VMS May newsletter article: Give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation

“I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power. (Eph 1: 17-19)

This passage is taken from the lectionary for Ascension Day, which is one of the seven Principal Feasts on our liturgical calendar (BCP, 15). The Principal Feasts are dates we set aside to interrupt the continuing story being presented in the lectionary and pay special attention to something that is crucial to our faith narrative and Christian journey. The ascension of Jesus, the Christ, is one of those days because it is when Jesus hands over to the church the continuing ministry of reconciliation in His name.

In this passage, Paul prays for the new believers in Ephesus, asking God to enlighten them, so that they will be able to see with eyes of faith and recognize the hope and glorious inheritance that are theirs through the power of God, that God’s power may work through them in their lives and ministries. I pray the same prayer for us today. Like those early believers, we are called to be the ones through whom God is glorified in the world today, the ones through whom God’s great power does its work in the world.

Summer is almost upon us already! So before some of our ministries take a “rest,” and we begin our planning for the coming program year, I pray we will all ponder the “glorious inheritance” we, the saints, have received, and remember the hope to which we have been called, individually and as a community. I truly believe that it is only by prayer that we can know the path God is setting before us and faithfully walk it together, enabling us to do our work of reconciliation in the name of our Savior.

Our Christian narrative is a continuing story. At Redeemer, the story of who we are and who God calls us to be is, like the story of our forbears in the faith, a tale of greatness and tragedy, darkness and light, death and resurrection. The hope that we proclaim is that new life - resurrection life - always follows death; that new life is lived in a spirit of wisdom and revelation through prayer and action. Owning our identity as children of God and heirs with Christ, we know that our growth into new life is guided by our loving Parent who is patient as we learn, supplies our every need, celebrates every step we take, and redeems our mistakes along the way.

As St. Paul says, the church is the body of Christ in the world, and each of us individual members of it. (1Cor 12:27) Beginning in the month of May, therefore, I ask that everyone present in our community prayerfully ponder how the riches of the glorious inheritance entrusted to each of us individually, and to us as a church body, can be activated and offered to manifest the kingdom of God through Redeemer in this time and place.

This Saturday, May 5, some of us will be attending the Mission & Ministry Conference at Trinity Church in Asheville, a gift given to us at just the right time (there goes God supplying our need again!). We hope to take from this conference new ideas, new energy, and additional tools to accomplish the above task.

The Spirit is moving and we are excited to go where the breath of God sends us. Thanks be to God!

May Article for Shelby Star: Not Wrath but Salvation

I saw a statistic recently that caught my attention: nearly 15% of people worldwide believe the world will end during their lifetime and 10% think the Mayan calendar shows it might happen in 2012. Personally, I am comforted by what our Savior said about that in all three of the Synoptic Gospels: “But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” I’m thinking that includes the Mayans and the tabloids.

The Day of the Lord is a concept found throughout the Old Testament, primarily in the Prophets. As modern readers, however, we need to understand that the wrath of God, as described throughout the Old Testament, is a term full of meaning, beyond the surface implication of anger in judgment. God’s wrath is evidence of God’s judgment and God’s judgment is always motivated by God’s steadfast love, mercy, and desire to save.

The prophet Joel says the all-mighty power of God is proclaimed along with the message that God is an ever-present refuge for God’s people. (3: 14, 16) In Ezekiel, the day of the Lord is the way the power and love of God are made known. (38:23) Zephaniah calls upon God’s people to draw together and seek the Lord in humility, or else, be destroyed by sin. Obadiah clarifies how God’s judgment is to be understood, and this is affirmed later by Jesus in the gospel of Matthew: “For the day of the Lord is near… As you have done, it shall be done to you.” (1:15)

In the letter to the Thessalonians, the apostle Paul is seeking to comfort a church which is worried because the anticipated second coming has not arrived as they expected and they are becoming confused about the meaning of eternal life. Paul comforts them, reframing for them the concept of the day of the Lord according to the revelation of God in Christ: “For God has destined us not for wrath but for obtaining salvation through our Lord, Jesus Christ…so that whether we are awake or asleep we may live with him.” (1Ths 5:9-10)

Paul reminds the church that God’s plan of salvation was always for the whole world: “I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” (Isa 49:6) He calls the faithful “children of the light,” the light of salvation promised by God and fulfilled in the Christ. He reminds them that the promise of God has always been salvation and he encourages them to live as children of the God who is faithful to the promises made.

