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. 

Let It Be

A Sermon for the 4^th Sunday of Advent (RCL B) 12-18-2011

Offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry

Texts:              2 Samuel 7:1-11,16; Canticle 15; Romans 16:25-27; Luke 1:26-38

Themes:         Mary, Theotokos, change, discomfort
Title:               Let It Be

Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Strength and our Redeemer. Amen +

Before you sit down, my friends, I will ask you to do one thing. Please move forward one pew. OK? Before you sit down, everyone please move into the pew in front of you. Just one pew forward, that’s all. OK?

There. You did it! Excellent work! Now, was that a bit uncomfortable? Was my request an inconvenience? Good, because today is our time to reflect together upon Mary, the Mother of God, and especially upon how God so completely interrupted and inconvenienced her life.

Our entrance hymn this morning was an old classic appointed for the Feast of the Annunciation on March 25: “The angel Gabriel from heaven came, his wings as drifted snow, his eyes as flame.”

I love this carol. It is quaint, lovely, pious poetry from an old Basque carol, but – to be honest – I doubt very much that this is how it actually occurred.

White wings, flaming eyes, blazing light! Is this how angels really appear?

Well, what about that admonition from the Letter to the Hebrews which calls us to practice hospitality “for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it” (Hebrews 13:2)?

This is more likely, I think. Angels – those messengers of God – are more likely to come among us without fanfare, without flaming eyes, to walk among us as strangers.

I picture Gabriel walking into Mary’s home looking like an ordinary Jewish man, but as a stranger.

And in that part of the world, women have long been discouraged from conversing with strange men, lest they bring dishonor upon their family by suspicion of wrongdoing.

The message brought by this stranger is itself a strange one, and troubling. What is worse still, it was quite inconvenient.

To be pregnant while still engaged to be married? Before the wedding itself? And to have God as the Father of the child? Who could ever believe her story?

This is not at all how Mary had pictured her life to be. 

Gabriel had said that she had found favor with God, but this angelic news was difficult and troubling and uncomfortable.

This should be no great surprise, of course, because that is God’s specialty, after all.

God is the Inconvenient One.

God is the One continually interrupting our lives. God is continually inconveniencing us with plans and goals and purposes which we have not yet chosen for ourselves.

But that, my friends, is a good thing, a very good thing indeed.

Because the basic struggle and challenge of our lives is learning how to deal with change.

Why is it that the ordinary, instinctual human response to change seems to be resistance and anger?

We live in a world, and in a universe or a multiverse, that is constantly changing. Everything is in motion; everything is continually shifting and moving and changing.

Long ago, the Greek philosopher Plato spoke of God as “the unmoved Mover”, the unchangeable Being that set everything else in motion. But given what we know of reality today, it is more fitting to think of God as “the Moving Mover”!

Everything is in flux and motion, and in the midst of all of this movement, God is present, working out plans and purposes that we cannot comprehend.

It is an illusion for us to cling to those few things which only appear to be unchanging around us, as if we can hold onto them and wrestle some security for ourselves out of them by the sheer force of our will!

But this is a lie. The Gospel calls us to truth, and the truth is that everything is changing continually and we have no control over that whatsoever.

What we do have control over is ourselves, at least, this is what we are working on!

There are very few of the major changes of life that are within my control, but I can control how I respond – how I think and feel and act in response to these things.

There is another song that comes to my mind when I hear this story of the Annunciation, a song that is very different from the hymns and carols of the church. It was first sung by a young man named Paul. Most of you know it. You can join in, if you like.

When I find myself in times of trouble,

Mother Mary comes to me,

Speaking words of wisdom, let it be.

And in my hour of darkness,

She is standing right in front of me,

Speaking words of wisdom, let it be.

Let it be, let it be, let it be, O let it be.

Whisper words of wisdom, let it be.

(If you don't know this song,...ouch! You need to hear it. Look here: Let It Be on YouTube)

Now, if you know the story, Paul McCartney is not singing of Mary, the Mother of God. He is speaking here of a dream in which he saw his own deceased mother who visited him and gave him a word of comfort during a difficult time.

But when I hear this song, I can’t help but to think of our Mother Mary and of her response to Gabriel in the midst of her own time of trouble: “Let it be.”

“Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word” (Luke 1:38).

