The 5 Stages of Transformation

A Sermon for the 2nd Sunday in Lent (RCL A) 3-20-2011, offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry

Texts: Genesis 12:1-4a; Psalm 121; Romans 4:1-5,13-17; John 3:1-17

“How can anyone be born after having grown old?” How can anyone be born from above?

Our youngest child, Fiona, is now 8 years old. She is what we call a “cuddle bug.” She is her mama’s girl. Ever since she has had the ability to speak, Fiona has asked if she can crawl back into her mama’s belly. Even at age 8, she still tries. She’ll pull up Erin’s shirt and try to squeeze in as close to that belly as she can get. I think Fiona likes Nicodemus’ idea of “entering a second time into the mother’s womb”.

Unfortunately, it is likely that she is just as confused about our Lord’s words in this story as Nicodemus was. These words of Jesus when he responded to Nicodemus have puzzled more people than just that learned Israelite! In addition to Nicodemus, Christians throughout the centuries have wondered over the meaning of this text.

The truth is that it seems clear that the one who wrote this text in John’s Gospel intended for it to be puzzling. In our text today, Jesus said, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” But in most people’s Bibles, Jesus says “No one can see the kingdom of God without being born again.” Why the difference? Which one is it? Born from above or born again?

The word used in the original Greek manuscripts in anothen, and this is a word that has a double meaning. Anothen means either “from above” or “again”. Both are consistent with the original text, and both offer directions for faithful interpretations of the text.

To be born again has meant, to many Christians, the need for each believer to have a dramatic, one-time conversion experience that changes the direction of life from then onwards.

How many of you have “born-again” Christians in your family? In your circle of friends?

It’s not quite so common here, but if you travel down in the Bible belt region, you’re almost certain to be asked the question: “Have you been born again?” Christians who emphasize the need for this kind of conversion are mostly the ones who practice believers baptism. Their teaching is that those who are born again in this way, those whose hearts are suddenly touched and changed by the grace of God, are then baptized as a sign of their new faith and their new identity as a member of the body of Christ.

On the other hand, to be born from above has meant to many Christians the steady, on-going progress of spiritual transformation that occurs throughout the life of a believer. This of course is the primary meaning that we use in the catholic tradition, and this is one of the reasons why we baptize children.

Let’s be clear: baptizing babies has nothing at all to do with protecting them from an uncertain fate in the tragic event that they die as infants. Rather, it has everything to do with immersing them in a community where they are given the tools for this kind of life-long spiritual rejuvenation.

The name for this entire topic within Christian theology is regeneration: the process by which someone is re-generated, re-created, made young in heart and soul once again after becoming physically mature.

And the question before us today is this: is regeneration a sudden conversion experience, a born-again experience; or else is it a life-long process of conversion and transformation?

The answer, of course, isYES! Both are true. Both are legitimate, faithful ways of interpreting this text and of understanding how God works in our lives.

The truth is that many people experience sudden touches of grace that change them radically, but many others do not. And, in fact, many others who were baptized as infants most likely need to be born again – they often need to experience a profound fresh start in their lives.

Both of these emphases are true and faithful. God has as many unique ways of dealing with human beings as there are people. This is because the process of growth and change in life is so very difficult.

A story is told of a homeless man who was standing on a street corner just off of Wall Street up in Manhattan. He stood there holding out hands, begging for money, pleading with all the corporate people passing by, saying, “Change? Change?”

One corporate executive who passed right in front of the homeless man responded frankly by saying, “I’m trying! I’m trying!”

Isn’t that right? Aren’t we all trying? All of us who are in Christ are trying to be faithful, but many of us simply do not know how, and we do not have a plan for how to embrace fully this eternal life that Jesus brings.

So how do we do it? How can we be born after having grown old?

In his masterpiece book called The Divine Conspiracy, Dallas Willard lays out a way of understanding the progressive growth of the Christian life. Willard describes five developing dimensions of the eternal life that we share with Christ. Each dimension builds upon the previous ones, like the building of a house in stages.

The first dimension, the foundation of this eternal life, is “confidence in and reliance upon Jesus”. To begin this journey into an eternal kind of life, we need to come to a point where we recognize our need for Jesus to guide us into this new realm. This confidence often comes suddenly; many people describe it like falling in love.

