Six or eight weeks ago, I was approached
by a parishioner. We’ll call him
“Ralph.” “Ralph” was dreaming a bit and
wondering how cool it would be to see his beloved Penguins play the Predators
in the Stanley Cup Finals. He was also
worried about split loyalties. To take
us all back in time, the Predators were the last team in the playoffs in the
Western Conference. They were playing
the top seed in the West, the Chicago Blackhawks. Pittsburgh, of course, was more likely to get
to the finals. Their only real obstacle,
at least according to the pundits, was the Washington Capitals. Fast forward to today, the Preds and the Pens
start the series for Lord Stanley’s Cup this week in Pittsburgh. I have advised “Ralph” that he should just
wear a yellow shirt and sit on his hands for the games at Bridgestone!
I know some of you sometimes wonder
whether I have a plan, whether there is a madness to my method (just testing to
see if you are awake this morning), or a planning process at all when it comes
to preaching and teaching in the parish.
As I began to prepare for this sermon, I was laughing at the plan I had
way back in February. To take you all
back in time with me once again, I had been given permission by the members of
the Vestry to rip the band aid off quickly, rather than pull slowly, when it
came to doing the work of discernment and living into our discernment as a
parish. I expected that Vestry would
begin to probe and test through prayer and fasting, and we as a parish would
probe and test through prayer, fasting, and ministry efforts. I had thought at the time I would spend our
time in the season of Easter in the book of Acts, reminding us all that our
story is a continuation of the book of Acts.
We are not continuing the book as if we are adding to the canon, but we
are continuing the book in the sense of what comes next in God’s redemptive
story. Alas, such has not been how life
has gone here these last few months. We
are still engaged in the beginning of discernment, and God seems to have pulled
me to other lessons this season of Easter.
I share the story of my “it’ll never happen” with “Ralph” and the story
of how I expected this season of Easter to unfold in our midst as a cautionary
tale. Things do not always go like we
expect, nor did they always go the way our spiritual ancestors expected.
This week, though, I think I am supposed
to preach on Acts. So turn in your
Orders of Worship to that reading, if you want to follow along. This section begins with a question that must
have had Jesus ready to pull his hair out or blast His disciples with lightning
bolts. Maybe it’s a lesson to clergy
that we need great patience with our Vestries?
To put the question in context, though, let me remind you that the
disciples and apostles had been travelling with Jesus for three years. For three long years, He had taught them
about God’s plan of salvation and how He was instrumental in God’s plan. In fact, He had taught them that He was God
incarnate. These same disciples had
witnessed the Crucifixion, which Jesus had prophesied, and the
Resurrection---again, a prophesy of Jesus.
If they had any doubts about the teachings of Jesus or His sanity, those
doubts should have been trumped by the Resurrection. In truth, the miracles should have been
enough, but these men and women, certain ladies are mentioned as disciples in
this passage, have encountered the Resurrected Jesus! Like Thomas, their doubts should have been
assuaged. And after all this, they ask
that stupid question: “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom
of heaven?”
You may think the question innocuous, but
that great Anglican theologian John Stott often taught and preached that this
question is entirely grammatically wrong.
It is so wrong that they do not get a part of the sentence correct. The disciples and apostles get the verb
wrong, the noun wrong, and the adverb wrong.
And despite the evidence that testified to the truth of Jesus’ words and
teaching, they demonstrate the fact that they have not yet grasped His
teaching.
The first error is the adverb. Is now the time that God will complete His
work? Much hay and great litmus tests
are created about figuring out the date of the end time. No matter the parish, such is always a
lingering question. We are instructed to
live as if Christ could return any moment, but we are also repeatedly told throughout
Scripture that we are not going to be given the times and periods God has set
by His authority. But we are sometimes
seduced by those who point to specific dates as the beginning of the end times. Social media helps fan that anxiety. Every single time some nut job or
self-aggrandizer takes to the pulpit to declare a date, it seems like social
media picks it up and spreads it.
