With Boldness and Compassion

Keep, O Lord, your household the Church in your steadfast faith and love, that through your grace we may proclaim your truth with boldness and minister your justice with compassion Amen. (BCP, p. 230)

What an absolutely wonderful prayer: a prayer asking God to be with us always, to give us faith, and to love us always. A prayer that not only ask God’s presence but reminds us that God is present with us, even when we do not remember to ask for that presence. God’s steadfast faith and love is the firm foundation for our lives that Jesus tells us about in the parable of the wise man who built his house, not on sand, but on solid rock.

Through this promise God gives us the strength and courage to live into His plan for us. God’s plan and desire for us is two-fold. First, God desires for us to “Proclaim his truth with boldness. Secondly and just as important, God desires for us to minister his justice with compassion. Boldness and compassion! Two foundational characteristics of God and for God’s People.

According to St. Paul, it is “the love of Christ that urges us on, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them. So, if anyone is in Christ, he or she is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! (2 Corinthians 5:14-17) Being made new, we pray that we see the world and other people through the eyes of Christ: that even though different in knowledge and skills, in background and opportunity, we see that we are all God’s children and therefore brothers and sisters in Christ.

As new creations in Jesus Christ, we proclaim God’s truth with boldness, not only when we affirm “Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again, but also when we give “one of these, God’s Children, a cup of water in Jesus’ name, thus proclaiming by world and example the good news of God in Christ.” Truth, proclamation, and ministry cannot be separated: As James the brother of Jesus proclaims in his New Testament letter, “what good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill’, and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So, faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. Some will say, ‘You have faith and I have works.’ I say, ‘Show me your faith without works, and I by my works will show you my faith.’” (James 2:14-18)

I leave you with two questions that all of us who follow just must ask ourselves:

“Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself? Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?

I pray that God will give us all the grace to answer: “I will with God’s help!”

The Spirit of God swept over the Face of the Waters

In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while the Spirit of God swept over the face of the waters. (Genesis 1:1-2) 

At times, as a Christian and a Pastor, I get bogged down in doctrine and dogma and lose my connection with the Holiness of God. At such times it is important for me to walk away from too many words and find and reconnect with the Presence of God. For me, this is a reminder that the Spirit of God was in the world from the beginning (see Genesis 1:1-2 above) and always will be, regardless of our struggle with doctrine, scripture, or our doubts and fears. 

The feast of Pentecost, on May 23 this year, is our annual reminder of the Holy Spirit’s presence in the beginning, and its continuation following Easter.

 

“When the day of Pentecost had come, the disciples were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

 

Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in their own language. Amazed and astonished, they asked, "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language. . .them speaking about God's deeds of power."

But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, "Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. . . this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:

“In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.” (Acts 2:1-21)

 

What a wonderful promise: God will fill all of us with the Holy Spirit and we will have visions and dreams of what the world, of what God’s Creation, can and should be. We will prophesy (we will not necessarily be liked for doing that) and we will show our faith by our actions dedicated to justice and Peace (we will not necessarily be liked for this either). But we will do it because as Jesus declared to his disciples, ^“When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth; the spirit will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.” (John 16:13)

 

I leave you with a prayer: O God, who on the day of Pentecost taught the hearts of your faithful people by sending to them the light of your Holy Spirit: Grant us by the same Spirit to have a right judgment in all things, and evermore to rejoice in the Spirit’s holy comfort. Amen. (BCP, p. 227)

Love Your Mother (Earth) She’s all We have Got

Next Thursday is Earth Day, a day when we remember that Planet Earth is one of the greatest gifts given to us by God. True, love and family and friends and talents are all wonderful gifts, but the Earth is the place on which we give and receive these gifts. As the Psalmist proclaims, “The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it; for he has founded it on the seas and established it on the rivers.” (Psalm 24:1) 

On Sunday, the members of Christ Episcopal Church will worship outdoors at Lake Guntersville State Park. We will sing, pray, preach, and share Holy Communion. Worship will be followed by a Holy Hike and waterfall picnic for the more adventurous sort 

Our hymns, scriptures, and prayers as well as our actions on that day will focus on the God Creation and Creation itself. We well proclaim the importance of the Earth and the responsibility and privilege it is that God has called us to be stewards of this wonderful gift. This gift and our place in it are set forth in the first chapter of the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament).

“And God said, ‘Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky.’ So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, of every kind, with which the waters swarm, and every winged bird of every kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them, saying, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.’ And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.

And God said, ‘Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind: cattle and creeping things and wild animals of the earth of every kind.’ And it was so. God made the wild animals of the earth of every kind, and the cattle of every kind, and everything that creeps upon the ground of every kind. And God saw that it was good.

