Living in the Presence

“And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever." Psalm 23:6  

I pray that you and yours are well and that some of the glow of thankfulness of the past week is still keeping your hearts warm as the days grow colder.

For the past several weeks, we've been meditating together on the 23rd Psalm and some of the promises of God that encourage us to lead fearless, hope-filled lives as God leads us, walks with us, and follows behind us with His goodness and mercy. In this last phrase of the psalm, we are offered the ultimate promise of living in God's presence forever.
 
Now, one way to look at that promise is that it is for a time to come. It is the life beyond the door of death promised by Jesus in John 14:1-6, "In my Father's house there are many mansions....and I go to prepare a place for you." It's the promise that comes to us through Jesus' resurrection from the dead. One day, you and I will be with God in paradise, in a fuller life beyond the door of death. That's a promise that allows us to live in confidence as we face our own demise and the passing of the people we love. This life is not all there is and by God's grace we will experience an even greater life beyond the veil.

There is also a more immediate aspect to this promise as well. There is a "now" that suggests that we are invited to dwell in the living presence of God today and every day as we turn our lives over to this Good Shepherd and live in the green pastures and still waters and at the banquet where our cups are running over. The eternal life promised in this psalm and by Jesus is for a time to come, yes, but also for today and every day of our lives as God's presence touches us; guides us; lifts us up when we're knocked down; makes us whole; inspires the best we have to offer with our lives; and gives us a taste of love that is above and beyond any other that we have known. It is the Lord's house that is open to us today and forever and it is good.

So, as you go about your day today and any day, remember the Good Shepherd, the Lord, who is with you now and always. Set aside your fears and come into the house.

Grace and Peace—
WFA

Seeing and Seeking the Kingdom of Fearlessness

For those of you who have made requests, here is my sermon from Thanksgiving.

Introduction: Thanksgiving Grace

Happy Thanksgiving! I have so much to be thankful for today and in my life and I hope you know that you do, too; for we are a people who have been blessed by God. We have been blessed by God to be part of this Christian community. That cares for one another and is on a mission to know God in Jesus Christ and to make Christ known; we have been blessed by God to live in a nation of great opportunity; we have been blessed by God to have family and friends; we have been blessed by God with the gift of life itself; and today, we give thanks.

I love this day, I love Thanksgiving Day, among all our national days and Holy Days, because it’s the one day when we as a nation and, frankly, when we as Christians, come closest to getting it right. Thanksgiving, though a civic holiday is the one day in the year when we come closest to getting our priorities and our focus in the right place as we set aside an entire day to give thanks to someone or something — usually God in some way — to thank one another for the many gifts t we have been given in our everyday lives.

In some sense, it’s both profound and strange that we would set aside only one day in a year to offer thanks. Profound because our nation and our way of life come to a virtual standstill for a few hours, as people of all sorts gather around some table to eat, to offer thanks, and to share the gift of life. Strange, because for some of us, it’s the only time when we feel comfortable enough, even encouraged enough, to count our blessings; to say thank you to God and to say thank you to one another for gifts great and small.

I know around our Thanksgiving table this afternoon, I’ll ask everyone to share at least one thing that they’re thankful for.  It’s a tradition my parents instilled in me and it’s always a lovely moment during the meal to talk about the people and the things and the events that have touched our hearts in some way.

           

When this moment comes, you can sense a change in the energy around the table. Oh, there’s some performance anxiety as people wonder what they’re going to say and whether it will measure up to what others may say. But after that little worry passes and thanks are being shared people’s faces soften; worry lines fade; smiles emerge and broaden; and eyes twinkle as the trivial and silly gifts of life are revealed; or as major events, sometimes hard moments, are spoken of in quieter tones, drawing us all too briefly into the poignant moments of grace and transformation of life.

I think sometimes that Thanksgiving—that this moment of sharing our thanks is the most nourishing part of the meal. For in offering our thanks, our souls are fed, our fears released and we are changed. In offering our thanks, for gifts great and small, we come closest to seeing God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness in our midst, as we remember that all we are and all that we have come to us as gifts from God. And if you and I can learn to live every day in thanksgiving to God and one another then we’ll come much closer to getting it right beyond Thanksgiving Day, and we’ll come much closer to having our life in the right order. And our worries and fears will become the passing problems they really are as we’re drawn closer to the presence and the peace of God and God’s kingdom.

