Total Home Renovation

When I am not working on CertaPro or a sermon, this is my life. This 1889 Victorian house that is in need of a complete over-haul. Most of the interior is done, so now I am focused upon the exterior. I am taking down the old asbestos siding and aluminum trim wrapping, and restoring the original clapboard and re-building the detailed trimwork. It's fun, but it's a shame that is has to take years and years to complete!

Here's a glimpse of the inside. It is a very visually stimulating place.Bright colors, traditional African handcrafts, original artwork and Victorian trimwork. At least it's interesting!

Make It Bear More Fruit

Sermon for the 5th Sunday of Pascha / Easter (RCL - B)
Offered by Nathan Ferrell at HS, Bellmawr & St. Luke’s, Westville

Texts: Acts 8:26-40; Psalm 22:25-31; 1 John 4:7-21; John 15:1-8

In the mountains of North Carolina, the McGee’s lived a simple and humble life, but one that was filled with lots of joy and love. These folks are my wife’s grandparents and if you’ve heard me talk, then you likely know that they have been very important people in her life. One summer in college, she went to live with them in order to learn a bit of their wisdom.

Erin recalls one day early on in that summer when she was out in the massive garden that old Reverend McGee planted and tended. She was out to help Grandpa with his weeding. Now, Erin grew up in the city, and so she was not too familiar with gardens. Grandpa McGee was the Master Gardener, and he took great pride in his amazing vegetables. And so you can imagine how quite frustrated he was when he found out that Erin, who thought that she was being helpful and pulling out weeds, instead actually had spent the day pulling up all of his newly sprouted bean plants!

Trust me: it’s best to let the Master Gardener handle the garden, and it’s best for those who don’t know what their doing to just stay out of the way!

Our Lord Jesus reminds us today that God is the Master Gardener, and God has a plan for shaping our lives so that they can become beautiful, lush gardens that produce bumper crops of fruits and vegetables that can be shared with family and friends and neighbors all around.

But, in order for these gardens to be fruitful, they have to be weeded! In order for the grapevines to produce more grapes, they have to be pruned.

Who likes the idea of being pruned? I mean, really! Do any of us really welcome change in ourselves?
In the Greek, the word translated here as pruning has the same meaning as cleansing.
Kathairo – to prune, to cleanse, to make clean.

Jesus teaches us that God intends to do this in our lives: “[My Father] removes – literally, carries away – every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that [does bear] fruit he prunes – he cleanses – to make it bear more fruit” (John 15:2).

Can you see the plan? If you bear fruit now – if you are open now to the Holy Spirit - then God’s plan and intention is to change your life so that every year you bear more and more fruit.

But what really does it mean to “bear more fruit”? It means that my actions – and your actions – become increasingly more and more in line with the actions of our Lord, Jesus Christ. It means that we become his disciples, his students who are learning from him how this life is meant to be lived.
As our Epistle reading stated so clearly today: “God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him.” So that we might through him, in him, for him, with him.

“My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples” (John 15:8).
You see, we all imitate someone else. Each one of us is a disciple of at least one other person. We all learn how to live from others.

We need to be careful about who we emulate. This is why I cannot simply agree with others when they say that all religions are basically the same and they teach the same things. Are they really? Do they really teach the same things?

Muhammed is claimed to be the prophet of God. His followers claim that he is the final and most perfect of all of the prophets. And yet, Muhammed was a wealthy slave owner.
Muhammed violently attacked and killed those who opposed his teaching.
In contrast, our Lord Jesus Christ was a common, humble man who never displayed violence against anyone. And when he was attacked and opposed, he responded with love and compassion and was willing to sacrifice himself rather than to attack.
“Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter…”

What kind of fruit would you expect to see in the lives of those who follow these two very different men?
In the real world that you and I live in, choosing which one of these men to follow has an enormous impact upon our lives.
It is our choice to make. God has given us a mind and we are to use it. We must be careful in our choice of who to imitate. It truly can be the difference of life and death.

On this past Friday, the Church celebrated and remembered the Feast Day of blessed Dame Julian of Norwich. Some of you may know her story. Others of you may have heard of her amazing visions, the most famous of which is the vision of the hazelnut lying in her hand.
This nut symbolized the world resting in the loving hand of God. Small and fragile though the world is – small and insignificant our lives may be – yet God created us in love, sustains us even now in love, and is redeeming and cleansing our lives now in love.

