Sermon for 3 Epiphany RCL 1/24/2010, Offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry
Texts: Nehemiah 8:1-3,5-6,8-10; Psalm 19; 1 Corinthians 12:12-31a; Luke 4:14-21
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my strength and my redeemer. Amen.
My friends, Saint Paul has gotten a bad rap in recent years. Over the last few decades of biblical research, St. Paul has been written off as someone who fundamentally changed the Hebrew character of the early Christian communities by inserting foreign Greek ideas.
Well, it is certainly clear that St. Paul’s insights and leadership did momentously change the future of the Church. But I believe that it would be a travesty to place a negative judgment upon the particulars of his teaching.
Here today, in our Epistle reading, we are given a distinct example of one of St. Paul’s signature contributions to the Church. Most of us here have heard this passage about the Body of Christ so many times that it feels quite commonplace and familiar and, thus, we miss the truly radical nature of its message.
Think back through all four canonical Gospels and all of the teachings of Jesus. Nowhere is there any suggestion even remotely like this. Nowhere does Jesus suggest that his disciples would serve as the manifestation of his own Body. The only clear reference Jesus makes to his Body is at the last supper, and the reference here is directly related to the Eucharist: “Do this in remembrance of me.”
So where they did Paul come up with this new idea? It was common for Greek writers to speak of their city-states as one body politic with a plurality of many parts, each of which had a specific role to play in the community. Surely, as an educated Roman citizen, Paul had heard of such analogies. But here he applied this concept in a quite different way, on a deeper and mystical level. Here he applies it also directly to Christ.
Tomorrow, January 25, is the date on which the Western Church remembers and celebrates the Conversion of St. Paul. This event was his inspiration behind this remarkable analogy of the Body of Christ. Do you remember what the Lord said to him, still named Saul at the time, on the road to Damascus? “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” Why are you persecuting me? Not, why are you killing my disciples? But, why are you persecuting me? As St. Paul meditated over the years on this event, he came to understand that, although the resurrected body of the Jesus was now invisible in the heavens, it is all of his baptized disciples together who make his physical presence manifest here on the earth.
Praise God for St. Paul’s vision and insight. "For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body – and we were all made to drink of one Spirit… Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.” And so, in beautiful words now famous, does St. Paul remind us of our true identity. We are together the Body of Christ, and each one of us has a crucial and vital role to play.
Here in our Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry, we are embarking on a new adventure in ministry. This will be a work in progress for quite some time as we discern together how best to integrate all of our gifts and talents together for effective ministry to one another and to the wider community. But this much is clear: it will certainly require some effort from each one of us in this community.
Church is not a spectator sport. No one here is an innocent bystander! We are all players on the field, and it is vital that each one of us knows our role and is diligent to perform that role at a high level.
Therefore, in order to ensure that we are all working toward the building of an active, integrated Christian community here, I would like each of you to turn or move to the person sitting closest to you and in one minute describe to your neighbor what role you believe God has given you to perform in this community. Tell your neighbor what key position you are called to play here. What part of the Body of Christ are you? Let’s do that now for just a few minutes.
After a few minutes of discussion in the pews: “The unity of the body consists in the fact that its many members supply the things which the other parts lack.” So wrote Ambrosiaster in the fourth century, and his insight is true.
I want you to know that as I prepared for today, I realized a simple and yet very profound mistake that I have been making over the last few months. If you look at the front of the Sunday bulletins, I have made it a point to name our Presiding Bishop and the Bishop of New Jersey. They are vital to what we do here, because they are the physical manifestations of the apostles, our tangible link to our apostolic heritage. And then my name is listed as the Vicar. But something is missing. Something so basic, so simple, so obvious. I have forgotten to name the ministers here in our Shared Ministry. But from now on, this will change. Next week, and the weeks after, you will now see the correct designation placed there. It will say, Ministers – Comma – All baptized members. For this is what you are: the ministers of the Gospel in this time and place. “For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.”
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Reports, musings, sermons, happenings from a Presbyter (Priest) of The Episcopal Church who loves Jesus, the natural world, ice and snow, and is raising 3 children with his artist-wife, Erin McGee Ferrell. (This photo is of the Presidential range in NH taken from Vermont.)
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Saturday, January 16, 2010
They Have No Wine!
Sermon for 2 Epiphany RCL 2010, Offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry
Texts: Isaiah 62:1-5; Psalm 36:5-10; 1 Corinthians 12:1-11; John 2:1-11
When the wine was all consumed at the wedding feast in Cana of Galilee, the mother of Jesus came to her Son, who was enjoying the feast there with his new disciples, and said, “They have no wine.”
Who is it that intervenes to help in this situation? It is the mother, of course. No great surprise there. But in this story, it is not the mother of the bride, but rather the Mother of God. Mary explains the situation to Jesus, and it seems that she expects him to immediately jump to fix the problem, but he is not inclined to this. His hour has not yet come. He was not ready to respond, not yet ready to jump into action and to start his ministry of power among the people.
But there is no one who has as much of a claim upon the heart of a son as his mother. Jesus is prevailed upon to display his glory through the insistence of his mother, Mary.
Mary’s direction to the servants is paramount: “Do whatever he tells you.” Do whatever he tells you. God despises coercion. The blessing of the wine for this feast, the miracle of water changed into wine, depended entirely upon the servants taking orders from someone who had no standing at all there in the wedding, no position of influence. For all that they knew, Jesus was simply the son of a woman who was a friend of the family. Why take orders from him? Let’s remember: carrying 150 gallons of water in heavy stone jars is no small task! Besides, I am certain that there were many other things to be done. But, they listened to Mary’s guidance and they did as Jesus asked. And God’s glory was revealed.
How often is God’s blessing not poured into our lives because of our unwillingness to listen to what the Mother of God says, because of our unwillingness to do what Jesus tells us? The truth of our life is that God has given us all of the guidance that we need to live full, joyful, abundant, fulfilled lives. The task is ours to put this guidance into practice.
Just look at what happens when people listen simply and directly to what Jesus says. This amazing story is about abundance, extravagance, and transformation.
