His Entire Household: A Story

Sermon for Ascension Sunday C RCL 4/16/2010, Offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry

Texts: Acts 16:16-34; Psalm 97; Revelation 22:12-14,16-17,20-21; John 17:20-26

It is nice to see all of you here this morning. Thank you for coming out to listen to my story.

My name is Apollonius and I live in Philippi. I wish that I had time now to tell you the whole story of what has happened to my family, since we’ve never even met before. It really is quite an amazing story, after all. But, today, I only have time to tell you about what happened to our family when the holy apostles first came to our city.

We get a lot of visitors to Philippi. It’s an important city here in Macedonia! My father tells me about different people he sees all the time. He gets to see a lot of them, because he is the one in charge of the city jail. People around town just call him “the jailer”, but his real name is Sergius.

My father has been the chief jailer for 24 years now. After he met Paul and Silas, he thought a lot about quitting that job. I think he really just didn’t enjoy the work anymore. He changed a lot back then. My 3 sisters and I were really surprised. It was like we didn’t even know who he was anymore! Well, anyway, he didn’t quit. And he’s still the chief jailer in our city, but he’s so much different now. We have prisoners in our house all the time now! And my father learns all of their names, and he takes time to talk with them about their lives. I think it’s kind of strange some time how he does that. But, let me go back. I was telling the story of that first time, when we first became Christians.

When I left my tutor that afternoon, after finishing hours of rhetoric and mathematics, my mother asked me to go to the marketplace to buy some more cheese and oil for dinner. She was just beginning to trust me with errands like this, and I really loved to go into the busy markets after sitting for hours on end doing my studies. Well, when I was buying the oil, I heard the yelling over at the police headquarters. By the time I got over there, I think their punishment had started. I couldn’t quite see through the crowd, but I could hear the two men yell out in pain, and I could hear the rod hitting their backs. People were yelling nasty things at them, about them being dirty Jews and worse than dogs and such. When I think back on it now, it’s so embarrassing how our city treated such great men with that kind of violence and ignorant prejudice. But, thank God, we’ve changed a lot since then too.

Anyway, when I heard the magistrates give the order to put the men in prison, I realized that they were coming over to my house (we live over top of the prison, of course!) and so I turned and ran back as fast as I could so that I could warn my father about the big crowd. You know, I tried to help my father as much as I could with his work. (Back then, I thought I might take over his job one day when I became older.) The police brought people to our house all the time, but this was a little different, because these men were foreigners (they were Jews!) and there was such a loud and angry crowd around them.

Well, I did beat the crowd back to our house (I’ve always been a fast runner!) and I found my father in the kitchen. As soon as he came outside, the crowd was there, surrounding the police who were pulling Paul and Silas along. Those two could barely walk after that horrible beating! My father led the police down into the prison, but I didn’t follow. It is too loud and crowded, and honestly, the sight of all that blood surprised me a bit.

So I went back inside. And that was the last that I thought about this situation, because I realized that I was starving and I had seen the bread and the stew that our house-slave had prepared in the kitchen. The rest of that night was pretty normal. Father came up briefly to eat, then he went back down into the prison to keep watch. If the prison was crowded, that’s what he usually did. And it was crowded that night.

All the strange stuff started to happen after we all went to bed. I did hear the earthquake, but nothing fell down or broke upstairs where my sisters and I were sleeping, so I told them to go back to sleep and I did the same. But the voices downstairs in our house woke me up just a little bit later.

I heard my father calling for our house-slave, Chloris, to bring warm water and towels into the kitchen right away, and I thought: what in the world is going on? I quietly crept out of the room, careful not to disturb the girls, and I hurried downstairs. I couldn’t believe my eyes.

There was my father, helping my mother and Chloris to clean the wounds of the two Jews who the Police had brought to the prison that afternoon! Right there in our kitchen! And they had no chains on them, no ropes. They stood as free men, and my father was talking to them, asking them questions! And my mother was touching them, putting salve on their backs where they had been beaten.

I didn’t even know what to think. Had my father gone mad? Was this some kind of secret agreement that my father had made with these men when they came to the prison? Or did the magistrates order him to do this? No, that couldn’t be right, because I could tell that he wanted to do this. He was trying to help them. So what was going on?

The shorter of the 2 Jewish men saw me standing there on the stairs, still as a statue, and he looked right at me. He gave me this knowing look, sort of smiling, confident, hopeful, excited. That was Paul. And actually, that’s how he has always looked at me, I’m not sure exactly why. But anyway, my father followed his stare and saw me too. “Apollonius, good. Please, come here. You must meet these men.” And right away he turned to my mother and said, “My dear, go and wake the girls, right now. Bring them down. They must join us.”

