One Who is More Powerful

Sermon for 3 Advent RCL, Offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry

Texts: Zephaniah 3:14-20; Isaiah 12:2-6; Philippians 4:4-7; Luke 3:7-18

There’s an event every summer out in the hills of Pennsylvania. It’s called the Creation Festival, and it’s run by a pastor from Medford. It’s a multi-day, long weekend Christian festival with an incredible number of Christian bands, daily worship sessions and bible studies, and lots of time for plain old fellowship as thousands of people are all camped camp out on farm fields. It’s primarily a major evangelical event, but youth groups from all kinds of churches attend and participate from all over the East Coast and Midwest.

Tony Campolo, the Baptist professor from Eastern University, of whom I’ve spoken often, has been a part of this festival many times. He tells of a Sunday during a Creation Festival a few years back when he was invited to preach at a local Lutheran church, and a number of young people from the festival followed him there to join in worship and to hear Dr. Campolo preach. Well, it happened at the beginning of the service, that the Lutheran pastor called the people to worship in his typical way, and he began saying: “Make a joyful noise unto the Lord…” and, lo and behold, one of the young folks from the festival, sitting up in the balcony responded and called out, “All right!” and they all started clapping and hooting and hollering, and, well, making a joyful noise! It never even occurred to that poor, shocked pastor, or to his congregation, when he called on the people to make a joyful noise for God, that anyone present actually would!

We need sometimes, my friends, to stretch our comfort zones. Sometimes, God pushes us to make us uncomfortable. In fact, we have to stretch and push in order to grow. John the Baptizer, along with all of the prophets, is really good for this. Endowed with the prophetic office, the anointing of the Holy Spirit, John was right up in the face of his people with holy boldness.

I want you to seriously consider this morning how we would do well, at times, to follow the lead of the prophets. There are times when God is calling YOU to stand up with holy boldness and to speak the truth. Yes, you – each and every one of you. Sometimes there is no one else to whom you can pass the buck. There are times when you see evil and wrong right there in front of you, and you need to speak with holy boldness.

There is a right and a wrong in this world, and God calls us to stand up for the right. But what is even more amazing than this is that God gives us the power to do it! What else does it mean, my friends, to be baptized with the Holy Spirit and with fire? John the Baptizer, the prophet, speaks of the One coming after him. “I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” This is quite a claim. What do you think this means for you, in your life? Clearly, if we are a people who have been baptized with the Spirit and with fire, touched by this powerful Messiah and Lord, then there surely is no place at all for timidity among us.

2 Timothy 1:7: “For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power, of love, and of self-discipline.” Or as The Message version puts it: “God does not want us to be shy with his gifts, but bold and loving and sensible.”

God desires that we act boldly with the gifts that we as the church have been given. But this begs the question: Do we truly understand the measure of the gifts that God has given to us? Do we grasp it? My friends, we have been given the gift of God’s self-revelation, the deposit of our faith, here in the Scriptures and in the apostolic teachings of the Church. This deposit is a treasure beyond comprehension. I will spend my entire life digging into this treasure-house and I will only ever be able barely to scratch the surface. And this is not even to mention all of the other gifts that we have inherited as baptized people in this place: the houses of worship for which we are caretakers, the peace and security in which we are free to worship in this country, the blessing of living in a free democracy, and the incredible wealth with which we all live.

We are a people blessed beyond measure, and yet (you know this to be true) far too often we act as though we are poor. We walk out into the streets as though we have nothing of great value to offer to the world around us, as if we act in church out of simple duty alone, carrying forward this tradition because it is nice and it makes us feel good inside.

When we strip away all of the externals, the stark reality is that what we do here together in this place is a matter of life and death. We carry, we sing about, we speak of, we touch holy things. The words we speak in the liturgy are ancient, coming directly from the days of the apostles, those first ones who were touched by the fire of Christ, baptized in the Holy Spirit coming down upon them in tongues of flame.

On a personal level, this connection to the apostles is of great importance. The reason I left the Baptist tradition, in which I was first ordained, in order to return to the Episcopal Church, who had baptized and confirmed me, is because I am convinced of the power of the apostolic tradition. To be an “Episcopal” church means to be centered upon the office of the bishop, and our bishop stands in a direct line from the apostles, from Peter and Paul and Andrew and John. Our worship was not recently created in California. We do not sing songs that some new Christian in Nashville just wrote. Our ship travels in the apostolic river, and there is tremendous power and grace and blessing in these waters. I believe in my heart that the world needs these gifts, and our neighbors long for these gifts, even if they cannot yet express it.

And how then do we act? Do we hide this light under a bushel? Are we afraid to speak the truth in love? God calls us not to be shy with these gifts, but to be bold and loving and sensible. As Paul stated hear in the Epistle for this Sunday with such sublime clarity, “The Lord is near.” And so what flows out of this? What transpires when we recognize that the Lord is near, surrounding us at all times? Therefore…”do not worry about anything.” Christ empowers you to speak with boldness and so without fear or anxiety.