Once we have become enraptured by Christ’s vision of this new life, once our hearts have been taken hostage by his grace and love, next comes the “desire to be his apprentice in living in and from the kingdom of God.” Whenever we come to respect someone as an important person, we naturally want to learn from them, to listen to their stories and to pay attention to their habits and behaviors. This is true even more so of Jesus, who offers us access into a new kind of life. This listening and paying attention is what an apprentice does, along with putting these things into practice for personal experience.

Next, after serving as apprentices for some time, we begin to learn a life of obedience. Just as Jesus was obedient to the One he called Abba, we begin to lead a life where we regularly practice the kind of life that we have seen in Christ and in those who are close to him, not out of fear, but out of love and desire. The obedience that counts is the obedience of love.

This on-going practice of obedience leads to a “pervasive inner transformation of the heart and soul.” Old habits are broken; new habits are created. The new practices become a complete way of life that is characterized by the same spirit that was seen in Jesus.

And finally, once this transformation has taken place, we are endowed with “power to work the works of the kingdom.” The friends of God are those who are close to God, those who have proven themselves trustworthy of the power of the Spirit, which blows where it will. These are the ones entrusted with more and more of God’s grace and power as life progresses, because they share more and more of their lives with God.

(The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard, p. 367-369).

Confidence, apprenticeship, obedience, transformation, power: these are the typical stages of regeneration in a human soul.

My friends: you and I are somewhere along this journey of regeneration. Perhaps we need a fresh start, a new birth. Perhaps we need strength to carry on with our learning and practice. Wherever we may find ourselves, let us not be content to stay where we are. There is more life available. With God’s help, may we have the strength and courage to persevere on this path of eternal life which we share with our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Happy Tessaracoste! A sermon for 1 Lent

A Sermon for the 1st Sunday in Lent (RCL A) 3-13-2011, offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry

Texts: Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7; Psalm 32; Matthew 4:1-11

Happy Lent, my friends! Once again, we have circled back to this season in which we prepare ourselves for Holy Week and our celebration of Christ’s resurrection.

The original name for this season of the church calendar is Tessaracoste, which comes from the ancient greek word meaning forty. This season of 40 days has always been intended to correspond to the forty days and nights spent by Jesus out in the wilderness.

As most of you know, the name which we use, Lent, is an Old English word which means “spring.” And so Lent is not meant to be a time for dark foreboding or morbid thinking. It is meant rather to be a time when we deal head-on with reality as it is, and not as we so often want it to be.

Today, we are given two parallel stories which serve as foundations for a biblical view of life. These stories give us a framework for understanding our own lives, and indeed, the experience of all of humanity.

On the one hand, we have Adam, the first human, the proto-type of all humanity, living in a beautiful garden-like paradise where everything needed for life is provided by a gracious and creative God.

Notice, please, the original vocation of the human: placed by God in Eden to till it and to keep it. The second part of this vocation is quite odd: to keep it. The work implies protection: to keep it, to guard it, to protect it, to shelter it, to defend it.

But, protect Eden from what? There was no one else present with Adam! And the cousin animals had no malicious intent. What was the source of any possible danger?

It was, of course, himself. Adam needs to guard and defend Eden from himself, to keep it against the mis-use of his own God-given freedom and power.

In contrast, we have a story about Jesus, who is described by the apostle Paul as the second Adam, the new human being who puts back together that which the first Adam has broken.

Here we have the two sides of humanity, the two sides of every single human being: Adam, who lacked self-control and who was unwilling to accept responsibility for his own behavior.

And Jesus, the second Adam, the one who is able to control and direct himself only toward life-giving and life-serving ends, and who takes responsibility for himself, his actions and his future.

The first Adam remains strong in all of us. We human beings seem to have an infinite ability or self-deception. We are quick to hide from reality, to avert our eyes from our own shortcomings, or to lay the blame for our troubles somewhere else.

We love to play the victim, don’t we? It’s not my fault! I couldn’t help it! Or, if only she had done XXXX, then I would not have done this! If he didn’t cut me off on the road, then I wouldn’t have done that! Excuses, excuses, excuses.

