One in the Apostles' Teaching & Fellowship

A Sermon for the 2nd Sunday after the Epiphany (Jan. 16, 2011)
Offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry and shared at St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church, Gloucester City, in honor of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

Lectionary Texts: Isaiah 49:1-7; Psalm 40:1-12; 1 Corinthians 1:1-9; John 1:29-42
RC Lectionary: Isaiah 49:3,5-6; Psalm 40; 1 Corinthians 1:1-3; John 1:29-34
Week of Prayer Text: Acts 2:42

What is it that keeps us Christians from being united together in our love and service to our Lord Jesus Christ?

(At St. Mary’s: My dear friends, it is my privilege and honor to stand in this pulpit today and to proclaim the truth of God’s word in your midst.)

Today, it is our intention to remember the desire of Christ our Lord that all of his people live united as one. The theme for each year’s Week of Prayer for Christian Unity – which, by the way, was launched in 1908 by the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement in New York State – is chosen in a joint venture of the Vatican’s Council for Promoting Christian Unity and the World Council of Churches’ Commission on Faith and Order. Together, these groups pick the scriptures and themes for each year, and this year they have asked all of us to reflect together upon the witness of the earliest Christian community that gathered in Jerusalem in those first years after the resurrection, as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles.

In particular this verse is the one presented to us for our meditation: the baptized “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (Acts 2:42).

This, of course, is a somewhat idealized vision of that time, without a doubt. But it is given by the author, as with all scripture, not to present a definitive history as we understand the task of history today, but rather to communicate the truth of what God has done and continues to do among humanity.

But when we see this vision before us, this vision of God’s desire and plan that we be united together in our devotion to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, how is it that we baptized Christians remain so shamefully divided and separate?

The truth, my friends, is that – more often than not – we continue to see one another from a human point of view rather than from God’s point of view.

This, I believe, is one of the biggest stumbling blocks in the movement toward the full and visible unity of the Church. So many of us are inclined to fall back into old patterns of prejudiced thinking, in which we see difference only as a threat.

It is quite serendipitous that we celebrate this Week of Prayer for Christian Unity just after our nation pauses to remember our great Christian preacher of the 20th century, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Of course, Dr. King’s struggle for racial equality was different than this movement toward Christian unity. But I am convinced that many of the basic human tendencies against which he strove remain the same.

Dr. King criticized our old human tendency to pre-judge others as “soft-mindedness”. He preached that “softminded individuals are prone to embrace all kinds of superstition”, that softminded persons “always fear change”, “feel security in the status quo” and have “an almost morbid fear of the new.” In his strongest rebuke of all, Dr. King charged that “softminded persons have revised the Beatitudes to read, ‘Blessed are the pure in ignorance: for they shall see God’” (A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr., P. 492-493).

The softminded person has an already pre-determined outcome in mind when dealing with others. This person cannot live in the openness of the Holy Spirit, and cannot be generous with others, giving the benefit of the doubt.

Let me tell you a story about one of our neighbors in Westville, and I think you will see what I mean about being predisposed in your mind as a softminded person.

Last year, on Christmas Eve, the next-door neighbor of our parish in Westville (St. Luke’s) was frustrated that some of our parishioners had parked in front of her house. It’s a public street; there are no parking restrictions there whatsoever.

However, this neighbor has lupus and a number of other health issues. Because of this, she perceives the spots directly in front of her house as her own designated spots, even though there is no signage to this effect and this plan was never communicated to our parish in any way. Besides this, on this Christmas Eve she was having family over and she needed extra parking spots.

When she saw the street in front of her house full of cars, she decided to march right over to St. Luke’s Church and to ask me if our parishioners would move their cars immediately! When she came in, however, I was at the altar breaking the bread and preparing to distribute communion to the larger-than-normal crowd on that Christmas Eve. Fortunately, the ushers stopped this neighbor at the door and explained to her that I was, in fact, unavailable at that moment. She requested to speak with me, but the ushers explained that this was not possible, since we were in the middle of our Christmas Eve liturgy!