Then God said, ‘Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.’

So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. And God blessed them.” (Genesis 1:20-28)

Even with this promise and calling, life can sometimes be more challenging than we believe we can handle. This past year the Covid Pandemic and violence across the land and isolation have brought worry, fear and loss to many of us. I believe Jesus calls us back with his words recorded in the Gospel of Matthew 6:25-33. With these words, Jesus reminds us that “the Lord is good and that his Mercy is everlasting.”

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you? Therefore, do not worry, saying, “What will we eat?” or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear? indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

 

 

 

Sir, we wish to see Jesus

Even before the birth of Jesus, God sent prophets into the world to call God’s people into repentance and a renewed covenant. The Prophet Jeremiah lived and worked in the late seventh century BC, the last years the Kingdom of Judah existed as an independent nation. When Judah was conquered by Babylon, Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed, and the people carried off into exile. Jeremiah reminds the people that even though they have broken the original covenant with God, that not only will God not forsake them, but God will create and establish a new Covenant with them.

“The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. . . for I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more.” (Jeremiah 31:31-34)

God continued to love his people, to give them another opportunity. This time the covenant God makes is given to the nation as a whole and the people individually. God is preparing them to survive as Children of God in a foreign land, and to eventually return to Judah, rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple and to proclaim God’s love and mercy. God continues to put love into our hearts, preparing us to give that love away, because it is in giving that we receive.

A major part of Jesus’ life was to pass on the prophets’ teaching which is recorded in Leviticus and Deuteronomy: “you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength. This is the first and great commandment. The second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as you love yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” (Deuteronomy 6:4-7; Leviticus 19:18; Matthew 22:36-40)

As Jesus carried out the mission for which God sent Him into the world, preaching and living the two great commandments, he became known throughout the Mediterranean area. People had heard of him and his teachings: many wanted to know him, while others wanted to avoid him completely and some wanted to eliminate this “troublemaker.” We pick up the story as Jesus and his disciples are going up to Jerusalem for the Passover Festival.

“Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus.” (John 12:20-21)

Those Greeks who wanted to know Jesus gave him an opportunity to proclaim who he was, not only to them, but to all around him, and through the writer of the Gospel of John to us as well. Jesus also told them and us what we must do to have a life with God’s Covenant written on our hearts.

 Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.” (John 12:23-26)

“Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say— ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name. . . Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” (John 12:27-33)

Can we do what Jesus asked us to do? Not alone, not with our strength only. But the Psalmist reminds us how we can do so: Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence and take not your holy Spirit from me. Give me the joy of your saving help again and sustain me with your bountiful Spirit. (Psalm 51:11-13)

In Order that the Whole World Might be Saved through Him

Several years ago, I preached a sermon on the following “simple and straightforward” passage. This sermon almost and ultimately led to my “resignation” from the church I was serving. I invite you to read this scripture, which is vital to our faith as Christians, and in my opinion “not as simple and as straight forward as most of us believe or would like.” 

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. 

Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. . .” (John 3:16-21) 

We all know and love John 3:16, “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” I chose to focus on the next portion of this important but complicated piece of scripture: “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” 

Before elaborating on these verses, I suggested that this passage, and the Bible itself, was dangerous and should contain the same warning as a pack of cigarettes, “Using this product could be hazardous to your health.” My intent was positive, that “the Bible contains many truths, some of which we do not want to hear or follow.” That was not how it was received, and what people heard, coupled with my emphasis on “God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world but that “the whole world might be saved” turned out to be my undoing. 

True, the passage goes on to proclaim that “those who do not believe in the name of Jesus are condemned already,” but my belief and proclamation was that God was bigger than any human being or any religion and that God sending Jesus into the world so that the whole world might be saved, meant just that, “that the whole world, all people, might be saved.” 

I know that there is an important Christian tradition that only through Jesus can we be saved, and I understand and believe that. I also believe that God sending Jesus into the world that the whole world should be saved, does just that, whether a person believes in or even knows Jesus. God is so much more powerful than our knowledge and beliefs. My whole point of the sermon was that “God’s ways are not our ways and that God can and will do more than we can ever ask or imagine.” As St. Paul wrote to the Church in Corinth: “For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:12-13) 

Sadly things did not turn out as I had hoped and prayed: people left after the sermon and before communion in tears; I spent a month meeting with individuals who questioned my faith and suggested that Satan was supplying my sermon material. Ultimately, I was called before the Vestry, the governing body of an Episcopal Church, and within a year my salary was cut by $10,000 per year and I retired on the spot. 

I pray you readers will join me in believing that God is bigger and more merciful than we are and that Jesus truly did “come into the world that the whole world might be saved.” 