At the end of the day, the only one that we can ever blame for our words and our actions and our attitudes is ourselves.

This, for me, is what Lent is all about. Facing stark reality once again. Taking stock of my life so that I can take full responsibility for myself, for my family, for my community.

You might recall how Adam and Eve responded to God’s questioning about eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam said it was Eve’s fault; Eve said it was the serpent’s fault. God knows that it is humanity’s fault.

But the second Adam, the one who was faithful when tempted by the serpent, this one has restored our original vocation: we are to till and to keep this good earth as God’s representatives on this planet.

When we gather around this Table of the Lord, and when we “do this in remembrance” of Jesus, we are giving ourselves to this work. As in any relationship, there is a give-and-take. In the blessed sacrament, Christ feeds us. We receive much in the way of grace and comfort. But we also come forward and kneel at this altar rail in order to give – to give ourselves away into this amazing task of bringing God’s light and truth and love into the places of darkness, lies and hatred.

We say that we are here because we remember what Jesus Christ has done. To remember comes from the ancient Greek word, anamnesis. It means to put back together something that has come apart.

Think about our English word “re-member”. Members of a group, or of a body, are inherent parts or aspects of the whole.

When we “re-member” Jesus here as the Body of Christ, we do this by ingesting his Word in the scriptures, and by ingesting his Life in the bread and wine.

We “re-member” Christ by putting the body of Christ back together again, by re-creating here in this time and place the true and real Body of Christ.

We are all missionaries when we are baptized into Christ. After baptism with water, each child is anointed on the head with oil. Do you remember what the title of Christ meant in the original Greek? It’s the translation of the Hebrew word, Messiah. They both mean “anointed one”. This refers to the ancient practice of anointing a ruler with oil when they took the throne of authority.

So Jesus is the Messiah because he was anointed with the Holy Spirit after being baptized by John with the water of the Jordan River. We are anointed with oil and the Holy Spirit after being baptized with water. And this is where the name of “Christian” originated. To be a “Christian” is to be a little anointed one, a little Jesus, a little Messiah. Or, if you like, a reproduction of the Messiah in this particular incarnation – in this time and place, with my name, in my family, with all of my skills and gifts and abilities, and among my unique relationships in the human community.

By his faithfulness in the wilderness, by his ability to face reality head-on and to deal with the failure of humanity, by the taking of responsibility for our sin, our Lord Jesus Christ has restored our original purpose in the world.

When you take your place within the body of Christ, you are empowered to be who God has always intended and created you to be: little Christs who bring hope and peace and healing grace into a hurting world.

Thanks be to God. Amen.

Here is a brief video of my wife and girls dancing in Philly on Sunday!

St Patrick's Day Parade 2011

st. valentine's day poems for my love - 2011

Here are two poems that I wrote for Erin a few weeks back on Valentine's Day. They're not all that good, but there was a strict deadline and I had to rush them to completion!








Today-

the hat covers your head, though the red fringes are unrestrained;
the cold intrudes upon the warmth of your body like an unwanted guest.


Yesterday-
I revel in the memories of subdued passion, youthful freedom,
deep friendship, joyful anticipation.


Tomorrow-
I can see us sipping (or guzzling) wine on the porch swing,
still waiting for our luck to turn.


One thing is certain-
we will be together,
united in a common effort to make beauty in the darkness.


When God calls, how could it be any different?
We are partners and lovers on the journey.

 

You have never been adept at acting.

But then again, neither have I.


It has taken far more than guile for us to reach our station.


Honesty and beauty have been the engines of our movement.


And God has blessed you with an abundance of both.


Do you know what it is that I desire?


Just an open window, a door through which I can walk


Into the luxurious meadow which is the splendor of your soul.

 

Consider how they grow

A Sermon for the 8th Sunday after the Epiphany (RCL A) 2-27-2011
Offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry

Texts: Isaiah 49:8-16a; Psalm 131; 1 Corinthians 4:1-5; Matthew 6:24-34
Title: Consider How They Grow

Throughout this Epiphany season, we have been working our way through the better part of the Lord’s masterful Sermon on the Mount. We will leave this great teaching for a while, until we observe Ash Wednesday and hear once again our Lord’s call to pray and fast in secret, rather than in a way that is intended to impress others.

