Nice new sign in Gloucester City

Do You Want To Be a Billionaire?

Sermon for Proper 17 C RCL 8/29/2010, Offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry

Texts: Jeremiah 2:4-13; Psalm 81:1, 10-16; Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16; Luke 14:1, 7-14

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

“Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have” (Hebrew 13:5). My brothers and sisters: we need to speak together this morning about our relationship with money and about God’s intentions and desires for the way that we use money and wealth.

To begin with, though, please let me apologize. You see, I have teenagers in my house. Two of them: 13 years old and nearly 15. Because of that, I am forced – on occasion – to listen to really bad pop music, despite all my best efforts to minimize any potential exposure on my part!

So, as I read the lessons for today, I immediately began to sing one of these new pop songs that has been playing on the radio recently. “I want to be a billionaire, so freaking bad; buy all of the things I never had.” Travis McCoy and Bruno Mars sing this song. (You can listen to is here: YouTube "Billionaire" video).

It’s really quite a stupid song, but you know that those fellows are certainly not alone in their desire to have unlimited wealth at their disposal. It’s quite common for people to dream about being rich. Have any of you ever dreamed about being rich? (Be honest!)

But why? Why do people dream about being rich? What is it that money offers that makes people want it so badly?

Each one of us has a relationship to money. We all think about money in a particular way; we all feel about money in a certain way. Each one of us acts toward money in a certain way. This constitutes our relationship with money, and it a relationship that has a major bearing upon the quality and depth of our discipleship to Jesus Christ.

Let’s start with the basic attitude that Jesus and the apostles had toward money, the attitude that God longs to find within us as well.

And that is this: Money is a tool. That’s all it is. It is one of the tools that our society has created in order to facilitate the building of relationships.

The money that is within my sphere of control is not mine. I have it only on loa;, I am the temporary steward of it. This money, this little bit of wealth has been given to me to use so that I can build stronger relationships with others: with my family, my neighbors, and even with other people in need all around the world whom I am likely never to meet in person.

Never am I given money so that I may use it only for my own selfish wants and desires. God knows our hearts; God knows all things. God knows that we need money for this life; that we need to have some joy and pleasure in life. But God knows most of all that the desire for money can easily become a cancer that eats away at our hearts, that strips us of our freedom and our dignity, that robs us of that abundant life which Jesus promised.

And so, as we read this morning, the Bible says: “Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have” (Hebrew 13:5). This verse sounds a lot like a verse from the First Letter to Timothy which is a bit more famous. This one states: “The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil” (1 Timothy 6:10). We are given consistent guidance in the Bible to be careful with our relationship to money.

As in all the matters of life, Jesus is our Teacher, our Guide. In today’s gospel episode, Jesus concludes his teaching by inviting us to the practice of generosity. To throw a dinner party, of course, is a way of using our money and wealth, and Jesus here proposes two different ways that we can use this. We can throw a party in order to build important connections which will benefit us later on down the road. This is what we usually call “politics”. That would be in the self-serving category. Or we can throw a party for those who don’t ever get to have parties for themselves: the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind.

In that case, Jesus tells us that we are building an eternal connection with God that will have even more benefit than any other. Either way, the Lord continually reminds us, we have to choose: connections and pleasures and benefits here in this life, or else blessings and joy in the life to come. It is impossible for us to choose both.

Now, the question that most people ask at this point is, “How?” How can I possible live that kind of life where I have no emotional attachment to money and wealth?

We need only read the rest of this verse: “Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have. FOR…[or Because] God has said, ‘I will never leave you or forsake you.’ So we can say with confidence, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid, What can anyone do to me?’” (Hebrews 13:5b-6).

Oh, my dear friends, I would love to hear each one of you indeed say this with confidence, with boldness in your words, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can anyone do to me?”

That is faith. That is trust in God. That is confidence in God. There it is, right there!

This is the secret! This is the means by which we can handle money and wealth without any emotional attachments whatsoever. The secret is this constant remembrance of God in our minds, and in our hearts.

When I see my money slipping away, and when it seems insufficient to cover the pile of bills that never cease to stop, and my anxiety begins to build, what can I do?

Stop and remember: God has said, I will never leave you or forsake you. God is trustworthy and true. I can trust and believe that everything which happens to me is given to me for my good.

Deep, abiding trust in the goodness and loving-kindness of God is the secret to a non-anxious relationship with money. When we taste and see that God is good, then we are set free to use money and wealth to be a blessing to others, sharing generously with those in need.

