The Illumined Heart

Lenten Book Study

At The Church of the Holy Spirit in Bellmawr and at St. Luke's in Westville, we are studying a book during Lent that will be incorporated into my sermons throughout the season. It is called The Illumined Heart (Paraclete Press: 2001) by Frederica Mathewes-Green. The publisher also offers a small study guide to accompany the book. I love the simple, narrative method of introducing contemporary western Christians to the ancient practices of eastern orthodoxy. There is much to learn here about leading a life of prayer in close fellowship with our Lord Jesus Christ. I hope that it will be inspiring and enlightening to many.

The Honey Pot

A Homily for Ash Wednesday 2009, offered at St. Luke's Church in Westville, NJ

There’s an old Irish story about a mother who came to visit a fat priest to ask for help.
“I am in despair”, the old woman said. “My son spends all of our money on honey, which he eats straight from the pot. We are penniless. Please come and tell him to stop.”

Weeks passed and the priest did not come. The mother thought that the priest must have forgotten her request. So she went to see him again. As soon as she came through the door, she was amazed at the sight of him.

“You are so thin!” she exclaimed. “What’s wrong with you?”

“I have given up buying honey and eating it from the pot,” the priest replied. “Now that I know that I can stop, I will come and tell your son to stop as well!”

Welcome, my friends, to a new Season of Lent! It might not seem very exciting right now, but I hope that we will all come to see this season as a time for re-birth and renewal, a time for spring cleaning of our spiritual house.

As this old Irish story suggests, it is difficult for us sinners to talk with others about sin. I myself can offer you no real insight into the process of becoming Christ-like. But by the grace of God I have been able to view a few clear glimpses of the truth of God, which I hope to pass along faithfully.

One of those is right here in Paul’s letter. “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” You could spend a lifetime chewing on the deep truths of that text.

Can you imagine for a moment living a life like our Lord, without any personal experience of sin? Do you know that feeling inside, when you realize clearly that the decision you just made was the wrong decision?

If you had a chance to read the first chapter of our Lenten book by Frederica Matthewes-Green, you may remember her discussion of our common feelings of uneasiness, disappointment, loneliness.

I don’t know how anyone can live in this world without this sense of uneasiness. I mean, I think we all feel that something is wrong with the world. If you don’t, then I would be a bit worried. I would argue that it is a sign of health to recognize that something is wrong with the world and humankind as presently constituted. Because we have seen in Christ a vision of how life is meant to be, we then feel the distance between that vision and our present reality. When we draw near to God and experience God’s amazing love and goodness, then we know how weak and timid our love is by contrast.

It has always been the case that the closer to God a saint becomes, the more she is aware of her own brokenness. It is the great Saint Paul who called himself “the chief of sinners”, this coming from the one who had met Christ in person on the road to Damascus.

So that in him we might become…We might become. My friends, we have the chance to become something amazing. It will take hard work, there is no doubt. But commitment and hard work aligned with the power of the Holy Spirit is a life-changing combination.

“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

That’s the whole story right there in one simple sentence. That’s all of it – the whole story. In this One, in this Messiah, we have the chance to become something greater than we ever dreamed! By constantly changing our direction, and claiming this grace available in Christ, we can change, and like the fat priest who ate too much honey, we can become a lamp-post pointing the way for others.

God has opened this door for our sake. Our Lord laid down his life for this. The Holy Spirit has come upon us for this very reason. So that we might live for God.

So let us make a fresh commitment tonight to this path of love, power and goodness with God. Amen.

Listen to Him

A Sermon for the Last Sunday after the Epiphany (RCL - B)

Far from the crowds, leaving the noisy and busy towns far behind, the small band hiked up and over the rocks to the top of the mountain. Mount Tabor, windswept with a view over the long valley of Jezreel. The Master led the way, with his three close and confused friends following his footsteps. Glory shone, reality made plain, and the disciples left that mountain-top more bewildered than ever. And yet, the Voice had spoken loud and clear:

Listen to Him.

I have long been impressed by the wisdom of the 12-Step movements. By God’s grace, I have never yet needed to participate in one of these groups, but I admire their simplicity and their single-minded focus upon their central mission. In addition to the 12 Steps which guide the person in recovery, each group is guided by 12 Traditions. (You can see these downstairs, I believe, at St. Luke’s.)

The 11th and 12th of these AA Traditions are as follows:
[Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion;] we need always to maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio and films.Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.

Did you hear those words written by Saint Paul and read here this morning? “For we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake.”

Within this new community that it is called the Church, the confession of sin is the great equalizer. It doesn’t matter who you are: your gender, your personal wealth, your job, your ethnicity. When we gather in Church, ALL of us confess to the Lord that we have sinned. ALL of us bow our heads to ask for forgiveness. This is one of the things that I love most about the church. There are no honorable positions that remove one from the reality of human life. Even this position of “Priest”, which as you know means Elder, is primarily one of function. Someone has to be prepared for each Eucharist. Someone has to study the Scriptures and speak the words of Institution and Absolution.