After this vision, Dame Julian wrote down a remarkable prayer which summarizes her vision of God’s redeeming love:

"God, of your goodness, give me yourself, for you are enough for me, and I can
ask for nothing which is less which can pay you full worship. And if I ask
for anything which is less, always I am in want; but only in you do I have
everything.”

Only in you, Lord, do I have everything. For God is love, and that is enough for me.

-Someone very wise once said that “faith is the direction your feet start movin’ in when you know that you are loved.”
-God is love, and God has loved us with an amazing, everlasting love. When we truly can embrace that love and carry it in our hearts – in the center of our being – all the time, then our feet start moving. Then we begin to love others as we have been loved. “We love because God first loved us.”

The invitation to each one of you here today is to make yourself at home in the love of Christ. There is no better place for your heart to dwell. And, my friends, don’t fight with the pruner. Don’t argue with the Master Gardener. Let God cut out of you every little hint of bitterness or anger or greed or jealousy. Every hint of that spirit that grabs and takes, and let that be replaced with the open hand that receives, that receives every good thing as a gift from our loving Father who surrounds us at all times.

This is true and abundant life. This is the fruit of love. Amen.


Blessing of Mothers for Mother's Day

Father, we give you thanks for the many gifts you have given us;
the gift of life, the gift of those who love us.
We thank you today for the gift of our mothers and grandmothers.
We give thanks for our Mothers and Grandmothers who have diedand for the unique way they have revealed for us your love.
We ask that you Bless them and keep them in your careuntil the time comes for us to join them in the heavens.

We ask your Blessing upon the Mothers and Grandmothers who are unable to be with us here today.May they know how much we love and care for them.
We pray for birth mothers who have loved their children so much they have shared the gift of their child with those who could better care for them and their needs, and give them a secure home.

And we pray for adoptive mothers, that they may always know their special role of being a true mother, a revelation of God's love for their children.

We ask your blessing upon Mothers who have lost childrenthrough miscarriage, stillbirth, crib death, accident and tragedy, that theymay know your continuing strength and courage.

We ask your blessing too, upon those who would very muchlike to be mothers but who are having trouble having a child.
And we ask your Blessing especially upon the Mothers and Grandmothers standing before us here +. Give them the strength to live the faithful and loving lives you call them to live.
Protect and guide them. Keep them in your care.

We ask this Blessing in the name of our Lord, God and Savior, Jesus Christ. AMEN.

We Know Love by This

Sermon for the 4th Sunday of Pascha / Easter (RCL – Year B)
Offered by Nathan Ferrell at HS, Bellmawr & St. Luke’s, Westville

Texts: Acts 4:5-12; Psalm 23; 1 John 3:16-24; John 10:11-18

My friends: this is Good Shepherd Sunday, the one Sunday in the Great Fifty Days when the Church reflects together upon our life under the care of our Lord who is the Good Shepherd.

All of us who are gathered here today have thought about God’s care for us personally as proclaimed with such beauty in the 23rd Psalm, one of the most widely known passages of Scripture. But this Sunday is much more about what it means to live together as one flock under the loving watch of Christ.

It has been said that “the church is a society of sinners. It is the only society in the world, membership in which is based upon the single qualification that the candidate shall be unworthy of membership” (Charles Clayton Morrison).

The Church is the flock of wayward, stubborn sheep who seem to always be looking at greener grass farther away and yet who the Good Shepherd has brought together and keeps together through his own personal sacrifice.

And yet, how quickly we forget why we are here. How quickly we forget that love is the reason for our gatherings and that unity in love in this one flock is God’s plan.

Do you know why geese fly together in V-shaped delta wing formations? We have seen many in the past 2 months, migrating back to the north after the winter. Do you know why they fly together as they do? An individual goose, going alone, can fly roughly 100 miles in a day. But when they are in formation, flying together, they can fly up to an amazing 1000 miles a day. 10 times farther every day!

This is a metaphor, a parable that the Creator has given us to display the power of brothers living together in unity, the energy that God designed to be at work among humanity gathered together in the one flock which is the Church.

God designed the Church to be one. Through our human pride and greed and selfishness, we have completely destroyed that unity. Right now there are over 10,000 separate Christian churches and associations in the world, all paying homage to Jesus Christ as the Good Shepherd, and each one laying claim to be the “true” and “correct” Church. How ridiculous, and how sad!

