A Surprising Healing

Posted on September 12, 2012 by Howard Cepelak

The Reverend J. Howard Cepelak

Trinity Church

Waltham, Massachusetts

Pentecost XV – 9 September 2012

Isaiah 35:4-7a, Psalm 146, James 2:1-10, 14-17; Mark 7:24-37

From the Book of the Prophet, Isaiah:
Say to those of a fearful heart, “Be strong, fear not! Behold, your God shall come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.”

From the Letter of St. James:
The brother of our Lord admonished his readers saying, My brethren, show no partiality as you hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.

From the Gospel According to St. Mark:
Having healed the daughter of the Syrophoenician woman as well as a deaf and dumb man, the people were astonished beyond measure, saying, He has done all things well; he even makes the deaf hear and the dumb speak.

Let us pray.
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in thy sight, O God, our Rock and our Redeemer, our Strength and our Salvation,
Amen.

I have often said that the job of the preacher would be so much easier and yield such greater results if, when one confessed his faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, all his afflictions would be healed, his bank account would swell and his life filled with happiness. All of us want health, wealth and happiness with the first priority being health.

We know that any kind of automatic state of health, wealth and happiness that accompanies a conversion to Christ just does not happen. In fact, our Lord asks us to take up our crosses. His plan for our lives may be very different from ours. Yet we seek that health, wealth and happiness even though we know better.

How many times have you heard it said – or said it yourself, If you have your health, you have everything. The truth of this is obvious. An active, healthy life – pain free and fully energetic – cannot be underestimated. Health is a priceless treasure, for sure.

And yet, when we’re healthy we usually take it for granted and want – often passionately want, wealth believing that happiness will follow. Human nature fails to remember to offer gratitude for our blessings. We just want so much more forgetting what we already have. We appreciate health most when we are ill. And again, when we take our health for granted, we set wealth as the priority.

Well most of us know that wealth does not necessarily bring happiness. Even the most casual look at some the world’s wealthiest people proves that. Think of Howard Hughes – one of the wealthiest men in the world in his time – yet a miserable recluse in his senior years. Born to wealth, he increased his personal fortunes through his Hollywood production company as well as in aviation. He owned Trans World Airlines and eventually American Airlines.

But even as a young and wealthy man, Hughes never experienced the quality of life that anyone might call happiness. Some said of him that he was always a tormented man with that torment increasing with age.

We could attribute his misery to mental illness. Yet the point is well made – wealth does not necessarily bring either health or happiness. Unhappiness and mental illness, just like physical illness, is an equal opportunity affliction.

St. James, the brother of our Lord and the Bishop of Jerusalem in the earliest days of the church, took onto himself a state of perpetual poverty. Obviously not born to wealth, he nonetheless had as good a life as any of those who worked as craftsmen.

Not among the poorest, he nonetheless disavowed any form of worldly wealth and established the Jerusalem church with the same requirement. We need to remember that, in the chosen sate of perpetual poverty, the Jerusalem congregation relied on the gifts of the wealthy in order to survive. The nobleness of their poverty could not have happened if the wealthier churches in the ancient world did rise to the equally noble task of supporting that church.

In our generation, Mother Teresa, having chosen a life of poverty to minister to the health needs of the world’s poorest people, could have accomplished nothing whatsoever if the wealthy did not support her righteous ministry of good works. She lived her life for others. She obeyed our Lord’s commandment that as you minister to the least of these my brethren, you minister also unto me. But Mother Teresa’s righteousness depended upon the generous gifts of wealthy people. The healing she accomplished – or better expressed, that God accomplished through her, would not have been possible otherwise.

The Letter of St. James makes many important points and emphasizes his belief that just the word of faith are not enough. Speaking the words will have a hallow ring if good deeds do not result.

Our Lord’s brother makes a good point when he instructs us that we should show no partiality in our faithful good works. He is especially concerned that we not favor the rich over the poor. An almost natural part of human nature is to ingratiate oneself to the wealthy in order to gain some advantage, perhaps to share in their power and prestige. Yet St. James reminds us that poor people are every bit as worthy of friendship, affection, respect, honor, care and concern, as are the wealthy.

He also points out that God has chosen the poor to become wealthy in faith and heirs to the kingdom. He reminds us that the rich often oppress the poor and were among those least likely to receive the Gospel of Jesus Christ. So in love with themselves, they did not love the Lord. The wealthier Pharisees opposed the Lord while the shepherds, peasants, servants, craftsmen and the ordinary people were among his brother’s most faithful followers.

But the issue with which he concerns himself in this letter – a sermon really reflecting the essence of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount – is not so much rich or poor but rather a faithfulness that shows no partiality to anyone.

His brother showed no partiality regarding one’s financial status when it came to healing. We see this dramatically manifested when He healed the daughter of the Greek, Syrophonecian woman. Her wealth or poverty is not mentioned in the account. She may have been poor – she may have been wealthy. We do not know. And our Lord did not ask.

What was important was that she was rich in faith. A pagan, she went to Jesus seeking His healing power for her afflicted daughter. She went to the right place – the right person. Initially, Jesus rebuked her saying that He had been sent to the children of Israel. Without a doubt, Jesus was partial – by His Father’s intention – to the Jews. The world’s salvation would come first to God’s chosen people and then, from them, to the rest of the world. Such was God’s plan for His Son’s life in this world.

Jesus’ words were sharp and cutting. He said, Let the children first be fed, for it is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs. Wow! So much for Jesus meek and mild, kind and gentle – a surprising statement from our Lord for sure – and problematic for theologians throughout the centuries.

She retorted, Yet even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs. Do these words sound even vaguely familiar? They should. We speak them whenever we partake in the Sacrament of Holy Communion. We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs from under thy Table. This prayer is called The Prayer of Humble Access.

The issue here is not Hebrew or Greek heritage – or any other for that matter- not even one’s religion – but rather humility. Humility gives access. Simple as that. God had chosen the least important nation in the ancient world through which to reveal Himself. The church has always taught that even the chosen state of the chosen people stood over and against all those who, because they were rich and powerful believed themselves to be entitled to every blessing, that those who did not share in that state of blessing were somehow cursed by God and unworthy of His attention. Hence, many of the most prominent of the chosen saw themselves as superior and entitled.

Many of God’s chosen people became rich and powerful. They became arrogant taking on the aforementioned arrogant attitude of entitlement. The Syrophonecian woman’s humility – not her ethnic heritage – opened the door to her daughter’s healing – a surprising healing in so many ways.

Arrogant entitlement is always a sin – a sin for anyone regardless of his or her financial status. The arrogantly entitled poor are just as bad as the arrogantly entitled rich. We must not discriminate in favor the poor claiming entitlement at the expense of the generous – and often humble – rich. Remember, without the rich, the Jerusalem church would have failed long before it actually did. Without the rich, Mother Teresa would have failed. And without the generous gifts of the wealthy of this congregation, we would have closed years ago.

Looking at all of our Lord’s healing miracles, none of them mentions the financial status of those healed. When He made the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak, He healed them without concern for their material condition. We can assume that some of those healed were rich and others poor. He never inquired of their financial status – never
did a means check. He simply healed. Again, wealth or poverty that’s not the issue. A humble faith is. St. James said, Show no partiality as you hold the faith of our Lord, Jesus Christ….

It is currently popular to condemn the rich and glorify the poor as if the poor automatically enjoyed a greater righteousness. In the political world, we see some of the world’s wealthiest people doing just that in an effort to gain for themselves even greater wealth and power. The test for goodness and righteousness is what they do with their immense wealth.