As she moved past me up the stairs, I could see the confused look on my mother’s face as well. I know it probably seems so obvious now, but – you see – we had no idea what was going on. Never, ever had one of the prisoners ever entered into our home! My father would never allow it. He always warned the girls to stay away from the prison, to never go down there, to stay away from those men. I knew that there was some kind of earthquake during the night, but what did that have to do with my father’s mind, his odd behavior?

Finally, my father gathered us all around the table – all 3 sisters and me, with my mother – and he introduced the apostles to us: Paul and Silas. I will never forget what he said then. Tears came into his eyes. Tears! From my father, the chief jailer, who was afraid of no one! But there he was, with tears in his eyes, and he said: “Tonight, death nearly took me. It was the Lord Jesus who saved me.” Paul then explained to us who this Jesus is and what it means to live in and through him. When the house-slave brought food to the table, we all ate and listened to Paul and Silas as they spoke and sang hymns and as they showed us how the Lord broke bread and gave it to his friends as the way to remember him.

My younger 2 sisters were half-asleep in my mother’s lap, but the rest of us could see the change right there on my father’s face, how he embraced what these men were saying, and the tears and the joy in his eyes. We couldn’t help it. It was contagious! I could feel my own heart warmed by watching him, by seeing the genuine love with which he was treating these 2 men who were total strangers, foreigners as well!


That night was the start of something truly amazing in my family. Even my uncle, Lucretius, joined the church at Lydia’s house after we all prayed for him and the pain he had always had in right leg – it went away! I am really thankful that God brought Paul and Silas to our house that day. Now, I’m hoping that I can help the apostles with their work. What a privilege it would be to share this same joy and excitement and hope with other families. Hopefully, God willing, I can also be a faithful witness to the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Such Good Things

YOUTH SERMON for 6 Pascha C RCL 5/9/2010, offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry

Texts: Acts 16:9-15; Psalm 67; Revelation 21:10,22-22:5; John 14:23-29

Good morning kids! Do you know what happened on July 20, 1969? Here’s a clue: this event did not take place on the planet earth.

On July 20, 1969, the lunar module of the Apollo 11 mission landed on the surface of the moon and for the first time, a human being walked on the surface of the moon. Do you know his name – the name of the first to do this? Neil Armstrong. Did you also know that Neil Armstrong is a Christian?

And check this out – did you know that Neil Armstrong brought Holy Communion with him to the moon? Yes, as Armstrong got ready to leave the lunar module and to take his first step, “one giant leap for mankind”, he and Buzz Aldrin stopped to share Holy Communion together. The very first liquid ever poured by humans on the moon, and the first food ever eaten there was the wine and bread of Holy Communion, the Blessed Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.

There is something so incredibly powerful about this gift of Jesus that it touches people at the deepest spot. That's because this gift of Holy Communion is all about love.

We just heard Jesus say that “those who love me will keep my word.” That means that if we love Jesus, if we are thankful for what he has done for us, then we will follow his instructions.

I bet you know already how that works. If you really like your teacher, if your teacher is good to you and fair and kind, then you will probably do what the teachers asks of you.

But if your teacher is mean, maybe calls you names, or embarrasses you in front of the whole class, then you won’t love that teacher, and I imagine that you’ll not want to do what that teachers asks. But if you like your teacher, you follow her instructions. That’s one of the main ways that you show her that you like her, right? By following what she says.

This is how it is with Jesus. If we love Jesus, then one of the main ways that we show this is by following his instructions, right?

Well, at the Last Supper, on the last night with his friends, Jesus gave us two main instructions. Do you know what they are? We heard about one just last week.

“Love one another,” he told us.

AND, he told us to share communion together to remember him. He said, “Do this in remembrance of me.”

Today we have a few young people who are celebrating their First Holy Communion. They are making a promise that they will do this in remembrance of Jesus – that they will be faithful in receiving Holy Communion as a way of showing their love to Jesus. They will keep his word.

But today is also something else, right? (Something that many men fear and dread!) Yes, today is Mother’s Day. So today, we celebrate Communion as the way that Jesus feeds us spiritually as his family, AND we celebrate that person in our family who most often feeds us physically!

