Where God's Mouth Is

Sermon for Proper 20 C RCL 9/19/2010


Offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry


Texts: Jeremiah 8:18-9:1; Psalm 79:1-9; 1 Timothy 2:1-7; Luke 16:1-13



We began with a fun dramatic script from the Iona Community in Scotland called, “Of mouths and money.” It imagined an "off the record" (meaning, not recorded in Scripture!) dialogue between Jesus and Peter about which subject the Lord spoke about the most. Peter wonders if Jesus is obsessed with money, since he speaks about it so often. Jesus contends that many people have "a money problem" that keeps them separated from God and from one another. You can find this dialogue (and many others directrly related to the Gospels) in this book here on Amazon.com:
Jesus and Peter: Off-the-record Conversations




Yes, my sisters and brothers: Jesus talks a lot about money! He talks more about wealth and money than perhaps any other single subject matter.


Now, this can be difficult for us to hear. Very often, I hear people complain that all they ever hear the church talk about is money. But I don’t think this is the same as the way Jesus talked about money. Jesus wasn’t concerned with fundraising or with budgets or pledges or anything like that.


Always, Jesus is focused laser-like on the disposition of the human heart and how this guides all of our actions.


All of his teachings on money reach their climax in the final saying from our reading today:


“You cannot serve God and wealth” (Luke 16:13). His point is this: here are two different paths that we can follow. The path of pursuing money or the path of pursuing God. It is a matter of eagerness and energy, of devotion and commitment.


This teaching is so crucially important for us, because we here in our nation are so easily distracted and blinded by the plethora of goods around us. This past week, our high school son, Angus, and I got into a little argument about the relative importance of technology. He reported to me that our upper elementary school just received a gift of 25 new I-Pads so that students can learn to use this new technology. I replied and said, “Angus, that’s stupid! How are I-Pads going to help 5th graders with their math and creative writing?” Of course, he responded that he felt it is important for kids to learn about new technology.


But is that really important? Is this the technology that matters, I told him? When thousands of children die every day because they do not have clean water to drink, is it really important for us here to learn how to use the newest touch screen computers? Is that what our children need to learn? For that matter, do we really need have to have the best flat screen TVs and the newest and fanciest gadgets when there are 1 billion people in the world today who suffer from chronic hunger?


I know that many of these folks are hungry because of their own dysfunctional governments. I know that. But still, we have to be careful not to excuse ourselves too easily. You and I have an extra responsibility to turn away from the sea of advertisements in which we swim every day, to not be fooled by these siren voices calling us to buy more and more.


What did we hear today from our Epistle reading? That God “desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). Last week, we talked about what it means to be saved. That to be saved is to be released from the baggage of our past, the bonds of ignorance and foolishness and selfishness and greed which we have picked up over the years, in order that we might be healed and recover our true, natural selves.


This process of healing includes coming to the knowledge of the truth, and surely this knowledge includes an awareness that God calls us to lives of deep generosity and compassion. That kind of life is impossible as long as we continue to listen to the voices of greed and possession rather than the voice of God.


So may the Holy Spirit grant us grace to be among those who put our money where God’s mouth is as we live with the compassion of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Rejoice with Me!

Sermon for Proper 19 C RCL 9/12/2010, Offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry


Texts: Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28; Psalm 14; 1 Timothy 1:12-17; Luke 15:1-10

O God, make us masters of ourselves so that we might become the servants of others. Take our minds and think through them; take our lips and speak through them; take our hearts and set them on fire. Amen.

My dear friends in Christ: What does it mean to be saved? What does it mean to be found? “I once was lost, but now am found.” What is it that you think of, that you imagine, when you consider that God has saved you? Saved you from what?

Here in the Gospel of Luke, we have this fantastic collection of parables that speak of God going out and finding that which was lost. Here, Jesus asks us to consider that God is a shepherd seeking after a lost sheep; that God is a woman who sweeps the house in search of her lost coin. This series of parables ends with the prodigal son and the patiently waiting father, but this is saved for another Sunday.

Let us give thanks that God is the one who seeks after us with such diligence and persistence. But what do these parables say about us as the lost sheep and the lost coin?

What does it mean for me to admit to myself that I am lost? Do you know the first of the 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous? If you don’t know it now, I suggest that you learn it. It goes like this:

“We admitted we were powerless over alcohol – that our lives had become unmanageable.”

If you were to visit a group of Overeaters Anonymous, you would hear the group admit that they “were powerless over food.”

Whatever it is that is your particular stumbling block, whatever it is that keeps you from experiencing life as God intended it, you can insert that right in. “I admit that I am powerless over ___X___ - and that my life has become unmanageable.”

It is true that we have to recognize that we are “lost”, before we will accept that God has found us. God is not an enhancement for our lives, something we add to make our lives better. We must admit it: without God, our lives are unmanageable and we are lost.

But even then, even after we can admit this fact, and when we are found and recovered and restored to our rightful place, when we become conscious of God in our everyday lives, that sensation of being lost never completely fades away. Look at the testimony of the apostle Paul in his letter today. Even at this stage when he is an older man giving guidance to his younger protégé.