Being a billionaire can actually be a really bad thing. There is an old Irish poem about the deleterious effects of wealth upon friendship. The poet ponders the best way to handle this problem. This old Irish poem goes like this:

People gather round the wealthy man like flies round a flame.
When he boasts, they praise him; when he lies, they believe him.
When he jokes, they laugh; when he’s serious, they frown.
“He is wise and handsome,” they say […] in his hearing.

I would hate to be rich and surrounded by flies.
I want friends to prick my pride and speak the truth.
If ever I grow rich, I shall hide my wealth.
Then my friends will still be real, and their voices honest.

But if I hide my wealth, I shall be lying.
Better [then] to remain poor.
(Celtic Parables by Robert Van De Weyer, Northstone Publishing, 1997: P. 123).

This is a choice that most of us are not able to make! Most of us do not have the ability to choose to be rich or poor. Many circumstances are beyond our control. But we do have the ability to choose our attitudes, our perspectives.

The Scriptures say: “Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have.” Let’s keep our lives free, be content with what we have, share what we have with the poor, and trust always in the goodness of God. That, my friends, is the path of true and abundant life in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

SOUL FREEDOM: Where do we go from here?

Soul Freedom: Religious Liberty, the Church and Islam

The proposed Park51 project in lower Manhattan has created a firestorm of discussion concerning the perceived legitimacy of Islam, the tortured history of relations between Western civilization and the Muslim world, and the need for tolerance between people of different faiths.

In any complex discussion such as this, it is often difficult for people to recognize the cultural lens which colors their own perspective by default. For the average American, Islamophobia is a decisive part of that inherited cultural lens, as rightly explained by Dr. Firestone in his RD essay on August 23, 2010 (Religion Dispatches- The Ground Zero-Sum Game). Tinted by this colored worldview, we are accustomed to viewing Islam and Muslims (and all Arabs, by association) as dangerous to our way of life and backwards in regard to the forward progress of society. This is extremely unfortunate, though it is understandable, given our nation’s interactions over the last three decades with high-profile terrorists who have claimed Islam as justification for their murderous actions. But guilt by association is never an appropriate way to judge individuals, let alone an entire multi-faceted civilization. Not all Muslims are the same. Cold-hearted criminals must be separated from the great majority of Muslims who strive only to live in peace, to worship God faithfully, and to provide a good future for their children.

But another aspect of our inherited American cultural lens which is so often assumed is the obvious necessity of religious freedom within a prosperous and healthy society. It is important and necessary if we are to have a truly informed public debate that we acknowledge this aspect of our worldview. It is a point of view that is uniquely American in history and peculiarly Christian in origin. If we miss this point, then our debate on religious tolerance and diversity will be incomplete at best, and perhaps even misguided.

Within the three great Abrahamic faith traditions, the Christian faith is the only one that assumes the clear distinction between political power and religious leadership. In its earliest history after the Day of Pentecost, the nascent churches stood in noticeable opposition to the Roman and Jewish authorities. None of the apostles, nor any among the first few generations of their successors, actively sought after positions of political power or control. The earliest Christian theological writings are unanimous in calling for respectful and prayerful support for those in power, but this call is always given obliquely and always from the perspective of those on the periphery of society. If one undertakes a survey of all early Christian writings (including the New Testament), it is clear that these early disciples of Christ thought very little (if at all) about acquiring power and control within society. On the contrary, their focus lay squarely on the demanding task of creating a compelling alternative society to exist alongside of, and in tension with, the dominant milieu of their time. In reality, the only social power of these early Christian communities was the power of persuasion, and it seems in general that these Christians were content with that. After all, it was their Teacher himself, Jesus of Nazareth, who was unambiguous in his disregard for political power. “If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over…But as it is, my kingdom is not from here” (John 18:36b).

In contrast, the Jewish tradition presents a radically different relationship between religious authorities and political power. For the sake of brevity, we need only consider the great Davidic dynasty which represents the commonly accepted “golden-era” of Jewish history. King David and his son Solomon served as multi-tasking leaders of Hebrew society. They were the commanders-in-chief of the armies, absolute monarchs over the territory they controlled, the supreme judge over all disputes among citizens, as well as the final arbiters in all matters concerning the religious practices of the nation. The kings of the Davidic dynasty also had clear imperialistic impulses and they sought to conquer neighboring kingdoms whenever the opportunity presented itself. They did all of this in the name of the LORD their God, the One who brought them out of Egypt and who allowed for no compromise in matters of national religious practice. When King Solomon began to allow other religious cults within his realm, the prophets of God were quick to announce the impending demise of his family dynasty. “Then the Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, who…had commanded him concerning his matter, that he should not follow other gods” (1 Kings 11:9-10). In short, the dominant ideal scenario envisioned by the Judaic tradition is one where political power, military might and religious leadership are combined and held together by strict allegiance to the covenant instituted by Moses.