The amazing abundance of wine is a sign. The Hebrew prophets had often used the image of overflowing wine as a sign of the endtimes when God would restore the fortunes of the people or even simply as a sign of God’s tremendous goodness. Remember the beloved 23rd Psalm: “You have anointed my head with oil; my cup runs over.”
Here we see Jesus at the very beginning of his earthly ministry miraculously providing a huge amount of wine. 150 gallons of good, fine wine! And here at the end of the feast when most of the guests were already drunk!
It is clear that the Gospel writer intends for this story to be astounding. It is meant to teach us something very important. When the wine of life runs out, Jesus provides a superabundance of grace beyond anything that our human minds can comprehend.
It is no coincidence that in our lives today as disciples of Jesus we experience grace upon grace bestowed upon us in the amazing feast of the Eucharist which is itself beyond anything our minds can comprehend. At the wedding feast in Cana of Galilee, the water is changed into wine, and here at this weekly feast the wine is changed into the life-giving blood of Christ our Lord.
God’s glory, divine power, and grace is offered to us in many diverse ways, but pre-eminently here at this table. Jesus calls us, his family, to gather at the table to feast, but we must do whatever he tells us. “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day” (John 6:54). True life is freely offered to us, but it is our task to get up and get out the door to gather where this grace is so freely offered.
The Gospel reading this morning ends by saying: “Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.” In the Church, Jesus does thing, an amazing sign each time we gather, and he reveals his glory among us; and we believe in his power and goodness.
This is the story that the Gospel of John presents to us today. But to be honest, my friends, it feels very difficult to talk about God’s abundant grace in these days. Our country is dealing with financial trouble, with many in our communities still unemployed. Our congregations wrestle with meeting our financial burdens and taking care of our facilities. And of course, we have just witnessed a horrendous earthquake to strike Haiti and cause human pain and suffering on a massive scale. This earthquake is likely to go into the record books as one of the 10 deadliest natural disasters in recorded history.
In addition to the grim statistics, it is right for this disaster to affect us Episcopalians even more deeply. The Diocese of Haiti is the largest, most numerous diocese in The Episcopal Church. And in an era of falling church attendance and the closing of churches, Haiti has been our brightly shining exception. The Episcopal Diocese of Haiti has continued to open new missions and new churches, and their attendance has been steadily increasing. At least in Haiti in recent years, the mission and message of our church has been appreciated and received by many.
But we know that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8). So if this is the same Lord who made such a super-abundance of wine available at this wedding feast in Cana, we must ask the question: what can He do now in Haiti? If this Lord had the ability then to change ordinary water into the most excellent wine, then what can He do with the immense destruction of Haiti?
O Lord, our hearts are troubled and we ask you: can you change that immense pain into new hope? Can you, Lord alter that devastation so that it becomes a place of healing and new life?
After all, that is the mystery that we are talking about here. When Jesus first replies to his Mother’s concern, he states: “My hour has not yet come.” In the Gospel of john, that is a clear reference to the Passion of the Lord. Later in the 12th chapter, Jesus makes the connection clear: “Now the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified” (John 12:23). In His Passion, the Lord takes a brutal and horrible death and turns it into a source of unending life and healing. THAT, we believe, is how God works! Bringing light into dark places, bringing life into places of death.
At this wedding feast at Cana, there was no great suffering, no terrible human need that called out the Lord’s response. They ran out of wine! So what?! I think they would have survived. But here…here in this dire situation in Haiti, the need is clear. And billions of prayers are being made each day now for the people of Haiti. Will the Lord hear and respond?
The answer may be up to us. After all, we are the body of Christ.
The collect for today has expressed this truth: Grant that your people, illumined by your Word and Sacraments, may shine with the radiance of Christ’s glory. And why? What happens when we do this? “That [Christ] may be known, worshiped, and obeyed to the ends of the earth.” So may the Lord listen to the prayers of his people, and also make us listen faithfully to Christ and do whatever he tells us, for the healing of the nations. Amen.
Texts: Isaiah 62:1-5; Psalm 36:5-10; 1 Corinthians 12:1-11; John 2:1-11
When the wine was all consumed at the wedding feast in Cana of Galilee, the mother of Jesus came to her Son, who was enjoying the feast there with his new disciples, and said, “They have no wine.”
Who is it that intervenes to help in this situation? It is the mother, of course. No great surprise there. But in this story, it is not the mother of the bride, but rather the Mother of God. Mary explains the situation to Jesus, and it seems that she expects him to immediately jump to fix the problem, but he is not inclined to this. His hour has not yet come. He was not ready to respond, not yet ready to jump into action and to start his ministry of power among the people.
But there is no one who has as much of a claim upon the heart of a son as his mother. Jesus is prevailed upon to display his glory through the insistence of his mother, Mary.
Mary’s direction to the servants is paramount: “Do whatever he tells you.” Do whatever he tells you. God despises coercion. The blessing of the wine for this feast, the miracle of water changed into wine, depended entirely upon the servants taking orders from someone who had no standing at all there in the wedding, no position of influence. For all that they knew, Jesus was simply the son of a woman who was a friend of the family. Why take orders from him? Let’s remember: carrying 150 gallons of water in heavy stone jars is no small task! Besides, I am certain that there were many other things to be done. But, they listened to Mary’s guidance and they did as Jesus asked. And God’s glory was revealed.
How often is God’s blessing not poured into our lives because of our unwillingness to listen to what the Mother of God says, because of our unwillingness to do what Jesus tells us? The truth of our life is that God has given us all of the guidance that we need to live full, joyful, abundant, fulfilled lives. The task is ours to put this guidance into practice.
Just look at what happens when people listen simply and directly to what Jesus says. This amazing story is about abundance, extravagance, and transformation.
The amazing abundance of wine is a sign. The Hebrew prophets had often used the image of overflowing wine as a sign of the endtimes when God would restore the fortunes of the people or even simply as a sign of God’s tremendous goodness. Remember the beloved 23rd Psalm: “You have anointed my head with oil; my cup runs over.”
Here we see Jesus at the very beginning of his earthly ministry miraculously providing a huge amount of wine. 150 gallons of good, fine wine! And here at the end of the feast when most of the guests were already drunk!