This is as relevant to the church today as it was to the ancient church in Thessalonica. Our hope is in Jesus Christ, the Word of God, the light of life, not in a calendar or in predictions made by any human. Our lives are in the hands of God alone whose faithfulness is witnessed in the Old and New Testaments.

Feast of the Ascension (transf), 2012: The power that is in us

Lectionary: Acts 1:1-11; Psalm 93; Ephesians 1:15-23; Luke 24:44-53



En el nombre del Dios, Padre, Hijo, y Espiritu Santo. Amen.

All of our Scripture readings today speak to us of power - the power of God given to those who believe. In the story from Acts we hear Jesus last words on earth: "… But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you."

In the letter to the Ephesians, Paul speaks of “the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe.” In the Gospel from Luke, as Jesus was ascending into glory, he blessed his followers, and they “returned to Jerusalem with great joy…” (remembering from last week that the Greek word “chara” being translated as ‘joy’ means: great gift, extraordinary power).

So, what is this power they are speaking about and is it something we have today? The answer is simple: The power they speak of is Love, and yes, it is as available to us today as it was then.

We have been baptized by water. Some of us have also been baptized by the Holy Spirit. All that takes is our consent, then willingness to wait while God acts. Then, when we have been clothed by the power by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the greatness of that is truly immeasurable, because it is eternal power – it is the Love of God.

I won’t repeat what I wrote in my newsletter article (you can read that on our website or on my blog), but what I said there was: when Jesus ascended into heaven, he handed over the continuing work of reconciliation to us – the church, the body of Christ in the world. Knowing full well the cost of love, Jesus gave us the power of his own Love – the same Love that he demonstrated in his life and ministry and commanded us to do as well. The Love that demands we pray for those who persecute us, forgive those who harm us, and love those who hate us…that is, stand loyally by them, being light that shines in their darkness.

This love is more powerful than anything else in creation. It is the source of all life, the answer to all sin, and the hope of the world. This love that we have been given can transform lives, heal bodies, move mountains, and renew the face of the earth.

So where is the evidence of this extraordinary, powerful love in us today? Either we believe what Jesus said or we don’t. Either we are witnesses of this love, which is what the body of Christ is called to be, or we’re not.

Where are the miracles in our world today? Remember, after Christ ascended, it was the disciples who went about preaching, and teaching, and healing the sick, and restoring the lost.

We, who are believers now… we who are witnesses of the Love of God in Christ, are called not just to receive the gift of this love, but to use it. We have a responsibility as believers, to manifest this love as Christ did while he was on the earth, as the disciples did after Jesus ascended and handed over this ministry to them.

So I ask you, people of Redeemer, in what ways is this power, this Love, being manifest in and through us today? Are we models of forgiveness in a sin-filled world? Are we icons of hope to the hopeless? …Light to those trapped in darkness? …comfort to the suffering? …welcomers of the exiled, the reviled, the hated?

It’s so easy for the church to get distracted from our mission, but the mission is simple: Be the extraordinary, powerful, transforming Love of God in the world. That’s it.

Make known this amazing Love to those who don’t know it, or have forgotten it, or had it stolen from them by “good Christian folk” who had it all wrong. Be Love in the face of hate and ridicule. Stand humbly in the presence of earthly power and watch as the Source of true power acts through the weak, the least, and the last – us. Detach from anger, from being right, and from the rewards of this world - and seek only the Love that makes no sense – the Love that forgives all, welcomes all, and judges none.

When the generations to come look back on our part of this ongoing narrative, what will be the story they tell about us? Will they marvel at how the power of our love changed Shelby and Cleveland County – even the world?

Or will they shake their heads and click their tongues, wondering why we wasted so much time and energy tending to our buildings and building our programs, and so little time building the kingdom of God…which, by the way, (the kingdom of God) begins within us, then transforms the world around us, just as the proclamation of the Good News began in Jerusalem, then reached all of the nations of the world.

The greatest, most powerful thing in the whole world is the same now as it was when creation was being spoken into being: Love. And this love has been given to us as a gift from the Creator of the universe. More amazingly, it is God (who is Love) who dwells in us.

We know, at least we profess, that Jesus was fully human and fully divine. And we have heard during this season of Easter that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, and that Christ abides in us, and we in him. That divine presence is in us – in our very bodies and in the body of our community.

What if we claimed this as true? What if we lived as if the Holy Spirit of God, present within us as individuals and as a community, were acting powerfully on the world today?

Remember, Jesus told us that, as amazing as his ministry was, we would do greater things in ours. Today we are being challenged to own the extraordinary, powerful, love already in us and use it to heal the world around us, to reconcile that world back to God.