650 years ago, there was a great woman in England who loved Jesus greatly and who wrote about him in amazing ways. We call her Dame Julian of Norwich, and she wrote this:

“A mother can give her child to [drink from] her milk, but our precious Mother Jesus can feed us with himself, and [he] does, most courteously and most tenderly, with the Blessed Sacrament, which is the precious food of true life.” A mother can feed her child right from her own body and give her infant child everything needed to grow and to be healthy. And so it is with Jesus. He feeds us with his own body so that we can grow and be healthy.

She also wrote this: “This fair lovely word ‘mother’ is so sweet and so kind in itself that it cannot truly be said of anyone or to anyone except of [Jesus] and to [Jesus], who is the true Mother of life and of all things. To the property of motherhood belong nature, love, wisdom and knowledge, and this is God.”

(60th Chapter, Long Text, Revelations).

Do you know that your mothers love you and would do anything to protect you, to make sure that you are healthy, to help you to grow up to be smart and strong?

This is how it is with the Lord Jesus also. Jesus loves you even more than your mothers ever could! And what has he given to us to make sure that we grow up healthy and smart and strong? He has given us the Holy Communion, the Blessed Sacrament.

It looks like simple bread and wine, and it may not taste very good to you. But that doesn’t matter. Because this bread and wine is the food of new and unending life, the nourishment of our true heavenly Mother. This food is what our souls need to live.

Thanks be to God for this great gift! Amen.

A Blessing for our First Holy Communion Candidates

Let us ask for God’s blessing upon these young people.

May God the Father, who made you and gives you this special day to celebrate his love, smile upon you and shelter you in the shadow of his wings. AMEN.

May Jesus, who invites you to share his life in the bread and wine of Holy Communion, grace you with his lasting presence. AMEN.

May the Holy Spirit, who teaches you everything you need to know to truly live, fill your hearts with abiding joy. AMEN.

And  for all of us gathered here today: may the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, be among us all of us and remain with us forever. AMEN.

Touch NJ volunteer trip

On Tuesday, May 4, I took our a group to the ministry of Touch New Jersey in Camden to assist with their Tuesday night feeding program. Joining me were Jim Spooner, Tonya Sanderson and Damion Sanderson (below). They are preparing for Confirmation and Re-affirmation on May 23 with the Bishop of New Jersey.

Before dinner, we had some time to help by cleaning part of their building. Then we attended the worship time before the dinner. Below is Sammy Phillips helping to re-write the Touch NJ cards before dinner.

What GOD has made clean

Sermon for 5 Pascha C RCL 5/2/2010, Offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry

Texts: Acts 11:1-18; Psalm 148; Revelation 21:1-6; John 13:31-35


All of you who have heard me preach before know that I stay far away from controversial issues of the political realm. There are a number of reasons for that. First of all, I frankly do not think it is the job of the church to get involved in politics. We have our hands full simply with the task of transforming ourselves and our families and our own local communities.

A wise saint was gave this advice: “Do not be angry when you cannot make others do what you want them to do. Because you cannot even make yourself do what you want to do!” So it is in the church. There is no point in legislating how others need to behave when we can barely even manage ourselves to live in accordance with the teachings of Christ.

Secondly, I do not think it is fair to subject all of you to my personal opinions and perspectives. Each one of us has our own opinions on certain matters, and talk on these matters tends only to be divisive. Therefore, it seems more appropriate to stick to the central matters of faith which the entire church holds in common, and around which we can be united in Christ.

Lastly, I am one of those odd types of people who are blessed (well, blessed or cursed, I’m not so sure!) to be able to see both sides of an issue with some degree of clarity. On most controversial matters of national debate which cause such heated rhetoric in the media, I honestly have a difficult time coming down on one side or the other. Both sides have some merit. That’s why there is a debate, after all! I personally find it to be the height of arrogance to assume that one’s side is of course in the right, while one’s opponents are obviously in the wrong (or in the left, depending on where you stand!).

However . . . . with all that being said, TODAY I feel compelled to wade into the troubled waters that surround the Church now like an angry sea in a tempest. As we all know, the troubles have arisen from our various ways of understanding human sexuality and its meaning and place within the kingdom of God.

The story of Peter, as we read it today in the Acts of the Apostles, seems to be such a clear parallel to our current predicament that the Holy Spirit would not allow me to leave this alone.

What Peter experienced, and what he participated in, there in Caesarea was mind-blowing, earth-shattering, revolutionary in every sense. We must recall that all of the first disciples were faithful Jews, loyal to their people and to their covenant with God. In their worldview, the covenant of God was with the descendants of Jacob only, and their new church was a means of reviving and restoring the Jewish people in their unique relationship with God.

