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.

Nice new sign in Gloucester City

Do You Want To Be a Billionaire?

Sermon for Proper 17 C RCL 8/29/2010, Offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry

Texts: Jeremiah 2:4-13; Psalm 81:1, 10-16; Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16; Luke 14:1, 7-14

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

“Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have” (Hebrew 13:5). My brothers and sisters: we need to speak together this morning about our relationship with money and about God’s intentions and desires for the way that we use money and wealth.

To begin with, though, please let me apologize. You see, I have teenagers in my house. Two of them: 13 years old and nearly 15. Because of that, I am forced – on occasion – to listen to really bad pop music, despite all my best efforts to minimize any potential exposure on my part!

So, as I read the lessons for today, I immediately began to sing one of these new pop songs that has been playing on the radio recently. “I want to be a billionaire, so freaking bad; buy all of the things I never had.” Travis McCoy and Bruno Mars sing this song. (You can listen to is here: YouTube "Billionaire" video).

It’s really quite a stupid song, but you know that those fellows are certainly not alone in their desire to have unlimited wealth at their disposal. It’s quite common for people to dream about being rich. Have any of you ever dreamed about being rich? (Be honest!)

But why? Why do people dream about being rich? What is it that money offers that makes people want it so badly?

Each one of us has a relationship to money. We all think about money in a particular way; we all feel about money in a certain way. Each one of us acts toward money in a certain way. This constitutes our relationship with money, and it a relationship that has a major bearing upon the quality and depth of our discipleship to Jesus Christ.

Let’s start with the basic attitude that Jesus and the apostles had toward money, the attitude that God longs to find within us as well.

And that is this: Money is a tool. That’s all it is. It is one of the tools that our society has created in order to facilitate the building of relationships.

The money that is within my sphere of control is not mine. I have it only on loa;, I am the temporary steward of it. This money, this little bit of wealth has been given to me to use so that I can build stronger relationships with others: with my family, my neighbors, and even with other people in need all around the world whom I am likely never to meet in person.

Never am I given money so that I may use it only for my own selfish wants and desires. God knows our hearts; God knows all things. God knows that we need money for this life; that we need to have some joy and pleasure in life. But God knows most of all that the desire for money can easily become a cancer that eats away at our hearts, that strips us of our freedom and our dignity, that robs us of that abundant life which Jesus promised.

And so, as we read this morning, the Bible says: “Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have” (Hebrew 13:5). This verse sounds a lot like a verse from the First Letter to Timothy which is a bit more famous. This one states: “The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil” (1 Timothy 6:10). We are given consistent guidance in the Bible to be careful with our relationship to money.

As in all the matters of life, Jesus is our Teacher, our Guide. In today’s gospel episode, Jesus concludes his teaching by inviting us to the practice of generosity. To throw a dinner party, of course, is a way of using our money and wealth, and Jesus here proposes two different ways that we can use this. We can throw a party in order to build important connections which will benefit us later on down the road. This is what we usually call “politics”. That would be in the self-serving category. Or we can throw a party for those who don’t ever get to have parties for themselves: the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind.

In that case, Jesus tells us that we are building an eternal connection with God that will have even more benefit than any other. Either way, the Lord continually reminds us, we have to choose: connections and pleasures and benefits here in this life, or else blessings and joy in the life to come. It is impossible for us to choose both.

Now, the question that most people ask at this point is, “How?” How can I possible live that kind of life where I have no emotional attachment to money and wealth?

We need only read the rest of this verse: “Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have. FOR…[or Because] God has said, ‘I will never leave you or forsake you.’ So we can say with confidence, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid, What can anyone do to me?’” (Hebrews 13:5b-6).

Oh, my dear friends, I would love to hear each one of you indeed say this with confidence, with boldness in your words, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can anyone do to me?”

That is faith. That is trust in God. That is confidence in God. There it is, right there!

This is the secret! This is the means by which we can handle money and wealth without any emotional attachments whatsoever. The secret is this constant remembrance of God in our minds, and in our hearts.

When I see my money slipping away, and when it seems insufficient to cover the pile of bills that never cease to stop, and my anxiety begins to build, what can I do?

