Christ. This is really an overlapping of Community and Mission.
Through our 8th Day Life Groups, and other types of fellowship in the body, we practice Community with the Body of Christ. We eat together and share our lives. We encourage one another personally and in the Lord. We interact as Family, as the people of God, as a Community of believers. We pray for one another and we attempt to build up one another in our faith. We respond to Christ’s redemptive work by practicing Community with one another.
But we also respond by going to our larger Community in Mission, to wherever the world is hurting. We attempt to bring the “those who do not know Christ to the knowledge and love of Him’, as one of our collects for mission states. We respond by noticing the things that hurt in our Community.
For instance, here in the Tri-State region people are suffering horribly through their addictions to drugs and alcohol – which in turn leads to all manner of crimes affecting all manner of people, from the arrest of prominent physicians for drug running, to thefts, to the murder of innocent – and not so innocent people.
Every one who suffers and dies as a result of drug or alcohol involvement is a victim of the Devil. As Christians, we ought not to stand for this, but aggressively take the Gospel to our world and reclaim everything that the Devil tries to claim for his own. Our response to Christ’s redemption of human society is to practice Mission.
Our Mission even extends to the very ground itself.
Last year, when we participated in the Four Corners Blessings, we poured out the Body and Blood of Christ onto the ground, proclaiming healing of the very environment by the sacrifice and life of Christ. We did the same thing at our first Memorial Eucharist at Hope House. We buried the bread and poured out the wine of Christ’s body and blood on the ground to redeem it and take it back from the Devil.
When we did this, we proclaimed Christ’s death and we also proclaimed his transformative life, which renews the very Earth.
Because we responded to Christ’s redemption of sin and death, Hope House is no longer a drug house and place of death, but a place of prayer and life.
This ought to excite us greatly. Death is swallowed up in Life and the Kingdoms of this world have become the Kingdom of our God and of His Christ. Our Response to Christ’s Redemption of the World then, is to reach out in Mission.
So again, we Respond in the four basic areas because Christ Redeems all of our lives. I remind you of one of the definitions of prayer: Our response to God, whether with words or without words, with deeds or without deeds.
Friends, let’s make our lives a prayer to God by responding to God’s grace and mercy in all our actions. By His Grace, let us live out our calling as the People of God, and as All Saints Anglican Church. AMEN.
Our opening collect for today includes the following phrase: “Open the eyes of our faith, that we may behold him in all his redeeming work”…
We could ask, “What is all His redeeming work?”, or: “What does Jesus redeem?” and the basic answer is: ‘Everything that was lost in the Fall.”
What was lost in the Fall? First and most tragically, we lost fellowship with God. Human beings, who had been created for loving and covenantal relationship with the most High, fell out of intimacy with God through Sin. They – we – also fell out of fellowship with one another, with the physical environment, and even with our own selves. In short, through the Fall, we are alienated in every aspect of our lives.
But thanks be to God, through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the Cross, God has redeemed us – all of us. There is a slogan that goes: “God saves wholes not souls” – In other words He saves redeems ALL of life, not just disembodied spirits.
So what does it mean that God has redeemed me as a whole person? And how do I respond?
Well, firstly, through the work of Christ, God redeems our relationship with Him. The blood of Christ takes away sin, not just covers it. Therefore, we now have fellowship with God and this enables us to enter into the Holy of Holies and to freely Worship Him in spirit and in truth. The dividing veil is gone and we enter in as the People of God – his very plan for human beings all along. In Response to Christ’s redemption of our relationship with God, we practice the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving; we Worship. This is what defines us Christians: as the people of God, we are a worshipping community.
Then too, Christ redeems us from our own selves. Because we have been reconciled with God, our sins are forgiven and we can be at peace with our selves once more. There is healing for our deepest personal wounds in the blood of Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit. His plan for us is to look like Jesus – to transform us daily by the renewing of our minds and hearts. (Rom 12:2). In Response, we present ourselves before God in private devotion and in personal Bible study and reflection, as well as with other spiritual disciplines that lead to our transformation into the image of Christ. We practice Formation.
Next, we note that Jesus has redeemed our relationships with others. He came to bind up the wounds of the broken hearted, to proclaim freedom to prisoners and release to captives. (is. 61:1). This applies to the world of interpersonal and societal relations. Jesus redeems our relationships with other people.
In Response we enjoy the fellowship of other believers and we reach out to others with the healing power and Grace of Christ. This is really an overlapping of Community and Mission.
Through our 8th Day Life Groups, and other types of fellowship in the body, we practice Community with the Body of Christ. We eat together and share our lives. We encourage one another personally and in the Lord. We interact as Family, as the people of God, as a Community of believers. We pray for one another and we attempt to build up one another in our faith. We respond to Christ’s redemptive work by practicing Community with one another.
But we also respond by going to our larger Community in Mission, to wherever the world is hurting. We attempt to bring the “those who do not know Christ to the knowledge and love of Him’, as one of our collects for mission states. We respond by noticing the things that hurt in our Community.
For instance, here in the Tri-State region people are suffering horribly through their addictions to drugs and alcohol – which in turn leads to all manner of crimes affecting all manner of people, from the arrest of prominent physicians for drug running, to thefts, to the murder of innocent – and not so innocent people.
Every one who suffers and dies as a result of drug or alcohol involvement is a victim of the Devil. As Christians, we ought not to stand for this, but aggressively take the Gospel to our world and reclaim everything that the Devil tries to claim for his own. Our response to Christ’s redemption of human society is to practice Mission.
Our Mission even extends to the very ground itself.
Last year, when we participated in the Four Corners Blessings, we poured out the Body and Blood of Christ onto the ground, proclaiming healing of the very environment by the sacrifice and life of Christ. We did the same thing at our first Memorial Eucharist at Hope House. We buried the bread and poured out the wine of Christ’s body and blood on the ground to redeem it and take it back from the Devil.
When we did this, we proclaimed Christ’s death and we also proclaimed his transformative life, which renews the very Earth.
Because we responded to Christ’s redemption of sin and death, Hope House is no longer a drug house and place of death, but a place of prayer and life.
This ought to excite us greatly. Death is swallowed up in Life and the Kingdoms of this world have become the Kingdom of our God and of His Christ. Our Response to Christ’s Redemption of the World then, is to reach out in Mission.
So again, we Respond in the four basic areas because Christ Redeems all of our lives. I remind you of one of the definitions of prayer: Our response to God, whether with words or without words, with deeds or without deeds.
Friends, let’s make our lives a prayer to God by responding to God’s grace and mercy in all our actions. By His Grace, let us live out our calling as the People of God, and as All Saints Anglican Church. AMEN.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Easter Sunday 2009
A Sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on Easter Sunday, April 12, 2009 at the Convent Chapel of St. Mary's Medical Medical Center, Huntington, WV.
Welcome to our Easter Celebration – the time when we recognize the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. This is a glorious day for the church and the world. It’s the day when God turned the world’s religious thoughts and ideas on their heads by fulfilling what He said He was going to do all along – namely redeeming a people for Himself by defeating the power of sin and death.
This is the most important day of the year for Christians because without the Resurrection, we have no faith – only a failed Charismatic leader and his ragtag movement. This is the day when everybody was surprised because nobody actually could imagine somebody coming back from the dead the way Jesus did.
