Who is your King?

A Sermon for the 2^nd Sunday after Pentecost (RCL B) 6-10-2012

Offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry

Texts:                          1 Samuel 8:4-20, 11:14-15; Psalm 138; Mark 3:20-35

Themes:                     craving for a king, the family of Jesus

Title:                           Who is Your King?

Today, my friends, as we begin “Ordinary Time” here in the Church, we enter into the stories of the Kings of Israel – the classic period of the Israelite monarchy. Samuel, Saul, David, Solomon – this on-going drama will carry us right through the summer.

So today, we begin this series by considering the underlying desire of the Israelites for a King and the contrasting desire of God to be their only King! There is a deep conflict here that is important to the rest of the biblical story and to the Gospel.  

And this morning, what I want you to consider is this question: Who is your King? Who is your King?

This entire drama about the kings is, of course, a story about power and trust and hope.

It’s also about politics, of course, and that is a dangerous topic to bring up in polite society, I know!

But we must. In the church, we must deal with reality as it is.

And this is the real problem with politics is this: people place their hope and their trust in the exercise of power.

Power is so alluring, so tempting. It promises so much, but nearly always delivers so little.

People tend to think that if they can only change WHO happens to be the leader, then everything will get better.

Isn’t this why so many people will invest weeks and months and years of their lives, not even to mention their money, in order to get THEIR candidate elected?

I haven’t seen too many political ads here in New Jersey yet, but I’m sure the flood is coming soon.

And I say that it’s sad: sad that so many people get caught in the same alluring trap of power.

They say “if only MY leader will win, then everything will get better!”

You would think that humanity now would know better. There are thousands of years of evidence now which clearly show that this is false! Each new political leader can make some positive changes and each will also make some negative changes.  

Perhaps each new generation of human beings needs to learn this lesson for themselves.

Just look at the movement of younger people who were SO excited about the Obama administration, some with hopes and dreams which seemed almost to be messianic!

Change is coming! Everything will be different now that OUR guy is in the White House!

And look at how disillusioned most of these young supporters are now.

Elect this person or that one; recall this person or that one. It makes so little difference in the long run.

Now, don’t misunderstand me. The Church must be involved in politics on some level.

We have a clear calling to advocate for a just society which functions honestly and treats all citizens with equality and which cares for those who have no other means of support, which protects the weak and the powerless.

No, it is not politics which the Church opposes, but rather politicians! 

Because we know better, right?!

We know that every person is a sinner, even the glamorous celebrity politician who is so smooth and polished. We know that they are all sinners, and we know that power and sin mix together to create a very nasty concoction.

We can spot a bit of this ancient naiveté among the Israelites here in the books of Samuel.

The people are longing for a king, because they are convinced that their lives will be so much better if they can only get a good man to be their king!

For hundreds of years now, they had been ruled by judges. Some of these judges had been strong and had been able to keep their enemies, the Philistines, at bay. Other were not, and some were corrupt and ruled with capricious force.

But if they could only replace their judges with a king, just like all of the other nations, well then this would solve their problems, right? This king would be stronger and able to fight against the Philistines and to protect the people from their enemies.

But wise, old Samuel knew better. And he tried to warn the people, and he said: Yes, in some ways a king will make your lives better, but in other ways a king will make your lives worse! Because once a man is given this kind of royal power, then he will take and take and take what is yours and enjoy it for himself.

The people would not listen. And it grieved the heart of God.

What did the Lord say to Samuel? “They have not rejected you [Samuel], but they have rejected me from being King over them.”

Often, in our Lectionary readings, there is very little, if any, connection between the different readings, but today there is a good, strong connection. Or rather, there is a striking contrast!

Samuel warns the people in advance about the behavior of their coming King: he will take from them in order to enrich his house and his family at their expense!

Now, we know that the kings of Israel serve in one sense as prophetic signs which point toward the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, the coming Messiah, the anointed One.

Well, here in the Gospel of Mark we find the true and rightful King operating within his Kingdom.

And how does he exercise his power?

Because it may be so familiar, we tend to forget how radical and revolutionary his teaching truly is!

The Lord Jesus is ministering within the realm of the Roman Empire, under the authority of the Emperor and under the direct authority of Herod Antipas who claims to be the King of Galilee.