Now, please understand that I recognize this is not easy. We will all go home and have to figure out what to eat for dinner, and how to pay the mortgage, and make a list of what remaining presents we need to buy for Christmas, and think about how to keep the kids from arguing so much. And I recognize that the Church is in a confusing and complex time right now which can make us uncertain about what to say to others about the Church. I understand all of this. I understand the real world, I really do.

But we need to be careful not to use these things as an excuse. We have inherited an awesome treasure which is meant to be shared with others. Life is busy and complex and confusing, but we have a responsibility and we have made a commitment. And even in these busy lives that we lead today, this much remains true: each one of us does what we want in life. Really, search your heart, reflect on your life and you will know it is true. If you look carefully, you will see that we do in fact what we want with the time that is given to us.

Once again, the apostolic wisdom of the Church speaks directly to our need to be energized for action. The Collect for today speaks truth to us: “Stir up your power, O Lord, and with great might come among us.” This is exactly what we need: to be ignited with fire by the Holy Spirit, so that worry and fear are banished from our hearts, and nothing but rejoicing and peace and boldness and confidence remain.

So may it be always among us who are so blessed by Christ to find new life in this great tradition of truth and beauty and power. Amen.

St. Nicholas of Myra!

Making Mitres at our St. Nicholas Feast - much fun was had by all !

Notes from the Children's Sermon for the 2nd Sunday of Advent (also the Feast of St. Nicholas).

Good morning and a blessed Advent to all of you! Blessed Advent.

What does it mean to prepare the way? What is preparation?

Did you see the snow yesterday? Think of snowplows and snow shovels. Before we go out in the snow, we need to get ready. We need to prepare the way: to shovel the sidewalk or plow the street or clear off the car. If I don’t use this snow broom to clean off my windshield this morning, then I can’t drive here, because I can’t see where I am going! Only after this work is done, then we can go on our way to do what we need to do. The plows and brooms clear away the junk so that we can go about doing our work.

Do any of you like to eat pancakes? Well, first you have to heat up the pan and make the batter. This is preparing the way for pancakes, preparing the way for breakfast!

Who is John the Baptist? Here is an old picture, an icon, of St. John the Baptist. How did he prepare the way for the Lord Jesus? By telling the people that they needed to change, and by baptizing all the people, and by telling them that Jesus was coming.

I have another question for you: Who is Saint Nicholas? I also have an icon of him as well.
How does Saint Nicholas prepare the way for us to celebrate Christmas? St. Nicholas teaches us that we show Jesus that we love him when we give to help other people. We give gifts to Jesus when we give gifts to those who need them.

Let me tell you the most famous story about St. Nicholas. It actually starts out very sad. When he was a young man, both of Nicholas’ parents died from a bad disease that was going around. Like the swine flu, but much worse. They left him the money that they had. But Nicholas wanted to be a priest, and he decided to give his money away. He heard about a family in his town who was very poor, and the three young daughters were going to be sold as slaves. Their father did not know what else to do! Nicholas decided to act. Late at night, when everyone was asleep, he decided to secretly drop a bag of gold through one of the windows in the family’s house. (Some people say that it landed in a shoe or in a stocking that was hanging by the fire to dry out.) The family was so happy that one of the daughters did not have to be a slave now, but the other 2 girls were still in danger. So Nicholas went back again, two different nights, to secretly drop bags of gold through an open window. But the third time, the father of the girls was overcome with curiosity to know who their secret gift-giver was, so he stayed up late at night and ran out when he saw the bag of gold dropped in. Around a corner in the street, he caught up to Nicholas and thanked him, dropping to his knees. Nicholas told the father to thank God, not him, and to keep the gifts of gold a secret.

But everyone eventually heard about St. Nicholas, and how he cares for young children who are in need or danger.

So I want you to remember: John the Baptist prepared the way for Jesus when he lived here on earth. And St. Nicholas prepares the way for Christmas every year. And I want you to try to be like St. Nicholas: to share what you have, to give gifts to those who are poor or hungry or needy. That will make this to be for you the best Christmas ever!

A Life Without a Lonely Place

"A life without a lonely place, that is, without a quiet center, easily becomes destructive" (Henri Nouwen, Out of Solitude, p.21).

I believe that it is vitally important for each person to maintain an inner room, a sanctuary in the heart, where they listen. A lonely place, a quiet center of yourself, where no other voices can get in. Without such a place, and without spending time in such a place, we humans beings very easily are persuaded to follow paths of greed, selfishness, and anger.

Just look at Tiger Woods. How easily even the most worldly successful person becomes self-destructive by following the wrong voices, by not stripping himself of all externals and being naked before God, quiet and lonely in solitude and prayer.

My friends, during these busy holiday times, do not let the voices of friends, family, commercials, or the media lead you away from the quiet center of your soul. If any of us need another reminder of the truth, it is here in Tiger Woods: wealth and material possessions can never lead you to happiness. Only Love and commitment and integrity and honesty can do that. And those come from the Spirit of God within you.

