One Who is More Powerful

Sermon for 3 Advent RCL, Offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry

Texts: Zephaniah 3:14-20; Isaiah 12:2-6; Philippians 4:4-7; Luke 3:7-18

There’s an event every summer out in the hills of Pennsylvania. It’s called the Creation Festival, and it’s run by a pastor from Medford. It’s a multi-day, long weekend Christian festival with an incredible number of Christian bands, daily worship sessions and bible studies, and lots of time for plain old fellowship as thousands of people are all camped camp out on farm fields. It’s primarily a major evangelical event, but youth groups from all kinds of churches attend and participate from all over the East Coast and Midwest.

Tony Campolo, the Baptist professor from Eastern University, of whom I’ve spoken often, has been a part of this festival many times. He tells of a Sunday during a Creation Festival a few years back when he was invited to preach at a local Lutheran church, and a number of young people from the festival followed him there to join in worship and to hear Dr. Campolo preach. Well, it happened at the beginning of the service, that the Lutheran pastor called the people to worship in his typical way, and he began saying: “Make a joyful noise unto the Lord…” and, lo and behold, one of the young folks from the festival, sitting up in the balcony responded and called out, “All right!” and they all started clapping and hooting and hollering, and, well, making a joyful noise! It never even occurred to that poor, shocked pastor, or to his congregation, when he called on the people to make a joyful noise for God, that anyone present actually would!

We need sometimes, my friends, to stretch our comfort zones. Sometimes, God pushes us to make us uncomfortable. In fact, we have to stretch and push in order to grow. John the Baptizer, along with all of the prophets, is really good for this. Endowed with the prophetic office, the anointing of the Holy Spirit, John was right up in the face of his people with holy boldness.

I want you to seriously consider this morning how we would do well, at times, to follow the lead of the prophets. There are times when God is calling YOU to stand up with holy boldness and to speak the truth. Yes, you – each and every one of you. Sometimes there is no one else to whom you can pass the buck. There are times when you see evil and wrong right there in front of you, and you need to speak with holy boldness.

There is a right and a wrong in this world, and God calls us to stand up for the right. But what is even more amazing than this is that God gives us the power to do it! What else does it mean, my friends, to be baptized with the Holy Spirit and with fire? John the Baptizer, the prophet, speaks of the One coming after him. “I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” This is quite a claim. What do you think this means for you, in your life? Clearly, if we are a people who have been baptized with the Spirit and with fire, touched by this powerful Messiah and Lord, then there surely is no place at all for timidity among us.

2 Timothy 1:7: “For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power, of love, and of self-discipline.” Or as The Message version puts it: “God does not want us to be shy with his gifts, but bold and loving and sensible.”

God desires that we act boldly with the gifts that we as the church have been given. But this begs the question: Do we truly understand the measure of the gifts that God has given to us? Do we grasp it? My friends, we have been given the gift of God’s self-revelation, the deposit of our faith, here in the Scriptures and in the apostolic teachings of the Church. This deposit is a treasure beyond comprehension. I will spend my entire life digging into this treasure-house and I will only ever be able barely to scratch the surface. And this is not even to mention all of the other gifts that we have inherited as baptized people in this place: the houses of worship for which we are caretakers, the peace and security in which we are free to worship in this country, the blessing of living in a free democracy, and the incredible wealth with which we all live.

We are a people blessed beyond measure, and yet (you know this to be true) far too often we act as though we are poor. We walk out into the streets as though we have nothing of great value to offer to the world around us, as if we act in church out of simple duty alone, carrying forward this tradition because it is nice and it makes us feel good inside.

When we strip away all of the externals, the stark reality is that what we do here together in this place is a matter of life and death. We carry, we sing about, we speak of, we touch holy things. The words we speak in the liturgy are ancient, coming directly from the days of the apostles, those first ones who were touched by the fire of Christ, baptized in the Holy Spirit coming down upon them in tongues of flame.

On a personal level, this connection to the apostles is of great importance. The reason I left the Baptist tradition, in which I was first ordained, in order to return to the Episcopal Church, who had baptized and confirmed me, is because I am convinced of the power of the apostolic tradition. To be an “Episcopal” church means to be centered upon the office of the bishop, and our bishop stands in a direct line from the apostles, from Peter and Paul and Andrew and John. Our worship was not recently created in California. We do not sing songs that some new Christian in Nashville just wrote. Our ship travels in the apostolic river, and there is tremendous power and grace and blessing in these waters. I believe in my heart that the world needs these gifts, and our neighbors long for these gifts, even if they cannot yet express it.

And how then do we act? Do we hide this light under a bushel? Are we afraid to speak the truth in love? God calls us not to be shy with these gifts, but to be bold and loving and sensible. As Paul stated hear in the Epistle for this Sunday with such sublime clarity, “The Lord is near.” And so what flows out of this? What transpires when we recognize that the Lord is near, surrounding us at all times? Therefore…”do not worry about anything.” Christ empowers you to speak with boldness and so without fear or anxiety.

Now, please understand that I recognize this is not easy. We will all go home and have to figure out what to eat for dinner, and how to pay the mortgage, and make a list of what remaining presents we need to buy for Christmas, and think about how to keep the kids from arguing so much. And I recognize that the Church is in a confusing and complex time right now which can make us uncertain about what to say to others about the Church. I understand all of this. I understand the real world, I really do.

But we need to be careful not to use these things as an excuse. We have inherited an awesome treasure which is meant to be shared with others. Life is busy and complex and confusing, but we have a responsibility and we have made a commitment. And even in these busy lives that we lead today, this much remains true: each one of us does what we want in life. Really, search your heart, reflect on your life and you will know it is true. If you look carefully, you will see that we do in fact what we want with the time that is given to us.

Once again, the apostolic wisdom of the Church speaks directly to our need to be energized for action. The Collect for today speaks truth to us: “Stir up your power, O Lord, and with great might come among us.” This is exactly what we need: to be ignited with fire by the Holy Spirit, so that worry and fear are banished from our hearts, and nothing but rejoicing and peace and boldness and confidence remain.

So may it be always among us who are so blessed by Christ to find new life in this great tradition of truth and beauty and power. Amen.

St. Nicholas of Myra!

Making Mitres at our St. Nicholas Feast - much fun was had by all !

Notes from the Children's Sermon for the 2nd Sunday of Advent (also the Feast of St. Nicholas).

Good morning and a blessed Advent to all of you! Blessed Advent.

What does it mean to prepare the way? What is preparation?

Did you see the snow yesterday? Think of snowplows and snow shovels. Before we go out in the snow, we need to get ready. We need to prepare the way: to shovel the sidewalk or plow the street or clear off the car. If I don’t use this snow broom to clean off my windshield this morning, then I can’t drive here, because I can’t see where I am going! Only after this work is done, then we can go on our way to do what we need to do. The plows and brooms clear away the junk so that we can go about doing our work.

Do any of you like to eat pancakes? Well, first you have to heat up the pan and make the batter. This is preparing the way for pancakes, preparing the way for breakfast!

Who is John the Baptist? Here is an old picture, an icon, of St. John the Baptist. How did he prepare the way for the Lord Jesus? By telling the people that they needed to change, and by baptizing all the people, and by telling them that Jesus was coming.

I have another question for you: Who is Saint Nicholas? I also have an icon of him as well.
How does Saint Nicholas prepare the way for us to celebrate Christmas? St. Nicholas teaches us that we show Jesus that we love him when we give to help other people. We give gifts to Jesus when we give gifts to those who need them.

Let me tell you the most famous story about St. Nicholas. It actually starts out very sad. When he was a young man, both of Nicholas’ parents died from a bad disease that was going around. Like the swine flu, but much worse. They left him the money that they had. But Nicholas wanted to be a priest, and he decided to give his money away. He heard about a family in his town who was very poor, and the three young daughters were going to be sold as slaves. Their father did not know what else to do! Nicholas decided to act. Late at night, when everyone was asleep, he decided to secretly drop a bag of gold through one of the windows in the family’s house. (Some people say that it landed in a shoe or in a stocking that was hanging by the fire to dry out.) The family was so happy that one of the daughters did not have to be a slave now, but the other 2 girls were still in danger. So Nicholas went back again, two different nights, to secretly drop bags of gold through an open window. But the third time, the father of the girls was overcome with curiosity to know who their secret gift-giver was, so he stayed up late at night and ran out when he saw the bag of gold dropped in. Around a corner in the street, he caught up to Nicholas and thanked him, dropping to his knees. Nicholas told the father to thank God, not him, and to keep the gifts of gold a secret.

But everyone eventually heard about St. Nicholas, and how he cares for young children who are in need or danger.

So I want you to remember: John the Baptist prepared the way for Jesus when he lived here on earth. And St. Nicholas prepares the way for Christmas every year. And I want you to try to be like St. Nicholas: to share what you have, to give gifts to those who are poor or hungry or needy. That will make this to be for you the best Christmas ever!

A Life Without a Lonely Place

"A life without a lonely place, that is, without a quiet center, easily becomes destructive" (Henri Nouwen, Out of Solitude, p.21).

I believe that it is vitally important for each person to maintain an inner room, a sanctuary in the heart, where they listen. A lonely place, a quiet center of yourself, where no other voices can get in. Without such a place, and without spending time in such a place, we humans beings very easily are persuaded to follow paths of greed, selfishness, and anger.