Jesus comes as the rightful King, and he looks around at the ragtag band of people who have gathered around him and he says, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother!”

He says, in effect: Forget about Caesar, forget about the Emperor, forget about King Herod, forget about all of the people sitting on thrones, wielding worldly power.

Forget about them, because these people here are the truly important ones!

Whoever does the will of God is important to the true King, not those who can get things done within the realm of politics!

No wonder his family and others thought that he was crazy!

But he was simply restoring that original divine intention for the people of God place their hopes and the trust in God alone, who was to be their only true King.

And so it comes back to us who are citizens of this kingdom of the Messiah.

Who is your King? Where do you place your trust? Where do you find your hope?

It is my prayer that tomorrow morning, and every morning of your life, you can begin your day by saying to the Lord these words, by saying them with trust and confidence and hope.

Say: “Lord, you are my King.” Go ahead. Try it out now. Ready? Let's say it together: "Lord, You are my King."

Good! Learn to say it! 

Lord, you are my Prophet. Lord, you are my Judge. Lord, you are my Commander-in-Chief.

If you will but let God be the one who governs and guides your life, if you will but place your trust in God alone, if you will find your hope for the future in God alone, then you will live above the fray, above the changing tides of power in this world. Then you will not be disappointed by the failures of human leaders, which are bound to happen.

Because if you can live with this awareness, if you allow God to be your King, then you are in fact doing the will of God and living as members of the family of Jesus. Amen.   

Marvelously Made - A Sermon for the 2nd Sunday of Epiphany

A Sermon for the 2^nd Sunday after the Epiphany (RCL B) 1-15-2012

Offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry

Texts:              1 Samuel 3:1-10; Psalm 139:1-5,12-17; 1 Corinthians 6:12-20; John 1:43-51

Themes:         God calling, God’s knowledge of us, the body as God’s temple
Title:               Marvelously made

It came upon him quite suddenly. The sadness, the feeling of loss mixed together with desire and longing. He began to pray, and without quite knowing why, he began to pray and ask for a son. And somehow, he already knew the boys’ name.

When he returned to his home, he spoke with his wife and his other children about this new prayer which seemed to rise up within him all by itself. He asked them to join him in this prayer, and they did.

Not too long after this, it became clear that his wife was pregnant. But this pregnancy brought pain and unexpected bleeding. There were a few times when it was so bad that they were certain the baby had been lost. Finally they decided to visit the closest doctor.

But this doctor did not bring them any good news. After examining the mother, the doctor spoke clearly and softly and said to her, “An abortion is the only way to save your life.”

But this man and this woman – trained as missionaries of the Gospel and now living in a foreign land – they were not about to abandon their prayer, their hope. They prayed and trusted in God, and they soldiered on. In fact, after they left this doctor’s office, they felt themselves surrounded by an incredible sense of God’s peace.

The pregnancy continued, as did the bleeding and the pain, as well as the hopeful praying. But as she neared full term, the bleeding subsided enough so that this mother, accompanied by her entire family, could fly to the capital city where she could give birth with the assistance of an American-trained doctor.

Surprisingly, the delivery of this baby boy went quite smoothly, only to be followed by a massive blood clot larger than the baby himself. The attending physician was amazed. He told the parents:

“This is a miracle baby. I can’t explain how it happened, but despite all odds, he beat them. Only a small part of the placenta was attached, but it was just enough to keep him nourished all these months.”

Both mother and newborn son struggled to recover in the ensuing weeks, but slowly they gained their strength and soon they were able to fly back to their home on the mission field.

And so Tim Tebow entered into this world. (Through My Eyes by Tim Tebow, pp. 3-5).

Please understand. I do not share this story in order to make a point about the morality of abortion.

The situations surrounding each woman’s life and each pregnancy are complicated and multi-faceted and opaque. It is foolish for some man like me disconnected from these circumstances to draw black and white lines of morality which must not be crossed. And never, ever do I wish to see the federal government involved in drawing such lines.

However, I believe that we must consider together the power of trust, and the strength that comes when we place our hope in the God who knows us and loves us.

All of us at times must face difficult moments when we are forced to make decisions, decisions that will have far-reaching consequences which we can only begin to perceive.

At those moments, we have to choose which path we will take.

Will we follow the path of fear, in which we try to seize control of our situation and force it to conform to our own will, to our own limited vision of reality?

