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.