Let my explain by relating an argument advanced by NT Wright in his book “Surprised by Hope”: Wright says that amongst the Jewish people in Jesus’ day there was an understanding that there would be a general resurrection at the consummation of all things. Everybody would be resurrected at once. Martha the sister of Lazarus referred to this when she said to Jesus, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” (Jn 11:24). Most Jews, except the Sadducees, believed in this view.
In contrast, the Greeks and Romans of Jesus’ day mostly believed in life after death, but they did not believe in a bodily resurrection. Nobody, including the disciples, thought that one person would be resurrected ahead of everyone else. They simply had no categories for believing that.
When Jesus was crucified then, all hope for the disciples effectively ended. They didn’t say, “Oh, that’s alright, he’ll be back in three days”. They didn’t say, “Oh, that’s alright, he’s in heaven with God.” Nope. They thought the Romans had won again and that all was lost.
So when Jesus rose on the morning of the third day and then began appearing to the disciples, they had a real hard time understanding exactly what was going on. One thing they did get pretty quickly was that Jesus was not a spirit or a spook. He wasn’t an ectoplasm or an esoteric energy field. He was real. He could be touched. He talked to them in their own language, and after a little squinting he could be recognized as “the Master”. But he had a different sort of body than the disciples - one that could appear and disappear at will or walk through walls without trouble. It was a Resurrected body, one that was alive again but Transformed.
Now if you had never heard this story, your initial reaction to it might be: “No Way!”, or “I’ll be…”, or “Cool!” Your response might be the same as when we recently heard about a St. Albans woman who died at CAMC and then some hours came back to life. It was a neat story, and it lifted our spirits. I understand some people even got saved out of it… but in the big scheme of things, the event didn’t really lay any Claim upon us. We just heard it and went on.
Not so with the resurrection of Jesus. With Christ’s rising on the third day, his earlier statements and predictions about himself come crashing in on us. When he said, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up (John 2:13-25), he wasn’t just speaking in metaphor. The Resurrection means that he was speaking literally. When he said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father but through Me” (Jn. 14:6), the Resurrection provides hard physical evidence as to the veracity of that statement. And when we think about the formerly defeated disciples suddenly becoming globe-trotting evangelists willing to die for their newfound faith, the Resurrection of Christ provides the only sensible motive for such a shocking abandonment of every worldly comfort.
In a word, the Resurrection makes demands of us. It demands that we recognize that everything has changed, that Jesus’ rising is not just a very strange event within the present world, but ‘the defining event of the new creation.’ (Wright, pg. 73.) – it is the Kingdom of God breaking into our world and beginning to make all things new.
What we are talking about is not ‘pie in the sky by and by”. This is very much a here and now message. The Second Person of the Godhead died a criminal’s death in payment for our sins. He beat death. He was resurrected and is now the Ruler of All. In this position he now desires to bring the blessings of resurrection first to his people, and then to all of the cosmos. Having dealt with the rebellion that defaced and distorted the world, He now desires to enlist us in this project as co-laborers, and to begin remaking the entire creation, In short, He desires to bring the Future into the Present.
What is this future? …That we will go to heaven to be with God when we die and live there with him as disembodied spirits, happily playing our harps while lounging on puffy white clouds? No, the Future for Christians is living in the New Jerusalem which comes down out of heaven and in which we live as Resurrected people with the same sort of resurrected body as Jesus has.
This notion of bodily resurrection implies that the present moment has something to do with the future, that what we do here on earth has a recognizable continuity with what will come.
As most of you know, my father, Walt Counts died on the morning of March 27. His was a good life, a life of unbroken faithful worship and service to his world. I think my father was ‘good’ enough simply to have engaged in works of service because it was the right thing to do. But I also believe strongly that all those hours he spent working in the church, volunteering at Helping Hand, or with the Roane General Hospital Auxiliary, or giving to many individuals secretly will not be lost. These acts of love and service to the world are not in vain (I Cor 15:58). They have continuity with the world to be created, the sort of continuity that allows us to recognize the Resurrected Christ as the same Jesus that walked this earth. If this is the case, we will also recognize the works done on earth now in the future Resurrected world.
Translation: What you do now for God endures forever.
But through our good works, we are not simply making our world a little better “every day in every way” by political and social means. It’s that we are incarnating Christ, carrying His Presence to our world and helping to redeem it. Our work here on earth is sacramental, showing outwardly an inward and spiritual reality and serving as a means of grace to those affected by our works. These works are stored up as jewels in God’s treasure chest and preserved into the coming world. The future reality is brought into the present through our works of love and service.
But there is even something better. God doesn’t value us just for the hired labor he gets from us. No, we get to be family. We get to sit down at the table with God every Sunday and enjoy his Presence. Isaiah foresaw this when he prophesied that “the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples, a feast of rich food”… I think Peter alluded to this also when he said that Jesus appeared to those “who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.” He was speaking there about Christ appearing to the disciples, but if you think about it, we are also those who eat and drink with Christ after he rose from the dead. In fact, this feasting is what sustains us and nourishes us in this world.
It’s like when my wife was growing up. Every Sunday after church the whole crew would pile into the family sedan and trundle back ‘home’ to Grandma Marthy’s house in Three Mile Bluecreek near Clendenin. “Marthy” would always cook a big meal and other family members would come over and everyone would sit down to this big family meal. There at the table, they would eat together and renew their family ties, becoming again what they had always been – family. And if some of the family members didn’t come home often enough, they would be scolded for not coming in. Being a part of the family meant that you came home to eat Sunday dinner.
That’s an illustration of Resurrection Life for us here and now as Christians. Each Sunday, at the Lord’s Table, we Lift up our hearts to Heaven. We “seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God” (Col. 3:1). We go up to Heaven and we sit down to eat and drink with God and the whole family of believers from all generations. We renew our Covenant with God, we catch a glimpse of the Marriage Feast of the Lamb to come, and we receive refreshment for our work of service in the world.
This Eucharistic Worship is the center of one of four basic Christian “practices’ we have identified to enable us to live out our Resurrection Life here on earth– life lived in the new 8th Day of Creation. The other three practices are: Spiritual Formation, Community and Mission.
For Christians, these Four Practices are the four points of our Spiritual Compass. We call them practices, but having said this we do not mean ‘works of the law’. Rather, we mean that these four areas are functions of the Body of Christ that both Make the body what it is and Build it up at the same time. God uses these Four basic practices to form us into the image of the Resurrected Christ.
Easter challenges us to live out that New Life. In the ancient church Lent was devoted to teaching believers more about the faith and Easter was set aside for Baptisms. This year, we have imitated this pattern as we met together and studied the 39 Articles of religion and considered how to walk out the Four Practices as our Rule of Life.
At this time, we will now ask you to pledge yourselves to walking out this Resurrection 8th Day life by publicly committing to the Four Practices for 8th Day Life. Each of you has been given a copy of the Liturgy of Public commitment and a Flow Chart representing the ‘Spiritual DNA of All Saints Anglican Church. As a sign of your desire to renew your Baptismal vow to follow Christ as a disciple, I ask you now to stand and affirm your intention in the Liturgy of Public Commitment.
Celebrant Do you trust Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior?
Candidate I do, by God’s help.