“The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners – of whom I am the foremost” (1 Timothy 1:15).

I appreciate the way that this passage is translated by Eugene Peterson in The Message. Listen to this colloquial translation:

“Here's a word you can take to heart and depend on: Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. I'm proof—Public Sinner Number One—of someone who could never have made it apart from sheer mercy. And now he shows me off—evidence of his endless patience—to those who are right on the edge of trusting him forever” (1 Timothy 1:15-16, The Message).

In order to be found, we have to realize deep within that we are lost. And this is a process that never completely ends. In a real sense, God is always finding us, over and over again throughout our lives.

But, back to our original question: From what are we saved? What happens when we are found? What change happens when we are saved by Christ?

Brian McLaren tells the story of friends of his who came across a snapping turtle crossing the road somewhere in South Jersey. You know snapping turtles? Big, ugly things that look like the cousins of dinosaurs! Slimy, with powerful jaws that snap your finger off if you’re not careful! They can grow up to 30 pounds in ideal conditions. Well, this turtle they found had a problem. It seems that, when it was a hatchling, the turtle came across a plastic ring from the top of a milk jug or some other plastic container. Someone must have littered and thrown this into the water, and now this ring became lodged around the center of the turtle’s body. It wasn’t a big problem when the turtle was young, but when these folks found it, the turtle was likely around 9 pounds and about a foot long. About one-third of the way to its full size potential. This plastic ring has seriously deformed it, so that now the turtle was shaped like a figure eight!


McLaren’s friends astutely realized that the turtle could never continue to grow and survive if this plastic ring was left in place. So (very, very carefully of course!) they snipped that ring and took it off.

And what happened then? Nothing! Nothing at all happened. The turtle continued crossing the road. It still looked like a bizarre figure eight. It didn’t suddenly, magically, revert back to the normal shape for snapping turtles.

What changed then when these folks cut that ring off of the turtle? One crucial thing changed. At that very moment, suddenly, that turtle had a future! It was lost, on its way to a painful death, but now it was found by someone who saw its predicament and who cared enough to do something! Now it was saved. Now it was rescued.

St. Paul frames the truth of our situation with absolute clarity today: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15).

What does it mean to be a sinner saved by grace? What does it mean for you to place your trust in Christ, to be found by him?

It means that we have been set free from “a ring of selfishness, greed, injustice, fear, prejudice, arrogance, apathy, chauvinism, and ignorance” (McLaren, A Generous Orthodoxy, P.98). You know, it probably took months, or perhaps even years, for that turtle to regain its true and natural shape once again. The same is typically true of us as well. Once we recognize that we are lost on our own, once we allow Christ to find us, it may take months or even years for our hearts and our souls to regain their true and natural shapes once again. But now we have the chance! Because of the mercy and patience and grace and love of God in Jesus, now we have a future in which we can grow and become the radiantly full and free human being that God has created us to be!

About 1900 years ago, St. Irenaeus wrote that “The glory of God is a human being who is fully alive.” Yes! Yes! Yes! God has cut the ring around you that has held you back. You picked it up somewhere when you were just a hatchling. We all pick up garbage and litter and baggage along the way. But God saw our predicament and cared enough to do something! Of course, the struggle is not over. It will take our full attention and effort to stretch back into our natural, God-given shape.

But now, praise be to God, we have the chance!

This work of seeking and saving and finding and restoring is God’s work. God is the shepherd who goes searching for the lost sheep. God is the woman who seeks after her lost coin. And what does God do after finding the lost sheep and the lost coin? God throws a party, of course! “Rejoice with me!” That is God’s invitation to join in the party and celebrate that we have been found. Will you join in the celebration?

Nothing Without Your Consent

Sermon for Proper 18 C RCL (9/5/2010), Offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry

Texts: Jeremiah 18:1-11; Psalm 139:1-5, 13-17; Philemon 1-21; Luke 14:25-33


My sisters and brothers: we have the great privilege this morning of hearing and meditating upon this tiny little letter from Saints Paul and Timothy to Philemon and Apphia. Only 25 verses long, 335 Greek words in total, in most Bibles it occupies only a single page. And yet, what a page it is! How remarkable it is that we can find so many crucial insights into the practical meaning of the Gospel for our everyday lives here in this brief letter.

This is one of the undisputed letters by Paul. And the purpose of the letter is very clear and precise: Paul is asking Philemon to forgive his runaway slave named Onesimus and to free him. Of course the obvious question is: what is the slave’s offence? And why is Paul involved in this domestic dispute?

While we are not told exactly what happened, by inference we can piece together this backstory. As we see in the greeting, there was a church meeting in the home of Philemon and Apphia. It seems that Paul is likely to have founded this church and he may have been a frequent visitor to that congregation. Onesimus, who must have met and heard Paul in his preaching, ran away for reasons unknown, and eventually encountered Paul again in the city where Paul was being held as prisoner, most likely to be Rome. When they met and talked in the city, Onesimus professed his faith in Jesus Christ and became a regular helper for Paul. And as Paul mentored and discipled him, surely they discussed the reality that Onesimus would soon have to return to Philemon to make things right. Can you imagine the young man’s anxiety and trepidation at this prospect? But the apostle does not send him back defenseless. Rather, Onesimus returns home with this powerful and persuasive little letter in hand as his one hope to avert the severe punishment due a runaway slave under the law.