Case in point: A couple weeks ago, my FB
feed started showing a bunch of articles on the upcoming total eclipse. I forget how many years it’s been, maybe 30?,
but we in Nashville will get a total eclipse in August. A swath from here to Seattle, I think, will
be included. Most of the articles were
safety-related (don’t look directly at an eclipse) or travel related (the best
destination cities for viewing). I
remember chuckling to myself that at least no one was predicting the eclipse as
a doomsday signal. Then, a couple days
later, an Adventer sent me an article and asked me what I thought of the
“Christian” group’s claim that August 21 would be the end of the world. By the end of that week, a half dozen
Adventers had asked me to share what I thought about this group’s claim.
What the disciples and apostles missed and
what we miss is that we are not going to know the time. Oh, to be sure, we have a lucky guess chance
of getting the date right. But it’s just
a guess. Why do we feel tempted to spend
so much time trying to figure out a date?
Why do we not listen to our Lord and realize it is not given to us to
know the date? Why? Why are we seduced by the pursuit of such
knowledge? In reality, we, like the
disciples and apostles who came before, are called to live each day as if this
might be the Day. We are called to live
as if the preparation for the Day really began Easter Sunday almost 2000 years
ago.
Look how such “guessing” dishonors the
Lord. Every time there is a comet or a
significant event, “Christians” seek to scare the world with a claimed certain
knowledge of the date. And when they are
wrong, what happens? People doubt God’s
message. People doubt God’s messengers,
you and me and everyone else who call Him Lord.
People doubt God. And we wonder
why they mock us? Imagine the testimony
if we just lived our lives as if each moment could be the last moment! That was Jesus’s instruction to His disciples
and Apostles. I will return, so get to work!
Of course, the adverb is not the only part
of their question that reflects that they still do not understand what Jesus
was teaching them. Look at the
noun. With what are the disciples and
apostles concerned? The kingdom of
Israel. Now, Jesus has reaffirmed
Israel’s unique role in God’s redemptive plan—they are called to be a nation of
priests, a light unto the world. But
Jesus has been teaching them about a far greater kingdom than that of what you
and I, or the disciples listening to this teaching, think of as the
nation-state of Israel. He has been
teaching them of the kingdom of God. As
good as things were under David or Solomon or Josiah or any other king you
might think, Jesus has an even more magnificent kingdom in mind. And they, like us, are heralds and workers in
that kingdom. This kingdom transcends
time and space though it can be seen in this time and in this place. It is, in the end, the recreation of
everything as it ought to be, and not just settling for “as good as it can get
here.” For us, the Church or the people
of God, such should be our focus. The
principalities and powers of the world claim to us all the time that the world
is the way that it is or we are the measure of all things. But we know better! God has revealed Himself and His love to us
fully and completely in His Son our Lord Christ! All authority has been given to Him. And we know that He will return one day to
consummate this recreation begun that Good Friday and Easter morning so long
ago.
What happens when we get that noun wrong
in our lives? Look around. Listen.
Evangelical Christian groups placed a mantle about a particular
candidate in our last election. Some were
the complete opposite of me. I reminded
us not to put our faith in any human beings; but some pastors claimed all
Christians were obligated to support only one candidate. How has that played out for them? How will that play out for us? Do we as a country really want to claim we
are God’s chosen sovereign nation? I
mean, sure there are benefits, but there is also cost and obligation. And if we align ourselves with a political
party, as if we are of and in this world, look at the dishonor we bring upon
our Lord. Non-Christians who have read
the Bible challenge us on our stances on immigration or health care, if we are
Republicans, or maybe classism or racism, if we are Republicans. True, each party does some things which I
think would please our Lord, but I have no doubt each does things that causes
other citizens to doubt Him and His messengers.
The verb in question also signifies that
the disciples have missed His teaching.
Restore. Restore implies that
Jesus is simply about the business of bringing back what was. I suppose, as Christians, we understand that
God will recreate things like they were in the Garden, so in some sense, we
will be restored to full communion with God.