There is a Difference!

My friends, there is a difference! Never think that all churches are the same! There is a difference. And I'm angry!

I play basketball on Monday nights at a pick-up league at the Moorestown High School. Tonight, just as we were about to pick teams and get organized, about half of the guys walked right out! With no explanation at all, except for a few cryptic comments about a young man who had just walked in.

The rest of us continued on and played anyway. When we all decided that we had enough, I went over to the young man and asked him about the situation. And here is the story.

This young guy, Ben, grew up as a Jehovah's Witness in Moorestown. Now, he is in his late-20's and has hiw own son. About nine months ago, he decided that he did not want his son to grow up in that faith-system. So he left. Ben wrote his requisite letter to the local Watchtower elders, explaining that he has decided to leave.

So far, so good. The problem is that all Jehovah's Witnesses are required to shun anyone who leaves. And it just so happens that the men who left the gymnasium tonight are all Witnesses. They know Ben and therefore they all were required to leave in order to shun him.

Ben explained to me that this is part of the reason why he left. In addition, Jehovah's Witnesses are required to only socialize with other members of the Kingdom Hall. Ben did not want his son to grow up in such a restrictive, manipulative environment.

I tell you what, I am pissed! I confess that I am not very tolerant of stupidity. I told Ben that I supported him in his decision. Each of us needs to make our own decisions and not allow ourselves to be manipulated by those in authority who use fear to maintain control.

I am sorry, but the Jehovah's Witnesses are a dangerous cult. They are an embarassment to our Lord Jesus Christ. Their actions reveal the fact that they totally misunderstand the Bible. Our Lord Jesus never shunned anyone! I am proud to be part of the true church of Christ where everyone is welcome; where all are given a chance to experience the amazing love of God.

Next week at basketball, I am going to let those guys have it. They need to know that they are wrong. I'm going to ask each one if they are here to play basketball or to talk about God. Because I will take 'em on either way that they want it. Such cowards. I have no patience for cowardly men, and I don't think the Lord does either. "For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but a spirit of power, of love, and of self-discipline" (2 Timothy 1:7).

There is a difference, my friends.

How Great Thou Art

Sermon for Christ the King RCL 11/22/2009, Offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry

Texts: 2 Samuel 23:1-7; Psalm 132; Revelation 1:4b-8; John 18:33-37

We have a problem this Sunday, my friends.
This Sunday is commonly called Christ the King Sunday. It is the last Sunday of the Church Year, when we gather together all that we have heard and learned over the course of the past year and collect all of that together in celebration and commemoration while pointing ahead to the final end of the story.

The final end of this story is Jesus Christ, who not only is the Alpha – the beginning of our human story – but also the Omega – the final goal of humanity. We proclaim his today as the King of kings and the Lord of lords.

And this is where our problem begins. We Americans do not particularly like kings. In fact, we rejected the whole idea of having a king to rule over us some 230 years ago! In general, we Americans have been known to mistrust those in authority and to fight to protect our individual liberties at any cost.

Some in the Church, recognizing this problem, have attempted to change the language we use in order to address this issue. Many of you have heard it. Instead of the kingdom of God, they speak now of the reign of God. As if somehow that change in wording is supposed to be less offensive to people today.

But there is some value in this change of language. If we think it through, “kingdom” suggests a place, a particular realm where a king is sovereign. But our King cannot be defined by boundaries of space and time. The word “reign”, however, points to the personal rule of the one on the throne. “The reign of the King.”

But, no matter what precise words we may use, we do worship Christ as King of all the earth. Alive today, active in guiding the world, we honor Him this day as King. No lands are beyond his reach; no language is beyond his understanding; no person is beyond his touch. He is the faithful witness: the one who stood before Pilate and Herod and the Sanhedrin to proclaim the truth, who offered his life in his Passion for the healing of the nations.

He is the firstborn of the dead: the first raised from the dead among many brothers and sisters, a large family of his own redeeming, the one who loves us and frees us from our sins.

He is the ruler of the kings of the earth: every earthly king and president and emperor exists to serve him and to do his will. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to his voice.

In spite of all these words of praise, it is impossible for us truly to understand with our minds what it means that Christ is King.

In a few minutes, we will sing together the great evangelical hymn, How Great Thou Art.
The story of this hymn is amazing. It struck me this week as a parable of Christ as King of all the earth. The words of the hymn were first written by Carl Gustav Boberg in Sweden in 1885 after experiencing an amazing summer-time thunderstorm. Three years later it was paired with an old Swedish folk tune and it began to be sung in Swedish protestant churches. It had nine verses originally, but only the first 2 verses of the hymn as we know it today. The song migrated to the Swedish immigrant community in Estonia, where it was appreciated by a German Baptist. He translated it into German and the hymn began to grow in popularity in Germany. The German version of the hymn was then translated into Russian and it moved into Russia.

