What are you doing here?

Sermon for Proper 7 C RCL 6/20/2010, Offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry

Texts: 1 Kings 19:1-15a; Psalm 42&43; Galatians 3:23-29; Luke 8:26-39

Do any of you know the story of St. Alban?

I’m not all that surprised if most of you don’t know it. But it’s a good one. It’s a story that is good for all of us to know.

Alban is the first recorded Christian martyr in England. Traditionally, people have placed his death in the year 304 AD, during the persecution under the Roman Emperor Diocletian; but many scholars now date it as around 209, during the persecution under the Emperor Septimius Severus.

Alban was a pagan citizen in the Roman colony of Britannia. He served as a soldier in the Roman Army. At that time, the Church was beginning to spread and to be a major force in the entire Roman Empire, though there continued to be sporadic efforts to suppress this growing movement.

During one such effort, Alban randomly was moved to give shelter to a Christian priest who was fleeing from arrest. As he observed this stranger’s way of life and his devotion, Alban became touched, and he gave himself to learn from this man what it was that had so captured his love and commitment. Over the days that followed, they talked at length, and Alban made the decision to become a Christian.

Finally, word reached the local authorities that the wanted priest was in Alban’s house, and when Alban saw tem approaching, he rashly decided to throw the priest's cloak over his own head and to give himself up in order to protect the life of his new mentor. This priestly cloak had some sort of hood which hid Alban’s face, but when he was brought before the local magistrates, the hood was removed. Since he was a local man who served in the army, it was instantly realized that this was Alban, and not the fugitive clergyman.

The magistrates challenged Alban to offer sacrifice immediately to the pagan Roman gods and to the Emperor, but he refused. Instead, he declared that he was, in fact, a Christian. And so on the 22nd day of June, the first day of summer, Alban was whipped and then beheaded. Thus he became the first Christian martyr of the British Isles.

By God’s grace, when you wake up on Tuesday morning, June 22, remember St. Alban. Remember the power of a life that is given away in sacrificial love, instead of hoarded and guarded out of fear.

On Friday night, I preached at the Gloucester City Junior-Senior High School Baccalaureate Service, and I spoke to all of those young people about the reality of fear, and how fear so easily holds us back from accomplishing what God has called us to do. Fear of failure. Fear of conflict. Fear of loss. Even the fear of death.

But if you look throughout the entire Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, there is one clear instruction for life, one simple commandment that God gives hundreds of times.

Do you know what it is? One simple instruction given far more than any other, though in many different contexts but always with the same implication. It is simple and clear: Do not be afraid!

Do not be afraid! In Alban’s situation, he had many reasons to be afraid. And yet, somehow, his newfound love for Christ set him free from his fear, and he found himself empowered to act in a way which probably surprised even himself. He gave himself away out of love in order to protect another, and he preferred death to betrayal.

The prophet Elijah was bold and strong. But he was afraid when all of the royal power was directed toward his individual death. He even asked that he might die. As an aside, I don’t think this implies any suicidal attempt on his part, but rather a complete abandonment of his hope for life. “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors” (1 Kings 19:4).

He had reason to be afraid, and yet, when he sought God on the holy mountain, at Sinai, he was given new strength to complete the task that God had given him. In the sound of sheer silence, a soft sound, God drew near to Elijah and spoke: “What are you doing here, Elijah?” And after Elijah’s explanation, God responded to him and said: “Go.”

When Jesus had thrown that demon out of the crazy man of the Gerasenes, the people were afraid. You might think that they would recognize this as a great and wonderful action. But it seems that they found this intervention into their community to be threatening. Jesus was frightening to them. He was changing people, making them unrecognizable. He was acting beyond their control. And they were not able to accept his actions. And so Jesus left them and continued on his way.

Fear and love. Two of the most powerful forces in our lives, and yet forces which lead us in drastically different directions. There is a huge difference between actions which are motivated by fear, and those that are motivated by love. A world of difference between these! Think back on your own experiences and you will see that this is true.

Perhaps, on this Father’s Day, if you reflect upon your experiences with your father, perhaps you can see the qualitative difference between those times when fear and love provided the motivating and driving force in your actions.