Just look at Tiger Woods. How easily even the most worldly successful person becomes self-destructive by following the wrong voices, by not stripping himself of all externals and being naked before God, quiet and lonely in solitude and prayer.

My friends, during these busy holiday times, do not let the voices of friends, family, commercials, or the media lead you away from the quiet center of your soul. If any of us need another reminder of the truth, it is here in Tiger Woods: wealth and material possessions can never lead you to happiness. Only Love and commitment and integrity and honesty can do that. And those come from the Spirit of God within you.

There is a Difference!

My friends, there is a difference! Never think that all churches are the same! There is a difference. And I'm angry!

I play basketball on Monday nights at a pick-up league at the Moorestown High School. Tonight, just as we were about to pick teams and get organized, about half of the guys walked right out! With no explanation at all, except for a few cryptic comments about a young man who had just walked in.

The rest of us continued on and played anyway. When we all decided that we had enough, I went over to the young man and asked him about the situation. And here is the story.

This young guy, Ben, grew up as a Jehovah's Witness in Moorestown. Now, he is in his late-20's and has hiw own son. About nine months ago, he decided that he did not want his son to grow up in that faith-system. So he left. Ben wrote his requisite letter to the local Watchtower elders, explaining that he has decided to leave.

So far, so good. The problem is that all Jehovah's Witnesses are required to shun anyone who leaves. And it just so happens that the men who left the gymnasium tonight are all Witnesses. They know Ben and therefore they all were required to leave in order to shun him.

Ben explained to me that this is part of the reason why he left. In addition, Jehovah's Witnesses are required to only socialize with other members of the Kingdom Hall. Ben did not want his son to grow up in such a restrictive, manipulative environment.

I tell you what, I am pissed! I confess that I am not very tolerant of stupidity. I told Ben that I supported him in his decision. Each of us needs to make our own decisions and not allow ourselves to be manipulated by those in authority who use fear to maintain control.

I am sorry, but the Jehovah's Witnesses are a dangerous cult. They are an embarassment to our Lord Jesus Christ. Their actions reveal the fact that they totally misunderstand the Bible. Our Lord Jesus never shunned anyone! I am proud to be part of the true church of Christ where everyone is welcome; where all are given a chance to experience the amazing love of God.

Next week at basketball, I am going to let those guys have it. They need to know that they are wrong. I'm going to ask each one if they are here to play basketball or to talk about God. Because I will take 'em on either way that they want it. Such cowards. I have no patience for cowardly men, and I don't think the Lord does either. "For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but a spirit of power, of love, and of self-discipline" (2 Timothy 1:7).

There is a difference, my friends.

How Great Thou Art

Sermon for Christ the King RCL 11/22/2009, Offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry

Texts: 2 Samuel 23:1-7; Psalm 132; Revelation 1:4b-8; John 18:33-37

We have a problem this Sunday, my friends.
This Sunday is commonly called Christ the King Sunday. It is the last Sunday of the Church Year, when we gather together all that we have heard and learned over the course of the past year and collect all of that together in celebration and commemoration while pointing ahead to the final end of the story.

The final end of this story is Jesus Christ, who not only is the Alpha – the beginning of our human story – but also the Omega – the final goal of humanity. We proclaim his today as the King of kings and the Lord of lords.

And this is where our problem begins. We Americans do not particularly like kings. In fact, we rejected the whole idea of having a king to rule over us some 230 years ago! In general, we Americans have been known to mistrust those in authority and to fight to protect our individual liberties at any cost.

Some in the Church, recognizing this problem, have attempted to change the language we use in order to address this issue. Many of you have heard it. Instead of the kingdom of God, they speak now of the reign of God. As if somehow that change in wording is supposed to be less offensive to people today.

But there is some value in this change of language. If we think it through, “kingdom” suggests a place, a particular realm where a king is sovereign. But our King cannot be defined by boundaries of space and time. The word “reign”, however, points to the personal rule of the one on the throne. “The reign of the King.”

But, no matter what precise words we may use, we do worship Christ as King of all the earth. Alive today, active in guiding the world, we honor Him this day as King. No lands are beyond his reach; no language is beyond his understanding; no person is beyond his touch. He is the faithful witness: the one who stood before Pilate and Herod and the Sanhedrin to proclaim the truth, who offered his life in his Passion for the healing of the nations.

He is the firstborn of the dead: the first raised from the dead among many brothers and sisters, a large family of his own redeeming, the one who loves us and frees us from our sins.

He is the ruler of the kings of the earth: every earthly king and president and emperor exists to serve him and to do his will. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to his voice.

In spite of all these words of praise, it is impossible for us truly to understand with our minds what it means that Christ is King.

In a few minutes, we will sing together the great evangelical hymn, How Great Thou Art.
The story of this hymn is amazing. It struck me this week as a parable of Christ as King of all the earth. The words of the hymn were first written by Carl Gustav Boberg in Sweden in 1885 after experiencing an amazing summer-time thunderstorm. Three years later it was paired with an old Swedish folk tune and it began to be sung in Swedish protestant churches. It had nine verses originally, but only the first 2 verses of the hymn as we know it today. The song migrated to the Swedish immigrant community in Estonia, where it was appreciated by a German Baptist. He translated it into German and the hymn began to grow in popularity in Germany. The German version of the hymn was then translated into Russian and it moved into Russia.

Stuart Hine was a British Methodist missionary sent to work among the people living in the Ukranian mountains in the 1930’s. Hine learned this great hymn while working there in the Ukraine. He wrote the third verse (“And when I think, that God his Son not sparing…”) based on the actual words of Ukranian Christians who were experiencing a profound repentance and conversion of heart.

Later, after WW II, Hine was working among Polish refugees in England. Once, he spoke with a Polish Christian man who was separated from his wife, and who, since it was highly unlikely that he would find his wife again, expressed his longing to be re-united with her among the saints in the age to come. Hine wrote the fourth verse which we know today. “When Christ shall come with shouts of acclamation, what joy shall fill my heart…”

But the story continues! Hine published the hymn in a Gospel songbook which British missionaries took with them around the world. And a missionary working in Africa brought this hymn back with him to America in 1951. In a few years, How Great Thou Art became one of the signature songs of the Billy Graham Crusades. And now it ranks as the second most popular hymn in the world behind Amazing Grace.

Sweden, Estonia, Germany, Russia, Ukraine, England, Africa, America. This King moves among all of the people of the earth, and works to touch the hearts of all with his power and his love. We humans tend to think so small: my town, my people, my country. But our King knows no boundaries of time or space.

Do you think that Carl Boberg, walking home from church in high summer in Sweden, getting wet in the rain, viewing the rainbow over the bay as the bright summer overtook the sky once more, - do you think he could have ever imagined the Christians all over the world for decades and centuries to come would sing the hymn of praise he wrote that day? Can any of us know how our King will use the offerings of our gifts and talents and treasures to increase his reign in the hearts of humanity?

The One who meets us in this place; the One who feeds us at this table; the One who teaches us how to live; this One is the King of all the earth. This Christ works and moves in ways that are beyond our understanding. He is the King. We are his kingdom; he reigns over us with grace and peace. And for that, we give our thanks and praise. Amen.

2009 Bible City

Philadelphia is the 2009 Bible City! The city is arguably the most important historical site for church history in America! Check out the website for videos by Jason Avant, Bernie Williams, and others, as well as for free Bible! http://www.biblecity.org/

Also here are some important facts about those who read the Bible regularly. Those who read the Bible at least 4 times a week have these lower odds for damaging behavior:

• smoking ....... by 36%
• getting drunk ...... by 57%
• promiscuity....... by 68%
• using porn ....... by 61%
• gambling ....... by 74%

(Study by the Center for Bible Engagement.)

The Barren Has Borne Seven

Sermon for Proper 28B RCL 11/15/2009, Offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry

Texts: 1 Samuel 1:4-20; 1 Samuel 2:1-10; Hebrews 10:11-25; Mark 13:1-8


Did you notice the words of the Collect appointed for this day, the one appointed always for this penultimate Sunday of the Church year?
“Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them, that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life…”

We are people of the Bible, my friends. We believe that the Bible, the Holy Scriptures, is given to us by God to teach us how to live. Now, to be sure, we in the Episcopal Church are not particularly known for being a people who really dig into the Scriptures. In our sermons, we do not typically spend 30 minutes dissecting a passage of Scripture line-by-line. But don’t let that fool you. We may not study the Bible as regularly as others, but we do read and pray the Bible more than other Christians. In fact, over 80% of the Prayer Book is taken directly from the Bible. And do not forget: it was our Anglican forebears who gave to the world the authorized King James Version of the Bible, certainly the most published and widely distributed book in the history of the world.

As a branch of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church, we Episcopalians stand firmly upon the Bible as the foundation of our faith. Most of you likely do not know that this is the promise that we must make when we are ordained as deacons and as priests. As we stand before the Bishop, before the people of God, and before the presence of God, this is the pledge that we make:

“I solemnly declare that I do believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the Word of God, and to contain all things necessary to salvation” (BCP P. 526 & P. 538).

Okay. So we have these Holy Scriptures as a gift from God, and we look to them to teach us. We seek to inwardly digest them, as the Collect states. And you know what they say: “you are what you eat!” When we digest anything into our stomachs, it becomes absorbed and spread by our blood throughout our bodies and then incorporated into the very cells of our body. So, by analogy, to “inwardly digest” the Scriptures means to make them part of who we are, incorporated into every facet of our beings.