The Islamic tradition owes much to the history of Judaism in this regard. In general, the Prophet Muhammed continued the heritage of combined political and religious power that was ubiquitous within Near Eastern societies. Within his nascent community, he served in much the same role as the Davidic kings: military general, absolute monarchical leader, and supreme judge. One major difference is that, for his followers, Muhammed was also the only source of revealed truth from God. However, the scope of his influence was limited during his lifetime, so it is the period of the patriarchal Caliphs immediately after the Prophet’s death that most often serves as the glorious idyllic period of Islamic history. These four great Caliphs continued the tradition of centralized civil and religious authority throughout the rapidly expanding Islamic empire.

All three of these Abrahamic faiths has been shaped and molded by varying historic circumstances in the ensuing centuries, often in surprising ways. However, they can never escape the foundational influence of their own respective “golden eras”. There can be no denying that the Christian churches, the Jewish people, and Muslim peoples are all inherently conservative in this regard: in their traditions, they all preserve an idyllic period in their past which serves as the definitive point of reference for contemporary decision-making. The exact periods of the past which serve in this capacity may vary somewhat between different sects (i.e., the Roman Catholic Church vis-à-vis Anabaptist churches, Reformed synagogues vis-à-vis Hasidic rabbis, Sufi communities vis-à-vis Shi’ite communities), but this process is remarkably uniform among the Abrahamic faiths as a general rule.

For instance, it would be a great over-simplification to evaluate the struggles between the new nation of Israel and the Palestinian peoples through the prism of the brief historical overview presented above. However, one can discern, in the stated goals and aspirations of those directly involved in this conflict, clear links to the amalgamation of political, military and religious power that constitutes the ideal vision of society for both the Judaic and Islamic traditions. Both Jewish and Palestinian militants in this struggle have been clear in expressing their desire for the creation of nation states which continue this combination of military and political power with their own religious identity. In contrast, Christian communities that exist in both Israel and in Palestine have largely remained apart from this conflict. In this way, one can recognize a reluctance to pursue political power among these churches that stems directly from their foundational self-identity as seen in the apostolic period.

Of course, objections will be raised to this historical overview, particularly concerning the abuse of political and military power over the centuries by the Christian churches. It is true that, after the Edict of Milan in 313 issued by Constantine and Licinius, Christian communities wielded direct civil power throughout Europe and the Mediterranean region for nearly 1500 years, often with disastrous results. But it is also true that, throughout this period, varying Christian voices were continually raised in protest to this obvious unfaithfulness to the foundational period of the church’s life. In fact, it can be argued that just as much of the energy behind the Reformation in the 16th and 17th centuries was a result of this unease with the abuse of civil power by the leaders of the church in Rome as it was a result of divergent theological understandings.

This now brings our extremely brief overview of religious history around full circle back to where we started. The very notion of the separation of church and state (and thus, religious tolerance and diversity) which we Americans assume as a foundational aspect of society is in fact a direct and immediate fruit of the Reformation. One of the primary catch-phrases of the Reformation was “ad fontes”, that is “back to the sources”. Many new Protestant communities did exactly this by attempting to re-create the experience of the early apostolic churches. In the process, they adopted the same attitude and approach toward civil authority as can be seen among these earliest Christians. In the Baptist churches, they began to speak boldly of the liberty of conscience as a necessary condition for any healthy society. Today, many will refer to this as the principle of soul freedom, and it is this principle which underlies our First Amendment rights to the “free exercise” of religion.

So let us all remember, as we continue to discuss the place of Islam within American society, and the need for religious tolerance, that what we are discussing is a peculiarly Christian ideal. We would be foolish to assume that those who have inherited a different cultural worldview will share this appreciation for religious diversity. Perhaps they will. But in order to have a fully informed debate in this regard, it is only fair that we ask our Muslim neighbors to explain their understanding of soul freedom and how this principle is informed by their faith traditions. A full understanding of history demands that we do so.

A Consuming Fire

Sermon for Proper 16 C RCL 8/22/2010, Offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry

Texts: Jeremiah 1:4-10; Psalm 71:1-6; Hebrews 12:18-29; Luke 13:10-17

Help us, O Lord, to become masters of ourselves, so that we might become the servants of others. Take our minds and think through them, take our lips and speak through them, take our hearts and set them on fire. Amen.

There’s a story of an old guy in the backwoods of Kentucky who used to show up for every tent revival meeting that they had in that area. Tent revivals originated in Kentucky and they remained common in this area whenever a traveling evangelist came into town.