Stuart Hine was a British Methodist missionary sent to work among the people living in the Ukranian mountains in the 1930’s. Hine learned this great hymn while working there in the Ukraine. He wrote the third verse (“And when I think, that God his Son not sparing…”) based on the actual words of Ukranian Christians who were experiencing a profound repentance and conversion of heart.

Later, after WW II, Hine was working among Polish refugees in England. Once, he spoke with a Polish Christian man who was separated from his wife, and who, since it was highly unlikely that he would find his wife again, expressed his longing to be re-united with her among the saints in the age to come. Hine wrote the fourth verse which we know today. “When Christ shall come with shouts of acclamation, what joy shall fill my heart…”

But the story continues! Hine published the hymn in a Gospel songbook which British missionaries took with them around the world. And a missionary working in Africa brought this hymn back with him to America in 1951. In a few years, How Great Thou Art became one of the signature songs of the Billy Graham Crusades. And now it ranks as the second most popular hymn in the world behind Amazing Grace.

Sweden, Estonia, Germany, Russia, Ukraine, England, Africa, America. This King moves among all of the people of the earth, and works to touch the hearts of all with his power and his love. We humans tend to think so small: my town, my people, my country. But our King knows no boundaries of time or space.

Do you think that Carl Boberg, walking home from church in high summer in Sweden, getting wet in the rain, viewing the rainbow over the bay as the bright summer overtook the sky once more, - do you think he could have ever imagined the Christians all over the world for decades and centuries to come would sing the hymn of praise he wrote that day? Can any of us know how our King will use the offerings of our gifts and talents and treasures to increase his reign in the hearts of humanity?

The One who meets us in this place; the One who feeds us at this table; the One who teaches us how to live; this One is the King of all the earth. This Christ works and moves in ways that are beyond our understanding. He is the King. We are his kingdom; he reigns over us with grace and peace. And for that, we give our thanks and praise. Amen.

2009 Bible City

Philadelphia is the 2009 Bible City! The city is arguably the most important historical site for church history in America! Check out the website for videos by Jason Avant, Bernie Williams, and others, as well as for free Bible! http://www.biblecity.org/

Also here are some important facts about those who read the Bible regularly. Those who read the Bible at least 4 times a week have these lower odds for damaging behavior:

• smoking ....... by 36%
• getting drunk ...... by 57%
• promiscuity....... by 68%
• using porn ....... by 61%
• gambling ....... by 74%

(Study by the Center for Bible Engagement.)

The Barren Has Borne Seven

Sermon for Proper 28B RCL 11/15/2009, Offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry

Texts: 1 Samuel 1:4-20; 1 Samuel 2:1-10; Hebrews 10:11-25; Mark 13:1-8


Did you notice the words of the Collect appointed for this day, the one appointed always for this penultimate Sunday of the Church year?
“Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them, that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life…”

We are people of the Bible, my friends. We believe that the Bible, the Holy Scriptures, is given to us by God to teach us how to live. Now, to be sure, we in the Episcopal Church are not particularly known for being a people who really dig into the Scriptures. In our sermons, we do not typically spend 30 minutes dissecting a passage of Scripture line-by-line. But don’t let that fool you. We may not study the Bible as regularly as others, but we do read and pray the Bible more than other Christians. In fact, over 80% of the Prayer Book is taken directly from the Bible. And do not forget: it was our Anglican forebears who gave to the world the authorized King James Version of the Bible, certainly the most published and widely distributed book in the history of the world.

As a branch of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church, we Episcopalians stand firmly upon the Bible as the foundation of our faith. Most of you likely do not know that this is the promise that we must make when we are ordained as deacons and as priests. As we stand before the Bishop, before the people of God, and before the presence of God, this is the pledge that we make:

“I solemnly declare that I do believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the Word of God, and to contain all things necessary to salvation” (BCP P. 526 & P. 538).

Okay. So we have these Holy Scriptures as a gift from God, and we look to them to teach us. We seek to inwardly digest them, as the Collect states. And you know what they say: “you are what you eat!” When we digest anything into our stomachs, it becomes absorbed and spread by our blood throughout our bodies and then incorporated into the very cells of our body. So, by analogy, to “inwardly digest” the Scriptures means to make them part of who we are, incorporated into every facet of our beings.

But how do we go about this? Practically, how do we do this? By intention and discipline, my friends. These two: intention and discipline.

Let’s stay with the analogy of food and eating for a minute. If you become aware that your body needs more fiber in order to function better, you first must form the intention to change your diet. Once you intend to change in this way, what follows then is the daily task of carrying through on your intention. This requires daily discipline to follow your new diet, not to allow the whims of your desires to lead you astray, but to stay true to your good intention. With intention and discipline, then you can change your diet and improve your health.

It is the same with our use of the Bible. If we have the intention of learning more about Christ and of growing closer to God through the study of the Scriptures, what follows then is the daily task of carrying through on your intention. What you need then is daily discipline to follow your new routine. What we all need is daily reading and study of the Scriptures in a way that allows us to ruminate on – to digest – the meaning of the text for our lives. With this good intention and daily discipline, we can change our lives and improve our spiritual well-being.