Stop and remember: God has said, I will never leave you or forsake you. God is trustworthy and true. I can trust and believe that everything which happens to me is given to me for my good.

Deep, abiding trust in the goodness and loving-kindness of God is the secret to a non-anxious relationship with money. When we taste and see that God is good, then we are set free to use money and wealth to be a blessing to others, sharing generously with those in need.

Being a billionaire can actually be a really bad thing. There is an old Irish poem about the deleterious effects of wealth upon friendship. The poet ponders the best way to handle this problem. This old Irish poem goes like this:

People gather round the wealthy man like flies round a flame.
When he boasts, they praise him; when he lies, they believe him.
When he jokes, they laugh; when he’s serious, they frown.
“He is wise and handsome,” they say […] in his hearing.

I would hate to be rich and surrounded by flies.
I want friends to prick my pride and speak the truth.
If ever I grow rich, I shall hide my wealth.
Then my friends will still be real, and their voices honest.

But if I hide my wealth, I shall be lying.
Better [then] to remain poor.
(Celtic Parables by Robert Van De Weyer, Northstone Publishing, 1997: P. 123).

This is a choice that most of us are not able to make! Most of us do not have the ability to choose to be rich or poor. Many circumstances are beyond our control. But we do have the ability to choose our attitudes, our perspectives.

The Scriptures say: “Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have.” Let’s keep our lives free, be content with what we have, share what we have with the poor, and trust always in the goodness of God. That, my friends, is the path of true and abundant life in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

SOUL FREEDOM: Where do we go from here?

Soul Freedom: Religious Liberty, the Church and Islam

The proposed Park51 project in lower Manhattan has created a firestorm of discussion concerning the perceived legitimacy of Islam, the tortured history of relations between Western civilization and the Muslim world, and the need for tolerance between people of different faiths.

In any complex discussion such as this, it is often difficult for people to recognize the cultural lens which colors their own perspective by default. For the average American, Islamophobia is a decisive part of that inherited cultural lens, as rightly explained by Dr. Firestone in his RD essay on August 23, 2010 (Religion Dispatches- The Ground Zero-Sum Game). Tinted by this colored worldview, we are accustomed to viewing Islam and Muslims (and all Arabs, by association) as dangerous to our way of life and backwards in regard to the forward progress of society. This is extremely unfortunate, though it is understandable, given our nation’s interactions over the last three decades with high-profile terrorists who have claimed Islam as justification for their murderous actions. But guilt by association is never an appropriate way to judge individuals, let alone an entire multi-faceted civilization. Not all Muslims are the same. Cold-hearted criminals must be separated from the great majority of Muslims who strive only to live in peace, to worship God faithfully, and to provide a good future for their children.

But another aspect of our inherited American cultural lens which is so often assumed is the obvious necessity of religious freedom within a prosperous and healthy society. It is important and necessary if we are to have a truly informed public debate that we acknowledge this aspect of our worldview. It is a point of view that is uniquely American in history and peculiarly Christian in origin. If we miss this point, then our debate on religious tolerance and diversity will be incomplete at best, and perhaps even misguided.

Within the three great Abrahamic faith traditions, the Christian faith is the only one that assumes the clear distinction between political power and religious leadership. In its earliest history after the Day of Pentecost, the nascent churches stood in noticeable opposition to the Roman and Jewish authorities. None of the apostles, nor any among the first few generations of their successors, actively sought after positions of political power or control. The earliest Christian theological writings are unanimous in calling for respectful and prayerful support for those in power, but this call is always given obliquely and always from the perspective of those on the periphery of society. If one undertakes a survey of all early Christian writings (including the New Testament), it is clear that these early disciples of Christ thought very little (if at all) about acquiring power and control within society. On the contrary, their focus lay squarely on the demanding task of creating a compelling alternative society to exist alongside of, and in tension with, the dominant milieu of their time. In reality, the only social power of these early Christian communities was the power of persuasion, and it seems in general that these Christians were content with that. After all, it was their Teacher himself, Jesus of Nazareth, who was unambiguous in his disregard for political power. “If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over…But as it is, my kingdom is not from here” (John 18:36b).