It is clear that the Gospel writer intends for this story to be astounding. It is meant to teach us something very important. When the wine of life runs out, Jesus provides a superabundance of grace beyond anything that our human minds can comprehend.
It is no coincidence that in our lives today as disciples of Jesus we experience grace upon grace bestowed upon us in the amazing feast of the Eucharist which is itself beyond anything our minds can comprehend. At the wedding feast in Cana of Galilee, the water is changed into wine, and here at this weekly feast the wine is changed into the life-giving blood of Christ our Lord.
God’s glory, divine power, and grace is offered to us in many diverse ways, but pre-eminently here at this table. Jesus calls us, his family, to gather at the table to feast, but we must do whatever he tells us. “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day” (John 6:54). True life is freely offered to us, but it is our task to get up and get out the door to gather where this grace is so freely offered.
The Gospel reading this morning ends by saying: “Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.” In the Church, Jesus does thing, an amazing sign each time we gather, and he reveals his glory among us; and we believe in his power and goodness.
This is the story that the Gospel of John presents to us today. But to be honest, my friends, it feels very difficult to talk about God’s abundant grace in these days. Our country is dealing with financial trouble, with many in our communities still unemployed. Our congregations wrestle with meeting our financial burdens and taking care of our facilities. And of course, we have just witnessed a horrendous earthquake to strike Haiti and cause human pain and suffering on a massive scale. This earthquake is likely to go into the record books as one of the 10 deadliest natural disasters in recorded history.
In addition to the grim statistics, it is right for this disaster to affect us Episcopalians even more deeply. The Diocese of Haiti is the largest, most numerous diocese in The Episcopal Church. And in an era of falling church attendance and the closing of churches, Haiti has been our brightly shining exception. The Episcopal Diocese of Haiti has continued to open new missions and new churches, and their attendance has been steadily increasing. At least in Haiti in recent years, the mission and message of our church has been appreciated and received by many.
But we know that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8). So if this is the same Lord who made such a super-abundance of wine available at this wedding feast in Cana, we must ask the question: what can He do now in Haiti? If this Lord had the ability then to change ordinary water into the most excellent wine, then what can He do with the immense destruction of Haiti?
O Lord, our hearts are troubled and we ask you: can you change that immense pain into new hope? Can you, Lord alter that devastation so that it becomes a place of healing and new life?
After all, that is the mystery that we are talking about here. When Jesus first replies to his Mother’s concern, he states: “My hour has not yet come.” In the Gospel of john, that is a clear reference to the Passion of the Lord. Later in the 12th chapter, Jesus makes the connection clear: “Now the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified” (John 12:23). In His Passion, the Lord takes a brutal and horrible death and turns it into a source of unending life and healing. THAT, we believe, is how God works! Bringing light into dark places, bringing life into places of death.
At this wedding feast at Cana, there was no great suffering, no terrible human need that called out the Lord’s response. They ran out of wine! So what?! I think they would have survived. But here…here in this dire situation in Haiti, the need is clear. And billions of prayers are being made each day now for the people of Haiti. Will the Lord hear and respond?
The answer may be up to us. After all, we are the body of Christ.
The collect for today has expressed this truth: Grant that your people, illumined by your Word and Sacraments, may shine with the radiance of Christ’s glory. And why? What happens when we do this? “That [Christ] may be known, worshiped, and obeyed to the ends of the earth.” So may the Lord listen to the prayers of his people, and also make us listen faithfully to Christ and do whatever he tells us, for the healing of the nations. Amen.
Friday, January 15, 2010
Response to Haiti disaster
(An e-mail message sent on 1/15/2010 to the congregations under my charge)
Hello brothers and sisters,
You all are aware of the horrible catastrophe that has struck the people of Haiti. As those who are called to share the love of God with all, and especially with those "who are the least of these brothers and sisters" of Christ (Matthew 25:31-46), we have a special duty to respond with compassion as far as our means allow.
Some of you might not be aware, however, of our particular connection with the people of Haiti. The Episcopal Diocese of Haiti is, in fact, the largest diocese in our Episcopal Church in terms of average Sunday attendance. Our brothers and sisters there use the same prayer book and hymnals as we do, though of course translated into Creole. This diocese has been growing steadily in recent years, adding new missions and churches and schools, thereby giving hope to all of us about the power of the gospel to touch new lives still today.
Unfortunately, our sister Diocese there seems to have been particularly hurt by this earthquake. The entire Cathedral complex in Port-au-Prince (the Cathedral, the Diocesan House, the Cathedral school, and the Bishop's residence) have all been destroyed or badly damaged. A house of the Sisters of Saint Margaret has been destroyed. And it is certain that a number of other Episcopal churches there have also been destroyed or damaged, though numbers cannot be confirmed yet. For people as poor as the Haitians are, this is devastating to lose the work of previous generations of Christians in this way. Thankfully, the Bishop and his family survived, but the deceased among the clergy and laity are still being counted.
On Sunday, we will collect a special offering for the work of Episcopal Relief and Development in Haiti. I believe that this is the best way for any of us to donate to the human needs there now. The Episcopal Church there still has schools and churches in place which are being (and will be) used as primary locations to distribute much needed food, water and medicine.
In addition, you are encouraged to visit the following websites for more information:
Nathan Ferrell +
Hello brothers and sisters,
- http://www.er-d.org/ - the Episcopal Relief and Development website, where you can also donate by credit card directly
- www.episcopalchurch.org/haiti.php - continually updated news from the Episcopal Church in Haiti
And above all else, let us surround all of our thoughts and efforts in prayer. Pray for the people in Haiti and for the Diocese of Haiti, because in the end it is the Lord Jesus Christ who can take this horrendous situation and bring good out of it.
Saturday, January 9, 2010
In Bodily Form
Sermon for the Baptism of the Lord RCL 1/10/2010, Offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry
Texts: Isaiah 43:1-7; Psalm 29; Acts 8:14-17; Luke 3:15-17,21-22
Did you hear and pay attention to the Collect for this Feast Day? “Grant that all who are baptized into his Name may keep the covenant they have made.”
