Proper 8 + Year C + 2013

Pentecost 4 + Year C + Proper 8                                           Fr. Robert R.M. Bagwell+

30 June 2013                                                                                St Thomas Isle of Hope GA

I Kings 19: 15-16 & 19-21;                                                                                                        Psalm 16   

Galatians 5: 1, 13-25;                                                                                                           Luke 9: 51-62

 A pastor just fresh from Seminary, was invited to speak at a chapel service in a prison.

He was very excited but being his very first time, he was very nervous as well. He thought hard how to introduce his message. On the day he arrived at the prison, he was greeted by a large group of prisoners waiting to hear him. As the young pastor walked and stood behind the pulpit, he said, ‘Good morning. It’s so good to see you here!’

How do you perceive 'freedom.'? We will celebrate the next week the concept, the precept, the context by which we are made free by a Declaration of Independence, then later a Constitution and a Bill of Rights. Freedom: Webster defines it this way: : the quality or state of being free: as

a : the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action b : liberation from slavery or restraint or from the power of another : independence c : the quality or state of being exempt or released usually from something onerous.  There are others but the question I want to ask is: "What does freedom mean to you?" Paul's focus on freedom is in sharp contrast to a culture in which human slavery was rampant.  When he used the allusions that he used contrasting freedom and slavery, they had some sense of a deeper meaning.  Those who founded this nation which Lincoln called a "government of the people, by the people, for the people," was the great 'experiment'.  No people had ever ruled themselves by 'vote'. Even today when we try to 'export' the concept and spread democratic representative republican government around the world, it is a most difficult concept for the majority of peoples to grasp. 

 

Our founders came at it with a view toward the "protestant" understanding of St Paul.  This is even evidenced earlier in Jewish history when God alone was their King and until they asked the prophet Samuel to make them a king "like all of the other nations have."  A human intermediary versus directly living under the leadership of God.  Hmmmm…neither God or the prophet Samuel were impressed with the idea.  St Paul however returns to somewhat of the original argument or principle if you will. Can God trust us with freedom?  Yes.  But true freedom in Christ is not coming from the 'flesh' or our most human thoughts, words and deeds, but from the Holy Spirit and that new person baptized into Christ that fights against the flesh.

 

What controls you?  Are you controlled by others?  Do you have Aself-control@?  Many of life=s goods and evils come from the issue of control. As we approach the day we celebrate American Afreedom,@  it behooves us to ponder what it means for us as Christians. .  This morning we are going to talk about what God means by Acontrol@ and what the Devil means by Acontrol.@  Many who live in the Aflesh@ or natural sinful nature are in bondage, not in Christ=s freedom. The Epistles are largely about 'how' to live the Christian experience.

 

Control is important because within it is the concept of Asubmission.@ No one likes to be controlled.  When we think of Acontrol@ we often think of Aoppression@.  Oppression  is why the first pilgrims came to this country. Submission and oppression are not the same thing.  Submission is a word of power because only the person being asked to submit can do so.  Oppression is one being forced against the will. God does not do that.  Freedom in Christ is freedom to be wrong or right.

 

Submission is to come under THE MISSION of God in Christ.  It is to  become world-makers, kingdom-builders for the sake of God in Christ. God does not oppress those he calls.  God respects our rights so much that he will protect our right to go to hell if we want to. God offers what he offers out of love.  It is not for AGod to fulfill his needs@ that God says, Alive by the Spirit@ but for our good, not his. Many in this world who desire to control others, do it for something that is not for the other person's benefit.. Some have been hurt in the past and believe that unless they control others, they will be hurt again. Some learned the behavior from others.  After all, it feels 'good' to have authority over others and feel important.