And here, my sisters and my brothers, is our example of one who lives in accordance with the truth.

We speak of Mary as the Blessed Virgin, the Mother of God. All of the Church acclaims her as the Theotokos – the God-bearer. David desired to build God a house on earth, but she is the divine Tabernacle, the true Temple, in which God came to dwell on the earth. She is the new Eve, who overcame, by her trust and confidence, the disorder wrought by the ego-centered choice of the first Eve. It is her body which was taken up by Jesus and through which the world was redeemed.

She is worthy of honor, worthy of praise. But don’t misunderstand! Mary had a choice to make.

God brought drastic and sudden and unexpected change into her life. She did not ask for it. She was not preparing for it. And when it came, she had a choice to make. How would she respond to this change?

We are like her. God brings change into all of our lives  - sudden, drastic, unexpected. It comes into all of our lives, and rarely – if ever! - do our lives progress the way that we had envisioned.

When change is brought to us, we have a choice to make. How will we handle it?

We can complain. We can fight the change. We can pout. And so we can continue on in our spiritual immaturity, clinging to the falsehood of our own desire to control.

Or we can choose to see in each change an opportunity to grow, a chance to become more than what we are now.

When confronted by the unwanted changes in life, we can in fact choose to respond with trust and confidence, like Mary, and so to give praise to God who fills the hungry with good things.

May it always be so among us and among all who are preparing to greet the festival of Christ’s birth with joy. Amen.

It's time to face the music!

It is time (perhaps way past time!) that we change the music that we use in worship. I think that all of us Episcopalians know this instinctively, but we do not relish the costs required in making this change. 

Here is a link to a thoughtful blog entry about music in our society today and in the church.   http://www.episcopalcafe.com/daily/music/recently_ive_participated_in_o.php 

But, to save you time, here is the most compelling summary paragraph offfered by George Clifford:

"Two hundred years ago, denominational hymnody functioned as a unifying and educational force that transcended parish lines. Today, the church faces a stark choice. We can persist in mandating the music that I love, congratulate ourselves on holding to tradition and consistency, and watch our numbers continue to decline. Alternatively, we can embrace present reality, accepting (even if begrudgingly!) that new styles of music speak to many twenty-first century people in a way that traditional music does not and that projection is replacing printed resources. I believe that the second alternative, done well (and of course we Episcopalians do everything well), is the only viable choice that encourages growth both in numbers and spiritual depth."

Let's stop waiting until we're too depleted to make this change effectively.

God was with him

A sermon for 1 Epiphany A RCL (1-9-2011), offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry

Texts: Isaiah 42:1-9; Psalm 29; Acts 10:34-43; Matthew 3:13-17

How do we change ourselves? How are we able to effectively change our lives and also to change our communities?

This is a big challenge, and it seems to be on many people’s minds at this time of the year. What about you? How many of you made New Year’s resolutions 9 days ago?

Go on – raise your hands. Good. Can you tell us what they were about? Not the specifics, just the topic. Like health, or money, or work, or family. Go on and call it out.

How effective do you think you might be? Do you know that only 12% of Americans are typically able to achieve their New Year’s resolutions? This means that 88% of us fail to accomplish our New Year’s goals! Accomplishing change in ourselves in not easy, and yet we all recognize the need to do it.

So how can we make this happen? Perhaps some of you remember the old story of the fat Irish priest who was visited by a poor distraught widow in need of guidance.

“I am in despair,” the woman said to her priest. “My son spends all our money on honey, which he eats straight from the pot. We are penniless. Please come and tell him to stop!”

You have to understand that this was before the days of sugar and chocolate. Honey in the jar then was like the best candy and sweets that we have today. Well, weeks passed and the priest did not come. The old widow thought that he must have forgotten her request. So she went to see him again. And as soon as she came into the room, she was amazed at the sight of him.

“You are so thin!” she exclaimed. “What’s wrong with you?”

“Well, I have given up buying honey and eating it straight from the pot,” the priest replied. “Now that I know that I can stop, I will come and tell your son to stop as well!” (see Celtic Parables.)


Here is an old story which points to the importance of community and personal example in effecting change. Someone in his community needed this priest to change, and his example has benefit for others.