And of course, as any of you know, we in The Episcopal Church are right now in the midst of a struggle where the battle lines are being drawn and groups are dividing into their own tidy little corners with all of those who think and act like themselves.

Even right now, for the first 2 weeks of May, the Anglican Consultative Council, with members – lay and ordained – from across the globe, are gathered together to consider the creation of an Anglican Covenant. This Covenant is likely to be approved and passed along to all of the member churches of the Anglican Communion as a framework for our life together. I have seen the draft document. It is quite vague, with very little detail, but the Covenant does speak in beautiful theological language about the life of the Church gathered together under the care of the Good Shepherd.

It’s lovely, but to be frank, I cannot see any good reason why we need to spend our time and money on these things when we have all the guidance we need right now in the Scriptures. Aren’t these texts clear enough? Let’s look again at that reading from the 1st letter of John for today, and let’s read that first sentence together – in unison! “We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us – and we ought to lay down our lives for one another” (1 John 3:16).

Is this not clear enough?

Two tourists are hiking in the Himalayan foothills in India, making their way through the thick jungle, when they spot a tiger in the bush. This tiger is eyeing them and looking hungry. So one on the hikers quickly reaches into his backpack and takes out a brand new pair of Nike sneakers, and begins to put them on. The other asks him, “Do you really think those will make you run faster than that tiger?” “I don’t have to run faster than that tiger,” the first says. “I just have to run faster than you!”

Sadly, unfortunately, this attitude has been all too characteristic of the church when dealing with one another. Even into our own day, with our conflicts and disagreements, our instinct seems always to look out only for our own interests. What do we need to do to protect ourselves?

But this is precisely what the Church of Jesus Christ is not about. We should know better, for we know love by this, that he laid down his life for us. “For while we were still weak, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly” (Romans 5:6) – for those who did not care about loving God nor their neighbor. The Good Shepherd laid down his life for us, to bring us into his flock.

And so what is the proper and correct response to receiving this amazing, loving care? “We ought to lay down our lives for one another.”

The questions being asked right now by our church leaders all across this country are: Who owns the property? Who holds the deed to the building? Who gets to stay here and who has to leave? How sad! Wrong questions!

The questions that we need to ask as the community living under the care of the Good Shepherd are these: Are we laying down our life on behalf of others? Are we serving others in the name of Christ? “Freely you have received; freely give.” This is the way of our Master.

Our Lord speaks to his people in parables, and we can be pretty sure that his students at that time had no idea what this meant. “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice.”

I have other sheep that do not look or think or speak like you, but they belong to the same flock as you, and they will listen to my voice.

And this, my friends, this is the crux of the matter: “They will listen to my voice.”

To whose voice are we listening? Factions, schisms, associations, splinter groups – so many clear evidences that we are in fact listening to a different voice. The wolf scatters the one flock.

In the 1940’s, in a Nazi German prison, Dietrich Bonhoeffer had this to say about the unity of the Church:

“Christian brotherhood is not an ideal that we must realize; it is rather a
reality created by God in Christ in which we may participate. The more clearly
we learn to recognize that the ground and strength and promise of all our
fellowship is in Jesus Christ alone, [then] the more serenely shall we think of
our fellowship and pray and hope for it” (Life Together, p.30-31).

And so, my friends, the way forward for us here in this community and in the larger Church is quite simple: let us love one another, not in word or speech, but in truth and action. Let us love another as the Good Shepherd has loved us. Amen.

Pride Project in Haddonfield, NJ

Here are a few pictures (before and after) of a major house project our company just completed in Haddonfield. We are all quite proud of this!

Let No One Deceive You

Sermon for the 3rd Sunday of Pascha / Easter (RCL – Year B)
Offered by Nathan Ferrell at HS, Bellmawr & St. Luke’s, Westville