In contrast, the Jewish tradition presents a radically different relationship between religious authorities and political power. For the sake of brevity, we need only consider the great Davidic dynasty which represents the commonly accepted “golden-era” of Jewish history. King David and his son Solomon served as multi-tasking leaders of Hebrew society. They were the commanders-in-chief of the armies, absolute monarchs over the territory they controlled, the supreme judge over all disputes among citizens, as well as the final arbiters in all matters concerning the religious practices of the nation. The kings of the Davidic dynasty also had clear imperialistic impulses and they sought to conquer neighboring kingdoms whenever the opportunity presented itself. They did all of this in the name of the LORD their God, the One who brought them out of Egypt and who allowed for no compromise in matters of national religious practice. When King Solomon began to allow other religious cults within his realm, the prophets of God were quick to announce the impending demise of his family dynasty. “Then the Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, who…had commanded him concerning his matter, that he should not follow other gods” (1 Kings 11:9-10). In short, the dominant ideal scenario envisioned by the Judaic tradition is one where political power, military might and religious leadership are combined and held together by strict allegiance to the covenant instituted by Moses.

The Islamic tradition owes much to the history of Judaism in this regard. In general, the Prophet Muhammed continued the heritage of combined political and religious power that was ubiquitous within Near Eastern societies. Within his nascent community, he served in much the same role as the Davidic kings: military general, absolute monarchical leader, and supreme judge. One major difference is that, for his followers, Muhammed was also the only source of revealed truth from God. However, the scope of his influence was limited during his lifetime, so it is the period of the patriarchal Caliphs immediately after the Prophet’s death that most often serves as the glorious idyllic period of Islamic history. These four great Caliphs continued the tradition of centralized civil and religious authority throughout the rapidly expanding Islamic empire.

All three of these Abrahamic faiths has been shaped and molded by varying historic circumstances in the ensuing centuries, often in surprising ways. However, they can never escape the foundational influence of their own respective “golden eras”. There can be no denying that the Christian churches, the Jewish people, and Muslim peoples are all inherently conservative in this regard: in their traditions, they all preserve an idyllic period in their past which serves as the definitive point of reference for contemporary decision-making. The exact periods of the past which serve in this capacity may vary somewhat between different sects (i.e., the Roman Catholic Church vis-à-vis Anabaptist churches, Reformed synagogues vis-à-vis Hasidic rabbis, Sufi communities vis-à-vis Shi’ite communities), but this process is remarkably uniform among the Abrahamic faiths as a general rule.

For instance, it would be a great over-simplification to evaluate the struggles between the new nation of Israel and the Palestinian peoples through the prism of the brief historical overview presented above. However, one can discern, in the stated goals and aspirations of those directly involved in this conflict, clear links to the amalgamation of political, military and religious power that constitutes the ideal vision of society for both the Judaic and Islamic traditions. Both Jewish and Palestinian militants in this struggle have been clear in expressing their desire for the creation of nation states which continue this combination of military and political power with their own religious identity. In contrast, Christian communities that exist in both Israel and in Palestine have largely remained apart from this conflict. In this way, one can recognize a reluctance to pursue political power among these churches that stems directly from their foundational self-identity as seen in the apostolic period.

Of course, objections will be raised to this historical overview, particularly concerning the abuse of political and military power over the centuries by the Christian churches. It is true that, after the Edict of Milan in 313 issued by Constantine and Licinius, Christian communities wielded direct civil power throughout Europe and the Mediterranean region for nearly 1500 years, often with disastrous results. But it is also true that, throughout this period, varying Christian voices were continually raised in protest to this obvious unfaithfulness to the foundational period of the church’s life. In fact, it can be argued that just as much of the energy behind the Reformation in the 16th and 17th centuries was a result of this unease with the abuse of civil power by the leaders of the church in Rome as it was a result of divergent theological understandings.