But today we find ourselves gathered together here in worship. And therefore, to use the same question which God put to Elijah when he sought to draw near to God, now I ask you: what are you doing here? Or more specifically, what is the motivation that is driving you today?

Is it fear, or is it love? Are you acting out of fear of failure, fear of loss, fear of death? Or have you opened your heart to this powerful Lord Jesus who changes things, who acts in ways that are often unpredictable, and yet who always seeks to restore us to our “right minds”?

Paul wrote that “As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourself with Christ” (Galatians 3:27). If we the baptized have put on Christ, if we have clothed ourselves for all eternity with Christ, then we have been immersed in that perfect love which casts out fear.

Embrace it, my friends. Like St. Alban so long ago, allow Christ to set you free to live this life without fear. Allow Christ to empower you to be bold and courageous, firmly set upon the sure foundation of his lovingkindness. Amen.


A Prayer for Fathers:
O Lord, our Heavenly Father:
You, who adopt orphan children and care for the widows;
You stand at the door staring at the horizon,
desiring that your prodigal children come home.
Bless our fathers, wherever they may be this day, with strength and grace
So that orphans may have role models,
that widows may be provided what they need,
that those future fathers in our midst may see Christ reflected in the love
shared in piggy-back rides, wiffle-ball games and also the hard-learned lessons of life.
Through Christ we pray to the Father of all. Amen.

Baccalaureate: The Spirit of Power

Sermon for the Gloucester City Junior-Senior High School Baccalaureate, 6/11/2010
Texts: 2Timothy 1:1-10

Congratulations to all of you on reaching this milestone in your lives, on achieving graduation out of our American system of mandatory public education!

Right now, you are standing at the threshold of a great transition in your life, one of the most important transitions in your life. Many changes are coming for you which will affect the entire course of your life. Many of these changes will be beyond your ability to control. And whenever any person stands at a crossroads such as this, then one must make a series of decisions about how to proceed forward into an unknown future.

But before we go any further, I have a question for you, and I want you to think about this for a minute: What is the most often repeated instruction given by God to the people in the Bible? Throughout the whole course of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, what do you think is the most common commandment that God gives to us human beings? One instruction that is repeated hundreds of times, in different contexts and in different ways, but always with the same implication.

Do you know what it is? The simple and clear commandment is this: Do not be afraid!

Do not be afraid! More often than anything else, when we read the Bible, we find God telling people over and over again not to be afraid!

Think about this. There is an important message here for us in this truth, because fear is one of the most debilitating forces in any human life.

At any moment when human beings are forced to change, and uncertain outcomes lie in waiting in the future, the most common human response is fear. Remember that you now stand at such a moment, and who knows but that events in your life might begin to move in directions that you never expected nor desired. It is quite likely that fear will begin to raise its ugly head.

And so let me call you again to pay heed to these words of holy scripture which we just heard read in our midst. St. Paul writes here to his disciple, his student, Timothy, whom he has appointed and set in place as the spiritual leader of the Christians in Ephesus. In a sense, Timothy has graduated out of Paul’s training, and now he has been sent forth to undertake a very important task. And Paul reminds him of this truth.

“God did not give us a spirit of timidity [or cowardice], but the Spirit of power and love and self-discipline” (2 Timothy 1:7).

You are graduating; you are being sent forth to undertake your important task in the world, and believe me, God is speaking these same words to you. Because God has called you, and me, all of us, to live each day in this Spirit of power, this Spirit of love, this Spirit of self-discipline, and NOT to be chained and shackled by the thorns of fear and anxiety which can so easily strangle the freedom of the human heart.

Here is another question: what do you think is the one fear which most commonly afflicts human beings? Do you know it? It is the fear of death.

I see it all the time. So many people are afraid to die. Well, tonight, I’m going to let you in on a little secret: you, my friends, are going to die one day.

Now, I know that might seem like a morbid thought at such a time of celebration, but I am convinced that it’s vitally important, and here’s why.

All of the saints, the wise men and women who have learned from Jesus how to live a full and abundant life, all of them teach that we cannot be free to fully live until we are at peace with our death. Once you are able to become free from this fear, then you can fully live. Then you can fully accomplish that purpose which God has placed before you.