 

But God did not put us here to Acontrol@. A good rule of thumb is not to try to Acontrol@ that for which you are responsible.  Then seek to exercise authority with love and self-less concern.  If in this world, someone is controlling us, we need to confront that person, lovingly but firmly and not allow ourselves to be controlled.  If we do not, we become as guilty as the one controlling us. If we wish to have favor with God and enjoy the benefits of our salvation in Jesus Christ here on earth, we will seek to submit ourselves to being Acontrolled@ by the Holy Spirit. Each week most of us pray or sing AThy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.@  Do we offer ourselves to God as a living sacrifice and then when God comes to bring some pain, some change, something in our lives that will require of us a thimbleful of Asubmission@ do we say, ANOooooo GOD !@

 

Jesus painted a picture of  what it means to really follow him in less than glowing colors. In today=s gospel readings Jesus encountered  three persons who asked him if they could follow or whom he invited to follow him. Jesus= answers with a no nonsense kind of answer in each case. Jesus give the first guy an advertisement that seems to say, Athis is a really tough life. Can you cut it?@  The second two simply wanted to fulfill obligations that society and family puts on them.  Jesus clearly says that the priorities of the kingdom of God take precedent over those obligations. Commitment to Jesus and the kingdom of God calls for sacrifice and honestly, few even in the Church of Jesus Christ seem able to Acut it.@ We don=t like sacrifice.  Sacrifice is painful.  Sacrifice, pain suffering, even death at least to those very human reactions and desires. 

 

What sacrifices are we called to make? They all involve our natural responses.

In the Epistle from Galatians today, notice what St. Paul calls the Aworks of the flesh@. Skip the first four and the last three  because those are what we usually think of . Of course most of us do not do these or are not tempted to do these, so that makes them much easier to use as battering rams to talk about all of those Abad people@, who of course, we always believe that we are not. Paul names idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions Some of us have made idols of many things in our lives. An idol is something that we put ahead of God or we consider of the supreme value.  But some of these others, if we are honest with ourselves, we commit under an excuse: "that's just how I am."  But that is not how the Spirit is.

 

Do we form factions, become divisive?  At times someone does something we do not like or hurts us.  Do we confront that person and say, Awhen you did this, I felt this way?@  Perhaps that would require too much effort and potential pain. No, rather we make up our mind that this person is like Athis@ or Athat@.  We make a judgment, without all the facts mind you.  But we think that we can read their minds!  That is why God said, Ajudge not, lest ye be judged, for with the same judgment that you judge others you will be judged.@  Do we keep this to ourselves? We have  been wounded, so we go to this person or that person, saying something negative about this or that person or just saying what will leave a little doubt in another person=s mind.  But Paul said today in the readings, Abut those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.@  I recently read a quote attributed to Pope John Paul II: "Freedom is not the right to do as you please, but the liberty to do as you ought."

 

Notice what Paul speaks about: if you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.   So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. (vss. 15 & 16)  ABiting and devouring each other@  The Devil wants to control our mouths.  ASubmitting@ to that control feeds out flesh.  It is so hard not to spread gossip.  Gossip of course need not be a false rumor, gossip can be the truth, but it involves something that we are not given the responsibility for. Do you like to talk about other people?  The entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbor as yourself..@ Yes, I know some neighbors are more difficult to love than others!

 

Jesus said, Athe truth shall set you free@, (Jn.8:32) but that of course is only true if we believe the truth and act upon it  I have noticed that Satan tries to find a wound, usually an emotional wound, to enter a life, especially if that life has potential for God.  So take care how your respond.  Do not reward evil for evil but as St. Paul  said, Aovercome evil with good.@ (Romans 12:21)  Satan doesn't know what to do with that.  It is so against our flesh and his.  If you want to really Aget@ the Devil, when someone offends you, praise God and show love to the person who hurt you.  Submit to the Spirit and find the light of God beginning to shine through you and all of your works and  the joy of God=s salvation. St. Paul wrote: A the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self‑control.@ This is true freedom! So this week as we think about American freedom, let us place our own let us remember to love our neighbors as we do ourselves.  To cherish their freedom as much as our own. 

 

Notice what we prayed for together in our collect: "Almighty God, you have built your Church upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone: Grant us so to be joined together in unity of spirit by their teaching, that we may be made a holy temple acceptable to you."