Celebrant Have you been baptized in water in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit?
Candidate I have.
Celebrant Do you believe the Christian faith as revealed in Holy Scripture and as set forth and summarized in the Apostles Creed?
Candidate I do, by God’s help.
Celebrant Do you take up your cross daily and follow Jesus Christ as his disciple?
Candidate I do, with God’s help
Celebrant Do you desire to embrace the 4 Practices of Worship, Community, Formation and
Mission as your Rule of Life?
Candidate I do, with God’s help
Celebrant Will you practice Worship; committing yourself to participate well in the public worship of All Saints Anglican Church?
Candidate I will, with God’s help
Celebrant Will you practice Community: intending to know, serve and love other participants in
All Saints Anglican Church?
Candidate I will, with God’s help
Celebrant Will you practice Formation; intending to use spiritual disciplines to cooperate with the
Holy Spirit in order to grow into Christ-like character.
Candidate I will, with God’s help
Celebrant Will you practice Mission; committing yourself to love and serve God’s world in word
and deed.
Candidate I will, with God’s help
Celebrant As rector of All Saints Anglican Church and on behalf of our whole worshipping
community, I receive your affirmations and declare that they are a sign of hope to all the
Church. In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Let us pray
Almighty and everlasting God, by whose Spirit the whole body of your faithful people is governed and sanctified: Receive our supplications and prayers, which we offer before you for all members of your holy Church, and especially for these who have committed themselves here today, that in their vocation and ministry they may truly and devoutly serve you; through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Welcome to our Easter Celebration – the time when we recognize the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. This is a glorious day for the church and the world. It’s the day when God turned the world’s religious thoughts and ideas on their heads by fulfilling what He said He was going to do all along – namely redeeming a people for Himself by defeating the power of sin and death.
This is the most important day of the year for Christians because without the Resurrection, we have no faith – only a failed Charismatic leader and his ragtag movement. This is the day when everybody was surprised because nobody actually could imagine somebody coming back from the dead the way Jesus did.
Let my explain by relating an argument advanced by NT Wright in his book “Surprised by Hope”: Wright says that amongst the Jewish people in Jesus’ day there was an understanding that there would be a general resurrection at the consummation of all things. Everybody would be resurrected at once. Martha the sister of Lazarus referred to this when she said to Jesus, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” (Jn 11:24). Most Jews, except the Sadducees, believed in this view.
In contrast, the Greeks and Romans of Jesus’ day mostly believed in life after death, but they did not believe in a bodily resurrection. Nobody, including the disciples, thought that one person would be resurrected ahead of everyone else. They simply had no categories for believing that.
When Jesus was crucified then, all hope for the disciples effectively ended. They didn’t say, “Oh, that’s alright, he’ll be back in three days”. They didn’t say, “Oh, that’s alright, he’s in heaven with God.” Nope. They thought the Romans had won again and that all was lost.
So when Jesus rose on the morning of the third day and then began appearing to the disciples, they had a real hard time understanding exactly what was going on. One thing they did get pretty quickly was that Jesus was not a spirit or a spook. He wasn’t an ectoplasm or an esoteric energy field. He was real. He could be touched. He talked to them in their own language, and after a little squinting he could be recognized as “the Master”. But he had a different sort of body than the disciples - one that could appear and disappear at will or walk through walls without trouble. It was a Resurrected body, one that was alive again but Transformed.
Now if you had never heard this story, your initial reaction to it might be: “No Way!”, or “I’ll be…”, or “Cool!” Your response might be the same as when we recently heard about a St. Albans woman who died at CAMC and then some hours came back to life. It was a neat story, and it lifted our spirits. I understand some people even got saved out of it… but in the big scheme of things, the event didn’t really lay any Claim upon us. We just heard it and went on.
Not so with the resurrection of Jesus. With Christ’s rising on the third day, his earlier statements and predictions about himself come crashing in on us. When he said, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up (John 2:13-25), he wasn’t just speaking in metaphor. The Resurrection means that he was speaking literally. When he said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father but through Me” (Jn. 14:6), the Resurrection provides hard physical evidence as to the veracity of that statement. And when we think about the formerly defeated disciples suddenly becoming globe-trotting evangelists willing to die for their newfound faith, the Resurrection of Christ provides the only sensible motive for such a shocking abandonment of every worldly comfort.
In a word, the Resurrection makes demands of us. It demands that we recognize that everything has changed, that Jesus’ rising is not just a very strange event within the present world, but ‘the defining event of the new creation.’ (Wright, pg. 73.) – it is the Kingdom of God breaking into our world and beginning to make all things new.
What we are talking about is not ‘pie in the sky by and by”. This is very much a here and now message. The Second Person of the Godhead died a criminal’s death in payment for our sins. He beat death. He was resurrected and is now the Ruler of All. In this position he now desires to bring the blessings of resurrection first to his people, and then to all of the cosmos. Having dealt with the rebellion that defaced and distorted the world, He now desires to enlist us in this project as co-laborers, and to begin remaking the entire creation, In short, He desires to bring the Future into the Present.
What is this future? …That we will go to heaven to be with God when we die and live there with him as disembodied spirits, happily playing our harps while lounging on puffy white clouds? No, the Future for Christians is living in the New Jerusalem which comes down out of heaven and in which we live as Resurrected people with the same sort of resurrected body as Jesus has.
This notion of bodily resurrection implies that the present moment has something to do with the future, that what we do here on earth has a recognizable continuity with what will come.
As most of you know, my father, Walt Counts died on the morning of March 27. His was a good life, a life of unbroken faithful worship and service to his world. I think my father was ‘good’ enough simply to have engaged in works of service because it was the right thing to do. But I also believe strongly that all those hours he spent working in the church, volunteering at Helping Hand, or with the Roane General Hospital Auxiliary, or giving to many individuals secretly will not be lost. These acts of love and service to the world are not in vain (I Cor 15:58). They have continuity with the world to be created, the sort of continuity that allows us to recognize the Resurrected Christ as the same Jesus that walked this earth. If this is the case, we will also recognize the works done on earth now in the future Resurrected world.
Translation: What you do now for God endures forever.
But through our good works, we are not simply making our world a little better “every day in every way” by political and social means. It’s that we are incarnating Christ, carrying His Presence to our world and helping to redeem it. Our work here on earth is sacramental, showing outwardly an inward and spiritual reality and serving as a means of grace to those affected by our works. These works are stored up as jewels in God’s treasure chest and preserved into the coming world. The future reality is brought into the present through our works of love and service.
But there is even something better. God doesn’t value us just for the hired labor he gets from us. No, we get to be family. We get to sit down at the table with God every Sunday and enjoy his Presence. Isaiah foresaw this when he prophesied that “the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples, a feast of rich food”… I think Peter alluded to this also when he said that Jesus appeared to those “who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.” He was speaking there about Christ appearing to the disciples, but if you think about it, we are also those who eat and drink with Christ after he rose from the dead. In fact, this feasting is what sustains us and nourishes us in this world.
It’s like when my wife was growing up. Every Sunday after church the whole crew would pile into the family sedan and trundle back ‘home’ to Grandma Marthy’s house in Three Mile Bluecreek near Clendenin. “Marthy” would always cook a big meal and other family members would come over and everyone would sit down to this big family meal. There at the table, they would eat together and renew their family ties, becoming again what they had always been – family. And if some of the family members didn’t come home often enough, they would be scolded for not coming in. Being a part of the family meant that you came home to eat Sunday dinner.