But how do we go about this? Practically, how do we do this? By intention and discipline, my friends. These two: intention and discipline.

Let’s stay with the analogy of food and eating for a minute. If you become aware that your body needs more fiber in order to function better, you first must form the intention to change your diet. Once you intend to change in this way, what follows then is the daily task of carrying through on your intention. This requires daily discipline to follow your new diet, not to allow the whims of your desires to lead you astray, but to stay true to your good intention. With intention and discipline, then you can change your diet and improve your health.

It is the same with our use of the Bible. If we have the intention of learning more about Christ and of growing closer to God through the study of the Scriptures, what follows then is the daily task of carrying through on your intention. What you need then is daily discipline to follow your new routine. What we all need is daily reading and study of the Scriptures in a way that allows us to ruminate on – to digest – the meaning of the text for our lives. With this good intention and daily discipline, we can change our lives and improve our spiritual well-being.

Each one of us in this place who has experienced the waters of baptism has made a vow to follow Christ as our Savior and our Lord. Without question, there are a plethora of spiritual practices and disciplines that we can adopt to help us to follow Christ more closely. But nothing can replace the most basic practice of daily meditation upon the Holy Scriptures. There can be no substitute for this, no shortcuts.

So we have established the bedrock reality that the words and stories of the Bible provide us with a framework by which we can understand God’s will for our lives. So what then about this very interesting story about Hannah? What are we to make of this old, old story? What does the example of Hannah teach us about salvation and about our relationship with God?

As you can see from the text read this morning, Hannah made an attempt to manipulate the Lord. Just as when Gideon laid out the fleece to test the Lord’s calling, Hannah made a bargain with God: if you give me a son, then I will give him back to you.

Now, it is crucial to remember the context. There were likely to be a thousand women in Israel at that time who were “barren”, who, for whatever reason, were not yet able to bear children. And it may be that all of those women were making similar deals with God in their prayers. Some of those deals may have been honored and some certainly were not. Out of the very many, this story is the one that was written down and recorded – this one, because of the importance of the son who was born to Hannah. Samuel served as the pivot point, the hinge of ancient Hebrew history. Before him was the time of the patriarchs and the judges, when the Israelites lived in a tribal society, loosed gathered around strong tribal chieftains. But Samuel was the one who began the monarchy. Samuel anointed David as King, and David went on to unify the rival tribes and to create one strong kingdom.

Hannah, of course, had good reason to long for a son. In that society, the value of every woman was measured by her vitality in childbearing. Also, it was normal manner of things for the wife to outlive the man. Her children then were her means of survival as a widow in those late years of life. Sons, in particular, were a widow’s safety net against want and starvation, because they controlled the resources of the household.

So Hannah’s need is understandable. But what about this deal-making with God? Is this the way that we are to approach God when we are in need? Because the Lord heard and remembered Hannah in her need, does this mean that the Lord will hear us if we make similar promises in our prayers? Absolutely not.

What Hannah did right here is to ask. We must ask; we must always ask. That is the basic, fundamental rule to all healthy relationships: to ask. When we feel pressure and anxiety over some need in our life, it is right to ask God to supply our perceived need. But God then is free to respond with a yes, a no, or a maybe. For any relationship to be healthy, the one petitioned for help must be free to respond as they see fit. We must ask with no strings attached, otherwise our request degenerates into nothing more than selfish, greedy manipulation. This is where Hannah went astray. Fortunate for her, God had plans that superseded her vain attempts to manipulate the Almighty.

As for us, we have the wise counsel of the Lord to guide us into a better way than the method of Hannah. Jesus taught us to let our yes be yes and our no to be no. To speak without guile, without ulterior motives, without any attempt to manipulate the other. He also taught us how to pray and how to seek after the will of God as the highest good for our lives: “your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in the heavens.”

Rather than attempting to manipulate God into doing our will, true joy in our lives, and deep peace in our hearts, can only come when we learn to accept God’s will, whatever that may be. For in Christ we know that God is good all the time, and God’s will for us is always good, even when we fail to see the good. And because of that, it is right for us to give our thanks and praise, always and everywhere. Amen.

“Let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching” (Hebrews 10:25).

Imagine The Audacity

Sermon for Proper 27B RCL 11/8/2009, Offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry

Texts: Ruth 3:1-5,4:13-17; Psalm 127; Hebrews 9:24-28; Mark 12:38-44

This is going to be a hard conversation for us to have. We need to talk about money, and I know that no one enjoys these talks. But it must be done. Not only because this is our stewardship season, when we need to gather commitments from each other so that we can plan our expenses for next year, but also because the Gospel story of the poor widow’s offering demands that we re-evaluate how we relate to money.

Each one of us has a relationship to money which needs to be measured in light of what Jesus teaches us.

To help put this into context, let me share with you a story from Tony Campolo. Some of you have likely heard this story before. Dr. Campolo lives in St. David, Pennsylvania, is a retired Professor at Eastern University and travels widely to preach and teach. Once he returned from a speaking engagement on the West Coast and he arrived back here in Philly on a red-eye flight. He got off the plane around 8:30 AM and his secretary immediately let him know that he had a speaking engagement at 10 AM that morning! Somehow, it fell through the cracks on their schedule, but it was a World Mission Day meeting of church women and they were expecting him.

Completely tired and worn out and unprepared, Dr. Campolo nonetheless headed right over to this meeting. The woman who was leading the event spoke to the group about a wonderful doctor working in the barrios of Caracas, Venezuela. This missionary doctor could not handle the large numbers of sick and infirm who came to her for help, and so she was requesting help with $5000 in order to build an addition to her medical facility. The leader of the meeting then asked, “Dr. Campolo, would you please lead us in prayer that the Lord might provide the $5000 needed by our sister in Venezuela?”

Before he could catch himself, Tony responded and said, “No! I will not. But what I will do is take all of the cash that I am carrying and put it on the altar. And I’m going to ask everyone else here to do the same. No need to write out checks! Let’s only put up our cash. After we’ve all put our cash on the altar, I will count it. Then I’ll ask God to make up the difference.” It was good timing for Tony, because he only had $2.25 in his pocket!

The leader of the event smiled benevolently and said, “We’ve all gotten the point now, haven’t we?” Tony responded, “No! I don’t think that we have. My $2.25 is on the altar, now it’s your turn!” She was obviously annoyed and taken aback by his aggressive request, but she opened her wallet and pulled out $110 which she placed on the altar along with Tony’s meager offering. “Well, we’re on our way!” Tony said. “We have $112.25. Now it’s your turn!” And he pointed to a woman sitting in the front pew, who looked around, a bit unsure about what to do, but finally she came up to the altar and made her cash offering. One by one, Tony was able to cajole the women into making this offering. It took about 25 minutes for this process, and after they all had come forward, the cash was counted. They had collected more than $8,000!

There wasn’t any time left for Tony to preach then, and they probably did not want to hear from him anyway, being quite annoyed with him now. So he simply said, “The audacity of asking God for $5000, when He has already provided us with more than $8000 right here! We should not be asking God to supply our needs. He already has!”

There are 2 kernels of truth that I hope we can gain from this story. The first is the perspective of trust in the goodness of God. The truth, my friends, is that God has indeed already provided for us. We are not given insight into the poor widow’s motivation for offering her 2 copper coins, but I don’t think it is reaching too far to think that she felt gratitude for God’s care over the years. This much we do know: God protected her, and cared for her and brought her along until this day in the Temple. Widows were extremely vulnerable in that society, but God had cared for her so far.

The same is true for us. We are not a poor people! In fact, God has provided for us everything that we need to be faithful and fruitful. We have everything that we need. Our stewardship as a community then is use our resources wisely and the most effectively to carry forward God’s mission in this place.

The second point that we can glean from Dr. Campolo’s story is a negative one. I am sure that all the ladies at that World Mission meeting felt quite uncomfortable, and understandably so. The truth is that all giving within the Kingdom of God must be voluntary. I’m sure that Tony, if asked directly, would agree with that. He just got a little carried away on that morning trying to make a point, which he most certainly did! But the method used is far from ideal. For love to be genuine, it must be voluntary. For generosity to be real, it must be voluntary.

St. Clement of Alexandria taught that “compulsion is repugnant to God.” Compulsion is repugnant to God. So true! Within the kingdom of God, every action must be voluntary. We must want to do something in order for it to have meaning and value within God’s order. The voluntary principle is crucial to the Gospel and there is absolutely no place for coercion in the church of Jesus Christ.

It is my personal opinion that we need to get rid of the “should” language that we are so accustomed to using in our manner of speaking. “I should do this” or “I should do that”.

Those words come out of a place of guilt and a fear of failure. This is not at all the kind of bold and generous attitude that our Lord is hoping to find among his people.

Rather than this attitude, I believe that our Lord intends for us to be motivated by love and loyalty and commitment. Instead of “I should”, let us learn to say “I want”. Just imagine the difference. Instead of, “I really should make out a check for $30 to give to the church”, imagine saying, “I want to give $30 to the church this week.” Can you feel the difference? Let’s try a little experiment. First, please say, “I should love God more.” Does that feel quite cold and dull? Now, let’s try saying this, “I want to love God more.” Do you feel the difference?

