Proper 8: The Relational Cost to Real Transformation

Fr. Morgan Reed "Proper 8: The Relational Cost to Real Transformation"

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Readings for June 28

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Introduction

Good morning dear friends. It is wonderful to be with you this morning and continue together in the Gospel of Matthew. As we look at Matthew 10, I want to invite the kids down.

Kids’ Sermon

         I was thinking about an analogy in a book I was reading and it reminded me of our passage today.[1] Cars have these great dashboards. Anyone want to guess what any of these lights might mean? Now I want you all to take a pen cover up things one by one. Ah.... now that it is all covered we can drive in peace, right? We don’t have to be scared or anxious anymore do we? No way! Those lights are meant to tell me to go get something fixed. I know it is hard to stop what I’m doing one day and get the car fixed, I know I have to risk spending a lot of money and potentially putting myself into debt. But the reality is, if I don’t fix the car and I ignore its signals, there will be a moment where everything just gives out and there will be no hope of getting to my destination...or worse — We might get into an accident.

         Our bodies have indicators just like a car’s dashboard. When we start to get angry, we might start to feel our shoulders tense up, our neck might feel warm. When we get sad, we might feel something like a lump in our throat. I got into a disagreement the other day; I had this feeling down in my left side, something despair and guilt. We should pay attention to these things: anger can give us energy to push back against something wrong, sadness can point us to what is important to us, and guilt may illuminate something we need to apologize for. They are all indicator lights that something is happening inside us.

         If we cover the dashboard and keep driving it will be hard to follow Jesus with our whole selves. Someone may make us really angry and we want to lash out and hold a grudge, someone hurts us and we want to hurt them back. Perhaps we feel ashamed and we go off by ourselves and don’t let anyone else into our life. We keep everyone at arms length can’t figure out why things feel off. Will we pay attention and let Jesus bring peace and healing so that we can share the goodness of Jesus with others?

         Sometimes when we are honest about who Jesus is, what we need from Jesus, and what others need from Jesus, it can make them upset. Is it worth the risk? This is what Jesus is talking about today with his followers. It can feel really risky to respectfully tell our parents that we feel hurt by what they did. It can be risky to ask a friend if we can pray for them. When we do this, we’re not being disrespectful, we’re giving a gift. It’s up to the other person to accept it as such. That risk is the only way to real peace and healing. When we do the hard work of following Jesus and being honest, it might be hard, and there might be pain, but you know what we discover? We discover life as it ought to be because Jesus is in charge and we will know his loving friendship even when it is hard. Can you please pray with me?

         “Dear God...thank you...for loving us...you died for us...and rose from the dead....and you are with us...even when....doing the right thing...is really hard....thank you...Amen.” Thank you all, go ahead and head back to your seats.

34-39Though costly, prioritize God’s kingdom

         In St. Matthew’s Gospel, we have just read a really challenging passage. In the overall picture, Jesus has just commissioned the twelve disciples to carry out his ministry. Then he tells them that as they are following him they will encounter persecutions and trials. This is to be expected. Today’s passage is intentionally provocative. Jesus, what do you mean you came to bring a sword and cause family members to hate each other?!?!

         He’s not saying that we ought to hate each other. There are plenty of other places in Scripture where the reign of the Messiah is associated with peace and where we are called to love our family members and our neighbors. There is nothing virtuous about loving violence or hatred, but when Jesus and his kingdom are our first priority —which is virtuous— the result might be violence and the breaking of relationship. This is the risk of following Jesus as Lord. It is about priorities: Following Jesus more than pleasing other people.

         Jesus is quoting from the Bible and putting us in the line of the prophets when we follow him.[2] Another prophet told the religious leaders, “They have treated the wound of my people carelessly, saying “peace, peace,” when there is no peace.”[3] Jesus’ disciples, including you and I, enter into the prophetic burden of his messengers where we do what is good and right, following Jesus in the midst of chaos, waiting for God’s vindication. Rather than sweeping things under the rug in the name of niceness, we seek for real transformation.

         Real peace is hard-fought and costly. Here is a composite scenario; this isn’t anyone’s story in particular, but feels like several scenarios I’ve heard. Darryl comes to me and says that his supervisor at work is often rude and condescending to him. In the break room one day the supervisor comes in and tells Darryl, “Your coworker Alice told me that I talk down to people, what does she know? She doesn’t know anything.” Darryl follows Jesus, and has endured a long history of condescension from his supervisor, but has done the internal work to know that he is competent and a hard worker. More than that, he knows how beloved he is by God and now has the capacity to hold space for his supervisor’s condescension. He has a choice, he can tell his supervisor “You’re right, what does she know?” This is uncaring, but it is easy, and it does not take his supervisor’s wound seriously. He is preaching peace, peace when there is no peace. Or, he can risk. Depending on the amount of risk, he might say “I can appreciate Alice’s experience. I have experienced you that way too.” Or he might be more subtle and say “Huh, tell me more about what you think made her feel that way. Have others told you that before? What might it feel like to apologize for that and what keeps you from it?” Darryl would be giving his supervisor a gracious gift: an opportunity to see Jesus at work. The risk is that Darryl’s supervisor is provoked to anger, resentment, and a grudge. This could set up Darryl for real trouble at work, but this is the risk in naming the grace of God to help free people from disordered attachments to sin and evil. We have to do the inner work with Jesus on our places of disordered love, fear, and attachment, looking to Jesus for help, so that we can offer true peace to our relatives, friends, and even those in our church family. Triangulation and indirect communication, slander and gossip, dehumanization, resentments, and coping behaviors are all indicator lights that show us something is broken, but carefully helping others name their own brokenness is costly.... and the only way to peace.

         Some people think that prioritizing the kingdom just means doing a lot of stuff for the church to the neglect of other duties. This is to have good desire and good intentions, but the wrong execution. The world is not split up into secular tasks and sacred tasks. Instead, and I get this from C.S. Lewis, the daily tasks are all invitations to the will and kingdom of God and it is up to us to participate in them religiously or irreligiously. It does take healthy rhythms of prayer, Scripture reading, and community to frame the day this way, but it also sanctifies and makes holy all the parts of our day: Those conversations you’re not looking forward to with a family member, coworker or friend, making lunches in the morning, correcting a child or apologizing to a child, going to doctor appointments, the inconveniences when things don’t work out the way we’d hoped. Doing the hard work of rightly ordering our interior world with Jesus creates the capacity we need to help others discover the kingdom of God. In other words, the hard conversations aren’t derailments from the work of the kingdom, they are the soil in which the seeds of the kingdom begin to grow.

         What keeps us from the work of the kingdom? This gets us back to the warning lights on our body’s dashboard? What story does our body tell? Perhaps there is a fear of rejection (Which ironically is Jesus’ point). It could be the voice of self-condemnation: we have come to believe the voice of someone who told us that we are a trouble-maker, an outsider, unlovable, ugly, overemotional, just too much, clingy, etc. And as we hold to those scripts we begin to act out of self-defense and self-preservation, incapable of vulnerability because we’ve vowed never to let ourselves get hurt again. We need time in Scripture to know the God who longs to be at home among his people, especially when they do things that are evil and turn towards him in repentance. We need time in prayer to know the nearness of God or to be fully ourselves in the presence of the one who might seem distant sometimes, but who always holds space for our full selves. It is hard work to carve out time to pay attention to our good loves and desires have become distorted such that we now notice our overreactions, our sinful proclivities, our disordered loves, and our wayward desires. It is so much work. And it is precisely that work that Jesus uses to make all things new. And when he does this in us, we have capacity for that hard work with others — even in the face of rejection.

Conclusion

          When it comes to discipleship, being nice and not making waves is like a ceasefire. It doesn’t move things forward in the work of God’s kingdom. It is just the path of least resistance. Kingdom work involves honest curiosity and wonder in the face of brokenness — and that starts with ourselves. Of course we must have wisdom about when to stay silent and when to speak, but the reality is that it is risky to be courageous, kind, and curious about what is true of someone and the world they’ve constructed because it involves us constantly reorienting our interior world toward Jesus and his kingdom. This is the hard work of following Jesus; this is true peace-making.

Let us pray:

Almighty God, from whom all thoughts of truth and peace proceed: Kindle, we pray, in the hearts of all people the true love of peace, and guide with your pure and peaceable wisdom those who take counsel for the nations of the earth; that in tranquility your kingdom may go forward, till the earth is filled with the knowledge of your love; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

[1]                Chuck Degroat, Healing What’s Within.

[2]                Micah 7:6

[3]                Jeremiah 6:14.

Proper 7: Two Sources, Two Humanities: Grace Abounding

Bishop Chris Warner "Proper 7: Two Sources, Two Humanities: Grace Abounding"

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Readings for June 21

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Romans 5:15b-19 NRSV

Many years ago, bottled water companies began emphasizing not the bottle, but the source.

Their message was simple:

if the source is pure, the water will be pure.

If the source is contaminated, everything downstream is affected.

We understand this instinctively.

In fact, modern history gives us sobering examples of it.

In 1993, the city of Milwaukee experienced a major water crisis when a single microscopic contaminant entered the municipal water supply. The result was catastrophic: over 400,000 people became ill, and dozens of deaths were linked to the outbreak. Ordinary households across an entire city were affected—not because of what they did at their taps, but because something had gone wrong upstream at the source.

Whether it is river, a reservoir, or an entire distribution system, the principle holds: when the source is compromised, everything downstream is affected.

Paul says the same thing about humanity in Romans 5.

Our problem is not merely that we make bad choices downstream. Something has gone wrong at the source.

One man's trespass (deliberate and conscious decision) unleashed sin and death into the human race. Adam is the source from which the river of fallen humanity flows.

But Paul immediately introduces another source. Through one man, Jesus Christ, grace has overflowed to many.

If Adam is the polluted river that carries death,

Christ is the living river that carries righteousness and life.

Romans 5 is the story of two sources, two rivers, and two humanities. EVERYONE IS A PART OF ONE OR OTHER. THERE’S NOT A 3RD OPTION

BTW. The question is: From which source are you drinking?

ARE YOU IN ADAM OR IN CHRIST?

And what Paul wants us to see is that while no one is unaffected:

What Jesus accomplished was far superior to what Adam started.

Adam’s sin affected all of us. He’s not merely a moral example. He is the headwaters of a fallen humanity. His act of rebellion does not stay contained. It spreads. It defines the condition of those who come after him.

Romans 5:12 says: “just as sin came into the world through one man, and death came through sin, and so death spread to all because all have sinned

Paul wants us to see that we are not merely people who commit sins (we do). Rather: We are people born into a broken stream.

Article IX of the Thirty-Nine Articles describes original sin as:

“The fault and corruption of the nature of every man naturally engendered of the offspring of Adam.”

This confronts modern assumptions of self-invention. Scripture says we are not morally neutral. We are born into a humanity already facing death.

It’s By God’s grace, along the way, that we see the truth of this lived out in our own everyday lives - as we honestly see ourselves in light of the holy holy holiness of God. In light of our inability. Our lack of desire to live his way.

That’s the effect of Adam - our inheritance expressing itself through us.

As Genesis tells us God gave incredible freedom and abundance in the Garden of Eden. And drew only one line don’t eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil for in the day in which you eat of it you will surely die.

And Adam deliberately crossed it.

I remember seeing this in one of my kids. We lived on “cut through” street. People used our street to quickly cut through from one busy road to another to save time on their commute and we didn’t have speed bumps to slow them down.

Our children were little - we gave them the abundance of the whole yard to play in - with only 1 condition - don’t go in the street . Don’t cross the curb. I watched one of kids repeatedly find her way to edge of the street. Looking at the curb. Observing the curb. Occasionally glancing over her shoulder to see if anyone was watching her looking at the curb. And then one day - you guessed it — she did it - she deliberately put her toe in the street.

It’s cute and funny - but there’s nothing unique about it.

That’s what ADAM - and Eve did. That’s what we all do because that’s now who we are. Like Adam we do what we want to do - thinking about ourselves.

But the Good news is that Jesus Christ, the Son God, came into the world of his creation. He’s called the second Adam. But as the Nicene creed and our Eucharist liturgy make clear:

For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven, was incarnate from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and was made man.

He doesn’t have Adam’s seed. Or Adams corruption in him.

He didn’t have to come into the world. He didn’t have to come incarnate. He did so because was thinking not thinking of himself. He was thinking of others?

He was thinking of you.