This now brings our extremely brief overview of religious history around full circle back to where we started. The very notion of the separation of church and state (and thus, religious tolerance and diversity) which we Americans assume as a foundational aspect of society is in fact a direct and immediate fruit of the Reformation. One of the primary catch-phrases of the Reformation was “ad fontes”, that is “back to the sources”. Many new Protestant communities did exactly this by attempting to re-create the experience of the early apostolic churches. In the process, they adopted the same attitude and approach toward civil authority as can be seen among these earliest Christians. In the Baptist churches, they began to speak boldly of the liberty of conscience as a necessary condition for any healthy society. Today, many will refer to this as the principle of soul freedom, and it is this principle which underlies our First Amendment rights to the “free exercise” of religion.

So let us all remember, as we continue to discuss the place of Islam within American society, and the need for religious tolerance, that what we are discussing is a peculiarly Christian ideal. We would be foolish to assume that those who have inherited a different cultural worldview will share this appreciation for religious diversity. Perhaps they will. But in order to have a fully informed debate in this regard, it is only fair that we ask our Muslim neighbors to explain their understanding of soul freedom and how this principle is informed by their faith traditions. A full understanding of history demands that we do so.

A Consuming Fire

Sermon for Proper 16 C RCL 8/22/2010, Offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry

Texts: Jeremiah 1:4-10; Psalm 71:1-6; Hebrews 12:18-29; Luke 13:10-17

Help us, O Lord, to become 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.

There’s a story of an old guy in the backwoods of Kentucky who used to show up for every tent revival meeting that they had in that area. Tent revivals originated in Kentucky and they remained common in this area whenever a traveling evangelist came into town.

At the end of each night’s service, an invitation was given for folks to give their lives over to Jesus, and at every invitation, this old backwoods guy would come on down the aisle. He would fall on his knees, raise his arms to the heavens and cry out, “Fill me, Jesus! Fill me! Fill me, Jesus!” Then, within a week or two, people around would notice that he was back to his old dissolute ways of living. But when the next series of revival meetings began, the old guy would be right there, kneeling and raising his arms in the air and praying to be filled.

One time, he was at one of these revival meetings, doing his thing, yelling out to the ceiling, “Fill me, Jesus! Fill me, Jesus!” But it seemed that some woman in the back of the congregation had had enough of these shenanigans from the old guy. So, in response to his pleadings to be filled up again, she suddenly yelled out, “Don’t do it, Lord! He leaks!” (Tony Campolo, Let Me Tell You a Story, 2000, p.96).

Well, the truth is that the old guy is certainly not unique in that department.
We all leak! And this is why we all need to have a revival! We all need to be revived and renewed.

If you are in tune to the American religious scene, you will know that the word revival is a familiar part of the code language of American evangelicalism. It is often used to suggest that we, as a nation, have fallen away from the moral purity of the past, and from the wisdom of our founding fathers. Please understand that I am not using this word “revival” in this way. Nor am I suggesting that we set up a tent out in the park and have a week of evening revival meetings (though I do think that would be an interesting experiment! An Episcopal Tent Revival!).


What I am suggesting is that, because we all leak, we all therefore need regularly to be re-filled. This, of course, is true in every aspect of our lives. How difficult is it for any of us to keep up our interest or enthusiasm for anything in life? When disasters happen around the world, we all watch on TV and read about them in the paper. But within a few weeks, our interest wanes and we move on to something else. The same is true for most people when it comes to sports. Most watch with intense interest only when the playoffs come around. Very few have the fortitude to watch every single Phillies game of their 162-game season!

This reality is true in all of our relationships as well. It’s very common for the intensity of love and devotion that many experience with our spouses and partners to fade and ebb over time. When I counsel couples before marriage, I encourage them not to think of their relationship like a contract in which they come to an agreement to provide certain services for each other over a period of time, but rather more like an infant. A lasting relationship of intimacy is like a baby who needs to be fed and cared for continually if it is to survive and to grow and thrive.

The same is true then of our faith, our relationship with the living God. It is not enough that once we were baptized, or once we were born again, or once we were confirmed, or whatever the crucial turning point might be. That one moment was simply the opening of the door for this new relationship with God.

Instead, we must continue to nurture this relationship if it is to survive, grow and thrive. And when our love becomes cold, then what we need is a revival!