I hope that you are able to see the impressive structure and composition of this teaching session, this sermon on the mount. It has been intentionally put together in a way that is intended to deliver a compelling vision of life within the realm of God’s presence.

Let us be very clear about what we are given here in this most famous teaching. Jesus is not giving us a series of laws and rules to govern our behavior. These words are descriptive rather than prescriptive. That is, they are intended to describe life within the kingdom of God rather than to prescribe the precise way that we can experience it.

And what an amazing vision of life it is that Christ gives us here! It is a simple vision of life organized around one dominant priority, one overriding thought, one prevailing focus. That is, the goodness of God.

“No one can serve two masters.” So the teacher explains to us. This is not a rule that must be followed; it is a very simple and straightforward observation. It simple cannot be done, and besides, God is so much greater and better than wealth, why would anyone wish to serve a lesser master?

“Look at the birds of the air,” he says. “Consider the lilies of the field.”

I tell you, I would like to live in a community where flowers are considered to be far more beautiful than any royal person, and more worthy of our attention than any celebrity on the red carpet.

Who among us does not wish to live in a community where anxiety and worry are foreign concepts, because we all are embraced by an overwhelming sense of goodness and security?

All of this is a matter of orientation, of intentional direction, of perspective and priorities. “But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

When Jesus says to strive first for God’s community and the inner goodness which is found in that community, it is implied that there will be other strivings after this.

Of course we need to sweat and labor by the work of our hands to procure food and clothing and housing for ourselves and those we love. But when we mesh our kingdoms with the kingdom of God, then all of these things lose their sense of importance. All of these things are temporary, temporal, short-term items which will fade and ebb away.

But the life of the kingdom, the life lived in conscious dialogue with God our Creator – that is a life which carries on and on into eternity.

At the very heart of Jesus’ vision for human life, there is a child-like simplicity which is vital for us to maintain. The birds of the air and the lilies of the field simply are what they are, and they glorify God. They don’t wring their hands in anxiety over their state of life; now do they fret over whether or not they are doing what God desires. They simply are, and in that simple being, they give praise and honor to God.

Now, let’s be clear. Simple is not the same thing as easy. Do we have any golf players here today? (Bart) Golf is a simple game. Hit the little white ball into 18 different holes. Very simple, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy, right?!

Just a few days ago, the Church remembered the missionary Eric Liddell in our daily round of commemorations (February 22). Do you remember the movie, Chariots of Fire? Eric Liddell was the Olympic runner for the United Kingdom; that movie was based upon his life. Liddell had a God-given talent for running fast, and he gave God the praise and glory for that. The best-known quote from the movie epitomizes his attitude: “God made me fast. And when I run, I feel [God’s] pleasure.” Have you ever watched birds fly in the air? Don’t you get the sense that they too feel God’s pleasure when they fly?

I think that we tend to over-complicate life, and we do the same with our journey of faith in Christ. To live a full life in Jesus Christ is quite simple. It is not complicated, not difficult to understand or to master.

In fact, this is one of the clear ways by which we can avoid being led astray by false teachers. A false prophet is one who comes with a claim to some secret knowledge, some esoteric wisdom, or a special formula by which you can know God, and experience God. But, in fact, there is no special language that we have to learn, no magical formulas that we have to memorize, no secret knowledge that we have to study in order to be close to God.

Did you notice this amazing psalm which we prayed together this morning?

Psalm 131:
O LORD, I am not proud; *I have no haughty looks.
I do not occupy myself with great matters, * or with things that are too hard for me.
But I still my soul and make it quiet, like a child upon its mother's breast; *
my soul is quieted within me.
O Israel, wait upon the LORD, *from this time forth for evermore.

What a testimony to the simple and quiet spirit of one who lives close to God. “I still my soul and make it quiet, like a child upon its mother’s breast; my soul is quieted within me.”

This truly is the very heart of prayer. Just to sit in God’s presence and to soak up the grace of God, like a springtime tulip opens up while basking in the morning light.

In fact, may I propose that this might be a wonderful discipline to consider for your Lenten observance? Just to sit quietly in God’s presence for 10 to 15 minutes every morning, eyes closed, thinking of nothing except for thoughts of gratitude and praise, soaking up the steadfast love of the Lord which never ceases.