Texts: Acts 3:12-19; Psalm 4; 1 John 3:1-7; Luke 24:36b-48

I recently heard a story, from Bart Campolo, of a 14 year old boy in Philadelphia who had been sentenced to time in a rehabilitation program for violent juvenile offenders. He had shot and killed an innocent teenager to prove himself to his gang. At the trial, the victim’s mother sat impassively silent until the end, when the youth was convicted of the killing. After the verdict was announced, she stood up slowly and stared directly at the convicted boy and stated, “I’m going to kill you.” Then he was taken away to serve several years in the juvenile rehab facility.
After about six months, the mother of the slain child went to visit his killer. He had been living on the streets before the murder, and she was the only visitor that he had in jail. For a time they talked, and when she left she gave him a little money for cigarettes. Then she started step-by-step to visit him more regularly, bringing food and small gifts.
Near the end of his three-year sentence, she asked him what he would be doing when he got out. He was confused and very uncertain, so she offered to help set him up with a job at a friend’s company. Then she asked about where he would live. He had no family to return to, so she offered him the temporary use of the spare room in her home. For eight months he lived there, ate her food, and worked at the job that she found for him.
Then one evening she called him into the living room to talk. She sat down opposite him and waited for a moment, collecting herself. And then she said, “Do you remember in the courtroom when I said I was going to kill you?” “I sure do,” he replied. “I’ll never forget that moment.” “Well, I did it,” she went on. “I did it. I did not want the boy who could kill my son for no reason to remain alive on this earth. I wanted him to die. That’s why I started to visit you and bring you things. That’s why I got you the job and let you live here in my house. That’s how I set about changing you. And that old boy, he’s gone. So now I want to ask you, since my son is gone, and since that killer is gone, if you’ll stay here. I’ve got room and I’d like to adopt you as my own son if you let me.” And so she became the mother he never had, and he became the son whom she had lost.

During these great fifty days, we are celebrating the reality of our risen Lord and the new life that he has brought to humanity. During these days, we sing with joy, we proclaim the “alleluia”, we speak of the joy of the resurrection. This is good and right thing. But this does not simply do away with the pain and trials of life.

“Little children, let no one deceive you.” My friends, we need to be honest and to recognize that, though Christ is risen, though death and the powers of hell have been overcome, that evil still exerts much influence over our lives. Think about this poor mother who lost her son for no reason. None at all except for a stupid, nasty game played by other young boys.

2000 years after the incarnation and resurrection, after the coming of Christ into the world, this remains a dark and evil world. The power of Christ’s resurrection life has changed and transformed countless billions of human lives over the years. But it has not seemed to make much of a difference in the general direction of life on this planet. Even today, poverty inflicts unnecessary pain on billions of human souls. Recently I heard a news report of a densely populated region in central China that is the steel mill center for China’s rapid development. Among the people of this province, birth defects are 6 times higher than in the rest of the country. Through our own actions today, we are causing cancers and birth defects and new viruses that cause great harm, as well as causing mass extinctions of other species and changes to our entire global environment.

This world of humanity remains a dark, dark place. But it is precisely there that our Lord comes, dies and rises again.

My wife, Erin, is an artist, an oil painter. If you’ve ever watched an artist begin to work on a blank canvas, you will soon realize that a good, memorable painting requires multiple steps and layers to achieve the desired effect. Erin likes to paint with bold, bright colors. But before she can begin to use these colors, first the entire canvas or board must be covered with a dark brown or black base layer. Without this darkness beneath the painting, the colors will not be as bold and bright and noticeable.

Now think back to the mother over in the city who lost her son in a violent crime, and yet who gained an adopted son 3 years later. Nothing could ever replace the son that she lost. There is no way to explain away her pain, and we can never minimize it. And yet, out of this pain, new life has emerged. New hope, new possibilities.

We know with certainty that sin is detestable to God. What did we hear proclaimed today in John’s first letter? “No one who abides in God sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him.” God longs for us to live a life without sin, a life without lies or deception, anger or wrath, a life without violence or bloodshed, greed or selfishness. Sin breaks the heart of God and it causes us pain.

But the truth is that without our sin, then we would never know the new life that Christ brings to us now.
Without the pain of the cross, then the apostles would not have been struck with wonder and awe and joy when they encountered their Lord, now risen and alive in their midst.

Without the struggle of our lives, then we can never know the joy of victory, the peace that comes from accomplishment, the possibilities of a new beginning.

Let no one deceive you. In this midst of seeming darkness and struggle, new and full and abundant life is available through the risen Lord. Where do you see it springing up and bearing new fruit?

May the eyes of our faith ever be open to notice and to see our Lord as he goes about his redeeming work among us. Amen.

Spring in New Hampshire

The kids and Seamus (Westie) on the Lake Solitude trail. It was a warm day, but we still had to trudge through thick snow and manuever over slick ice at the top.










Watching a flock of 14 ravens fly low over the mountain, frolicking in the warm winds

As always, the dogs love to go hiking!