It’s hard to listen to multi-millionaire politicians tell us that we, who have so much less than they, should allow them to take our money through taxation to give it to the so-called righteous poor. It is especially so when the same politicians made their money through confiscation rather than through their own creative, hard work.

They often invoke references to the cultural legend of Robin Hood – a man who supposedly stole from the rich and gave to the poor. The actually story tells us that Robin Hood stole from the evil sheriff of Nottingham because the sheriff confiscated Robin’s estate through taxation. He stole Robin’s wealth through a legal transaction making himself wealthy and Robin – and all of Robin’s former employees – poor. Robin had been in the Holy Land fighting the crusades – at least in part a righteous cause. The sheriff raised the taxes on Robin’s father’s estate. He could not pay. So the sheriff took the property. Robin simply took back what had been stolen from him to support those who had once worked his estate.

If we take even a quick look at these power brokers and wealth confiscators, we will see a sheriff of Nottingham syndrome fully operative. As they take our money, ostensibly for the poor, they keep most of it for themselves and their friends. So much for any claim on their part to righteousness. The hypocrisy astounds. The wealthy – who have become so because they confiscated other’s people’s money – need to heed our Lord’s demand when He encountered the rich young ruler. He said, Sell all that you have and give the money to the poor. And most importantly, He said, Come – follow me. My guess is that they will do neither.

We must admire and honor the wealthy who generously give of their wealth in honest and authentic charity. The make good things happen. They do the Lord’s work. They are the faithful stewards of the wealth with which they have been blessed. They, and we to the extent that we share our relative wealth – and share voluntarily as an exercise of our own free will – not through confiscation – for there’s no moral efficacy in being forced to share – thus obey our Lord’s command to minister to the least of these. But such good work cannot be forced. It must be chosen.

The injustice perpetrated by the arrogant wealthy – as well as that by the equally arrogant poor – will one day come to judgment. The prophet, Isaiah, said so almost three thousand years ago. This kind of social injustice – those words covering an evil attitude of arrogant entitlement of the wealthy rulers of his day – and of our day – and their friends – will be judged – and with divine vengeance.

For all of us – in any generation – who experience this kind of injustice – we need to heed Isaiah’s words. Be strong, fear not! Behold, your God shall come with vengeance…. The Lord our God will deal with this – and harshly. Eternal salvation depends upon it. Arrogant entitlement on the part of anyone – rich or poor – shall meet with condemnation on the last day.

In the meantime, our job is to keep our Lord’s commandments – If you love me you will keep my commandments – and follow Him in all things as we fearlessly advance our Lord’s cause. St. Paul’s tell us to be bold in our faith. And that boldness is required just as much now as it was two thousand years ago – or three thousand years ago in Isaiah’s time. Then all kinds of healings – surprising healings – will happen.

One last thought. We shall all be healed with a surprising healing when God opens our graves on the last day and raises us up – in our bodies – perfectly healed of any affliction and presented as He originally intended. And what a great surprise that will be!

With this in mind, let us pray.

Heavenly Father, bless us with the ability to discern the evil that surrounds us. Deliver us from the deceptions of – and the temptations to – arrogant attitudes of entitlement. Create in us an attitude of gratitude and, we pray, heal us that by faith we may do well – and do good – to the honor and glory of your Holy Name –

the Name of your Son, our only Savior,
Jesus Christ the Lord.
Amen.

Commandments Versus Traditions

Posted on September 3, 2012 by Howard Cepelak

The Reverend J. Howard Cepelak

Trinity Church

Waltham, Massachusetts

The Sacrament of Holy Communion
Pentecost XIV – 2 September 2012

Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-9; Psalm 15, James 1:17-27, Mark 7:1-8

From the Book of Deuteronomy:
And now, O Israel, give heed to the statues and the ordinances which I teach you, and do them…You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it…make them known to your children and our children’s children….

From the Letter of St. James:
The brother of our Lord admonished the congregations with these words, Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

And From the Gospel According to St. Mark:
Challenged by the Pharisees regarding religious traditions, Jesus returned the challenge saying, This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men. You leave the commandments of God and hold fast to the traditions of men.

Let us pray.
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in thy sight, O God, our Rock and our Redeemer, our Strength and our Salvation,
Amen.

In packing up some of my books, in anticipation of my eventual move to Florida, I came across my father’s Bible – one he bought in 1937 – a King James Version – which he kept on the shelf near his chair for most of the time that I can remember. It didn’t just rest on the shelf. He used it- often.

Thumbing through the pages, I came across several bits and pieces of paper with various notations written on them. What surprised me was the number of the notes that I found in the Letter of James.

The letter itself is only about four pages long – in Bible size pages. His notation sheet listed several versus not the least of which is the most famous from this letter, Faith without works is dead and the second most famous, Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

His interest in St. James’ letter comes as no real surprise to me. My dad was a practical man – an engineer. He liked straightforward speaking, clear messages – nothing nuanced or open to interpretation according to how one might feel. Open to interpretation usually meant open to deception.

He saw – and I think properly perceived – that so much of what passes as interpretation is actual distortion – deception – in an effort to make the passage mean what you want it to mean. Dad often said, Mean what you say and say what you mean. Don’t say it if you don’t mean it. And, A man’s word is his bond. Words were important to him – and deeds just as important – or even more so.

I would guess that St. James was that kind of man – a man for whom actions always spoke louder than words but also a man for whom words were sacred – not to be necessarily poetic, but to communicate truth – the Truth entrusted to him – as well as to the other apostles – that his brother, Jesus, was the Son of God and the crucified and risen Savior of all mankind. Believe that and your life will change. Believe that and show it not only in how you speak but also in what you do. Jesus died for you. The least that you can do is live for him.

I think that these words would be a fair summary of St. James’ message. Hear it. Believe it. Do it. Simple as that.

St. James was an interesting man. He is distinguished from the three other James of the Gospels being identified as the brother of our Lord – meaning that Mary was their mother as many Protestants would have it, but Joseph only was father to James – hence, half brothers; or that James was Joseph’s son from a previous marriage, making them step brothers; or that they were more like cousins rather than brothers or half brothers or step brothers. Various traditions. Various doctrines.

Whatever the case, this St. James is also known as St. James the Less. The apostle James, brother to St. John the beloved disciple is known as St. James the Great. Tradition tells us that St. James the great journeyed to Spain where he converted thousands. So successful had been his missionary effort – and so wealthy was the Spanish church – that St. Paul planned to travel to Spain to collect money to support the failing, troubled and severely impoverish Jerusalem church of which – yes – St. James the Less was Pastor – in fact, he held the title of Bishop of Jerusalem.

Furthermore, St. James the Less often called St. James the Just. He enjoyed tremendous respect for his keen discernment, his integrity in both speech and deed, and for his devotion to the Christ. You may recall references to James as not believing in his brother early on in our Lord’s ministry. But after the resurrection Jesus appeared to him and he believed. From that moment on, James proclaimed Jesus as the crucified and risen savior.

He presided over the Jerusalem Council in AD 50 in which the key issues related to what was God’s law versus what was man’s tradition were discussed. Perhaps this is when he became known as James the Just. Gentile converts to Christianity were required to undergo circumcision – an abomination to them as much as it was a requirement for the Hebrews. Otherwise faithful and fully devoted gentile men refused complete conversion.

Knowing that some of these devoted men had been martyred for their faith, St. James led the Council to the decision that gentile Christians did not have to undergo the procedure. Other Jewish traditions were abandoned as well. Hence, his wise and just leadership discerned between a commandment of God – which must be obeyed – and a tradition of man which can be set aside – just as the Lord had said when He spoke of those who honor God with their lips but not with their hearts – who hold fast to the traditions of men while they ignore the commandments of God.