He lived from the delight of the heavenly Father’s love and for the heavenly Father’s glory. He had no sin of his own. He did not trespass. When he died on the cross it wasn’t for himself. It was for others. It was for you. And me. In our place. To undo what Adam did.

I love how CS Lewis captures this in the Lion the Witch and the wardrobe:

Aslan has died on the stone table and he has been raised from the dead. The Great Lion explains to the young girls Lucy and Susan who are marveling at his resurrection what he has done:

“When a willing victim who has committed no treachery was killed in a traitor’s place, the Table would crack and death itself would start working backward.”

Adam brought death and condemnation for all. Christ’s obedience has the power to overcome what Adam did. To bring justification and life

Romans 5:18 says: “just as one man’s (Adams) trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man’s (Jesus) act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all. 19 For just as through the one man’s (Adams’s) disobedience the many were made sinners, so through the one man’s (Jesus) obedience the many will be made righteous.”

They both consciously acted in ways that had huge ramifications/huge results.

But they are vastly different results.

Paul wants us to marvel in this: Paul wants us to marvel in GRACE.

V15 says: But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died through the one man’s trespass, much more surely have the grace of God and the gift in the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for the many.

V 17: If, because of the one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one, much more surely will those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.

If you are in Adam, and we are all born in Adam - you’re under the reign of death.

If you are in Christ, you are reborn and you will reign in life. All because Christ’s gift is greater than Adams’ sin.

Twice (5:15, 17) he says, “much more surely.” And that has to do with the abounding gift of grace.

Grace is: "divine love and protection bestowed freely upon mankind".

It’s vitally important that we live in and from the abounding of God. In the much more of grace.

Paul wants us to know that God’s grace and God’s provision for us isn’t random, haphazard or insufficient. According to the Bible, there’s always plenty. There’s always more than enough. There’s an overflow. In fact that’s what the word ADOUND means. An overflowing quantity

We come from Charleston. Our church was on an island. One side was ocean. The other side marsh and the intercostal waterway.

Whenever there was high tide during a super moon. The water would ABOUND. It becomes so full that the water encroaches on yards and creeps over roadways. Downtown Charleston floods because it’s built at sea level and water would fill the streets so that College of Charleston students could be seen kayaking through portions of the city.. That’s what it means to ABOUND.

Paul is saying that God’s grace and provision ABOUND to you through what Jesus has done for you.

Think about what God is like. God is gracious. He is lavish. He is intentional. He is a giver. John 3:16 says, “For God loved the world so much that he gave his Son…”

As Alan Redpath writes,

“When God gives grace, He does not reluctantly open a little finger and maintain a clenched fist full of gifts. God’s hands are nail-pierced hands and they are wide open. This fountain of grace is always pouring itself out with no limitation on heaven’s side at all.” Romans 8:32 says, “Since [God] did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else?” (NLT)

You might wonder: To whom does grace ABOUND? The answer is: to the person who needs it most! In Romans 5:20 Paul writes: “But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more.” (NKJV)

Grace is needed most where sin exists and when trouble comes. Like a light in a cavern, God’s ABOUNDING grace becomes more brilliant in the midst of darkness.

When I came to Christ in College (when my baptism came alive in me through faith) - I saw my desperate need…..

The Question is will you receive this abounding grace. Will you drink from the stream of Christ?

And if you have - live daily drinking from the abound grace he has for you. From who he has remade you to be in Christ. With all that affords you… And off this to those around you…

Amazing grace story:

15 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died through the one man’s trespass, much more surely have the grace of God and the gift in the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for the many. 16 And the gift is not like the effect of the one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the gift following many trespasses brings justification. 17 If, because of the one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one, much more surely will those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.

18 Therefore just as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man’s act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all. 19 For just as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so through the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.

Proper 6: Sowing Grace, Harvesting Joy

Fr. Morgan Reed "Proper 6: Sowing Grace, Harvesting Joy"

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Readings for June 14

Introduction

Good morning friends. It is so good to be with you this morning. Last week we looked at the calling of St. Matthew and today we are in the same chapter of his gospel. People have been questioning Jesus’ authority to heal people, even wondering if he is something like a spy who works for the devil, or Beelzebub. But he is showing them the power that is coming in the kingdom of God and our Gospel passage summarizes that ministry and shows us how it is going to be passed on down through Jesus’ disciples.

Kids Sermon

As is our new custom over the summer, I want to invite the kids down for our kids’ sermon. [bring a flower not yet in seed and one that is seeding]. How many of you have been growing things at home? What kinds of things are you growing?

         This is from our meadow that we have been working on at our house Anyone know what kind of flower this is? That’s right: [whatever the flower is]. What are the differences between these? One’s job is to produce pollen for bees, moths, butterflies, etc. The other one has moved into a different stage where it has gone to seed to spread and make more flowers. [Pull one seed]. How many seeds do you think I’ll get from one flower? Who knows...perhaps 20 or so. Trick question: How many flowers are in one seed? There is no way to answer that question! A seed will fall into the ground and produce another flower, which will produce more seeds, which will produce more flowers, and on and on it goes. It would be possible over a long period of time to fill a field by starting with one flower!

         Today’s passage is all about the good news of God’s kingdom being proclaimed to individuals who were looking for God’s king to come. Jesus says this really interesting phrase about “The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few, therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers” What he means is that God is doing amazing things. He is healing people, their lives are being restored, just like Matthew the Tax Collector. When they are encountering Jesus they are seeing God’s kingdom breaking into their world. People are ready! And he tells them to pray for more people to help with the harvest. The funny thing is....they are an answer to their prayers! They will be ones helping sow the seed and do the harvesting. This is how we follow Jesus. We ask God for help, we look for what Jesus is doing, we give him thanks for it, we share it with others. And then they do the same. And in the church then we start to see the harvest where God’s new creation is coming about and you can look at the church like a field of flowers blooming with the beauties of the kingdom of God. From our lives there goes seed which spreads this goodness to our friends and neighbors that are also longing for Jesus to be king. You and I are part of that story. Before you head back, can you pray with me?

         “Dear God...thank you....for loving us...and for Jesus...Who died for us...and rose again...to make all things new. Amen.”

1) 9:35-38 Compassion motivated his kingdom ministry (in the face of evil shepherds who accused him of working as an agent of Satan).

         Where are we in Jesus’ story? Last week, Jesus had invited Matthew, the tax collector to follow him. He would go on to heal people of their diseases and the demons that afflicted them. All of these are tangible signs that God’s kingdom was breaking into the present evil age. These were the signs prophesied about what the Messiah would do from the Old Testament.

         In his summary of Jesus’ ministry, St. Matthew takes time to note that Jesus saw the crowds, and had compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. There are passages of the Old Testament that condemn Judah’s leadership for being bad shepherds. I’m thinking specifically of Ezekiel 34 where the leaders are compared to shepherds who completely neglect their flock and as a result, the sheep are scattered and injured and no one is there to care for them. God promised to remove those shepherds and then to personally be a shepherd to his people, seeking out the sheep, bringing them back, binding their wounds, and leading them to pasture.[1] In this Gospel passage, I think St. Matthew means for this to be a veiled critique of Judah’s spiritual leaders, and I think he means to underscore the ways that Jesus is doing what God promised He would do.

         Jesus’ ministry begins with God’s compassion, and the best ministry happens when that continues to be the lens through which we see others. A long time ago I’d been a supervisor in a coffee shop  and remember being so annoyed that one of the employees would come in late for her shift every time. There was never an explanation; it was just normal for her. After months of this she revealed some things about her mom that demonstrated that she was essentially dealing with an incredibly dysfunctional household and then as a result, she had to  shuttle her little sister to various places. I had to repent of my misrepresentation of her and my lack of compassion. It’s these little moments that remind us that the people around us, no matter how put together they might look, are still wandering and helpless like sheep with no shepherd. There are people who annoy us, perhaps even anger us, but can we be moved to a place of compassion for them? Having compassion is the first step in joining the harvest that Jesus talks about.

2) 10:1-4 Jesus invites the disciples/apostles into the ministry of compassionate healing

         Jesus tells the disciples to pray to the Lord of the harvest and that the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.[2] The way this is followed by the next chapter suggests that the disciples themselves become the answer to this prayer...and of course anyone after them. Jesus summons the 12 and gives them authority to carry on this ministry. St. Matthew then lists out the twelves disciples. This authority, through the apostles, is also given to the church to carry on this mission.

         This is the first time in this gospel that the disciples are also called apostles. We use that word and we don’t often know what it means. It means, “Sent ones”. The good news of the kingdom of heaven was a message to be announced. It was being announced by Jesus with preaching and miracles and now Jesus is sending out the twelve in the continuation of this work. 

         Bishops continue the apostolic office and remind us all of our own part of the apostolic call. They carry on in the tradition that is passed down from the 12 sent ones through those they sent, down today to the bishops of the church. When a Bishop is consecrated, one of the things we pray over him is this: “Grant to this your servant such grace that he may ever be ready to spread abroad your Gospel, the glad tidings of reconciliation with you, and to use the authority given to him, not for destruction, but for salvation; not to hurt, but to help; so that, as a wise and faithful steward, he may give to your family their portion in due season, and at the last may be received into everlasting joy, through Jesus Christ our Lord.” This feels very similar to what Jesus is asking of his disciples. While we don’t all hold the apostolic office, we do all carry on the apostolic mission of being bearers of the kingdom work and message. Like I mentioned to the kids earlier: We ask God for help, we look for what Jesus is doing, we give him thanks for it, we share it with others.

         This has been lived out in different ways in different times. One of my favorite examples from our Anglican heritage is in the Celtic spiritual heritage. Between the 4th and 7th centuries, the common way of doing ministry is that a Bishop would go to a place and evangelize, bring some monks and nuns with him, set up a monastery and churches for a robust life of prayer, leave the administration of it all under the care of an abbot or abbess and then move on. The landscape was dotted with monasteries and churches that engaged in a robust prayer and monastic life even as the Bishop created front porches of entry through hospitality and care for people to encounter Jesus in new cities and towns. Then the process repeats. Bishops were trailblazers and the abbots and abbesses functioned like our bishops do today.

         This is why I love church planting so much. It feels apostolic. We started a church to create a thin place where heaven meets earth, where new creation is coming about through a robust communal and sacramental life of prayer, to then engage in mission as we create front porches of hospitality for people to discover Jesus. Our various ministries give us spaces to build rhythms of hospitality, prayer, relationship-building, and service. Our community events cultivate an imagination for hospitality and welcome as we have cookouts, go to baseball games, have coffee, do stories in the park, have fun at the skatepark, and however else we think to gather and make space for friendship. Every person here has people they know who long for Jesus’ compassion, even if they couldn’t articulate it yet. We should hold them in prayer with compassion, look for ways to invite them into life with Jesus, and let the church’s rhythms of prayer and community shape our lives for what kingdom-minded harvest looks like where live, work, and play.

Conclusion

         We have seen Jesus’ compassion as the motivation for his kingdom proclamation. He shares this ministry with his disciples who are sent as messengers of this kingdom. They aren’t in it for wealth, ease, or fame. They are ambassadors of renewal who keep their eyes open for those ready to hear this message. We share in this apostolic ministry, looking for the Spirit’s work of new creation, practicing it in the church, for the good of the world. As we say goodbye to some dear friends today, I’m so grateful for the ways they’ve made this church what it is. One of my prayers is that as a church, for as long as we have an individual or a household, that this would be a resting-place of grace for their journey, where people experience the goodness of the kingdom to be sent out more healed by Jesus than when they arrived. As long as we are here together, there is always more work to do. We are looking for the Spirit’s work, harvesting where He has sown seeds that have matured, finding those ready to receive the message and power of God’s kingdom and the reign of Christ. As we walk faithfully with the Lord, and name his work for others along the way, we do not know the lives we’ll impact along the way.

Let us pray:

O God, our heavenly Father, you manifested your love by sending your only-begotten Son into the world, that all might live through him: Pour out your Spirit on your Church, that we may fulfill his command to preach the Gospel to all people. Send forth laborers into your harvest; defend them in all dangers and temptations; and hasten the time when the fullness of the Gentiles shall be gathered in, and faithful Israel shall be saved; through your Son Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

[1]                Ezekiel 34:1-16.

[2]                Matthew 9:37-38.

Proper 5: Substantive Discipleship Involves Risk

Fr. Morgan Reed "Proper 5: Substantive Discipleship Involves Risk"

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Readings for June 7

Introduction

         Good morning dear friends. It is so wonderful to see you this morning. Today’s Gospel passage and the passages in Hosea and the Psalms have a lot to do with getting our priorities straight as we follow the Lord. As we think about this text and what God is teaching us through it, I want to begin by inviting the kids down.