I once wanted a simple faith, one which gave me all the answers. What God gave me instead was an exciting faith, a faith with more questions than answers, and a faith filled with joy for the journey. 

Gracious Father, whose blessed Son Jesus Christ came down from heaven to be the true bread which gives life to the world: Evermore give us this bread, that he may live in us, and we in him. Amen. (The Book of Common Prayer, p. 219)

 

 

 

Return to the Lord your God

“Blow the trumpet in Zion; sanctify a fast; call a solemn assembly; gather the people. Sanctify the congregation; assemble the aged; gather the children, even infants at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her canopy.” (Joel 2:15-16)

When a Hebrew Prophet makes a proclamation such as Joel does here, you know something important, something life changing is happening. The prophet doesn’t call just the adult males, or the wise, or married couples. He wants everybody and he wants them

to gather NOW: the aged and the infirm; the children including babies at the breast; the bride and groom, right in the middle of the ceremony and honeymoon, to stop what they are doing and show up, right this minute!

This is, the opening reading and proclamation of Ash Wednesday Worship in many Christian communities. A proclamation that calls people to prayer and introspection, that calls us to look at our lives: the good, the bad and the ugly; to recognize our mortality and to repent of our sins and commit to a new beginning of our lives in relationship to God and to our fellow human beings.

Joel reminds us, “even now, says the LORD, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; rend your hearts and not your clothing. Return to the LORD, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing. Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him.” (Joel 2:12-14)

The reading of scripture is followed by the following prayer by the minister:

“Almighty God, you have created us out of the dust of the earth: Grant that these ashes may be to you a sign of our mortality and penitence, that we may remember that it is only by your gracious gift that we are given everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.” (Book of Common Prayer, p. 265)

The ashes are then imposed on those who desire with the following words: “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

The most powerful experience of this sacrament for me was when I made an Ash Wednesday visit to a family with a four day old new born and imposed ashes on all of them. What a life changing

experience of the presence of God for all of us when I rubbed ashes on the forehead of this beautiful infant, with all the hopes of his parents for the new life in front of him, and told him that he was mortal and would not only live, but would one day die. We were all reminded that whether we live or whether we die, we belong to the Lord and because of that we belong to each other and we are all vital members of God’s Creation

I leave you with a prayer: “Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing you have made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent: Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins. . .may obtain of you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.” (Book of Common Prayer, p. 264)

In the Beginning

 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” (John 1:1-5) 

The writer of the Gospel of John begins his story with some of the most powerful words ever written. The words were intended to catch the attention of the hearers. Faithful Jews in what we have come to know as the first century A.D. or the Common Era, would have stopped, looked and listened because they would have immediately heard in their minds the beginning of the first book of the Hebrew Bible, Genesis, and known what they were about to hear would be vitally important, would change their lives forever. 

“In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.” (Genesis 1:1-5) 

The similarities are astounding and not accidental: the Presence of God, wind, word, spirit; the contrast between light and darkness and the fact that the light would always win, would always overcome the darkness, no matter what. 

Throughout history, the Prophets of God had proclaimed that light would always conquer darkness, that life would always overcome death and that God’s people would always be the light of the world. 

John was proclaiming to anyone who would listen, that the promise given to the Jews in Genesis six hundred to one thousand years before the birth of Jesus were just as true in their day as they were then. Every year at the Nativity of our Lord when we hear and remember these words, we are reminded that they are also as true for us today as they were when Jesus came into the world as fully human as we are. His life was the light of God, and John tells us, the light of the people as well, the light of human beings like us. That light shines from God through us, and the darkness of the world has not and will not overcome it. 

As I write this on January 1, 2021, we have just come through a year that brought sickness and death, war and destruction, loneliness and isolation, anger and fear and hatred between nations and political parties and within families. I need to hear, I must hear this message again. Many of us have lost friends and family members to Covid-19. Many of us are estranged from friends and family due to disagreements over who should lead our nation and how we should be led. We are frustrated because we still cannot attend worship in person due to fear of being infected or of infecting others. At times like these it is much easier to see the darkness than the light. It is even possible to believe or fear, no matter how strong our faith. that the darkness may, in fact overcome the light. 

And just in time, the annual cycles and patterns of our faith call us to stop, look and listen. We are called by God and our community to slow down, to breath, and to hear, as I learned in Sunday School, “the old, old story of Jesus and his love.” 

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” (John 1:1-5) 

John Continues: 

“And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth. (John testified to him and cried out, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.'") From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father's heart, who has made him known.”(John 1:18) 

As I like to begin my Sermons: “God give us eyes to see and ears to hear and hearts that can be touched.” May God guide us to join Jesus in being the light of the World.