This is what stewardship is all about. It is not about guilting someone into giving money to a worthy cause. It is not about brow-beating; it’s not about “should” language at all! It is about living each day of our lives with a glad, grateful and generous heart.

The truth is, my friends, if you honestly do not want to give your money to the church, then I would rather that you keep it. I know that this not what the Bishop or the Vestry might perhaps want me to say, but it is the truth, and if nothing else, we must be truthful with one another. Share what you have because you want to, not because you are should. Let it come from your heart. If it doesn’t, then – sure – your offering will help pay for the heat during the winter, but it will not actually do you or this community any real good.

The poor widow gave her two copper coins because she wanted to. She had a good enough excuse not to give, and everyone would have excused her if she gave nothing. She wanted to give back.

My friends, as we go through this stewardship season together, let us understand one thing with complete clarity: we do not need more money. We truly don’t. What we need is to continue to grow as a group of people who really and actually love God, who really love one another and are so grateful for life that we WANT to give as much as we can to help others. What we need is glad, grateful, and generous hearts.

So may it be among us who share abundant life in God’s kingdom. Amen.

The New Jerusalem

Sermon for All Saints Day RCL B 11/1/2009, Offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry

Texts: Wisdom 3:1-9; Psalm 24; Revelation 21:1-6; John 11:32-44

Happy All Saints Day, my friends! Since the first decades of the church’s existence, the Lord’s disciples have celebrated those who have died in the faith and fear of Christ, particularly those who made their professions of faith in Christ with a self-sacrificial, heroic death. Now, for us, All Saints’ Day is our celebration of all those in Christ who have gone before us and of our participation in that “mystical body” of Christ. It is a feast for us when we can stop together and remember what it truly means to be Church.

I want to tell you a true story that provides a clear image, I think, of what it means to be Church. Fred Craddock is of the masters of preaching in America today. He tells the story of one of the first little churches that he served in the hills of eastern Tennessee. In the Christian Church, they practice adult baptism by immersion, and that little mission church served by Craddock has a very interesting tradition that they undertake on every Easter day. Just before sunset on Easter day, the church folks gather at the beach along Watts Bar Lake. The new believers join the pastor in the water to be baptized, while the members on the beach make a bonfire, cook a festive supper, and build little booths in which the newly baptized can change their wet clothes.

Once their dry clothes are on, the new saints are ushered into the center of the circle of church members, right near the fire where they can get warm. Glenn, one of the “old-timers” in the church, introduces each one of the newly baptized, giving their name, where they live and what they do for work. The ritual continues when each one of the church members in the circle then introduces himself to the newly baptized in this way: “My name is …X…and if you ever need someone to help with your washing and ironing…” “My name is …X…and if you ever need help with your car…” “My name is …X…and if you ever need someone to chop firewood…” “My name is …X…and if you ever need someone to baby-sit…”

And once everyone meets each other in this way, they eat their feast and have a good ol’fashioned square dance. I don’t know if a group of folks can get any closer than that. They have a name for that kind of community down there in Tennessee. You may have heard of it. They call it, “Church.”

On this All Saints’ Day, we celebrate the mystery that is the Church. Together, both the saints who have gone before us and the saints alive today, we are a rag tag group of people thrown together by the mysterious working of divine providence in order to make alive the hidden reality of the kingdom of God. Rich and poor, black, white and brown, male and female, straight and gay, fully abled and disabled – God brings together human beings of every conceivable type in order to create a new humanity, a new Jerusalem, one new people created out of the vast diversity of humankind in order to re-create the world.

It’s hard for a lot of us, I know. It cuts right against many of our instincts to be in this kind of community which is often so disorderly and uncomfortable. But this is God’s plan, the divine way for us to be trained in healthy relationships. Think about it, my friends, how this works in your daily life: You can’t pick your family. You just have to learn to deal with them, and better yet, learn to appreciate them for who they are without trying to change them to be who you want them to be.

It’s the same with the Church. You can’t pick who you sit next to in Church. If you’re on Facebook, you can decide whether or not to accept the invitations of others to be your friends. But not in Church. Now, I recognize that we want to, that our natural tendency is to try to find a congregation of folks just like ourselves, people who can all be our friends.

There has been now for quite a few years a wholesale movement afoot among American Christians to go “church-shopping”, to try and find just the right place, the church where each person feels the most comfortable, where each person can get the most “fed”.

God, save us from this foolish notion! That attitude is so far off the mark of God’s vision for the church that it is difficult to know where to start the critique. You see, what we do together here in Church is meant to be practice. It’s our warm-up, our scrimmage game. We are practicing how life is meant to be within the kingdom of heaven. That what those folks do so well – the ones who gather on the shore of Watts Bar Lake down in Tennessee every Easter evening. “Brands plucked from the fire”, folks who are struggling through life and attempting to follow Jesus in his way of life.

Our brothers and sisters over at Holy Spirit and St. Luke’s have already heard me make this statement a number of times, and all of you will hear it a bunch more: there is no such thing as Christianity. It doesn’t exist. That word, “Christianity” is a fiction of the modern imagination. What DOES exist is the Church. What DOES exist are the saints, real-life saints who have been touched by the Lord Jesus is some personal way, and who have come together regularly to worship and to study and to serve their neighbors.

There is no vague idea of Christianity, as if you could simple make a mental decision and become a Christian. Nonsense. You can’t baptize yourself or confirm yourself or ordain yourself or bury yourself! All of this is done by the Church, by actual communities of real-life people, like you here, who are the Church. You, my friends, are the saints of God in this time and place. You are the ones who future generations will remember and write about.

That is, IF…If we are willing to serve each other in love, if we are willing to see the needs of those around us and respond with compassion, if we are willing to allow our lives to be shaped by the Gospel. Wouldn’t you want to be part of a church like that one in Tennessee, where folks freely give their time and talents to help one another?

A wise, anonymous writer has said this about the church: “The church is never a place, but always a people; never a fold but always a flock; never a sacred building but always a believing people. The church is you who pray, not where you pray. A structure of brick or marble can no more be a church than your clothes of satin can be you.”

Let us work together, my friends, to follow in the way of the saints, to make alive in this time and place the New Jerusalem of God, so that the will of God will be done in our lives and in our fellowship, just as it is in the heavens. Amen.









Father, thank you for having heard us. We know that you always hear us when we pray. Help us to trust you more every day, and answer these our petitions as you know best. Through Jesus Christ, the Alpha and Omega, and our Lord. Amen.



Lord, you are the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, adored by the angels and praised by the saints, receive the prayers of your people, and grant these – our requests – in accordance with your gracious will, through Christ our Lord.

Take Heart; Get Up!

Sermon for Proper 25B RCL 10/25/2009, Offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry

Texts: Job 42:1-6,10-17; Psalm 34:1-8,19-22; Hebrews 7:23-28; Mark 10:46-52

Once again, my friends, as we gather to worship the living God, we meet up with the Lord on his inexorable march up to Jerusalem – to this place which will mark the climax of his earthly ministry.

Today we need to talk a bit about the Gospel of Mark, how it is written and what this story about Bartimaeus means for the author. All summer long, ever since Trinity Sunday, we have been walking through the Gospel of Mark, step by step. As most of you know, Mark’s Gospel is represented by an image of a lion. This is because in this Gospel, the Lord suddenly roars upon the scene in the first chapter without any real introduction, and he moves along his journey very quickly with a clear sense of purpose and with decisive action. Lately, then Lectionary has us marching through the core of Mark’s Gospel, which is his journey from Galilee through the Jordan valley and up to Jerusalem.

Unfortunately, because we only get the gospel in small pieces each week, and because we are reading a translation from the original Greek language, it is difficult for us to see the overall structure of the gospel. But it is clearly there and the structure has meaning.

This journey of Jesus through the core of Mark’s Gospel begins with the Lord’s healing of a blind man at Bethsaida (Mark 8:22-26). Immediately after this, the Lord begins to prepare his friends for his coming betrayal and death. Three times he predicts his passion at the hands of the rulers and also his resurrection. “The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands.” Three times this is predicted, and each time, the twelve respond in ways that are incredibly inappropriate.

The first time, Peter takes the Lord aside and rebukes him. The second time, the twelve argue amongst themselves over which one of them is the greatest. And after the third time, James and John pull Jesus aside to ask for personal positions of power and influence in his kingdom.

Then , finally, Mark quickly ends this journey to Jerusalem with our Gospel reading today: our Lord Jesus restores sight to the old blind beggar, Bartimaeus.

Can you see perhaps what Mark is trying to teach us with this careful structuring of the text? Those who were closest to Jesus, those who walked with him, ate with him, talked with him every day, even these folks were blind to who he really was and to the purpose of his mission. Mercy and grace were his mission, not human greatness or political power or military victory. They could not see it. They were blind.

But Bartimaeus – this blind beggar considered of no value to the crowds – this man, of all people, this man understood. Though he was physically blind, yet this man could see with his heart. He could see who Jesus was – Son of David, merciful healer, teacher and guide.

“Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.”

When James and John had come to Jesus with their secret plans to gain prominence over the others, he asked them, “What do you want me to do for you?” When Bartimaeus boldly threw off his cloak, his only earthly possession, and hurried to the Lord, he asked the blind man, “What do you want me to do for you?” The same question, but with markedly different answers.