Kids sermon

         How many of you like cookies? What are your favorite kinds? There was one night where Ashley and I really wanted to have cookies for dessert, but we had to use the few ingredients we had in the cupboard. I looked online for help with recipes and I discovered a peanut butter cookie that only uses 4 ingredients. Because there are only four ingredients, each one is super important. Cole, do you remember what we call them? ...Dad’s super fast peanut butter cookies. It takes one cup of peanut butter, one cup of sugar, one egg, and a bit of vanilla extract. Then you stir it all together, ball it up on some baking sheets, use a fork to flatten them out, and bake them at 350 for about 9 or 10 minutes.

         They are not healthy by any means, but they are delicious. There are certainly more complex cookies with a lot of additional ingredients that are not necessary, but in this cookie, three of the four ingredients are absolutely necessary. If you forget the vanilla extract, they’ll taste fine, but they’ll taste like something is missing. if you forget the peanut butter then you’re just eating sugar and eggs. If you forget the egg, the cookie won’t bind together. If you forget the sugar, it won’t taste good at all. When we are cooking or baking, there are some necessary ingredients we really cannot skip out on without doing irreparable harm to what we’re trying to make.

         Today in our passages, we are hearing some different ingredients of Old Testament discipleship being put together: sacrificing animals, keeping the law, rules about keeping someone clean, and who to avoid. Some of them are more important than others. Jesus meets some people who were worried more about the less-important ingredients than about the main ingredients that are involved in following the Lord. Jesus wants to help them put their priorities straight. These texts were recorded for us so that we learn how to love God, love our neighbors, and invite them into his love. Jesus is helping us prioritize what is most important. As we look at our text together, will you pray with me? “Dear God...thank you...for teaching us...how to follow you...and for giving us...the Holy Spirit...to become more like you...Amen.” Thank you. Head on back to your seats.

I. Jesus sees need rather than failure and offers healing rather than quarantining himself.

         In St. Matthew’s Gospel reading today, Jesus is walking along in Capernaum and sees a man sitting at the tax booth named Matthew. Matthew would have been one of those who was hired out to collect various taxes that were levied by Herod Antipas on goods carried through the town and goods that were traded. He would have been working with a group in this booth. The fact that “tax collectors” is paired with sinners shows you how these folks are seen. A foreign oppressor was taxing the Jewish people on their goods, serving as a reminder that they were not free, but under the subjugation of an enemy. Tax collectors were seen as part of the system of oppression and a Jewish tax collector is then seen as a traitor to his people. And this is where Matthew ends up in his life. I doubt he is proud of it, but this is how he has made his living. His home, its furnishings, even down to the utensils he would use to host Jesus, were funded by the taxation of God’s people.

         This was someone the religious culture saw as undesirable and someone to keep at arm’s length. And yet where the Pharisees saw a failure, Jesus saw someone in need. This is the one Jesus saw, one whom God loves, and in whom God’s glory would be made known as his life became transformed and he was put into communion with other followers of Jesus—like Simon the Zealot, who was part of a group that militantly opposed paying Roman taxes.

         Jesus risks his reputation to heal people and bring them into the kingdom of God. We would do well to remind ourselves that we are people in need. We are in need of friendship, of salvation from our disordered attachments, healing from our coping strategies, healing from the ways we react out of our own hurt, healing from the ways that we walk away from God’s will for what is best for us. We are needy people whom Jesus longs to heal.

         As we follow Jesus and experience healing, we become, like Henri Nouwen talks about, wounded healers. We should err on the side of wanting to see others changed by Jesus and not err on the side of what others might think of us. This doesn’t mean we capitulate to someone’s sin, or even accept it as good, but neither do we need to hold every person at arms length who doesn’t align with our faith. It is incumbent on us to remember that no one is outside the reach of the grace of God. As we think of those we rub shoulders with, whose sin makes us tense up and avoidant — why? Of course be wise and safe, but begin to pray about how this person might be in need of the love of God as we ourselves are. Rather than asking “what will people think of me if I associate with this person?” begin to ask, “what does this person need from the Lord and how can I care for them in that need?” We are still confident, pursuing holiness, differentiated, but also compassionately pursuing what is good for another image-bearer.

II. Jesus allows the guiding principles of the law to govern its application rather than being hung up on external false flags of piety.

         Jesus sees a need where others see failure. In the latter part of our Gospel passage, he gets to a guiding principle. Being transformed by God’s love to then share it with others is the key ingredient of discipleship; if we miss this, discipleship becomes obscured — and potentially legalistic. C.S. Lewis talks about priorities in discipleship. He says, “I read in a religious paper, “Nothing is more important than to teach children to use the sign of the cross.” Nothing? Not compassion, nor veracity, nor justice? Voilà l’ennemi.”[1]

         There are certainly times to stand at arms length from people we disagree with because they are potentially harmful, or we’re not differentiated enough not to get sucked into their sin, or because we need to put up a boundary to keep ourselves physically or emotionally safe. Some of those exceptions aside, a defensive posture that makes people less human and keeps them at an arm’s distance should not be a guiding principle in the pursuit of holiness. If someone disagrees with us, it is an opportunity for us — and for our kids—to have great, age-appropriate conversations. It is an opportunity to come with curiosity an notice someone’s need.

         Kids, when you go to the doctor with a horrible cough, and you’re still contagious, the doctor will mask up and get in the room with you to run tests, help figure out what is going on, and help you get better. There is some risk in being a physician, but to risk is the only way to heal. Rather than asking “What will happen if that sinner gets near me” Jesus says “What might happen if their life of brokenness is given back to them as a story of redemption?”

         Jesus uses a rabbinic phrase with the Pharisees when he says “Go and learn what this means...” Then he quotes Hosea 6:6. In Hosea, the prophet is warning the Northern Kingdom of Israel of the ways they have strayed from the Lord to then call out the southern kingdom for the same. The quote says “I desire mercy, not sacrifice”. The quotation as its recorded matches perfectly the Greek version of the Old Testament. The word “mercy” is one you’re probably familiar with ἔλεος as in when we say “Kyrie eleison...” We usually mean something like compassion. But this word is translating Hebrew word חֶ֥סֶד, which has less to do with compassion and more to do with covenant love and faithfulness. We often translate it lovingkindness, which is true if by that we mean the lovingkindness connected with faithfulness to God’s covenant with his people. God’s desire is that Israel and Judah would love obedience to Him and when they make a wrong turn, to turn back in repentance, to throw themselves onto the grace of God which he longs to meet them with. God desires a deep relationship of love and trust, not merely some sacrifices. He is not some Pagan god that needs to be fed by human beings through their offerings.

         So with St. Matthew, God’s desire is for those who have strayed to come and find life in him. One can obey the Sabbath religiously, hold all the feast days, sacrifice the best offerings; and for us— have all the kids in Sunday school remember to bring their bibles, hold the most church programs, do all the family prayer times, do all the daily bible readings, memorize all the Scriptures we can, but if the result is a defensive faith that culminates in tokens of piety without the substance of real life change that produces a desire for the love of God for ourselves and others, then we have missed the guiding principle of Jesus. We don’t want a faith that only keeps us safe, we want a faith that makes us holy.

Conclusion

         The faith that makes us holy risks something because it enters the messiness of life with God with others. Worshiping together forms us to go into the world to love and serve the Lord; it doesn’t form us to perform the liturgy better. To love the Lord our God and our neighbor as ourselves, as we say each week, becomes the guiding principle in following Jesus. Without this key ingredient, we miss the result of discipleship, which is Christ being formed in us. A good and right faith prioritizes what is most important in a life of discipleship and produces what is ultimately good in us and others — whether we call this the virtues or the fruit of the spirit. This is where God’s kingdom comes. If we miss this, the external badges of piety won’t mean much. Let’s join Jesus in noticing others’ needs rather than their failures, inviting them into God’s transformative love, and to make Jesus’ transformative love become our guiding principle in living out a life of discipleship.

Let us pray:

Gracious God and most merciful Father, you have granted us the rich and precious jewel of your holy Word: Assist us with your Spirit, that the same Word may be written in our hearts to our everlasting comfort, to reform us, to renew us according to your own image, to build us up and edify us into the perfect dwelling place of your Christ, sanctifying and increasing in us all heavenly virtues; grant this, O heavenly Father, for Jesus Christ’s sake.  Amen.

[1]                C.S. Lewis, Letters to Malcolm, Letter 6.

Sunday of Christ the King: Citizens of Heaven, Pilgrims on Earth

Fr. Morgan Reed “Sunday of Christ the King: Citizens of Heaven, Pilgrims on Earth”

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Luke 23:35-43

cONTENT

Introduction

         Good morning, friends. Welcome to the end of our liturgical year, the Sunday of Christ the King. This is a really new feast in the calendar of the church. In fact, today is its 100th celebration. There was a turbulent revolutionary period between 1917 and 1922 as Vladimir Lenin consolidated power, led his socialist-Bolshevik party in fighting a civil war, and as he won and consolidated power, began to push out his opponents. World War I had just ended, and people were figuring out how to rebuild in Europe. Lenin’s version of Marxism promised people land, bread, and peace — and people bought into it. This began the creation of what would be the Soviet Union as Lenin and his form of socialism promised answers to hurting peoples’ questions. 

         Around 1922, Joseph Stalin had become the secretary-general of the Communist Party and in just 2 years would expel Trotsky to become dictator and ruling leader when Lenin died in 1924. Stalin had forcibly collectivized the USSR’s agriculture and industry, held power by intensive police terror, and extended soviet control over a number of European states. He is really the architect of what we would now consider to be soviet totalitarianism. He executed people, sent them to labor camps, and persecuted the Russian Orthodox Church and other religious groups in the name of militant atheism. This movement was creating global alliances that were harmful not just to the church, but to human civilization at large.

         As the church finds herself in 1925, wondering what her future will be in this world, Pope Pius XI institutes the feast of the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. In his encyclical, his message of hope to the church is that governments will come and go but it is Christ who reigns as king forever. He says, “From this it follows not only that Christ is to be adored by angels and men, but that to him as man angels and men are subject, and must recognize his empire; by reason of the hypostatic union Christ has power over all creatures.”[1] This feast day ends our liturgical year with the crucial reminder that Jesus Christ is Lord and King — He has the final word. Every area of our lives shall be under Christ’s reign so that we can declare and put on display the goodness of his rule and reign in a broken world, subject to unjust empires and spiritual forces of wickedness, which is longing for restoration.

         As we look at the Gospel text this morning, let me pray for us: “In the name of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be always acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and Redeemer, Amen.”

•   Mocking will come from those who don’t have eyes to see — Lk 23:35-39

         In the Gospel today St. Luke shows us humanity’s response to our Lord. There are curious watchers and mockers all throughout the text. The people who condemned Christ to be crucified stand and watch in curiosity at what will happen as an outcome for their call to have Jesus killed. The leaders of the people take it a step further and don’t just stand in curiosity, but move towards mockery. If Jesus was so good at saving others, why can’t he save himself? This is echoed by the Roman soldiers who form a third group of mockers. While kings sit in luxury on their thrones, satiating themselves with delicacies and drinking the finest wine, our Lord received a crown of thorns and in his thirst, was given the poor man’s sour wine: enough to momentarily satisfy this thirst, but only enough to prolong his suffering. They join in the chorus of saying “Hey, if you can save others, why don’t you save yourself?”.

         All of the mockery and suffering is framed by the inscription above Jesus’ head. “Jesus, the Nazarene, the King of the Jews”. Everyone is accosting Jesus, even one of the criminals crucified next to him. One author paints a helpfully vivid picture of what St. Luke is doing: “Jesus has stood on its head the meaning of kingship, the meaning of the kingdom itself. He has celebrated with the wrong people, offered peace and hope to the wrong people, and warned the wrong people of God’s coming judgment. Now he is hailed as king at last, but in mockery. Here comes his royal cupbearer, only it’s a Roman soldier offering him the sour wine that poor people drank. Here is his royal placard, announcing his kingship to the world, but it is in fact the criminal charge which explains his cruel death.” Humanity’s problem was far deeper than an ethnic community losing political power. His death, resurrection, and ascension procured a kingship far more real, spiritual, and cosmic than holding onto earthly power. His Kingship, his rule and reign, breaks into the world to overcome sin and death one person, household, neighborhood, and town at a time. The diaspora of the church spread abroad in the world is promise that God is bringing all things into the fullness of their new creation. We will find people mocking because this kingdom does not fit the contours of any earthly kingdom perfectly.