My dear friends: on this day, the Church remembers this amazing event when our Lord Jesus was baptized and when the mystery of the Holy Trinity was first revealed to us. And on this day, we remember the covenant that was made at our own baptism and renew our commitment to our own covenant loyalty. By faith, we trust and we know that God is always faithful to the covenant. God can never be unfaithful to the covenant with us, despite outward appearances at times. The challenge to the covenant comes from our forgetfulness, from our ability to become distracted and disillusioned.
Also, today we welcome into the covenant of the baptized the newest member in our midst: Alexander Thomas Ekimoglou. The mystery of baptism is that it changes us. It truly does. You might not feel different after your baptism, if you remember it at all. But our feelings have nothing to do it, honestly. Baptism is our means of adoption into a new family: a holy family of grace.
When the Lord’s table is all prepared and the sacred elements are blessed and the words of institution are all spoken – when it is time for us all to receive the communion of the Lord, we hear the invitation to come and to receive: “The Gifts of God for the People of God.”
In the original Greek, the invitation is so simple, Τὰ Ἅγια τοῖς ἁγίοις.
Literally meaning, The Holy Things for the Holy People.
And on the surface, these words are absolute craziness. Not the ones concerning the sacred elements, the Body and Blood. They have been made holy by the words of Christ, through the teachings of the saints, and through the prayers of the faithful. This much is clearly right and true.
But to say that we are the holy people of God seems like lunacy! Maybe you’re different, I don’t know. But I know how messed up I am. I am all too aware of my shortcomings, my failures, my weakness. I know that, on my own, I am not very good at faithfully keeping my baptismal covenant. But there is hope. Sometimes faithfulness looks different than what we typically expect to see.
Erin and I recently watched the 2008 movie by Clint Eastwood called Gran Torino. The entire plot revolves around the tortured soul of the old curmudgeon played by Eastwood named Walt Kowalski. I loved it, and I recommend it to anyone who hasn’t seen it. But be warned: only watch it if you can handle a continual barrage of foul language! It’s a story of redemption in the truest sense of that word.
Walt Kowalski is a Polish Catholic blue-collar worker who has spent his entire life working on the Ford production line in Detroit, except for the years he served with the Army during the Korean War. That experience of violence has scarred him and left him extremely pessimistic about human nature. Though he was certainly baptized and confirmed while young, Walt doesn’t have any time for the church. He finds it too divorced from the hard realities of actual life. He belittles the young priest by telling him that he is nothing but “an over-educated 27 year-old virgin who likes to hold the hands of superstitious old ladies and promise them everlasting life.” Walt has no patience for weakness of any kind. His is an ethic of survival: only the strong survive and street-smarts are the most important thing to learn. His wife has died and now he lives alone on his pension, drinking beer and smoking and working on his prized-possession, his 1972 Gran Torino.
Walt has no time even for his own children and grand-children, who he views as weak, selfish, spoiled Americans without any common sense. But Walt slowly grows close to his Asian neighbors, who are very different from him and yet who must work very hard to survive and who pick themselves up by their bootstraps, so to speak. When the teen-aged boy next door is beaten by the local violent gang, and when that boy’s sister is raped, Walt is pissed and he knows that he must take action. He goes to the gang’s house and entices the gang to shoot him out on the sidewalk, in the open, where the whole neighborhood can see. Walt is smarter than the gang. He sets a trap for them, one that causes the whole gang to be arrested and locked up. But the bait in the trap is his own life. Walt Kowalski offers his own life so that his teen-aged neighbors, the young man and woman, can have a chance to lead a normal life, a life with opportunity and peace.
At the end of the day, this is what our baptism is all about. In the end, it doesn’t matter if you know how to cross yourself or which prayers you have memorized or what kind of cross you wear around your neck or hang on your walls. Those things are all good and right, and if they are helpful for your soul, then by all means make use of them! But none of that matters if your heart has not been touched and transformed by the Holy Spirit so that you are willing and able to give yourself away on behalf of others! To offer your life on behalf of another.
The Lord has set the standard as clear as possible: “Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” And in the 1st Letter of John we read the same: “This is the proof of love, that Christ laid down his life for us, and we too ought to lay down our lives for one another…Our love must not be just words or mere talk, but something active and genuine.” (1 John 3:16&18).
I – the priest – I baptize you with water, but there is one present here who is more powerful than I, and he baptizes you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. And that means that your heart becomes strangely warmed within you, that your heart is filled with love for others – even for those who look and talk and act entirely different from you.
Look at these promises that we make at Holy Baptism. There is no room for weakness here. It’s takes incredible strength to do these things: to resist evil, to tell other people about the love of God in Christ, to serve Christ in everyone around you, to strive for justice in society. These are the works of the strong, those who know with confidence who they are and who have the energy to get busy about their Lord’s work.
Let’s get beyond this common misperception that is held even by many, even by many within the household of God: Jesus has no desire at all to make us into nice people. To be nice has no place in the kingdom of God. To be patient, to be kind – yes. But there is no place for the weakness that is suggested by “being nice”. “Being nice” suggests a very tame kind of politeness that is very careful to observe all of the social norms in a given situation.
But to love other people, to actually love them, requires great strength and it means that you often have to be quite impolite in speaking the truth. I do not mean unkind, for there is never any reason to be unkind. But love, by its very nature, is impolite. Love is not nice: it demands too much, it requires too much.
In the final analysis, Walt Kowalski was able to love his neighbors, even though he was not nice at all and he did not quite understand them. But over time, he opened his heart to them, and he was willing to sacrifice for them so that they could be free. THAT is love. And that is the kind of strength we receive from the Holy Spirit. So may it be among us who are those baptized into the holy body of Christ. Amen.
Texts: Isaiah 43:1-7; Psalm 29; Acts 8:14-17; Luke 3:15-17,21-22
Did you hear and pay attention to the Collect for this Feast Day? “Grant that all who are baptized into his Name may keep the covenant they have made.”
My dear friends: on this day, the Church remembers this amazing event when our Lord Jesus was baptized and when the mystery of the Holy Trinity was first revealed to us. And on this day, we remember the covenant that was made at our own baptism and renew our commitment to our own covenant loyalty. By faith, we trust and we know that God is always faithful to the covenant. God can never be unfaithful to the covenant with us, despite outward appearances at times. The challenge to the covenant comes from our forgetfulness, from our ability to become distracted and disillusioned.