Ever since it first took place, people have wondered about why Jesus was baptized by John in the Jordan. Even John was confused! After all, this was a baptism of repentance, which means the forsaking of sins and the commitment to change one’s life. But Jesus had no need of that. He had no sin. He did not need to change his life.

We will never know why for certain, but perhaps the Lord understood the power of his personal example and what this might mean for the rest of us who would come to follow in his footsteps. And perhaps it was this humility, this willingness to do whatever was necessary in order to accomplish the goal of God that elicited this voice of affirmation from the heavens: “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”

And so we today follow his example. We come to blessed waters to be baptized, to be anointed, to receive the Holy Spirit, to be named as a child of God.

Today, as we gather to baptize two beautiful young children, God speaks these words of grace and joy in our very midst: “This is my daughter, Olivia and Amelia, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”

But it’s not quite the same for us as it was for Jesus. He did not need to change his life, but we do! Not the anything is wrong with Olivia and Amelia yet, but we all know it’s coming. And by the time they are forced to make difficult choices, and when on occasion they make the wrong choice, they too will understand about the challenges of this human life and the difficulty of changing ourselves.

After all, that is why we are here! Change is exactly what the church is all about. If you wish to change yourself, if you can see the potential for so much more within yourself and you long to see it come to fruition…if you wish to see this world change, if you can see the potential for so much good within our communities and are frustrated by the violence and needless suffering and heartache that so many experience…if you see and feel these things, then you are in the right place. Change is what this community gathered around Jesus, called the church, is all about.

Listen again to what Peter preached when he spoke to Cornelius and his household: “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power;… he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.”

Can you see here in these words the prescription for our malady as well as the description of our goal?

God anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit and with power. We are given the same, and what is more – we are given a community of fellow pilgrims on a journey together to become more tomorrow than what we are today.

Spirit, power, community – these are fantastic tools that God gives to us. But to what end? To do what he did. To go about doing good, to bring healing to those who are oppressed by the forces of evil in this world.

That is what this baptism is all about: being brought into a living community where we are equipped with the tools and the energy and the motivation to change ourselves and to change the world, so that all together we might become what God intended for us.

Remember this, as we stand in just a few minutes to declare once more our trust in God, and to promise faithfully to walk in the path of Christ, to become agents of change along with him in his work of redeeming the world.

Amen.

Like the Days of a Tree

Sermon for Proper 28 C RCL (11/14/2010), offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry

Texts: Isaiah 65:17-25; Canticle 9; 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13; Luke 21:5-19


We all know that change is difficult. Changes in our world, and particularly those changes that affect us personally, always seem uncomfortable and we often do not think clearly when confronting change. I think that many of us are like an elderly woman who recently attended a church meeting where the guest speaker was explaining all of the ways that our society has recently changed in regards to faith and the church. After this speaker then discussed all of the new things that churches need to do to stay relevant for people today, he opened the floor for questions. This elderly woman raised her hand. She was obviously nonplussed by these new ideas, so she asked, “Can’t we all just stay home and watch TV like the good Lord intended?”

Today, at the end of our annual cycle through the Christian year, we are given texts that speak to God’s vision for the end of time. We call this apocalypse, and it is always given to be a source of hope and encouragement for those who are oppressed, worried, stressed and anxious.

This text from Isaiah is written to those living in exile, those who are anxious and worried. This apocalyptic vision of Isaiah is meant to give courage and hope to those who cannot see any hope for their future. Into that darkness, that bleakness, Isaiah speaks a word of light, of hope, of truth.

No more shall they build houses, and create fruitful vineyards, and lose it all to those who are stronger than they. No more shall they be overcome by conquering armies who oppress them and force them to leave their homeland. No more, says the LORD. Because I am creating a new heavens and a new earth where illness and death and violence will not be the dominant power any longer. “They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, says the LORD” (Isaiah 65:25c). This is a vision of a different kind of future!

There’s an old story of from the days of slavery that speak to the kind of vision that Isaiah had here, the vision that is at the core of all apocalyptic talk.

Once, a young slave woman was out in the fields, toiling and laboring under the hot sun, when she broke. She lost her stamina. She decided to quit. So she put down her hoe and she started to cry and she said, “I can’t take it anymore! I can’t take it anymore! I wanna die!” But an old man was there with her in the field. He heard her cry and called out to her. “Don’t die, baby,” he said. “Don’t die. Get dressed up and come with me!”