But now, everything had changed. And it was God’s fault! Peter reported: “The Spirit told me to go with them and not to make a distinction between them and us.”

How could God, the Holy Spirit, tell Peter to do this? It was blasphemy!

Just imagine the struggles of these circumcised disciples who criticized Peter. For 1600 years, male circumcision had been a defining mark of the people’s unique covenant with God. Now, the actions of Peter seemed to suggest that this circumcision was all for nothing, that it was an unnecessary and useless action. If God was to send the Holy Spirit onto the uncircumcised as well as the circumcised, then what is the point of this distinguishing mark?

It is the same in these matters of orientation. For those of us who are straight, if we are honest with one another, it can be quite difficult to consider different orientations and the implications of these differences. I am convinced that a vast majority of the general conservatism in the Anglican world in this matter is a direct result of the difficulty of overcoming this inherent aversion. The majority of the resistance is not theological; it is gut-level response that has nothing at all to do with scripture. Surely, the bishops and priests who criticize the Episcopal Church today can articulate their stance in biblical and theological terms, but very few of the people in their pews can do so. They oppose the new developments in the Episcopal Church because they “know” they are wrong. They feel it in the inside. These changes are so foreign to their experience.

And now they hear the Episcopal Church saying: “What God has made clean, you must not call profane” (Acts 11:9). Or more appropriately: Those whom God has made clean in the waters of baptism, those who are fed faithfully at the Lord’s Table, those who truly love the Lord Jesus and seek to follow him, you have no right to exclude them from the full life of the Church. “What God has made clean, you have no right to call profane” (Acts 11:9).

The incredible vision that is given to us in the Book of Revelation points us clearly to the fact that God is calling us, pulling us forward, into a new future. The Church exists today as a vanguard, a forward operating post, of this new heaven and new earth that God is bringing into being. What we do in the Church is pull a bit of that glorious future into the present darkness of this world.

In this way, the Church is a bit like football practice, if you will allow the coarse analogy. The real game is coming up, and we’ve already been given the gameplan by our coach. Now we need to get everyone together to practice together on a regular basis, so that we will all learn how to work together in unison, to fulfill the coach’s vision, to be ready for action. And in that real game to come, in that new heavens and new earth, I feel pretty certain that none of these things that we are fighting about now are going to matter at all. There’s not even in the coach’s gameplan! Can any of us even imagine if sexual orientation will be part of this new heavens and new earth?

I make no claim at all to understand these matters fully, to comprehend these matters of sexual orientation among human beings and how they formed and develop within us. But I am convinced of this, just as Peter was convinced there in Caesarea: “If then God gave them the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder God?”

And I am convinced that we in The Episcopal Church stand on the right side of history, that are following the coach’s gameplan. That when all is said and done, the judgment of Jesus Christ will prevail, for he is the one who said, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.”

He did not say, “I give you a new commandment, that you maintain purity to the Law of Moses within the church.” He did not say that “everyone will know that you are my disciples if you maintain the ethical standards of ancient Roman society.”

What did he say? What is his standard? What is his gameplan? “Love one another.”

There is an old story about St. John the Evangelist, that as an old man in Ephesus he would preside whenever the church gathered for the Eucharist. And every week, it is said that John stood before the people to preach and, week after week, he stood, paused, looked over the gathered community and said, “My brothers, let us love one another.” Over time, the people became confused and they asked him why he never moved on to another topic in his preaching, perhaps on to something more interesting or inspiring. And the holy apostle replied and said, “Because, my friends, as soon as you master this lesson, then we will all be ready to move on to another one.”

I’m afraid that we Christians still have not mastered this most basic lesson of St. John. Perhaps we never will. But I’m not a quitter. What about you? What do you say? I say let’s keep practicing together, focused upon learning from the Lord Jesus Christ, not how to judge one another, not how to create walls of separation, but how to love one another in the way that leads to everlasting life. Now that’s a good gameplan. Amen.

The Bishop of New Hampshire to the Bishop of Rome

Bishop V. Gene Robinson just wrote an excellent letter to the Bishop of Rome, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI. It is worth a few minutes to read it. Here is the text of the letter below:

Your Holiness,


Though our churches differ in many ways, we believe in the same God. As your brother in Christ, it pains me to see Catholics struggle with your response to recent allegations of sex abuse by priests. Since my denomination has also battled these demons, I want to share with you what I have learned as a bishop of the Episcopal Church.

