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.