Now the controversy regarding what are true commandments and what constitutes mere human tradition continues in the church to this day. Even the importance of commandments – such obvious commandments and the Ten Commandments – remains variable. In some churches, God’s saving grace is so heavily emphasized that people ignore the commandments almost entirely – seeing them as recommendations only.

Hence, the admonition from Deuteronomy has little or no meaning for them – not to add or take away a word from them so as not to distort their meaning ands to teach them to future generations. In face, interpretation of the wrong sort is precisely what they do.

Jesus said, If you love me you will keep my commandments. And in the Great Commission charges us with these words, Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, [and] teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you… No ambiguity here – a direct commandment worthy of obedience.

Our Lord does give us a frame of reference for understanding – He sets as a priority the first and Great Commandment – Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind. And then He adds, And a second is like unto it – thou shalt love they neighbor as thyself – on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

Yet, although Jesus gives us the priority for understanding, we still interpret according to our own wills rather than to the will of God. The same applies to traditions as well. Until He comes again, the problem will continue. But all of us need to do our best to discern His will and avoid self-serving interpretations.

This morning, we share in the Sacrament of Holy Communion. Generally in congregational churches, we pass the elements from one to another to emphasize the priesthood of all believers. That’s part of our tradition.

In other parts of the church, only the priest himself is even allowed to touch the elements and only the bread is given to the communicant who comes forward to receive it. Some stand – others kneel. Some denominations give both the bread and the wine – and offer only wine – no grape juice – for the sake of complete authenticity. Many use grape juice for the sake of those who do not drink wine.

And in most cases, unleavened bread is used because the Sacrament recreates the Last Supper, a Passover meal. But our tradition uses risen bread to symbolize the resurrection.

All varieties of traditions – taken as doctrine – continue. Sadly these traditions have separated believers rather than united them in Christ. Sometimes, to keep the sacramental tradition, churches have even violated the commandment to love our neighbors as ourselves. Indeed, battles have been fought over the various traditions of interpretation. Blood has been shed over the shed Blood of Christ.

But just because something is a tradition – rather than a commandment – does not mean that the tradition is necessarily bad. Sometimes, one tradition is as good as another and sometimes different traditions bear witness to different angle of the same great Truth.

Jesus was challenged for His failure to wash His hands before eating. But just because, on this occasion Jesus did not wash His hands, on most occasions He and His disciples did. The issue here is that keeping the tradition is not required for salvation – but keeping the commandments is most certainly a part of salvation.

And when I say a part of salvation, I do not mean a works righteousness. We are saved by God’s grace operating through our faith. But manifesting that grace and that faith in good works is necessary to show the world what God has done. So that they will believe us in our claim to be Christian.

But I do want to conclude this message with an emphasis on the importance of keeping the Commandments. Deuteronomy instructs us to keep them for the sake of the nation – that by keeping the commandments, the nation will prosper.

There’s truth in that. Surly as the Ten Commandments have been abused – even ridiculed – in this nation, the very quality of life that we once enjoyed in this country has diminished.

Breaking God’s commandments has consequences. Keeping them brings the blessing of a better, more peaceful and prosperous life – with the possibility for the achievement of excellence in all human endeavors. Without the Ten Commandments, we slowly but surely sink into pagan barbarism. We have already seen this happen.

Our Lord commanded us to make disciples of all nations, baptize them in His name and teach them all that he has commanded. To the extent that we do this – and such obedience requires that we abandon all belief in the deceptions of spiritual equivalence between world religions – and abandon the erroneous celebration of spiritual diversity – to the extent that we faithfully obey our Lord and do what He has commanded, well to that extent all that’s good and right and true will prosper. If we fail, all that’s bad and wrong and deceptive will rule the day – and the nation.

As we keep the commandment and the tradition of this most sacred Sacrament, we must recommit ourselves to obedience – that taking His broken body and shed blood nurture us in ever increasing faithfulness so that we can – and will – be better people as we serve as His disciples, keeping His commandments.

Let us pray.
Heavenly Father, bless us and all who claim your name with the desire to obey you on all things. Deliver us from the popular deceptions of this world and keep us in your perfect Truth. And make of us we pray, instruments of your grace, your mercy and your peace that we may always honor and glorify your name –
the most holy name of your Son,
our only savior, Jesus Christ the Lord,
Amen.

Words of Eternal Life

Posted on August 26, 2012 by Howard Cepelak

Rev. Deacon Allen J. Batchelder
†
Trinity Church
Waltham, Massachusetts
August 26, 2012, Pentecost XIII

Joshua 24:1-2a, 14-18; Psalm 34:15-22, Ephesians 6:10-20; John 6:56-69

From the Book of Joshua:
“Now therefore fear the Lord, and serve Him in sincerity and in faithfulness; put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River, and in Egypt, and serve the Lord.”

From St. Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians:
Pray at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that utterance may be given me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel.

And from the Gospel of St. John:
After many of his disciples no longer followed him, Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you also wish to go away?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life; and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”

Let us pray:
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in thy sight, O God, our Rock and our Redeemer, our Strength and our Salvation.
Amen!

I heard a story on the radio this past week that I feel is worth repeating. Dr. Albert Einstein was riding on a train. The conductor entered the car and started punching people’s tickets. The conductor came upon Dr. Einstein and asked to see his ticket. Dr. Einstein was in a tizzy, trying to find his ticket. He looked in his coat pockets, his pants, on his seat, in his bag and on the floor; no ticket. The conductor calmed him down and said, “don’t worry Dr. Einstein, I know who you are. You don’t need a ticket.” Dr. Einstein thanked the conductor for his kindness. So the conductor continued down the aisle, punching people’s tickets. He got to the back of the car and was about to go into the next car when he happened to look back and see Dr. Einstein on the floor, still looking for his ticket. So, the conductor went back to Dr. Einstein, put his hand on his shoulder and said, “Dr. Einstein, I know who you are, you don’t need a ticket.” Dr. Einstein responded, “I know who I am, but I don’t know where I am going.”

I don’t know if this story is true or not, but I am sure many of us can relate to a momentary loss of memory. Have you ever climbed up the stairs in your house and entered your bedroom only to ask yourself: now what did I come up here for? Now if I go upstairs for two items, let’s say a book and my wallet. I come downstairs only to realize I remembered only the book and not the wallet too. Then I say, “Oh sugar” and have to go back upstairs for my wallet. Unfortunately, a little memory loss from time to time is part of the aging process for some of us.

The important lesson to this story is Dr. Einstein saying, “I don’t know where I am going.” This could be a problem for many people, including Christians, if they don’t know where they are going after their life on earth is done.

In our Gospel reading this morning, we once again have a Communion theme. Jesus said, “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me. This is the bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live forever.”

When Jesus called Himself “the Living Bread,” He was not claiming to be exactly like the manna the Jews’ forefathers ate in the wilderness. He was claiming to be even greater! The manna only sustained life for the Jews, but Jesus gives life to the whole world. The Jews ate manna daily and eventually died; but when you receive Jesus Christ within, you live forever. When God gave the manna, he gave only a gift; but when Jesus came, He gave Himself. There was no cost to God in sending the manna each day, but He gave His Son at great cost. The Jews had to eat the manna every day, but the sinner who trusts Christ once is given eternal life.

This is just another example in John’s Gospel of the people misunderstanding a spiritual truth by treating it literally. Being orthodox Jews, the listeners knew the divine prohibition against eating human flesh or drinking any kind of blood (Gen. 9:3-4; Lev. 17:10-16). All Jesus said was, “Just as you take food and drink within your body and it becomes a part of you, so you must receive me within your innermost being so that I can give you life.”