About 20 years ago, our church became aware of sex abuse by our clergy here in the United States. To our shame, we learned of it in lawsuits filed by victims alleging that some of our bishops had minimized the seriousness of the abuse and/or swept their claims under the rug. Some cases were related to the abuse of children; others involved male clergy who took advantage of their pastoral relationship with vulnerable women to manipulate them into sexual relationships. These men violated the sacred trust placed in clergy to focus on parishioners' needs and to separate those needs from their own. To prevent further such abuses of power, we moved quickly for the good of the victims and of our church.


Whether or not civil courts recognize a statute of limitations, the church must hold its clergy members accountable to their vows to be faithful shepherds of their people. In 1994, the Episcopal Church opened a two-year window of opportunity to hear complaints about priestly abuse of the pastoral relationship with adults. Just because an event occurred many years ago did not make it any less egregious, especially since perpetrators rarely have only one victim. We addressed all complaints through our canonical disciplinary process.

As for instances involving children, we have no statute of limitations on reporting abuse. Those suspected of committing child abuse are immediately reported to the civil authorities for investigation.

Rather than refusing to acknowledge our transgressions, we sought to change our church's culture -- an effort that took no small amount of courage. In my diocese in New Hampshire, and across the Episcopal Church, we perform a thorough background check on every bishop, priest or deacon who serves under my authority. We correspond with every employer the clergyperson has ever had and every bishop under whom the clergyperson has ever served to determine whether there is a history of complaints.

While procedures vary from diocese to diocese, we here in New Hampshire require six hours of abuse-prevention training for clergy, all other employees of the church (organists, parish administrators, maintenance workers), youth workers and elected parish leaders. A refresher course is required every five years. Events with and for children may never be conducted without two adults present and always in view of each other. This protects children from abusive behavior and protects adults who might be falsely charged. Many of our parishes have installed windows in the clergy office doors, so that no activity -- even private counseling -- may go unobserved.


We want many pairs of eyes watching for signs of abuse. We want everyone to know how to report suspected abuse of children and abuse of the pastoral relationship between clergy members and parishioners. We want to keep the issue before our church -- clergy and laity alike -- and to keep the conversation going.

But the thing victims most want to hear from the church, especially its leadership, is: "I am so sorry. This should never have happened to you, especially here. We are going to do everything in our power to see that nothing like this happens again." Victims live with their horrific experiences and know that their abuse can never be undone. And so they seek assurance that the church will change the system that allows abuse to go undetected and take action to hold perpetrators accountable. Child abusers do not deserve protection; they must be reported immediately to civil authorities and prosecuted.

The Christian church -- like any institution -- is as capable of sin as any individual. We have been wrong before, from the Inquisition and the Crusades down to our defense of slavery (using scripture) and our denigration of women. Over time, the church has repented for these sins and sought to change its ways. The discovery of sexual abuse by clergy is another situation that calls for the church's repentance and reform.

I would not presume to instruct you. That would be arrogant. Nor would I impose upon you advice you've not sought. But I do offer you the benefit of my experience as you seek to deal responsibly with these challenges to the integrity of your church. Your letter to the faithful in Ireland and your meeting in Malta with victims were a good start. I hope the future will bring more truth-telling, which will make your church a better, safer place.

However, I believe it is misguided and wrong for gay men to be scapegoated in this scandal. As a gay man, I know the pain and the verbal and physical violence that can come from the thoroughly debunked myth connecting homosexuality and the abuse of children. In the media, representatives of and advocates for the Roman Catholic Church have laid blame for sexual abuse at the feet of gay priests. These people know, or should know, that every reputable scientific study shows that homosexuals are no more or less likely to be child abusers than heterosexuals. Psychologically healthy homosexual men are no more drawn to little boys than psychologically healthy heterosexual men are drawn to little girls.

Sexual activity with children or teenagers is child abuse, pure and simple. Meaningful consent is impossible, by definition, for the underaged. You will not rid your church of sexual abuse by throwing homosexuals out of your seminaries or out of the priesthood. Homosexual priests have faithfully and responsibly served God throughout Catholic history. To scapegoat them and deprive them of their pulpits is a tragedy for the people they serve and for the church. Yours is a problem of abuse, not sexual orientation.


I will pray for your church and for you, as I hope you will pray for my church and for me. In Luke 12:2-3, Jesus tells us: "Nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. Therefore whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered behind closed doors will be proclaimed from the rooftops."


And may God have mercy on our souls.

Your brother in Christ,

Gene Robinson

V. Gene Robinson was elected bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire in 2003 as the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church. He is also a part-time senior fellow at the Center for American Progress.