The Gospel and Days of Thanksgiving

I think Jesus would like this part of Thanksgiving Day, the part that includes giving thanks and focusing on what’s truly important, the importance of finding a place for everyone around the table and listening to people waking up to the blessings in their lives. You see Jesus, knows that we worry about life. Jesus knows that it’s easy for us to focus on the things of life, on what we’ll eat, what we’ll drink, what we’ll wear, instead of focusing on the source of life. Jesus knows that we can so easily focus on the created and not the Creator.

And Jesus knows that we worry about what’s coming next in our lives, Jesus knows that we’re afraid and that our fears can shove aside our trust in God and God’s plan for our lives and cause us to put the things of life first because they help us through some of our struggles.

                                   

Jesus knows because He walked among us and lived as one of us. He lived in a family, spent time with friends, worked at a job, loved and was loved, wxperienced all that we experience in this life. And Jesus wants us to have a spiritual strategy and a life’s focus that frees us from worrying about the things of life and what’s coming next so that we may more fully enjoy the goodness and the blessings of each day and know that God walks before us and behind us.

So, Jesus says, strip it all down and see life for the gift that it is; see that God has given life to you because He loves you; understand that God is caring for you, though you may know nothing about it. And then give God thanks and seek after this Giver of gifts, so that you can know life’s blessings and God’s love for you every moment.

Thanksgiving is the way to enter into life more fully; it’s the beginning of prayer. It’s the beginning of getting a balanced perspective on your life it’s the beginning of setting aside your fears and trusting in God; it’s the doorway into the kingdom of God. Thanksgiving acknowledges God’s greatness and love for each one of us and allows us to face the triumphs and trials of this life as the passing moments they are and find it in our hearts to teach others to say thanks, by the way we share our gifts with them.

Giving Thanks

Thanksgiving Day has become a particularly special day for me as you and I started our ministry together sixteen years ago today and the life and love and mission and ministry that we have shared have been beyond my wildest imaginings for our life together. And as I reflected on our ministry together, I was reminded of a Thanksgiving moment that happened in my first year of ordained ministry, in Roanoke, Virginia.

Part of our ministry there was to lead worship services each Wednesday at the various retirement and nursing homes. And on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, I was responsible for leading the service at one of the poorer homes, a home where people who had very little lived out their last days in a simple, but dignified facility.

Struggling to come up with an appropriate way to acknowledge Thanksgiving Day, I invited them to share what they were thankful for before we started the service. For the next thirty minutes, these men and women, who had very little by the world’s standards gave thanks to God in the most eloquent way:

Thank you for another year;

Thank you for having something to eat every day;

Thank you that I’m not living on the street any more;

Thank you for my new teeth that allow me to chew my food again;

Thank you for my son;

Thank you for my daughter coming to visit this afternoon;

Thank you that I will be going to my sister’s house tomorrow for dinner;

Thank you for my husband of 47 years;

Thank you that the cancer is all gone;

Thank you for my new great granddaughter;

Thank you for Jesus.

It was like waves of grace washing over the room as these children of God gave their thanks and laughed a little and cried a little over all their blessings.

That was pretty much the whole service for that Wednesday before Thanksgiving; we sang a hymn and left each other with smiles and a few hugs, changed by the moment of magnificent thanksgiving. It’s so easy to forget how much God has given us, so easy to get caught up in wanting and needing something more. So easy to let worry and distractions rule our hearts and take for granted the inventory of gifts that make up our lives.

And so today I invite you to take some time to count your blessings, to make an inventory of all that you have and all that you are; take some real time to give thanks to God for all that you’ve been given, for what you’ll be eating and drinking and wearing, for family and friends here with you and those gone into glory, for this parish community, for the beauty of creation and the wonder and mystery of life, and especially for God’s saving grace in His Son, Jesus.

And then do it again tomorrow and the next day and the next. You may not want to eat as much, but if you want to feed your soul again and again, and lead a fearless, hope-filled life in the kingdom of God, Give thanks to God; and let others know the power of God’s kingdom at work in you by sharing your thanks and your gifts with them, too.

Amen.

Surrendering Our Lives to Christ the King

Today is the last Sunday in the Church year, the last Sunday before we begin a new cycle of seasons to help us to grow in the faith and learn more about this Lord who loves us so; so that we can set aside our fears, put our trust in Him, and take up our lives in hope and love.

For many centuries, this Sunday has been known as Christ the King Sunday — a Sunday to remind us one last time about the core of our faith and about the reality of Christ’s lordship over the Church and over our lives. It’s always interested me, then, that at the end of the Church year ae find ourselves at or near the cross of Christ, so, this morning, we find Christ before Pontius Pilate. Apparently Christ’s Kingship is connected to His death and resurrection, and so, represents a different kind of authority for our lives than we normally associate with rulers, who usually expect to be served rather than to serve.