To live with wisdom, then, is to neither seek after death foolishly, nor to be afraid of it.

But why is this important? What difference does this make for you right now? Because, my friends, you are beginning now to pursue your life task. You are beginning your journey of offering your unique gifts and talents to the world.

As you do this, please remember: any life task that you will pursue as you move forward from here is worthy of honor if it demands some self-sacrifice. It must require something deep and real from inside you. It must draw out from you the potential that lies deep within. Your task will be honorable and real if it costs you. And that can be a scary prospect.

Of course, I have been called to the task of serving as a Christian pastor, and it is my firm conviction that this task, this ministry of guiding others into a full and abundant life as a disciple of Jesus Christ – I believe that this is the life task that is the most honorable and admirable. And so I do hope and pray that some of you will seriously consider giving your life to this task, making a commitment to a career as a pastor in the church.

But whatever life task it is to which you are called, make sure that it is one which is worthy of honor, and that you fulfill your task with honor and intregity.

It seems like every week we hear reports of leaders – in politics, in the church, in sports, in the military, in the business world – who fail to walk with integrity. They fail in keeping the commitments that they have made. Most often, if you dig deep enough, you will see that fail because they are afraid. But you, my friends, you can do better. You can be better.

Your life will be measured by the commitments that you are able to make, and able to keep. As we all know: talk is cheap. Truth and integrity in action are what truly matters.

Listen again to these words from St. Paul: “That is why I am reminding you to fan into a flame the gift of God that you possess through the laying on of my hands” (2 Tim. 1:6).

God has given each of you a special gift, and right now you have the opportunity to fan that small spark of a gift into a blazing fire. It is your unique calling, your distinct identity, your individual gift to the world, given by God “according to God’s own purpose and by God’s own grace” (2 Tim. 1:9).

It’s not going to be easy for you; at least I hope not. It takes strength to know who you are, and to never allow the forces of fear to blow you off course, to push you away from your calling. It takes determination when obstacles and roadblocks are put before you. But have no fear. Those are given to test your resolve, to make you stronger and more dedicated than before.

I will not stand before you here and repeat the old mantra that “you can be whoever you want to be and do whatever you want to do.” Perhaps, and perhaps not. If only life were that simple. But what I will stand here to say, and say loudly, is that you can be yourself! You can be who God has made you to be. And THAT is enough, my friends. If you can do that with integrity, walking a path of honor and respect, than I am confident that you will lead a life worthy of the Lord who calls you.

After all, we only get one shot at this life, one go-around on this crazy ride of life. Make it count. Be who God has made you to be. Do not allow fear of failure, fear of the unknown, or even the fear of death, keep you from accomplishing the task that God has set before you. Live without fear, my friends, walk in the strength and power of the Lord. Amen.

Let us pray:

O God, our heavenly Father, you see your children here who have grown up in this unsteady and confusing world: Show them, Lord, that your ways give more life than the ways of this world, and that following you is far better than chasing after selfish goals. Set them free from the shackles of fear, and help them to accept their failures, not as a measure of their worth, but as opportunities for a new start. Give them strength always to maintain their trust in you, and to keep alive their joy in your creation; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Blessing of a Civil Union: Agape Love in Action

For any of you doubters out there, let me assure you that presiding at the Blessing of a Civil Union is some of the best evangelism work I have been part of in a long time. So many folks in the LGBT community have been taught, and have seen in action, horrible distortions of what the gospel of Jesus Christ truly is. What a privilege to have the opportunity to present a (hopefully) clearer image of our Lord Jesus. May he take these efforts and bless them for the sake of the Kingdom.

A Homily for the Blessing of the Civil Union of Joe Ryan and Dennis Gerst 6/13/2010, offered by Nathan Ferrell at Church of the Holy Spirit in Bellmawr, NJ

Texts: Colossians 3:12-17; Psalm 67; Matthew 7:21, 24-29

It is a privilege and an honor to stand here today as a witness to this relationship between Dennis and Joe, which has in reality already stood the test of time.

Our task here today is not to create something new, but rather to give our witness to what God has already done in the lives of these two, to give them our blessing, and to ask for God’s continued blessing upon them.