That’s an illustration of Resurrection Life for us here and now as Christians. Each Sunday, at the Lord’s Table, we Lift up our hearts to Heaven. We “seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God” (Col. 3:1). We go up to Heaven and we sit down to eat and drink with God and the whole family of believers from all generations. We renew our Covenant with God, we catch a glimpse of the Marriage Feast of the Lamb to come, and we receive refreshment for our work of service in the world.
This Eucharistic Worship is the center of one of four basic Christian “practices’ we have identified to enable us to live out our Resurrection Life here on earth– life lived in the new 8th Day of Creation. The other three practices are: Spiritual Formation, Community and Mission.
For Christians, these Four Practices are the four points of our Spiritual Compass. We call them practices, but having said this we do not mean ‘works of the law’. Rather, we mean that these four areas are functions of the Body of Christ that both Make the body what it is and Build it up at the same time. God uses these Four basic practices to form us into the image of the Resurrected Christ.
Easter challenges us to live out that New Life. In the ancient church Lent was devoted to teaching believers more about the faith and Easter was set aside for Baptisms. This year, we have imitated this pattern as we met together and studied the 39 Articles of religion and considered how to walk out the Four Practices as our Rule of Life.
At this time, we will now ask you to pledge yourselves to walking out this Resurrection 8th Day life by publicly committing to the Four Practices for 8th Day Life. Each of you has been given a copy of the Liturgy of Public commitment and a Flow Chart representing the ‘Spiritual DNA of All Saints Anglican Church. As a sign of your desire to renew your Baptismal vow to follow Christ as a disciple, I ask you now to stand and affirm your intention in the Liturgy of Public Commitment.
Celebrant Do you trust Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior?
Candidate I do, by God’s help.
Celebrant Have you been baptized in water in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit?
Candidate I have.
Celebrant Do you believe the Christian faith as revealed in Holy Scripture and as set forth and summarized in the Apostles Creed?
Candidate I do, by God’s help.
Celebrant Do you take up your cross daily and follow Jesus Christ as his disciple?
Candidate I do, with God’s help
Celebrant Do you desire to embrace the 4 Practices of Worship, Community, Formation and
Mission as your Rule of Life?
Candidate I do, with God’s help
Celebrant Will you practice Worship; committing yourself to participate well in the public worship of All Saints Anglican Church?
Candidate I will, with God’s help
Celebrant Will you practice Community: intending to know, serve and love other participants in
All Saints Anglican Church?
Candidate I will, with God’s help
Celebrant Will you practice Formation; intending to use spiritual disciplines to cooperate with the
Holy Spirit in order to grow into Christ-like character.
Candidate I will, with God’s help
Celebrant Will you practice Mission; committing yourself to love and serve God’s world in word
and deed.
Candidate I will, with God’s help
Celebrant As rector of All Saints Anglican Church and on behalf of our whole worshipping
community, I receive your affirmations and declare that they are a sign of hope to all the
Church. In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Let us pray
Almighty and everlasting God, by whose Spirit the whole body of your faithful people is governed and sanctified: Receive our supplications and prayers, which we offer before you for all members of your holy Church, and especially for these who have committed themselves here today, that in their vocation and ministry they may truly and devoutly serve you; through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Friday, April 10, 2009
Good Friday 2009
A Sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on Good Friday evening at Hope House, 1410 Charleston Ave., Huntington, WV.
At this hour of the evening, Christ would have already been taken down off the cross and laid in the tomb, so that his body would not have remained on the cross on the Sabbath, which started at 6pm in the evening by the Jewish reckoning of time.
At the request of the Jewish leaders Pilate’s soldiers had broken the legs of the two criminals so that they would die quickly. But Jesus was already found to be dead, so they pierced his side with a spear just to make sure. At that moment, when blood and water came out of Jesus’ side, the Church was born.
You see, God the Father had it in his mind from the very beginning to create a people for himself – a people that would live in close community with Him and who would delight in obedience to their Lord. We read in Genesis about the Creation of Adam and Eve, and how they fell away from their high calling by virtue of their disobedience. We witness God promising them a Savior and then calling Abraham into covenant with Him in order to be a blessing to all the world. We see the covenant renewed in God’s dealings with Jacob (Israel). And in the Exodus, Moses leads the people out of Egypt after the various plagues which culminated in the Passover.
As the people of Israel leave Egypt and make their way into the desert, they are given the Law and the sign of the circumcision to mark their covenant with God. And while the Law demanded sacrifices in order to cover the sin of the people, yet God’s heart was not so much interested in sacrifice as He was in finding a people with whom he could fellowship – a covenant people.
Now according to something called ‘The Standard Canonical Narrative’, biblical history should be understood in terms of a linear ‘creation –fall-redemption-consummation narrative. In other words, “The Fall disrupted God’s original purpose, while the work of Christ is to redeem the fallen creation and bring to final consummation God’s original purpose in creation.” (Simon Chan, Liturgical Theology, pg. 21.)
Author Simon Chan calls this an ‘instrumentalist’ view of the church – the church is only an ‘instrument of God’s will”. Within this view the church is a means to an end and our value as Church is the extent to which we fulfill or mission. You meet your quota and God likes you, miss the quota, and you’re in trouble.
However, there is another way to understand the Bible’s narrative, and that is to start with the realization that “The church precedes Creation…” (Chan pg. 23). Creation forms the backdrop for God’s elective grace and covenant relationship rather than vice versa.:” (Chan pg. 22). In this view…”The church does not exist in order to fix a broken creation; rather, creation exists to realize the church” (Chan pg. 23).
“God’s highest intention for the world should be seen as [being] the means by which God’s grace of election could be realized. (pg. 22). Alexander Schmemann says it this way: “The Church is not for the world, the world is for the church.”(For the Life of the World). “God made the world in order to make the church. (Chan pg. 23). This means that our basic identity as the church is to be found not in what we do, but in what we are.
So think with me now about Heb. 10:5,6:
“… when Christ came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure.”
This body that is mentioned is usually understood as Christ’s Human body, but I can’t also help but think of the church. Jesus is called the Head and the Church his Body; we are held together by the work of the Holy Spirit. There is an organic unity between head and body and this unity is designated by the term totus Christus- the total Christ.
The total Christ is not something external to God, but internal. It is a ‘divine-humanity’. The church precedes Creation because it is the body of Christ, the Second Person of the Trinity. The historical existence of the church begins with the Passion of Christ, but again, God is not so much interested in the sacrifice as sacrifice, but in Christ’s willing obedience. As Christ dies in his liturgy of Passover Lamb, His obedience creates the promised Covenant People of God, who are the Body of Christ, and the Temple of the Holy Spirit – what God had in mind all along.
Simon Chan again: “We are not saved as individual first and then incorporated into the church; rather to be a Christian is to be incorporated into the church by baptism and nourished with the spiritual food of the body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist. Failure to understand this fact has led to a reduction of the church’s role to a largely sociological one of a service provider catering to individual believer’s spiritual needs.” (pg. 24.)