You see, the Gospel of Mark turns things around here and presents Bartimaeus, not the twelve, to us as a parable of true discipleship. When the Lord was near, Bartimaeus called out with faith in his heart, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.” That is an excellent prayer, my friends. Much like the (traditional) Jesus prayer, it is a prayer that all disciples can and should pray at all times.

When those around him told him to be quiet, he cried out even louder. When folks around us tell us to give up, or when our prayers don’t seem to be heard, we need persistence. We need to persevere. Continue on in prayer, asking for mercy and grace, just like Bartimaeus.

When the Lord called for him, he let go of his most treasured possession and got up and went. For a blind beggar, his cloak would have served as his jacket, his blanket at night, his sleeping mat, his security and his warmth. In the same way, when we come to the Lord, we can come only with our need, leaving behind the things we cling to to make ourselves feel safe.

The request of Bartimaeus was simple and clear: “My Teacher, let me see again.” I want to see. No manipulation, no trickery, no ulterior motives for power. Just a simple need. “I want to see!” Our prayers can and should be simple. God already knows everything about us. God is the one to whom all hearts are open, all desires known and from whom no secrets are hid. To ask in simplicity of need for grace and mercy is the way that disciples pray.

In his great compassion, the Lord honors the faith, the trust that Bartimaeus has placed in him, and his sight is restored. What is the response of the healed man? Immediately, he follows Jesus “on the way”.
We are people of the Way. That is the original name given to the disciples after Pentecost. People of the Way. People on a journey with Jesus of Nazareth. People whose can see now because of the grace and mercy that Christ has brought into our lives.

When the Lord heard the cry of the blind beggar, the people told him: “Take heart; get up, he is calling you.”

My dear friends: take heart, for today the Lord is calling you to leave your blindness behind, to learn from him how to see and understand this human life. He is our teacher; we are his students. By the grace of God, let us then rise up and follow him on the way to a full, joyful and abundant life. Amen.

WE ARE ABLE !

Sermon for Proper 24 B (RCL), offered by Nathan Ferrell at St. Luke’s, Westville (Shared Ministry Celebration)

Texts: Job 38:1-7, 34-41; Psalm 104; Hebrews 5:1-10; Mark 10:35-45
Themes: Saint Luke, the apostles, walking with Christ
Purpose: to inspire, to encourage
Title: We Are Able

My dear brothers and sisters in the Lord: what a joy and privilege it is for us all to be gathered here together on this day – this Feast of blessed Saint Luke – to rejoice together in the goodness of God, and to embark together on a new adventure in ministry.

We come together as disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, his students who are learning from him how to live this human life.

We just heard, in our Gospel reading, about the Lord walking along the road with his disciples. They were walking forward into an uncertain and clouded future. James and John, the sons of Zebedee, ask for a special favor from the Lord. Not very unlike them. After all, they are the ones whom Jesus named “the sons of thunder”! Bold and boisterous they tended to be. But in response, the Lord tests their commitment. “Are you able to drink the cup that I drink?” Are you truly able to follow Me, to walk with Me into Jerusalem, into the midst of the struggle that is to come?

Their response is incredible and very enlightening: WE ARE ABLE.

Today, all of us here are walking with our Lord along a new and unknown road, walking together with him into an unknown future. Today, we begin something new. This new Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry. And so today we ask the Lord for a special favor: to bless this shared ministry with success, to bless us so that our congregations can continue to be places of joyful fellowship, powerful worship, and loving service. We ask the Lord to help us to grow in our love for one another, and also in numbers as new disciples are formed by the Holy Spirit in our midst.

In response, we can be certain that the Lord will test our commitment. Are we truly ready to follow him, to walk with him into new paths of service to others, to open our hearts and our doors to those who need hope and comfort and guidance?

The first disciples had no idea what they were committing themselves to at that moment.

But isn’t that the way it always is? When Jesus stood on the shore of the sea of Galilee and called the sons of Zebedee, Peter and the other fishermen to come and follow him, if the apostles could have glimpsed at that moment all that would lay ahead of them because of this one commitment: if they could have seen all of the future joys, challenges, celebrations, and conflicts that lay ahead of them if they accepted his call, do you think they would have walked on with the Lord?

If you have entered into a committed relationship, when you stood there and declared your intentions and your promises for life-long commitment to your beloved, if you could have seen ahead at that moment to all of the joys and all of the pain that this commitment would bring into your life, do you think you would have continued with your promises?

When you first set out on your career path, if you could have seen all the twists and turns that this journey would lead you on, all of the successes and all of your failures, do you think you would have carried on along that path?

By the grace of God, we are never given this glimpse into the future. By the grace of God, we are given a community of fellowship and support where we can ask our elders about their experiences and learn from them, but these insights are always second-hand. We always must make our own decisions TODAY and each day.

The fact of the matter is this: to experience the abundant life that God has planned for us requires commitment. We must step out into the unknown with determination and courage.
You and I are disciples of the Lord in this time and place. And the Lord is asking us this same question as the one he posed to the first disciples: Are we able to drink the cup that he drank, and be baptized with his baptism? Do we really know what this commitment will mean for our future? No, but we do not know. We do not have this knowledge, but we DO have faith and trust and confidence in the one who calls.

By the grace of God, our response is sure: We are able! Praise be to God: We are able!

This past Wednesday (October 14), the Church remembered the life and ministry of the Bishop Samuel Isaac Joseph Schereschewsky. His life is an incredible story of commitment to God’s calling in his life. Here is just a quick synopsis of his remarkable life: Schereschewsky was born into a Lithuanian Jewish family in 1831. He was studying in Germany to become a rabbi when he was given a Hebrew translation of the New Testament.

Through this reading, Schereschewsky fell in love with our Lord Jesus and so he became a disciple of the Lord. Soon, he emigrated to America and he attended the General Theological Seminary in New York City. At the end of his studies, he heard a talk on the need for missionary workers in China and he responded. On the long voyage to China, Schereschewsky taught himself the Mandarin Chinese language. He was ordained as priest in Shanghai and after 15 years of work there, he was elected Bishop of Shanghai. This man worked tirelessly on translation projects: translating the Old Testament from the Hebrew into various Chinese dialects; translating the Prayer Book into Chinese; compiling a dictionary of the Mongolian language.

Unfortunately, after 6 years as Bishop he was afflicted with Parkinson’s Disease, and he resigned from his post due to his growing paralysis. However, this saintly man knew what it was that God had called him to and so he continued with his translation work. At the end of his life around the beginning of the 20th century, he hand-typed nearly 2000 pages of the Bible which he translated into Mandarin – WITH ONE FINGER! At that point, only his middle finger responded now to his brain’s commands, but that was all that he needed.

A few years before his death, Bishop Schereschewsky said this in conversation:
“I have sat in this chair for over 20 years. [Referring to his extremely slow and tedious work of translating and typing.] It seemed very hard at first. But God knew best. He kept me for the work for which I am best fitted.”

My brothers and sisters, when the Lord called him to a task which seemed beyond his physical strength to complete, he answered: “I am able.” Do you see the kind of tenacious commitment that Christ inspired in his life? 20 years of typing with one finger to finish this project that God had called him to! Was it hard? Of course, but when God calls and when we say yes, then we know with full confidence that God gives the energy needed to complete the task.

Our Teacher asked this of his students as they headed up to Jerusalem: Are you able to drink the cup that I must drink, and to share in my baptism? He was on the way to offer his life as a ransom for many. He came to serve and not to be served. And so today, the Lord asks us this question as well.

Are we able to serve others in his name, to offer our combined gifts, energy, compassion, resources, and talents to serve those around us? Are we able to grow as healthy communities of faith that experience together the abundant life that Christ brings to us?

Yes, we are able! Let’s try saying it together. “We are able!”

We are able, not because we are smart or talented or savvy or gifted. We are able to do this work together, because God has called us to this task. It has required a YES from all of us to get to this point, and if we continue to say YES to this calling, then we can know with full confidence that God will supply what is needed to complete the task.

For we are called here together in order to serve. It was the great basketball coach, John Wooden, who said this: “Happiness begins when selfishness ends.” It was Mother Teresa who taught us so clearly that a life which is not given in service to others is not a life. Bishop Schereschewsky shows us what this kind of commitment means. Saint Luke and the apostles have laid the foundation for us: a foundation of trust, confidence, and commitment. In this place and time, you and I are building upon this foundation, leaving our legacy of following the Lord in paths of service and ministry.

Thanks be to God that we can walk forward along this path together. Amen.

Holy Boldness

Sermon for Proper 23 B (RCL), offered by Nathan Ferrell at HS, Bellmawr & St. Luke’s, Westville

Texts: Job 23:1-9,16-17; Psalm 22; Hebrews 4:12-16; Mark 10:17-31

“Let us, therefore, approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).

My dear friends in Christ: God is calling us to live lives of holy boldness. God desires to bless our lives with grace – grace which precedes and which follows us. Grace that will transform us so that our lives naturally overflow with good works: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23).

Boldness for the sake of the gospel is not something for which we Episcopalians are quite well-known. Beauty in liturgy, prudence and balance and order perhaps. We are well-known for these qualities, perhaps, but not for boldness. And I understand. The Christian life is a marathon rather than a sprint, and we need a steady, healthy diet of continual grace to sustain us over the long haul. Boldness seems more like a Red Bull: a quick jolt of energy which usually does not last for very long.

