Sermon for Trinity Sunday: "The Non-Negotables"

Reflection on Trinity Sunday

Preached at St. John’s Lancaster, 3 June 2012

Anglicans are Creedal Christians. I know that much ink has been spilled over the last few years in the American Church making the point that we are not “Confessional Christians,” but we do have a bare minimum that our Anglican Christian Faith calls us to believe. We believe the Creeds, and we say one or another of them at every worship service, at least here at St. John’s. For Baptisms and Offices we say the Apostles’ Creed, and for Eucharist we say the Nicene Creed. For the life of me, I can’t see much of a difference between being creedal and being confessional, unless it is that Creedal Christians vocalize their beliefs with regularity while Confessional Christians read theirs in a book on occasion. Both have something that you must believe if you are to be honestly counted among their number. It all seems pretty simple to me, but then I am not a very nuanced thinker.

Let me illustrate it this way. If I went on four legs, had a long neck, brown and orange spots, a short brushy tail, and little antennae looking things sticking out of my head, you would say that I was a giraffe. If I crawled on my belly, lived under a rock, and left a trail of slime wherever I went, you would say I was a slug. In the same way, if I believed that the Triune God created the world, and that the Father- the First Person of the Trinity, sent the Son, the Second Person of said Trinity to die and rise again for the redemption of all creation, and then sent the Third Person, the Spirit, to enable people to do wonderful things in said creation- If I confessed my sins, acknowledged Jesus as Lord and asked forgiveness, was baptized and said the creeds and received Communion, you would say I was a Christian. Now, if my attitudes and actions did not match the precepts of Jesus and the Bible, you might point out that I was not a very good Christian, but with that bare minimum of qualifications listed above, I would still qualify as a Christian.

We should note here that there are many animals which might be a bit like a giraffe, but are not giraffes. An elephant goes on four legs and has a short brushy tail, but it is not a giraffe. Without the neck it just can’t quite pass itself off as one. A snake lives under a rock and goes on its belly, but it is distinctly different from a slug. In the same way, there are many people who are devoutly religious, and who do many good things, and who help others, and who take their faith very seriously who are not Christians, because they do not believe in the Creeds. That is, they do not believe that God is Trinity in Unity, and that Jesus Christ is who the Bible says he is and did what the Bible says he did- and does. I’m not here to say they are not good people or great neighbors. I have lived by and worked with Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, and others who I would and have trusted with my life and the lives of those I love. They are good people, and many I count as my friends, but they are not Christians, because they do not believe those basic articles of the Creeds.

Like Kathy Heim’s former rector, now Bishop of Atlanta, is fond of saying, “There’s not a lot you have to believe, but some things are non-negotiable.”

Now for a word about believing, about having faith. I believe that the earth’s atmosphere at sea level and for several hundred feet above sea level, under normal conditions, is breathable and will keep me alive. I am not a biologist or a doctor and I have no idea how it works, but I believe it. In the same way, I believe that when a stewardess tells me to put on an oxygen mask, I had better do it, even though I have never been in a malfunctioning aircraft at a high level where anyone told me I needed to take that action. Experience and understanding might enhance my belief, but the are not necessary to its existence. In the same way, I can believe in God, and trust him implicitly for my salvation, even though I don’t have all of life’s answers, even though I don’t understand everything there is to know about God, and even though my experience of him might not be as profound or personalized as I hope it might be some day.

And so how does all of this apply to my life?
A person who is a Christian does not have the liberty of making up their faith as they go, or taking a bit here and a bit there to meet what they perceive to be their own needs. Any person can do that, but at the point that they stop believing in the creeds, they cease to be Christian. If God is who he says he is, then it is pretty important that we submit to him and live our lives on his terms. We can ask questions and have doubts, but at the end of the day we must believe in the Trinity and in the Incarnation, which are the theological names for the items covered in the creeds. To not do so is to not be a Christian. It is by definition to be something else.

As a Christian, you can expect to have doubts, and questions that just don’t seem to get answered, and times when you feel very alone. Those things are normal. Some questions will never get answered in this life, and some doubts will persist, and sometimes feeling alone is something that we can’t escape. But all of those things are based on our own powers of feeling and perceiving and understanding, and our powers are very limited. So we are called by the Bible to push through our doubts and fears and feelings to embrace the facts of the Creeds- of who God is and what he has done for us in Jesus. You see, our faith is not based on feelings or limited human reason, as good and as helpful as those things might be. They are incapable of fully comprehending the greatness of God or his plan for our lives. And so we trust him, embracing “the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.”

In just a few moments, two of our siblings in Christ will be presented for Holy Baptism, and we will all be asked to stand and renew our own belief in the Faith we have received from Jesus Christ. As they begin this life of public following of God as Christians, I hope that all of us will be able to consider anew what it means to do the same, and commit ourselves to continue in the Faith of Christ Crucified. Come to this place, to this font, to this altar with all of your doubts and imperfect understanding, but come with your faith intact. God will meet you and give you the ability to believe. Realize that that belief does not depend on your ability to form it or embrace it. It is the gift of the Holy Ghost to all who come with yearning hearts. “Consider the mustard seed, which is the tiniest of all the seeds, and yet when it is sprouted it grows into a bush which is big enough for birds to nest in.”  The act of faith- your act of faith, which among other things includes your desire to trust in a loving God, is like that grain of mustard seed. Come today with what you have, and don’t worry about what you don’t have. God’s gift will grow in your heart and mind as you follow him in obedience, and repentance, and humility.