A view from White Ledges on Mount Sunapee down to Crotched Mountain and Pack Monadnock

As of First Importance - Paschal Sermon

Sermon for Holy Pascha (Year B RCL)
Offered by Nathan Ferrell at Holy Spirit, Bellmawr & St. Luke’s, Westville

Texts: Acts 10:34-43; Psalm 118; 1 Corinthians 15:1-11; John 20:1-18

My brothers and sisters, Christ is Risen! The Lord Jesus is risen from the grave!
Can you see it? Can you feel it? The darkness is fading; the Light has risen! The old has passed away; the new has come! Death is dead; life is born again!

This is the resurrection Feast, the holiest and most blessed of all days, when we rejoice in the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead – the first fruits of the new creation!
And so we sing, Alleluia! Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and on those in the grave bestowing life!

Everything has changed now because of this event, this resurrection. Life on this planet has never been the same since that day. Your life, and my life, is forever changed because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

Now, I recognize that it is hard for the modern mind to grasp this reality of resurrection. The problem is that the resurrection cannot be proved or disproved as if it were a theory for which we could develop a set of experiments. In truth, this is because we are not speaking of an abstract idea. Today, we are not celebrating a concept, like the rebirth of spring after a long winter.
No. We sing, we speak of a man – a real life human being who is alive and well today.
This is not some fairy tale story. This man, this one who was so brutally executed by Roman soldiers, early on Sunday morning, before the sun rose, that man stood up and walked out of the tomb alive, more alive that you or I could ever imagine!

This man is the one we trust. We are not espousing faith in the idea of a resurrection. The church does not counsel us to consent to the concept of life after death. Rather, we are committing ourselves to this man, to this particular man who lived and died and yes, who is alive even now.
And so put out of your head once and for all any notion of “Christianity”, as if we could trust our very lives to some set of beliefs and ideals. I often hear people say things like, “Oh, I believe in the golden rule.” That might be nice on the kindergarten playground, but it won’t do to sustain a real life in the real world.

What we proclaim today is a real man in the real world – Jesus the Messiah – who lives today to transform ordinary human lives into something beautiful and fantastic and divine.
And so I will say it again: There is no such thing as Christianity. You will never hear me use that word. It doesn’t exist! But what does exist is a real man who died and rose again, and a real life community of people who love him and who are learning from him how to live.

Any intellectually honest person who is willing to look at the facts of what we know about the resurrection of Jesus Christ will conclude that something extraordinary happened on that Sunday morning. Something that cannot be explained away, something that has altered the lives of billions of people in the ensuing centuries.

Even Newsweek magazine had this to say recently about the veracity of the resurrection:

“From the beginning, critics of [the Church] have dismissed the Resurrection as
a theological invention. As a matter of history, however, scholars agree that
the two oldest pieces of New Testament tradition speak to Jesus’ rising from the
dead…The uniqueness – one could say, oddity, or implausibility – of the story of
Jesus’ resurrection argues that the tradition is more likely historical than
theological” (Newsweek, March 28, 2005).

If, in fact, Jesus did rise from the grave, than every other human discovery before or since pales in importance when compared to this. Mary Magdalene found an empty tomb, and it remains empty to this very day.

But if the resurrection be a hoax, some creative theological tale spun by desperate and ingenious followers of a failed revolutionary, then this building and all the nice and pretty words which are spoken here are totally hollow and empty. They may work to provide some measure of psychological soothing to human beings who are living through a difficult life – like an opiate for the masses, as one famous observer described it.

But if our claim be true, ah, then my friends, nothing else can matter so much. No one else but this risen Lord could possibly be the authority for our life. If Christ is raised, then there is power available and accessible right now to change and transform our lives.

We can never outrun that power, we can never use it up, we can never become separated from it. Because we can never become separated from Him, unless we choose to walk away. Resurrection power is here today, by trusting in the Lamb of God, who laid down his life out of love for you, who overcame the powers of death and hell, and who lives today.

The apostle Paul, who met the real, alive Jesus on the road to Damascus, and who was transformed by his awesome power, wrote this in his letter to the Christians at Corinth: “By the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain.”

Beloved, don’t let the grace and love and mercy that God has showered upon you – don’t let that be in vain! God loves you. God wants to be in loving relationship with you in a way that fills every moment of every day with light and truth and goodness. Open your minds and your hearts to this kind of new life with Jesus.

The great Saint John Chrysostom of the 3rd century has given us the magnificent and famous call for all people to join in the celebration of this Feast. Listen well to his words, and take them to heart.

