A sermon for November 18, 2012 - Open Hands and Open Heart

A Sermon for November 18, 2012 (Proper 28, RCL B)

Offered by Nathan Ferrell for The Church of Saint Mary

Texts:             Daniel 12:1-3; Psalm 16; Hebrews 10:11-14,19-25; Mark 13:1-8

Primary Message:              God always pushes us into new paradigms

Call to Action:          Be ready for the future; live with open hands.

Title:                        Open Hands and Open Heart   

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

My dear sisters and brothers: God calls us to live with open hands and open hearts.

For many of us, this is not an easy thing to do. We become attached to those things in our lives which make us feel safe and secure and comfortable.

And we tend to cling closely to them. Now, this kind of attachment or clinging is a way of being, an interior mindset. But there is a physical action which closely corresponds to this. It is the clenched fist.

We all know it and we can feel it. Here; let me show you. All of you – right now, raise your hands and hold up two tightly clenched fists. Got it? Pay attention. Do you feel that?

Good. Now, open your hands and drop them down in front of you – like this – and hold out in front of you your two hands – open. OK? Now, can you feel the difference? Good. Hold on to that feeling for the next few minutes as we turn back again to our Gospel reading this morning.

As they left the Temple, Jesus said: “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another. All will be thrown down.”

My friends: try for a moment to place yourself back within the worldview of the disciples. Do you realize how shocking this statement from Jesus must have been to them?

To ask these faithful Jews to imagine the utter destruction of the Temple was asking them to imagine an entirely different world.

Let’s make sure that we understand this; that we’re clear about this.

For the disciples to imagine the destruction of the Temple is perhaps tantamount to you and I imagining the Capitol building in Washington, DC being obliterated, and the Washington monument being knocked over, and the Statue of Liberty being pulled down and tossed into the New York Harbor.

No, maybe even more. It is like imagining that a foreign power has done all of this and has taken over our nation and now we are no longer allowed to sing our national anthem or fly the American flag.

Can you imagine what it would feel like if those actions were now prohibited and liable to be punished swiftly and violently?

This is EXACTLY what Jesus is asking of these disciples!

To imagine an entirely different world, where this Temple – which had been the rich symbol and the central organizing principle of their nation and their culture for over 500 years – to imagine a world in which this Temple was destroyed by their enemies.

A world in which everything that they felt they could cling to, everything which they believed would last and would stand as inviolable and sacred  - where all of that would be taken away.

What the Lord asks is for them to change their entire consciousness, their complete manner of seeing and understanding the world.

Today we speak of this as a paradigm shift. This is an extreme case of it, to be certain, and it is frightening to consider, isn’t it?

Most of us are afraid when facing major changes, when those people or things upon which we had relied and counted on are no longer there.  

As soon as I begin to think of those things and consider the threat of them being taken away, then it seems that I instinctively become defensive. Such thoughts automatically place us in a defensive position.  We want to shield this thing, to protect it, to guard it.

We start to close our hands. We enter into a closed-fist position.

But God provides us with another way – a better way.

The power of Christ working deep within our hearts allows us to live our lives every day with open hands, and an open heart.

Not with closed fists, resisting any possible change to those things which we love and cling to. But rather open, sustained by confidence in the goodness of God.

To imagine the world in an entirely different way is vital for us to engage more deeply with God’s mission in the world, because God is the one who is always calling us forth into the future.

I recently heard the story of Katie Davis.

As an 18 year old from Tennessee, Katie was able to travel to Uganda during Christmas break in 2006 with her church youth group. What she saw there changed her life forever. Katie was immediately captivated by the people and the culture of Uganda. Her heart was touched by the graciousness of the Ugandan people, but also by their immensity of their needs. In Uganda, Katie was able to see the world in an entirely different way. And everything changed.

13 months later, in January of 2008, Katie had graduated from high school and she decided to leave everything behind.

Katie returned to Uganda to launch a new effort at helping impoverished children there to receive a basic elementary school education and the basic food staples needed to live, and to be nurtured by a loving, caring, Christian community. Today, Katie is a 24 year old young woman living in Uganda, still leading her non-profit. But what is more amazing is that Katie is now in fact a mother – at 24 years of age! – a mother of 13, because she has officially adopted 13 orphaned Ugandan girls. (See more of her story here: http://www.amazima.org/katiesstory.html).

By traveling to a different culture, by living among the people, and by her willingness to leave behind all that she has known, Katie Davis experienced a paradigm shift. With open hands and an open heart, she is now able to work with God to change the lives of people in amazing ways.