In this moment in our history, there are more new members at Redeemer than continuing ones. The time of our Great Wounding is over and new birth, new life has begun in us. We are a ‘baby church’ – new and unlimited in our potential. Each one here has within them the extraordinary power of God’s love and the community being gathered within these walls has been chosen by God because the expression of God’s love in us is just what is needed in this time and in this place to do the work God has for us to do.

So, let’s do it. Let’s be the extraordinary, powerful, transforming Love of God. And let’s enjoy the heck out of the time we’ve been given to be together as witnesses of that Love.

Easter 6B, 2012: Abide, Know, Love

Lectionary:



(Note: this was an extemporaneous sermon. Below are a few sermon notes. Turner White's prayer is embedded as a photo at the end)


Mother’s Day & Rogation Sunday

Jesus said to his disciples, "As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. (Jn)

Abide = to dwell, to live, to wait, to rest… We let God act to redeem all things.

Jesus said, “I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.”

Joy = chara (Gk) … charism (gift, extraordinary power) Fruit that lasts.

"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends.”

Love is inconvenient, costly. Who are we called to love?

God’s shows a lack of restraint… God shows a generosity in giving love, and asks us to do the same. But mostly we don’t. “the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word.” ALL

Peter, etc. were “astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles.” …the Negroes, …the gays

“Then Peter said, "Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?"

Baptism is full initiation into the body of Christ the Church. BCP, 298. Preparation for Baptism. Criteria = desire for it. Choice to learn and grow in abiding in love.

Children often teach us best how to do that.

Pregnancy – life abiding in my body. Birthing that life. Living a shared life with that other human being.

God = the great womb of the universe. Abiding in the love of God – the invisible bond.

For every one of us there is the motherly love of God. And for everyone of us here at Redeemer there is the motherly womb of this church that births us into that abiding over and over again.

I give thanks for our children who show us the way to go.

Close with prayer by Turner White (age 10), his journaling from his labyrinth walk (during Lent). This is what purity of heart looks like - faithfulness that is victorious in the world.

Imagine if our whole church could abide in this way. Amen

Give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation

VMS Newsletter article for May 2012.

“I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power. (Eph 1: 17-19)

This passage is taken from the lectionary for Ascension Day, which is one of the seven Principal Feasts on our liturgical calendar (BCP, 15). The Principal Feasts are dates we set aside to interrupt the continuing story being presented in the lectionary and pay special attention to something that is crucial to our faith narrative and Christian journey. The ascension of Jesus, the Christ, is one of those days because it is when Jesus hands over to the church the continuing ministry of reconciliation in His name.

In this passage, Paul prays for the new believers in Ephesus, asking God to enlighten them, so that they will be able to see with eyes of faith and recognize the hope and glorious inheritance that are theirs through the power of God, that God’s power may work through them in their lives and ministries. I pray the same prayer for us today. Like those early believers, we are called to be the ones through whom God is glorified in the world today, the ones through whom God’s great power does its work in the world.

Summer is almost upon us already! So before some of our ministries take a “rest,” and we begin our planning for the coming program year, I pray we will all ponder the “glorious inheritance” we, the saints, have received, and remember the hope to which we have been called, individually and as a community. I truly believe that it is only by prayer that we can know the path God is setting before us and faithfully walk it together, enabling us to do our work of reconciliation in the name of our Savior.

Our Christian narrative is a continuing story. At Redeemer, the story of who we are and who God calls us to be is, like the story of our forbears in the faith, a tale of greatness and tragedy, darkness and light, death and resurrection. The hope that we proclaim is that new life - resurrection life - always follows death; that new life is lived in a spirit of wisdom and revelation through prayer and action. Owning our identity as children of God and heirs with Christ, we know that our growth into new life is guided by our loving Parent who is patient as we learn, supplies our every need, celebrates every step we take, and redeems our mistakes along the way.

As St. Paul says, the church is the body of Christ in the world, and each of us individual members of it. (1Cor 12:27) Beginning in the month of May, therefore, I ask that everyone present in our community prayerfully ponder how the riches of the glorious inheritance entrusted to each of us individually, and to us as a church body, can be activated and offered to manifest the kingdom of God through Redeemer in this time and place.

This Saturday, May 5, some of us will be attending the Mission & Ministry Conference at Trinity Church in Asheville, a gift given to us at just the right time (there goes God supplying our need again!). We hope to take from this conference new ideas, new energy, and additional tools to accomplish the above task.

The Spirit is moving and we are excited to go where the breath of God sends us. Thanks be to God!