Application
Going back to our text in Hebrews: Since we are the covenant people of God, we are admonished to … draw near with a true heart …to hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, to stir up one another to love and good works, and to encourage one another …
The Four Practices
This past fall, I introduced the Four Practices, which were based on Acts 2:42: “And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” Now we can also tie this in with our scripture for today: Hebrews 10: 22-25: The Four Practices were: Worship, Formation, Mission and Community.
Again, it’s important to remember that it is because we are organically linked to Christ that these practices are not ‘works of the law’, but functions of the body –activities which both make the body and build it up.
I’d like to hand out a (see attached) chart that shows how all this links together in our life as All Saints Anglican Church.
At the bottom of the page we show Company of Jesus, meaning that the monastic spirituality of Benedict and Francis are the wellsprings of spiritual vitality for Anglicanism in general and this congregation in particular.
Our Formation as disciples is based on the Apostle’s teaching as guided by the wisdom of generations of monastics, and over the next several months, we will be studying this more in depth.
We have talked previously about Hope House becoming the center of an Urban Third Order ‘mother House” of the CoJ, in which Company members would move into the immediate area and gather at Hope House for prayer and spiritual friendship (Anam Chara). Our small groups will come to function as ‘priories’ as it were, small communities devoted to encouragement, intercessory and healing prayer, fellowship and Mission.
Worship in this Community centers around the Eucharist, the breaking of the bread in which we ‘draw near’ to God and ‘become what we are” – the body of Christ in our public worship services. The Offices of prayer will also be held at Hope House daily and our Memorial Services reach out to the community to heal the wounds of violence and oppression.
That of course, is Mission. We don’t normally think of it this way, but our Worship is Mission. But Hope House is the focus of our outreach. The Neighboring Initiative is centered here and our outreach to the young people of our community and Victims’ families will take place from this location.
This is the Spiritual DNA of All Saints Anglican Church.
And it’s all because of what happened on Good Friday, some 2000 years ago at Calvary, when Jesus bled and died for us, His body.
I said at the beginning of Lent that on Easter we would ask ourselves to stand and make a Public Commitment to these Four Practices. I do apologize to everyone as I was overly optimistic about visiting with you all individually and developing your own Rule of Life. But that can come in the days ahead. For now, let’s review what it is we are asking you to commit to. Here are the questions I will ask you on Sunday:
Liturgy of Public Commitment
Do you trust Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior?
Have you been baptized in water in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit?
Do you believe the Christian faith as revealed in Holy Scripture and as set forth and summarized in the Apostles Creed?
Do you take up your cross daily and follow Jesus Christ as his disciple?
Do you desire to embrace the 4 Practices of Worship, Community, Formation and Mission as your Rule of Life?
Will you practice Mission; committing yourself to love and serve God’s world in word
and deed.
Will you practice Community: intending to know, serve and love other participants in
All Saints Anglican Church?
Will you practice Formation; intending to use spiritual disciplines to cooperate with the
Holy Spirit in order to grow into Christ-like character?
Will you practice Worship; committing yourself to participate well in the public worship of All Saints Anglican Church?
As we voice our commitment to these practices, may God confirm and strengthen us as His body, His very presence here on earth, born through his blood and nourished at His Table. May he renew His covenant with Him, and may we be found faithful stewards of the Grace of life found within us. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN.
At this hour of the evening, Christ would have already been taken down off the cross and laid in the tomb, so that his body would not have remained on the cross on the Sabbath, which started at 6pm in the evening by the Jewish reckoning of time.
At the request of the Jewish leaders Pilate’s soldiers had broken the legs of the two criminals so that they would die quickly. But Jesus was already found to be dead, so they pierced his side with a spear just to make sure. At that moment, when blood and water came out of Jesus’ side, the Church was born.
You see, God the Father had it in his mind from the very beginning to create a people for himself – a people that would live in close community with Him and who would delight in obedience to their Lord. We read in Genesis about the Creation of Adam and Eve, and how they fell away from their high calling by virtue of their disobedience. We witness God promising them a Savior and then calling Abraham into covenant with Him in order to be a blessing to all the world. We see the covenant renewed in God’s dealings with Jacob (Israel). And in the Exodus, Moses leads the people out of Egypt after the various plagues which culminated in the Passover.
As the people of Israel leave Egypt and make their way into the desert, they are given the Law and the sign of the circumcision to mark their covenant with God. And while the Law demanded sacrifices in order to cover the sin of the people, yet God’s heart was not so much interested in sacrifice as He was in finding a people with whom he could fellowship – a covenant people.
Now according to something called ‘The Standard Canonical Narrative’, biblical history should be understood in terms of a linear ‘creation –fall-redemption-consummation narrative. In other words, “The Fall disrupted God’s original purpose, while the work of Christ is to redeem the fallen creation and bring to final consummation God’s original purpose in creation.” (Simon Chan, Liturgical Theology, pg. 21.)
Author Simon Chan calls this an ‘instrumentalist’ view of the church – the church is only an ‘instrument of God’s will”. Within this view the church is a means to an end and our value as Church is the extent to which we fulfill or mission. You meet your quota and God likes you, miss the quota, and you’re in trouble.
However, there is another way to understand the Bible’s narrative, and that is to start with the realization that “The church precedes Creation…” (Chan pg. 23). Creation forms the backdrop for God’s elective grace and covenant relationship rather than vice versa.:” (Chan pg. 22). In this view…”The church does not exist in order to fix a broken creation; rather, creation exists to realize the church” (Chan pg. 23).
“God’s highest intention for the world should be seen as [being] the means by which God’s grace of election could be realized. (pg. 22). Alexander Schmemann says it this way: “The Church is not for the world, the world is for the church.”(For the Life of the World). “God made the world in order to make the church. (Chan pg. 23). This means that our basic identity as the church is to be found not in what we do, but in what we are.
So think with me now about Heb. 10:5,6:
“… when Christ came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure.”
This body that is mentioned is usually understood as Christ’s Human body, but I can’t also help but think of the church. Jesus is called the Head and the Church his Body; we are held together by the work of the Holy Spirit. There is an organic unity between head and body and this unity is designated by the term totus Christus- the total Christ.
The total Christ is not something external to God, but internal. It is a ‘divine-humanity’. The church precedes Creation because it is the body of Christ, the Second Person of the Trinity. The historical existence of the church begins with the Passion of Christ, but again, God is not so much interested in the sacrifice as sacrifice, but in Christ’s willing obedience. As Christ dies in his liturgy of Passover Lamb, His obedience creates the promised Covenant People of God, who are the Body of Christ, and the Temple of the Holy Spirit – what God had in mind all along.
Simon Chan again: “We are not saved as individual first and then incorporated into the church; rather to be a Christian is to be incorporated into the church by baptism and nourished with the spiritual food of the body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist. Failure to understand this fact has led to a reduction of the church’s role to a largely sociological one of a service provider catering to individual believer’s spiritual needs.” (pg. 24.)
Application
Going back to our text in Hebrews: Since we are the covenant people of God, we are admonished to … draw near with a true heart …to hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, to stir up one another to love and good works, and to encourage one another …
The Four Practices
This past fall, I introduced the Four Practices, which were based on Acts 2:42: “And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” Now we can also tie this in with our scripture for today: Hebrews 10: 22-25: The Four Practices were: Worship, Formation, Mission and Community.