But in this life, it is so easy for us to lose this perspective. Look again at this story of the Transfiguration. Three great apostles are there: Peter, James and John. If we were to meet them in person, we would be tempted to fall down at their feet and worship. But look! They are as fleas compared to the glory of our Lord! When seen next to him, they are nothing, like a small cloud which the wind easily pushes away.

Make no mistake: I am not denigrating the saints nor the apostles. By their diligence, they have earned the crown of life and they stand before the face of God in worship today. I believe that their example is absolutely critical for us who follow Christ today.

What we learn from our Lord Jesus by his teachings and his example are made clear to us in the life of the saints. This is what we rightly call the Sacred Tradition of the Church. Their stories complete in life what the Bible teaches in word. The two are inseparable.

The Scriptures lay the foundation for a healthy, complete human life. But the building itself is the life of the saints, and in them we can see the practical outline, the structure of life the way God intended it to be. Without their stories, without their concrete examples, we cannot clearly understand what the Gospel means to us for our lives.

HOWEVER! Given all of that, we must know that the lives of the saints are NOTHING compared to the majesty, the magnificence that is Jesus our living Lord.

Why should we stand in awe of any man or any woman? Why? Because they have a bunch of this make-believe thing that we call money? Because others have given them authority and power to make decisions on their behalf? We, who talk and walk with the Risen Lord of life, we know better, and we know that any human is like a fly compared to the glory of God who surrounds us at all times. This is the secret for the boldness and courage of the martyrs over the centuries, who have stood before kings and emperors and generals without fear because of the name of Christ.

“We do not proclaim ourselves.” For why should we? Peter and James and John represent us on Mount Tabor. They didn’t know what was going on. And at the exact moment of human confusion and misunderstanding, the voice of God spoke loud and clear: “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him.”

Let’s be honest: how often do we actually LISTEN TO HIM? If we truthfully, honestly believe that he is the most intelligent person who ever lived – that is, he is the one who most understands how life works, how the universe works – if we truly believe this, then why would we turn to Oprah for advice? Why would we listen to Suze Orman about how to plan our lives?

What does Dr. Phil know that Jesus does not know?

“This is my Son, the Beloved. Listen to Him.”

What does it mean to listen? To listen is: to pay attention to sound 2: to hear something with thoughtful attention : to give consideration Listening requires attention and focus, but it also requires trust.

Dallas Willard is a writer whose insights have had a profound impact upon me and my relationship to Christ. Listen carefully, please, to these words from his book The Divine Conspiracy about the intelligence of our Lord. They convict me every time that I hear them.

“Our commitment to Jesus, “ Dallas Willard wrote, “can stand on no other foundation that a recognition that he is the one who knows the truth about our lives and our universe. It is not possible to trust Jesus, or anyone else, in matters where we do not believe him to be competent…Can we seriously imagine that Jesus could be Lord if he were not smart?...[The declaration of faith,] “Jesus is Lord” can mean little in practice for anyone who has to hesitate before saying, “Jesus is smart.” He is not [just] nice, he is brilliant. He is the smartest man who ever lived.” (The Divine Conspiracy, pp.94-95.)

We have to learn to trust him, to really and honestly trust him with our lives. We cannot do that if we see him as out of touch, some mystical figure from the distant past, someone who does not truly understand what our life is like.

He does, and we can trust him. And if we learn to listen, we can learn how to live, how to really live. None of us are too old or too young to learn that. So may it be among us who gather around this table to taste the goodness of the Lord. Amen.

Run In Such A Way

A Sermon offered for the 6th Sunday after the Epiphany 2009 (RCL - B) at Trinity Episcopal Church in Vincentown, NJ

In 1931, John McGee entered into a church for only the second time in his life. He was 17 years old then and he had never read the Bible. He knew next-to-nothing about God, and he had dropped out of school after 4th grade so that he could hunt rabbits and work on the farm with his father. John’s family were share-croppers in North Carolina and the Great Depression was in full effect. At the small, country Baptist church, the pastor preached on the need for each person to open his or her heart to Jesus and to be part of the great missionary work of the church. John’s heart was touched; he opened his heart to our loving Lord and he prayed, “Father, You know me. You know I’m not educated, but here’s my life. If You can make anything out of it, it’s Yours.”

At the age of 18, John went back to school at the small 2-room schoolhouse with the young children. He was determined to get the training he needed to serve God. He borrowed school books and walked to school every day. After a few years, he was able to borrow $25 and to travel across the state to Mars Hill Junior College. From there, John traveled to Baylor University down in Texas where he studied tropical agriculture. The path from there led to seminary and pastoral training. All throughout college and seminary, John worked a job and also preached every Sunday at local churches. It wasn’t easy, but he was able to scrape together enough to finish his schooling without any debt.