Our Lord’s teaching was not hard to understand but hard to accept once you understood it. The Jewish religious leaders both misunderstood His words and rejected them. They were “offended” by what He taught. They stumbled over the fact that He claimed to come down from heaven. They also stumbled over the idea that they had to eat His flesh and drink His blood in order to be saved. But if they stumbled over these two matters, what would they do if they saw Him ascend back into heaven? (John 6:62).

Jesus explained that His language was figurative and spiritual, not literal. There is no salvation in “flesh.” In fact, the New Testament has nothing good to say about “the flesh.”

How, then, do we “eat His flesh and drink His blood?” Through the Word. “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life” (John 6:63). “And the Word became flesh” (John 1:14). Our Lord said the same thing: “He that heareth My word and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life” (John 5:24). The scribes who knew Jeremiah would have understood the concept of receiving God’s Word into one’s inner being. For Jeremiah said, “this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”

Jesus further explained how the sinner can come to God: it is through the truth of the Word (John 6:44-45). The Father draws the sinner by His Word. It is through the Word that God draws people to the Saviour. The sinner hears, learns, and comes as the Father draws him. A mystery? Yes! A blessed reality? Yes! It is by the Word that we “see” God and receive the faith to come to Christ and trust Him (Rom. 10:17).

The result of this message was the loss of most of our Lord’s disciples. They went back to the old life, the old religion, and the old hopeless situation. Jesus Christ is “the way” (John 14:6), but they would not walk with Him.

When Jesus asked His 12 Apostles if they planned to desert Him too, it was Peter who spoke up and declared their faith. Where else could they go? “Thou hast the words of eternal life.” Peter got the message! He knew that Jesus was speaking about the Word and not about literal flesh and blood.

The preaching of the Word of God always leads to a sifting of the hearts of the listeners. God draws sinners to the Saviour through the power of truth, His Word. Those who reject the Word will reject the Saviour. Those who receive the Word will receive the Saviour and experience the new birth, eternal life.

It comes down to choices. Do you choose God or some other god or idol? Actually, anything that stands as a barrier between you and God could be viewed as worshiping a “god” or idol. It could be money and possessions; it could even be your spouse and family. God tested Abraham to see if he was willing to sacrifice his first born son, Isaac. When Abraham proved his faithfulness, God provided the sacrificial lamb instead. If you put God first in your life, everything else falls into place.

We live in a society, especially in New England, where Christianity or religion in general is viewed as not important. Sports practices are scheduled on Sunday mornings and there are no longer Blue Laws. Law suits have been filed against a growing number of cities, towns and schools that have traditionally offered prayers before an event. All it seems to take is one individual or organization to force their views on the general public. Christians and other religions have for the most part remained silent and allowed it to happen. Our founding fathers did not want the government to establish a state religion, but they certainly didn’t want a godless society either.

It seems no matter where we look in modern society, we see antagonism, division, and rebellion. Husbands and wives are divorcing each other; children are rebelling against their parents; and employers and employees are seeking for new ways to avoid strikes and keep the machinery of industry running productively. We have a government that actually is encouraging division and lawlessness. We have tried education, legislation, and every other approach, but nothing seems to work. St. Paul’s solution to the antagonism in the home and in society was regeneration – a new heart from God and a new submission to Christ and to one another. Paul indicated that this spiritual harmony begins in the lives of Christians who are submitted to the lordship of Christ.

Sooner or later every believer discovers that the Christian life is a battleground, not a playground, and that he faces an enemy who is much stronger than he is – apart from the Lord.

As Christians, we face three enemies: the world, the flesh, and the devil (Eph. 2:1-3). “The world” refers to the system around us that is opposed to God, that caters to “the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” (1 John 2:15-17). “Society apart from God” is a simple, but accurate, definition of “the world.” “The flesh” is the old nature that we inherited from Adam, a nature that is opposed to God and can do nothing to please God. By Jesus’ death and resurrection, Christ overcame the world (John 16:33; Gal. 2:20), and the devil (Eph. 1:19-23). In other words, as believers, we do not fight for victory – we fight from victory! The Spirit of God enables us, by faith, to appropriate Christ’s victory for ourselves – salvation and eternal life.

In our Old Testament reading, Joshua made it clear that the people of Israel had to make a decision to serve the Lord God of Israel. There could be no neutrality. To serve God means to fear Him, obey Him, and worship only Him. It means to love Him and fix your heart on Him, obeying Him because you want to and not because you have to.

The Jews had to make a choice: if they decided to serve the Lord, then they would have to get rid of the false gods that some of them secretly were worshiping. Even after the great experience of the Exodus, some of the Jews still sacrificed to the gods of Egypt (Lev. 17:7; Amos 5:25-26; Acts 7:42-43; Ezek. 20:6-8). Jacob had given this same warning to his family and Samuel would give the same admonition in his day (1 Sam. 7:3ff).

Joshua wasn’t suggesting that the people could choose to worship the false gods of the land, and God would accept it; for there was no other option but to serve Jehovah. Being a wise and spiritual man, Joshua knew that everybody must worship something or someone, whether they realized it or not, because humanity is “incurably religious.” If the Jews didn’t worship the true God, they would end up worshiping the false gods of the wicked nations of Canaan. His point was that they couldn’t do both.

The people assured Joshua that they wanted to worship and serve only the Lord God of Israel, and they gave their reasons. The Lord had delivered them from Egypt, brought them through the wilderness, and taken them into their Promised Land.
Joshua had declared that he and his house would serve only the Lord, and the people said, “Therefore will we also serve the Lord; for he is our God.”

I have another story to tell you. I have to confess that I have another memory loss. I don’t remember whether I heard this story on the radio or I received it by email, but if you’ve heard it before, it’s still worth repeating.

There was a woman dying. She didn’t have too much longer to live. The Pastor of the church called on her to offer her love and support and answer any questions she might have as to where she was going. The woman asked the Pastor for a favor. “Sure if I can,” the Pastor responded. The woman told the Pastor that she had made arrangements after she died to have a fork placed in her hand in the casket. He was a little confused as to the significance of the fork, although he had seen other interesting articles placed in caskets in the past. So the Pastor asked the woman, “Why a fork? What’s the significance?” The woman told the Pastor about a church supper. You start out with some cheese and crackers and then on to a salad. Now comes the main course: very delicious. As the kitchen crew is clearing the tables of dirty dishes, the dinner guests are asked to “keep your fork for dessert” or “keep your fork for the best is yet to come.” The woman told the Pastor, “I want you to stand by the casket and tell the people the story of the church supper, that although my life on this earth is done, the fork will remind the people that the best is yet to come: Eternal Life with God!”

The Pastor was quite moved by this woman’s witness. She got it! She chose to proclaim the Words of God’s promise, that “he who believes in me, should not perish, but have eternal life.” Do you know where you are going? Remember the fork; the best is yet to come!

Let us pray:
Lord of all power and might, the author and giver of all good things. Graft in our hearts the love of your Name; increase in us true faith; nourish us with all goodness; and bring forth in us the fruit of good works. Help us to feed on your Word and acknowledge your promise of eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives, and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.

AMEN †

Food For Eternal Life

Posted on August 20, 2012 by Howard Cepelak

The Reverend J. Howard Cepelak

Trinity Church

Waltham, Massachusetts
Pentecost XII – 19 August 2012

I Kings 2:10-12, 3: 3-14; Psalm 111, Ephesians 5:15-20, John 6:51-58

From the First Book of Kings:
In response to King Solomon’s prayer for wisdom, the Lord said, I give you a wise and discerning mind, so that none like you has been before you and none like you will raise after you.