Someone once sent an anonymous letter to their local newspaper complaining about the lack of energy he received from church. “I’ve gone to church for 35 years,” he wrote, “and have heard something like three thousand sermons. But for the life of me, I can’t remember a single one of them. So I’ve concluded that I’m wasting my time, as are the preachers for even bothering to deliver sermons at all.”

This letter began a real controversy back-and-forth on the op-ed page of the paper. It continued for a few weeks until another letter came in which settled the matter. That letter stated: “I’ve been married for 35 years. In that time my wife has cooked some thirty-two thousand meals for us. But for the life of me, I can hardly remember a single one of them. I do know, however, that they all nourished me and gave me the strength I needed to do my work each day. If it weren’t for all of those meals, then I would be dead today!”

The grace that God gives to us is like those 32,000 meals. It’s hard to be excited about a steady diet of healthy food, until we have a chance to look back and see how, in each time of need, God’s grace has been there for us, reliable and constant. Because of our experience of the faithfulness of God, it is right for us to step out with boldness and with love for the sake of the Gospel.

The Letter to the Hebrews states with great conviction that “the word that God speaks is living and active…it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” Right away, the Gospel of Mark gives us a clear and direct example of this very truth. Our Lord meets the rich, young ruler along the road. An aristocratic, young Jewish man who seemed intent upon keeping the law, following the commandments, and yet who – it seems – was afraid of truly loving God.

“You lack one thing.”

Do you know the kind of reckless abandon that overcomes the one who falls suddenly in love? Can you remember it, perhaps, from some point in your own life? When you would drive a thousand miles or stay up all night every night or spend every last dime just to be with your love, to woo your love?

Early in the 20th century, William Malcolm MacGregor, a great Scottish preacher and professor, spoke about the rich young ruler in one of his sermons. I love these words! They are one of my favorite quotes. I have shared them with you before, but here they are again once more, quite apropos to our meditation here today:

“Jesus did love a man who was able, sometimes, to be reckless. He did not care for the rulers as a class, but when one of them forgot his dignity and ran after a peasant teacher and fell on the road at His feet, we read that ‘Jesus, seeing him, loved him.’ He did not choose for His disciples discreet and futile persons, but a man whose temper was not always under control, and whose tongue was rough when has was roused, and another who might have been a saint, but his life got twisted and he betrayed his Lord. He saw a widow flinging into the treasury all that she had, which no doubt was a very foolish action, but it stirred his heart with gladness to see somebody venturing herself simply upon God. [Jesus] wanted life in men, energy, impulse; and in His Church He has often found nothing but a certain tame decorum, of which even He can make little.”
–William Malcolm MacGregor, great 20th century Scottish preacher and professor

Life, energy, impulse. God longs to see this kind of energetic action and reckless abandon in us. Yes, I know that this kind of enthusiasm is difficult to maintain over the long haul of life. But the grace of God continually refreshes our hearts, if we are open to it.

The Letter to the Hebrews calls us to continue on with this kind of boldness: “Let us hold fast to our confession.” Cling to it, the text says, don’t ever let go of our confession, our declaration of faith. It is, in fact, our declaration of independence.

2 Timothy 1:7 speaks to us clearly on the matter: “For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.”

I know it doesn’t feel this way to you now, but the truth is, my friends, that when we stand in just a few minutes and say the Nicene Creed together, it is a radical thing that we are doing. I know it feels old and stale and boring. But in fact, we are declaring our allegiance, our loyalty, our commitment to this God who speaks through the life and death of Jesus of Nazareth.

Remember: folks died for this creed. Saints watched while their houses were being burned down, while their families were tortured for this creed! It is a treasure, and it means something profound. It is, in fact, a call to bold action.

There’s a story about the Coast Guard unit stationed down at Cape May. One night a tropical storm came in from the Atlantic and a ship was breaking apart just off of the coast. The Coast Guard commander woke the men under his command and told them to get ready to go out to sea. They were going out to rescue the crew in danger. One of the young recruits shot back incredulously, “But, Captain! If we go out there, we may never come back!”

The Captain answered, with full command and conviction, “Son, you don’t have to come back. You have to go out.”

Being a Christian means that we bet our lives on the truth of God’s word; that we risk our convenience, our comforts, our security, and at times even our safety, in order to go out into the unknown, to launch out into the dark stormy waters where the need is greatest.

The rich young ruler had it all, or so he thought. But he was so comfortable, so safe, so tame. He was insulated from the needs of the world around him. Our Lord Jesus loved him and longed for him to be fully alive. And the only way to do that – for him and for us – is to risk, and to love.

Give your safety away, Jesus told him, to those who need it more. Throw yourself over the edge. Abandon yourself to the love of God. Fall in love with God.

My friends, we can do the same! But above all else, we must not continue on with a bland, tame decorum of politeness, which can never be used in the transformation of human lives. Our Lord calls us to holy boldness, to love others in the power of the Holy Spirit, to speak the living Word of God to those who are hopeless and lost. By the grace of God, we will do this together, as a community of holy boldness and love. Amen.

Perfect Through Sufferings

Sermon for Proper 22 B (RCL), Offered by Nathan Ferrell at HS, Bellmawr & St. Luke’s, Westville

Texts: Job 1:1,2:1-10; Psalm 26; Hebrews 1:1-4,2:5-12; Mark 10:2-16

“It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings” (Hebrews 2:10).

Dear friends in Christ: this morning, we need to take some time this morning to wrestle with this question: Why? Why is it fitting, as the Letter to the Hebrews states, that God should make our Lord Jesus perfect through sufferings? Why was his cross and passion necessary? Could not the work of our salvation have been accomplished in another way?

It would be a great mistake to think that this question did not haunt the minds of the earliest disciples, to think that they did not struggle to understand the sufferings of the Lord. In fact, they searched through the Hebrew scriptures and they prayed and talked together to try and understand how the Lord’s suffering fit into the entirety of God’s plan for the world.

We can actually see this tension in the text of Hebrews itself. The text that we heard this morning says this: “we do see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.” But many other of the ancient manuscripts wrote that last phrase to say this: “so that apart from God he might taste death for everyone.”

You can see right here how the early church struggled with this question: did Jesus taste death by the grace of God, that is as an intentional part of God’s will, or did he taste death apart from God, that is in violation of God’s will? Or to put it simply: whas Jesus supposed to be crucified, or was this a victory by the forces of evil which God overcame in the resurrection?

The question has never been fully answered. These two ways of viewing the crucifixion remain in the church to this very day. Did God plan the crucifixion, or did God allow the crucifixion?

The reason for this tension ought to be rather clear to all of us. It is perfectly natural for us to assume that God is always victorious; that in a conflict with human beings, God naturally will always win! Right! After all, God is the Creator of all things! God cannot be beaten or conquered by human strength. This was the thinking of the Hebrew people, of course. They all believed that God was to send the Messiah to destroy the evil forces among humanity and to free God’s people from tyranny. This Messiah could not be defeated, of course. After conquering, the Messiah would continue to reign for ever.

Did you know that the Koran teaches the same kind of thinking? You can see how Mohammed used this same natural kind of thinking as he developed the Koran. Among the Arab peoples, the concept of honor been prominent in shaping their relationships. Of course, in this way of thinking, true prophets are always honored by God and therefore they cannot be defeated by sinful human beings. This is what Mohammed believed, and so this is why the Koran refutes the idea that Jesus died on the cross. To Mohammed, Jesus was a true prophet, and so God must honor him and guard him from sinners. Mohammed suggested that it was someone else who was crucified instead, because God would never allow such a calamity!

Can you see it? This is the normal, the natural way of thinking. It is a very simple worldview, a black and white way of seeing reality. God is right; sinful humanity is wrong. Justice prevails; lawbreakers are punished. God wins; evil loses.

The problem is, however, that reality is not quite that simple, is it? It’s just not that easy to put into a simple little box like that.

This is where the story of Job comes in. The entire story of Job is an attempt to understand the dynamic at work between a good and loving and all-powerful God and the forces of evil which seem in general to have their way on the earth.

(Quick note to all of you: if you have never sat down and read straight through the book of Job, you really should! It’s a great read: a wee bit long-winded in the middle, but the poetry there is beautiful and it truly is a compelling story! Anyway…)

Unfortunately, the reading that we have here for today from Job is torn horribly out of context. Job is stricken in every conceivable way: his children are killed, his wealth and property is all destroyed, and finally his body is afflicted. At first, as we see here, Job “persists in his integrity”. He accepts everything as part of God’s plan. And yet, throughout the book, as he talks with his wife and his friends about his unfortunate situation, Job grows more and more despondent. His friends speak with the normal wisdom, the natural view of life that we just discussed. That is, Job must be suffering as a punishment for his sins. God is just and serves justice to the sinner. But Job insists on his innocence with vehemence and rejects their simple thinking. Finally, Job brings everything that God has done into question and declares that it would be better if he had never been born. He ends up filled with bitterness until God speaks directly to him out of a great storm.

God speaks and puts Job back in his place. “Where were you,” God asks, “when I laid the foundation of the earth?” (Job 38:4). And the final result is this: God is God, and we human beings are not. We are nothing but dust and ashes, mere specks in the life of the universe.

And yet…and yet, God loves each of us and cares for each one of us.

Suffering is so very difficult to understand. If God is so good and so loving and so wise and so all-powerful, then why does God allow this suffering to continue?
If God truly is more ready to give us blessings than we ever even ask for, then why does God send or allow evil to come to us?