But I am certain that most of the heavy lifting, the hard work of creating relationships that last, has already been done by Joe and Dennis. For no relationship can last if the partners are not willing or able to do the things that we have just heard spoken about in these scriptures: to be patient with one another, to forgive one another, to have compassion on one another, to encourage the growth and well-being of one another.

After all, this is what Jesus teaches us in his parable of the house that is built on the solid rock. That kind of house is a relationship where compassion and kindness and humility and patience are put into practice by intention and commitment.

We here in the Church have always proclaimed that the truth which we just sang about, that God is love. After all, the sole reason for our existence as a community is our conviction that, in the person of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, God has intervened in history out of compassionate love for the world.

But making that affirmation open us up to a lot of criticism, because many people seem to think that we imagine this loving God to be some sort of cream puff in the sky, the great big Sugar Daddy who gives us whatever we want and will never say ‘no’ to us.

But, in fact, we do mean something very specific when we in the Church use that word “love”. We are definitely NOT intending the same meaning as the singers of pop music. Because of my young girls, I am forced to listen way too much to pop song, and recently it has been the song by Ke$ha, “Your love, your love, your love is my drug.”

In truth, we understand that there is no real love with accountability. This love of God we call agape from the ancient Greek, and this agape love is one that is passionately committed to the growth and well-being of the other. When we frail humans are inclined to self-destruct, God intervenes with compassionate love, not giving us what we want, but providing what we need to grow and become who we are created in essence to be.

This agape love is at the center of every committed, accountable Christian union of two souls. At its best, this kind of Christ-centered relationship provides the ideal environment in which we can grow and develop to our fullest potential. This is living on the foundation of solid rock, rooted and grounded in a love that is strong enough to weather the storms that life inevitably brings our way, and to continue on with compassion and patience.

So, thank you, you two, for already giving us an example of what this kind of commitment looks like in practice. And may God give you both grace to carry on in this way for many more years to come. Amen.

Gave Himself for Me

Sermon for Proper 6 C RCL 6/13/2010, Offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry

Texts: 1 Kings 21:1-10, 15-21a; Psalm 5:1-8; Galatians 2:15-21; Luke 7:36-8:3

I must confess to you that I truly love the stories of the prophet Elijah, that feisty and fiery man of God who was fearless and brave and filled with the Spirit of God. Throughout the summer, we will be hearing the stories of his life and of the life of his successor, the prophet Elisha. If you have not read these stories in a long time, or perhaps ever before, let me strongly encourage you to pick up your Bible at some quiet point over the course of this summer, and read through the 2 Books of Kings, 1st and 2nd Kings. These books might not be quite as saucy as the mystery thriller or bodice-ripper novel that you are eyeing up for the beach, but these ancient stories and rich and deep and offer much in the way of intrigue and insight.

Without question, Elijah is one of the most important figures in the whole of the Bible. Today, we see him in his characteristic role of speaking truth to power, serving as the conscience of the powerful, to remind them that they have a duty to protect the innocent and to serve justice within the community.

More specifically, Elijah was called and commissioned by God to controvert the wickedness of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel. In a very real way, his calling was direct and personal. God knew the thoughts and desires of Ahab, and knew the scheming greed of Jezebel, and sent Elijah to protect the innocent who stood in their path.

After all, God is the one “to [whom] all hearts are open, all desires know, and from [whom] no secrets are hid” (BCP P. 355).

In the Gospel of Luke, we are today presented with a woman very different from Queen Jezebel: the anonymous sinner, a woman of the city, who wept at Jesus’ feet, seemingly for no other reason but for the great love and compassion that she felt when he was near.

Both of these stories point to the direct and personal nature of God’s interactions with us. It is not enough to consider the gracious salvation that God offers to humanity in the abstract, and to give thanks for God’s actions with a detached sense of gratitude. With God, there is no abstract.

Jesus spoke up and said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” It is the same with us today: Jesus has something to say to me, to you, something direct and personal to the state of our hearts today. We must open ourselves and allow the word of the Lord to our hearts directly and with immediate effect.

Like the woman of the city, we have to come to Jesus himself. This Christian life that we are leading: it is always direct and personal. It is never indirect and theoretical.