This is a very simple discipline, but – once again – this does not mean that it is easy. Distractions, both internal and external ones, make this difficult to maintain.

And so it is, my friends, with where we find ourselves now as the Church in this place. The remedy to our situation of dwindling numbers, shrinking budgets and falling influence is quite simple. Our task is simply to be the church of God: to love one another, to care deeply for the people in this town/city in all of their trials and difficulties, to boldly share the good news of God’s love with them, to worship God with heartfelt devotion, to invite everyone around to experience God’s grace along with us, and by doing all of this, to turn our world upside down, just like the earliest church after the resurrection.

None of this is particularly complicated. In fact, it’s quite simple. But this doesn’t mean that it’s easy! May God give us the grace to maintain our simple priority of focus upon what it means to live as the community of God here and now, seeking first everyday to live in the presence of God and to carry that presence to those we meet. 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.

John's Glen at Eastman

This is a picture I took while skiing John's Glen at the Eastman XC Ski Center in Grantham, NH on last Thursday (2/17/2011).

Wow. Perfect grooming, great skate skies, beautiful weather, fantastic snow. Lots of sweat and sunshine. What an amazing place to ski!

Give to everyone

A Sermon for the 7th Sunday after the Epiphany (RCL A) 2-20-2011

Offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry
Texts: Leviticus 19:1-2,9-18; Psalm 119:33-40; 1 Corin. 3:10-11,16-23; Matt 5:38-48
Title: Give to everyone

Many of you already know this fact, and I’m sorry that I have to admit it now. But, I’m a little odd. I’m a bit different.I think differently than many others. I can’t help it. I’m a nature guy.

So, when I had the chance to spend a few days this past week up in the snowy mountains of New Hampshire, I was thinking a lot about porcupines. There is a cliff on the hillside behind our little cabin, and among the rocks at the base of this cliff lives a family of porcupines. In the winter, it is very easy to see what they’re up to, and in the summer I sometimes pick up quills that they drop.

With me today, I have some of the quills that I’ve found up at the base of this cliff. I’ll pass them around for everyone to see. (Sorry all of you internet folk - all I can offer you here is a picture!) 

Do you know how porcupine quills work? They are found on the back side of porcupines, but the quills do not shoot out and off of their bodies. The end of each quill has tiny barbs, like microscopic fish hooks. They can easily grab the fur or the flesh of an attacker and they are designed to easily disconnect from the porcupine’s body. When they are stuck in the flesh of an attacker, these little barbs swell up from body heat. This makes them even more difficult to remove and thus more painful.

This is how a porcupine treats its enemies. Why does the animal do this? Because of the real possibility of loss. The porcupine has to protect itself against losing its life, or losing the life of its offspring, and so against the end of its family.

And so as I was snowshoeing through the forest this week, I was thinking about our Lord’s revolutionary teaching that loving our enemies is the best way to live, and also thinking about porcupines and how they react to their enemies.

There is no doubt about the fact that we human beings are animals. We are part of the animal world. The animals of this planet are our relatives, our cousins. We share many things in common with them. And yet, it is also true that we are different from them, that we are heavenly, spiritual beings who have been blessed by God with consciousness, soul, a different kind of intelligence.

And so when Jesus gives us this powerful call to “be perfect, therefore, as [our] heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt. 5:48), he is calling us to live our daily lives in accordance with the spiritual aspect of our natures.

This is a difficult passage for us to understand. What does it mean to be perfect? I think a better translation of this passage is the one supplied by Eugene Peterson in The Message. This is how he words it in contemporary colloquial language:

Jesus said: "In a word, what I'm saying is, Grow up. You're kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you."

How is it, after all, that God is able to give the blessing of the sun and the rain to all people, even to the nastiest people of all? How is it that God is able to live generously and graciously even toward people who hate God? Because, unlike the animals, God has no need to fear the possibility of loss. There is nothing that any human being can do to harm God, to cause God loss or pain or suffering. Beside the extraordinary situation of the passion and crucifixion of Jesus, there is no way for human beings to truly harm God.