It’s no wonder then, that Pontius Pilate keeps asking Jesus, “Now what kind of king are you? I know kings and how they wield power through violence and raw politics but here you, a king, stand before me and I have power over you.”

But the One we call King is a Lord who came to serve; who came by setting aside all His heavenly glory and power to reveal the face of the God who loves us, who wants us, who forgives us; who came to take away our sins and the fear and the power of death so that we may have life and have it in abundance. The One we call King has power over us and over our lives but only when we’re willing to give that power over to Him; only when we believe in Him; only when we give our hearts to Him in some way; only when we’re willing to set aside our fears at losing control of our lives, and place our lives in His hands; only when we surrender to the King who only has our best interest at heart.

What’s the Point of Surrendering?
Now surrender is not a word we often associate with a sense of goodness; It’s usually associated with failure or losing or being overpowered. I can remember as child being tickled mercilessly or wrestled to the ground with some other kid sitting on my chest until I called out, “I surrender!”

But in God’s upside down and sometimes backward way to real life surrender is the start and the basis for all of our life with God. In fact, if we won’t surrender, then we can’t experience all that God has in store for us because God is gentle and will never overpower our free will; never overwhelm our ability to choose Him or not. Because the relationship God desires with you and with me requires a free choice on our part. God has chosen to surrender Himself to you and me and we may or may not choose to surrender to our lives to God.

Some of you know that I like a good evangelist and it’s not just the hair; I like when a woman or a man has a gift for telling the Christian message with grace, with good stories, with clarity, with purpose. Now, I don’t go out of my way to watch them on television, but I have; and while they make me uncomfortable with their directness at times and with some of the ways they take hold of the scriptures;
I always love what comes at the end of their talk – an invitation. An invitation into the Christian life or into a deeper surrender of our hearts to God. They always ask the listener to surrender their lives to God; to set aside their fears and give their lives over; to answer Jesus’ call, “Come, follow me.”

It’s a life changing moment for some of us who’ve never known that personal and intimate experience of God with us. But even though I expect that I am following Christ the King in my life, I always love bowing my head and do it every time I’m asked to because it helps me remember that surrendering to Christ needs to happen day by day for every one of us. Sometimes I feel a warmth taking hold of my heart. Sometimes there are tears as I realize how I’ve taken too much control of my life and need to give my life back over to God. Sometimes, I feel nothing, but expect that I am changed.

Surrender doesn’t happen all that often, in your life or in mine; because we want to maintain our sense of self-destiny and self control and we want to be in charge of our own lives. But mostly we won’t surrender because we’re a little afraid that God might actually come into our lives and touch us or change us or call us to tasks or to ways of living that are way beyond our comfort zones and our life’s plans; I mean life is pretty good for the most part, why would I want to change?

I have pretty regular conversations with parishioners and friends outside this church who are being touched by God in some way, people who sense that God is stirring something up in them. It may have been you at one point or someone sitting near you this morning. They come to me to talk about it, which is a very exciting part of my life, by the way and the conversation usually goes something like
"Frank, I’m having these feelings of God’s presence and they’re great, but I need your help so I don’t get too weird."

I tell them that this is very exciting and wonderful and then assure them that God usually draws us closer in our every day lives and rarely changes everything at once; That God has been near you up to now and wants to let you see all the blessings and goodness have come from Him. That usually gives them reassurance, but then I have to tell them the truth. And the truth is that I can’t guarantee them that God won’t call them to a new life and that they might get a little weird as God calls them to a deeper spiritual and physical commitment that is often a little out of step with the world around them.

When the Lord of all that is, the Lord who loves us and forgives us, comes to call on our lives and we surrender to His call, then our lives are filled with a grace and a sense of well being and a peace that is beyond anything we can imagine because these are the gifts of the King.

The Decision to Fall Into God’s Hands

Even in life’s most difficult moments, when our worlds are falling down around us, God brings a love and a peace and a grace and a power to endure and overcome because we’re willing to make Jesus Lord or King of our lives. One of the illustrations of surrender to God I’ve found compelling through the years come from C. S. Lewis’ book, Mere Christianity. Lewis is probably one of the most popular Christian writer of the last fifty years but you may not know that he was an active atheist for most of his life and came to surrender his life to Christ rather late.

In this book, Lewis writes about his personal conversion and says that you cannot say that Christ was merely a good man, or a prophet or a great teacher because some of the things he claimed were outrageous like: “I am the light of the world, those who believe in me, walk in the light,”
or “I am the resurrection and the life,” or from this morning’s Gospel, “My kingdom is not of this world.” According to Lewis, then, we are left with three choices: One, Jesus is a mad man.
Two, Jesus is wicked. Or, three, Jesus is who He says He is and we have a decision to make.