Each one of us in this place who has experienced the waters of baptism has made a vow to follow Christ as our Savior and our Lord. Without question, there are a plethora of spiritual practices and disciplines that we can adopt to help us to follow Christ more closely. But nothing can replace the most basic practice of daily meditation upon the Holy Scriptures. There can be no substitute for this, no shortcuts.

So we have established the bedrock reality that the words and stories of the Bible provide us with a framework by which we can understand God’s will for our lives. So what then about this very interesting story about Hannah? What are we to make of this old, old story? What does the example of Hannah teach us about salvation and about our relationship with God?

As you can see from the text read this morning, Hannah made an attempt to manipulate the Lord. Just as when Gideon laid out the fleece to test the Lord’s calling, Hannah made a bargain with God: if you give me a son, then I will give him back to you.

Now, it is crucial to remember the context. There were likely to be a thousand women in Israel at that time who were “barren”, who, for whatever reason, were not yet able to bear children. And it may be that all of those women were making similar deals with God in their prayers. Some of those deals may have been honored and some certainly were not. Out of the very many, this story is the one that was written down and recorded – this one, because of the importance of the son who was born to Hannah. Samuel served as the pivot point, the hinge of ancient Hebrew history. Before him was the time of the patriarchs and the judges, when the Israelites lived in a tribal society, loosed gathered around strong tribal chieftains. But Samuel was the one who began the monarchy. Samuel anointed David as King, and David went on to unify the rival tribes and to create one strong kingdom.

Hannah, of course, had good reason to long for a son. In that society, the value of every woman was measured by her vitality in childbearing. Also, it was normal manner of things for the wife to outlive the man. Her children then were her means of survival as a widow in those late years of life. Sons, in particular, were a widow’s safety net against want and starvation, because they controlled the resources of the household.

So Hannah’s need is understandable. But what about this deal-making with God? Is this the way that we are to approach God when we are in need? Because the Lord heard and remembered Hannah in her need, does this mean that the Lord will hear us if we make similar promises in our prayers? Absolutely not.

What Hannah did right here is to ask. We must ask; we must always ask. That is the basic, fundamental rule to all healthy relationships: to ask. When we feel pressure and anxiety over some need in our life, it is right to ask God to supply our perceived need. But God then is free to respond with a yes, a no, or a maybe. For any relationship to be healthy, the one petitioned for help must be free to respond as they see fit. We must ask with no strings attached, otherwise our request degenerates into nothing more than selfish, greedy manipulation. This is where Hannah went astray. Fortunate for her, God had plans that superseded her vain attempts to manipulate the Almighty.

As for us, we have the wise counsel of the Lord to guide us into a better way than the method of Hannah. Jesus taught us to let our yes be yes and our no to be no. To speak without guile, without ulterior motives, without any attempt to manipulate the other. He also taught us how to pray and how to seek after the will of God as the highest good for our lives: “your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in the heavens.”

Rather than attempting to manipulate God into doing our will, true joy in our lives, and deep peace in our hearts, can only come when we learn to accept God’s will, whatever that may be. For in Christ we know that God is good all the time, and God’s will for us is always good, even when we fail to see the good. And because of that, it is right for us to give our thanks and praise, always and everywhere. Amen.

“Let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching” (Hebrews 10:25).

Imagine The Audacity

Sermon for Proper 27B RCL 11/8/2009, Offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry

Texts: Ruth 3:1-5,4:13-17; Psalm 127; Hebrews 9:24-28; Mark 12:38-44

This is going to be a hard conversation for us to have. We need to talk about money, and I know that no one enjoys these talks. But it must be done. Not only because this is our stewardship season, when we need to gather commitments from each other so that we can plan our expenses for next year, but also because the Gospel story of the poor widow’s offering demands that we re-evaluate how we relate to money.

Each one of us has a relationship to money which needs to be measured in light of what Jesus teaches us.

To help put this into context, let me share with you a story from Tony Campolo. Some of you have likely heard this story before. Dr. Campolo lives in St. David, Pennsylvania, is a retired Professor at Eastern University and travels widely to preach and teach. Once he returned from a speaking engagement on the West Coast and he arrived back here in Philly on a red-eye flight. He got off the plane around 8:30 AM and his secretary immediately let him know that he had a speaking engagement at 10 AM that morning! Somehow, it fell through the cracks on their schedule, but it was a World Mission Day meeting of church women and they were expecting him.

Completely tired and worn out and unprepared, Dr. Campolo nonetheless headed right over to this meeting. The woman who was leading the event spoke to the group about a wonderful doctor working in the barrios of Caracas, Venezuela. This missionary doctor could not handle the large numbers of sick and infirm who came to her for help, and so she was requesting help with $5000 in order to build an addition to her medical facility. The leader of the meeting then asked, “Dr. Campolo, would you please lead us in prayer that the Lord might provide the $5000 needed by our sister in Venezuela?”