We here at Saint Mary’s continue to find ourselves in a time of change and transition. Of course, nothing like that which faced the disciples in the eventual destruction of Jerusalem, and the dismantling of the entire nation of Judah.

Nothing at all quite like that, but you have faced many changes which are unsettling nonetheless.

And there is more to come. We are beginning to make plans now for a change to our Sunday morning schedule.  We are planning to change the start of our second service from 10 AM to 10:30.

We will do this in order to make way for something new: an hour of Christian Formation for all ages beginning every Sunday morning at 9:30. 

   

You may be surprised to know that this change was not even my suggestion, but we have discussed now it among the staff and among the Vestry and I support it.  

Why, you ask? Why change our Sunday schedule in order to make room for this Formation hour?

Basically, we need time together as a community in order to study and learn and discuss together. Gathering at 9:30 will allow our people from both services to meet together in groups to study the Bible, to practice different ways of prayer, to talk together about how we live as followers of Christ.

When the Legacy project is completed in early 2013, all ages will gather to do this from 9:30 to 10:30 each Sunday morning: our Guiding Ray classes will begin at 9:30, our teens will meet together in their new space below the Chapel, and different groups will be available for all adults to join. Then, at 10:30, everyone will be invited to gather for worship here in this sacred space. 

Thanks to all of you who have made the commitment to support the Legacy campaign, we will soon be blessed with wonderful new spaces where all of these different groups can meet together at the same time. It makes sense then for us to use these beautiful new spaces to their utmost potential.

Of course, there are a number of different issues to consider before making this change, and we need to take our time to consider all of these carefully before a change like this is implemented. Therefore,  we will wait until some point in the new year before this change is made.

My friends, we all know that change is difficult, but if we are wise then we will expect it and with God’s help we can be ready for it. Even more than this: by walking through this changing life with Christ, we can embrace the future even when it is unknown and uncertain.

God is calling us to imagine a new future, my friends.

Be ready for it – not with closed fists in order to guard yourself from the change that is coming.

But welcome the future with open hands, with open hearts, with confidence and trust that God is working all things together for good for those who love God and who are called as part of God’s purpose.

Amen. 

Bold, Courageous Risk-taking - a sermon for 28 October 2012

A Sermon for October 28, 2012 (RCL B Proper 25)

Offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry

Texts:             Hebrews 7:23-28; Psalm 34:1-8,19-22; Mark 10:46-52

Themes:        goodbye
Title:               But He Cried Out

My dear friends: for the last four (or three) years, God has given me the privilege of speaking with you from this pulpit as I have attempted to make sense of Holy Scripture within the context in which we are living in our society today.

As I reflect upon what God has laid upon my hearts over the years, there is a wonderful serendipity with the Gospel reading appointed for this morning.

Jesus and his disciples and a large crowd are passing Jericho on their inexorable march toward the conflict in Jerusalem. Along the way, a blind beggar cries out for help.

And the Lord Jesus turns to this man and asks him an amazing question:

“What do you want me to do for you?”

Bartimaeus makes his request for the restoration of his eyesight, and Jesus replies with a line that is quite typical for him to say: “Go; your faith has made you well.”

My friends: I invite you right now to think with me for a few minutes about the fact that true faith in God is bold, courageous risk-taking.

Think about it for a minute, my friends: the Messiah, the Son of God, this very popular Rabbi surrounded by eager crowds, on his way toward the end of his life in the showdown in Jerusalem – this one stops in the road in order to offer his services to a poor, blind beggar.

“What do you want me to do for you?”

Why? Why does he act in this way toward Bartimaeus? What about the other blind beggars whom the Lord surely passed by on the road without even a notice? Why is Bartimaeus healed?

The crowd ordered the poor blind man to be quiet, but he would not. Instead he shouted out all the more.

You see, Bartimaeus took a risk. He was incredibly vulnerable. Poor, blind, sitting down in the midst of a large boisterous crowd. People were yelling at him; they could have struck him, kicked him, hurt him.     

But Bartimaeus would not be silenced. He took the risk; he called out for help.

The Lord heard and replied. “Your faith has made you well.”

It is always this way with Jesus.

He calls out the twelve. They risk everything to go and follow him.
Four friends risk much to bring their sick brother to Jesus for healing.
The syro-phonecian woman risks scorn and ridicule – and worse – by debating with Jesus for the healing of her daughter.
Here, Bartimaeus risks his personal safety in order to ask for healing.

Over and over again, those who connect with Jesus are the ones who take risks in order to be near him, who take risks for the sake of love.

Do you see it, my friends?