Now, no world religions or scholars have ever claimed that Jesus was a mad man; and from the Gospel accounts of healing and forgiving and loving and sacrifice, we know that He’s not wicked and so we are left with the choice that His claims are valid and we have the opportunity to safely surrender our lives to the God who loves us, protects us and cares for us in good times and bad.

Becoming a Christian involves more than coming to Church every once in awhile or doing something good for others and for God during the week. What it really involves is realizing that God’s love for you is such that you don’t have to do anything at all to earn it. We are saved by the grace of the living God who is with you and me at every moment of our lives. What God wants for us first and foremost is to surrender to Him; To be still and to acknowledge that He is God, to make a commitment every day to live for Him and with Him to acknowledge that Jesus is indeed our King.

It’s a struggle every day for us to make Christ our King, but if it’s a life of fearlessness, a life of hope we long for; if it’s life and love and peace and real power that we seek, then I invite you take a moment
and pray some kind of prayer of surrender to God today and every day to say something as simple as “God, I give my life to you.” And then accept the saving grace of God’s love for you and for me
And follow Christ the King into a life that is really life.

Amen.

WFA

God Before and Behind

"Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life," Psalm 23:6  
 
Happy Thanksgiving! I pray for you all today in the hope that the blessings of your life may be foremost in your hearts and minds so that the cup of your soul is indeed overflowing with the knowledge of God's great and particular love for you. I pray, too, that as you look around your table, you may give thanks for the gifts of the people in your life here, with you now, and those we love who have entered into the closer presence of the Good Shepherd.

This week the Psalmist presents an interesting promise about the life we are offered with God. The 23rd psalm begins with the images of a shepherd who leads us into real life and in this verse a shepherd who follows us over the course of our days with goodness and mercy. It's an image of God before us and God behind us, guiding us, but also picking up the pieces of our lives and crowning them with His goodness, mercy, and forgiveness.

I believe this to be a right insight because I more often see God's goodness and mercy in my life and in your lives from the backside. That is, we rarely see God going before us. But when we turn and look back over our lives, we see God's hand at work directing us, picking us up when we've fallen, blessing us with gifts that are more than we can ask and more than we deserve most of the time. To bring it closer, we rarely thank God before going into a difficult time because we're not quite fearless enough to trust that God is with us. It's much easier to give thanks after we've gotten through to the other side and see God's hand before us and behind us.

God promises to walk before us and behind us leading us into a fearless, hope-filled life. We can grow in our walk with our Good Shepherd if we will practice inviting God to lead us in our lives and trust that He is in fact leading us. We can grow even more as fearless Christians when we stop and see the goodness and mercy that follow us and allow our hearts to be filled with thanksgiving.

So, as you are filling your body with good food and your heart with the people in your life, allow God to fill your soul with hope because He is going before you and behind you today and every day of your life.

Grace and Peace,
WFA

Overflowing Blessings

I pray that you and yours are well and that your thoughts, like mine are turning to the Thanksgiving celebration next Thursday. Thanksgiving is one of the days when we as Americans begin to catch a glimpse of all the blessings in our lives and actually pause and take note of them.

For some of us who are in a time in our relationship with God where we sense His closer presence we give thanks. For those of us who are looking forward to spending some quality time with family, with children coming home, or with those we know and love, we give thanks for them. For those of us inspired to feed the hungry on this day, we can give thanks for blessings great and small that inspire us to make a difference and to remind everyone that they are loved. And for those who we are just looking forward to a meal that includes some of our favorite foods, we give thanks. Thankfulness is at the very heart of a life lived connected to God. It reminds us of the many ways that God gives life and touches us with His grace and presence. Even when life is not going all that well for us or for someone we love, thankfulness can strike a different tune in our hearts and theirs, opening the way for God to enter in.

And the blessings, when we stop and count them, are so numerous for every one of us, by God's grace, that it is almost embarrassing. I was at a function in Center City recently in which we all got to enjoy a kind of rubbery chicken dish and overcooked vegetable - hard to feed 500 people at one sitting. At one point, a server came by to refill water glasses and must have gotten a little distracted as they filled my glass to the brim and then overflowing across the table. The server was embarrassed, but it made me chuckle inside because the overflowing cup of water and the chagrined embarrassment at the table sort of came together in my mind as I reflected on the way God's blessings overflow in all of our lives, especially when we take time to notice them. God's love and God's gifts to every one of us overflow the heart when we acknowledge them and cherish these blessings for what they are.