Before he could catch himself, Tony responded and said, “No! I will not. But what I will do is take all of the cash that I am carrying and put it on the altar. And I’m going to ask everyone else here to do the same. No need to write out checks! Let’s only put up our cash. After we’ve all put our cash on the altar, I will count it. Then I’ll ask God to make up the difference.” It was good timing for Tony, because he only had $2.25 in his pocket!

The leader of the event smiled benevolently and said, “We’ve all gotten the point now, haven’t we?” Tony responded, “No! I don’t think that we have. My $2.25 is on the altar, now it’s your turn!” She was obviously annoyed and taken aback by his aggressive request, but she opened her wallet and pulled out $110 which she placed on the altar along with Tony’s meager offering. “Well, we’re on our way!” Tony said. “We have $112.25. Now it’s your turn!” And he pointed to a woman sitting in the front pew, who looked around, a bit unsure about what to do, but finally she came up to the altar and made her cash offering. One by one, Tony was able to cajole the women into making this offering. It took about 25 minutes for this process, and after they all had come forward, the cash was counted. They had collected more than $8,000!

There wasn’t any time left for Tony to preach then, and they probably did not want to hear from him anyway, being quite annoyed with him now. So he simply said, “The audacity of asking God for $5000, when He has already provided us with more than $8000 right here! We should not be asking God to supply our needs. He already has!”

There are 2 kernels of truth that I hope we can gain from this story. The first is the perspective of trust in the goodness of God. The truth, my friends, is that God has indeed already provided for us. We are not given insight into the poor widow’s motivation for offering her 2 copper coins, but I don’t think it is reaching too far to think that she felt gratitude for God’s care over the years. This much we do know: God protected her, and cared for her and brought her along until this day in the Temple. Widows were extremely vulnerable in that society, but God had cared for her so far.

The same is true for us. We are not a poor people! In fact, God has provided for us everything that we need to be faithful and fruitful. We have everything that we need. Our stewardship as a community then is use our resources wisely and the most effectively to carry forward God’s mission in this place.

The second point that we can glean from Dr. Campolo’s story is a negative one. I am sure that all the ladies at that World Mission meeting felt quite uncomfortable, and understandably so. The truth is that all giving within the Kingdom of God must be voluntary. I’m sure that Tony, if asked directly, would agree with that. He just got a little carried away on that morning trying to make a point, which he most certainly did! But the method used is far from ideal. For love to be genuine, it must be voluntary. For generosity to be real, it must be voluntary.

St. Clement of Alexandria taught that “compulsion is repugnant to God.” Compulsion is repugnant to God. So true! Within the kingdom of God, every action must be voluntary. We must want to do something in order for it to have meaning and value within God’s order. The voluntary principle is crucial to the Gospel and there is absolutely no place for coercion in the church of Jesus Christ.

It is my personal opinion that we need to get rid of the “should” language that we are so accustomed to using in our manner of speaking. “I should do this” or “I should do that”.

Those words come out of a place of guilt and a fear of failure. This is not at all the kind of bold and generous attitude that our Lord is hoping to find among his people.

Rather than this attitude, I believe that our Lord intends for us to be motivated by love and loyalty and commitment. Instead of “I should”, let us learn to say “I want”. Just imagine the difference. Instead of, “I really should make out a check for $30 to give to the church”, imagine saying, “I want to give $30 to the church this week.” Can you feel the difference? Let’s try a little experiment. First, please say, “I should love God more.” Does that feel quite cold and dull? Now, let’s try saying this, “I want to love God more.” Do you feel the difference?

This is what stewardship is all about. It is not about guilting someone into giving money to a worthy cause. It is not about brow-beating; it’s not about “should” language at all! It is about living each day of our lives with a glad, grateful and generous heart.

The truth is, my friends, if you honestly do not want to give your money to the church, then I would rather that you keep it. I know that this not what the Bishop or the Vestry might perhaps want me to say, but it is the truth, and if nothing else, we must be truthful with one another. Share what you have because you want to, not because you are should. Let it come from your heart. If it doesn’t, then – sure – your offering will help pay for the heat during the winter, but it will not actually do you or this community any real good.

The poor widow gave her two copper coins because she wanted to. She had a good enough excuse not to give, and everyone would have excused her if she gave nothing. She wanted to give back.

My friends, as we go through this stewardship season together, let us understand one thing with complete clarity: we do not need more money. We truly don’t. What we need is to continue to grow as a group of people who really and actually love God, who really love one another and are so grateful for life that we WANT to give as much as we can to help others. What we need is glad, grateful, and generous hearts.

So may it be among us who share abundant life in God’s kingdom. Amen.

The New Jerusalem

Sermon for All Saints Day RCL B 11/1/2009, Offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry

Texts: Wisdom 3:1-9; Psalm 24; Revelation 21:1-6; John 11:32-44

Happy All Saints Day, my friends! Since the first decades of the church’s existence, the Lord’s disciples have celebrated those who have died in the faith and fear of Christ, particularly those who made their professions of faith in Christ with a self-sacrificial, heroic death. Now, for us, All Saints’ Day is our celebration of all those in Christ who have gone before us and of our participation in that “mystical body” of Christ. It is a feast for us when we can stop together and remember what it truly means to be Church.