“So I got dressed up,” as she tells her story. “I got dressed so fine, in the finest clothes you ever saw. You should’ve seen me! We went walking together, and we walked around through heaven. Everyone was there. It was beautiful! And then we walked straight down into hell and there I spit on the devil. And we came back to heaven, and I walked right up to the throne of God, and I was just about to talk with the Father, when – SLAP! – the whip hit my back! It brought me back to the field and knocked me to the ground. And there was the Master standing over me with the whip in his hand. I looked up at him, and I laughed with secret laughter. Because he had the whip, but I had all the advantage!”

He had the whip, but I had all the advantage. The apocalyptic vision allows us to look beyond the evident, to see the shape of a new, God-given future even in the midst of the chaos of our human society. But, a word of warning! Much care is needed when we walk into the arena of the apocalypse. This kind of language, this kind of vision is very powerful, and many people misunderstand it and many misuse it for their own advantage.

Have any of you seen the signs posted around these parts about the end of the world? The signs read: “Judgment Day is coming, May 21, 2011.” And at the bottom of the sign there is the link to a website: www.wecanknow.com.

The people behind this advertising campaign (and it is an advertising campaign, after all!) are convinced that through the correct interpretation of the Bible we can know the exact date on which God will supernaturally destroy the world and end human history. And, of course, they alone are the ones who have this correct interpretation. No one else has it! But they have it!

But did you hear what Jesus said? “Beware that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and ‘The time is near!’ Do not go after them” (Luke 21:8). When folks are fearful and confused, when people are anxious and worried about what is happening around them, then they become more vulnerable to these kind of shrill voices who falsely claim to have the secret knowledge which alone can deliver them from their distress.

Our Lord knows this about us human beings. This is why he gives us such common sense advice. Don’t listen to those voices; don’t be so foolish as to believe such lies.

Many of you will know that President Obama was on a tour of Asia last week. Perhaps many of you will also know that his trip to Indonesia was cut short by the eruption of Mount Merapi on the island of Java. Did you also hear about the appointed spiritual guardian of the mountain, Mr. Mbah Maridjan, the juru kunci, the servant of the Island’s Sultan, who died in the resulting lava flows?

The volcanologists, the scientists, warned everyone that the eruption was imminent. They could see it coming. But Mr. Maridjan was convinced by his secret spiritual sources that no eruption would take place. So the locals, who know him and trusted him as a local leader, were confused, and a number of people did not evacuate. And a number of people perished with him.

When crisis confronts you, when your world seems like it is changing for the worse, where do you turn for hope and guidance? To whose voice will you listen? I know that most of you are not anxious about the coming rapture and the end of the world, and thankfully, most of us are not facing such life and death kind of choices. But many of you are anxious about your test results, or anxious about what kind of people your children will end up being, or about whether or not you will have a job and money to pay the bills in the months to come. Some of you are anxious because your town is changing and becoming very different than it used to be, or perhaps even because your church is changing and becoming very different than it used to be.

Whatever it is that is the source of your anxiety and fear about the future, let those with ears to hear listen and heed the truth: there is no place where you will find comfort and security outside of the unfailing love and mercy of God. There is no secret source of hidden knowledge, no easy fix. Be wary of those who speak in that way. You already know where to turn. You must trust and rest in this Love of God that will never leave you or forsake you.

At the end of our apocalyptic Gospel reading today, Jesus offers words of promise and hope: “They will put some of you to death. You will be hated by all because of my name. But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your souls” (Luke 21:16-19).

I confess that this text confuses me a bit. Obviously, if those disciples are to be put to death, I would imagine that this would include damaging their hair in the process! And this is indeed what happened to them on this earth. But, by their endurance, they gained their souls.

And by your enduring trust and love and commitment as disciples of this wise and loving Master, even in the face of impending trouble and change, you will gain your souls. By seeing with the eyes of faith, you can laugh at those things in your world that seem to threaten you. By steadfast endurance, faithfulness and fidelity, you will find a life, secure in Christ, beyond the reach of any worry or anxiety. Because in Christ, no matter what the outward circumstances might suggest, we have all the advantage. Thanks be to God. Amen.