So over the course of today and this next week, take some time to notice and to give thanks for blessings great and small in your life and I know that you will see that your life is overflowing with blessings and gifts, too many to number. It may be hard for some of us to see at first, but if you will look at your life, really look at your life and the life you have lived, the acknowledgement of God's overflowing blessings will come to your mind and your heart. You will know once again or for the first time the generosity of God in your life and give thanks.

Grace and Peace,
WFA

Protected by God

"You anoint my head with oil;" Psalm 23:5

I pray that you are well and that you are recovered from the effects of Hurricane Sandy last week. I know it could have been much worse for most of us and continues to be challenging for many people in New Jersey and New York. We are working on a plan of action for the support we can give in the coming months, but this Sunday the loose offering will go to Episcopal Relief and Development as they are already on the ground helping people.

In a culture where security and safety have become our primary goal and good, the events of this past week can shake us to the core. We can't control the forces of nature and even though we try to control our lives and keep ourselves and those we love safe from all harm and trouble, there are moments and times when it just isn't possible. Troubles come and sometimes the protection we have put in place and the safety we seek isn't always enough. Certainly we can learn and grow from these moments of difficulty, but most of us would rather not face them, thank you very much. Even those of us who are learning to trust in God more and more know that sometimes stuff happens.

Well, thankfully, we do not face our challenges alone and there is a level of protection that we don't always notice that comes to us by the love and the grace of God. There is a covering, a shield, that God places on our lives, like the oil that shepherds sometimes put on the eyes and ears of the sheep to protect them from insects and infection. The oil doesn't protect the sheep from everything, but provides important protection that keeps the sheep healthy. That's the kind of protection God gives to protect our souls and our lives ultimately.

When we anoint children or adults at baptisms, the chrism or christening part of the baptismal liturgy, we are anointing them with the protection of God from the power of sin and death and marking them as belonging to God, now and always. It seems an inconsequential symbolic act, but if you and I remembered more often the protection of forgiveness and life eternal, then the passing challenges and struggles of life would become what they really are - passing.

So remember that today and every day, God is watching over you, protecting you so that you may live without fear even when we go through the hurricanes of life. See you in Church on Sunday.

Grace and Peace,
WFA

A Banquet Amidst Troubles

"You prepare a table for me in the presence of my enemies;" Psalm 23:5

I pray that you and yours are well in this week of living through Hurricane Sandy. I hope your power is back on and invite your prayers for those who have lost loved ones, been injured, or continue to function without power and some without homes.  Power has been intermittent at Church, but we expect to have it fully restored before the all parish workday and Sunday's worship of God.

This week is a humbling reminder that for all our advances and technology, the force of nature is sometimes beyond us.  We are thankful for technology that allows us to track storms and communicate on a mass level, but the storms come and can still devastate our lives. We have a good deal of control in our lives in general, but there are times when nature or the course of our lives are challenging and difficult. All of us struggle or, as Jesus says, "In this life, troubles come" and we have to face them.

For some of us, these difficulties and troubles can become a challenge to our faith in God and we fall away, struggling to reconcile the troubles with God's grace and goodness. For others, difficulties are faced as passing moments and we trust that God will help us through. But here is the promise of God in this week's meditation on the 23rd Psalm: God prepares a banquet in the presence of our enemies, in the face of people or circumstances that trouble us. We can expect that troubles come or that circumstances and people may work against us. And though God allows us to face these troubles, we do not face them alone and He prepares a banquet, a celebration for us in the midst of them.

Now some of us would prefer no troubles, no enemies, no hurricanes that disrupt our lives, but that's not the reality of the creation, and I would add that many of us are formed to become the persons God is calling us to become because of the testing and troubles that come our way. What I love about this promise from the psalm is that God promises to be with us and even provide plenty for us as we face them. Look carefully at your life in the times of trouble and see if God hasn't provided comfort, hope, even His largesse as you go through them. God will never leave us to face our perils alone and may even give gracious gifts to you and me as we go through them.

This Saturday is our annual, All-Parish Work Day, and as blessed as we are as a community with staff and funds to care for most of the day to day needs of our buildings and grounds, we could use your help cleaning up after the hurricane and touching up a few places. Please make plans to join us for an hour or for the day to keep St. David's a beautiful sign of God's presence in the world. And while the food being provided isn't quite a banquet by most standards, it's an opportunity for all of us to give back to God and to keep St. David's an inviting place for those in trouble who are in need of God's presence in their lives. See you Saturday and see you Sunday.

Grace and Peace,
WFA