Again, it’s important to remember that it is because we are organically linked to Christ that these practices are not ‘works of the law’, but functions of the body –activities which both make the body and build it up.
I’d like to hand out a (see attached) chart that shows how all this links together in our life as All Saints Anglican Church.
At the bottom of the page we show Company of Jesus, meaning that the monastic spirituality of Benedict and Francis are the wellsprings of spiritual vitality for Anglicanism in general and this congregation in particular.
Our Formation as disciples is based on the Apostle’s teaching as guided by the wisdom of generations of monastics, and over the next several months, we will be studying this more in depth.
We have talked previously about Hope House becoming the center of an Urban Third Order ‘mother House” of the CoJ, in which Company members would move into the immediate area and gather at Hope House for prayer and spiritual friendship (Anam Chara). Our small groups will come to function as ‘priories’ as it were, small communities devoted to encouragement, intercessory and healing prayer, fellowship and Mission.
Worship in this Community centers around the Eucharist, the breaking of the bread in which we ‘draw near’ to God and ‘become what we are” – the body of Christ in our public worship services. The Offices of prayer will also be held at Hope House daily and our Memorial Services reach out to the community to heal the wounds of violence and oppression.
That of course, is Mission. We don’t normally think of it this way, but our Worship is Mission. But Hope House is the focus of our outreach. The Neighboring Initiative is centered here and our outreach to the young people of our community and Victims’ families will take place from this location.
This is the Spiritual DNA of All Saints Anglican Church.
And it’s all because of what happened on Good Friday, some 2000 years ago at Calvary, when Jesus bled and died for us, His body.
I said at the beginning of Lent that on Easter we would ask ourselves to stand and make a Public Commitment to these Four Practices. I do apologize to everyone as I was overly optimistic about visiting with you all individually and developing your own Rule of Life. But that can come in the days ahead. For now, let’s review what it is we are asking you to commit to. Here are the questions I will ask you on Sunday:
Liturgy of Public Commitment
Do you trust Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior?
Have you been baptized in water in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit?
Do you believe the Christian faith as revealed in Holy Scripture and as set forth and summarized in the Apostles Creed?
Do you take up your cross daily and follow Jesus Christ as his disciple?
Do you desire to embrace the 4 Practices of Worship, Community, Formation and Mission as your Rule of Life?
Will you practice Mission; committing yourself to love and serve God’s world in word
and deed.
Will you practice Community: intending to know, serve and love other participants in
All Saints Anglican Church?
Will you practice Formation; intending to use spiritual disciplines to cooperate with the
Holy Spirit in order to grow into Christ-like character?
Will you practice Worship; committing yourself to participate well in the public worship of All Saints Anglican Church?
As we voice our commitment to these practices, may God confirm and strengthen us as His body, His very presence here on earth, born through his blood and nourished at His Table. May he renew His covenant with Him, and may we be found faithful stewards of the Grace of life found within us. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Peregrination
A sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on March 15, 2009 at the Convent Chapel of St. Mary's Medical Center, Huntington, WV.
During the reign of Alfred the Great, the first true King of England (849-899), three Irishman arrived in Cornwall after having drifted for seven days across the sea from Ireland in a boat made of hides. They had few provisions and they were without oars. They were brought before the king and when asked their motive, they replied, “We stole away because we wanted for the love of God to be on pilgrimage, we cared not where.” (quoted in Every Earthly Blessing, by Esther deWaal, pg. 39).
Today, since we are celebrating a ‘Celtic Eucharist”, I thought it would be well for us to talk about one of the more interesting aspects of Celtic Spirituality: Peregrination, or Holy Wandering, also known as Exile, or Pilgrimage.
Esther de Waal explains that ‘over a period of five hundred years, thousands of Celtic monks set out to wander the face of Europe, leaving homeland and friends, and all of life’s securities in order that they might set out into the unknown and journey for God. They called themselves pilgrims, or peregrinati and they dedicated themselves to go on pilgrimage for Christ’s sake - wherever that might take them. Although most of these monks remain anonymous, a few names stand out:
St. Columba who founded the Iona Community in the sixth century,
St. Columbanus, abbot of Bangor in the sixth century, who set out for France, and then eventually founded the monastery at Bobbio Italy, where St. Francis was one day to spend time.
St. Aidan who went from Iona to Lindisfarne in the seventh century, and whose monks converted Northumbria to Christ
St. Columbanus called Christians ‘guests of the world’ - “hospites mundi”. He spoke of what it means to be a pilgrim, describing it as going into exile, seeking the place of one’s resurrection, the pilgrimage to heaven, the true home. (deWaal pg. 40).
The Celtic pilgrims were like Abraham, who set out from his own country at God’s command. In the book of Hebrews, Chapter 11, we read that “By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.
9 By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.
Speaking of others in the so-called Hall of Faith, we read:
13 These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. 14 For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. 15 If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city. (ESV)
Spiritual Homelessness vs. Holy Wandering
The other day, I heard someone use the phrase ‘Spiritual Homlessness’ to describe the millions of people today who view themselves as spiritually minded, but yet have no church home, and have no apparent desire for one. Spiritual homelessness is essentially rootlessness being adrift just because you want to take your own way. St. Benedict described monks he called‘Gyrovagues. Listen to his description and see if it doesn’t apply to many people today:
“All their lives they wander in different countries staying in various monasteries [churches, clubs, etc] for three or four days at a time. They are restless, servants to the seduction of their own will and appetites…It is better to be silent as to their wretched life style than to speak…” (RB Ch. 1)
In contrast to this, being a Pilgrim involves an inner stability and can even be an expression of an ascetic discipline.
As Christian pilgrims we know who we are: sinners redeemed by God’s grace We also know our eventual destination: the new heaven and earth, where believers will dwell with God in face to face union – the heavenly country spoken of in Hebrews 11.
We find this country in the Resurrection, which is why the Celts used this phrase, ‘seeking the place of one’s resurrection’. The paradox inherent in this thinking is that while the peregrinati moved out into unknown geography, they were actually seeking a spiritual inheritance – this was really a spiritual quest to find God. Here again, however, the rub is that unless we carry within our hearts the God whom we are seeking, we will not find him. (de Waal, pg42).
To put it another way, the grass really is not greener on the other side – unless perhaps you look directly over the septic system.
Now, lest you think that St. Benedict is entirely opposed to the notion of pilgrimage, listen to the language he uses in the Prologue of his Rule. He exhorts us ‘to rise from sleep,…to open our eyes and to hear with attentive ears, to run while we have the light of life, to tread the path He has cleared for us as we are guided by the Gospel. He admonishes us to ‘encompass ourselves with faith and the practice of good works, to seek peace and pursue it, to keep our tongues from evil and our lips from speaking guile. And, after the Psalmist (34:13-14), he promises us that ‘If you do this, My[God’s] eyes will see you, and my ears will hear your prayers (34:17). With Isaiah, Benedict reminds us that the Lord says, “before you can call out to Me, I will say to you: Behold I am here.”. (Is.58:9).