         In the early church, there is a great letter saved for us called the Epistle of Diognetus which says, “But while they live in both Greek and barbarian cities, as each one’s lot was cast...at the same time they demonstrate the remarkable and admittedly unusual character of their own citizenship. They live in their own countries, but only as nonresidents; they participate in everything as citizens, and endure everything as foreigners. Every foreign country is their fatherland, and every fatherland is foreign. They marry like everyone else, and they have children, but they do not expose their offspring. They share their food, but not their wives. They are in the flesh but do not live according to the flesh. They live on earth, but their citizenship is in heaven.”[2] We cannot set our hope in human institutions to provide the salvation we long for. We begin with Christ as our king and live in the world under delegated and penultimate authorities. We do not look to Darius, Caesar, or any earthly authority who might promise the kingdom of God, or that they can fix every ill in the world, and then demand our unquestioning allegiance to them. We need to prayerfully, and in allegiance to Christ our King, shape the institutions that will in turn shape us. Doing the work of God’s kingdom means risking mockery to desire that we and others become more like Jesus and that things are ultimately made right again.

         It starts with the hard work of naming accurately done wrong, or not done right. It is hard to name someone else’s harm of us accurately so that they might come to repentance. It is hard to ask for forgiveness, and often harder to extend forgiveness when others have genuinely repented. It is hard to do what is good and right when it is common to uphold injustice and vice — especially when injustice and vice become legal!

         Citizens of God’s kingdom don’t long for the appearance of satisfaction, comfort, or opulence — a put-together life— but we risk admitting that we are not put together so that people can see the transforming work of the Holy Spirit in us. Sometimes when I talk with someone not a part of the church, they will share about something deeply broken. And my reply is often “there are a lot of people who have struggled with that”. Sometimes I’ll ask if they even want to hear of my own story with regards to what they're going through if it seems appropriate. It’s in those moments of recognizing our common humanity that I’m able to share something about the goodness of the work of Jesus in a way that it can be held in honor, because the problem is not just that we are not morally good, it is that we are deeply wounded and in need of becoming whole again. The kingship of Jesus is so much deeper than acquiring earthly power or changing people’s behavior. It is about helping others see how our desire for autonomy and separation from God has broken us more than we’re often able to admit; but also helping others become acquainted with the power of Jesus, who reigns over all, and is far more able deliver us than we would have ever believed. We risk mockery for the benefits of heavenly citizenship.

•   The cross is the doorway to paradise and Christ’s reign (Lk 23:40-43)

         One of the thieves on a cross next to Jesus refuses the mockery. His life is nearly done, he knows his flaws and probably deeply regrets the life choices that led to this moment. Jesus is really his last hope. He knows the inscription above Jesus’ head and in the mystery of God, he has some faith that Jesus is telling the truth about the kingdom of God, whatever that might mean. I can imagine this kind of faith being something like “Jesus, I’m not sure what this kingdom will look like, but when you arrive there, please remember me as someone who is favored and not someone who has taken the side of the wicked and the unjust.” He says, “Remember me when you come into your kingdom.” A simple desire opens up the door to the grace of God.

         Jesus tells the man immediately, “Truly, I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” When someone turn towards God with the smallest amount of faith, God turns toward him or her with an overwhelming amount of grace. The man on the cross is hope for all of humanity who longs for God’s kingdom to break into the chaos of our brokenness, of our failed relationships, our unmet expectations, and our injustices. St. Ephrem says it this way:

Adam had been naked and fair,
but his diligent wife
labored and made for him
a garment covered with stains.
The garden, seeing him thus vile,
drove him forth.
Through Mary, Adam had
another robe
which adorned the thief;
and when he became resplendent at Christ’s promise,
the garden, looking on,
embraced him in Adam’s place.”[3]

Conclusion

         After a hundred years of celebrating the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, we end the liturgical year with the reminder that Jesus’ kingdom will rule over all. Humanity is still inventing new ways to rebel against God, new ways to exploit one another, new idols to worship. And yet, Christ has ascended on high where he sits as king above all. He used the apostles as agents of cosmic renewal where the Gospel of Christ was overturning wickedness and death by the transformed lives of people by the Holy Spirit. You and I have joined that same heritage and citizenship, where every foreign land is our fatherland, and fatherland is where we journey as strangers. As we go about doing the hard work of repentance, naming things accurately, and risking mockery, we trust that Christ, who rules over all, will transform us and those around us by his grace because his citizenship acquaints us with the grace of God and brings the healing and restoration we long for. 

Let us pray:

O God, the King of glory, you have exalted your only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven: Do not leave us comfortless, but send us your Holy Spirit to strengthen us, and exalt us to that place where our Savior Christ has gone before; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting.  Amen.

[1]                Quas Primas, 13.

[2]                Michael Holmes, The Apostolic Fathers in English. Epistle to Diognetus, 5:5-9.

[3]                Hymns on Paradise 4.5.

Uncovering God’s Kingdom Where Chaos Seems to Reign

Fr. Morgan Reed "Uncovering God’s Kingdom Where Chaos Seems to Reign"

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Luke 21:5-19

cONTENT

Introduction

         Good morning everyone. I’m Fr. Morgan Reed, the Vicar here at Corpus Christi Anglican Church. Today’s passage is the apocalypse as told by Jesus. In English, we use the word apocalyptic almost synonymously with destruction. For example, “the devastation of the city looked apocalyptic”, or people joke about a zombie apocalypse.

This doesn’t do justice to how Christians have used this word historically. Apocalypse means “revealing” or “uncovering” and apocalyptic literature was hopeful for the Christian because it demonstrated the slow unfolding of the victory of God over chaos and the victory of God’s people over death and evil. I think of it a bit like a movie. There are some shows or movies where at the beginning we see a snapshot of how the story will end. The rest of the movie is about showing you the process of how it got there. Apocalyptic literature is a bit like this.

         We know the end: “For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”[1] We know now that what awaits us is the great day where the unjust encounter God’s judgment and the righteous will be brought into the fullness of new creation where they experience God’s inexhaustible divine life and presence which they’ve only known in part now. It can be easy to lose hope as we watch the world and people around us devolve into chaos, or to see the wicked prosper. I wonder how many times we’ve said “I can’t even” or “I have no words for this” in a given week. Perhaps it feels incalculable and so we compartmentalize the “I can’t evens” and the “I have no words” moments right now with hope that someday Jesus will make things better. Jesus, in our passage today, gives us a glimpse of what is coming in order to reorient us when the present reality is chaos.

         As we look at this passage together, let me pray for us:

         “In the name of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen. Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be always acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. Amen.”

A. (21:5-11) Apocalyptic stability: non-anxious people

         The first point I take from Jesus’ apocalypse is that hope in Christ creates stability and a people who are non-anxious. Second, because of our apocalyptic hope, we should live soberly and endure so that we experience salvation. Let’s look at the first point: apocalyptic hope creates stability and a people who are non-anxious. In Luke 21:5-11, Jesus is with his disciples and while Luke’s Gospel doesn’t tell us where the dialogue is happening, Mark and Matthew place this dialogue on the Mount of Olives. In Mark’s Gospel, those with Jesus are identified as Peter, James, John, and Andrew — This passage is often called the Olivet discourse.

         They admired how the temple was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God. This had been the building project of Herod the Great, who had built up the temple significantly after it’s destruction as part of a national reconstruction program. Jesus is basically telling them not to get too excited because it’s just temporary.

         Feel the gravity of that for a second. One of the things my son and I love to do is ride our bikes into DC, ride by the reflecting pool, and then head into the WWII memorial and stick our feet in the water. While we are sitting there, it is amazing to look up and to be surrounded by all the monuments which ground us in the history of what it means to be American. Imagine someone sitting next to us who looks at us at that moment and says something like “Yea, don’t be too impressed. This is all going to go away someday. They are just a bunch of stones.” You would probably scoot a bit further away from this person.

         I would imagine that this is a little bit of the angst that the disciples are feeling as Jesus begins talking about the temple being destroyed. But since they know Zech 14, they also know that if the destruction of Jerusalem is coming, then then the Lord will come from the Mount of Olives and conquer and reign from Jerusalem over the whole earth. Destruction is the anticipation of salvation and those two things, in their minds, are not separated by a great length of time. Their question makes sense: When are the events that bring about the temple’s destruction going to take place? And are there going to be signs that this will be the case?

         Jesus answers their question in a reality that was true for them and is still true today. There will be people who will come claiming that they’re the Messiah, or at least that they are your only hope for salvation. Don’t believe them. There will be wars, insurrections, scandals, and human sin will seem to reign corporately, individually, and systemically. There will be natural disasters, famines, plagues, earthquakes, and more. These will be signs that creation is groaning, the same creation that has hope that “...it will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.”[2]

         The apocalypse of Jesus is the stabilizing and reorienting vision we need. The depravity of others and the calamities of the earth are the slow revealing of the glorious plan of God to make all things new. You and I, like the Psalmist can still praise God for his goodness and complain to him when what our experience does not meet the standard of what we expect of his character and faithfulness.

         There are wounds where God brings healing; and each time there are moments of redemption, we see God’s kingdom breaking in now as a foretaste of what is to come: healing, answered prayer, the ability to be reconciled, the ability to walk out of dysfunction, a move towards God’s love for you and others, a deep sense of God’s nearness. Rather than running from the suffering toward those who promise us salvation, we run to the God who frees us from the ultimate captivity that creation itself longs to be freed from. The apocalypse, or revealing, of God’s plan in Christ, is the foundation of a church that is reflective and non-anxious.

B. (21:12-18) Apocalyptic hope: Live soberly, endure, and be saved

         Second, the apocalypse of Jesus is our hope, which calls us to live soberly and endure if we want to see God’s salvation. As a reminder, when we’re talking about salvation, we aren’t talking in categories of ultimate heaven or hell. In the time of Jesus they are discussing a present evil age and an age to come. The present evil age is filled with human bondage to sin and rebellion and its effects on creation. The age to come is the one where God rules over all things. These two ages overlap and interlock. Christ inaugurates the new age in his ministry. In the church we see the new age break in now through the work of God as a taste of what will be the end of the story where God does ultimately shepherd His people, lead them to streams of water, and wipe away every tear from their eyes.

         The word “saved” then would refer to something more like deliverance from bondage to the ruler of the present evil age to be delivered into the kingdom of the Beloved Son. It is a healing from the chaos within. It is the overturning of the brokenness we have brought about in ourselves and others. It is the supernatural work of redemption in the places of wounding and brokenness we have deemed unredeemable. And all of this is to the aim that we join creation in the renewal of Jesus’ work of new creation. The end of all these things is to grow perfectly in a knowledge of God’s love, to join God in His very life. The deliverance now is a revealing, or apocalypse of what is to come.

         In verses 12-17 Jesus tells his disciples of the persecution that they will undergo as they follow him. In the book of Acts you have Christians being killed for following Jesus. The book of Revelation itself, even after Jerusalem and the temple had been destroyed, is an apocalyptic hope for those churches mentioned in the first few chapters who are undergoing trial both inside and outside the church. Jesus was teaching his disciples ahead of time that the destruction of the temple was a promise of Christ’s return, but it wasn’t a guarantee that ultimate rescue would happen right away. God would uphold them in the interim, even giving them the words necessary, but they weren’t to be surprised when opposition came because of the name of Jesus Christ.

         Jesus says “By your endurance you will gain your souls.” When Jesus talks about souls, he means something like their most very human selves. If you and I, like the disciples, want to discover who we are in this new age, as sons and daughters of Christ our King, then our endurance in trial will be the apocalypse, the unfolding of God’s plan for who we truly are. To do anything less is to become less human and less than fully ourselves. As this revelation unfolds, we can hold onto hope that what Jesus has started, he will complete and that the road to following Jesus might be long and complicated, but it leads to that place where the good shepherd restores our very being and wipes away every tear from our eyes.