At the end of each night’s service, an invitation was given for folks to give their lives over to Jesus, and at every invitation, this old backwoods guy would come on down the aisle. He would fall on his knees, raise his arms to the heavens and cry out, “Fill me, Jesus! Fill me! Fill me, Jesus!” Then, within a week or two, people around would notice that he was back to his old dissolute ways of living. But when the next series of revival meetings began, the old guy would be right there, kneeling and raising his arms in the air and praying to be filled.

One time, he was at one of these revival meetings, doing his thing, yelling out to the ceiling, “Fill me, Jesus! Fill me, Jesus!” But it seemed that some woman in the back of the congregation had had enough of these shenanigans from the old guy. So, in response to his pleadings to be filled up again, she suddenly yelled out, “Don’t do it, Lord! He leaks!” (Tony Campolo, Let Me Tell You a Story, 2000, p.96).

Well, the truth is that the old guy is certainly not unique in that department.
We all leak! And this is why we all need to have a revival! We all need to be revived and renewed.

If you are in tune to the American religious scene, you will know that the word revival is a familiar part of the code language of American evangelicalism. It is often used to suggest that we, as a nation, have fallen away from the moral purity of the past, and from the wisdom of our founding fathers. Please understand that I am not using this word “revival” in this way. Nor am I suggesting that we set up a tent out in the park and have a week of evening revival meetings (though I do think that would be an interesting experiment! An Episcopal Tent Revival!).


What I am suggesting is that, because we all leak, we all therefore need regularly to be re-filled. This, of course, is true in every aspect of our lives. How difficult is it for any of us to keep up our interest or enthusiasm for anything in life? When disasters happen around the world, we all watch on TV and read about them in the paper. But within a few weeks, our interest wanes and we move on to something else. The same is true for most people when it comes to sports. Most watch with intense interest only when the playoffs come around. Very few have the fortitude to watch every single Phillies game of their 162-game season!

This reality is true in all of our relationships as well. It’s very common for the intensity of love and devotion that many experience with our spouses and partners to fade and ebb over time. When I counsel couples before marriage, I encourage them not to think of their relationship like a contract in which they come to an agreement to provide certain services for each other over a period of time, but rather more like an infant. A lasting relationship of intimacy is like a baby who needs to be fed and cared for continually if it is to survive and to grow and thrive.

The same is true then of our faith, our relationship with the living God. It is not enough that once we were baptized, or once we were born again, or once we were confirmed, or whatever the crucial turning point might be. That one moment was simply the opening of the door for this new relationship with God.

Instead, we must continue to nurture this relationship if it is to survive, grow and thrive. And when our love becomes cold, then what we need is a revival!

I am speaking today of our need for revival, because this is the primary compelling concern and spiritual admonition of this Letter to the Hebrews, which we have reading through recently. You can see this thrust clearly in this last sentence of our reading today: “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us give thanks, by which we offer to God an acceptable worship with reverence and awe; for indeed our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:29). Earlier, this letter encourages us to “not give up meeting together” (Hebrews 10:25, NIV), to “hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering” (Hebrews 10:23), to “not abandon that confidence of yours” (Hebrews 10:35). And in the famous “Faith” chapter, the 11th chapter, we are presented with an amazing line-up of spiritual stars who have conquered and overcome by the power of faith in the living God.

Why all of this effort, you may ask, to encourage faithfulness among these Jewish Christian believers? The unnamed author of this letter is concerned. He writes because of “pastoral concern for a church plagued by neglect, apathy, absenteeism, retreat, and near the point of apostasy” (The New Interpreter’s Bible, Volume XII, Abingdon Press, p.160). In a word, their love for God has grown cold. Their passion for the Gospel has faded away.

Does this sound familiar at all to you? It most definitely does to me. It sounds like a fair description of the church in our own time and place. I’m not speaking of you here today, of course, you who are the regulars, faithful in worship. But this is indeed the general state of the church in our day: plagued by neglect, apathy, absenteeism, shrinking back in retreat, struggling with apostasy, cold in love, feeble in passion.

Because of this reality in his own day, the author of this letter strove hard to convey the need for reverence and awe among the disciples there.

“Let us give thanks, by which we offer to God an acceptable worship with reverence and awe; for indeed our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:29).

There can be no doubt at all that reverence and awe have been lost in our contemporary culture. How do we get it back, on an individual level and as a community of disciples?

We need a revival. Like that old guy in Kentucky, we need to be filled up once again by the Holy Spirit! We need our love to become warm once again. We need to have warm hearts and clear minds to see once again the magnificence and majesty of God, to see once again the amazing grace that God has given to us, to see once again the beauty of a life that is lived for the glory of God.