The Paschal Homily of St. John Chrysostom (Read Each Year at Pascha)

Let us all enter into the joy of the Lord! First and last alike receive
your reward; rich and poor, rejoice together! Sober and slothful,
celebrate the day!
You that have kept the fast, and you that have
not, rejoice today for the Table is richly spread! Feast royally on it, for
the calf is fatted. Let no one go away hungry. Partake, all, of the cup of
faith. Enjoy all the riches of His goodness!
Let no one grieve at his
poverty, for the universal kingdom has been revealed. Let no one mourn that
he has fallen again and again; for forgiveness has risen from the grave.
Let no one fear death, for the Death of our Savior has set us free. He has
destroyed it by enduring it.
He destroyed Hades when He descended into it.
Hell took a body, and discovered God. It took earth, and encountered
Heaven. It took what it saw, and was overcome by what it did not see.

Where, O death, is your sting?

Where, O Hell, is your victory?

Christ is Risen, and you, O death, are annihilated!

Christ is Risen, and the evil ones are cast down!
Christ is Risen, and the angels rejoice! Christ is Risen, and life is liberated!
Christ is Risen, and the tomb is emptied of its dead; for Christ having risen
from the dead, is become the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep.
To Him be Glory and Power forever and ever. Amen

!

Blood Gushes Out

A Homily for Good Friday 2009 (4/10/2009), Offered at Church of the Holy Spirit, Bellmawr, NJ

There’s an old celtic story from Ireland about a conversation between Mary and Jesus when he was a young boy.

“Are you asleep, Mother?” Jesus asks.

“No, I am awake, dear Son.”

“Why are you awake, Mother?”

“Because I am distressed by a vision of you.”

“What is that vision, Mother?”

“It is a slim dark man, on a black horse, with a long
sharp lance in his left hand. He pierces your right side, and blood gushes
out.”

“Where does the blood fall, Mother?”

“It falls into my heart and into the hearts of all that love you.”
(Celtic Fire, by Robert Van de Weyer, 1990, p. 162-3).

Why do we call this day good? How can we give such a positive appellation for a day of suffering and pain, forced upon one who never deserved such treatment?

In the eastern churches, it is called Great Friday because it stands apart from and above every other Friday of the year. Perhaps the title of good derived from that ancient title many hundreds of years ago.

Of course, we know now why it is Good Friday. In this cross, we discover who we really are. What other people have been bought at such a cost? Who else in the history of humankind has ever willingly died to create a new community, to redeem a new nation?
-Because of this Good and Great Friday, we know that we are loved, we know that nothing – not even death – can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The blood which gushes forth from the cross falls into the hearts of all that love him. Does it fall into your heart? Does it touch your heart? Are you there, standing with the Blessed Mother at the foot of the cross, gazing on the one who was pierced?

I can think of no better place to stand. Stay there at the foot of the cross. Spend your entire life there with Mary, allowing the awesome majesty of love divine to ever hold sway over your heart and mind.

One more ancient Celtic song for our reflection upon the Cross:

“I adore the suffering King who feels my suffering; I love the sorrowing Lord
who knows my sorrow.

At his death, no fire came upon his captors to
burn them, no great flood rose to sweep them away; the earth did not open to
swallow them up; the sky did not fall to crush them.

No fierce
birds came to attack Pilate; no wild beast mauled the priests and the scribes;
no snake rose up to bite those who whipped Jesus.

He allowed them
to accuse him falsely, without opening his mouth. He let them drag him to the
cross with no words of reproof. He watched quietly as they drove nails into his
hands and feet.

He who created the universe, he who preserves the
universe, he whom the sun and moon obey, he who rules the stars, forsook his
mighty power.

So he suffered with us who suffer much; he sorrowed
with us who feel much sorrow.

I adore the suffering King who feels
my suffering; I love the sorrowing Lord who knows my sorrow.”
(Celtic Fire, by Robert Van de Weyer, 1990, p.167-8).

Amen.

The Majestic Lion

A Sermon offered for Palm Sunday 2009

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.
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 Hymnal, # 161).

On this day of mixed emotions, we gaze upon the passion of our Lord and upon his broken, beaten, crucified body upon the cross. Through a travesty of justice, he stands condemned by cowardly men who lived afraid of the truth, too intent on protecting their own power and privilege to risk being interrupted by God.
And yet we can rightly glory in the triumph of this Passion, for we know that this is a pivot point of history, a point of no return after which life on earth can never be the same. With Saint Paul, we can boast above all else in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to us and us to the world (Galatians 6:14).