Conclusion

         I was encouraged last week by an old homily by John Keble that mentioned two important mysteries at work. There is a mystery of iniquity where the enemy of humanity is at work to ruin humankind and creation. Yet there is another mystery, which is the mystery of godliness in which God is at work in Christ to save and deliver humankind and all creation![3] The apocalyptic hope is discovering when the mystery of godliness clashes with and overcomes the mystery of iniquity. So while the apocalypse of Jesus, the revealing, might feel strange, it is beautiful. As God’s plan unfolds in unexpected ways, we ought to follow the disciples in being non-anxious. We do not need to run to false saviors and idols who promise only a shadow of salvation. We can provide relief in the disasters without having to explain every calamity since we know that every hardship is one more aching groan in the process of the birth of new creation. We know the end of the story and so we can join in prayerful reflection and hope that by enduring we will come to know the love of God in Christ more deeply and that we will be delivered from wayward affections, disordered desires, the wounds of human brokenness, and will  become more fully ourselves as sons and daughters of God. We pray that the Lord will come soon, but in the waiting, continue to follow where he leads, knowing that one day we will all come to the one who leads us to still waters, restores us, and will wipe every tear from our eyes.

Let me pray for us:

Most loving Father, you will us to give thanks for all things, to dread nothing but the loss of you, and to cast all our care on the One who cares for us. Preserve us from faithless fears and worldly anxieties, and grant that no clouds of this mortal life may hide from us the light of that love which is immortal, and which you have manifested unto us in your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

[1]                Rev. 9:17

[2]                Rom 8:21.

[3]                John Keble, https://archive.org/details/sermonsacademica00keblrich/page/104/mode/2up

Job to Jesus - Undeserved Suffering

Fr. Stephen Arpee "Job to Jesus - Undeserved Suffering"

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Luke 20:27-38

cONTENT

Introduction

Let’s focus on today’s Old Testament lesson:

23 ‘O that my words were written down!

O that they were inscribed in a book!

24 O that with an iron pen and with lead

they were engraved on a rock for ever!

25 For I know that my Redeemer lives,

and that at the last he will stand upon the earth;

26 and after my skin has been thus destroyed,

then in my flesh I shall see God,

27a whom I shall see on my side,

and my eyes shall behold, and not another.

This is the climax of an amazing Hebrew poem on the subject of Undeserved Suffering. The last three verses are found in the series of anthems that are read or sung at the beginning of every service for the Burial of the Dead in our Book of Common Prayer.

BCP p. 249

Prayer

I want to address three themes, which together embrace the whole message of the Bible. I am not going to cite specific texts, but if you’ll give me your email address, I’ll send you the full text of this sermon with references, each of which is worthy of careful reading and reflection. These themes are:

1. Undeserved suffering

2. Crucifixion and resurrection, and

3. Voluntary self-sacrifice

Undeserved Suffering

One of the results of modern communications is that we have more information than we can bear. And “news,” by definition, is bad news: Wars, famine, epidemics, storms, earthquakes, crime, economic failure, demographic collapse.

Sometimes we can ignore these things. They happen mostly to other people. But the most difficult suffering to face is the suffering of the innocent, or of “good people,” whose suffering is not the result of their own ignorance, foolishness, or mistakes. That has sometimes happened to us, or to members of our family, or some close friends. If God is “good,” how could He allow a world in which there is so much, terrible, suffering.

The Book of Job is a word-picture of exactly this question. He has lost his business, his children, and his health. In pain and exasperation, Job’s wife cries out, Curse God and die!”

Job 2:9

Some of us have friends or family members, who used to believe in God, who have had experiences like this, and now say they are “atheists.” How can a good God allow such suffering; especially when it has the dimension of genocide - the deliberate destruction of millions of people for no reason other than the “wrong political orientation, the wrong ethnic identity or the wrong economic class”…

Job 3:1-31:40, 38:1-42:6

Crucifixion and Resurrection

As the Apostle Paul, that amazing Pharisee, reflected on the history of his people, Israel, and what God did in the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus, he saw a parallel between the experience of his people over the centuries and the process whereby a child grows up and becomes an adult. His letters to the young churches in his care were full of references to the importance of growing up, such as “when we were children, [we] were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.”

Galatians 4:3-5

Paul speaks of “growing up” as a transition from being a slave in the tribe to the status of an adult member of the extended family by being adopted (a transition familiar to both Jews and Romans). We see the Sacrament of Baptism as an adoption ceremony, a transition in the status and character of the individual, made possible by Jesus’ death and resurrection (grace). (Adult baptism is the norm.) BCP p.169 A simple definition of “growing up” is making the transition from total self-centeredness to sacrificially serving others. What does that transition look like?

Hebrews 1:10-11, 6:1-5 Luke 9:23-24

Crucifixion

That’s what Jesus was talking about when he said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.” What does daily crucifixion look like? It is a mirror of the entire process by which Jesus intentionally went to his death outside the walls of Jerusalem: grief, anger, humiliation, suffering, dereliction.

As Jesus approached Jerusalem the last time, he looked down on the city and wept. He had spent three years trying to teach the people of Jerusalem his way of dealing with the Romans, but in their mind the only way of liberation was through violence. Sometimes our efforts to communicate the Good News of the Kingdom appear to fall on deaf ears…

Luke 19:441-44

When Jesus entered the Temple he was furious with the money-changers who were desecrating this sacred place for their financial gain. Sometimes our anger is the motivation for positive change.

Matthew 21:12-13

In their attempt to undercut Jesus’ authority with the common people, the Romans deliberately humiliated him publicly, by portraying him as a false king, and by torturing him to death in public. Sometimes we may be derided for claiming to represent Jesus.

Matthew 27:27-31; 32-44

And on the cross, Jesus felt he had been abandoned, not only by his friends, but by God himself. Sometimes we may feel terribly alone.

Matthew 27:45-47

Resurrection

God’s mighty act, Jesus’ vindication. This public event marked the completion of his mission, the inauguration of the New Creation - the Kingdom of God; the beginning of a new stage in history, in which the practice of voluntary self-sacrifice begins to transform human culture and the whole historical process.

Matthew 28:1-10; Colossian 2:8-15; Revelation 21:5-6

Voluntary self-sacrifice

The transition from “this evil age” to “the coming age;” from childhood to adulthood; from serving oneself to sacrificially serving others (the meaning of “love”). We are in both “this evil age” and “the coming age,” at the present time, both grown up and immature, at the same time.

Colossians 1:9-14, 24-28

A note about the word “sacrifice:” It does not mean a bloody, primitive ritual. It means “getting your priorities in order, preferably in accordance with the directions of the Holy spirit.”

And just a note on the word, “evil.” In the biblical context there are two types of “evil,” the evil of immaturity, of accident and mistake, and malice, “the dark power,” that works to corrupt or destroy God’s good creation. In the Lord’s Prayer, the word “evil” can carry both meaning, both our tendency to harm or destroy ourselves, or “the evil one,” the seemingly autonomous dark power tending to destroy the good creation.

Summary

The message of the Bible can be seen as the combination of three themes:

1 Undeserved suffering

2 Crucifixion and resurrection, and

3 Voluntary self-sacrifice

Conclusion

Stand firm. Trust God. Listen for his directions. The “age to come” has already begun.

Glory to God whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine: Glory to him from generation to generation in the Church, and in Christ Jesus for ever and ever. Amen.

EPHESIANS 3:20-21

BCP p. 26

All Saints’ Sunday: The Help of God and the Nearness of the Kingdom

Fr. Morgan Reed "All Saints’ Sunday: The Help of God and the Nearness of the Kingdom"

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Luke 6:20-36

TranscriptioN

Well, good morning again, everybody. It is good to see you this morning on our All Saints Sunday. This morning, I put the marker in the wrong page, and I read the right passage from the wrong Gospel. So actually, if you have your Bible, go to Luke chapter 6, which is also the Beatitudes, but I'm gonna be preaching from the Lukan version of the Beatitudes this morning. But I wanted you to get it all. So you got both Gospels. We're all about the synoptics here, so, you know, thank you for listening to both and dealing with both Gospels this morning.

So, as we get started, I know that there are many of you for whom this is your first All Saints Sunday because you've come in from other traditions, and so I'm so glad that you get to experience this feast day. It is one of my favorites in the church's calendar. For those of you who don't know me and are new and visiting, I'm Father Morgan Reed. I'm the vicar here, and I'm really glad you're here. Afterwards, please stop me and say hello, or I'll try and find you and say hello. I would love to get to know you, but thank you for being here this morning.

This day reminds us of those who have gone before us—those that we remember and those that we may not remember. And so I was telling somebody one of the things I love about All Saints Day, and I chose this art intentionally because there are so many saints for whom we don't know the names and faces of, and they are part of our journey whether we realize it or not, and this day calls attention to that very fact.

And if you look in our Book of Common Prayer, which is what we use in our liturgy, there are different reasons why somebody might be commemorated as a saint. There are those who are remembered as martyrs—those who gave their lives for the testimony of Jesus Christ. There are missionaries or evangelists, people who have pioneered a place for the gospel among those who haven't heard it yet or experienced the grace of God. There are pastors, people who show us the shepherding care of Jesus. There are teachers of the faith, also called doctors of the church—people who brought clarity to really complex topics in really complex times. There are monastics or religious people we commemorate for their deep lives of prayer, the deep well from which we draw all the time, and their intentionality. There are ecumenists—people who worked toward the unity of the body of Christ among disparate parts of the church around the world. And there are reformers of the church, people who either saw corruption in the church or something that needed to be changed, and they worked toward changing the church, moving it toward holiness and the holiness of God. And there are, finally, in our Book of Common Prayer, renewers of society—people who show us the goodness of Jesus and the profound examples of God's justice and mercy in their lives and what they call people to in the societies in which they lived.

All of these categories of people show us something of the goodness of the work of God in the person and life of Jesus Christ. And so these people form the roadmap as we are figuring out how to live out God's ideal for creation, how to live out God's plan for us as we become more like Jesus. All of these people who have gone before us become a roadmap for that.

And so the Beatitudes are commonly read on All Saints Sunday in the church. Essentially, what Jesus is teaching in these passages is that those who would follow him—his kingdom is seen best in the lives of those who know that they need God's help the most. His kingdom is seen best in the lives of those who know that they need God's help the most.

And as we look at this passage, let me pray for us.

“In the name of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. God, the maker and redeemer of all believers, grant to the faithful departed the unsearchable benefits of the passion of your Son, that on the day of his appearing they may be manifested as your children, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.”

Well first, just to name what's different in Luke's gospel than in Matthew's. In Matthew's, it's all about blessed, blessed, blessed. I think there's nine categories of those who are blessed. In St. Luke's gospel, there's only four. And he has counterpoints of the four opposite categories who are accursed or woe to those. He says, blessed are you and woe to you, in four different categories. And so if you have your Bible, again, I encourage you to look at Luke 6. But in Luke's account, Jesus frames the Sermon on the Mount with those four blessings and woes.

It feels a little bit like if you read Psalm 1, and it begins blessed is the person who does not, stance it, etc. And then later on it says, and not so the wicked. So there's this blessing and cursing in Psalm 1, and when that's taken together with Psalm 2, the kind of function is like the doorways by which we enter into the Psalter.

It's the wisdom by which one enters into the life that the Psalter is painting a picture of. And so similarly here, the Beatitudes are like the doors that help us enter into the portrait of life in the kingdom of God.

And so first, I want to look at these blessed ones. It's a little different than Psalm 1, because these aren't commands. As though Jesus is saying, you know, you should aim to be poor, that should be your goal, or you should aim to be sad or weeping, or aim to be hungry, or aim to be hated by people. Those aren't goals.

They're not in and of themselves virtuous, so that if you're like, well yeah, everyone hates me, I must be doing something right. It's not, that is not a good indicator that you are necessarily following Jesus. But the reality is, as you do follow Jesus, and you become more holy, more like him, the reality is, you follow him into his death and resurrection.

And so suffering will be inevitable. But in Christ, suffering is meaningful. But suffering will be a reality.

And so when we think of the poor, the sorrowful, the hungry, the despised, those who have this very real bodily sense that there is a need, there is something going wrong, that the awareness of something wrong attunes us to the spiritual realities that we are in need of God's divine help. So what's true in the body is true in the soul as we follow Jesus.

And when you think of the audience Jesus is preaching to, these are the people longing for the kingdom of God, and they're not the well-off, they're not the well-fed. These are the people who are are looking for a Messiah to come and restore all things. And so these very much are the people Jesus is talking to, and so we will find ourselves in those places when we follow him as well. And when you do, when you find yourself knowing your own need for good companionship to be taken care of as you're following Jesus, then what he's saying is consider yourselves fortunate, consider yourselves blessed. That's the sense of what blessed means here. Consider yourselves fortunate when that happens.