We will walk with Him, talk with Him, glorify Him, and simply engage with
Him in a manner that is beyond the best would could ever imagine. But the disciples are simply looking for Him
to bring back the glory years of the kingdom of Israel. Maybe they like the militaristic past of
David. Perhaps they long for the wealth and
wisdom of Solomon’s reign. Could it be
that they long for the peace of Josiah’s reign?
We are not told. We simply learn
that they are looking merely for restoration of some “golden-age,” when Jesus
clearly has in mind something far greater than they could ever imagine.
Again, how this plays out in our life at
Advent is plain enough for good ol’ blind Bartimaeus to see. How much of our anxiety, how much of our fear
is caused by the realization that the church of today is not the church of
yesterday nor the church of tomorrow? I
still believe that most of our angst is caused by a sense of loss combined with
a lack of vision for the future. Many of
us look back a decade or three and in our mind’s eye see the sanctuary full,
the rector handsome and priestly, hear the choir in all its glorious sound, remember
the youth programs bursting at the seams, remember that everything was polished
fine, and that everyone gathered was dressed to the nines. We lament what we think is lost. And we worry whether anything is to
come. In this we are like those
disciples so long ago. We forget that
God is always about His work, renewing, refreshing, invigorating.
In truth, none of us gathered at Advent
really remember THE glory years of the parish.
Given that Charles Todd Quintard is now a celebrated saint in our wider
church’s life, maybe the parish of his time represents our glory years. Of course, some might argue that it was our
founding to oppose pew taxes that served best to glorify God. Others may say that when Adventers have been
elevated to the role of bishop we were really glorifying God. I’m sure there are other times that meet the
definition of glory years for a parish.
But the fact that we can argue about them ought to give us some serious
hope. If we have had six or eight or ten
glorious periods where the Gospel was proclaimed in the power of the Holy
Spirit in word and deed, what’s to prevent a next golden age? Why can there not be a seventh, ninth, or
eleventh period that contests for our glory years?
All of this, and Jesus’
counter-instructions, are given in light of the looming Ascension and coming of
the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. When Jesus
takes the time to rebuke and to remind the disciples and us that we are called
to preach and teach the Gospel to the ends of the earth in the midst of this
and that the Holy Spirit will come upon them and us, we know that they are His
final earthly instructions. He goes to
prepare a place for us, but we have work to do until His return! And to help us do the work He has given us to
do, Jesus promises to send the Holy Spirit.
In fact, our primary focus really ought be this, His last
instructions! How often, though, are we
like those early disciples? How often
are we consumed by our own foci and not our Lord’s? In one sense, the book of Acts is all about
the work of the Church, empowered by the Holy Spirit, seeking to accomplish the
will of God to His honor and His glory.
That you and I gather here today, some 2000 years later and however many
miles distant, testifies to us that the disciples listened to Him and that He
sent that promised Spirit. In other
words, the book of Acts is the introduction to Advent’s story, or Advent’s story is an appendix to
the book of Acts. Take your pick.
This brief and final teaching is
significant because it reminds us, all Christians, of the relationship between
the Holy Spirit and the Church. We need
the Holy Spirit to understand our mission, our calling, in the world. But we come to know the Holy Spirit better
through our engagement in God’s mission in the world. It’s both incredibly freeing and incredibly
weighting. We are promised that God is
present with us as we discern and exercise our gifts for ministry--in fact, we
would say the Spirit gives us those necessary gifts--, but we would also remind
ourselves and others that it is the exercise of those gifts and talents that we
experience the risen Christ of whom you and I are witnesses. The application at Advent is probably obvious
to those of us who self-describe as Adventers, or at least it should be. Real ministry, real mission that glories God,
can only be done in the power of the Holy Spirit; and God will become better
known to us as we engage in those Spirit-led individual and corporate
ministries.