Our Lenten journey has brought us all the way to this point – to the Cross, to the choice that our Lord has made to empty himself even to the point of death on the cross.
Here we see in clearest detail the passionate love of God that will stop at nothing to achieve reconciliation with us.
Here in the Gospel of Mark, we do not see a meek and mild Lamb being led quietly to the slaughter. Not in the slightest. Here I see a bold and strong Lion who will not back down even in the face of death, One who sets his face like flint and who walks with determination straight toward his enemy, knowing with confidence that his Father is with him. Mark gives us this picture of the Master who is in control of the situation: he knows where they will celebrate the Passover, he knows of Judas’ treachery; he knows of Peter’s denials; he speaks with boldness before Pilate and the Sanhedrin. He does not shrink back from the truth, even though it means the agony of feeling forsaken by his Father, feeling separated from the Father.

Here in his Passion, our Lord offers himself as food for the world. This is the mystery which we celebrate and receive each time we gather here at the Table of the Lord. When we distribute the bread of communion, you may notice a wonderful symmetry between the words and the actions of the distribution. We say, “the body of Christ”, as we raise the sacred host before each person. For just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so the body of the Son of Man must be lifted high upon the cross, so that all those who trust him may have eternal life (John 3:14-15).

After this we say, “the bread of heaven” as we lower the bread into the hands of each one, for the Israelites ate the manna in the desert and died, but our Lord is in fact the true bread which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world (John 6:49-51).

The Son lifted up on the cross for our redemption; the manna coming down from heaven to feed our hungry souls. All of it right here in the Passion of our Lord, all of it right here at the turning point of history.

And standing before the authorities and rulers in Jerusalem, our Lord made the good confession. He declared the truth about his own identity and the world. “I am the Son of the Blessed One, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of God and coming with the clouds of heaven” (Mark 14:62). He did not shrink back in fear, but he pushed forward with faith and confidence in the one who would never leave him nor forsake him, the Father of all.

On Good Friday, we have scheduled times for confession before both of the Good Friday liturgies. In the Anglican tradition, we call this the Reconciliation of a Penitent. I know that many of you are not familiar with this rite, but it is right there in our prayer book and it has been part of our worship since the days of Thomas Cranmer. Following the guidance of scripture, we do not teach that private confession is a requirement to partake of the precious body and blood of our Lord. Each person must examine and prepare themselves; this is a matter of conscience. However, in many parts of the Church, there has been a long-standing practice of making a formal, complete, sacramental confession at least once or twice a year, most especially during the seasons of Advent and Lent, before the great festivals of the Incarnation and the Resurrection. But simply because this practice is not required, does not mean that it is not beneficial.

On Friday, there is time available for each person to come individually, to sit together with me before the cross of our Lord, to pray together and to make a full and complete confession of everything on your conscience, and then to receive the gift of absolution. For me and for many others who have made use of this rite, this is a wonderful gift, an opportunity to lay down all the burdens of our past and to partake again of the redemption made by our Lord for us in the most direct and deliberate way. The classic guidance for this practice of private confession among Anglicans is this: “All may; none must; some should.” All are welcome to make use of this gift. None are required to do so. Some need to make use of it to find healing for past sins which weigh heavy on the heart.

For there is healing power in the blood of the Lamb, shed upon the cross for our redemption, offered by the One who comes as a conquering Lion to claim victory over the forces of death and hell. As we begin this Holy Week together, God calls us to lay aside everything that distracts us, and to walk with our Lord in this way of his suffering. For as we trace again his footsteps, we draw near once more to the strength, healing and grace of new and eternal life in Jesus Christ. Trust in him; walk with him; and you will experience this new life within you, a life that death cannot quench.

There My Servant Will Be

A Sermon for the 5th Sunday of Lent (March 29, 2009)

Our journey toward the passion of our Lord continues today as we hear once more of our Lord’s commitment to the way of the cross. In our texts for today, we hear of our Lord preparing to offer himself as both priest and victim. Freely and with resolve, He offers himself for the redemption of the world. And what is more, he calls us to walk this path with him, to journey with him to the cross, to lay down our lives on behalf of others.