In the Name of The Father, and of The Son, and of The Holy Ghost. AMEN.

Peace Amidst the Unexpected

This is not a picture of innocence
Rumbling Thunder, aka "Squirt" as a four year old

There are two rules that country folks take for granted:
1. Good fences make good neighbors.
2. Always close the gate.

As Rebecca and I have developed Briarwood (our home) over the last fifteen or so years, we have tried to be very careful about fencing, but even the best fences cannot do their job if you leave gates open.  Earlier this week, I opened the back gate to the main production plot on the west side of the barn to water the tomatoes, spinach, turnips, potatoes, horseradish, sunflowers, cucumbers, squash, and beans planted there.  From there, I pulled the hose to another location and hooked it into a drip irrigation system and went back to the house. 

When I got home from Columbus later that evening, I noticed that the gate was jammed open against the end of the chicken coop.  I had given her an inch and she had taken a mile.  Squirt had wedged herself between the rail fence and the edge of the barn, managed to make the turn into the production patch in spite of the closeness of the chicken coop to the gate, and proceeded to eat about a third of a row of beans.  She must not have liked them, because then she reversed her location and left without trampling anything else, and when I got home was waiting to come back into the barn for her evening ration of oats and sweet feed. 

When I was a younger man, I probably would have gotten mad, but now I am old, and so I just laughed, replanted the beans, and gave my lovely old pony her grain, along with a bit of a curry.  After all, the mistake was mine.  She was only doing what instinct and curiosity and lack of supervision dictated that she do. 

Very few things in this life are as important as I thought they were when I was younger.  I want to bring a bit of beauty to this place where God has put me.  I want to encourage people to experience the wonders of liberty responsibly and in a manner which is pleasing to God.  I want to live in a way which will encourage my children and grandchildren to want to follow Jesus and get to heaven.  I want to spend every day God gives us with my wife. 

From time to time, other ponies break into the garden of my life and make a bit of a mess of things.  I've found it best just to find the humor in it all, make the necessary corrections that I can control, and move on to do what needs to be done.  It is a formulae for contentment in life.

And next time, I'll remember to close the gate!

Thoughts on Memorial Day

Rest Eternal grant unto them, O Lord,
and let Light Perpetual shine upon them.  AMEN.

A friend of mine, a retired Presbyterian Pastor and former Army Chaplain, sent me the following short meditation on Memorial Day, and I thought it worth passing on to you.  He said that he preached some version of this in every town in which he ever pastored, and in a few others besides.  It was his priviledge to share it with soldiers on occasion before their deployments.  And so I send this out with many thanks to the Reverend Chaplain (Major) Keith Kivlin, 73d Infantry Brigade (SEPARATE) and 16th Engineer Brigade. 

"This is Memorial Day, not Veteran's Day.  No Vets died in any of the wars fought by our country.  Memorial Day is a memorial for the dead: those Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, and Coast Guards who died in the wars of our nation.  Considering the generally solemn occasion, the picnics and ball games and swimming pools and car races appear to be inappropriate ways to keep the day.  Unless... you remember the military personnel who gave their lives were all young.  The average age of an American soldier in each and all of our wars was and is 19 years.  Watching re-enactors you get the impression that the men who died fighting for our country were all a bunch of middle aged guys with beer bellies.  But that would be wrong.  They were young.  They were incredibly young.  They were amazingly young.  How do we memorialize these very young people who died fighting for our freedoms?  certainly it is wise to spend a few minutes in a grave yard and plant flags and flowers.  But after that what?  I think we have it right after all.  Keep this day the way these honored dead would have kept this day in their strength and exhuberance.  Go play some ball, deep fry a turkey, grill some burgers, splash in a pool, play some music (preferably very LOUD music), drink some beer and whiskey, play some guitars and banjos, play some golf, do some touch dancing with several beautiful girls, wash your old car in the shade of the maple tree, kiss your girl friends, wives, co-workers, etc.  In doing the above, throw a ball, kiss a girl, grill a burger, drink a beer for those who gave up all their sunny picnic days for you.  If you do some of these things today, our war dead in the Realms of Light will laugh and send a blessing our way!  Pray for Peace!  In this celebration may the Lord Jesus Christ be with you!  Amen."

Peace and Love,

Keith

Sermon for Pentecost, AD MMXII

The Descent of the Holy Spirit, by Anthony Van Dyck

Pentecost Year B
Preached at St. John’s Lancaster, 27 May 2012

Acts2:1-21
Psalm 104
Romans 8:22-27
John 15:26-16:15

May the words of my mouth, and the meditations of our hearts be alway acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer. AMEN.