I am speaking today of our need for revival, because this is the primary compelling concern and spiritual admonition of this Letter to the Hebrews, which we have reading through recently. You can see this thrust clearly in this last sentence of our reading today: “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us give thanks, by which we offer to God an acceptable worship with reverence and awe; for indeed our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:29). Earlier, this letter encourages us to “not give up meeting together” (Hebrews 10:25, NIV), to “hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering” (Hebrews 10:23), to “not abandon that confidence of yours” (Hebrews 10:35). And in the famous “Faith” chapter, the 11th chapter, we are presented with an amazing line-up of spiritual stars who have conquered and overcome by the power of faith in the living God.

Why all of this effort, you may ask, to encourage faithfulness among these Jewish Christian believers? The unnamed author of this letter is concerned. He writes because of “pastoral concern for a church plagued by neglect, apathy, absenteeism, retreat, and near the point of apostasy” (The New Interpreter’s Bible, Volume XII, Abingdon Press, p.160). In a word, their love for God has grown cold. Their passion for the Gospel has faded away.

Does this sound familiar at all to you? It most definitely does to me. It sounds like a fair description of the church in our own time and place. I’m not speaking of you here today, of course, you who are the regulars, faithful in worship. But this is indeed the general state of the church in our day: plagued by neglect, apathy, absenteeism, shrinking back in retreat, struggling with apostasy, cold in love, feeble in passion.

Because of this reality in his own day, the author of this letter strove hard to convey the need for reverence and awe among the disciples there.

“Let us give thanks, by which we offer to God an acceptable worship with reverence and awe; for indeed our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:29).

There can be no doubt at all that reverence and awe have been lost in our contemporary culture. How do we get it back, on an individual level and as a community of disciples?

We need a revival. Like that old guy in Kentucky, we need to be filled up once again by the Holy Spirit! We need our love to become warm once again. We need to have warm hearts and clear minds to see once again the magnificence and majesty of God, to see once again the amazing grace that God has given to us, to see once again the beauty of a life that is lived for the glory of God.

When the author here declares that “our God is a consuming fire”, he is making a reference to Deuteronomy 4:24 which states: “The Lord your God is a devouring fire, a jealous God.”

Like a jealous lover, God does not want ever to be in second place in the passion of your heart. The key to this revival of our reverence and awe, of our respect and love for God is in our intention. If we truly want to love the Lord our God with all our heart, our soul, our mind and our strength, and if we discipline ourselves to spend time with God on a regular basis, then it can happen. If we truly want it, we can keep our love alive and our relationship strong.

May God grant us the desire and the ability to worship with reverence and awe, to keep our hearts on fire with love and desire. Amen.

2010 Family Vacation: camping in Quebec

We made our annual August vacation trip to Quebec City and the Cot de Beaupre along the St. Lawrence River. Very beautiful country with fantastic weather (except for the rain on the first night of camping, which resulted in 2 wet sleeping bags! At least it was warm). Here are a few photos below for the curious:

At our Mont St. Anne campsite, we celebrated my birthday
 and our big dog's (Ita) birthday

Along the Promenade on top of the City Wall

The Basilica of St. Anne de Beaupre - a major pilgrimage site dedicated
to the grandmother of our Lord Jesus in the flesh

This is the Nave - a magnificent place with dozens of side chapels
and other pilgrimage attractions.

Quebec is full of bike paths. We brought our bikes and did a lot of
biking through the old City and in the mountains.

Our 3 musketeers at the Montmorency Falls.

I think that next August we might visit Ottawa and camp in the famous (and huge!) Gatineau Park just outside of the capital.

One in a Million

Sermon for 12 Pentecost C RCL 8/15/2010, Offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry

Texts: Isaiah 5:1-7; Psalm 80: 1-2, 8-18; Hebrews 11:29-12:2; Luke 12:49-56

In the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely” (Hebrews 12:1).

Have you ever stood in a cloud? Have you ever stood on the top of a mountain that was shrouded by a cloud? If so, then you may recall that being in a cloud is liked being embraced – being completely engulfed – by an entirely different realm. I have been in many clouds while climbing the mountains of New England, and it has always been an amazing experience.