When the author here declares that “our God is a consuming fire”, he is making a reference to Deuteronomy 4:24 which states: “The Lord your God is a devouring fire, a jealous God.”

Like a jealous lover, God does not want ever to be in second place in the passion of your heart. The key to this revival of our reverence and awe, of our respect and love for God is in our intention. If we truly want to love the Lord our God with all our heart, our soul, our mind and our strength, and if we discipline ourselves to spend time with God on a regular basis, then it can happen. If we truly want it, we can keep our love alive and our relationship strong.

May God grant us the desire and the ability to worship with reverence and awe, to keep our hearts on fire with love and desire. Amen.

2010 Family Vacation: camping in Quebec

We made our annual August vacation trip to Quebec City and the Cot de Beaupre along the St. Lawrence River. Very beautiful country with fantastic weather (except for the rain on the first night of camping, which resulted in 2 wet sleeping bags! At least it was warm). Here are a few photos below for the curious:

At our Mont St. Anne campsite, we celebrated my birthday
 and our big dog's (Ita) birthday

Along the Promenade on top of the City Wall

The Basilica of St. Anne de Beaupre - a major pilgrimage site dedicated
to the grandmother of our Lord Jesus in the flesh

This is the Nave - a magnificent place with dozens of side chapels
and other pilgrimage attractions.

Quebec is full of bike paths. We brought our bikes and did a lot of
biking through the old City and in the mountains.

Our 3 musketeers at the Montmorency Falls.

I think that next August we might visit Ottawa and camp in the famous (and huge!) Gatineau Park just outside of the capital.

One in a Million

Sermon for 12 Pentecost C RCL 8/15/2010, Offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry

Texts: Isaiah 5:1-7; Psalm 80: 1-2, 8-18; Hebrews 11:29-12:2; Luke 12:49-56

In the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely” (Hebrews 12:1).

Have you ever stood in a cloud? Have you ever stood on the top of a mountain that was shrouded by a cloud? If so, then you may recall that being in a cloud is liked being embraced – being completely engulfed – by an entirely different realm. I have been in many clouds while climbing the mountains of New England, and it has always been an amazing experience.

If you can call to mind this kind of experience, I want you to hold that in mind when you hear this famous verse of scripture from The Letter to the Hebrews: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses”. To be surrounded by this cloud is something like, I think, being on a mountain-top in the clouds. In this cloud, we are embraced by an entirely different reality. And if we are aware and awake to this reality, then it can have an enormous impact upon our everyday lives.

But rather than the darkness which accompanies the clouds stuck upon the mountain-tops, this great cloud is one of a million lights, and there is one light which shines out far beyond the others.

My friends, on this day we are bound to speak about this one who holds the pre-eminent position in this luminous embrace – this engulfment of encouragement – in which we live and move throughout our lives.

On this day every year – August 15, the church remembers and celebrates the events which surround the death of the Mother of our Lord. This date was specifically set aside by the Roman Emperor in the year 600 AD as a feast to celebrate the falling asleep of Mary.

In Rome, they call this day the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In Moscow and Alexandria and Damascus, they call this the Dormition of the Theotokos.

In the Anglican sphere, we have tended to be much more cautious about those matters not clearly illuminated by Holy Scripture, but you can see an obvious reference to the glorious events surrounding the death of Mary even in our appointed Collect for this day, which we will pray together in just a few minutes.

But no matter what different leaders of the church might call this Feast, what we all celebrate annually on this 15th day of August is of crucial importance. In fact, what happens on August 15 to Mary completes that which began on December 25 in the Incarnation of Christ.

Now, I contend that no one needs to get entangled in the quagmire of debate concerning the doctrines which surround Mary in order to appreciate and celebrate the simple and radiant facts of her life.

She alone among women was chosen to be the mother of God, the living tabernacle in which God came to dwell, the source from which the Living Water began to flow. She gave the full assent of her will to the gracious will of God. She bore and nursed the Word of Life. She was present at all the key events in the life of her Son. On the day of Pentecost, she was there with the Apostles when the Holy Spirit came down in flames of fire.

This much is clear from the scriptures. According to tradition, Mary continued to live in Jerusalem with different apostles. Eventually, she died and the apostles gathered together to bid her farewell. They served as her pall-bearers as they carried her body to her tomb with prayers and songs of praise. But one apostle was missing, and of course, this was St. Thomas, Doubting Thomas who also was missing when the resurrected Christ first appeared to the apostles. When St. Thomas arrived 3 days later, he requested to enter her tomb so that he too could bid her farewell. But when the tomb was opened, her body was gone.