We are called to come to Jesus, the living Christ who loves you and gave himself for you. This is the same message that we hear in St. Paul’s letter to the Galatians. Commenting on this letter of the apostle, the great St. John Chrysostom, the Bishop of Constantinople in the 4th century, spoke these words in one of his homilies:

"What are you doing, Paul, making common things your own, and claiming for yourself what was done on behalf of the whole world? For he says not [the Son of God] “who loved us” but “who loved me”…Burning with desire toward [Christ], [Paul] utters this. ..He shows that each of us ought to render as much thanks to Christ as though Christ had come for him alone. For God would not have withheld this gift even from one person. [God] has the same love for every individual as for the whole world.”

This is the peculiar distinctiveness of the Christian Church. It is not commitment to an ideal that brings us together, like a political party or philosophical club. It is our personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and our personal relationships with one another.

There is so much misunderstanding about this in the world around us. Just a few weeks back, I received a phone call that displays this perfectly. Haven gotten my cell number from the Church of the Ascension voicemail, a woman called me and asked, “Yeah, I’d like to know, Pastor, does your church do weddings?” You know, that’s a pretty odd question, I think. So I said, “Yes, we bless the marriages of our people in our church. Yes, that is what we do. And who, may I ask, is calling?” She quickly replied, “Oh, I am calling for my mother-in-law. But we’re not church-goers. We believe in God but we don’t attend any church right now.”

Well, I thought at that moment, if that’s the case, then why bother with getting married in the church at all? I didn’t say it this time, but my usual response is, “Well, my friend, that doesn’t make a lot of sense. If you’d like to join the church and learn more about Jesus, then I’d be glad to talk with you about getting married in the church. Otherwise, you’re putting the cart before the horse.”

Think about it, my friends: to say that you believe in God but will not be part of a church community is exactly like saying you believe in marriage but are not willing to be married! You like the idea of being married but you are not willing to make the direct and personal commitment to another particular human being, which is what marriage is all about! It's like saying you believe in education but are not willing to ever enter a classroom! Like saying you believe in the practice of medicine but are unwilling to consult with a trained doctor!

Likewise, many people like the idea of God, but they have no plan to invest in a direct and personal relationship with Jesus, and so they are not ready or willing to make the commitment to be part of what God is actively doing in the world by joining together in the fellowship of the church.

But what really matters in life is not the abstract ideas in your head, but the practical, real-life, daily living with others, working together to do something important, to be something important, to live in a loving relationship with Jesus and with those others who have been baptized into his family.

This is why in reality I cannot be a Christian if I am unconnected to the Body of Christ! For then I am an orphan, cut off from my natural family. Then I am a Christian in an abstract sense only, but not in any sense that is real or meaningful.

And that is why I say over and over again that there is no such thing as Christianity. That abstract idea doesn’t exist. But what does exist is a real-life person, Jesus Christ, who is in relationship with real-life human beings, who gather together to love one another and to serve the poor, to worship and to learn. What does exist is concrete and tangible real: it is Jesus and his church.

What about you? How has Jesus spoken to you directly? Can you join with St. Paul in his passionate affirmation of what Christ has done in his heart?

“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me” (Galatians 2:19).

May it be so among all of us who are called by the name of Christian. Amen.

A Revelation of Jesus Christ

Sermon for Proper 5 C RCL 6/6/2010, Offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry

Texts: 1 Kings 17:8-16; Psalm 146; Galatians 1:11-24; Luke 7:11-17

Title: A Revelation of Jesus Christ

Have any of you had a conversation about God with someone in the last few months? I mean, with someone who is not a member of your household. Have you had a conversation recently where God was brought up and in which you discussed matters of spiritual importance?

I had one of these conversations last Sunday afternoon, at a block party cookout on our street. Out of the blue, the grandmother of Fiona’s friend said to me: “Don’t you think the world would be a much better place if there weren’t any religions at all? Because it always seems that religion is in the middle of all the world’s problems.”

Obviously, I couldn’t leave that statement alone. I had to come back and say, No, in fact, I do not believe at all that religion is the problem in the world, but rather the pursuit of power and greed and prejudice and fear. People simply use religion for these ends, because religion is such a powerful force in human lives. And actually, I suggested, this suggestion is quite naïve. Human beings always have, and always will, worship something. The important thing is what we worship, and who we follow. It is crucial that we get this right, otherwise horrible consequences can follow.