So, how does it speak to us in Nashville
some nineteen centuries later and however many miles distant? First, there is power in this truth. Our gathering here is a fulfillment of Jesus’
promise. When Rome ruled the world, no
ambitious politician or military man wanted to serve in Judea. No one.
And as we know from the Apostle Nathaniel, those in Judea did not have a
good impression of those who were from Nazareth. In some ways, Nazareth was the backwater
region of the backwater province of the civilized world. Growing up in West Virginia, we would give
thanks for Louisiana and Mississippi because they sometimes made us look good
by comparison, but nobody in the United States, except people born in those
states, really wants to be from those states.
So it was in Rome with Judea.
Yet, within three centuries, after countless deaths and incredible
persecutions, the Gospel of Christ conquers the Empire. In that conversion of an emperor and assents
of the aristocracy are born the seeds that make their way to this place. Think of all the threats that must have been
overcome to reach you and me in this place.
I have lived here only two years, but I have heard from some of you and
read in books some of the challenges faced when settling this land. I have read of some of the challenges that
faced our parish ancestors within our beloved church.
Our parish ancestors rejected the accepted
idea that the poor were second class citizens in the church, and so they set
out to form a new parish that was committed to the image of God in every single
human being and to the breaking of human-created barriers that separated the
poor from God. That commitment to the
image of God in everyone later put our ancestors at odds with their Christian brothers
and sisters again as we struggled with the role of freed slaves in the
church. My predecessors and your
spiritual ancestors took seriously Jesus prayer for unity and fought the tides
of post-Civil War racism in the South and lobbied for the full inclusion of the
freed slaves. Most of us would agree
that levels of racism exist still today, but can you imagine the racism of the
1860’s and 70’s that was, in part, fueled by the bitterness of defeat? And make no mistake, some of those freed
slaves took courageous leaps of faith and stayed in our church, against the
seductive calls of their fellow freed-slaves, all in an effort to love and
serve God to His glory. Freed slaves
rejecting the call of their brothers and sisters; whites rejecting the accepted
teaching of the day—in some ways, our forebears at Advent were the outcasts of
the outcast. Yet the Gospel was
preached. Lives were transformed. Buildings were built and sold. And today, you and I are reminded that He
promised His Gospel would reach to the ends of the earth. Our presence today testifies to that truth.
That’s not the only lesson for us at
Advent, though. These first five months
of discernment have not gone well. We
have had some difficulty starting the process; we have had different “buy-in”
among members. How do we pray? How do we fast? How do we study? How do we hear the voice of God? How do we recognize the presence of that
Spirit which our Lord promised? We have
had a budget issue—no real surprise since we had no stewardship program, which
caused a great deal of anxiety, anger, or worry. In many ways, we are just like those
disciples who asked Jesus this question so long ago. One repeated criticism is that I am unengaged
about the financial issues at Advent, that I am not hammering us enough, that I
am too focused on mission discernment and evangelism.
My patient response has been that I
understand the priorities. Provision
always follows mission. Always. If we properly discern God’s call upon our
corporate and parish lives, provision will not be an issue. I’m not saying that we will ever be flush
with cash. I am saying that everything
we need to accomplish God’s will in our lives will be provided—be it money,
passion, numbers of volunteers, expertise, leadership—whatever is need for us
to glorify God in this place at this time will be provided by that same Spirit
He promised to send to lead us. And
here’s the even better news: if we fail, if we make a mistake, if we mishear
His voice, He forgives. He not only
promises to forgive those who repent, but He promises to redeem! Think of that freedom, brothers and
sisters! Those of us seeking to do His
will in our lives or in this parish can really make a mess of things in our
lives or our parish, but He promises to redeem our mistakes. With penitent and obedient hearts, His Gospel
spreads like a wildfire.
You all know this. Yes, there are pockets of classism still
rampant in the human heart, but how many of those same churches that were
insistent our parish ancestors were wrong to lower the barriers to God for the
impoverished in our midst take that stand now?