Now, to you and me here today, this is likely to appear as the most obvious thing in the world. Of course I was busy at that moment! Christmas Eve? At the altar? Sharing the body and blood of Christ with the faithful? Could I stop and talk with a neighbor at that moment about her parking concerns?! Of course not! How could she make such a ridiculous request?!

Ahhh…but that is not at all how she saw it! You see, this neighbor has no relationship with God. For whatever reason, she is pre-determined to view the Church in a negative light. Therefore, she is still amazed that we treated her so badly. “And you call yourselves Christians,” she reproved us, “but you treat your neighbors so very poorly!”

Now, do you see how one set of circumstances can be perceived so very differently based solely upon one’s preconceived notions?

This is the obstacle that faced Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. If a person is predisposed to see people of color as less than human, less than themselves, as somehow tainted or unfit or polluted, then how can true equality be achieved until that mental barrier is dismantled?

And I am convinced that this remains one of the primary obstacles which we face today in our efforts toward the unity of the Church. If a person is predisposed to see their own particular fellowship as the one true Church, of course, and to see all of the others as counterfeits or frauds of one kind or another, as less than themselves, as lacking in certain crucial qualities, than what is the point of meeting together? What progress can be made at all until that mental wall is smashed and torn down?

Rather than retreating into that softminded security of what is known and comfortable, you and I are called by the Holy Spirit to remain open, to see from God’s point of view, to be ready for the new thing that God will do in our midst.

My friends, let us be clear about this: it is God’s desire and intention that we (the Church) be united together in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, and also in the breaking of the bread, and in our prayers. Remember that this first Christian community seen in Acts included people from all over the known world: Parthians and Medes and Cretans and Arabs. And very soon it was to include Greek Gentiles as well! All of these people who looked and spoke and acted so very differently from one another – all of them brought together in unity because of one thing and one thing only: the Lord Jesus Christ!

It is this vision of God’s beloved community which St. Paul had before him when he wrote to the baptized community gathered in the city of Corinth, when he addressed them in this way: “To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, together with all those who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours…” (1 Corinthians 1:2).

When you and I call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, then we bear witness to that truth that he does not belong to us; we belong to him! And if we are open to the Holy Spirit, then we can be sure that he is moving us ever forward in the direction of unity.

In conclusion, let us hearken back once more to the wisdom of Dr. King and let us pray in the words of one of his own prayers for unity:

O Lord “Keep us, we pray, in perfect peace; help us to walk together, pray together, sing together, and live together until the day when all God’s children – black, white, red and yellow – will rejoice in one common band of humanity, in the kingdom of our Lord and of our God, we pray. Amen.”

The Tender Compassion of our King

Sermon for the Feast of Christ the King (C RCL 11/21/2010), offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry

Texts: Jeremiah 23:1-6; Luke 1:68-79; Colossians 1:11-20; Luke 23:33-43

Today, my dear friends, is the last Sunday of the Church Year. It is called “Christ the King Sunday” and it is a time, here at the end of our annual cycle, for us to recognize the Lordship of Jesus Christ over all of human history. Even though we celebrate this truth at this time every year, you and I still have to wrestle with this question once again: What does it mean to have Jesus as our king? To have him as our monarch, the one who governs all things in our lives, because of our willing and voluntary assent to his authority?

Now, I have to confess that I have no idea at all what it is like to live under a King’s rule. Nor, frankly, do I have any wish whatsoever to experience this! Our little mountain cabin is located is New Hampshire and, God willing, we will be going up there for Thanksgiving. One of the things I love about that state is its motto. Do you know it?

NH State Motto
“Live free or die.” This motto comes from a toast made by a New Hampshire Revolutionary War hero named General John Stark. His toast for a reunion of revolutionary war veterans was this: “Live free or die; death is not the worst of evils.” That’s how I think. Don’t try to tell me what to do! I’m not good at submitting to authority, so the very idea of having an earthly king to rule over me honestly is quite repugnant.

But I do have a king. We have a king, though I don’t think this title does any justice to who he is and how he governs the world. Because this Christ, this Messiah, this King is unlike any governor or president or emperor that this world has ever known. Doesn’t it seem a bit odd that we read about the crucifixion on this feast of Christ the King? There is a deep mystery here. Let us pay attention to it. Our King shows his majesty from the cross. This King reveals his worthiness to rule when he suffers such embarrassment, such ignominy, such cruelness, such pain. Even on the cross, even in the face of such apparent weakness, he wields his great power – the power to heal and to transform.

