First Advent

Our goals, in the words of today’s Epistle lesson: Lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; live honorably. Let Christ transform us into people who love one another.

We learn from the past. The Bible is a record of divine promises made and kept. God, who was faithful in the past, will be faithful in the future. We are free to give up any obsession we have with the past, past wounds, past anxieties, past hurts, fears, and doubts, and live freely in the present, hoping for the future because God kept God’s promises. God will keep God’s promises.

We are realistic about what is possible. Trusting in God, we are realistic when we hope for things yet unseen, even big things, like joy and peace and salvation and wholeness.

But we are realistic: all of these things lie ahead of us. All of these things are in our future. All our real wholeness, our real joy, our real love, completely, fully realized, is in our future.

That’s whey Advent, and our Christian faith, is future-oriented. Yes, Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem. Yes, he actually died and was buried and rose again and appeared openly to his disciples. Yes, all these things, historically, in the past, happened. But they all happened so that we can live into the future which awaits us, a future for which God is preparing us, a future of which Christ, raised from the dead, is the first fruits.

We cannot underestimate the importance of our future goals. They not only give us hope, but how we envision the future breaks into how we live our present. Our future can form our present, rescue it, revitalize it, give it meaning.

- The Rev. Dr. Amy Richter, rector of St. Anne's Episcopal Church in Annapolis, Maryland

Condensed from Sermons That Work

21 Nov - The Kingdom

Christ the King Sunday is new to the church. Pope Pius XI introduced it in 1925, a time when despotic rulers and systems began to take hold in Europe: Hitler, Mussolini, Lenin. The Pope wanted to advance a message of security through the rule of Christ over the chaos of tyranny.

And the kingdom of God does stand in stark contrast to the systems of this world. In this kingdom, there is justice. In this kingdom, the justice stands alongside mercy. In this kingdom, the innocents do not die. The kingdom of God is real. It exists, here and now, just not in what you see. It is the kingdom that exists in the heart of men and women who give themselves over to the King of Kings. It exists in the hearts of men and women who give themselves over to peace.

It is because of the peace of that kingdom that we – who live both there and here, at once – can promote justice here. It is because of that peace that we stand against genocide in Sudan and elsewhere. It is because of that peace that we feed the hungry and clothe the naked.

Justice, like a river, flows from that kingdom into this world, through you.

That is what the Kingdom of Christ means. It is otherworldly, and yet it is quite this-worldly. It is quite the here and now, light against darkness.

The light shone, and the darkness could not comprehend it, could not extinguish it.

Rev. Rob Gieselmann, author of "The Episcopal Call to Love"

Condensed from Sermons That Work

14 Nov - Staying Focused

In today’s lesson from the Gospel of Luke, Jesus cautions his followers to be alert for false prophets. He warns them not to be led astray by those who claim to be him or who try to tell them when the end is coming. Instead, Jesus tells them, they are to remain faithful, even though they may face difficult times. The time in which Jesus and his followers lived was a much quieter time than our modern world. In our world, we are surrounded by noise and all kinds of voices. Not just people talking around us, but voices of television and radio. The printed words of newspapers and magazines. The visual words and images the Internet. What a challenge it is to stay faithful to Jesus’ message, his teachings.

I was reminded of this challenge one day this week as I listened to an interview with Bishop Gene Robinson on National Public Radio. Bishop Robinson is the Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire. His election as the first openly gay man to serve as bishop caused much controversy and division in the Episcopal Church and in the Anglican Communion. Bishop Robinson announced last week that he intends to retire in January 2013.

In the interview, the reporter spent most of the time talking with Bishop Robinson about the controversy. Then, at the end of the interview, she asked him what he hoped to do after his retirement. He mentioned a few possibilities. Then he said, “I hope that I can continue to do what I have always done: share with people the good news of a God who loves all of God’s children.” ‘Wow,’ I thought to myself, ‘here he is in the midst of all this stress and pressure, but foremost in his mind is the fundamental Baptismal promise to proclaim the Good News of God in Christ.’ I say “Amen“ to that.

Peace,

Deacon Sue

7 Nov - All Saints Day

It seems to me All Saints Day celebrates the cycle of life. For those who have it bad, things will get better. And for those who’ve got it good, well, things could take a turn for the worse. The only thing we can be sure of in this life is everything changes – except the love of Jesus Christ. Conditions always change.

Last night we watched a sweet old movie: Friendly Persuasion (starring Gary Cooper, Dorothy McGuire and a young Anthony Perkins). The movie is about a Quaker family living in southern Indiana during the Civil War. It is hard enough to live the rules of the Quaker faith in everyday life. But as the Rebel army moves its way north, each family member struggles with how to deal with the impending violence. Not wanting to spoil the movie for you, let me just say I believe this movie is the beatitudes embodied, with the characters ultimately living into “do to others as you would have them do to you”.

I pray that we can learn to live into Jesus’ message and to remember that we are all saints of God.

Peace and Blessings,

M.E.+