Also, today we welcome into the covenant of the baptized the newest member in our midst: Alexander Thomas Ekimoglou. The mystery of baptism is that it changes us. It truly does. You might not feel different after your baptism, if you remember it at all. But our feelings have nothing to do it, honestly. Baptism is our means of adoption into a new family: a holy family of grace.
When the Lord’s table is all prepared and the sacred elements are blessed and the words of institution are all spoken – when it is time for us all to receive the communion of the Lord, we hear the invitation to come and to receive: “The Gifts of God for the People of God.”
In the original Greek, the invitation is so simple, Τὰ Ἅγια τοῖς ἁγίοις.
Literally meaning, The Holy Things for the Holy People.
And on the surface, these words are absolute craziness. Not the ones concerning the sacred elements, the Body and Blood. They have been made holy by the words of Christ, through the teachings of the saints, and through the prayers of the faithful. This much is clearly right and true.
But to say that we are the holy people of God seems like lunacy! Maybe you’re different, I don’t know. But I know how messed up I am. I am all too aware of my shortcomings, my failures, my weakness. I know that, on my own, I am not very good at faithfully keeping my baptismal covenant. But there is hope. Sometimes faithfulness looks different than what we typically expect to see.
Erin and I recently watched the 2008 movie by Clint Eastwood called Gran Torino. The entire plot revolves around the tortured soul of the old curmudgeon played by Eastwood named Walt Kowalski. I loved it, and I recommend it to anyone who hasn’t seen it. But be warned: only watch it if you can handle a continual barrage of foul language! It’s a story of redemption in the truest sense of that word.
Walt Kowalski is a Polish Catholic blue-collar worker who has spent his entire life working on the Ford production line in Detroit, except for the years he served with the Army during the Korean War. That experience of violence has scarred him and left him extremely pessimistic about human nature. Though he was certainly baptized and confirmed while young, Walt doesn’t have any time for the church. He finds it too divorced from the hard realities of actual life. He belittles the young priest by telling him that he is nothing but “an over-educated 27 year-old virgin who likes to hold the hands of superstitious old ladies and promise them everlasting life.” Walt has no patience for weakness of any kind. His is an ethic of survival: only the strong survive and street-smarts are the most important thing to learn. His wife has died and now he lives alone on his pension, drinking beer and smoking and working on his prized-possession, his 1972 Gran Torino.
Walt has no time even for his own children and grand-children, who he views as weak, selfish, spoiled Americans without any common sense. But Walt slowly grows close to his Asian neighbors, who are very different from him and yet who must work very hard to survive and who pick themselves up by their bootstraps, so to speak. When the teen-aged boy next door is beaten by the local violent gang, and when that boy’s sister is raped, Walt is pissed and he knows that he must take action. He goes to the gang’s house and entices the gang to shoot him out on the sidewalk, in the open, where the whole neighborhood can see. Walt is smarter than the gang. He sets a trap for them, one that causes the whole gang to be arrested and locked up. But the bait in the trap is his own life. Walt Kowalski offers his own life so that his teen-aged neighbors, the young man and woman, can have a chance to lead a normal life, a life with opportunity and peace.
At the end of the day, this is what our baptism is all about. In the end, it doesn’t matter if you know how to cross yourself or which prayers you have memorized or what kind of cross you wear around your neck or hang on your walls. Those things are all good and right, and if they are helpful for your soul, then by all means make use of them! But none of that matters if your heart has not been touched and transformed by the Holy Spirit so that you are willing and able to give yourself away on behalf of others! To offer your life on behalf of another.
The Lord has set the standard as clear as possible: “Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” And in the 1st Letter of John we read the same: “This is the proof of love, that Christ laid down his life for us, and we too ought to lay down our lives for one another…Our love must not be just words or mere talk, but something active and genuine.” (1 John 3:16&18).
I – the priest – I baptize you with water, but there is one present here who is more powerful than I, and he baptizes you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. And that means that your heart becomes strangely warmed within you, that your heart is filled with love for others – even for those who look and talk and act entirely different from you.
Look at these promises that we make at Holy Baptism. There is no room for weakness here. It’s takes incredible strength to do these things: to resist evil, to tell other people about the love of God in Christ, to serve Christ in everyone around you, to strive for justice in society. These are the works of the strong, those who know with confidence who they are and who have the energy to get busy about their Lord’s work.
Let’s get beyond this common misperception that is held even by many, even by many within the household of God: Jesus has no desire at all to make us into nice people. To be nice has no place in the kingdom of God. To be patient, to be kind – yes. But there is no place for the weakness that is suggested by “being nice”. “Being nice” suggests a very tame kind of politeness that is very careful to observe all of the social norms in a given situation.
But to love other people, to actually love them, requires great strength and it means that you often have to be quite impolite in speaking the truth. I do not mean unkind, for there is never any reason to be unkind. But love, by its very nature, is impolite. Love is not nice: it demands too much, it requires too much.
In the final analysis, Walt Kowalski was able to love his neighbors, even though he was not nice at all and he did not quite understand them. But over time, he opened his heart to them, and he was willing to sacrifice for them so that they could be free. THAT is love. And that is the kind of strength we receive from the Holy Spirit. So may it be among us who are those baptized into the holy body of Christ. Amen.
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Christmas week holiday photos
Our cabin in Wilmot, New Hampshire. It's truly a winter wonderland in a pocket of boreal forest. We go out into the snow, then come in to read by the fire, play family games and eat. Moonlight sledding was a big hit on this trip!
Even our old dog, Ita, loves the snow! She is 11 years old now, though she has difficulty walking through deep snow with her bad hips.
We do lots of snowshoeing, always on the search to see the many moose who inhabit the woods around but who always seem to elude us! We follow their tracks and see where they sleep and eat, but no sightings yet.
The Great Brook over the ridge behind our cabin, just a short hike away.At the top is the Great Brook Falls.
The family reluctantly follows me through the woods on my adventures! I could be out all day exploring every rock and tree.
Nordic skiing at the local Pine Hill Ski Club on New Year's Day 2010. The perfect day! 30 degrees, sunshine with flurries and some fresh powder. Even Fiona (7 years old) enjoyed the skiing!