How does he do it? How does Paul approach this task of persuasion?

First of all, observe how he opens his appeal. This is the only place where Paul first identifies himself as a “prisoner of Christ Jesus”. What a small descriptive title, but what radical importance lies behind it! Do you see how the apostles were willing and able to take pride in their imprisonments and their suffering for the sake of the Gospel? Sure, Philemon is a man of wealth and influence, with a large home and slaves to manage it for him. But who is the one worthy of the most honor and respect among the believers? Not the man of wealth and privilege, but rather the poor prisoner who is willing to do what Christ spoke of in the Gospel: to “carry the cross” and follow him at all costs.

It may sound obvious to us who gather here regularly, but in fact it is a peculiar and remarkable aspect of the church that sets us apart from the world around us. You see, it is not normal, nor to be expected in any way, that we would celebrate those who are apparent failures as though they are true victors and heroes! God teaches us that it is not success that is worthy of our honor and respect, but rather commitment and devotion.

After his greetings, Paul launches directly into his appeal on behalf of Onesimus. To use a colloquial phrase, the first thing that Paul does is to “butter him up”. Just look at how generous he is with his praise of Philemon! “The hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you, my brother” (Philemon 7b).

There is wisdom here. Have you not seen in your own experience how such giving of compliments and praise opens up a door so that a difficult request can be received more positively? My wife, Erin, always tells me that my life would be much better if I could just get into the habit of giving her at least two genuine compliments every day. “Is it that hard,” she asks, “to find two simple compliments for me?” Well… actually it is! Just because my brain doesn’t work that way. But I know for a fact that “it is meet and right so to do”. Genuine praise, recognition and compliments help to open doors to improve the quality of our relationships.

After the compliments, Paul moves right into the meat of the matter. But notice here, please, how the apostle makes his request. What we see highlighted here in this request is the voluntary principle which lies squarely at the heart of the teaching of Jesus.

As St. Clement of Alexandria stated so well, “Compulsion is repugnant to God.” Rather than compulsion of any sort, within the kingdom of God everything depends upon voluntary assent, even though God has the knowledge and power and ability to coerce certain actions from us. And even though St. Paul has the consensual authority of the church to demand certain actions (“to command you to do your duty”, as he puts it), yet he prefers to lay this aside in order to ask, to seek and to knock.

Out of deference to Christ, the apostle prefers to make a humble request on the basis of mutual love and concern, “in order that your good deed might be voluntary and not something forced” (Philemon 14). Everything within the realm of the spirit relies upon this voluntary principle. We cannot over-emphasize this fact.

But, wait! There is still more in this little letter. Paul urges Philemon to “welcome him (Onesimus) as you would welcome me” (Philemon 17b). There is a deep message here.

In many places throughout the New Testament Epistles, we can find passages which speak of the proper behavior of Christians relative to their place in society: husbands and wives, parents and children, masters and slaves. But here in this letter, we are given a glimpse of something entirely different. Here we can see clearly that the apostle Paul was unwilling to simply validate the typical roles of Roman society as he found them.

As the slave master, Philemon had rights under Roman law over Onesimus, the runaway slave. However, under the law of Christ, within the realm of God, Onesimus is now a child of the apostle and so has become a beloved brother to Philemon in the Lord.

Here is the revolutionary message of the Gospel made real in practical life! These family relations in the church trump any of the expected roles of human-made society! Within the church, all are brothers and sisters, equal under the Gospel.

Without declaring it directly, the apostle in essence is saying, “Forget about slavery! Forget about who possesses what, who owns whom! Forget about your rights under the law or your petty grievances! Forget about all of that stuff that belongs to the old way of life, and begin to embrace this new way! Start to practice forgiveness, reconciliation, and true brotherhood and sisterhood in the kingdom of God!”

Without stating it directly, the apostle lays the groundwork right here for dismantling the entire institution of slavery. To do that work was not his calling. After all, historians estimate that nearly one-third of the entire population of the Roman Empire lived in some form of slavery. To tackle that social structure was not his task. But it was his task – and it is ours as well – to call people to a new kind of life in Jesus Christ, one where all known social boundaries are irrelevant.

It didn’t take the Church too long to figure this out. By the fourth century, the great St. John Chrysostom, then the Bishop of Constantinople, the second-highest ranking bishop at the time, could stand in his pulpit and preach these words: “Slavery is an abomination. It is quite wrong that one person should buy another, and that such a purchase has the protection of the law. A person does not even possess his own life; so how can he possess another person’s life?” (On Living Simply: The Golden Voice of John Chrysostom, p.26).

Of course, Chrysostom was sent into exile by the Emperor for his insolence. St. Paul was imprisoned and killed for his preaching. But the seeds were already sown, and by the grace of God we continue to harvest the fruit of their faithful labors.

Thanks be to God for the wisdom and remarkable vision of the apostle Paul, who can still teach us so much from a brief little letter written so long ago on behalf of a runaway slave named Onesimus. Amen.