This is how I understand what Jesus is trying to communicate to us in this phenomenal teaching. We each have the choice to respond to the actions of others either according to our animal instincts, or else according to our soul force.

It is easy to see other people as threats to our lives. And so it is easy to treat our enemies the way that porcupines treat their enemies.

But we have another option. It’s a bit crazy, a little radical, I know. Jesus invites us to see humanity in the same exact way that God sees them. Because our lives are now “hidden with Christ in God”, we can in fact respond to others, even our mortal enemies, with generosity and grace. We can live without the fear of loss, because our lives are in the hands of God.

It is only when we let go of our fear and when we allow ourselves to be overwhelmed by the grace of God that we are able to love our enemies.

Because the truth, my dear friends, is this: if you live as part of the body of Christ, then there is truly nothing that anyone can do to harm you. If God truly and honestly is in charge of this mess which we call life on planet earth, then we have nothing at all to fear.

Dallas Willard talks about the Christ-like attitude toward our enemies in this way:

“We are not passive, but we act always with clear-eyed and resolute love. We know what is really happening, seeing it from the point of view of eternity. And we know that we will be taken care of, no matter what. We can be vulnerable because we are, in the end, simply invulnerable. And once we have broken the power of anger and desire over our lives, we know that the way of Christ in response to personal injury [and imposition] is always the easier way. It is [in fact] the only way that allows us to move serenely in the midst of harm and beyond it” (The Divine Conspiracy, p. 181).

However true this may be – and it is true! – we all know just how easy it is to fall back into our old animal ways: to go about getting revenge on others, gossiping about people behind their backs, wishing ill toward people that we don’t like, being afraid of what others might do to us. Unfortunately, it is very easy to sink back into this old pattern of thinking.

We need help in making our new life a reality where we live and work every day. And so we are reminded again of our peculiar vocation as the church of God. We are called to be a soul-force boot camp, a spiritual university where we learn and study together all of the practical ways by which we can transform our minds from those animal instincts and into a pattern of thinking and living which reflects the reality of God in our lives.

That is why God has given us to each other in community: for practical training in true inner goodness. Thankfully, we don’t have to invent the curriculum. It’s all right here!

For instance, when our Master teaches us to pray for those who persecute you, he is giving us a practical way to change our lives.

Have you ever actually tried this with intention and discipline? Tried to pray regularly for someone who was troubling you, for your nemesis? Whenever I have done so, I find it impossible to wish them harm, or to think ill of them. If I am praying for them, praying that God blesses them and fills their lives with joy and peace and guides them in the ways of truth, then I find that I am not able to wish them any different!

Here is just one of the many practical ways given to us by our Lord Jesus by which we can change our habitual ways of thinking through intentional practice. There are countless more.

It is my prayer and my hope that we can truly become this kind of community where we study and practice together in the ways and methods of changing our lives, as we all grow together in our ability to live out our God-created identities. May it be so. Amen.

Leave your gift there and go!

A Sermon for the 6th Sunday after the Epiphany (RCL A) 2-13-2011
Offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry

Texts: Deuter. 30:15-20; Psalm 119:1-8; 1 Corinthians 3:1-9; Matthew 5:21-37

Title: Leave your gift there and go!

Our Lord Jesus Christ, the one who redeemed the world by his incarnation and self-offering on the cross, and who redeemed us and made us his holy people through his own blood. This Lord Jesus, our Teacher, the one who guides all people in finding the good life, this Lord Jesus loves confrontation.

Yes! You heard me right. Jesus loves confrontation!

Ah, you may be asking, but what does the word confrontation actually mean? Do we have any Latin scholars with us here today? Confront comes from the Latin words “com” and “frontem”. It means foreheads together, in the original Latin. The basic idea of confronting someone is to address them face-to-face, forehead-to-forehead. Head on, direct, clear, unambiguous.

And so I say it again: Jesus loves confrontation, because he loves it when people take the initiative to engage in face-to-face, direct, clear, unambiguous communication.

The Lord understands that conflict and tension are normal and regular parts of life. And the Lord understands that conflict avoidance is a pattern of behavior that leads to more suffering, more bitterness, more violence.