From Psalm 111:
Praise the Lord…he provides food for those who fear him…[and]
the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom….

From St. Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians:
The apostle wrote, Look carefully then how you walk…because the days are evil…do not be foolish…but be filled with the Spirit…always and for everything giving thanks in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the father.

And From the Gospel According to St. John:
Truly, truly, I say to you unless you eat the flesh of he Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you…he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life…for my flesh is food indeed and my blood in drink indeed.

Let us pray
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in thy sight, O God, our Rock and our Redeemer, our Strength and our Salvation,
Amen.

The lectionary lessons assigned for today continue the series on the true nature of the Sacrament of Holy Communion. All of them testify to the fact that our Lord Himself said, in no uncertain terms, you must eat my body and a drink my blood to inherit eternal life. As one bumper sticker, popular a few years read – The Bible – God said it. I believe it. That’s that! – well Jesus said it. I believe it and that’s that!

That’s why I teach the real presence of our Lord in the elements of bread and of wine – that He is really spiritually present to us in, on, over, under around and through those elements. I would not preach it if I did not believe it.

Amazingly, many denominations – some of them the most literalistic in their interpretation of the Bible, either ignore these unambiguous proclamations or interpret them in ways that they would not dare to interpret any other part of the Bible. If we are free to ignore His words, or to interpret them in any way that suits us, are we not free then to ignore other things we find difficult or disturbing or distasteful? If we interpret His words to mean that He really didn’t mean it, then what else did He NOT mean? You can easily see the problem.

Evangelical churches powerfully – and properly – emphasize being born again through baptism. Yet those very same churches almost never celebrate Holy Communion – sometimes only once a year or maybe quarterly – and when they do, they do so in a lack-luster manner.

When I attended the Robert Schuller Church Leadership Conferences in the late 90s, those conferences ended with the Sacrament of Holy Communion. The words of institution were spontaneous – made up as Dr. Schuller went along – as if the words had to, as they say, come from the heart – and as if coming from the heart would be better than the traditional words that proclaim the full meaning of the Sacrament as the Bible tells us.

The elements were offered casually – dramatically lacking in dignity, solemnity and reverence. And after the elements were dispensed, the disposable plastic communion cups were unceremoniously deposited in clear plastic garbage bags placed at the exit doors.

I do not have words to express how much I disdained the event, knowing as I do – and as does everyone who believes in our Lord’s words – that He spoke them because they were true – and are true – and will be forever true – so that we could take His Body into our bodies – that we might be made one body with Him – and He with us – and alive in His crucified and resurrected body, we can and we will – live forever – if we believe. If we do not believe, we’re lost.

Some may ask, How can you say that the bread and the wine are His body and His blood? I cannot – except for the fact that He said it. Back to the bumper sticker. He said it. I believe it. That’s that!

The Bible tells us that our Lord gave us two Sacraments – Christian Baptism and Holy Communion. Baptism, the Sacrament of entrance into the Christian faith, precedes Communion – it must. In the case of infant baptism, one must confirm that sacrament after having reached the age of reason. In the Rite of Confirmation, one literally confirms, by giving one’s voluntary consent, the Sacrament of Baptism. To properly receive Holy Communion, one must first proclaim one’s faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

We are wrong to think that Baptism is more important that Communion. Both have been given as the means of salvation. One is as important as the other, but with a big difference. We’re to receive Baptism once – but Communion continually. Both Sacraments require both the proper institution and reception. We cannot make them up as we go along and interpret them to suit us. Such practice leads to corruption of the Sacrament as various administrators alter the wording to suit their own theological agendas.

Baptism means being born again – being born into one’s new life in Christ. Yet, we all know that too many baptized individuals who fall away from their new life in Christ. Why?

Perhaps because being born again is not enough. That nee life requires nurture. It must be fed. It requires the nurture of the food – dare I say soul food – of His Body – and the drink of His blood to remain alive – now and forever. He will raise us up on the last day – if we eat that food. The Sacrament of Holy Communion nurtures and sustains the Sacrament of Baptism.

Well, we are saved by grace through faith – God’s grace given to operate in us and through us by virtue of our faith. And His grace, by His intention, is most fully available to us in and through His Sacraments.

But there’s also more to this. Salvation, although not achieved through works, nonetheless demands works as manifestations of the faith alive within us. As St. James so clearly taught, Faith without works is dead. He was right. Just believing and then living in a selfish, self centered, harmful manner – failing to keep our Lord’s commandments in an honest effort to do so, well, the way in which one lives one’s life either verifies or negates the believability of the faith.

Right and wrong – good or bad behavior – in other words, morals and ethics verify one’s new life, one’s new consciousness, in Christ. Good behavior bears witness to good faith. Bad behavior undermines the credibility of the faith.

St. Paul wrote about this in his letters to the various churches scattered around the ancient world. In this letter – better designated as an epistle due to the gravity and importance of the message – to the Ephesians, he urged them to good behavior saying, Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil.

The evil days of two thousand years ago continue to be evil today. If the first Christians were to be believed
in such a world, they had to live exemplary lives.

Obedience to Christ had to be visible in the pagan world if others were to come into the truth of this emerging religion. Such obedience, in this epistle, can be summed up in very simple admonitions. Treat each other respectfully, in kindness, forgiveness and in Christen love. Live orderly lives in gratitude to God. Be subject tone another out of reverence for Christ. Demonstrate that in your marriages because we, the church, are the bride of Christ.

Wisdom plays an essential role in all of this as well. Wisdom is one of Scriptures most highly valued
attributes. The Psalmist proclaims that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

We don’t like the fear part – so much so that in this sinful and adulterous generation so dramatically marked, even in our churches, with disobedience to God, even the word, fear has been virtually eliminated. Love has replaced it – but not the love of which Christ spoke but love in the soft, as I have said in so many other sermons – of the ooie- gooie, icky sticky kind rather than the hard love of obedience, self-restraint and self-sacrifice that characterizes authentic Christian love epitomized on the cross.

And wisdom for the Christian is not being wise in the ways of the world so as to practice those ways but rather wise in the since of King Solomon’s wisdom – to be able to discern good and evil and choose the good. We most certainly need to know the evil ways of this world – Jesus said, Be wise as serpents but innocent as doves – but not to practice them but to both avoid them and put into effect righteous ways to maximize goodness, kindness, and authentic godly love.

God richly blessed King Solomon because the king valued and asked for wisdom – for discernment. Solomon reigned and ruled in that wisdom. Yet even the great King Solomon indulged astounding foolishness. He allowed for the worship of his many wives pagan divinities. He honored and glorified those false gods and goddesses. Such a dramatic gap in his wisdom. Because of his foolishness – for all of his wisdom – he lost the kingdom for the future generations. Yes, disobedience has consequences.

Well, God sent us Himself in His Son, Jesus Christ – the one and only true King – the heavenly King present on earth to establish His kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. He has promised to return at the end of time to do jus that.

Back to the food for eternal life – the Sacrament of Holy Communion. Remember, that Sacrament is temporary given to us to continually nurture us in the One True Faith and Religion – to keep us alive in His life so that we can live forever. But we share in the Sacrament temporarily. It will end when He returns. The next time we celebrate Holy Communion notice how many times we say the words, until He comes again. When He returns we will not need the Sacrament for all of life will be the sacrament.

Hence the importance the proper institution of Holy Communion – as well as the proper administration of Baptism and Confirmation. It’s not just about how we may or may not feel – or even about what we may or may not think. Remember, thought is the higher power.