This is the path of love. But it is not an easy path. Our natural minds fight against it. The instinct for self-preservation is so strong. In order to walk this path with our Lord, we must be transformed by the renewing of our minds.

In our book chapters for this week, we read about people whose natural, instinctual perspectives have been transformed by the light of Christ. Anna, by nature, has a difficult time dealing with her mother-in-law, Irene. But God has shown Anna that Irene is meant to be in her life, that Irene is sent to her in order to assist Anna in overcoming her most deep seated sins. And at the very end of Chapter 11, we find this amazing prayer written by Bishop Nikolai. This Bishop was a fierce opponent of the Nazi’s. He was arrested and sent to the Dachau concentration camp. “Bless my enemies, O Lord,” he wrote. “Even I bless them and do not curse them. Enemies have driven me into your embrace more then friends have.”

Imagine, please, what life would be like if you could see the world in this way. Take a moment and think about the person in your life at this moment who is giving you the most difficulty. Perhaps it is a co-worker or your boss. Perhaps it is your spouse or your child. This is the person for whom you need to give thanks to the Lord. This person is the most skilled tool which God has given you to overcome the sin in your life. The eyes of faith allow us to trust that God has placed this person in our life for a reason, in order to help us to overcome our anger, pride and selfishness. I hope that you will be able to name this person directly during the Prayers of the People today, when we pause to ask God to “bless all whose lives are closely linked with ours”. What is the point of giving thanks only for those who are nice to us? For those we like and who like us? Doesn’t everyone do this? Do not even the Gentiles act in this way? But the way of Christ allows us to pray for, and even to love, our enemies. In Christ, we are different than the world. We see things differently, and we give thanks for those who trouble us.

This is the path of dying to self. “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains only a single grain; but if it dies, it yields a rich harvest.” Jesus demonstrates for us this path of laying down his life for the sake of others. A bit further along in the Gospel of John, our Lord speaks of the greatest love of laying down his life for his friends. But in Romans, St. Paul explains that “while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son” (Romans 5:10). While we were enemies of God, our Lord laid down his life to bring us back to the Father. How can we do any less, when we have received so great a salvation?

Damien de Veuster is a Belgian Catholic priest who went to live among the people of a remote peninsula on Molokai in Hawaii. This was 1864, and Father Damien volunteered to serve among 8,000 people who had been banished to this place because they had contacted leprosy during an outbreak in Hawaii during the 1850s. Father Damien led a group who went to the lepers colony in order to serve those who had been outcast by society. He was well aware of the risk that he took, that he too might catch this deadly disease. It is said that Father Damien spent years attempting to connect with the people there, but to no avail. He was not able to led them to respond to the love of God in any meaningful way, and his ministry there did not seem to bear any fruit. Therefore he decided to leave the colony, since he had no symptoms of Hanson’s disease, as leprosy is officially named. However, on the very day when he was scheduled to be picked-up by a boat and carried away, as he stood waiting on the dock, he looked down at his hands and noticed several white spots. He too had become a leper, and now he was forced to stay among the people of Molokai. Father Damien returned to the congregation he had tried to serve for years, but now his work was entirely different. He was an outsider no more; now he was one of them. He stayed there the rest of his life, sharing the love of Christ with thousands, until his death at the early age of 49 years.

Father Damien walked in the path of Christ, willing to lay down his life on behalf of others. “Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there my servant will be also.” Damien de Veuster is to be canonized this coming October by the Vatican.

It’s not likely that you and I will be asked to lay down our lives like Father Damien did, but maybe - just maybe - we will. However, what we know with certainty is that God asks us to lay down our live daily, in small ways, on behalf of those around us every single day.

The great Thomas Merton explained this path with great clarity.

“The true path of [Christian] asceticism is a path of simplicity and obscurity,
and there is no true Christian self-denial that does not begin first of all with
a whole-hearted acceptance and fulfillment of the ordinary duties of one’s state
in life” (The Ascent to Truth, p. 159).

It’s so easy for us to be tempted by the big and bold and brilliant. We live in a world of celebrity, after all, and fame seems to be the prize that all people seek today. But we know better. We know that love supersedes fame and fortune, the love that is shown when we choose to reject our anger and bitterness and greed, and instead to live with generosity, humility, patience in our everyday lives. May God continue to transform us, so that when we are tempted to turn and run from the difficulties of our lives, that by the grace of God, we may instead embrace them as blessed opportunities to become more – more filled with the love and the light of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.