Or will we follow the path of faith and trust in God? Will we – with patient trust – wait and see what God will do, and allow God’s will to be done?

Our readings appointed for this second Sunday after the Epiphany echo with a constant refrain giving voice to the truth of God’s intimate knowledge of each one of us.

Consider young Samuel, the boy who would one day be a great prophet. Now just a boy learning at the feet of the elderly Eli. The text states that “Samuel did not yet know the Lord”. But, without question, Samuel was well known by the Lord.

God called to Samuel. God had a plan, a goal for Samuel’s life. The boy had only to learn how to listen.

The apostle Paul writes to the believers in Corinth to encourage and guide them in their struggles. Here he reminds them of the truth of who they are: they are God’s prized possessions, bought with a price, a steep price, a costly price. Even their very bodies are treasures of the Lord, temples of the Holy Spirit!

When our Lord met Nathaniel, this new disciple was amazed that Jesus – somehow – knew him and had seen him!

“Where did you get to know me?” he asked. “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.”

Under the fig tree, Nathaniel thought he was all alone. But, in fact, God was with him.

The words of the Psalmist are perhaps the most poignant of all:   

“Lord, you have searched me out and known me.

There is not a word on my lips, but you, O Lord, know it altogether.
For you yourself created my inmost parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I will thank you because I am marvelously made; your works are wonderful, and I know it well.”  

How often, my dear brothers and sisters, do we forget that we are never alone?

How often do we live as if God did not knit us together carefully in our mother’s wombs, as if God did not see us when sitting alone?

How often do we live as if our lives were our own, as if our bodies were not precious temples filled with the Holy Spirit, as if God was not calling to us with a plan and a goal?

How many of you have meditated on those words from the opening Collect of our liturgy, that prayer which we call the Collect for Purity?

“Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are hid.”

For those who do not know God, these words might inspire anxiety and fear.

But to us who have tasted and seen that God is good, these words are cause for rejoicing!

God knows me. God knows everything about you. And God calls us each by name with a goal for our lives which is good and beautiful.

It is this loving and all-encompassing knowledge which allows us the freedom to choose the path of trust.

When life seems chaotic, when difficult choices confront you, do not allow yourself to become enslaved by fear.

Remember who you are. Remember whose you are. And rest in the peace which comes from trusting in the goodness of God.

We can say it no better than the words of this famous Psalm:

“I will thank you because I am marvelously made; your works are wonderful, and I know it well.” Amen.

No Longer in That Way

Sermon for Proper 6 (RCL - B)
Offered by Nathan Ferrell at Red Bank National Battlefield Park
(HS, Bellmawr & St. Luke’s, Westville Annual Picnic)

Texts: 1 Samuel 15:34-16:13; Psalm 20; 2 Corinthians 5:6-10,14-17; Mark 4:26-34

My friends, today our Lord presents us with a choice to make, a path to choose. There are two options. We can continue in our old, habitual, customary ways of looking at other people. Or we can look at people with the eyes of the Holy Spirit.

Do you remember our reading from the First Book of Samuel? God teaches old Samuel to not look at the outward appearance of a person. The Lord does not see the skin, the hair. The Lord looks at the heart.

And then we are given those beautiful words from St. Paul. “From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view.” The words here literally translate as “to know someone in the flesh”. To know someone kata sarka = by the flesh.
To talk about knowing someone from a human point of view is too vague, I think. A better translation is to say something like, “to view someone on the basis of my personal experiences.” That’s a little cumbersome, but I think it’s better.
J.B. Phillips said it this way: “our knowledge of others can no longer be based on their outward lives.”

Well, what does this mean to regard someone from a human point of view? I want some answers. We’re out here in the park – it’s an informal setting. What do you think this means? Let’s have some ideas, some concrete examples.

OK. So what’s the alternative? To see the heart of the other, to view someone through the eyes of the Spirit, to know the other as a new creation in Christ.

What would it be like if we actually lived this out? If we actually regarded no one anymore from a human point of view, solely on the basis of our past experiences?

Let’s use our sanctified imagination for a moment and just imagine what it would be like to have this kind of worldview. How would your life be different?


God's plan is for us to have the ability, and the desire, to see beyond, to look deeper than the surface level.