The Grace of God Has Appeared: Christmas 2009
Sermon for Christmas Eve 2009, Offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry
Texts: Isaiah 9:2-7; Titus 2:11-14; Luke 2:1-20
The time has finally come, my friends! The waiting is over! Our celebration has finally begun.
This night, my friends, changes everything!
“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light!” I know how it feels to walk in darkness. I know that all of us often feel like we are in lost in deep darkness.
But look! On them the light has shined. Look! On US the light has shined! To US the grace of God has appeared. The great Creator of all things visible and invisible, hidden from our sight, shrouded in mystery, the great God to whom we owe our existence – this One is revealed to us now. But not is a show of power, or a display of strength. But rather in the surprise vulnerability of a baby.
And now, the grace of God has appeared. Now the hidden God is revealed. Now we see the true nature of God. And it’s not at all as we would imagine.
Because of Jesus, born of Mary, born in Bethlehem, because of this One, you can stand up with confidence tonight knowing that God loves you.
The stark, surprising truth is that there is nothing at all in the entire world that you could do that would make God love you any less! And there is nothing at all that you could ever do to make God love you any more!
Because of this bizarre night 2000 years ago, because of this crazy birth, we know that we are completely and utterly loved. Every wart and pimple and failure and mistake, and yes, even your successes too! Just as you are – you are welcomed and accepted. Because of this One, born this holy night.
When we came in tonight, we sang the famous Christmas carol: “Hark! The herald angels sing.” I find the final verse of that great carol to pique my interest the most.
Mild he lays his glory by… Well, to be honest I am not too sure about this one. There’s nothing mild about being born! I’ve been there a number of times, and even by observation and through vicarious participation only, it is clear that giving birth can never be described as “mild”. Nor can the cataclysmic event of God becoming human ever be characterized as “mild”. By this birth, the whole world as we human beings know it was thrown into chaos. Everything has been turned upside down by this baby! Wild, dangerous, revolutionary, perhaps, but mild – never!
However, the rest of this famous verse is right on target: Born that we no more may die Born to raise us from the earth, Born to give us second birth
Because of what happened on this night so long ago, our lives are changed now forever!
And I know that you’ve heard the story a thousand times probably, and maybe you’ve brushed it aside as cute and quaint and sweet, but not very important to your “real life”. Because it is oh so familiar and trite now.
But tonight, each of us has another chance, another opportunity. George Elliot is reported to have said that “It is never too late to be the person that you’ve wanted to be.”
Well then maybe tonight, maybe this Christmas is our chance to open the door of our heart, to allow God to change us. Because Jesus became what we are, we can become what he is.
That’s what the love of God does inside of us. It changes us forever. And that, my friends, is cause for celebration. So, let the party begin! Amen.
CHILDREN’S HOMILY
Merry Christmas to all of you!
What do you want to be when you grow up?
You know that Jesus is God, and Jesus came into the world, God was born as a real baby for one reason. Why? So that when we grow up, we can be like God!
Do you know how amazing this is? That we can become like God?
But what does that mean? What does it mean to be like God? ASK.
Yes, it means to love everyone equally – the same. It means to never say things out of anger, never respond out of fear. It means to always be generous with everyone, for God is the one who sends rain and snow to the righteous and the unrighteous. It means to never try to hurt other people, never try to hurt the earth.
To be like God means to treat all living things with respect. God lives this way, and because of Jesus, when I grow up, I can be that way too. And when you grow up, you can be that way too!
This is amazing! We need to give thanks!
It’s not easy! It’s hard to be born! And it’s hard to be changed like this!
But this is God’s plan for our lives, and Jesus makes this possible.
This is what Christmas is all about! It’s not about giving presents or eating dinners together or parties. It’s about what God wants to do in our lives, and Jesus makes that possible.
Blessed are you, my friends! Blessed are you that you have the privilege of celebrating this amazing birthday! Jesus, born a child and yet the King of all Kings, the Chief of all Chiefs, the Lord of all Lords.
So tonight let us sing happy birthday to the Lord Jesus!
Texts: Isaiah 9:2-7; Titus 2:11-14; Luke 2:1-20
The time has finally come, my friends! The waiting is over! Our celebration has finally begun.
This night, my friends, changes everything!
This, tonight, is the meeting place of heaven and earth.Isaiah proclaimed the promise so long ago in the court of the great King of Israel:
For this, tonight, is the stable in which God keeps his appointment to meet his people.
Not many high folk are here now, not many holy; not many innocent children, not many worldly wise; not all familiar faces, not all frequent visitors.
But, if tonight only strangers met, that would be enough.
For Bethlehem was not the hub of the universe,
Nor was the stable a platform for famous folk.
In an out-of-the-way place which people never thought to visit –
There God kept and keeps his promise; there God sends his Son.
(Adapted from Cloth for the Cradle by Wild Goose Worship Group, 1997, p.83).
“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light!” I know how it feels to walk in darkness. I know that all of us often feel like we are in lost in deep darkness.
But look! On them the light has shined. Look! On US the light has shined! To US the grace of God has appeared. The great Creator of all things visible and invisible, hidden from our sight, shrouded in mystery, the great God to whom we owe our existence – this One is revealed to us now. But not is a show of power, or a display of strength. But rather in the surprise vulnerability of a baby.
And now, the grace of God has appeared. Now the hidden God is revealed. Now we see the true nature of God. And it’s not at all as we would imagine.
Because of Jesus, born of Mary, born in Bethlehem, because of this One, you can stand up with confidence tonight knowing that God loves you.
The stark, surprising truth is that there is nothing at all in the entire world that you could do that would make God love you any less! And there is nothing at all that you could ever do to make God love you any more!
Because of this bizarre night 2000 years ago, because of this crazy birth, we know that we are completely and utterly loved. Every wart and pimple and failure and mistake, and yes, even your successes too! Just as you are – you are welcomed and accepted. Because of this One, born this holy night.
When we came in tonight, we sang the famous Christmas carol: “Hark! The herald angels sing.” I find the final verse of that great carol to pique my interest the most.