So this got me thinking about what all of you might experience this summer. There’s a good chance that, at a cookout or a picnic, or at the shore, on vacation – that somewhere this summer, if you are open to it, you may have a good conversation with someone about God and about your faith.

I thought about this possibility while digging into today’s reading from St. Paul’s letter to the Galatians. In this letter, Paul has to defend his preaching of the Gospel against new missionaries who have come from Jerusalem and who are attempting to persuade the Greek Galatian Christians that they need something more. What Paul taught is good, these missionaries said, but it is not enough. They also need to learn about the traditions of Judaism and, in fact, to become Jews. In this way, they can enter fully into the covenant.

This summer, as we travel and talk with different folks about life, we need to know the reason for the hope that is in us. We need to have a way to talk with people about who Jesus is, and why it is so important for us to trust in Him.

On the back of your bulletin, I have included two quotes from the writings of C.S. Lewis, the great Anglican apologist of the last century. These two sections both distill the same argument that he makes about the central reality of who Jesus is, though in different contexts.

You may remember the context of the story at the bottom, taken from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Chapter 5). It goes like this:

“Logic!” said the Professor half to himself. “Why don’t they teach logic at these schools? There are only three possibilities. Either your sister [Lucy] is telling lies, or she is mad, or she is telling the truth. You know she doesn’t tell lies and it is obvious that she is not mad. For the moment, and unless any further evidence turns up, we must assume that she is telling the truth. “


Susan looked at him very hard and was quite sure from the expression on his face that he was not making fun of them.
“But how could it be true, sir?” said Peter.
“Why do you say that?” asked the Professor.


“Well, for one thing,” said Peter, “if it was real, why doesn’t everyone find this country [of Narnia] every time they go to the wardrobe? I mean, there was nothing there when we looked; even Lucy didn’t pretend there was.”


“What has that to do with it?” said the Professor.
“Well, sir, if things are real, they’re there all the time.”
“Are they?” said the Professor; and Peter did not know quite what to say.

At this point, Peter and Susan, the older siblings, are at their wits end with Lucy’s story about Narnia, since they have not yet experienced it themselves. They became really worried about Lucy and so they went to get advice from the Professor, in whose house they were living.

This is the same argument that C.S. Lewis makes in his book, Mere Christianity (Chapter 8) about how we are to understand Jesus:

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Jesus: 'I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God.' That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the Devil of Hell.


You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman, or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool; you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

Jesus comes to us, telling us a crazy story, like the one that Lucy told Peter and Susan, a story about another reality. He comes healing the sick, and raising dead people back to life again. He comes forgiving sins and claiming to be God. Once we have heard this claim, we are left with these three choices: either Jesus was insane, a lunatic who somehow was able to be convince a lot of people in his day, and still does today, to lay down their lives for him; or much worse, he was a malicious liar who intentionally misled people. Or else, we have to accept his claims of divinity for what they are, and pay him the worship that is his due.

But what we can never do is say, “O, I believe is a great moral teacher.” That is absolute nonsense. No great moral teacher would claim to be God and accept the worship of his followers. That would be blasphemy, and then what kind of good teacher would that be? To lead his people astray about the very nature of God?

No, if Jesus is not a lunatic; if he is not a sadistic liar, some kind of megalomaniac; then he must be God. There are no other options left to us. My brothers and sisters, go into this summer-time prepared with this simple and straightforward line of discussion. When God or your Christian faith comes up in conversation, help those with whom you talk to see that to look at Jesus as a great moral teacher is a smoke-screen, a diversion tactic. To take that approach means that they are afraid to look at the truth.

It is possible to think clearly, rationaly, deliberately about Jesus Christ and come to a very sane decision about his divinity: he is God, along with Father and the Holy Spirit. And as such, he deserves our full homage and worship. That, my friends, is the truth.

Thanks be to God. Amen.

A Proposal for the Future of Sunday School

Below is food for thought. An opinion piece from Episcopal News Service about options for Sunday Schools in urban areas. There may be some merit to this idea.