In our first reading, we heard a poem today from the hand of the prophet Isaiah. It expresses God’s desire for the people of Israel, and God’s disappointment that they had not yet produced the fruit that God desires.

“God dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; [God] built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; [God] expected it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes” (Isaiah 5:2).

But finally, after a long wait, Israel did in fact produce the finest of all grapes, the fruit of true inner goodness, a flower of amazing beauty. In Mary, our Mother, we see the complete journey of a life that has been transformed by acceptance of the grace of God.

My friends, I truly believe this. The early fathers and mothers of the church believed it and celebrated it. It makes sense. Think about this: what is the end for those who are full of grace? What could be the end for the one who gave her flesh, her body so that the world might be redeemed?

The full process of salvation was completed in her, in her soul and her flesh.

But let us be clear in understanding that this was not a resurrection like that of her Son, our Lord Jesus. What happened to Mary is what the Bible teaches will happen to all God’s faithful people. It is the end for which we all pray and wait. When the final trumpet sounds, the dead will rise in the flesh and stand before the presence of God. The only difference is that Mary did not have to wait. She was taken into the heavens immediately to dwell forever before God. And what does she do there? She does what this entire great cloud of witnesses does; what all the saints do, of course. She intercedes on our behalf, and on behalf of the entire world.

The Lord said that he came to bring fire to the earth. We understand now that this fire is the gift of the Holy Spirit, the One who fills the disciples with power and strength to live in the kingdom of God. But it was the Virgin Mary, the God-bearer, who first received the power of the Holy Spirit into her very being and who experienced the full potential of the grace of God. Praise be to God for her example, and for her prayers on our behalf.

Let us pray:

O God, you have taken to yourself the blessed Virgin Mary, mother of your incarnate Son: Grant that we, who have been redeemed by his blood, may share with her the glory of your eternal kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Angus and I are building a new deck in New Hampshire!

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The Whole Fullness of Deity

Sermon for Proper 12 C RCL 7-25-2010

Offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry

Texts:             Hosea 1:2-10; Psalm 85; Colossians 2:6-19; Luke 11:1-13

Recently, I heard a story from someone who attended a church summer camp a number of years ago. During one of the large group gatherings, a group of men dressed all in black rushed into the chapel. They were carrying machine guns and they immediately went up to the front and tied up the four pastors who were there, and they held a gun to the head of the main pastor. And one of the masked men yelled out over the noise to the hundreds of camp kids and counselors who were there that anyone who is a Christian needs to stand up.

A few brave souls stood up – the faithful few, but the rest ran out all of the doors in a chaotic scramble. There were kids running all through the woods, scared and crying, with girls screaming, older kids cursing. And as this one particular camper tells the story, she and her friends were running back to their cabin to find a safe place to hide when they saw camp counselors going along all of the paths with flashlights and bullhorns. And the counselors were proclaiming to everyone with their bullhorns: “Don’t be afraid. It’s not real; it’s only a play!” You see, it all was just a skit designed to be part of the chapel lesson that night!

Some zealous, probably well-intentioned, but very inexperienced young person must have planned that skit, because they thought that it was a great way to teach a lesson about the boldness of Christians, that we ought to be brave to stand up for our faith in the face of any kind of danger.

This lesson is very much like the one intended by those who have often posed this question: “If you were arrested for being a Christian, would they have enough evidence to convict you?”

I don’t often think about my potential response to this kind of challenge to my faith, but I thought about it this past week in response to our reading today from the Letter to the Colossians.

Here in our passage today, we are given a litany of different forces at work in the milieu of the first century which had the potential to distract or subvert the faith of these Christians. Philosophy, empty deceit, human tradition, the elemental spirits of the universe (whatever these might be, nobody seems to know!), matters of food and drink, festivals, new moons, Sabbaths, self-abasement, the worship of angels, visions, human ways of thinking.

We, of course, cannot relate necessarily to this particular list, because we have our own forces at work in our society that have the potential to de-rail our life with Christ.

And as I thought about these challenges to my faith, it seems clear that the greatest danger, for me at least, is what I will call the general malaise of secularism. That is, it is so easy to fall into an easy pattern of busyness, to go about life doing what we do, trusting in our abilities and our technologies to keep life moving along. And before we know it, a day, a week, a month passes before we really give God much of a thought.

It’s really all about time. When the question is asked if they would have enough evidence to convict me as a Christian, I think that the most important measure of this is the amount of time that I intentionally spend on my relationship with God.

There is no deep and healthy relationship without a noticeable, measurable amount of time spent together by two people with the intention of knowing each other more deeply.