Mild he lays his glory by… Well, to be honest I am not too sure about this one. There’s nothing mild about being born! I’ve been there a number of times, and even by observation and through vicarious participation only, it is clear that giving birth can never be described as “mild”. Nor can the cataclysmic event of God becoming human ever be characterized as “mild”. By this birth, the whole world as we human beings know it was thrown into chaos. Everything has been turned upside down by this baby! Wild, dangerous, revolutionary, perhaps, but mild – never!
However, the rest of this famous verse is right on target: Born that we no more may die Born to raise us from the earth, Born to give us second birth
Because of what happened on this night so long ago, our lives are changed now forever!
And I know that you’ve heard the story a thousand times probably, and maybe you’ve brushed it aside as cute and quaint and sweet, but not very important to your “real life”. Because it is oh so familiar and trite now.
But tonight, each of us has another chance, another opportunity. George Elliot is reported to have said that “It is never too late to be the person that you’ve wanted to be.”
Well then maybe tonight, maybe this Christmas is our chance to open the door of our heart, to allow God to change us. Because Jesus became what we are, we can become what he is.
That’s what the love of God does inside of us. It changes us forever. And that, my friends, is cause for celebration. So, let the party begin! Amen.
CHILDREN’S HOMILY
Merry Christmas to all of you!
What do you want to be when you grow up?
You know that Jesus is God, and Jesus came into the world, God was born as a real baby for one reason. Why? So that when we grow up, we can be like God!
Do you know how amazing this is? That we can become like God?
But what does that mean? What does it mean to be like God? ASK.
Yes, it means to love everyone equally – the same. It means to never say things out of anger, never respond out of fear. It means to always be generous with everyone, for God is the one who sends rain and snow to the righteous and the unrighteous. It means to never try to hurt other people, never try to hurt the earth.
To be like God means to treat all living things with respect. God lives this way, and because of Jesus, when I grow up, I can be that way too. And when you grow up, you can be that way too!
This is amazing! We need to give thanks!
It’s not easy! It’s hard to be born! And it’s hard to be changed like this!
But this is God’s plan for our lives, and Jesus makes this possible.
This is what Christmas is all about! It’s not about giving presents or eating dinners together or parties. It’s about what God wants to do in our lives, and Jesus makes that possible.
Blessed are you, my friends! Blessed are you that you have the privilege of celebrating this amazing birthday! Jesus, born a child and yet the King of all Kings, the Chief of all Chiefs, the Lord of all Lords.
So tonight let us sing happy birthday to the Lord Jesus!
My Soul Magnifies the Lord
Sermon for 4 Advent RCL C 12/20/2009, offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry
Texts: Micah 5:2-5a; Canticle 15; Hebrews 10:5-10; Luke 1:39-55
Please indulge me, friends, as we begin, with just a few words about the mystery and magic of snow. I love snow. To be honest, I’m a bit addicted to it. For me, snow is a metaphor for the grace of God. Just like the Lord, snowstorms are quite unpredictable. When the snow falls, it changes everything. My plans get tossed out the window, and snow forces me to change how I go about my regular, daily activities. Snow causes me to slow down, to move more carefully and thoughtfully. Snow quiets the world. It pushes away the fast-paced rush of life. Snow causes neighbors to talk to each other, even when we usually just rush past each other on normal busy days. Just like the grace of God, everything looks different when touched by the snow. It brings beauty to everything it touches. This is how snow reminds me of the grace of God.
But that is just a minor aside. Because today, the Church calls us to remember the Mother of our Lord, the Blessed Virgin Mary. Today, we hear of her blessedness and we hear her song of praise. This song, ever sing its recording, has been beloved and been sung everywhere in the world where the Gospel has been heard.
Many of you will remember the old translation of the Magnificat and how it begins in this way: “My soul doth magnify the Lord.” Our newer version tries to make the text a bit more understandable by phrasing it this way: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord.” But the older version actually gets the original text correctly.
We can see the original wording right here in the Latin title of this most amazing poem: the Magnificat. The Magnifier. The original Greek verb here is megaluno, and it means literally to make something larger or greater. To make something appear great.
But this begs the question: how can we human beings ever speak of magnifying the Lord? What can God ever gain from our words? What can we give to God to fill any divine need whatsoever?
Nothing at all. God does what God wills. God is who God is. Our words, our thoughts, our praises and thanksgiving cannot give God anything that God does not already have. Of course, we can never add anything to God. But we can, in fact, magnify God, just as the blessed Virgin here suggests, as she speaks with prophetic voice.
Our family’s good friend, and neighbor, is a crystallographer at Bristol Meyer Squibb up in Princeton. She studies the crystalline structure of chemicals by magnifying the molecules thousands of times so that their helpful or beneficial qualities can be seen and identified.
To magnify these chemical compounds in this way does not change what they are; it simply allows people to see what has been there all along.
Likewise, when we magnify the Lord, we do nothing to change the Lord; we simply allow people to see more clearly what God has been all along.
I was thinking about the process of magnifying yesterday as I was shoveling snow – which is one of my favorite activities, don’t you know! Have you seen how mountaineers who are climbing on glaciers must wear special sunglasses to block out the sun? If they don’t, they are sure to suffer from snow blindness. The snow magnifies the power of the sun’s rays. It doesn’t change the rays of the sun, but it enhances their effect upon human eyes.
This is what it means when blessed Mary says, “My soul magnifies the Lord.” She had no power in herself to add to anything to what the Lord does, nor to take away from it.
These words are prophetic, spoken with inspiration from the Holy Spirit. The soul of Mary, (Mariam is the Greek) does indeed magnify the Lord by making it easier to see how the Lord works in the hearts of human beings. She does this by her faithfulness and obedience. “Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”
Mary, the faithful one, is the second Eve, the one who corrects by faithfulness what has previously gone astray due to unfaithfulness. St. Irenaeus, who lived and wrote in the second century, had this to say about our blessed Mother:
“Just as Eve, seduced by an angel’s message, turned away from God in betraying his word, so Mary, welcoming an angel’s message, bore God within her in obeying his word. Eve had been led to disobey God, but Mary consented to obey him, and so the Virgin Mary became the advocate of the virgin Eve” (Against the Heresies).