In Eugene Peterson, he's a famous pastor who passed away a while back, but in his biography he was saying that when he translated the Message Bible, he originally wanted to, instead of Makarios here being blessed, he wanted to translate it lucky, because that's the sort of sense of like, “Hey, consider yourselves lucky if you find yourselves in this place.”

And his editor wisely said, “That's a terrible idea. No evangelical publisher is going to give you the time of day if you put lucky in your Bible translation.” So he wisely took that part out. But the point is still true, this idea that when you find yourselves in need as you're following Jesus of material resource, of friends, of food even, of finding comfort, then count yourselves fortunate when those situations come. It's really countercultural, and the reason why is because at those moments when you're attuned to the need of the body, you're closer to seeing God's kingdom than when you weren't aware of your need.

I remember some time ago, a few years back, I was getting food for our family, and I was holding our son who at the time was probably three, and I was holding him in one arm and the food in the other, and there was a curb that I was walking down to get to the car, and that curb was bigger than I had expected it to be, and so I have these terrible rubber band ankles, and when I stepped off this curb, my ankle just went out from under me and popped. It was the most horrible feeling, and I fell to my knees, somehow by the grace of God did not drop either my child or the Chipotle, but I get back. I had to drive home with my left foot and then go to the hospital and get x-rays, and I had indeed fractured a bone in my ankle. It was a terrible feeling, and I get up the next morning, and I look at my foot, and the whole bottom of my foot had turned black, and I thought, oh no. So I call a friend who knows more than I know about these things, and I said, “Here's what's happening.” And they said, “Oh that's great. That means you're on the process of healing.” But there is no way. This is so ugly. That can't be what healing looks like. Why is this good news that my ankle is so awful, and I hated that healing looked like that for the next few weeks, but you know I was thinking of this phrase like, blessed is that sprained ankle whose foot was bruised profusely because it was in the ugliness of that foot that I knew that healing was at hand.

It would be worse if I hadn't. The worst cuts are when you don't bleed initially, because you know that bad things are coming after that, but you know, think of it now in the spiritual realm, like poverty, sadness, hunger, exclusion for the sake of following Jesus and being faithful in the kingdom of God. These aren't the goal necessarily, but they are sometimes an inevitable reality for the one who's following Jesus, because we don't get to lavish ourselves with all the comforts of the world all the time, and so when those things come as we follow Jesus, those, when we're attuned to them and recognize them, those can be the very holy moments where we see the signs of God's nearness as we're following Jesus, and when we follow him, sometimes things are gonna get really difficult.

I hardly have to tell any of you that, but when they do, Jesus is encouraging us to count ourselves amongst the fortunate, amongst the blessed, because we're actually in a long line of people who have gone before us, who have suffered in the likeness of Jesus, who are among the fortunate, and because their hope for seeing the kingdom is our hope as well. It's countercultural today as it was back then, because back then, seeing somebody well-off was a sign of divine favor and prosperity. We haven't moved that far in our culture either, and so we look at our own society, we might have alternate beatitudes, or we would think, you know, blessed or fortunate are those who find themselves at ease because they've worked really hard to earn what they've got.

Blessed are those who achieve everything they wanted, no matter who they had to hurt in the process. Blessed are those who attain some amount of celebrity, those who benefit economically off the backs of the poor, those who avoid suffering because God must be pleased with them. Blessed are those who don't acknowledge the reality of their own mortality, but instead they're allowed and they can whip up a frenzy and get people to surround them with their ideas, and they must be showing us a sign of God's favor if they can draw a Jesus is calling us to follow him in our experience of suffering the loss of all things in order to see the realities of the kingdom come in our lives, because he's bringing about the realities of the kingdom through a people who are following him into his death and his resurrection, but the precursor to resurrection is death. And so, the need of our body attunes us to the need of our souls as we're following Jesus. And when we recognize that need for God where things aren't as we expected them to be or hope they would be, then we can count ourselves fortunate in those moments because we are intimately closer to seeing the realities of Jesus's nearness where his kingdom is coming and where he is good.

And so in contrast to the blessed, the fortunate, Jesus gives us the four categories of woe, you know, like not like “whoa”, but like woe to you, right? These are, in my Old Testament class we used to joke about these being called the woe-ricles, because you have the oracles of blessing and you have the woe oracles of cursing. Like these are like somebody lamenting the loss of something. It's I wish, like if you're at a funeral, it's almost like, “I wish this person had done it differently;” like there's a deep-seated woe about the state of the individual. And that language in the Old Testament was associated with funerary rites. And so, when we think of the woes in this passage in Luke, he says woe to the rich, woe to the well-fed, woe to those who laugh now, and those who are influential and well thought of. Now there's nothing inherently sinful about any of those things.

If you find yourself well-off, money is a tool, right? It's not a name. And again, just as none of those other things were aims of virtue, poverty, hunger, etc., none of these things are aims of vice, or are a result of vice necessarily. There's nothing inherently sinful about being well-fed or well-known, but what he's saying is if you find yourselves in a state where this is your constant reality, it's something you've aimed for, it's something you look for, it's something that takes up a lot of mental load in your life, and your life is then as a result of that characterized by satisfaction and ease, fame, the kind of laughter that you might associate with like toxic positivity, where you're ignoring the realities of how hard things are, then woe to you, is what he's saying.

You're at a complete disadvantage in that state from seeing God's kingdom come, because the shallow veneer of the view of God's kingdom is obscuring your vision for the love of God and for the real purpose of creation and why you're here. And so, this is the person who believes that they actually have no need of God's help, because they've arranged their lives in such a way that their body can't indicate to them anymore their need for God's help. And as a result, they're desensitized from the breaking in of God's kingdom in their lives. They run past it. They don't acknowledge it. They can't see it. Material success isn't always kingdom success, and we often get that confused.

So Jesus warns those who are listening to him, he would warn us as well, that in Israel's history there were this group of people who find themselves in that state constantly, and people thought well of them.

And does any of the older kids here, do you know who he calls those people in Israel? Or adults? Anybody want to guess? What? They're within Israel, yeah. The people who like would be well fed, well taken care of, all that. Anybody want to guess? Caroline. Close.

The Old Testament equivalent, false prophets. So he says, “Yeah, if you find yourselves amongst these, you're in good company with the false prophets of old, of Israel.”

And so, you know, so if you find, to find ourselves amongst those people, the curse, those who have, those who are in the woe category, when you find yourself there, you're overlooking what's broken for the sake of keeping up appearances. That's what is kind of at the root of the problem here. We're ignoring what's gone wrong to make sure that we can project a picture of what feels totally right. There's a false sense of peace, a false sense of tranquility, and you know what? We're culturally primed for that.

So imagine seeing a happy family photo on social media, maybe for the holidays, but then discovering that in that happy family photo, there was a day-long process of tears, and moaning, and groaning, and weeping, and gnashing of teeth, and protests of, I don't love you anymore, and all the sorts of things that go into a happy family photo. The photo is a curated facade. It's an aspirational reality, and sometimes, by the grace of God, it does actually become, you know, an ontological reality, but sometimes those family photos, they just mascot all that process that was going into this, tells us nothing of the conflict involved, and it's not a bad thing, it's the reality that we're in, but I'm starting to say that we're primed for this.

I remember seeing on social media a friend of mine from Bible College who had posted a really happy photo of him and his wife, and then like a month and a half later, it was taken down, and I found out that they were at the time almost separated, and they were going through a divorce.

The curated reality was just this veneer, and it had no substance behind it, and it's so easy to do that with our lives, and how we project ourselves on the internet, and then that trains us for how we do it with one another, and so this is a permission to be undone, right? This is a permission to take down the veneer and the facade.

The one in these Beatitudes who is cursed, he's cursed because they're keeping up appearances without the actual health and divine, they're keeping up appearances of health and divine prosperity without any of the substance of the reality of the kingdom of God, and so Jesus is setting up these blessings and the curses as these categories, like a doorway entering into a vision of the kingdom of God, which is to follow him in his example, and so he's going to go on for chapters in the Sermon on the Mount to show how the disciples can understand the world rightly when they learn to love as God loves, and we're not going to get into all that, but this is where he goes. If you want to understand the world as it is, learn to love the world as God loves it, which is entered into by this category of blessings and curses, and so one author says this about loving the way that God loves. He describes it as glorious, uproarious, absurd generosity.

Think of the best thing that you can do for the worst person, and then go ahead and do it. Think of what you'd really like someone to do for you, and then go do it for them. Think of the people to whom you are tempted to be nasty, and then lavish generosity on them instead.

So Jesus isn't just giving them a list of do's and don'ts in this passage. What he's giving them is a helpful picture of the subversion of the brokenness of the world by death and resurrection as they follow him. And so, as Christians, I'm going to use some of the language from St. Augustine of Hippo. He talks about “We're to hate the fault that's in the world by loving its true nature as God intended it to be”, which I find helpful as we learn to love as God loves in this uproarious, absurd kind of generosity and mercifulness.

Then we start to see the world as it is and hate the fault and the brokenness while loving it for the ways that God has intended it to be. And so Jesus, as we close, he is inviting us to follow him in this long procession of people who have gone before us for centuries. And each of us has been uniquely made with our unique stories, and we have a unique story to tell about the grace and the mercy of God in our lives and of his kingdom, as we're learning what it means to follow him. And so, when we follow our Lord, we do so into that death and resurrection that Jesus experienced, knowing the goodness that Jesus is with us.

The suffering is purposeful in order to make the world right again, to order what's been disordered. And so, when you're following Jesus, those moments of suffering aren't something to be passed over, but there's something to remind us that we are in need of God's help. His kingdom's seen best when we're most aware of our need for God's help.

And so, we can be encouraged in our time of need that that's when Jesus is closest to us, that he's pleased with us as we're following him. That this isn't his judgment to castigate us in the realm that we've done something wrong, but there is something for us of his goodness in this hardship. And that we can count ourselves then fortunate in those moments to be primed to see his kingdom, just as those who have gone before us, because those who have experienced his death and resurrection in life, their ultimate hope is our ultimate hope as well, as we look for a better country of which the Saints show us.

So as we close this morning, let me pray again this call for us from the Feast of All Saints.

“Almighty God, you have knit together your elect in one communion and fellowship in the mystical body of your Son. Give us grace so to follow your blessed Saints in all virtuous and godly living, that we may come to those ineffable joys that you have prepared for those who truly love you, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.”

 Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Edited using ChatGPT.

Becoming Acquainted With Our Need for God’s Mercy

Fr. Morgan Reed "Becoming Acquainted With Our Need for God's Mercy"

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Luke 18:9-14

TranscriptioN

Well, good morning again, everybody. It is good to see you this morning. I'm grateful to see some new faces. Those of you who are new and visiting, welcome. We're so glad that you're here. I'm Father Morgan Reed. I'm the vicar here at Corpus Christi Anglican Church, and I am really glad to be here with you worshiping our Lord this morning.

So each year around this time, I'm reminded of something I used to do before I was planning on being ordained. Back in my old life, I was planning on going into academia, and every year around this time, I would go to—it's called SBL or the Society of Biblical Literature—and those meetings were really fun for me. We get to travel the country to wherever they had it each year, and we would have lovely discussions about things like the Dead Sea Scrolls, Aramaic paleography, Syriac and like a headstone inscriptions, you know, all sorts of really interesting things that are interesting to everybody, right? And so this was fun for me, and one of the interesting dynamics about Society of Biblical Literature is that—you may not know this, but academic jobs are really hard to come by.

So imagine 10,000 people coming to a conference center jockeying for position, who are trying to either further their academic careers or who are trying to find an academic job for the first time. It was sort of a weird thing, but you know, each session would have four to five talks, about 20 minutes each, and each was followed by a Q&A session. And now there were people who were very secure in themselves, and they would go to these sessions, and they would ask a very thoughtful question that was engaging with the talk.

But then, inevitably, there would be somebody who would then raise their hand, and they would say something like, well, I guess this isn't as much of a question as much as it's a statement. And then you could feel the room go, oh, here we go, you know, what's gonna happen? And so there was one paper I went to, and there was somebody in the audience who was well-known. He's like the godfather of Old Testament textual criticism, which means something to about like three of you.

And so I was in there, and I knew this guy was there. And then when the person gave this talk, this guy raises his hand, and he does one of those, okay, I don't have a question, this is more of a comment. I thought, oh no, what's gonna happen next? And for the next like five or ten minutes, which could have been its own talk, this guy proceeded to disagree with this poor graduate student who was kind of pouring themselves out after pouring themselves into a paper.