If you look in a medical dictionary, you will see a definition of confrontation which is something like this:

“a therapeutic technique constituting the act of facing or being made to face one's own attitudes and shortcomings, the way one is perceived, and the consequences of one's behavior, or of causing another to face these things.”

Being made to face one’s own attitudes and shortcomings. This, I believe, is what Jesus has in mind for us.

Listen again to these words from his best remembered teaching session, his seminar on the hillside, as we might call it today.

Here in Matthew’s Gospel, he is talking to real-life people about the conflicts that they have in their everyday lives, and he asks his listeners – and us, of course – to look deeper than the surface level. Of course, murder is wrong, but that deadly act is simply the direct product of a heart that is filled with anger and bitterness. So what are we to do? What can we do to move away from the anger that leads to violence? What does he say?

“So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against us, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift” (Matthew 5:23).

My friends, stop and consider what kind of action it is that Jesus is calling forth.

Of course, he is speaking of temple ritual, when the Hebrew people entered the temple in Jerusalem to offer gifts to the priests and to make sacrificial offerings to God to redeem their sin.

But think about the implications. He does not call us to seek reconciliation BEFORE we offer our worship to God, and not AFTER. Rather, he calls us to interrupt our worship of God right in the middle! The Lord says that reconciling with another is far more important than completing our ritual act! When you are in the process of worshipping God, if you remember this conflict in your life, then leave and go immediately! Reconcile, and then return and complete your act of worship.

Can you appreciate how radical this is? We tend to prefer orderliness and neat, clearly defined rituals, but how would our worship be different if we here actually and honestly took this teaching to heart?

To be honest, I’m not sure how this would work. But recently, I heard about a congregation out in Minneapolis who sometimes practice a different way to receiving Communion which seeks to respect this teaching from Christ.

In this community, when communion is ready, a number of stations are set up around the meeting space where the bread and wine are available. At each station, there are candles and flowers and an icon. Everyone is asked to examine their hearts for a few minutes in silence. Then, when each is ready, they are invited to go and to commune themselves. Sometimes families go and give communion to one another.

But if anyone in the congregation knows that they are at odds with someone else who is present, that person is asked to take the bread and wine to the one with whom they are in conflict. Take communion to someone else as a way of showing your commitment to reconciliation.

Maybe that person has already received communion? So what? There’s no rule against receiving twice. Maybe it’s embarrassing to be seen as the one who is carrying the bread and chalice to another in the congregation? So what? Humility and vulnerability are essential if we are to grow in God’s grace.

Can you see it? Can you imagine the potential for disorder and confusion which this kind of communion practice might create? But what does Christ consider to be more important: the beauty and orderliness of our ritual practice, or the possibility of reconciling with another?

True reconciliation is what Jesus is after. Now, let’s be clear about the fact that reconciliation is not easy. Sometimes you can work your hardest to reconcile with someone, but they are not open to it. Sometimes they refuse to reciprocate.

We have a neighbor on our street where we live in Moorestown who absolutely hates me. Everyone on the street calls him Uncle David. As far as I can tell, he has no family around, so I have no idea how he came by that unusual designation. He lives all alone just four houses down from us.

One summer night a few years ago, soon after we moved into our house, Erin and I were frantically trying to get the kids to the table to eat dinner together. Do you know how hard it is sometimes to get everyone together at the same time to eat when the food is hot, but the kids are all running around playing with friends? Angus, our son, was down the street at the house next to Uncle David’s. After yelling at him over and over again to come home for dinner, I marched down there in exasperation to drag him home. Erin and the girls were already sitting at the table waiting for us. But just after we turned to come back home, I heard a sharp whistle behind me. I turned around to see Uncle David in his front yard looking at me and going like this (gesturing for me to come over to him!).

So I thought, “What! Are you kidding me? Am I some kind of dog that you whistle for and to whom you bark out your commands? Forget it! We’re going home to eat dinner! If Uncle David has something important to say to me, he knows where I live!” I was thinking all of this while all I did was wave to him and march Angus back home.