By God’s grace and by the diligence of his determined efforts, John served as a pioneering missionary in Nigeria for 35 years, where he baptized over 7000 people and oversaw the construction of hundreds of churches, schools, and hospitals. He is the only Caucasian to be named as honorary chief and king of 2 different towns in Nigeria. And John McGee happens to be my wife’s grandfather.

The apostle Paul directs us to “Run in such a way that you may win the prize.”
John McGee ran the gospel race with diligence and focus, and I know with confidence that he won a great prize in the kingdom of the heavens.

The question for us this morning, my brothers and sisters, is this: how are we running the gospel race? How are we doing in our training for work in the kingdom of God?

Yesterday, of course, was the Feast of St. Valentine, also known as Valentine’s Day. There has been a lot of talk about love, and if you listen to what many people say about love, you can get quite confused by all of the differing advice.

Jesus taught us to “Love your neighbor as yourself,” and many today will say with certainty that you cannot love others until you first learn to love yourself. But what does it mean to love yourself?

The apostle Paul, here in his first letter to the Corinthians explains the way that he treats himself: “I punish my body and enslave it.” Ouch! Sounds pretty harsh to our enlightened, modern ears. But, remember, just a few chapters further along, Paul gives us the famous “Love” Chapter that is read at basically every church wedding in the world! “Love is patient, love is kind…”

Without question, this man understands what love is! And yet, his own example shows us that love of ourselves in practical terms means the practice of self-discipline.

He is certainly not alone in that regard. Our Gospel reading gives us a picture of our Lord as moved with love and true compassion. To touch a leper! To touch this man and to heal him! It’s amazing! It breaks all social and religious rules. But love moves him. This is the same love that moves him to offer himself on the cross on your behalf!

This is our template, our model, our example. True, agape love moves us to self-sacrifice on behalf of others.

Let’s go back to the metaphor of the athlete in training. Paul wrote that “Athletes exercise self-control in all things.” Or as another translation says it, “Every athlete concentrates completely on training.” Do they love themselves? Yes, they love themselves enough to push their bodies to the limits of physical ability, to achieve something greater than mediocrity. It is a calling, but a short-lived one.

My sisters and brothers, we have a much greater calling than this, and one that requires much more demanding effort from us, but also one which offers astronomically greater reward than an athlete’s medal or trophy! As a baptized member of Christ, your life here on this earth is a continual training exercise. Like the athlete, we are constantly at work training our body, our mind, our heart and our soul to be like our Lord, to share in the divine nature.

This is what it means to work out our salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12). Not that we seek to gain God’s favor. We already have that! That’s a given! Our Lord assures us of that love and favor every time we taste his body and blood at this holy table.
No, it’s not that we are trying to earn anything from God. Rather, we seek to live a life in constant communion with God, in constant love toward our neighbors and our enemies, with eternal perspective on all that happens to us.

And why is this? Why put out the demanding effort required to live this way, rather than settling for what is considered ‘normal’ life, settling for mediocrity?

You can if you want to. For me, I know that God has given me one chance to experience this human life in its fullest, to live an abundant life in the path of Christ.

One more word of exhortation from St. Paul, this time coming from his letter to the Romans: “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.” (Romans 13:15).

My dear friends, let us all put on the Lord and draw near to him. Let us join together in training ourselves in godliness, becoming new people by the grace of Holy Spirit.

For there is a race to be run. It’s boring to stand on the side and watch! As the body of Christ together - Let’s walk with our Lord Jesus Christ every day, and let’s run this race to win! Amen.

By All Means Save Some

A Sermon for the 5th Sunday after the Epiphany (RCL -B)

-Martin Niemöller was a prominent German Lutheran pastor when Adolf Hitler came to power. At first he had supported the Nazis, and so he was called upon to serve as a negotiator with Hitler in an attempt to save the German churches from being closed when criticism against Nazi ideals began to spread. Toward the end of his life, Niemoller told of a recurring dream that came to him in which he saw Hitler standing before our Lord Jesus Christ in the day of judgment. In the dream, Jesus came down off of the throne, put His arm around Hitler and asked, “Adolf! Why did you do the ugly, evil things you did? Why were you so cruel?”
-Hitler, with his head bowed low, answered simply, “Because no one ever told me how much You loved me.”
-Pastor Niemoller reported that at this point in his dream he would wake up always in a cold sweat, remembering that during the many meetings he had had with Hitler, never once did he say, “By the way, Führer, Jesus loves you! He loves you more than you’ll ever know. He loves you so much that he died for you. Do you know that?”
-Never once did Pastor Niemoller ask that question. Who knows what might have happened if he did? Would Hitler’s heart have been touched and changed in some way?