How many churches proclaim “only the rich are lived by God?” If any denomination has a reputation for
elitism, it’s Episcopalians. Yet
Episcopalians at Advent were the ones discerning God’s will better 150 years
ago! And yes, there are pockets of
racism still rampant in the human heart, but how many of our churches,
Episcopal churches, are confused as safe havens for racial hate groups? Clearly, God forgives those who repents and
redeems and blesses. We are witnesses to
His redeeming grace!
That brings me to the last important
message to us this morning: Witnessing.
If you are visiting today, you may feel like you have stumbled into a
bit of a family history lesson. I have
spoken of parish, and diocese, and regional corporate history. You may feel a bit detached from those
stories; you may wonder at their significance in your life, especially if you
are not Episcopalian or if you are seeking God.
But I am here to remind you that the history of which I have been
speaking is the history of all of God’s people.
If I have done my job well this morning, if I have effectively
proclaimed the truth of the book of Acts, you now see God’s story at work in
our lives, in our parish, and in our city, fulfilling the promise He made to
those men and women in Jerusalem almost 2000 years ago. And those stories I have told are part of
your story because you are among those who love Him and call Him Lord.
Every single person whom God calls into
relationship with Himself is transformed and empowered to testify to His saving
grace. Every. Single. Person. No exceptions. The shape and form of that testimony may
differ greatly from individual to individual, but that is the real point of
everything we do! Everything the parish
does is about equipping and preparing the saints for this witnessing we have
been describing. Our worship, our study,
our prayers, our sermon time, our fellowship time, our budget, our meeting
times, our pastoral care efforts—all of it is done with an eye to helping each
and every one of us see God’s grace at work in our lives so that we might be
more effective witnesses. It can be
challenging because it is not formulaic.
But it can be incredibly rich and diverse because of the individuals
involved. How I speak of God as a
professional clergy person differs from how an insurance salesman might or a
teacher or a musician or medical professional or an athlete. I might use words, but others may use service
or music or art or still other ways. Earlier
I spoke of our ancestors recognizing that the poor and freed slaves were
created in the image of God. The outflow
of that understanding is the recognition that God can and does use all of His
sons and daughters for His redemptive purposes.
Some of those uses may be subtle—how we show hope in the midst of
disease or death, how we give generously in the midst of financial uncertainty,
how we relate to others--; others may be radical and profound—such as taking a
fisherman who denied Him three times in the face of common folk and giving Him
words to say in front of the Sanhedrin a few weeks later! You and I fall somewhere along that spectrum. We are somewhere between subtle and
incredibly visible witnesses. And God
has promised, as reminded this day by Luke, that He has made His Spirit
available to each of us, that He might be glorified in our lives, in our
churches, and in the world around us.
Brothers and sisters, as we wrap up this
season of Easter, as we begin to embark in that wonderful season of growth we have
a perfectly assigned lesson. We have
been reminded for seven weeks that we are a people of the Resurrection. Just as significantly, though, we are a
people empowered by the Holy Spirit entrusted with the incredible responsibility
of proclaiming the Gospel in word and deed so that He might be glorified in our
lives, that His kingdom might continue to grow, and that the world will be
restored to its Creator! It is
unfathomable responsibility and awesome opportunity. Perhaps even more frightening, He allows us
to discern what He wants us to do! He
woos us, He nudges us, He grants us peace and passion that the world does not
know. And individual by individual, His
kingdom grows. What is He nudging you to
do? What is He wooing Advent to do? As we return to that long season of green,
how is He calling upon each of us to grow in our relationship with Him? Just as He was willing with those disciples
across the oceans and continents and so long ago, He wants nothing more than to
work with and through each one of us.
Who knows? Such is His
willingness to pour out grace and honor on all who serve him, maybe a couple
centuries hence Adventers of the future will speak of your names in the same loving
reverence we speak of Quintard, Sanders, Longhurst, MacGruder, and whatever
other names for whose witness you give thanks to God!
Peace,
Brian†