I want to tell you a true story that provides a clear image, I think, of what it means to be Church. Fred Craddock is of the masters of preaching in America today. He tells the story of one of the first little churches that he served in the hills of eastern Tennessee. In the Christian Church, they practice adult baptism by immersion, and that little mission church served by Craddock has a very interesting tradition that they undertake on every Easter day. Just before sunset on Easter day, the church folks gather at the beach along Watts Bar Lake. The new believers join the pastor in the water to be baptized, while the members on the beach make a bonfire, cook a festive supper, and build little booths in which the newly baptized can change their wet clothes.

Once their dry clothes are on, the new saints are ushered into the center of the circle of church members, right near the fire where they can get warm. Glenn, one of the “old-timers” in the church, introduces each one of the newly baptized, giving their name, where they live and what they do for work. The ritual continues when each one of the church members in the circle then introduces himself to the newly baptized in this way: “My name is …X…and if you ever need someone to help with your washing and ironing…” “My name is …X…and if you ever need help with your car…” “My name is …X…and if you ever need someone to chop firewood…” “My name is …X…and if you ever need someone to baby-sit…”

And once everyone meets each other in this way, they eat their feast and have a good ol’fashioned square dance. I don’t know if a group of folks can get any closer than that. They have a name for that kind of community down there in Tennessee. You may have heard of it. They call it, “Church.”

On this All Saints’ Day, we celebrate the mystery that is the Church. Together, both the saints who have gone before us and the saints alive today, we are a rag tag group of people thrown together by the mysterious working of divine providence in order to make alive the hidden reality of the kingdom of God. Rich and poor, black, white and brown, male and female, straight and gay, fully abled and disabled – God brings together human beings of every conceivable type in order to create a new humanity, a new Jerusalem, one new people created out of the vast diversity of humankind in order to re-create the world.

It’s hard for a lot of us, I know. It cuts right against many of our instincts to be in this kind of community which is often so disorderly and uncomfortable. But this is God’s plan, the divine way for us to be trained in healthy relationships. Think about it, my friends, how this works in your daily life: You can’t pick your family. You just have to learn to deal with them, and better yet, learn to appreciate them for who they are without trying to change them to be who you want them to be.

It’s the same with the Church. You can’t pick who you sit next to in Church. If you’re on Facebook, you can decide whether or not to accept the invitations of others to be your friends. But not in Church. Now, I recognize that we want to, that our natural tendency is to try to find a congregation of folks just like ourselves, people who can all be our friends.

There has been now for quite a few years a wholesale movement afoot among American Christians to go “church-shopping”, to try and find just the right place, the church where each person feels the most comfortable, where each person can get the most “fed”.

God, save us from this foolish notion! That attitude is so far off the mark of God’s vision for the church that it is difficult to know where to start the critique. You see, what we do together here in Church is meant to be practice. It’s our warm-up, our scrimmage game. We are practicing how life is meant to be within the kingdom of heaven. That what those folks do so well – the ones who gather on the shore of Watts Bar Lake down in Tennessee every Easter evening. “Brands plucked from the fire”, folks who are struggling through life and attempting to follow Jesus in his way of life.

Our brothers and sisters over at Holy Spirit and St. Luke’s have already heard me make this statement a number of times, and all of you will hear it a bunch more: there is no such thing as Christianity. It doesn’t exist. That word, “Christianity” is a fiction of the modern imagination. What DOES exist is the Church. What DOES exist are the saints, real-life saints who have been touched by the Lord Jesus is some personal way, and who have come together regularly to worship and to study and to serve their neighbors.

There is no vague idea of Christianity, as if you could simple make a mental decision and become a Christian. Nonsense. You can’t baptize yourself or confirm yourself or ordain yourself or bury yourself! All of this is done by the Church, by actual communities of real-life people, like you here, who are the Church. You, my friends, are the saints of God in this time and place. You are the ones who future generations will remember and write about.

That is, IF…If we are willing to serve each other in love, if we are willing to see the needs of those around us and respond with compassion, if we are willing to allow our lives to be shaped by the Gospel. Wouldn’t you want to be part of a church like that one in Tennessee, where folks freely give their time and talents to help one another?

A wise, anonymous writer has said this about the church: “The church is never a place, but always a people; never a fold but always a flock; never a sacred building but always a believing people. The church is you who pray, not where you pray. A structure of brick or marble can no more be a church than your clothes of satin can be you.”

Let us work together, my friends, to follow in the way of the saints, to make alive in this time and place the New Jerusalem of God, so that the will of God will be done in our lives and in our fellowship, just as it is in the heavens. Amen.