As most of you know, we men tend to be very good at being able to pick up a friendship right where we left off, even if we haven’t seen each other in a year or more. That’s how it is for me and my friends. We see each other once or twice a year. It’s really no big deal to most of us men, and I have a hunch that a lot of men feel this same way about God. “It’s no big deal,” they think, “when I get back to church eventually, God and I will pick up right where we left off!”

But it doesn’t work that way with deeper relationships. You can’t do that with your spouse, your partner, your girlfriend!

When we are talking about our relationship with God, what we are talking about is the intentional time that we spend in prayer. When you boil it all down, our regular daily practice of prayer IS the measure of our closeness, and our bond of connection, with God.

Jesus himself spent regular time in prayer abiding in that close connection with the one he called “Abba”. When the disciples ask about his prayer practice, so that they might learn from his experience, he begins with this signature note of his teaching about the nature of God: Abba.

Of course, we say “Our Father, who art in heaven.” We say it so much that it is likely that we forget how tremendous a gift that this represents. To call God our Abba, our Daddy, our Papa, means that we have now been brought into the same intimate connection with God as Jesus himself experienced. The same. Brothers and sisters together in the same family!

The mystery of the Incarnation allows pulls us in this direction: God became what we are in Christ – God took up our human nature – in order that we might become what God is – that we might take up the divine nature.

St. Paul sums it up very clearly for us in our reading today. “For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily” (Colossians  2:9). That’s mind-blowing, and to be honest, we humans still haven’t quite figured out all the implications of that.

Eugene Peterson, in his free-form contemporary translation called  The Message, puts that verse in this way: “Everything of God gets expressed in him, so you can see and hear him clearly. You don't need a telescope, a microscope, or a horoscope to realize the fullness of Christ, and the emptiness of the universe without him” (emphasis added).  

The fullness of God’s nature is seen clearly in Jesus Christ, because he is the Incarnation of God. But this verse continues, and here we find the kicker: “AND YOU have come to fullness in him” (Colossians 2:10).

You and I have come to fullness in Christ. What more can we ask for, then, but to actually and tangibly experience this fullness, this completeness in our daily lives because of our close relationship with God.

This week, my friends, as you go about your busy lives, spend a few minutes each day thinking about the Lord’s Prayer. Don’t rush through it, as usual. Pause on each phrase, each distinctive word, and let the Spirit guide you into new and creative ways to understand these familiar words. Meditate on them, my friends. Chew on them mentally.

And remember that it is a gift of the fullness of Christ that we are privileged to call God our Abba, our Father. Amen.   

A Shout-out to the Ambrefe's!

A great big hello to our friends from Boxford, Massachusettes! Brian, Mary, Lyndon, and Avery Ambrefe!

For the sake of nostalgia, here are a few pictures that I could find from our days up in Topsfield, when we were able to see the Ambrefe's on a regular basis. This picture is from Holy Week 2004 (I think). Note how small the children were then! 

Here is the rectory backyard, about the time when we held the 100 Inch Snow Party for the parish! Once we had received 100 inches of snow for the season (by my careful calculations), the Ambrefe's joined others for an afternoon filled with Sugar-on-Snow  treats, ice skating, sledding down our huge snow-plow pile, snowshoeing in the woods, playing in the snow fort, etc. This was in early March 2005, and it was a great day.

And With All Your Mind!

Sermon for Proper 11C RCL 7-18-2010, Offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry

Texts: Amos 8:1-12; Psalm 52; Colossians 1:15-28; Luke 10:38-42

Today we are given this great story from the Gospel of Luke to ponder. Mary and Martha are presented to us as two different models of discipleship, two divergent paths by which we faithfully love and serve the Lord. Of course, Mary is the exalted one, the one highlighted as choosing the better path. But wisdom demands that we never forget the importance of labor and work which Martha represents.

Back in the 4th century, a certain man came to a monastery in the desert at Mount Sinai and he saw a busy community full of activity. He spoke to the abbot there and said, “Why do you all work for the bread that perishes? Mary has chosen the best part, namely to sit at the feet of the Lord without working!”

So the abbot called to one of his monks and said, “Give this brother a book and let him read, and put him up in an empty cell.”

By the time the ninth hour arrived (3 o’clock in the afternoon), the visitor who was reading began to look outside to see if the abbot would call him to dinner. After a while longer, he went out to find the abbot and asked him. “Did the brethren not eat today, father?”

“Oh yes, certainly,” replied the abbot. “They just had dinner.” “Well, then, why didn’t you call me?”

“You, of course, are a spiritual man,” said the abbot. “You don’t need this food which perishes. We have to work, but you have chosen the best part. You read all day, and can get along without food!”

The visitor was humbled and replied, “Forgive me, father.”