If you can call to mind this kind of experience, I want you to hold that in mind when you hear this famous verse of scripture from The Letter to the Hebrews: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses”. To be surrounded by this cloud is something like, I think, being on a mountain-top in the clouds. In this cloud, we are embraced by an entirely different reality. And if we are aware and awake to this reality, then it can have an enormous impact upon our everyday lives.

But rather than the darkness which accompanies the clouds stuck upon the mountain-tops, this great cloud is one of a million lights, and there is one light which shines out far beyond the others.

My friends, on this day we are bound to speak about this one who holds the pre-eminent position in this luminous embrace – this engulfment of encouragement – in which we live and move throughout our lives.

On this day every year – August 15, the church remembers and celebrates the events which surround the death of the Mother of our Lord. This date was specifically set aside by the Roman Emperor in the year 600 AD as a feast to celebrate the falling asleep of Mary.

In Rome, they call this day the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In Moscow and Alexandria and Damascus, they call this the Dormition of the Theotokos.

In the Anglican sphere, we have tended to be much more cautious about those matters not clearly illuminated by Holy Scripture, but you can see an obvious reference to the glorious events surrounding the death of Mary even in our appointed Collect for this day, which we will pray together in just a few minutes.

But no matter what different leaders of the church might call this Feast, what we all celebrate annually on this 15th day of August is of crucial importance. In fact, what happens on August 15 to Mary completes that which began on December 25 in the Incarnation of Christ.

Now, I contend that no one needs to get entangled in the quagmire of debate concerning the doctrines which surround Mary in order to appreciate and celebrate the simple and radiant facts of her life.

She alone among women was chosen to be the mother of God, the living tabernacle in which God came to dwell, the source from which the Living Water began to flow. She gave the full assent of her will to the gracious will of God. She bore and nursed the Word of Life. She was present at all the key events in the life of her Son. On the day of Pentecost, she was there with the Apostles when the Holy Spirit came down in flames of fire.

This much is clear from the scriptures. According to tradition, Mary continued to live in Jerusalem with different apostles. Eventually, she died and the apostles gathered together to bid her farewell. They served as her pall-bearers as they carried her body to her tomb with prayers and songs of praise. But one apostle was missing, and of course, this was St. Thomas, Doubting Thomas who also was missing when the resurrected Christ first appeared to the apostles. When St. Thomas arrived 3 days later, he requested to enter her tomb so that he too could bid her farewell. But when the tomb was opened, her body was gone.

In our first reading, we heard a poem today from the hand of the prophet Isaiah. It expresses God’s desire for the people of Israel, and God’s disappointment that they had not yet produced the fruit that God desires.

“God dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; [God] built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; [God] expected it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes” (Isaiah 5:2).

But finally, after a long wait, Israel did in fact produce the finest of all grapes, the fruit of true inner goodness, a flower of amazing beauty. In Mary, our Mother, we see the complete journey of a life that has been transformed by acceptance of the grace of God.

My friends, I truly believe this. The early fathers and mothers of the church believed it and celebrated it. It makes sense. Think about this: what is the end for those who are full of grace? What could be the end for the one who gave her flesh, her body so that the world might be redeemed?

The full process of salvation was completed in her, in her soul and her flesh.

But let us be clear in understanding that this was not a resurrection like that of her Son, our Lord Jesus. What happened to Mary is what the Bible teaches will happen to all God’s faithful people. It is the end for which we all pray and wait. When the final trumpet sounds, the dead will rise in the flesh and stand before the presence of God. The only difference is that Mary did not have to wait. She was taken into the heavens immediately to dwell forever before God. And what does she do there? She does what this entire great cloud of witnesses does; what all the saints do, of course. She intercedes on our behalf, and on behalf of the entire world.

The Lord said that he came to bring fire to the earth. We understand now that this fire is the gift of the Holy Spirit, the One who fills the disciples with power and strength to live in the kingdom of God. But it was the Virgin Mary, the God-bearer, who first received the power of the Holy Spirit into her very being and who experienced the full potential of the grace of God. Praise be to God for her example, and for her prayers on our behalf.

Let us pray:

O God, you have taken to yourself the blessed Virgin Mary, mother of your incarnate Son: Grant that we, who have been redeemed by his blood, may share with her the glory of your eternal kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Angus and I are building a new deck in New Hampshire!

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