It was humiliating, and you felt the collective response of the group in there lose respect for this scholar as time elapsed, and this person was just berating this young graduate student. It really didn't matter at that point what this man's brilliance or achievements were. His hubris was starting to overshadow his good work.

And we all can think of times where we know people who, because of pride, it's begun to overshadow the good things that they've done in their lives. And so the questioner who says, well, you know, this is more of a comment than it is a question, reminds me a little bit of the hubris that we find in today's gospel passage. And it reminds us of the kind of humility that we need when we're approaching the Lord in prayer.

This passage is this warning against pride, against self-justification. It's a passage about the difficulty of repentance and contrition because of the honesty involved, and then it's a passage about God's disposition to those two different kinds of attitudes. So as we look at our gospel text this morning in Luke 18, let me pray for us.

“In the name of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be always acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and Redeemer. Amen.”

So Jesus tells us a parable in Luke chapter 18, and he actually tells us who he's talking to in this passage. He says, to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt. So this first man in the parable is a Pharisee, and this isn't to say that all Pharisees are like this, but there were certainly Pharisees who in Jesus's day prided themselves in their discipline, self-discipline, and their ability to keep the law, even going beyond the law. There were set hours of prayer in that day, and you can imagine that this man is making it every single day to those prayer times.

In the passage, he sort of waltzes right into the temple, you can imagine into the holy place, with a bit of a smug air of contentment with himself and a little bit of entitlement, and he opens his mouth, and I'm gonna paraphrase what he's saying. ‘God, I thank you, not for your grace, but, or of the good things that you've given, but I give you thanks for me, because I'm really great. I go way beyond what you require in your law. I fast twice a week. You didn't even ask me to do that. You didn't, but you know what? I'm really great, and I thank you for that. You know, I give a tenth of my income. Did I mention how grateful I am for how great I am? Thank you so much, Lord, that I am not a bad person, like thieves, people who cheat on their spouses, people have no sense of justice, or worst of all, that guy over there, that tax collector.”

So we get the sense that this Pharisee comes to the temple multiple times a day, if not per week, to thank God about his own greatness. He truly believes that he is God's gift to humanity. What would you do without me, God? Sort of his disposition. Meanwhile, the tax collector in the parable is standing far off, probably in the court of the Gentiles, and he comes every once in a while, hoping not to be really noticed by anybody, and worse than being noticed in this case, he's pointed out by this guy who's known as being pious in the community, and he's now the object of the contemptuous gaze of the righteous person in the community.

So I hope as you hear my paraphrase and my retelling of that, that none of that sits right with you. It's not supposed to sit right with us. It's supposed to feel really icky, and it was supposed to when Jesus said it as well.

That person, the Pharisee, was doing all the right things on the outside to make them look right before God without any of the substance to actually do what was to make him right before God. It was a form of avoiding the reality of his own brokenness, his disordered loves, his dysfunctional attachments to the world, which those things are sort of the nature of sin. One of the church fathers, St. Augustine, says this about the passage, he came to the doctor.

It would have been more worthwhile to inform the doctor by confession of the things that were wrong with himself instead of keeping his wounds secret and having the nerve to crow over the scars of others. It's not surprising that the tax collector went away cured, since he hadn't been ashamed of showing where he felt pain. And so I really like how he puts that in a medical frame, thinking of the doctor and healing.

I can imagine the kind of person that goes to the doctor just to brag about how healthy they are, to check the box, and you know, look at all the things I'm doing in my life, doctor, but they fail to inform the doctor of those lingering headaches that keep persisting or the pain they're having in their foot. They sort of ignore those things in order to, well, they brag about the things that are going well in order to ignore the things that might be causing them harm. It's easier to brag about our accomplishments and credentials than it is to confess our sins or to be honest about our brokenness.

As you think through the last week, there are places that have invited us into examining our brokenness. What emails gave us a rise this week in our spirit? As you think of the conversations you had with co-workers, friends, or family, which one of those caused a disproportionate amount of angst, contempt, anger, envy, sadness? What meeting are you dreading coming up this week? Who is it and why? Those are the moments that are invitations to examine ourselves and to ask the doctor for health. I think we move through those things too quickly without reflection because those are the places that point out to us where brokenness is, where disordered loves or where loves have become disordered, where attachments might be to this kingdom of darkness.

Sometimes we define sin just as this overarching category of rebellion against God, and it's not wrong, but it needs more definition. When you get down to it, sin is rebellion against the goodness of who God is. It's rebellion against the goodness of how God created the world, which he calls very good. It's rebellion against them being truly human because we were meant to be God's good image-bearers on this earth. And so, disordered loves, attachments, and pride make us less human. So the way that the monastic tradition in the past has talked about these things is disordered attachments or disordered loves.

And I find that helpful to give specificity to this overarching category of rebellion against God because to rightly order loves and rightly order attachments with the kingdom of God is to rightly order the world, is to understand the world as God intended it to be. So somebody might come to church regularly, they might say or not say certain things because they know it's right or wrong, they might pray at certain times, they might hold very public ethical positions, and they might do all those things to avoid dealing with the humiliation of living comfortably with a secretly disordered interior life. It's possible.

And the Pharisee shows us that. They might not even know what they're doing when they're doing that. And that's exactly what Satan wants. That's the very thing that makes us less human, holding on to a secret life, bypassing the brokenness, ignoring the disorder through our spiritual achievements. The very thing which could save us, which could be spaces of redemption, then become traps through religiosity. And so the Pharisee, he's also, it's interesting to me, he's characterized not just by pride but by other-centered contempt.

And I wonder then if the flip side of the coin of pride is other-centered contempt. So contempt for others and pride being flip sides of the same coin. Because if I can name the faults of other people really well, sometimes I can do that in order to avoid the humiliation of looking at my own brokenness. And like a doctor, naming those things for which I need forgiveness and healing. And so we can see in the Pharisee the dangers of pride, self-justification.

Now we want to look at this tax collector and the difficulty of repentance. Remember why tax collectors are so hated in the time of Jesus. People in those days purchased rights over a territory. They had to collect taxes to pay to some municipal leader. And so private, the tax collection was almost like a privatized industry, where individual tax collectors had to collect enough taxes not only for those that they owed money to, who were paying off the land, but also to make an income. And so it was really common for somebody who's a tax collector to charge extra fees. And what those fees were was up to the tax collector.

So in a society like that, extortion is commonplace. In fact, it's not just commonplace, it's actually acceptable. It's just common. Everyone assumes it's going to happen. And so, for any Jew who's going to become a tax collector, they're already on the outside of society. They're considered a traitor. Somebody who doesn't really trust that Yahweh is king, they're a tool of Caesar.

And so, imagine the amount of self-hatred in the life of the tax collector. He knows exactly where he stands in the community, what everyone thinks of him. He's viewed with suspicion by everyone he meets, and he probably doesn't choose that job for himself. Unfortunately, because of his life circumstances, that job has found him. We don't know what they are, doesn't matter.

The point is, no one who is self-respecting says, I aspire to the place of tax collector, right? He is so aware of his own brokenness and sin as a tax collector, he hardly needs anyone to tell him how broken he is. And so hearing the voice of condemnation from the Pharisee is only echoing the very thing that he feels about himself. He says, yeah, you're right, that's exactly who I am. It's just echoing the shame voice. We all have one of those. We all have a shame voice, and what echoes it for us? He knows that he has nothing to approach God with.

But maybe, just maybe, if he can get close to God's presence, then he's gonna rediscover some semblance of his humanity, and this relationship with God that he longs for. Contrition is really difficult because it requires us to join the tax collector in risking humiliation to express our needs to God, to admit that we have, that we are not the one who God needs to build his kingdom, that we need God more than he needs us, right? And the tax collector, he wants to know that God is in control. He wants to know if there's somewhere that he can go where all the poor decisions in his life that he may have made aren't going to define him, where he finds somebody who's going to attune well to the sorrow of his heart, and discover the delight in him and the love that he's longing for.

That's what he's hoping for. And so, he approaches the temple cautiously. He takes himself to the most unassuming place, the edge of the temple in the court of the Gentiles, at the edge of grace, where he hopes to meet the grace of God, to find answers, to find love, and to hopefully reframe his own world.

And the incredible truth of this parable is that it's that man who's on the edge of grace that's actually at the center of God's delight and God's pleasure. And so as we think about the Pharisee and the tax collector, as we close, I want to look at God's disposition towards these two people. Jesus says that it was the tax collector who went home justified, who went home right in the sight of God rather than the Pharisee.

And I can imagine in my mind's eye that the Pharisee walks smugly back out of the temple with no knowledge that he has gone from the temple unjustified and looking poorly and not at the center of God's pleasure. So what Jesus invites us into in this passage is a life that is in search of the mercy and grace of God to rearrange the disordered loves and attachments that have formed for us, and then to become truly human because of that in Christ. And I've said this before, but I love, there's a patristic quote, I think it's attributed to St. Irenaeus, about the glory of God is a human fully alive. The glory of God is a human fully alive. To become fully human, we have to seek out Jesus and we have to constantly keep our need for God's grace in front of our eyes.

The humble don't compare with others, but they're keenly aware of their own brokenness and their own need of God's work of restoration in their own heart, their own need for the death and resurrection of Jesus in their own specific places of wounding.

The self-righteous, by contrast, are constantly comparing. They're known for bypassing their own dysfunction and they're coasting through life on a wave of other-centered contempt. And they can often find themselves amongst very religious people, but this person finds themselves very far from the pleasure of God.

So I want to encourage us from this passage to make a habit of being needy. Make a habit of being needy. Specifically, to recognize our need for God to reorder our world, to make us new in the person and work of Jesus. And so, come with your need and reflect deeply on the grace of God. And whenever every opportunity comes up for you in prayer, come in stillness and quietness to notice where we are longing for God's grace to make the world new again. Let me pray for us.

“Almighty and everlasting God, you govern all things both in heaven and on earth. Mercifully hear the supplications of your people. And in our time, grant us your peace. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.”

 Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Edited using ChatGPT.

In Returning and Rest We Shall Be Saved

Fr. Morgan Reed "In Returning and Rest We Shall Be Saved"

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Luke 18:1-8

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I remember telling some of you that during my ordination, I got to swing the thurible, and it was a funny experience because we swung the thurible to the procession song Oceans by Hillsong. And today I have just done a gospel reading under a disco ball. Thanks be to God.

Yeah, these are the moments. This is church planting right here. I'm so grateful. What a joyous weekend we've gotten to share together. I am so grateful that we've gotten to spend all this good time together sharing meals, a long hike, and other things. And it was a joy to have Reverend Summer Gross with us for the last few days. Grateful for her ministry among us.

And the theme for this weekend has been creating space for God, and part of beginning that desire is coming out here for a whole weekend to Front Royal—to set everything down for an entire weekend, which is very countercultural in the NOVA area. And this is such a great start to honoring such a desire for space for the Lord. And so I hope you'll take some of the material that you've had from the weekend.

I hope you take some time to reflect on the experiences that you've shared with one another this weekend and to utilize that to frame your life by prayer. Because what often I am tempted to do is to frame prayer in the context of my life—so that life happens and prayer is some subsection of it—but rather making prayer the frame for where life happens.

And so, in line with several of the themes this weekend, I wanted to look at our passage today—this exhortation from St. Paul in the Second Epistle of Timothy—to Timothy, I should say. So he is calling Timothy to remain in the tradition that's been handed down to him and that’s shaped him. And that tradition includes scripture—not as a body of proof texts, but as something, a tool of discovery, a tool of training, something to be lived, something to be preached and lived out and modeled for others.

Timothy's call is to fulfill his ministry. I've heard another translation say, "discharge the duties of your ministry," and I love that too. The point is, he's sort of at a swan song here. If you had some last words to give to somebody, what would you tell them? And these are St. Paul’s words to this young bishop, overseer.

It reminds me a bit of the prayer that the bishop prays over us when we're confirmed or received or renew our baptism vows. He'll pray:

"Almighty and ever-living God, let your fatherly hand be upon these your servants. Let your Holy Spirit ever be with them, and so lead them in the knowledge and obedience of your holy Word, that they may faithfully serve you in this life and joyfully dwell with you in the life to come, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."