-We’ll never know, and – truthfully – for this Pastor it makes no difference, for his was a sin of omission.
-In a few minutes, when we pause to confess our sins, we will remember that we all have sinned against God “by what we have left undone.”

-Today, we are called to spend a few minutes together reflecting upon our calling to be a witness to the grace and truth that is found in Jesus Christ. And I am assuming that we do not have many naturally gifted evangelists in our midst.

-And I will confess this to all of you as well: I am horrible at the task of evangelism. This is a difficult message for me to deliver, because it convicts me of my obvious failure to act in sharing the gospel with those around me every day.

-But the truth of Scripture demands that we consider carefully our calling to share the good news of Jesus Christ.

-The good news. The message. The Gospel. Both Saint Paul and our Lord – in some mysterious way – are presented to us today as captives to this proclamation. They are bound to it, obligated to proclaim the good news.

-“Woe to me if I do not proclaim the gospel!” This is Paul’s classic explanation of his ministry. His experience of the risen Lord was so powerful that he was willing to use any means at his disposal to make the good news understood by the different groups in his society. “I have become all things to all people, that I might by all means save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel…”

-In our gospel reading from Mark, we read of our Lord healing the sick and getting the attention of the entire city. They all wanted to make use of his healing power.
-This would seem to be a good thing, right? But how did Jesus respond?
-“Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I might proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came to do.”

-It almost seems that the message had a hold of Him, that the message needed a Voice, that he was traveling and working on behalf of the message. It’s the same feeling that we get from Paul’s letter. “I do it all for the sake of the good news.”

-Think, then, my friends, of what this means for us. If our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ was captivated by the power of the good news, if St. Paul and the other apostles and countless numbers of saints have given their lives to the spreading of this gospel message, how do we value this precious divine treasure which we have received?

-Or simply ask yourself this question: How many people in your life could have been helped if you had sincerely and directly asked them this simple question, “Do you know how much God loves you?”

-Of course, when we are speaking of evangelism, our actions are of vital importance here. Most of you have heard of the famous advice from St. Francis of Assisi, “Preach the Gospel at all times; and if necessary, use words.”
-Both our words and our actions are needed to spread the good news.

-Do you remember the promise that we made, or that was made for us, in our baptismal covenant?
-Look with me, if you will. Turn to page 304 in the BCP, and there you will find one of the most important parts of the entire Prayer Book. The Baptismal Covenant. The promises made by those being baptized and indeed by the entire gathered community.
-These words, more than any other, most clearly define who we are and what we are all about.
-After the creed is recited in Trinitarian form, 5 specific questions are asked of the baptized community. It is the 3rd one that I believe we need to reflect upon today. It is immediately on the top of Page 305.
-The Celebrant asks the community this question, “Will you proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ?”
-And each one of the baptized community responds – all together, “I will, with God’s help.”



-With God’s help, you and I must proclaim the good news in our words and by our actions. There’s no cop-out, no excuse. It is not enough simply to provide support to others who have the gift of evangelism, though this is good use of our offerings.

-We cannot back out of this commitment by claiming that we do not have the skill or the training required. We do not need to have all of the answers. We simply need to be faithful.

-The work of evangelism has been aptly described as one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread. If you were truly hungry and you found an endless supply of good, healthy, satisfying food, you would not need any special skill or training to share this discovery with the other hungry people in your neighborhood! And if you didn’t share this good news with the others, because you were so busy eating that you forgot about them, or else you were afraid that they might think you’re a bit crazy, then you would in fact be guilty of a heinous crime.

-This analogy is rough, but it is a good one. When you leave here today, just look around and you will see a mass of confused, hurting, lonely people. And the God’s honest truth is that you and I know where they can find the direction, the healing, and the hope that they are looking for. It is our task to point them in the right direction, to point them toward Christ, and then to let God handle the rest.

-One simple and practical way to approach our calling to evangelism is to pray every morning for 2 things: first, ask God to bring someone into your path that day who needs to hear about the love of God in Christ; and then ask the Holy Spirit to make sure that you don’t miss or ignore the opportunity when it arrives.
-Let’s all try it this coming week. Remember – I need to pray for this also, and I am willing to do it with you. I am eager to hear a few stories next Sunday of what God might do with these prayers and with our openness to sharing the Good News of God in Christ.

-The world needs your witness – your voice, your story, your actions shared in love with others in need around you. So let us not keep all of this bread for ourselves. There is more than enough to go around. Amen.

A Real New England Winter

A few days in New England in the winter is good for the soul. To strip away everything except what is needed for bare survival for a few days- this is a good spiritual exercise.

Above - it was difficult to reach the woodpile under all the snow! Above right - the outhouse - please step into my office! Left - a view to Cardigan (Old Baldy) 15 miles to the north.

Is there a more beautiful place?