For me, I see a connection here with the wearing of my seat belt. Every single time I drive in an automobile, I wear a seat belt. By the grace of God, this is not because of the past. I have never been in an accident where the seat belt has saved me. I wear my seat belt because of the future, because of the possible accident that waits around the bend in the road. I wear it not because of what has been in my past, but because of what could be in my future.

This, I believe, is like the change of perspective that Jesus came to bring to us! By the grace of God, we can look at other people not on the basis of what has been in their past, but on the basis of what they could be in the future. In God’s glorious future, they could be changed into beings of unspeakable glory.

We human beings have a curious habit of judging people solely on the basis of our own personal experiences and of their outward appearances.

In our painting business, we had a customer recently who exemplifies this well. Many of our painters are Turks, for there is a huge community of Turkish painters in the Cinnaminson-Delran-Burlington area. And, as with any other group of people, some of them are really good painters and some aren’t quite so skilled.

Well, on this particular job, I met with the couple after we finished painting their exterior, because they had a punch-list of a few things they wanted us to fix and clean. We met on Saturday afternoon, and we agreed that me and my crew of Turks would be back on Tuesday to finish these items. Well, on Monday, the husband called me and said, “Look, let’s talk man-to-man. I know your guys. I used to live in Delran where they are. They’re sloppy, they angry, they don’t like Americans, they don’t care about anything. And I don’t trust them coming onto my property at all.”

I couldn’t believe that he had the nerve to speak to me in that way. I know my guys, and these two painters are great guys, very respectful. They both have gone through the effort of becoming American citizens. One has a brand new baby. This fellow had no idea what he was talking about. But, do you see how it happened? I do not know any details at all, but obviously he had had some bad experience in his past with Turkish people. And on the basis of this alone, he boldly passed his judgment upon me and my painters, without knowing anything about us at all.

Judging according to the flesh, according to our own limited personal experiences.

The desert fathers spoke much about the dangers of judging others. It is one of the primary ways that we stray from the spiritual way of life. Once a brother came to Abbot Poemen seeking advice and he said: “What ought I to do, Father? I am in great sadness.” The elder said to him: “Never despise anyone, never condemn anyone, never speak evil of anyone, and the Lord will give you peace.”

Do you want to have deep and abiding peace in your life? This is a good place to start. Despise no one, condemn no one, and speak evil of no one, and the Lord will give you peace.

Because do you know what happens? When I begin to think about the evil that someone has done, when I begin to stew about how rotten they are, or when I am quick to pass judgment, then I quickly stop watching myself. I stop paying attention to my own faults. And at the end of the day, what the Lord is trying to teach us is really quite simple and profound, but we stumble over it so often. The teaching is this: we cannot control anyone else. The only one we can control is ourselves. And just to do this is a full-time job! Just to go about the job of reforming ourselves, changing ourselves one step at a time until we bear the likeness of Jesus Christ more and more every day- this takes all of the time that God has given us on this earth.

In Christ, the past is gone. The old has passed away; everything is in the process of becoming new. You and I – we may not look like too much on the outside. Our past may not be full of blazing signs of holiness. But God is doing something in us. God is changing us. God is making us into something beautiful. We are new creations in Christ, and one day we will even look like it!

In the meantime, we can make a choice to deal with others, not as they look today, but as they could be in God’s glorious future. Not only is this the truth about others – that God has the final say about who they are – but it is also a better, richer and fuller way for us to live this life.

Thanks be to God that we are given such clear guidance about how to live together into the fullness of life available in Christ. Amen.

HERE I AM- Sermon for the 2nd Sunday after the Epiphany

Can you think of a time when you heard the voice of God clearly calling out to you? Like Samuel, perhaps you were asleep when the Voice called. Perhaps, like Samuel, you misunderstood the call. You thought that the Voice came from someone else, someone close by and near to you.

What about on the flip side of the coin? Can you think of a time when you felt that God was silent in your life? This, of course, is the context in which we hear of the calling of Samuel as a young boy. “The word of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were not widespread” (1 Sam. 3:1). The people were not hearing God speak to them in those days. Was God truly silent? Or had they forgotten how to listen?
Is there a time in your life when God seemed to disappear from your life? Do you think it was due to God’s failure to act or to speak? Or was it due to your lack of perception?