The Sunday School of the Future, Proposed


By Mary Jane Wilkie, June 01, 2010

[Episcopal News Service] In metropolitan areas, many Episcopal churches struggle with building and maintaining a healthy Sunday school. For such churches, resources are few, space is scarce, and parents are unclear about what they want for their children. Most churches lack a corps of competent teachers, and some congregations are too small to offer the "critical mass" needed to recruit such a corps.

I propose that, rather than wrestle with obstacles individually, churches could work collectively. Those in a specific geographic area could establish a center for children's spiritual development, to serve that area's churches on Sunday. Parents could leave their children at the center, and worship in the church of their choice, thus seeing to their own spiritual growth.

The collective Sunday school would offer as many as three hours of programming (as opposed to the skimpy 30-60 minutes available to children in most churches). It would include lessons, activities, and a children's chapel, which parents could attend with their children if they chose.

Potential benefits of this arrangement are:

• Children would have a stable place to grow spiritually.

• The space could be one that accommodates children (rather than whatever is carved out of the existing adult space in most churches).

• Parents could have a time to attend to their own spiritual growth.

• Children would enjoy greater diversity in their interaction with other children.

• The pooling of resources would enable staffing by trained (even paid) teachers.

• The facility would be open to neighborhood children, thus offering a service to the community.


The anticipated objections need not be fatal to the idea:

Parents and children could not worship together: Parents would be free to join their offspring in children's chapel, and they could retrieve their children at any time of the morning for worship elsewhere.

Location: To avoid the impression that it is the Sunday school of one particular church, the facility could even be a non-church, e.g., a school or a library. There is no small number of churches created from the merger of two struggling parishes. Perhaps one of the churches would be willing to "sacrifice itself" for the sake of the children's center. One could remain intact as the Sunday school, freeing the other for adult worship. Another option is the schools attached to some churches, which might serve as the ideal facility for such a center.

Program: The churches would need to agree on a curriculum, and I believe it would be beneficial for parents to consider what they want for their child’s spiritual growth. My own choice would be Godly Play, probably because I am a Godly Play teacher, and have seen its effectiveness. It is, I believe, the least controversial of those available, and resistance to Godly Play is usually attributable to the training and materials required (as opposed to the tenets of the program).

Expense: Participating churches, the diocese, and parents would need to support it. With sufficient numbers of children, however, the cost might not be as high as feared.

Variety of ages: With good healthy participation, there would be enough children for multiple classes. Many churches now have to accommodate a wide range of ages in one group, and do so with varying degrees of success.

In an ideal world, parents and their children would grow spiritually in one place, and most of us are attached to our specific church, cringing at the thought of not having it available for our children. We should, however, consider the long-term consequences of continuing as is. Discerning parents often tell me of their frustration finding an adequate Sunday school for their child, usually attributable to the churches' lack of space, time, and teachers. What I propose would address their need and see to our most precious resource -- the children.



-- -- Mary Jane Wilkie is a member of Church of the Holy Apostles in New York City. She is a trained Godly Play teacher, has taught Sunday school, and has been Sunday school director at two Episcopal churches in the Diocese of Newark.

The Paths of the Sea

Sermon for Trinity Sunday C RCL 5/30/2010, Offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry

Texts: Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31; Psalm 8; Romans 5:1-5; John 16:12-15

Today, my friends, as you know is Trinity Sunday. What you may not know is that this feast was first formally established by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket, in 1162, as a day to celebrate the glorious mystery of the Holy Trinity. From England it then spread throughout the churches of the world.

But I will not speak with you today about the Trinity – at least not about this doctrine and how we understand it. There is something today that requires more immediate attention. Did you hear the words of the 8th Psalm which we prayed together?

“You [,Lord,] give [man] mastery over the works of your hands; you put all things under his feet: All sheep and oxen, even the wild beasts of the field, the birds of the air, the fish of the sea, and whatsoever walks in the paths of the sea.”