Does God plan for our sufferings, or does God simply allow them? And why?

There are no answers to these questions. Life is not a simple black and white affair. In the end, God is God and we are not. Trust is required, faith is necessary to live through the sufferings of life without becoming bitter and hard-hearted. I believe that Job’s initial question is a good one for all of us to consider: “Shall we receive the good at the hand of God, and not receive the bad?” (Job 2:10).

Remember where we began: It was fitting that God should make the pioneer of our salvation perfect through sufferings (Hebrews 2:10). He is the pioneer, the trailblazer, the trendsetter, the guide for this new life that we are now leading.

And so the question comes right back around to us: if God was to make our Lord perfect through sufferings, then are we ready for the same thing? In some mysterious way that is beyond our understanding, I believe that God uses our suffering to perfect us so that we can be of service in the kingdom of God, shaped and molded into the kind of people that God would have us to be.

It doesn’t make any sense in the normal way of thinking, and it can be quite painful, but God is God, and we are not. And this God, who is faithful and loving and wise – this God we can trust with our lives. Amen.

Have Salt in Yourselves

Sermon for Proper 21 B (RCL), offered by Nathan Ferrell at HS, Bellmawr & St. Luke’s, Westville

Texts: Esther 7:1-10; 9:20-22; Psalm 124; James 5:13-20; Mark 9:38-50
Title: Have Salt in Yourselves

There was a priest who was kneeling at a roadside shrine just outside of a town in Ireland. He was there praying when a young woman passed by right next to the shrine and so distracted the priest.

“You insolent girl,” the priest shouted out. “Can’t you see that I’m saying my prayers? Why do you have to disturb me when I’m praying?” “I’m very sorry, Father,” the young woman sincerely said. “I didn’t notice you. I’m on my way to see my young man, and I was thinking about him.”

“Well, I was thinking about God,” the priest replied very piously. Now there happened to be an elderly man who was traveling along the road at the same time, and he heard this entire exchange. He stopped and spoke to the priest: “This young woman was thinking about her man, and didn’t notice you. You were thinking about God, but you noticed her. If you loved God with the same devotion as she loves her man, you both could share this place in peace.” (Celtic Parables, Robert Van De Weyer, p. 110).

My dear friends: it is so very easy for us human beings, whether ordained or not, to get distracted from that which is of the upmost importance, and it is very common for us to place the blame for our challenges upon others. This is not the first priest to be distracted by the sight of a young woman, nor is he the first to blame the girl for his own shortcomings.

We can see these realities at work in this obscure teaching from the Lord in our Gospel reading for today. Now, this passage can be difficult to understand, but I hope and pray that you are not confused here. The good Lord knows that the most important thing today, at least in my mind, is that you leave here this morning with a better understanding of what Jesus is teaching us in this passage. He is the Master, and these words from the Gospel are not a mistake. They are often misunderstood, and misunderstood badly, and so we have some work to do, because it is of upmost importance that we understand what he is trying to teach us. After all, we have committed our lives to following him as our Savior and Lord.

In this passage, Jesus and his friends are inside someone’s home, talking together. There is still a young child there among them, whom Jesus had brought before them to illustrate the kind of attitude that he wishes to see in them. He had just spoken about the importance of welcoming others in his name when John mentions the fact that the disciples had just tried to stop this supposedly illegitimate healer.

This leads to a time of teaching in which once again, as he did so often during his teachings, Our Lord ridicules the teachings of the Pharisees that true righteousness can be gained by changing your outer circumstances. You might remember that their teachings included things such as the importance of washing your hands before eating as a way to ensure cleanliness before God.

The mindset of the Pharisees leads to a logical progressions such as this:
“If I cut off my hand, then obviously I will not be able to sin with that member of my body any longer, and consequently that will help me to be pure and holy before God.”
I haven’t quite figured out how my foot could possibly cause me to sin so badly in any way, but it’s no matter. The point our Lord makes is the same: this way of thinking is stupid! But it’s not just the Pharisees of 2000 years ago who think this way.

This tendency to lay blame outside of ourselves for our problems is a very familiar temptation for us human beings. For us men, it seems almost like instinct to blame many of the problems that we have on the women around us. Scripture shows that this instinct has been with us from the beginning. In the Garden of Eden, Adam blamed Eve for his failure in eating the fruit of the forbidden tree.

You see, in St. Matthew’s Gospel, this teaching from Jesus is placed in the context of discussing the problem that men have with self-control of their own sexuality.
“But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:28). In that context, he refers to the solution of the Pharisees: cut off your hand, tear out your eye. That is, change the circumstances, but do not deal with the root of the problem. No matter what the context, this way of thinking is always in error. It is the way of thinking that causes men to blame women for their struggles.

The most obvious example of this in our world today is in the Arab world. Look at the women in the Muslim world who are forced to wear the burqa. Why are they dressed like this, covered from head to toe? Because of the men’s problems! Of course, it is the men who have mandated the need for women to be covered with the burqa. Men who lack self-control in themselves and so believe that if they never see the skin of a woman, then they will never be tempted by her.

It is a horribly patriarchal way of thinking, one that has reared its ugly head in many different cultures and societies. There have even been groups of Christian men over the centuries who, taking passages such as this one from the Gospel in a literal sense, have determined to live in a way that they can never see a woman and so therefore cannot be tempted by a woman.

How foolish, and how blind to reality! This way of thinking is a distraction from what really matters, and that is the state of the heart.

Dear friends, for a man’s heart that is filled with the love of Jesus Christ, that is deeply connected to the Creator, that is listening to and following the lead of the Holy Spirit, it does not matter at all if the woman in front of you is covered head-to-toe with a black Muslim burqa, or if she stands completely naked! What difference is that? The God-filled heart has the same response to a sister in Christ, no matter how she is dressed! And the response is always the agape love of God: the will and intention to do what is best for her within your own power.

Of course, if a man lacks any self-control at all, then that is a different matter altogether. But the point is always the same: who are you on the inside?! Remember, please, the crucial question by which Christ calls us to measure ourselves: What would you do if you could? If the opportunity were immediately before you, what would you do?

Here is the crux of the problem when we think about sin: we tend to focus upon the act, we get distracted by what we did or did not do, and we lose sight of what is really important: the state of the heart.

But the Gospel of Jesus Christ is about transforming who we are on the inside, about the grace and love of God making us into brand new people. The grace given us at this Communion Table is about this work of transformation. When we share the peace of Christ together, it is about this work of transformation, so that we can meet every other one as an equal sister or brother in Christ.

We have been speaking here only in the context of the relationships between men and women, but the principles are the same in any context. Think of the challenges of self-control when dealing with alcohol. The response of the Pharisee is the call to prohibition. “If we forbid the sale of alcohol, then that will rid society of this evil!” What that mindset fails to understand, once again, is the obvious and clear reality that all behavior is governed by the human heart! If someone is intent on becoming inebriated, then they will find a way to do so, whether the sale and consumption of certain substances is legal or not.

Why cut off your hand, or hack off your foot, or tear out your eye? How can that change who you are on the inside? Even a mutilated stump of a human being can have a heart full of lust and anger and bitterness.

Like a blind guide leading the blind, the Pharisee fails to see the obvious: the law cannot control or change the heart. The law cannot change who we are on the inside.

Only grace, and love, and mercy, and peace from God can do that. And that, my friends, is why we are here.

Gentleness Born of Wisdom

Sermon for Proper 20 B (RCL), Offered by Nathan Ferrell at HS, Bellmawr & St. Luke’s, Westville

Texts: Proverbs 31:10-31; Psalm 1; James 3:13-4:3,7-8a; Mark 9:30-37
Themes: the virtuous woman, a life of wisdom,
Purpose: to teach, to inspire
Title: Gentleness Born of Wisdom

My friends in Christ: we cannot pass up on the opportunity to reflect together upon this famous passage from the Book of Proverbs. This is an alphabetical Hebrew poem, meaning that each verse begins with a consecutive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. In our Bibles, this passage is sometimes given the title of “The Perfect Housewife”.

It’s difficult to know what to think about this passage from Proverbs. “A capable wife who can find?” Look at this list of activities that this capable wife undertakes.

She wakes up before dawn and prepares food for her family. She stays up late at night. She buys land and manages the farming of it. She makes sure that her family has warm clothing for the winter. She is generous in sharing with the poor. She makes fine clothing for her family and for retail sale to others. She teaches with wisdom, and she speaks with kindness. She does not eat the bread of idleness.

Wow! She is quite an active woman. But notice, please, the subtle detail which makes the biggest difference of all: she has servants! Servants who actually DO most of the labor required by her many tasks. The capable wife imagined here is a wealthy woman who is efficient at managing the activities of her servants.

We have had friends who lived overseas in Africa and South America while working for the US State Dept. In those places, they lived in nice compounds and they had servants. They had a cook to make the meals, a gardener to manage the exterior grounds and a nanny to handle the children. They had a driver who maintained the car and drove them around. It is quite common, in fact, for all people of means in the developing world to have household help like this. Now, I cannot imagine such an arrangement. For us, in our society, things are quite different. In my household, Erin and I have to do everything! And if we try to get some help just from our children, then it actually takes MORE work just to cajole them into action and to keep them motivated. It’s easier – usually – just to do it all ourselves.