Part of the present evil is the glorification of feeling over thought – of emotion over reason. The prophet Jeremiah, are deceptive above all things. Yet we can indulge sinful rationality as well – the sins of the mind or the sins of the intellect.

Salvation is all about what God has given to us and our reception of His gift. The truly wise man knows this. And he walks in the love of and in the fear of the Lord because he knows the evil days of the present generation – the lies of self-aggrandizing and power hungry politicians, the indulgence of greed in both commerce and in government, lust and avarice in one’s more personal life – and the ease with which so many steal and kill – often in the name of their god – or gods – or goddesses. Wisdom with discernment – and most importantly wisdom and discernment in the One True Faith in the One True God opens the door to salvation.

One last word. One of the most dangerous characteristics of the corrupted church is the popular teaching that God is non-judgmental. That’s just a lie. God judges.

He knows our hearts, our minds and our deeds. He judges the entirety of our lives. We can fail the test. Or, trusting in the sacrifice of Christ, we can pass it. But the test of judgment remains a fearsome reality for those who do not – or do not want to – believe. Let us pray that fear will be the beginning of their wisdom. So be it.

Despite the evil in which every generation of Christians lives, the true believer nonetheless lives in joyful gratitude to God for the great gift of salvation given in and through the broken body and the shed blood of Jesus Christ – the food for eternal life. Baptized into His sacrifice, and sharing in His Great Sacrament, we can – and will live forever. So back to the bumper sticker – He said it. We believe it. That’s that!

Let us pray.
Heavenly Father, grant us the wisdom to live in obedience to the commandments of your Son, our only Savoir. Deliver us from the evil power brokers of this world and from the evil in our own hearts. Bless us with the power to discern good from evil and the desire to choose and to do the good. And grant that we may so live our lives that we will inherit life everlasting – in and through your Son, Jesus Christ the only Savior of the whole world. Amen.

Bread From Heaven

Posted on August 20, 2012 by Howard Cepelak

Bread From Heaven
The Reverend J. Howard Cepelak

Trinity Church

Waltham, Massachusetts

The Sacrament of Holy Communion

Pentecost X – 5 August 2012

Exodus 16:2-4, 9-15; Psalm 78:23-29, Ephesians 4:1-16, John 6:24-35

From the Book of Exodus:
The Lord said to Moses, I will rain bread from heaven for you…

From St. Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians:
Regarding the church’s unity in Jesus Christ, the apostle wrote, we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the cunning of men, by their craftiness in deceitful wiles. Rather, we are to grow up in every way into him, [that is, into Jesus Christ].

From the Gospel According to St. John:
Jesus said, Do not labor for food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life….my Father gives you the true bread from heaven to eat. I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst.

Let us pray.
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in thy sight, O God, our Rock and our Redeemer, our Strength and our Salvation.
Amen.

Back in mid-July, Carol Bailey e-mailed several of us a July 14th New York Times article entitled, Can Liberal Christianity Be Saved? The author, Ross Douthat, focused on the Episcopal Church in the USA in his article but what he has to say applies to all of our major, mainline denominations.

The article comes as a surprise since it was published in the New York Times – a paper now well known for its pro-spiritual diversity bias with an outright prejudice against traditional Christianity. Yet this article pretty much hits most of the nails on the head when it comes to an explanation of why our major denominations are failing. Failing is not the word – dying is. And that’s the word the author uses.

To say that all of Christianity is dying a slow death would be to distort the reality that traditional, conservative, morally and doctrinally orthodox churches continue to grow; in some places, at an astounding rate. We even see significant growth in atheist, Communist China. Although the government maintains a harsh surveillance on the churches, often intimidates and even imprisons Christians, the church nonetheless grows. Pastor Dae Kim just returned from a mission to China and has many inspiring stories to tell.

But the so-called liberal churches in America and in Europe have declined by about 70% since the mid 1970s. And since the year 2000, Sunday worship attendance has dropped another 23%. This applies not only to major Protestant churches but also to the progressive Roman Catholic congregations as well with only slightly different figures.

Just a note. We always need to define our terms. The progressive spirituality of today is regressive. Everything to which they hold fast and teach as truth is simply pre-Christian paganism redressed in contemporary clothes. Make no mistake; progressives regress. Forward means backward. And progressivism in the name of Jesus Christ blasphemes His most Holy Name. When I say blasphemes, I am being gentle in the tradition of St. Paul.

In spite of this, the progressive churches continue to proclaim their distorted religion, claiming relevance as they make themselves irrelevant, committing a slow suicide.

Yet we still hear the clarion call for change for the sake of relevance. We have to change to attract the young people, so they say, as precisely the opposite has happened. The changing churches have alienated the young people – young men and women who seek to cast their anchors in eternal Truth rather than be tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, [created] by the cunning of men, by their craftiness in deceitful ways.

As I said, young people today – as in previous generations – want to cast their anchors in the safe harbor of Jesus Christ and avoid the stormy seas of relativity, of the ever-changing and crafty and deceptive claims to truth. The ever-changing false doctrine offers no safe harbor.

In the traditional churches that held fast to Biblically revealed, sound doctrine flourishes and continues to do so. And their growth has come from young people -the very people that the liberals said were being driven away.

A bit of history. Progressive Christianity began in the late 19th century when the writings of Karl Marx had become fashionable among the academic elite. The Christian – Marxist dialogue began with the introduction of the social gospel, a combination of traditional Christian missions with the so-called progressive Marxist socialism.

It flourished for a while due to the fact, in the early days, the sound doctrine of the Biblical faith had not been abandoned. But that doctrine has been abandoned and the foundation for a wide variety of good works disappeared. Without the solid rock of Jesus Christ as the incarnation of God Himself – as The Way – The Truth and The Life, the movement morphed into a thinly veiled secularism. It fell apart. It had to fall apart. Christianity and Marxism are mutually exclusive religions; and Marxism is, in fact, a religion.

In the Christian / Marxist dialogue, Christianity lost and Marxism won. That’s because authentic Christians would not participate in the discussion in the first place. The faithful Christian would never consider a compromise with an atheist. Only those already enamored with Marxism involved themselves in the dialogue – which quickly became a Marxist monologue. Rather than Christian missions like the Salvation Army, an authentic non-socialist, social mission which feeds the hungry and clothes the naked in the name of Jesus Christ, the social gospel – that is, the socialist gospel – a false gospel against which St. Paul and all of the other apostles preached – has turned our churches into political lobbies, advocating for the progressive, socialist movement. Government financing has replaced support from the pledges and tithes of faithful church people.

Lobbying the government to do what our Lord commanded us to do has become the norm in the dying denominations. Evangelizing for Jesus Christ has been eliminated – in many cases, prohibited – as has Christian worship and prayer. Secularism as a religion has taken its place.

The progressives grumble – they complain, proclaim themselves victims, devoid of rights and as marginalized persons. They always shout, I am offended! But as they have taken power – and they do have the power in our mainline denominations – they have not been kind, inclusive, open minded or generous. As they continue to grumble and complain, they victimize and marginalize traditional, conservative Christians.

A major turning point came in 1976 when eleven women were ordained to the Episcopal priesthood, illegal under canon law. They pleaded for acceptance on the grounds of conscience. Conservatives, respectful of personal conscience as a moral force, accommodated that plea.

But now as the progressives have won the day, they marginalize those who do not believe in the ordination of women, preventing them in many cases from serving as priests or even receiving ordination. They even attempted to confiscate the pensions of previously ordained men. Thankfully, secular law prevented that. But they tried in astounding self-righteousness.