Mary is the Theotokos, the God-bearer. That is her proper title. She is the pinnacle of all created beings. This is why she is hailed as the Queen of Heaven. This is right and true, but many people get lost in these titles. We must never allow her exalted status now blind us to the role as our mentor, our teacher, our role model who gives us the perfect image of what it looks like when a human being opens her heart completely to the Lord.
God spoke to her. She trusted and believed and obeyed. And she became the spring out of which Living Water flowed to re-create the world. And thus she magnified the Lord, making him clearly known to all peoples.
My dear friends: it is the goal of the Christian life that, like Mary, we become a lens, a magnifying glass, if you will, through which people are able to see God better and more clearly; so that when people look at you, what they see is the goodness and love of God.
You may ask yourself, “Well, how is this possible? How can I ever really live that way?” That’s a good question, because the truth is that by yourself, you can never do it.
Only if you allow yourself to be transformed by the Holy Spirit can this thing happen. Only if, like Mary, you open yourself completely and say, let your will be done in me, only then can it happen.
This song of Mary, this Magnificat, is the evening song of the Church, and it has been sung at the setting of the sun each and every day for thousands of years now.
Give it a try, my friends. Let it be your song at the end of each working day, and let your life be a lens through which those around you can see the majesty and magnificence of the Lord. Amen.
Texts: Micah 5:2-5a; Canticle 15; Hebrews 10:5-10; Luke 1:39-55
Please indulge me, friends, as we begin, with just a few words about the mystery and magic of snow. I love snow. To be honest, I’m a bit addicted to it. For me, snow is a metaphor for the grace of God. Just like the Lord, snowstorms are quite unpredictable. When the snow falls, it changes everything. My plans get tossed out the window, and snow forces me to change how I go about my regular, daily activities. Snow causes me to slow down, to move more carefully and thoughtfully. Snow quiets the world. It pushes away the fast-paced rush of life. Snow causes neighbors to talk to each other, even when we usually just rush past each other on normal busy days. Just like the grace of God, everything looks different when touched by the snow. It brings beauty to everything it touches. This is how snow reminds me of the grace of God.
But that is just a minor aside. Because today, the Church calls us to remember the Mother of our Lord, the Blessed Virgin Mary. Today, we hear of her blessedness and we hear her song of praise. This song, ever sing its recording, has been beloved and been sung everywhere in the world where the Gospel has been heard.
Many of you will remember the old translation of the Magnificat and how it begins in this way: “My soul doth magnify the Lord.” Our newer version tries to make the text a bit more understandable by phrasing it this way: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord.” But the older version actually gets the original text correctly.
We can see the original wording right here in the Latin title of this most amazing poem: the Magnificat. The Magnifier. The original Greek verb here is megaluno, and it means literally to make something larger or greater. To make something appear great.
But this begs the question: how can we human beings ever speak of magnifying the Lord? What can God ever gain from our words? What can we give to God to fill any divine need whatsoever?
Nothing at all. God does what God wills. God is who God is. Our words, our thoughts, our praises and thanksgiving cannot give God anything that God does not already have. Of course, we can never add anything to God. But we can, in fact, magnify God, just as the blessed Virgin here suggests, as she speaks with prophetic voice.
Our family’s good friend, and neighbor, is a crystallographer at Bristol Meyer Squibb up in Princeton. She studies the crystalline structure of chemicals by magnifying the molecules thousands of times so that their helpful or beneficial qualities can be seen and identified.
To magnify these chemical compounds in this way does not change what they are; it simply allows people to see what has been there all along.
Likewise, when we magnify the Lord, we do nothing to change the Lord; we simply allow people to see more clearly what God has been all along.
I was thinking about the process of magnifying yesterday as I was shoveling snow – which is one of my favorite activities, don’t you know! Have you seen how mountaineers who are climbing on glaciers must wear special sunglasses to block out the sun? If they don’t, they are sure to suffer from snow blindness. The snow magnifies the power of the sun’s rays. It doesn’t change the rays of the sun, but it enhances their effect upon human eyes.
This is what it means when blessed Mary says, “My soul magnifies the Lord.” She had no power in herself to add to anything to what the Lord does, nor to take away from it.
These words are prophetic, spoken with inspiration from the Holy Spirit. The soul of Mary, (Mariam is the Greek) does indeed magnify the Lord by making it easier to see how the Lord works in the hearts of human beings. She does this by her faithfulness and obedience. “Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”
Mary, the faithful one, is the second Eve, the one who corrects by faithfulness what has previously gone astray due to unfaithfulness. St. Irenaeus, who lived and wrote in the second century, had this to say about our blessed Mother:
“Just as Eve, seduced by an angel’s message, turned away from God in betraying his word, so Mary, welcoming an angel’s message, bore God within her in obeying his word. Eve had been led to disobey God, but Mary consented to obey him, and so the Virgin Mary became the advocate of the virgin Eve” (Against the Heresies).
Mary is the Theotokos, the God-bearer. That is her proper title. She is the pinnacle of all created beings. This is why she is hailed as the Queen of Heaven. This is right and true, but many people get lost in these titles. We must never allow her exalted status now blind us to the role as our mentor, our teacher, our role model who gives us the perfect image of what it looks like when a human being opens her heart completely to the Lord.
God spoke to her. She trusted and believed and obeyed. And she became the spring out of which Living Water flowed to re-create the world. And thus she magnified the Lord, making him clearly known to all peoples.
My dear friends: it is the goal of the Christian life that, like Mary, we become a lens, a magnifying glass, if you will, through which people are able to see God better and more clearly; so that when people look at you, what they see is the goodness and love of God.
You may ask yourself, “Well, how is this possible? How can I ever really live that way?” That’s a good question, because the truth is that by yourself, you can never do it.
Only if you allow yourself to be transformed by the Holy Spirit can this thing happen. Only if, like Mary, you open yourself completely and say, let your will be done in me, only then can it happen.
This song of Mary, this Magnificat, is the evening song of the Church, and it has been sung at the setting of the sun each and every day for thousands of years now.
Give it a try, my friends. Let it be your song at the end of each working day, and let your life be a lens through which those around you can see the majesty and magnificence of the Lord. Amen.
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