So, we talk about going on a pilgrimage to seek God. But that God is right here, right now, and he will answer our prayers even before we call on him. Therefore, it is entirely appropriate to ask, “Who is seeking whom?” A famous slogan states, “The Whole Christ is seeking the whole person.” Thus it is that although we are on journey to find Christ, he wants to find us more than we want to be found.
But on with our story about the Celtic Pilgrims.
Three Grades of Pilrimage, or Exile.
The most famous of the peregrinati was St. Brendan, who was born in 489 and died between 570 and 583. He was the abbot of the monastery in Clonfert in East Galway. His story, ‘The Voyage of St. Brendan, is subtitled, “Journey to the Promised Land” because Brendan resolves to seek this Promised Land after listening to a certain Barrind tell of having visited this place himself and encountering an angel, who tells them “…The Lord has revealed to you the Land, which he will give to his saints… an island that ‘has been from the beginning of the world. Where one needs no drink or clothing, where one year seems to pass as a day, where sleep never overtakes you or night envelops you, “For here it is always day, without blinding darkness. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the light of this island.” (VSB, pg. 4, 5). Sure sounds like heaven, doesn’t it?
Brendan and his companions were engaged in the ‘perfect pilgrimage’ – they had left their home body and soul to find the Lord’s country –just as Abraham had. Thus they were exemplars of the highest grade of pilgrim. There were also two other grades of pilgrims:
Grade two pilgrim was someone who was detained in his own country, even though in the zeal of his heart and spirit he had left. The following quote encapsulates the feeling here: “Being under restraint, under authority…[or obligation] leaves a man free only to travel in spirit.
The Grade one pilgrim was one who only traveled in body. Just walking around served no spiritual purpose unless one were to draw near to God and practice virtue and good deeds along the way. The temptation with this is to become a mere Gyrovague.
Pilgrimage and Mission.
The original aim of the peregrini was simply to wander for God. This wandering was not motivated primarily by mission. But in the course of their wandering the Celtic pilgrims became missionaries, preaching the Gospel as they went, and establishing monastic houses along the way. St. Patrick is, of course, the example par excellence of this missionary journeying. He was the first actual cross-cultural missionary in Christian history and the progenitor of a Transformation that lasted many hundreds of years. In his lifetime, virtually the whole of Ireland was Evangelized and the practice of slavery was all-but eliminated.
Because of his example, other Celtic pilgrims successfully planted Christian churches and communities all over Europe, and even today, there remain some 250 places in Europe that bear the name of some Celtic saint.
One of the reasons why Patrick and the other Celtic pilgrims were so successful was because they had completely renounced power and security. They had nothing but God, and because of it they were completely free to go wherever God lead them. You might say that when they got in their boats to go wandering they pushed off the EDGE and entrusted themselves into the care of Almighty God. And because of this radical trust, these saints accomplished marvelous works for the Lord and are remembered in place names and history books today.
Application
So what do we make of all this, and how do we apply it in our lives today?
The first thing to acknowledge is simply that most of us will be type two pilgrims. In other words, we are tied obligated to family and to work, and so most likely will not be pushing off into the Ohio River in a coracle anytime soon. In this sense our lives are going to be much more ‘Benedictine’ – that is committed to a particular place for the rest of our lives.
But having said that we can still practice an internal and spiritual pilgrimage in our lives. We can cast off from the shore of certainty and launch out into the great deep, into the unknown of God’s will and provision for us. We can practice non-control in our lives and welcome the uncertainty of where God will lead us.
Just as Jesus sent out the 70 disciples without money or tunics or GPS systems or hotel reservations, we trust God radically and learn to listen closely to him, confident that we will get it wrong at times, but that our heavenly Father in his infinite mercy will correct us and help us get back on the path.
Then too, we can learn that “I don’t know.” is an acceptable answer to the question, “What then…” God seems to work on a ‘need to know” basis – just like the military. You get your orders for now and you have to wait for the next set of orders up ahead. And just like the military, you best follow the current set of orders right now, because if you don’t there will certainly be consequences. You go with what you know to do and let God be in charge of the next thing. Another slogan for this is “God knows” – as in Your heavenly father knows that you need all these things.” (Mt 6:32).
Yogi Berra once quipped, “When you come to a fork in the road, take it”. That’s funny but not really helpful. If you get stuck on the journey, just stop. Wait, look and listen for the Lord. Don’t go ahead until you here His voice telling you what to do.
If you happen to be traveling on sea, of course, you don’t get the luxury of sitting still and waiting. You might be like the disciples on the sea of Galilee, caught in a huge storm and scared out of your mind. At such a time, it’s really OK to do what they did, which was to cry out to God to help them. Just try not to get too spooked when Jesus comes to you walking on the water.
Don’t wander aimlessly without knowing who you are. Remember that Jesus is the destination and also the Way. He is the Truth and the Life, and all our wandering should lead back to Him. If it doesn’t, we are definitely gong the wrong way.
Finally be a white martyr. Tell others what you have witnessed God do in your life. Don’t be afraid to “tell of all the Lord’s marvelous works”. You are just telling your story. You don’t have to produce any specific result. That’s up to God.
If you carry Jesus in your heart, you will be successful on your journey, for He is much more willing to found than we are to seek Him. May God grant us the grace to be fearless pilgrims, willing exiles and Bold Martyrs for his sake. AMEN.
During the reign of Alfred the Great, the first true King of England (849-899), three Irishman arrived in Cornwall after having drifted for seven days across the sea from Ireland in a boat made of hides. They had few provisions and they were without oars. They were brought before the king and when asked their motive, they replied, “We stole away because we wanted for the love of God to be on pilgrimage, we cared not where.” (quoted in Every Earthly Blessing, by Esther deWaal, pg. 39).
Today, since we are celebrating a ‘Celtic Eucharist”, I thought it would be well for us to talk about one of the more interesting aspects of Celtic Spirituality: Peregrination, or Holy Wandering, also known as Exile, or Pilgrimage.
Esther de Waal explains that ‘over a period of five hundred years, thousands of Celtic monks set out to wander the face of Europe, leaving homeland and friends, and all of life’s securities in order that they might set out into the unknown and journey for God. They called themselves pilgrims, or peregrinati and they dedicated themselves to go on pilgrimage for Christ’s sake - wherever that might take them. Although most of these monks remain anonymous, a few names stand out:
St. Columba who founded the Iona Community in the sixth century,
St. Columbanus, abbot of Bangor in the sixth century, who set out for France, and then eventually founded the monastery at Bobbio Italy, where St. Francis was one day to spend time.
St. Aidan who went from Iona to Lindisfarne in the seventh century, and whose monks converted Northumbria to Christ
St. Columbanus called Christians ‘guests of the world’ - “hospites mundi”. He spoke of what it means to be a pilgrim, describing it as going into exile, seeking the place of one’s resurrection, the pilgrimage to heaven, the true home. (deWaal pg. 40).
The Celtic pilgrims were like Abraham, who set out from his own country at God’s command. In the book of Hebrews, Chapter 11, we read that “By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.