Proper 7 + C + 2013

Proper 7+Year C                                   The Reverend Robert R.M. Bagwell+

23 June AD 2013                                                St Thomas Parish Isle of Hope GA

Isaiah 65:1-9                                                                                                           Psalm 22:18-27

Galatians 3:23-29                                                                                                       Luke 8:26-39

 

"O Lord, make us have perpetual love and reverence for your holy Name, for you never fail to help and govern those whom you have set upon the sure foundation of your loving­ kindness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen."

 

We live in a world that longs for heroic figures. We see it in our adulation of great leaders, those who accomplish great feats and those who we hold up as role models. Have you ever wondered what the world was life before Jesus Christ? We learn from ancient writings that there was a common longing and even a thought among the wise across the Middle East that a Messianic figure was about to come on the earth. If we look about us we can see that longing even in our culture, certainly in the Jewish and Muslim faiths as well as in our own Christian faith.

 

For example, the long awaited latest production of a story created by two high school students in the 1930s has been released.  As children of Jewish immigrants, the students peppered their fantasy hero with antecedents of their Hebrew faith throughout the story.  They called him: Superman. Even more striking however are the themes and parallels to our Christian faith that appear in this story if we have eyes to see.  He was sent to the earth to live a very modest life by his parents with the words of his father: “Goodbye, my son. Our hopes and dreams travel with you.” His mother worries, “He will be an outcast. They’ll kill him.”  Remind you of anybody else who you know about?

 

His life begins supposedly the son of the Jonathan and Martha Kent family, on their family farm.  His name, Kal-el contains the Hebrew name for God: "El". Later in the story he would seem like a god to the human race yet he remains humble, loving and caring and ultimately saves the world.  What similar struggles Jesus must shared as he "grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man" (Luke) as the scripture relates.  When the earth is threatened with destruction by the exiled Kryptonian villain General Zod, he must make a decision, he would possibly die, but he would die to save the earth.  In the movie he says: “I’m not surrendering myself to Zod. I’m surrendering myself to mankind.” I don't know, sounds a bit like Jesus.

 

In his essay, “Myth Became Fact,” C.S. Lewis noted, “The heart of Christianity is a myth which is also a fact. The old myth of the Dying God, without ceasing to be myth, comes down from the heaven of legend and imagination to the earth of history. It happens – at a particular date, in a particular place, followed by definable historical consequences.” Paul wrote: " “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found inhuman form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:5-8).

 

People still wonder about the man Jesus.  Two thousand years later he is the most admired figure that ever lived. He is the original Superman, the one that set humanity free from sin, selfishness and every form of degraded love.  He was like no other man who had ever lived. Jesus transformed the world.  He is I would argue, even as a human being, the most significant figure in human history. From the moment of his birth, history was split in two: Before Jesus and after Jesus.  Despite his detractors in his own day right up to the present moment, he continues to confound and transform, give hope to the hopeless, help to the needy, lifting up the downtrodden and raising up the weak. 'Jesus Saves ' is the testimony of millions and millions since he first came to earth and it is Jesus everyone of us desperately needs to be our defender, Redeemer and friend. “ Like the story of Superman,  "The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28).

 

In the readings the themes of liberation and freedom are paramount. In the readings today not only do we see the display of Jesus' power but of his loving caring response to the man afflicted by the demonic oppression. He does not neglect the soul afflicted by torment. He who is the God-Man reaches out to save.  He liberates him from oppression. As the collect recounts: we need God's governance which he supplies through grace.  The grace we experience as we come to know Jesus in a more deeply and personal way.

 

Paul also echoes the theme when he talks about LAW and GRACE. Have you ever noticed the tendency of the faithful to often with good intentions, seek to turn the gospel literally translated "good news" into something less good, from freedom to a form of bondage? But Christ's gospel puts everyone on the same level playing field. Paul wrote""no slave nor free, no male nor female."

 

Martin Luther said:" It's the supreme art of the devil that he can make the law out of the gospel."  Paul said the law was an interim measure. He said: we were imprisoned and guarded under the law. It was keeping us safe, like someone in protective custody, until faith came. Faith is the great liberator of the soul and spirit.  Faith is God's gift--not of works, as Paul wrote.