Every Episcopal priest today knows – as do all the men in the ministry of any mainline Protestant church – that if you seek to advance in the denomination you must comply. Conscience, as well as faithfulness to Biblically revealed doctrine, no longer has anything to do with ministry. Submission to the power brokers is the current name of the game.

Well, as I said, the progressives grumble and complain. Nothing new about that. Even before our Lord called His church into being, God’s chosen people grumbled and complained. They grumbled and complained when they were enslaved in Egypt. Then God sent Moses to deliver them from Pharaoh’s bitter yoke. No sooner out of Egypt, they immediately grumbled and complained once again. Better to be slaves in Egypt where we had the fleshpots from which to eat that to starve out here in the wilderness. So went their lament.

Yet the Lord provided. He sent bread from heaven – manna in the wilderness – a miracle of His saving grace and of His astounding mercy shown to those who had little or no faith in Him. Remember the idol of the golden calf? They worshipped the idol. Yet in spite of that idolatry, God provided. Such is His great goodness.

The New York Times article concludes with these words regarding the progressive denominations. [T]heir fate is nearly certain: they will change, and change, and die. And so they must. And so they should.

Yet we know one great Truth. Jesus Christ is the bread of Heaven. Like the sustaining manna in the wilderness – itself called the bread from heaven, so Jesus Christ came later in history as the living bread from heaven. Feeding on deception brings death. But feeding on the True Bread from Heaven brings life – both in this world an in the next.

As we keep on keeping the faith, even in the face of the most intense progressivism in the nation so heavily concentrated here in the northeast, we know that finally, our Lord will prevail. Much will be lost in the ongoing battle between His Truth and progressive deception. True saints will fall defending the cause. Some battles will be lost.

But the final victory belongs to Him. He has already won the war – the war that He fought on the cross. Those who believe in Him and feed on Him as the living bread from heaven will, in the end, prevail.

So remember our Lord’s words when He said, I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst. Come to this sacred table. Feed on the bread from heaven – His true body – and drink from the cup of salvation – His true blood – and live forever.

Let us pray.
Heavenly Father, deliver your church from the prevailing deception. Let your living Truth set your people free. Feed us with the bread from heaven and satisfy us with the cup of redemption that by your grace, through our faith, we may inherit your eternal kingdom. We ask this in the name of –
and for the sake of – your Son,
the only Savior, Jesus Christ,
Amen.

Seeing God

Posted on August 20, 2012 by Howard Cepelak

The Reverend J. Howard Cepelak

Trinity Church

Waltham, Massachusetts

Pentecost XI – 12 August 2012

I Kings 19:4-8, Psalm 34:1-8, Ephesians 4:25 – 5:2; John 6:35, 41-51

From the First Book of Kings:
Elijah the prophet, afraid of the death threats emanating from the evil queen, Jezebel, and discouraged in his vocation, spoke to the Lord and said, It is enough now, O Lord, take away my life…. [But] an angel touched him and said to him, Arise and eat.

From St. Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians:
Therefore, be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

From the Gospel According to St. John:
Jesus said, I am the bread of life …No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day…. I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh.

Let us pray.
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in thy sight, O God, our Rock and our Redeemer, our Strength and our Salvation,
Amen.

Although we may not see His face in the Sacrament as the hymn says, we do come intimately close to God as we partake – and we can see, by faith, the miracle of our salvation. We may see bread – but it is His body. We may taste wine – but it is His blood.

How do we know? Because He said so. He said, This is my body. And He said, This is my blood. He did not say This is a symbol of my body. Neither did He say This is a symbol of my blood. And He also said, that unless you eat my body and drink my blood you cannot inherit eternal life. Although theologians differ in their speculations on the nature of the resurrection on the last day – some saying that all persons – believers and non-believers alike will be raised up and face judgment, while others hold that only the true believers will experience the resurrection, nonetheless I, for one, do not want to miss that greatest of all events in my life – in my eternal life.

If we take the Word made flesh at His word, we will see, in the Sacrament, beyond sight – beyond elemental bread and beyond accidental wine to true body and true blood. Again, how do we know? Because He said so.

Now, what does it mean to see Christ? We do not have a photograph of our Lord and Savior. Cameras had not been invented until the middle of the nineteenth century. But, by virtue of the divine miracle, perhaps we do have a photograph. Perhaps we, in our generation have been blessed with that picture.

The face of our Lord just may be the three-dimensional photograph of the crucified man imbedded in the very fiber of the cloth of the Shroud of Turin. I know that this is controversial. Many true believers do not believe in the Shroud. But many other most certainly do.

I know that even as I say these words, many of you will think that the shroud has been scientifically proven to be inauthentic. After all, National Geographic said so. Scientists have tested it. They say that it’s not even 2,000 years old. Carbon dating has told us that it’s only about 800 years old – so they say.

Don’t be so quick to reject the authenticity of the shroud. Never has any of the linen fiber of the image itself been tested – only the cotton fabric on the edges – edges that had been reinforced due to fraying about 800 years ago. Note that the Shroud itself is linen, but some of the edges are cotton. Cotton had not been commonly used in the ancient Middle East 2,000 years ago. But it had begun to appear in the middle ages.

Furthermore, carbon dating cannot be accurate if any form of radioactivity – or, for that matter, even intense heat as from a fire – has effected the material being tested. The Shroud survived at least one major fire. But radioactivity?

How did the image get embedded in the cloth? The investigators can only say that it came from some unidentified source of intense light. Perhaps the image came about by the force of a radioactive light. All photographs are a function of light. The amazing three-dimensional image on the shroud had never been seen until modern technology advanced enough to both take and analysis take photographs.

Today due to modern technology, we have radiographs as well as photographs. Radiographs are basically photographs resulting from radioactivity. Well, think about it. God created everything. He was – and is – and will be forever, light of light. He also created the force of radioactivity. It belongs to Him even though we did not even know it existed until modern human history. Our Lord’s resurrection, His being the true light of true light – well, you can complete the sentence.

Yet some will say, Even so, that’s just superstition. John Calvin, one of the most important of the Protestant Reformers, stood firmly over and against superstition. He rejected any form of relics, tokens or venerated objects as a kind of idolatry. As you know, Calvin’s teachings became the foundation of Presbyterianism and strongly influenced our Congregationalist / Puritan forebears.

Kennedy declared his belief in a Christmas sermon delivered just a few years before he died. Just as so many of us send Christmas cards with photographs of our children, so God perhaps sent us that kind of a card – a Christmas card with a picture of His Son. An interesting perspective.

I am not 100% convinced – but 99% comes pretty close. If Dr. Kennedy and I are wrong, so be it. No harm done. But if we are right, well we have seen the face of God – for the face of God the Father, pure Spirit, is perfectly revealed in the face of God the Son.

Superstition? No. Revelation. Yes. Again let me say, if we are wrong, no harm done. But if we are right and some do not believe, such great joy missed.

And besides, what difference does it make? People can believe without the shroud. They have for centuries. So, who cares? The point is well taken. But what if, in this age of disbelief, God has once again revealed Himself to us? One thing that we can all agree upon; God wants us to know Him, and in knowing Him, love Him and in loving Him, serve Him.

Keep this in mind as we look more closely at the Scripture lessons assigned for today. For the past three Sundays, the lectionary has focused on some of the most important and most beautiful passages from all of Scripture; all of which come from St. John’s Gospel and all of them referring to the true nature of the Sacrament of Holy Communion.

In these passages, Jesus Himself tells us, I am the bread of life – the living bread that has come down from heaven like the miraculous manna given by God in the wilderness. He also said (paraphrase), he who eats this bread will never again hunger but will live forever. He also promises us who partake of His broken Body and of His shed Blood, I will raise him up on the last day.