9 By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.
Speaking of others in the so-called Hall of Faith, we read:
13 These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. 14 For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. 15 If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city. (ESV)
Spiritual Homelessness vs. Holy Wandering
The other day, I heard someone use the phrase ‘Spiritual Homlessness’ to describe the millions of people today who view themselves as spiritually minded, but yet have no church home, and have no apparent desire for one. Spiritual homelessness is essentially rootlessness being adrift just because you want to take your own way. St. Benedict described monks he called‘Gyrovagues. Listen to his description and see if it doesn’t apply to many people today:
“All their lives they wander in different countries staying in various monasteries [churches, clubs, etc] for three or four days at a time. They are restless, servants to the seduction of their own will and appetites…It is better to be silent as to their wretched life style than to speak…” (RB Ch. 1)
In contrast to this, being a Pilgrim involves an inner stability and can even be an expression of an ascetic discipline.
As Christian pilgrims we know who we are: sinners redeemed by God’s grace We also know our eventual destination: the new heaven and earth, where believers will dwell with God in face to face union – the heavenly country spoken of in Hebrews 11.
We find this country in the Resurrection, which is why the Celts used this phrase, ‘seeking the place of one’s resurrection’. The paradox inherent in this thinking is that while the peregrinati moved out into unknown geography, they were actually seeking a spiritual inheritance – this was really a spiritual quest to find God. Here again, however, the rub is that unless we carry within our hearts the God whom we are seeking, we will not find him. (de Waal, pg42).
To put it another way, the grass really is not greener on the other side – unless perhaps you look directly over the septic system.
Now, lest you think that St. Benedict is entirely opposed to the notion of pilgrimage, listen to the language he uses in the Prologue of his Rule. He exhorts us ‘to rise from sleep,…to open our eyes and to hear with attentive ears, to run while we have the light of life, to tread the path He has cleared for us as we are guided by the Gospel. He admonishes us to ‘encompass ourselves with faith and the practice of good works, to seek peace and pursue it, to keep our tongues from evil and our lips from speaking guile. And, after the Psalmist (34:13-14), he promises us that ‘If you do this, My[God’s] eyes will see you, and my ears will hear your prayers (34:17). With Isaiah, Benedict reminds us that the Lord says, “before you can call out to Me, I will say to you: Behold I am here.”. (Is.58:9).
So, we talk about going on a pilgrimage to seek God. But that God is right here, right now, and he will answer our prayers even before we call on him. Therefore, it is entirely appropriate to ask, “Who is seeking whom?” A famous slogan states, “The Whole Christ is seeking the whole person.” Thus it is that although we are on journey to find Christ, he wants to find us more than we want to be found.
But on with our story about the Celtic Pilgrims.
Three Grades of Pilrimage, or Exile.
The most famous of the peregrinati was St. Brendan, who was born in 489 and died between 570 and 583. He was the abbot of the monastery in Clonfert in East Galway. His story, ‘The Voyage of St. Brendan, is subtitled, “Journey to the Promised Land” because Brendan resolves to seek this Promised Land after listening to a certain Barrind tell of having visited this place himself and encountering an angel, who tells them “…The Lord has revealed to you the Land, which he will give to his saints… an island that ‘has been from the beginning of the world. Where one needs no drink or clothing, where one year seems to pass as a day, where sleep never overtakes you or night envelops you, “For here it is always day, without blinding darkness. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the light of this island.” (VSB, pg. 4, 5). Sure sounds like heaven, doesn’t it?
Brendan and his companions were engaged in the ‘perfect pilgrimage’ – they had left their home body and soul to find the Lord’s country –just as Abraham had. Thus they were exemplars of the highest grade of pilgrim. There were also two other grades of pilgrims:
Grade two pilgrim was someone who was detained in his own country, even though in the zeal of his heart and spirit he had left. The following quote encapsulates the feeling here: “Being under restraint, under authority…[or obligation] leaves a man free only to travel in spirit.
The Grade one pilgrim was one who only traveled in body. Just walking around served no spiritual purpose unless one were to draw near to God and practice virtue and good deeds along the way. The temptation with this is to become a mere Gyrovague.
Pilgrimage and Mission.
The original aim of the peregrini was simply to wander for God. This wandering was not motivated primarily by mission. But in the course of their wandering the Celtic pilgrims became missionaries, preaching the Gospel as they went, and establishing monastic houses along the way. St. Patrick is, of course, the example par excellence of this missionary journeying. He was the first actual cross-cultural missionary in Christian history and the progenitor of a Transformation that lasted many hundreds of years. In his lifetime, virtually the whole of Ireland was Evangelized and the practice of slavery was all-but eliminated.
Because of his example, other Celtic pilgrims successfully planted Christian churches and communities all over Europe, and even today, there remain some 250 places in Europe that bear the name of some Celtic saint.
One of the reasons why Patrick and the other Celtic pilgrims were so successful was because they had completely renounced power and security. They had nothing but God, and because of it they were completely free to go wherever God lead them. You might say that when they got in their boats to go wandering they pushed off the EDGE and entrusted themselves into the care of Almighty God. And because of this radical trust, these saints accomplished marvelous works for the Lord and are remembered in place names and history books today.
Application
So what do we make of all this, and how do we apply it in our lives today?
The first thing to acknowledge is simply that most of us will be type two pilgrims. In other words, we are tied obligated to family and to work, and so most likely will not be pushing off into the Ohio River in a coracle anytime soon. In this sense our lives are going to be much more ‘Benedictine’ – that is committed to a particular place for the rest of our lives.
But having said that we can still practice an internal and spiritual pilgrimage in our lives. We can cast off from the shore of certainty and launch out into the great deep, into the unknown of God’s will and provision for us. We can practice non-control in our lives and welcome the uncertainty of where God will lead us.
Just as Jesus sent out the 70 disciples without money or tunics or GPS systems or hotel reservations, we trust God radically and learn to listen closely to him, confident that we will get it wrong at times, but that our heavenly Father in his infinite mercy will correct us and help us get back on the path.
Then too, we can learn that “I don’t know.” is an acceptable answer to the question, “What then…” God seems to work on a ‘need to know” basis – just like the military. You get your orders for now and you have to wait for the next set of orders up ahead. And just like the military, you best follow the current set of orders right now, because if you don’t there will certainly be consequences. You go with what you know to do and let God be in charge of the next thing. Another slogan for this is “God knows” – as in Your heavenly father knows that you need all these things.” (Mt 6:32).
Yogi Berra once quipped, “When you come to a fork in the road, take it”. That’s funny but not really helpful. If you get stuck on the journey, just stop. Wait, look and listen for the Lord. Don’t go ahead until you here His voice telling you what to do.
If you happen to be traveling on sea, of course, you don’t get the luxury of sitting still and waiting. You might be like the disciples on the sea of Galilee, caught in a huge storm and scared out of your mind. At such a time, it’s really OK to do what they did, which was to cry out to God to help them. Just try not to get too spooked when Jesus comes to you walking on the water.
Don’t wander aimlessly without knowing who you are. Remember that Jesus is the destination and also the Way. He is the Truth and the Life, and all our wandering should lead back to Him. If it doesn’t, we are definitely gong the wrong way.
Finally be a white martyr. Tell others what you have witnessed God do in your life. Don’t be afraid to “tell of all the Lord’s marvelous works”. You are just telling your story. You don’t have to produce any specific result. That’s up to God.
If you carry Jesus in your heart, you will be successful on your journey, for He is much more willing to found than we are to seek Him. May God grant us the grace to be fearless pilgrims, willing exiles and Bold Martyrs for his sake. AMEN.
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