 

So why do we want to go back to law?  Perhaps because we think we can understand law better. Cause and effect: something we can measure. However, if we have been set free by Jesus Christ, why can't we let the Holy Spirit lead us into all truth as Jesus promised? Paul said: the law was to lead us to Christ. It is a mirror that shows our true nature and character. It shows us that we cannot live all of the commandments of the law consistently for a lifetime!  Half the time I can barely keep the laws of the city and state much less live a life of perfection.  Faith declares the guilty justified.  Nor that the guilty is not guilty, but that the law has declared them innocent.

 

Rather than trying to make us morally paranoid, Jesus says, "I love you, I expect you to fail more than you do yourself.  I love you anyway. I'll help you. Be secure in that love."  Paul says we are clothed with Christ as with a garment.  Paul said "in him we live and move and have their being." The Holy Spirit now has become our "disciplinarian",  "our schoolmaster" on the inside to keep us in Christ Jesus and the Father's love.  Christians live obedience because we love.  Love has been placed in our hearts and our lives have changed. We have engaged the Superman of God who quite literally has saved the earth from ultimate destruction by bringing a people into the family of God, a new order of being, sharing in God's life and work. 

 

Our deliverer, THE SUPER GOD-MAN has delivered us forever.  Think of it, if you see the movie.  Think of it when you read the Bible.  Think of it when you pray.  AMEN

Proper 6 + C + 2013

Proper 6+Year C                                   The Reverend Robert R.M. Bagwell+

16 June AD 2013                                                St Thomas Parish Isle of Hope GA

2 Samuel 11:26-12:10, 13-15                                                                                                            Psalm32  

Galatians 2:15-21                                                                                                                      Luke7:36-8:3

Brennan Manning, recently gone to be with the Lord, was one of my great spiritual mentors.  In one of his books he relates a story My understanding is that he once gave a conference here!

 

 " The story goes that a public sinner was excommunicated and forbidden entry to the church. He took his woes to God. 'They won't let me in, Lord, because I am a sinner.'

'What are you complaining about?' said God. 'They won't let Me in either.”

 

Scandal!  On the news right now! Benghazi, the IRS, Eric Holder, the White House? What next?  But

this is nothing new.  In fact, we are gathered here this morning to commemorate the greatest scandal in

human history! Or didn't that ever occur to you?

 

Paul wrote: "we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. " ( I Cor. 1:23-25)

 

The word "stumbling-block" is the Greek word "scandalon". Jesus the 'scandal' of God. Ask the

Jewish community--Messiah won't die! Ask the Moslem community: "God can't become man!" With

 the increasing restriction of Christian speech in the public sphere, prayer at football games for high

school graduations, one might ask "what are they afraid of?" But this is nothing new in Christian history

beginning with Jesus himself and the apostles all of whom but one, St John, died a martyrs death.

 

With all of this in mind let us turn to our readings for this Sunday. First we confront the story of David.

and Bathsheba.  Surely you'd heard the story before this morning!   David observes the wife of one of

his officers bathing and using his position as king has her brought to him. As the reading narrates, he                 

seduces her, they spend the night together and shortly thereafter, she is pregnant. Now the scandal

begins… In order to cover it up, he winds up getting using his own commanders to have her husband killed while he is in a battle. Scandalous! 

 

Jesus is invited to a Pharisee's home for dinner. While there a woman comes into the dining area and sits

at Jesus' feet.  It was the custom to recline on your side while you ate at a low table in those days.   As you may know, the Pharisees of the day were all about outward signs of their spiritual piety., a quality not unknown to us in the Christian Church. Immediately upon seeing what the woman is doing to Jesus, washing his feet with her hair. He makes a judgment about Jesus and the woman.  Scandalous!

 

Had you really thought about how the  Bible just puts it all out there for you to see?  If it was you, wouldn't you have edited out the really 'bad' stuff to make everything look good.  No, it record things as God sees them.  The greatness of God's Love and Grace are shown most dramatically by contrast to the thoughts, words and deeds of the human race! Scandalous!