When Nathanael met Jesus, our Lord explained that he knew Nathanael – he knew what kind of person he was, and in fact he knew where Nathanael had been even before they met! Nathanael was shocked! “Where did you get to know me?” What a great question! Where did you get to know me, O God? From our side of history, we can laugh at Nathanael’s question. “Of course this man knows you! This is God incarnate, you fool!” Nathanael could not have known this. We know it to be true, but do we believe it. Do we truly and deeply believe that God knows us? Listen to these words from Curtis Almquist that boldly declare this truth:

“God loves you. Who you are, what you are, how you've gotten to be where you are: God know and loves all that. God has this passionate love affair going on with you. God has created you as you are, cherishes you, and longs for your companionship. God has plans for a relationship with you that lasts forever and that grows in intimacy over time. It's like an eternal infatuation. When you're sleeping, God is dreaming up ways to be with you. When you're working or walking or weeping, God is catching up with you in the wind across your face, in the singing of a bird, in the free fall of laughter, in the soothing touch of a friend. You are the apple of God's eye. “ —Unwrapping the Gifts: The Twelve Days of Christmas, by Curtis G. Almquist.

God knows us – even better than we know ourselves! “You knit me together in my mother’s womb.” And God speaks to us, calls us by name. But we desperately need to learn the art of listening. Bruce Main, the director of Urban Promise in Camden, a ministry to children in the inner city, tells of a time when he came home from work and greeted his wife, Pam, in their kitchen. Bruce was tired from a long day of work and not really paying attention as Pam launched into a story about her day. Pam was explaining that she took flowers over to their friend Kay who recently learned that her husband had an aggressive brain tumor and would not live long. Unfortunately, Kay was not at home. Pam met Kay’s son-in-law and Pam learned that Kay was spending most of her time at the hospital every day with her ailing husband. So Pam left the flowers and began to drive home, but she had a nagging feeling that she was supposed to do something. She felt a deep compulsion that she was supposed to deliver this message to Kay, “God hears you.”

That’s it? Bruce thought, as he listened to her story, now a bit perplexed. That’s the divine message for Kay, “God hears you”? Isn’t that a simple platitude, a really basic idea, not very profound? And was Pam supposed to spend the rest of her day driving into Philadelphia, struggling to find a parking space, hoping to find Kay in the hospital, all in the hopes of giving her this simple message, “God hears you”?
Well, Pam did it. She made it into the hospital, stopping on the way to pick up some sandwiches and juice for Kay. Kay, of course, was a bit surprised to see her, but pleased also. And after a few minutes of small talk, Kay asked Pam why she had come all the way into the city to see her.
“I have a message for you, Kay,” she explained. “What I’m about to tell you may sound a little strange – maybe absurd! … God hears you!” “That’s it?” Kay asked. Pam nodded, and then it began. Kay broke down in tears and cried. Through her tears, she explained that her first husband had died of cancer years earlier. And she had prayed and asked God to please spare her from that kind of pain again. And when she married Jack, her second husband, she had again prayed specifically to ask that she die first before Jack if he were to become ill. But now here she was, with Jack close to death, Kay had given up on God. Kay had given up on prayer. But here Pam came to her –there, at that moment - with a message of hope!

Pam listened to the Voice of the Holy Spirit. God called to her, and she listened. God spoke, and she obeyed. And something important and meaningful was done there in the name of Jesus. (See Bruce Main, Spotting The Sacred: Noticing God in the Most Unlikely Places, 2006, by Baker Books.)

Did you hear that prayer –the Collect – which was appointed for our gathering this morning? “Grant that your people, illumined by your Word and Sacraments, may shine with the radiance of Christ’s glory…”
Well, my friends, that prayer is about us. By the grace of God alone, we are his people, chosen and selected to be instruments of grace and blessing to the world around us. But to do this, we must be willing to listen, and to act with courage when the Voice speaks to us. It may only be a hunch, a feeling deep inside. But deep inside is where the Holy Spirit dwells! Have no fear, my friends. God knows how to speak to us, how to communicate in a way that we can hear. But we must listen and follow. When we do, we glorify God in our body. When we do, then we truly go forth into the world with “strength and courage to love and serve [our Lord] with gladness and singleness of heart.” So may it always be among us who share bread together at this, the Lord’s table. Amen.