Everything in the life of faith depends upon taking risks.  In fact, that is the very essence of faith: bold, courageous action, the ability to take risks.

And this is seen so clearly not only here in the Gospels.

Look at all of the saints who are honored and celebrated in the church: Paul of Tarsus, Patrick, Benedict, Francis of Assisi and Clare his dear friend, John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila, even Mother Teresa of Calcutta of our times. On and on and on we could name them.

All of these are honored and remembered and celebrated today. WHY?

Because they took risks for the sake of God! They were bold in risking much for the sake of the Gospel.

Some of these risked physical harm, like St. Patrick when he returned to Ireland and faced those who had attacked his village and had kidnapped him.

Francis and Clare took the risk of living life entirely by faith, with no material possessions at all and no money, no possessions at all. And guess what? They lived lives filled with incredible joy and peace! Because, by the way, you do not need money to have joy and peace in your life!

Other risked social embarrassment and exclusion, like John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila, as they labored to reform the church in their day and restore it to its spiritual foundations.

Countless others risked their time by devoting hours on end to prayer and meditation.

This kind of devotion offers no promise of immediate reward. It is something people do because they fall in love! They fall in love with Christ and they want to spend time in his presence. For all they know, this will be wasted time which they can never recover, with nothing to show for it. But saints have done it – over and over again, simply out of love.

And what have they gained? They have gained intimacy with God, closeness to Christ.

Amazing insight, vision, a sense of peace and trust in God which does not change even when the circumstances of life.

A number of different times, I have shared with you this quote, which is one of my favorites:

“Grace will not baptize us while we sit at home, slighting the means which God has appointed.” These were words preached by John Henry Newman more than 160 years ago, but their truth applies in all ages.

The grace of God is available today. This is transforming powerful grace. It is dynamic energy and power.

BUT – it is available to those who take risks, who step out in faith into the unknown with boldness and courage and confidence.

Now, to be clear, not all risk-taking is good. One of the primary reasons that our society finds itself in such an economic downturn is due to reckless, irresponsible risk-taking by those in the financial sector.

It is not risk-taking by itself which is inherently good, but risk-taking for the sake of love, for the sake of God. It is the willingness to lay yourself – your wants and needs, your money, your resources, your time – to lay these down in order to serve others, to serve God.

THAT is faith in action.

This past week I became acquainted with the story of Katie Davis.

As an 18 year old from Tennessee, Katie traveled to Uganda during Christmas break with her church youth group. She was immediately captivated by the people and the culture of Uganda. Her heart was touched by the graciousness of the Ugandan people, but also by their immensity of their needs.

13 months later, in January of 2008, Katie had graduated from high school and had returned to Uganda to launch a new effort at helping impoverished children here to receive a basic elementary school education and the basic food staples needed to live, and to be nurtures by a caring, Christian community. Today, Katie is a 23 year old young woman living in Uganda, and she is in fact now a mother – at 23 years old! – who has officially adopted 13 orphaned Ugandan girls. (See her story here: http://www.amazima.org/katiesstory.html).

What causes an intelligent, athletic, attractive high school graduate – the senior class president, no less! – to leave behind her home and her friends and her future career potential in order to care for poor children in Uganda?

Faith in Jesus, because true faith is bold, courageous risk-taking.

Those who step out for the sake of God are the ones who go out and change the world!

When God gives the call to you, my dear friends, how will you respond?

Remember: “Grace will not baptize us while we sit at home, slighting the means which God has appointed.”

Oh, you can sit at home and watch TV and complain about how messed-up the world is and then wonder why it’s not getting any better! Sure, you can do that.

But that is not faith! That is not active participation in God’s mission in the world!

That is not the way to experience grace in your life.

Think it through for a moment right now. Think through your life. What have you risked for the sake of love, for the sake of God?

What is true of our individual lives is true of our churches as well. What has your church risked for the sake of love, for the sake of God?

 

True faith in Jesus Christ is bold, courageous risk-taking.

 Not because we hope to gain anything from it! We have already gained everything!

Baptized into Christ, we have been forgiven and redeemed in him.

And now, because of that, we have the chance to step out in faith, to risk ourselves for the sake of him who died for us.

Christ offered himself for us, so that we might offer ourselves for him.

That, my dear sisters and brothers, is what it means to have faith in Jesus Christ.

May you never forget this, never shrink back from God’s call out of fear, never seek to protect yourselves from the pain of sacrifice. But may you always reach out in love for the sake of the Gospel, and offer yourselves so that others may live in the grace of Christ. Amen.