 

David somehow thought that God would not see his sin!  He knew better!  He was THE MAN!  What did he do?  Rather than deny his sin, he immediately confessed it. The Pharisee had no idea that Jesus would hear the judgmental thoughts in his mind, he found out better!  The glory is that when confronted by a 'parable' from the prophet Nathan about a "supposed person" he actually confessed what should be done to himself! He realized that HE was the man. He repented. He confessed.  Shockingly, God still placed him in the line of Messiah, and Bathsheba was the mother of Solomon the successor king!  In fact, looking at the character's lives in the Bible in the line of the Messiah can be a bit startling!

 

Abraham lied about who his wife was and put her in a position to commit adultery to save his own skin.

Isaac his son, did the SAME THING!  Jacob lied about who he was when it was time to bestow the blessing, which would make that heir the primary heir and he deceived his father and underhandedly received the brother's inheritance.  He tricked and lied to his father.

 

And then there's Moses. Do you remember that he had to flee Egypt when he was young because he killed and Egyptian who was abusing a Hebrew and David, well we've already covered David.  The list goes on and on!  What it tells us is two-fold.  God even uses our sins to praise him. Our God loves sinners. God loves not because of our thought, words and deeds, but in spite of them!  Hallelujah!  The grace of God turns a curse into a blessing! Scandalous!

 

When Jesus perceives the thoughts of the Pharisee, he tells a "story" in the form of a question.  It is about money, something that the Pharisee understood. Who is more grateful the one forgiven a little debt he owes or the one who is forgiven much that he owes?  The Pharisee likewise judges himself with his own answer.  Then Jesus points out the breaking of the Sacred Laws of Hospitality the Pharisee had broken and how the woman fulfilled them instead.  Remember how the Older Testament stories tell of strangers coming into a settlement and they prepare lodging and food for them? It was a given, cultural law. Again: Thou art the man!  And Jesus says a remarkable thing: "I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.”  He saw the sense of  her acknowledgement of her own failings, her self-hatred and he gives the medicine of her liberation! She lived in shame and Jesus set her free.  Do we like the woman not realize how much we have been forgiven?

 

Did you realize that two thirds of Jesus' teachings were about forgiveness? That should tell us something. In contrast God forgives without merit and his forgiveness has no logic as we would see it.  In the case of Jesus when he touches the 'unclean' according to the law he does not become 'unclean' by the Jewish Laws of Purity, but rather the unclean whom he touches or who touch him become clean! When we forgive we are most like God. Even Jesus, dying on the cross said: "Father forgive them, they don't know what they are doing." Jesus also said in the gospels: "Forgive and you will be forgiven." "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us."

 

Proverbs 28:13 says: Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and

renounces them finds mercy.  Yet what is the first thing the average human does when they have done something wrong?  Try to "cover it up". You know like they do in Washington,.. or Atlanta.. or Savannah ...or perhaps even at St Thomas Parish occasionally.  You know what the Bible says we are to do about covering? Peter writes:  Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.(I Peter 4:8)  We each have been forgiven much and before each of us stands before God we  will be forgiven much more!  Because of God's great love.

 

Love covers...it doesn't broadcast.  That's why gossip is so poisonous.  I heard gossip defined as "confessing other peoples' sins." Jesus said: love one another as I have loved you..Paul when writing to the Galatian Church confronted something every Christian must deal with: personal failings and seeking to follow Christ in all that we do.  We of course won't because we of course can't. It is the issue of works versus grace.  That is why the 'collect' says:  "keep us in your steadfast faith and love".  Why?  Because in reality we can't keep ourselves in that position.  God wills to do that work of GRACE in us through Jesus Christ.  God knows us better than we know ourselves. 

 

Brennan Manning said:  "God does not ask us to: pray, grow and be good in order to love us, rather God loves us, so we can pray, grow and be good!  That is the WONDER of the gospel.  Good news so good, some can't believe it's true.  It is the very opposite of the way the 'world' functions. When we forgive as we have been forgiven, we liberate ourselves and we reflect the actions of God. What we would not and could not, God willed to do and only God could do!