Little did I know that I had sealed my fate! My refusal to obey his whistle and finger command was all he needed to write me off forever. He has never forgiven me for that. Uncle David walks his dogs by our house twice a day, but even though we always say “good morning” and “hello” to him, he always ignores us completely. Doesn’t even respond! But once, two years later, he shocked me completely by stopping in front of my house and saying to me, “You didn’t have the time to talk to me, that’s why I hate you!” I was quite flabbergasted and so I responded and said, “OK. Whatever.” Frankly, I don’t really want to be friends with him. I think he might be, like, the next Unibomber, sitting in his house all by himself every night. He’s kinda scary!

But we still say hello to Uncle David every time we see him. We give him invitations to come over to our Kentucky Derby Parties. He never even acknowledges that we exist. I think that we have tried to reconcile with him, but he refuses to even consider it.

One of the elders living out in the Egyptian desert in the 3rd century was asked to define humility and he said this: “if you forgive a brother who has injured you before he himself asks [for] pardon” (The Wisdom of the Desert Fathers, Thomas Merton, p.53).

It’s not easy to reconcile with some people. The Lord knows that. But the point is that we – we who share in the resurrection life of Jesus which is always new, always fresh – we are the ones who are always seeking to reconcile, always making the first move, always taking the initiative to reach out to confront another, not with anger and violence, but rather with genuine concern and with love.

Perhaps someone here will need to leave right now, because you know in your heart that you need to reach out to someone and offer to reconcile with them. Please do it. Listen to the Holy Spirit who speaks in your heart. Don’t worry about what the people around you might think. Wouldn’t all of our lives be so much better if we all instead worried much more about what God thinks? May it be so. Amen.

Secret & Hidden

A Children's Sermon for the 5th Sunday after the Epiphany (RCL A) 2-6-2011

Offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry

Texts: Isaiah 58:1-9a; Psalm 112:1-10; 1 Corinthians 2:1-16; Matthew 5:13-20

Title: Secret & Hidden


God speaks to us today. And we are listening.

I lift my voice and I speak to you this morning in the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

I invite all of the young people here today to come forward and sit with me to discuss the Gospel. All of the adults, please, may be seated.

Did any of you hear what Jesus had to say to us today in our Gospel reading?

Jesus said: “You are the salt of the earth! You are the light of the world!”

Wow! That’s awesome! That’s wonderful. The salt of the entire earth! The light of the whole world! Jesus tells us how wonderful and excellent it is to be his people, the community of those who love him and follow him.

That’s a wonderful thing, but what do you think it means to be the salt of the earth? What do you think that means?

Well, to help us all understand this teaching a bit better, I have a taste test for you. Maybe our mouths can help us to understand this better.

Here is one potato chip. And here is another. Please taste each one at a time. Pay attention to anything that might be different.

Do you notice a difference? Which one do you like better? What is the difference? (One batch is unsalted potato chips, and one is flavored with sea salt!)

What difference does the salt make? Let’s talk about the salt. Do you see it? No! It’s hidden. It’s secret! Kind of like God’s wisdom! The apostle Paul teaches us today that God’s wisdom, God’s teaching, is also secret and hidden. Not everyone sees it! Only those who know where to look!

But what else about the salt?

Let me ask you this: when you’re eating potato chips, what’s the most important part? Is it the salt, or the chip?

It’s the chip, of course! A little bit of the salt makes the potato chip better to eat. But it is the chip which matters the most, right? Would you eat just the salt, by itself? No, of course not! You only need a little bit of the salt added to the chip to make it taste really good!

And that is what Jesus teaches to us today! Even though the church is small, what we do is vitally important! We follow Jesus, and he sends us out into the world to make the world better!

The salt is here on the chip to make the chip better. We are here as God’s people to make the world better! After all, Jesus said that we are salt of the earth, and light of the world!

The special flavor and the light that we bring are not for ourselves, but for others! They are to be given away and shared with the people around us every day – people in school with us, our friends, our family, our neighbors.

So, back to the chips. Which one do you like better? Good! Then give one away! Here is an extra chip! Take it back to your seat with you and give it away to someone else! This is practice for what it means to follow Christ. Don't eat this one yourself, but rather give it awy and let someone else enjoy it.

This is Jesus’ idea of what we are to do! He feeds us, and teaches us, and blesses us, so that we might be able to give these things away to others!

This is the goodness that Jesus gives to us when we are baptized, when we learn to live with him every day. Amen.