During Holy Week, of course we read this very text from Luke and we sing of the glory of the cross. One of the ancient hymns that we sing is #161 in the Hymnal. The words were written by Venantius Fortunatus in the 6th century and paraphrased in the hymnal in this way:

The flaming banners of our King, advance through his self-offering. He lived to rob death of its sting; he died eternal life to bring.


A Roman soldier drew a spear to mix his blood with water clear. That blood retains its living power; the water cleanses to this hour.


The crowd would have been satisfied to see a prophet crucified. They stumbled on a mystery: Messiah reigning from a tree!


With what strange light the rough trunk shone, its purple limbs a royal throne, its load a royal treasury: the ransom of a world set free.


The best are shamed before that wood; the worst gain power to be good. O grant, most blessed Trinity, that all may share the victory.

The messiah reigning from a tree. When the repentant thief asks for mercy, when he pleads to be remembered kindly by Christ, the King replies with regal majesty: “Today you will be with me in Paradise.”

This past week, I and the members of St. Luke’s Church have dealt with an amazing wave of anger and bitterness from two neighbors there in Westville who object to the presence of homeless men in the Parish House. After listening to all of their threats and shouting, it seems that one of their primary arguments is that criminals cannot be trusted. That people who steal to support their bad habits will do so again. These neighbors have been robbed in the past and they are dreadfully afraid of this happening again. “You cannot change these people! You cannot trust these people!” they shouted in our face on Thursday night, at St. Luke’s Vestry meeting.

It’s funny how God works, because at the same time, while dealing with this conflict, I have been meditating on this reading from the Gospel of Luke. Jesus, the King, is on his throne of irony – the cross. And who is there present on his right and his left? Two criminals, two thieves. One proud and stubborn, bitter and angry. One remorseful and humble, sorrowful and honest.

Do you think that a criminal, a thief, can be changed? What does Jesus think? Which voice will you heed, the voice of hope and faith, or the voice of fear and despair?

The truth has spoken and the truth is this: no one is beyond the reach of God’s mercy and grace. The King does what he wills, and even if it bewilders those in the world who see only in black-in-white, this Messiah offers forgiveness and a chance to start again to all those who will come to him in confidence and trust.

It is not hard to do, except for the proud who are certain that they are better than “those people,” who believe that they are the good ones, who feel no need for help.

Dwight Moody (1837 – 1899) told the story of a young soldier in the Union army during the Civil War who was court-martialed and sentenced to be shot. This young fellow had voluntarily enlisted, and he agreed to go and serve the Union along with his best friend. They were close friends, and so, one night when his friend was ordered to go out and take the night watch, his friend asked him if he would be willing to serve in his place. He did this, but it just so happened that the very next night, he himself was ordered to take the night watch. And since he had now been awake for the second straight night, and since this young man was not yet used to it, he was found asleep at his post. President Abraham Lincoln had just issued an order that no interference would be allowed in cases of this kind, since this kind of lack of discipline had become all too common in the Army. Therefore, this young man was court-martialed and sentenced to face the firing squad.

When the news reached this man’s father and mother up in Vermont, they were devastated as this was their only son and he had recently enlisted with such enthusiasm. But they knew that there was nothing that could be done. The President had spoken. However, they also had a young daughter who had read the biography of President Lincoln. She knew how much he loved his own children. So she made up her determined little mind to do something. She told herself, “If Abraham Lincoln knew how my father and mother loved my brother, he would not let him be shot.” Somehow, she got herself down to the White House. And when the Guards saw this young girl’s determined yet imploring looks, they were unable to refuse her a visit with Mr. Lincoln. When she entered the room, she found the President there with his generals and counselors, and when he saw her, he asked what is was that she wanted. She told him the whole story: how much her parents loved their brother, how he had been sentenced to be shot, and how much they were mourning for him and how, if the execution took place, it would entirely break their hearts. Mr. Lincoln’s own heart was touched with compassion, and he immediately sent a dispatch cancelling the young man’s sentence and granting him a parole so that he could go home and visit his parents in Vermont.