 

I want to close with a Bible verse.  Perhaps you've heard it before?  It says something profound about God's love.

 

 ^"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved."

 

AD MAJOREM DEO GLORIAM

Proper 5 + Year C + 2013

Proper 5+Year C                                   The Reverend Robert R.M. Bagwell+

9, June AD 2013                                        St Thomas Parish Isle of Hope GA
I Kings 17:17-24                                                                                                         Psalm 30

Galatians 1:11-24                                                                                                    Luke 7:11-17

After a long life, dutifully serving his parishioners, the elderly priest died. He found himself in Heaven, where he was warmly greeted by St. Peter. "Welcome," St. Peter said, "You have lived a good life. Let me take you to your quarters, and then I'll show you around Heaven."

St. Peter took the man to a rather plain building, and escorted him to a small room. The room was humbly furnished, but was functional. The priest was a bit surprised, having expected Heaven to be a bit more extravagant, but he was happy to be there.

They then began their tour of Heaven, and it was absolutely beautiful. The priest felt silly for his initial resentment over his room.

Finally, they came upon an enormous mansion. A butler opened the door to the mansion and a man came out, dressed to the nines, and proceeded down a long walkway to the front gate, as servants rolled a red carpet before him. When he reached the gate, a chauffeured limousine pulled up, and the man got in. It drove off.

"Was that God," the priest asked, stunned by the display.
"Oh heavens no," replied St. Peter. "That was a lawyer."

"I don't want to seem ungrateful, but can you answer a question for me?" The priest continued, "I spent my entire life devoted to my parishioners, and teaching the gospel, and I have very humble quarters in Heaven. I just don't understand what that lawyer did, which would merit such a beautiful mansion."

"It isn't what he did," St. Peter replied. "You see, we have thousands upon thousands of priests up here. But he's our first lawyer."
__________________________________________________________________________

 In a book first published in 1930, a British author, Frank Morison, a skeptic of the Christian faith, thought to write a book dismissing the 'miracles' of the last week of Jesus' life on earth. 

Coming from his background in the legal system, Morrison takes us through each event pointing out the inconsistencies and abrogation of Jewish law.  Morison ended up writing a book that was completely the opposite of what he had originally set out to prove. That was not at all his intention. He was not a religious fanatic or even a highly spiritual person. He was  like a lot of people with some remaining veneer of religiosity  left over from his childhood.  The peculiar thing is that instead of disproving the Resurrection,  Morison writes that having seen all the facts one is left with only one ultimate conclusion - yes it happened.  The title? "Who Moved the Stone.?"

 

He is one in a long line of those who scorned the gospel of Christ and later were turned into followers.  The first in a more famous list is St Paul who tells of his conversion in the Newer Testament reading from the letter to the Galatian Christians this morning.

 

Another was C. S. Lewis (perhaps you've read or recently seen one of his books from the Chronicles of Narnia at the theatre). An Oxford professor and writer, he became an atheist as a younger man. Persuaded by arguments made by Christian thinkers, he, "...came into Christianity kicking and screaming." Lee Strobel , for many years as a hard-nosed journalist and atheist, set out to confirm justification for his atheism, instead he  found that the evidence he encountered led him to the Christian faith.  Francis S. Collins M.D. Ph.D. is a physician-geneticist, famous for his landmark discoveries of disease genes, and his leadership of the Human Genome Project, was an atheist when he finished graduate school, He later became a believer as a result of philosophical and scientific reasons. His conversion and reasons for belief are his book "The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief". Dr. Hugh Ross, the youngest ever to serve as director of observations for Vancouver's Royal Astronomical Society. Testing the scientific and historical data, Dr. Ross became convinced that the Bible is truly the Word of God. Malcolm Muggeridge,  a British journalist, author, satirist, media personality, soldier, and spy. A professed agnostic for most of his life, he became a Christian, and 1969 published several books on the faith. Even Charles Colson of the Watergate scandal went into prison an unbeliever and found Jesus Christ;  And finally and even surprising to me (!) Anne Rice a best-selling author of Gothic and spiritual books. Anne, a self-described atheist, returned to her Christian faith which she had not practiced since her youth. She has stated that she would "write only for the Lord" from this point forward, and there are a myriad of others who tried with their intelligence to disprove the Christian faith and ultimately became believers.