And whatsoever walks in the paths of the sea. As I meditated upon the lectionary texts this week, these words grabbed my heart, since so much of our collective awareness has been caught up in this horrible disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

But there is a connection, of course, between our understanding of the Trinity and our role within creation. All doctrine, everything we believe, is given to us as tools in order to shape and mold the way we think, and therefore, the way we live our everyday lives. This is as true of the complex doctrine of the Trinity as it is for any other. At its core, the truth of the Holy Trinity is all about community: all three divine Persons living together in complete equality and unity but with distinct tasks in the economy of creation and salvation.

When we speak of our role within God’s creation, we speak of another kind of community: the community of life of which we are a part but over which we have a distinct task as stewards and caretakers.

God, the Great Creator of all, has given all of this earth into our care, even the paths of the sea. How are we doing with our stewardship of the earth and the life of the sea? I don’t think this needs an answer, as we daily watch the greatest environmental disaster in our nation’s history. One that will cause the death of millions of creatures of the sea and birds of the air, as well as the devastation of the livelihoods of millions of American people.

When the Lord Jesus finished his earthly ministry, he told the apostles that there are many more things that he wished to teach them, but they were not yet ready to receive them. This is what he said: “When the Spirit of truth comes” – the Holy Spirit released into the world with power historically on the day of Pentecost– “he will guide you into all the truth” (John 16:13). It is clear now that our responsibility to care for the planet earth, our island home, is part of the truth into which the Holy Spirit has been guiding the Church.

As Christians, we value and protect life as inherently good. This, of course applies first to the protection of all human life, but the well-being of human beings cannot be separated from the well-being of the home in which we live. If the house is despoiled and dangerous and unhealthy, how will the inhabitants of the house survive in good health?

Let there be no doubt that God intends for us to care for the earth, the “till it and keep it”, as it states in the first chapter of Genesis. This has always been God’s calling for humanity.

Of course, others who do NOT understand God’s will for humanity – they may use our natural resources only for pleasure of profit, allowing greed to drive them. But we who know Jesus, who have committed our lives to live for the glory of God, we know better. We know that we cannot do that. We know that we cannot use the things of the earth for selfish gain.

For us Christians, the goal is always to live our lives free from selfish ambition. As St. Paul said so well: “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us” (Romans 5:5). That love will not allow us to sit back numb to the pain and suffering that our own sins and addictions cause to the community of life around us.

That love of Jesus Christ compels us to protect the living today. But our faith in Jesus also calls us to greater responsibility for the unborn generations to come. To till and to keep the earth means to use our gifts and resources to improve the conditions for human life here on earth, to leave things in better condition than how we found them.

There is great wisdom in the ancient rule from the Confederacy of the Haudenosaunee, commonly known as the Iroquois. In their Great Law created at least 600 years ago, the following principle is stated: “In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decision upon the next seven generations.”

Friends, imagine how our world would be so radically different – and much, much better- if we put that principle into effect. Imagine if we all carefully considered the impact of deep-water oil drilling on the next seven generations of those who will follow us, before we ever allowed such drilling to begin. Unfortunately, we never do. Instead, the brazen market demand for profits, and our foolish obsession with oil, blind us to the destruction that our behavior causes to the community of life on this earth.

Our Presiding Bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori has expressed this well when she wrote just a few days ago: “We are all connected, we will all suffer the consequences of this tragic disaster in the Gulf, and we must wake up and put a stop to the kind of robber baron behavior we supposedly regulated out of existence a hundred years ago. Our lives, and the liveliness of the entire planet, depend on it.” The Presiding Bishop: Lessons From The Gulf Oil Spill

Now, I know that it is right for us to pray for, and about, this disaster. But, to be frank, I’m not even sure even how to pray about this Gulf Oil spill. Do we pray that the damaging effects of this spill be miraculously eliminated? For the sake of the innocent animals and people who will suffer from this for years to come, I would like to. I really would. But we cannot pray for that. God does not work that way. No, we must suffer the consequences of our folly. For how else do we learn except through the experience of pain and loss?

If we ever are to become adept in our God-given task as stewards of the earth, if we ever are to accept our responsibility to improve the quality of life for those who will follow us, then we must repent for our sins, learn from our mistakes, and change our ways of thinking and acting to include the health of the entire planet as vital to our own well-being. This is God’s will for all humanity, and particularly for us who follow the teachings of the Son of God in the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.