And so you and I have this call on us as those who are in the Church, living out life with Jesus—to follow Jesus and walk with the Holy Spirit, to grow in the knowledge and obedience of God's Word, to grow in what that even means for us as unique servants of God—to serve God faithfully, to discharge all the duties of our ministry, whatever God’s called us into. And fulfilling the duties of our ministry is hard. It’s really hard. It’s hard because we face daily derailments—maybe hourly derailments—endless crashing waves of unmet and upset expectations. "Lord, I thought things were gonna be this way. Where are you? Why haven’t you shown up yet?" We talked about that last week or two weeks ago.

And so this weekend, one of my hopes is that this weekend would be a reminder to us that you and I require rest, silence, and solitude at various points to experience the salvation of God—that if we're immersed in chaos, we will not experience this transference from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of the Beloved Son—but it requires intentionality. No matter how small, right? I know that silent time with young children is prime real estate, but the point is that there is an intentionality built into our lives of experiencing the salvation of God in silence, solitude, and rest.

So we have to know the sweetness of the gospel, the goodness of it, before it paints a compelling picture of the kingdom of God for others to experience. If we want them to experience it—if that’s our desire—then it has to be sweet and good for us first. And so Timothy is struggling here, and he needs encouragement. It’s why the letter is written. And I don’t know about you, but I can relate to him, and maybe you can this morning as well as you think about the struggles that Timothy is facing.

So as we look at 2nd Timothy this morning, let me pray for us.

“In the name of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be always acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and Redeemer. Amen.”

Well, first we have to create space for understanding the tradition that's been handed down to us. St. Paul has spent time in his letter mentioning how things around Timothy are gonna go from bad to worse with regards to persecution—the level of apostasy around him as people turn from the faith. He shouldn’t be surprised when those things happen because they're going to. But he's called, in the midst of that, to deeply root himself in the tradition in which he was discipled. And what tradition was that?

We know from earlier in the letter that Timothy grew up with a faithful mother and grandmother. So Lois, his grandmother, and Eunice, his mother, had raised him up in the faith—these two godly women that he was to learn from. He was also shaped by the community that he'd been baptized in. What lessons were there for him as he thought about the people that he knew? And then Paul himself, who was being an example of carrying on a life of faith—what was he supposed to learn from Paul as Paul had dealt with persecutions and sufferings? Timothy was certainly no better; he would go through similar things.

So take time to consider what shaped you. It’s really important to make space for that. Who has invested in the deposit of faith in your life? And if you can’t think of people in your biological family background, I can tell you that people in this church are part of that family who are depositing that in you. Every meal that you’ve shared, the conversations as they go deeper—these are deposits of the faith as people are investing themselves in you and vice versa. I actually care for your well-being, and I know that you care for mine, and this is true in the Church. We care for one another.

And so, what’s the nature of the faith that's in us? The answer, St. Paul says, is found in Holy Scripture. And in that time when he talked about Scripture, there was no New Testament yet. He’s talking about what we would refer to as the Old Testament. Most of the New Testament books hadn’t yet been written by the time he’s writing this, or they hadn’t all been yet recognized as Scripture by this time.

So he’d been taught the Scriptures—the Old Testament—as a young man. And Scripture, this Scripture that he knew of, was pointing him to the Jesus that the Church is following. And so he’s supposed to examine people who are causing opposition, potentially heretical ideas, by the standards of the Scriptures which he has been trained in, that he’s been discipled in. Again, the point is to understand Jesus in the Scriptures, but we need the Scriptures to understand this Jesus whom we follow.

And so, note the Scripture’s purpose: it’s not just a handbook of proof texts for the refutation of ideas, although it can do that. But according to verse 16, it says, “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God might be proficient and equipped for every good work.” There’s a proficiency and an equipping involved in understanding the Scripture.

And so within a hundred years of this time—in St. Timothy’s day, St. Paul’s day—within a few hundred years, the Church would discern through the Spirit which writings had the mark of the Holy Spirit, as the process of the formation of the New Testament canon would take place. But note that Scripture is both inspired and profitable—two things. It’s inspired, and maybe because of that, it is profitable.

Many of you took the opportunity to hike yesterday, and what an incredible hike it was. Various groups made it various distances. I was really impressed with the five-year-olds who climbed a thousand feet up switchbacks yesterday and hiked almost four miles. Ten would have been—I would have been super, super impressed. I would be impressed with adults who did that too! But yeah, I mean, wow. It was a stunning time on the Appalachian Trail.

And if you think about the Appalachian Trail, you can read books about it, right? There are books written about people taking a year to go hike this thing, and those stories are incredible. But reading about going on the Appalachian Trail is a fundamentally different experience than actually going out there and seeing beyond what’s just on Google Maps or Apple Maps, right? It was a beautiful 75-degree day. Some leaves were falling as the wind was blowing. There were steep inclines; you felt those switchbacks in your calves, and we were surrounded by beautiful fall colors. And doing it with friends is a whole different experience.

So Scripture, similarly, is not a book just to be read and comprehended like some other book to understand something about something. It’s something to be experienced. Scripture is something to be prayed, something to be sung, something to be meditated on in the quiet—for the Holy Spirit to read us through it. It’s something to be read multiple times, something to take in, something to experience and be trained in. It’s formative. It’s useful.

So we've got to create time to abide with God in His Word—as a tool to invite us into the life of the kingdom of God that He wants to bring us into.

Spending time with the Scriptures—reading it with the Church—is so helpful. One of the things I find really helpful is reading the Bible with the Church—finding some ancient writers. It could be a hundred years old, could be fifteen hundred years old—read with other people outside modern American whatever—and that can be a really helpful discipline: to read with the Church across time and geography. Note the holiness, the examples of people who have placed Scripture so central to their lives and have had to live it out in different contexts. But make space for that, because that’s the time we need to be grounded in the Word of God and to become the person that God is shaping us into. It frames our formation; it frames our life when we create the space to abide in God's presence with His Word.

And then next, we need to create space to name the story that God is telling. What story is God telling in your life, and how does your story fit into the greater cosmic story that He’s telling? St. Paul gives Timothy this charge: to proclaim the message—or preach the Word, in some translations—in any season, to convince, to rebuke, to encourage. And the first two of those, when I say “convince” and “rebuke,” sound a little harsh, right? It sounds strict. But the third one, “encourage”—we’re kind of like, okay, I can breathe easy. Encourage, got it, yeah.

But all three are necessary, I think. Encouragement helps us understand that the aim of those things is healing. Timothy is not rebuking in order to be right, to prop up his own ego, to show his own theological training. His care is for the salvation of someone’s soul. It is for the healing of somebody in their brokenness and their sin.

So these things are necessary—the reproofs, the rebukes, the exhortations, and the encouragement—all at various times. And we all have to name this distortion in the brokenness of sin in our own lives and our own unique and distorted loves and brokennesses—to discover the ways that God's grace comes to meet us and heal us in our own uniqueness. Because each of us have different stories, different proclivities—like, you know, a priest who overfunctions and decides at 6 a.m. to try and set up most of the altar stuff when we have an altar team. We all have our own unique proclivities.

People don’t want to do that today, right? They don’t want to name their own unique brokennesses. And they didn’t want to in Timothy’s day either—so it’s not new. It’s easier to blame-shift, to excuse ourselves, to bypass brokenness than it is to hold on to that little feeling of humiliation that we get when we have to admit that something might be wrong, or that we need help, or that we did the wrong thing this morning at 7 a.m. You know that little feeling of humiliation, right?

It’s easier to bypass those things, smooth them over, and walk away from them than it is to own it and to be curious and invite the Holy Spirit into those moments. But it’s sort of the scandalous part of the kingdom of God that it comes through admitting that our little fiefdoms—our broken fiefdoms—don’t measure up to the goodness of the bigness of the kingdom of God, where Jesus is Lord and we are not.

It’s easier to settle in my brokenness than it is to accept what I don’t understand about what God wants to do in His grace. And so the reason why Paul has this charge to Timothy is that there’s going to come a time where people are not going to want to hear what’s true. That must have only happened back then.

They’re going to believe whatever they want—what makes them feel good and comfortable—and then they’re going to make sure to surround themselves with people who think just like they do. That doesn’t sound familiar, right? Nothing is new under the sun.

And so Timothy is called to keep on preaching tirelessly, to hold out the gospel for people, to do the work of an evangelist—which isn’t just proclaiming the Four Spiritual Laws; it’s holding out the compelling nature of the goodness of the kingdom of God for people who don’t want to hear it—and to carry out the fullness of his ministry. And that call is not different for each one of us.

And so when people say they want to get back to doing things like the early Church, I often wonder what they mean—because don’t they realize that this was the early Church? The same problems then, the same problems now.

If you read Galatians, St. Paul has to correct Peter and say, “Hey, you really blew it. Your theology is great, but your table fellowship is not following in line with your theology.” Right? And he has to call him out publicly in a letter that is now in Scripture.

And so St. Paul has to undergo persecution by different schismatic groups. Later on in this chapter, he’s going to talk about Alexander the coppersmith, who caused him a lot of trouble. And this is not new.

And so it’s not like after the Apostles died, heresy stopped and—great, we got the deposit of the apostolic faith, there are no problems anymore! When did the early Church not have problems? Each successive generation had to deal with innovations of heresies, how people misunderstood Jesus, how they denied the fundamental goodness of creation—whether that’s people denying that Jesus was physically resurrected, or just spiritually, or that the spirit of the Christ came on Jesus at a certain point and left Him.

This denial of the fundamental goodness of the created body—that God wants to bring that body into His kingdom—is not new. All sorts of errors crop up over time.

So the task of the Church leaders like Timothy was to hold forth the goodness of the truth of the gospel without wavering, to do the hard work of examining the good deposit that had been placed in him in the face of all the opposition around him, to be grounded in it, to remind his people of the cosmic story of salvation that God is telling in Christ.

And that’s our call too—to this story that the world is broken, that it’s bound to the kingdom of darkness, that God in His love came to humanity in real flesh—not an apparition—to raise up what was broken and bound by sin in each of our lives by His death and resurrection, to raise it up—our lives, our whole selves—to the life that is found in God.

And that all creation, what we experience together in our lives, is a foretaste of what the cosmos are going to experience—that there is hope for the world around us because of what each one of us undergoes in this cosmic story of salvation—and that life is available to all who look to Jesus for their salvation.

This One was really crucified. He was really risen, and He was really ascended. And so in the midst of the kingdom of darkness, those who follow this Christ are like little lights of the kingdom of heaven right now. And as we live out the gospel, the transformation that’s brought about in our lives is a foretaste of what God is doing in the rest of creation.

It’s good to create space to think about that while you’re in creation. So go enjoy some fall foliage and think about the death and the resurrection in the context of colorful trees.

The story that God was bringing about in Timothy is the story that He’s bringing about in our healing and our salvation—as this foretaste of the greater narrative that He is doing in heaven and on earth.

And so Timothy reminds us that our call, our work, our call takes adequate retreat time—space. We need to be intentional about this. I was thinking, like, we need to create functionally—not ontologically—little monastic cells through the Daily Office, times of prayer. We talked about breath prayers—those are really helpful. Visio divina, lectio divina... I don’t mean like really create a monastic cell (unless you really want to, and then tell us how you did it), but create a monastic cell in your heart. Think of your household as a monastic cell where you retreat to carry on the rhythms of attuning yourself to the grace of God—where God attunes to you, where you listen to what He’s doing.

We need to create space for those times and those rhythms. We can’t fully discharge the duties of our ministry without the stillness and the silence that are so necessary for our rescue and our salvation from the kingdom of darkness, which is a daily experience.

And so I want to encourage us this weekend to hold fast to the deposit that's been invested in us. All of us are a part of this redemption plan that God is telling—the story that He’s telling—and in our uniqueness, God has gifted us and placed us where He has, both individually and as a Church.

And so, know the scripture not as a book to assent to a body of knowledge, but as an experience to taste and see that the Lord is good. Take time to name and be grateful for the people that have placed a deposit in you and are investing in you. In this deposit of faith in your life and who have done so with integrity. And as you go from the retreat, this weekend may encourage you to examine your own rhythms and insert the stillness and the silence that you so desperately need. The things that are going to carry you through the turbulent waves of this troublesome world, which is what our baptism liturgy talks about.

So I want to take a minute here to just pray in silence before I close us with a final collect. So I'm giving you a little bit of stillness and silence this morning, relative, of course. But take like a minute to just pray in silence and I'll close us with a collect.

“God of peace, who has taught us that in returning and rest we shall be saved, in quietness and in confidence shall be our strength; By the might of your Spirit lift us, we pray, to your presence, where we may be still and know that you are God; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”

 Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Edited using ChatGPT.