Father, thank you for having heard us. We know that you always hear us when we pray. Help us to trust you more every day, and answer these our petitions as you know best. Through Jesus Christ, the Alpha and Omega, and our Lord. Amen.



Lord, you are the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, adored by the angels and praised by the saints, receive the prayers of your people, and grant these – our requests – in accordance with your gracious will, through Christ our Lord.

Take Heart; Get Up!

Sermon for Proper 25B RCL 10/25/2009, Offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry

Texts: Job 42:1-6,10-17; Psalm 34:1-8,19-22; Hebrews 7:23-28; Mark 10:46-52

Once again, my friends, as we gather to worship the living God, we meet up with the Lord on his inexorable march up to Jerusalem – to this place which will mark the climax of his earthly ministry.

Today we need to talk a bit about the Gospel of Mark, how it is written and what this story about Bartimaeus means for the author. All summer long, ever since Trinity Sunday, we have been walking through the Gospel of Mark, step by step. As most of you know, Mark’s Gospel is represented by an image of a lion. This is because in this Gospel, the Lord suddenly roars upon the scene in the first chapter without any real introduction, and he moves along his journey very quickly with a clear sense of purpose and with decisive action. Lately, then Lectionary has us marching through the core of Mark’s Gospel, which is his journey from Galilee through the Jordan valley and up to Jerusalem.

Unfortunately, because we only get the gospel in small pieces each week, and because we are reading a translation from the original Greek language, it is difficult for us to see the overall structure of the gospel. But it is clearly there and the structure has meaning.

This journey of Jesus through the core of Mark’s Gospel begins with the Lord’s healing of a blind man at Bethsaida (Mark 8:22-26). Immediately after this, the Lord begins to prepare his friends for his coming betrayal and death. Three times he predicts his passion at the hands of the rulers and also his resurrection. “The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands.” Three times this is predicted, and each time, the twelve respond in ways that are incredibly inappropriate.

The first time, Peter takes the Lord aside and rebukes him. The second time, the twelve argue amongst themselves over which one of them is the greatest. And after the third time, James and John pull Jesus aside to ask for personal positions of power and influence in his kingdom.

Then , finally, Mark quickly ends this journey to Jerusalem with our Gospel reading today: our Lord Jesus restores sight to the old blind beggar, Bartimaeus.

Can you see perhaps what Mark is trying to teach us with this careful structuring of the text? Those who were closest to Jesus, those who walked with him, ate with him, talked with him every day, even these folks were blind to who he really was and to the purpose of his mission. Mercy and grace were his mission, not human greatness or political power or military victory. They could not see it. They were blind.

But Bartimaeus – this blind beggar considered of no value to the crowds – this man, of all people, this man understood. Though he was physically blind, yet this man could see with his heart. He could see who Jesus was – Son of David, merciful healer, teacher and guide.

“Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.”

When James and John had come to Jesus with their secret plans to gain prominence over the others, he asked them, “What do you want me to do for you?” When Bartimaeus boldly threw off his cloak, his only earthly possession, and hurried to the Lord, he asked the blind man, “What do you want me to do for you?” The same question, but with markedly different answers.

You see, the Gospel of Mark turns things around here and presents Bartimaeus, not the twelve, to us as a parable of true discipleship. When the Lord was near, Bartimaeus called out with faith in his heart, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.” That is an excellent prayer, my friends. Much like the (traditional) Jesus prayer, it is a prayer that all disciples can and should pray at all times.

When those around him told him to be quiet, he cried out even louder. When folks around us tell us to give up, or when our prayers don’t seem to be heard, we need persistence. We need to persevere. Continue on in prayer, asking for mercy and grace, just like Bartimaeus.

When the Lord called for him, he let go of his most treasured possession and got up and went. For a blind beggar, his cloak would have served as his jacket, his blanket at night, his sleeping mat, his security and his warmth. In the same way, when we come to the Lord, we can come only with our need, leaving behind the things we cling to to make ourselves feel safe.

The request of Bartimaeus was simple and clear: “My Teacher, let me see again.” I want to see. No manipulation, no trickery, no ulterior motives for power. Just a simple need. “I want to see!” Our prayers can and should be simple. God already knows everything about us. God is the one to whom all hearts are open, all desires known and from whom no secrets are hid. To ask in simplicity of need for grace and mercy is the way that disciples pray.

In his great compassion, the Lord honors the faith, the trust that Bartimaeus has placed in him, and his sight is restored. What is the response of the healed man? Immediately, he follows Jesus “on the way”.
We are people of the Way. That is the original name given to the disciples after Pentecost. People of the Way. People on a journey with Jesus of Nazareth. People whose can see now because of the grace and mercy that Christ has brought into our lives.

When the Lord heard the cry of the blind beggar, the people told him: “Take heart; get up, he is calling you.”

My dear friends: take heart, for today the Lord is calling you to leave your blindness behind, to learn from him how to see and understand this human life. He is our teacher; we are his students. By the grace of God, let us then rise up and follow him on the way to a full, joyful and abundant life. Amen.