The Logo of Shriners International

Friday night Danny Meenach, Pete Martin, David Mowrey, and I donned our rhinestone encrusted red fezzes and descended on the main entrance of Wal-Mart to solicit donations for the Shriner’s Orthopedic and Burn Hospitals for Children. It is a worthy charity, and the “people of Wal-Mart” gave generously. Many of them did not appear to have a lot of extra cash, and their donations of one or two or five dollars reminded me of that widow whom Jesus commended for giving her two mites. “Because she has given all that she has, she has given more than all of them.” There was a time when I used to watch people a lot. And then time and circumstance limited that past-time, and so my three and a half hours at Wal-Mart provided a welcome opportunity to watch people again. I was a bit disturbed by what I saw. There were more people in the general population who seemed to be burned out on drugs than I had remembered. In the same way, there was a higher concentration of people who seemed to suffer from the ill affects of poverty than I had remembered from the days when I did most of my people watching in Lexington, Kentucky back in the 70’s. If the eye is the window of the soul, and I believe it is for most of us, I think it is safe to say that many of the people I saw were living in that shadowy land between faith and hope, where uncertainty and hurt can so easily lead to distrust and despair.

Perhaps you have visited that land at some point in your life. You believe that there is a God, a God who loves you. Your faith has led you to respond by giving your life to Him and calling out for his deliverance, but as hours blend into days and days into weeks, your prayers seem to go unanswered, and your soul wavers. The hope you had entertained seems so far away, and your loved one still suffers from cancer, and that person you love so dearly seems as unresponsive as ever, and you watch your balances dwindle as markets fluxuate and you are forced to draw down more and more capital to meet your regular expenses. Your faith is intact, but hope seems an unrealized dream.

Whitsunday, more commonly called the Feast of Pentecost, is the festival of our Holy Mother the Church which addresses the discouragement of that in-between land perhaps better than any other. It relates the historic fulfillment of the outpouring of the Blessed Holy Spirit in the lives of the early Christians. Jesus had ascended into heaven, and had told the disciples to go into the city and wait for the fulfillment of that which had been foretold by the prophets, the coming of the Spirit upon the people of God. He had said, “When the Spirit of Truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it unto you. All that the Father has in mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” (John 16:13-15)

And now, the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Holy and Blessed Trinity, is come into the world to guide the Ecclesia, the Church of God, into all truth. He fell upon them in power that day, and the world has never been the same. Common lives were filled with a confidence beyond what they had ever known. In many ways their situations did not change, but they were now aware of the infilling of God, and their transformed perceptions led to new outlooks, new callings, and new realities of faith and experience. They bore witness to the fact that Jesus Christ had defeated death and the grave, and had changed their lives forever. The boldness of their insistence led to persecution and radical transformation of culture, of institutions, and of lives. All of this because the Gift of the Holy Ghost had come upon them just as the prophets foretold. “For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I shall be your God.” (Ezekiel 36:24-28) Because the gift of the Holy Spirit was theirs, their outlooks and their realities were transformed. The grayness of that in-between land gave way to the Technicolor certainty of the realized hope of the kingdom of God in their lives.

Have you experienced this ushering in of the Kingdom of God? Certainly it is a reality in the history of the Church, but have you known it in your own heart? Has His Spirit borne witness with your own spirit that indeed you are a child of God, and a joint heir with Jesus Christ? Has the grayness and uncertainty of life’s reality been reinterpreted and understood in that new light, that fuller truth and understanding which is the gift of God to all who believe?

On this feast of the coming of the Holy Spirit to the Church, I urge you to receive those gifts that God has prepared for you, and which Jesus promised were ours if we would wait for the fulfillment. By coming today to this holy place to receive the sacrament of the body and blood of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, you have in a very real way gone into the city to await the coming of the gift. You have believed that Jesus is the Christ, the one who did what the Bible says he did, and is who the Bible says he is. You have come to this place in faith, believing in the promise. Now I urge you to cast yourself upon his grace and mercy, praying earnestly that on this day, you might know that truth which He has promised. On this day, pray earnestly to him that the faith of the Church might be your own, and that the experience of the Church my be known in your life with power, and intimacy, and transforming reality.

God may change your immediate situation. It is much more likely that your situation will stay the same, but that he will transform your mind and your outlook. The miracle, you see, may not be in the physical healing, or the changed reality. It may be in that spiritual understanding which comes from what Wesley and others have called “the heart strangely warmed.” When we know beyond any shadow of a doubt that we have been with God, and that He loves us, we are guided into that deeper truth which only comes from knowing Him, for the Spirit of God speaks to us that which the Father has delivered to the Son. Jesus said, “I no longer call you servants, for the servant does not know what his lord does. But I call you friends, for all things that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.” Friends of Jesus, receive today that truth, that understanding, that knowledge that our Lord and our Saviour, our brother and our friend offers us through the coming of the Holy Spirit into the world. As it transformed the Empire of Rome, so will it transform our outlooks and our reality, and men and women everywhere will know the reality of the power of God’s love. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. AMEN.