 Someone has said that an 'unexamined faith is not worth having.' What convinces you of Christ? GK Chesterton famously said that: "Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried."

The Lord has been called the "hound of heaven" who pursues the peoples of the earth out  of passion and love. The scripture says: "This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins" (I John 4:10)  Salvation begins and ends with God initiative.

 

We see in the readings today a series of "miracles" or 'signs' as the word really means in the Greek language.  What does a sign tell you?  It points to something greater than itself.  It communicates a message. Each of these signs speaks of someone coming from death to life.  Two of them were physical but the really significant one comes from Paul who was once known as "Saul" before he became a follower of Jesus Christ. Two were resuscitation-- miraculous enough, but one was transformation coming spiritually alive from spiritual death forever!.

 Only Christianity bases its claims on the TRUTHFULNESS  of historical events open to scrutiny and investigation.  A Christian's faith is an objective historical faith.  The two most significant events that have convinced skeptics over the centuries are: the resurrection of Jesus from the dead and the conversion of St Paul. In Acts 1:3, the historian Luke tells us that Jesus Christ was resurrected from the dead by “many infallible proofs.” One eminent scholar JND Anderson of the Harvard Medical School said in the conclusion of a book in 1968:  “Lastly, it can be asserted with confidence that men and women disbelieve the Easter story not because of the evidence but in spite of it.”

When but a junior high student I went through a crisis of all of the major issues of any religious faith, especially Christianity. How do I know God exists? the Bible is true, Jesus was born of a virgin? Jesus rose from the dead? Several books were helpful to me regarding the 'proofs' of that which we believe or at least the reason behind them, well substantiated particularly a older writing called: "Know Why You Believe." That would be my challenge to each of us today.  Not why the priest believes or if you're young, why your parents believe, but why YOU believe!  Know why and what you believe.  What brings you to Church on Sunday? The respectable Christian thing to do on a Sunday morning on the Isle of Hope? Or could it be, an encounter with the living Christ? You see we live in a relativistic, get along society.  But will social pressure keep us from Christ Jesus? Will the loud promises of wealth, fame and pleasure as we see every day on TV and the net, distract us from engaging that faith into which we were baptized?  The beatitudes say in one translation: "blessed are they who know their need of God for theirs in the kingdom of heaven."

 We might ask why some are so eager to convince us of the "untruthfulness" of Christianity?  Why purge it from the public sphere?  Paul wrote that the gospel is foolishness to those who do not believe. It wrestles with the ultimate...death.  Are some afraid of what might it mean for them if believers are RIGHT? What convinces you of Truth with a capital "T"? Have you examined the Truths?  Do you live by opinion or by researched conviction.  Faith is not pious or baseless opinion. St Peter wrote: "But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect" (I Peter 3:15 NIV)

 The knowledge of God in Jesus is a supernatural event.  It is by, with and through  God's Holy Spirit.  It is into that blessed covenant with God we are baptized that as we grow we believe into conversion that completes our baptism promises.  That is what confirmation is about. But anyone who seeks after God must be open to receive God's revelation to them. This morning are we convinced?  Have we looked beyond 'church alone' and encountered the living Christ?

 Our collect said: "O God, from whom all good proceeds: Grant that by your inspiration we may think those things that are right, and by your merciful guiding may do them..." Right thinking begins and ends with God.  KNOW why and what you believe.

Perhaps you've heard this verse? " For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,

that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."  But have you heard the
next..."  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world
through him."  That is the gospel, literally the "good news."  That is why for 2000 years we have
proclaimed "Alleluia! Christ is Risen!" Amen

 

AD MAJOREM DEO GLORIAM