The closest thing that we have to a King in our land is the President, the executive officer whose power is balanced by our other branches of government. Now consider this parallel: if Abraham Lincoln, a wise yet deeply flawed human being, was able to show such compassion for the sorrow of this one family, in violation of his own recent order, how much more mercy and grace and love can we expect from Christ the King, the compassionate, the merciful One? How much grace he gives to anyone who comes to him and asks for help! Even to criminals, to thieves. Even to people like you and me. This, my friends, is the only kind of King to whose authority I can gladly and joyfully submit. Amen.

IHOC Hospitality Network at St. Luke's

What a great night at St. Luke's Church in Westville last night! We welcomed the Interfaith Homeless Outreach Council's Hospitality Network to stay in the Parish House for 2 weeks. The groups currently consists of 3 homeless men and 1 volunteer helper who stays with them.

I asked for volunteers after all 3 Eucharist liturgies who might help me to serve dinner last night to our guests, but no one could commit to helping! So I anticipated being alone and serving the leftovers from the Church of the Ascension's Ham Dinner on Saturday. However, 16 people showed up to help! Wow! It was great.

That is, until the neighbor started snooping around and taking pictures of all of our vehicle's license plates. We called the police and let them have a talk with the fellow. It was a little excitement to cap off a pleasantly surprising evening! Praise be to God who is always surprising us and doing wonderful things!

Retreat with the Little Poor Man of Assisi



"We happy few" - our small mini-retreat group!

 On Saturday, October 2, we held a "Mini-Retreat with St. Francis of Assisi" at the Wheelabrator Wildlife Refuge in Westville, NJ. Here is an outline of the life of St. Francis. He is, without question, one of the greatest followers of Christ ever to walk the earth. We have much to learn from him. 

Reading about St. Francis in the Wheelabrator Picnic Shelter

The view from Tie-Off Point due north to Center City

Outline of Francis’ Life

• 1182a.d. Birth of Francis in Assisi. The son of Pietro di Bernardone, a wealthy middle-class linen merchant, and Pica, a French woman.
• He studied at St. George’s Church School in Assisi as a youth. He was deeply influenced by the ideals of medieval chivalry and dreamed of being a brave knight.
• 1200 He joined the war between Assisi and neighboring Perugia, was captured and spent 1 year as a POW. During an illness, he received a vision urging him to serve the Lord rather than men.
• 1202 He returned to Assisi and began to help poor priests and the needy by selling his father’s goods. He also began to pray intently. He received a vision of Christ saying, “Francis, go and repair my church which, as you see, is falling into ruins.”
• 1206 Confrontation between Francis and his father over wealth given away. Francis stripped away and left everything behind him now.
• 1209 He received his “gospel way of life” and begins to gather followers (called Friars Minor, meaning “little or insignificant brothers”).
• 1210 Now as a group of 12, they wrote a short Rule of Life and received verbal and direct approval from Pope Innocent III for the Order (the Order of Friars Minor).
• 1212 Desiring to preach the Gospel to everyone, Francis traveled and tried, but failed, to reach the Muslims in North Africa, Spain, and Syria.
• 1219 Francis traveled with Crusaders to Egypt where he preached to the Sultan and attempted to forge a cease-fire agreement.
• 1220 Suffering from malaria and glaucoma, he retired as leader of his growing movement and entered a time of deep struggle and disappointment.
• 1223 Finally regaining peace, Francis created the first Nativity crèche to make the celebration of Christmas more real to the people.
• 1224 He received the Stigmata on his body while in prayer on Mount Alverna on September 14 (Holy Cross Day).
• 1226 After two more years of painful illness, Francis died peacefully in nakedness on the bare ground. He was 44 years old.
• 1228 Francis was canonized as a Saint by the church and his following continued to grow.
• 2010 Today, more than 1.5 million people around the world are vowed Franciscans. Many more are influenced by his example.

The primary source for fruitful meditation upon the life of St. Francis is the Little Flowers. Buy it, and read it often!