So what can we learn from this poem on the perfect wife? To think in practical terms, the Bible teaches us that it is good to be efficient, to manage well the affairs of one’s household. The wisdom of this godly woman is just the opposite of the quarreling trouble-makers that the letter of James speaks against:

“For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind” (James 3:16). There is no chaos, no disorder, no waste, no wickedness in the house of this virtuous woman. She clearly shows by her good life that her works are done with gentleness born of wisdom.

There was once the wife of a priest who was so efficient and diligent, particularly at conserving food, so that she rarely ever threw away any food at all. For one dinner, she served her priest-husband nothing but leftovers which he regarded with great disappointment and disdain. He began to pick at the food, which caused his careful wife to say, “Dear, you forgot the blessing.”

“Listen, sweetheart,” he replied, “if you can show me one piece of this food that hasn’t been blessed already at least two times, then I can’t see what another prayer can do for it!”

Now, if we had the servants available for all of these many tasks, I suppose that it would be quite wonderful to live in such a well-ordered and managed household as this one envisioned by the writer of Proverbs.

But, here is the problem that I see: in the final analysis, who really wants to live with a capable, virtuous, efficient partner? What each of us truly desires, and needs, is love and intimacy.

Efficiency is good, but love is better. When we strip everything else away, we find that each one of us needs to be loved, to be understood, to be accepted, and to be cared about. But not cared about in the sense that we have enough warm sweaters and hats and gloves for the coming winter.

We need to be cared for as a person, to be taken seriously as a unique individual, to have our own thoughts and feelings respected and held in confidence. We need to be trusted. We need to know that our companion will be there for us when times are tough, that we will not be left forsaken when we fall and need a hand to get back up.

If one is able to find this kind of love and commitment and deep emotional care, then I think one can put up with a little sloppiness around the house. Efficiency and cleanliness may make my life easier and more comfortable, but they cannot satiate the longing of my heart for true and lasting companionship.

I do believe that our Lord Jesus, during his years of earthly ministry, understood and felt this longing. This dynamic is part of what is going on in our gospel reading this morning.

Our Lord was true man, fully human, and here he was speaking with his friends about his upcoming suffering and death. He was making himself vulnerable to them, and I feel certain that what he desired most from them at that moment was to be understood. To have them truly understand what this means for him directly at the deepest levels.

And yet, they respond by thinking only in practical terms. Who is the greatest of his friends? As if, when their dearest friend tells them of his impending death, they immediately start to discuss his will, to plan out the line of inheritance and who will be next in line to take over once he is gone! How could they so foolishly misunderstand?

We adults are so practical. We have to be efficient to succeed and thrive. We have to plan ahead. But it is not the same with children. Children play, and they long to be with their friends, to share time and experiences with their friends. Children tend to be much more attuned to emotional needs than we adults who have been dulled by years of struggle and labor.

And at that moment of unease at what was to come, mixed with disappointment in his friends, and frustration, our Lord Jesus took the little child in his arms. Think about it. He hugged that child, as if what he needed most at that moment was simply the touch of a friend’s hand on his shoulder.

I can’t say this for sure, but we do know how our Lord feels about displays of affection. Remember when Mary came and used the entire jar of costly perfume to anoint him? And the very practical disciples complained that those resources could have been better used in other ways! And our Lord defended this act of love, this moment of caring which displayed her understanding. And remember the widow’s mite, when the widow gave to the temple treasury all that she had, how he praised her for her generosity and devotion?

Practical efficiency is good, but love is far, far better, my friends! It is love which God longs to see in us and to share with us.

The writer of Proverbs closes his poem with the famous line: “Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised” (Proverbs 31:30).

And I cannot help but think that, in light of the New Testament and what we learn from our Lord Jesus, we could go on to add: “Waste is harmful, and disorder is ungodly, but the one who loves is to be praised.”

All of Us Make Many Mistakes

Sermon for Proper 19 B (RCL), Offered by Nathan Ferrell at Church of the Holy Spirit, Bellmawr & St. Luke’s, Westville, NJ

Texts: Proverbs 1:20-33; Psalm 19; James 3:1-12; Mark 8:27-38

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.

There’s an old Irish story about a traveling preacher who visited a village where, in one of the large houses, a young girl lay seriously ill. Her parents asked the preacher to come and visit her. And so he came, knelt next to the young girl’s bed, and prayed. After a minute, he stood up and the traveling priest then said to the parents, “Now the girl will start to recover.”

Well, one of the girl’s uncles was there. He was a skeptic about spiritual matters, and he pinned all of his hopes on medicines. And so he scoffed at the priest, “How can a few words make a sick person well?!”

To the uncle’s surprise, the preacher turned to him, his eyes blazing with fury. “You understand nothing,” the priest shouted. “You are an ignorant fool.”

The uncle was greatly offended at this rudeness. His face went all red, and he began to shake with anger and to sweat. But then the preacher’s face broke into a smile. “Listen,” he said, “when just a few words can make a grown man like you all hot and angry, why do you doubt the power of a few words to make a young girl well?” (Celtic Parables, by Robert Van De Weyer, 1998, p. 83).

Today is our time, my brothers and sisters, to reflect together upon the power of the tongue to bring healing and to inflict harm. The Letter of James teaches us about the power of just a few words. This is heavy exhortation, a strong teaching about the dangers of uncontrolled speech. The images presented here are striking: “the tongue is a fire”, “it stains the whole body”; the tongue is “a restless evil, full of deadly poison.”

But there is no need for us to get lost in the many images and metaphors employed here by the epistle, for the meaning is clear as the blue sky in winter: our tongue is to be used for blessing and not for cursing, for healing and not for harming.

What we learn here about speaking is true of every good gift that God has given to us. Every gift has a purpose and a power, and this power can be misused for evil, or it can be controlled and used for its intended good purpose. Think of the gift of food, how it is so good and yet how food can also be misused and so can cause great harm. Think of alcohol, how it is a wonderful gift and yet how it’s misuse can do so much damage. Think of the gift of science, how it yields so many wonderful blessings and yet how it can also be used to create weapons of mass murder.

The same principle is true of the tongue, the power of human speech, but it is more immediate and direct. We have the ability to use our words for great good, to build up, to encourage, to teach, to give praise and thanks. But we also can use this gift of speech to do great harm, to tear down, to destroy, to cut and bite and lash with our tongue.

Consistently throughout the Bible, God teaches the faithful to take great care with how they speak.

From the Letter to the Ephesians, we are given perhaps the clearest and most direct teaching on how God wishes us to speak. Ephesians 4:29 says: “Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear” (Ephesians 4:29).

Imagine for a moment such a world, imagine living in such a community where everyone speaks the truth in love, where everyone has the goal of using their words to build others up, where we all limit our words to what is useful.

My household seems to be a great place to see where the opposite happens all the time. If you haven’t noticed lately, most children continually hurt each other with their words, and my children in particular seem intent on becoming masters of this craft. You know what children say to each other on the playground: “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me.” I have no idea who started that saying, but nothing could be farther than the truth. Words can hurt. Words can leave scars on the heart that can last far longer than scars on the skin.

I heard someone comment on the radio this week about his years of lobbying the FCC to ban the use of the word “retard” from radio and television, because he believes that it is an intolerable insult to people with disabilities. While I commend his zeal and his desire to protect the vulnerable from harm, this man unfortunately fails to realize that what matters in speech is intent, not content. Any word can be used as a verbal weapon to inflict harm. If that is the intention of the speaker, then which word is used does not matter.

You have no idea how often I admonish my children about their words.

“You need to think before you speak!” I can’t tell you how many times I have said that to my children. Think before you speak, not after.

Unfortunately, we as a society are infected by a kind of terrible virus that makes mockery of our language. Yes, we suffer from verbal diarrhea. I think you know what I mean. It seems that many people today are compelled to publish every single thought that enters their mind. The worst instance of this, I think, is the Twitter phenomenon. Do we really need to hear and read what everyone in the world is doing at every minute?

I believe that it is important to let your words be few, and let each one have meaning.
As a wise man once said: “It does not require many words to speak the truth” (Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce.)

We do well, my friends, when we are careful with our words. Not only do they have great power when applied to others, but they also reveal many things about ourselves.

Do you remember just a few weeks back, when we heard our Lord teach us about the connection between the heart and the words that we speak? “What comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart” (Matthew 15:18). This is the truth about our words. “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks” (Matthew 12:34).

The Lord also gave us this stern warning: “By your words you will be justified; and by your words you will be condemned” (Matthew 12:37).

But we must not rush to think that everything in our relationship with God relies upon our words. Actions always supersede words. Just last week, James spoke clearly to this fact. “If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,’ and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that?” (James 2:15-16). Nice sounding words alone mean nothing, if they are not flowing from a heart of compassion that is moved to act.

Both our words AND our actions are faithful signs of what is on the inside. And in the final analysis, I believe that the familiar saying is true: actions speak louder than words.

I enjoy the realism, the practicality of this Letter of James. “For all of us make many mistakes.” So this epistle teaches, and so we all know to be true.

But remember this, my friends: the goal of our journey here on earth is to live life to the fullest, to experience abundant life in Christ: a life where our heart is renewed afresh every day by the love of God. When our hearts are so filled with agape love, then our mouths will naturally speak forth with praise and blessing.

Then we will live as the fulfillment of the prayer of the Psalmist, for then the words of our mouths and the meditation of our hearts will always be acceptable in the sight of the Lord, our strength and our redeemer. And that is a good way to live. Amen.