And the wise abbot replied, “Martha is necessary to Mary, for it was because Martha worked that Mary was able to be praised!” (from The Wisdom of the Desert by Thomas Merton, p. 36).

Another time among the Desert Fathers and Mothers in the 4th century, it was told that the famous Abbot called John the Dwarf once called his elder brother and told him, “I want to live in the same security as the angels have, doing no work, but serving God without intermission.” And so he stripped off all his clothes, left everything behind and walked out into the desert, unattached and free.

After only one week, John the Dwarf returned to his brother and knocked on his door. Before opening, the brother called out, “Who are you?” The reply came, “I am John.”

Then the brother answered, “John has become an angel and is no longer among men.” But John the Dwarf kept knocking and pleading to be let in. For a long time, the brother did not open the door, until finally he did so. But before he let John inside, he said to him, “If you are a man, you are going to have to start working again in order to live. But if you are an angel, why do you want to come inside?”

So John the Dwarf did penance and said, “Forgive me, brother, for I have sinned" (Ibid, p.41)

These fun, little stories from the ancient desert reflect the wisdom of the church that will not allow us to adopt an extreme position which negates the importance of either sister. Poor Martha! Her stature is humbled in this story, but we all know that her efforts are absolutely necessary after all.

So what then is the Gospel telling us through this story? We have to see this famous story of Martha and Mary as the other side of the coin along with the story of the Good Samaritan. These two are purposefully put together by Luke to give concrete expression to the summary of the law from earlier in Chapter 10: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27).

In the Good Samaritan, we see the love of neighbor; in Mary and Martha, we see the love of God.

Both of these also fulfill the vision of Jesus from earlier in Luke when he said, “My mother and brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it” (Luke 8:21).

For Mary hears the word of God. It is Martha and the Samaritan who do it!

The apostle Paul stated that faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ (Romans 10:17). To love the Lord our God with all our mind means that we hear Christ speak and then we have to think. God wants us to think carefully about how we live. Our task as disciples is, like Mary, to sit at the feet of the Lord, to listen carefully to his teaching, and to do our best to put this teaching into practice in our daily actions.

My friends, it’s not the easy way to live, but you and I are called to be diligent in thinking. We are promised that it is in fact the way to an abundant and full life.

For instance, my conscience will not allow me to use a gas-powered mower for our lawn. Now, I am not so vain as to stand here and say to you that Jesus told me not to do this! That would be ridiculous! But this conviction has come about as a result of thinking carefully in light of the Gospels.

Let me ask you: is it right that my vanity to have a perfectly manicured lawn, and my desire to avoid physical extertion, is a good cause for us to invade other nations to secure a good oil supply for the future? Or to drill holes in the bottom of the ocean? Because of our inability to control ourselves, we place so much of the world at great risk – both the natural world and human society! I know that we need oil for our society to function. I’m not that naïve. But the truth is that I DON’T need it for my lawn!

Jesus teaches me to weigh these two factors: concern about what my neighbors might say about my imperfect lawn (since our old-fashioned reel mower doesn’t provide as close of a cut) or the health of the world and the peace of human society. It may be easier to use a gas mower, and it may provide better results, but does that mean that it is the best option?

Truth be told, it is difficult at times to live as a Christian, to think with such vigilance about our actions. Last week, I had an appointment to have my teeth cleaned by my dentist. And during the cleaning, the hygienist asked me, “Do you use an electric toothbrush?” Of course, I couldn’t answer, with four of her fingers and a suction tube shoved in my mouth! But I shook my head no and she suggested that it really would be a good idea.

I didn’t give her my explanation when I finally had free use of my mouth again, but the truth is that we cannot do that! If all 6.85 billion people in the world used electric toothbrushes, then we would need to build more power plants just to power all of these brushes! (I actually researched this, and it would take approximately 22 Gigawatts of energy per year to power all of these toobrushes!)

No. We need to be smarter than that. When nearly one billion people today do not have access to reliable electricity at all, for me, this would be the selfish misuse of resources!

The point is this, my brothers and sisters: when we listen to what Jesus’ teaches, when we think about our lives in light of his teaching, we learn that self-interest can never be the primary measure for any of our decisions. To love my neighbor as myself means that I am willing, and able, to lay aside my own desires in order to consider the needs of others, whoever they might be. To love God with all my mind means that I am willing, and able, to consider carefully the effects of my actions upon others, whoever they might be.

So may God give us all grace to listen like Mary to the word of Christ, then to bring the practical wisdom of Martha, and the compassion of the Good Samaritan, to bear upon our decisions, so that we may think and to act as those who hear the Word of God and do it - as disciples of Christ in this world. Amen.