God offers us life and eternal life. The Sacrament comes from Him for that purpose.

All of life comes from God. He gives it. He takes it. As the ancient funeral liturgy proclaims, in a quotation
from the Book of Job, The Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

When Job spoke these words, he did not have the historical reality of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Hence, he did not know that, by faith in the crucified and risen Christ, that the gift of life in one’s soul is never taken away but rather transformed – and also, that the gift of life in one’s body is fully restored in our resurrections. Yet by faith, Job proclaimed the resurrection reality even in his time in history – he proclaimed it because God had reveled it to him. Job said, I know that my redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth; and though this body be destroyed, yet shall I see God; whom I shall see for myself and mine eyes behold and not another. Some translations say, and in my body I shall see God and my eyes behold him who is a friend and not a stranger. Even Job knew that God wants us to know Him and to see Him.

The power – the life giving and the life restoring power of the Word made flesh – the power of the sacrifice of that same flesh broken – for you and for me – that broken we may be made whole is a miracle. We will be raised up on the last day – resurrected just like Him – just like Jesus who laid aside His shroud and walked out of the tomb.

The prophet, Elijah also knew the life giving and the life restoring power of God. Having served his Lord courageously pronouncing judgment against the evil queen, Jezebel, and her equally wicked husband, King Ahab, the good prophet lost his courage. With Jezebel threatening his life, he fled in fear. Exhausted and afraid, He said, and I paraphrase, Lord, it’s all over. I can’t go on. I give up. Like the prophets that went before me, no one listens. I can’t take it anymore. Take my life and put an end to this.

But instead of taking his life, the Lord restored it. Ministering to Elijah through an angel, God miraculously provided a cake and some water for the failing and discouraged man. The angel said, Arise and Eat. He did – and he lived. And finally, Jezebel was destroyed and Elijah lived – forever.

St. Paul had seen the Lord face to face. As a zealous persecutor of Christens, the Lord appeared to him in a vision that blinded him. Jesus asked him, Why do you persecute me? In his blindness, Paul came to know God’s power. He believed, knowing that he had been called into the Lord’s service.

St. Paul spent the rest of his life proclaiming the Gospel to non-believers. He called countless souls into the faith. In his Epistle to the Ephesians, the apostle encouraged them in their service to the Lord. He told them to put away falsehood and speak only the truth, do not sin in anger and never let the sun go down on your anger – good advice. He called them to honest labor, upbuilding speech, the avoidance of any form of slander and to extend kindness, forgiveness and tenderhearted, just as God had done to us in Jesus Christ. Hence he wrote, be imitators of God.

As some of you know, I attended the services at The Church of the Redeemer while on vacation in Sarasota, Fl. last month. The mission statement of that church reads as follows, to build up the Body of Christ by Word and Sacrament that … Jesus Christ may be known, loved, worshipped and obeyed…. Is this not the purpose of each of our lives as well as for any particular congregation? It was St. Paul’s purpose. It can be ours.

Regardless of the shroud of Turin or of any other manifestation of God’s mercy and grace, we do know one thing for sure. God wants us to know Him -to love Him – to worship Him and yes, to obey Him. He wants us to see Him face to face – and we will when He raises us up from our graves – if not before.

And we also know that the whole thing is a miracle – from creation to resurrection – it’s all a great, magnificent miracle received by faith.

Faith in the miracle – that’s what it’s all about. We cannot explain it. We can only proclaim it. That’s what I have attempted to do this morning.

So I will leave you with the words of someone who knew, loved, worshipped and obeyed God – Thomas Aquinas. Like St. Paul, he had been an evangelist proclaiming God’s miraculous revelation hundreds of year ago – long before photographs or radiographs or anything else of that nature.

Aquinas wrote, For those who believe, no explanation is necessary. But for those who do not believe, no explanation is possible.

So be it. Thanks be to God.

Let us pray.
Heavenly Father, bless us with the faith necessary to know you and to love you in the revelation of your Son and in the miracle of our salvation. Grant that in knowing you, we may obey you in lives of worship and of service to the greater glory of the same Lord, Jesus Christ, who one day we will see face to face.
We ask this in His most holy Name.
Amen. E

Seeing God
The Reverend J. Howard Cepelak

Trinity Church
E

Waltham, Massachusetts

Pentecost XI – 12 August 2012

I Kings 19:4-8, Psalm 34:1-8, Ephesians 4:25 – 5:2; John 6:35, 41-51

Let us pray.
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in thy sight, O God, our Rock and our Redeemer, our Strength and our Salvation,
Amen. E

The inspiration for this morning’s sermon comes from two sources; one being the assigned lectionary lessons and the other from the beautiful Communion hymn, Here, O My Lord, I See Thee Face to Face. We will sing that hymn immediately following the sermon even though this is not a Communion Sunday. It doesn’t matter. The words of the hymn tell us that in the Sacrament of Eternal Life, the Sacrament of Christian Nurture, The Sacrament of the Great Thanksgiving, which is the Sacrament of Holy Communion – it all comes together in the broken body and in the shed blood of Jesus Christ.
Although we may not see His face in the Sacrament as the hymn says, we do come intimately close to God as we partake – and we can see, by faith, the miracle of our salvation. We may see bread – but it is His body. We may taste wine – but it is His blood.
How do we know? Because He said so. He said, This is my body. And He said, This is my blood. He did not say This is a symbol of my body. Neither did He say This is a symbol of my blood. And He also said, that unless you eat my body and drink my blood you cannot inherit eternal life. Although theologians differ in their speculations on the nature of the resurrection on the last day – some saying that all persons – believers and non-believers alike will be raised up and face judgment, while others hold that only the true believers will experience the resurrection, nonetheless I, for one, do not want to miss that greatest of all events in my life – in my eternal life.
If we take the Word made flesh at His word, we will see, in the Sacrament, beyond sight – beyond elemental bread and beyond accidental wine to true body and true blood. Again, how do we know? Because He said so.
Now, what does it mean to see Christ? We do not have a photograph of our Lord and Savior. Cameras had not been invented until the middle of the nineteenth century. But, by virtue of the divine miracle, perhaps we do have a photograph. Perhaps we, in our generation have been blessed with that picture.
The face of our Lord just may be the three-dimensional photograph of the crucified man imbedded in the very fiber of the cloth of the Shroud of Turin. I know that this is controversial. Many true believers do not believe in the Shroud. But many other most certainly do.
I know that even as I say these words, many of you will think that the shroud has been scientifically proven to be inauthentic. After all, National Geographic said so. Scientists have tested it. They say that it’s not even 2,000 years old. Carbon dating has told us that it’s only about 800 years old – so they say.
Don’t be so quick to reject the authenticity of the shroud. Never has any of the linen fiber of the image itself been tested – only the cotton fabric on the edges – edges that had been reinforced due to fraying about 800 years ago. Note that the Shroud itself is linen, but some of the edges are cotton. Cotton had not been commonly used in the ancient Middle East 2,000 years ago. But it had begun to appear in the middle ages.
Furthermore, carbon dating cannot be accurate if any form of radioactivity – or, for that matter, even intense heat as from a fire – has effected the material being tested. The Shroud survived at least one major fire. But radioactivity?
How did the image get embedded in the cloth? The investigators can only say that it came from some unidentified source of intense light. Perhaps the image came about by the force of a radioactive light. All photographs are a function of light. The amazing three-dimensional image on the shroud had never been seen until modern technology advanced enough to both take and analysis take photographs.
Today due to modern technology, we have radiographs as well as photographs. Radiographs are basically photographs resulting from radioactivity. Well, think about it. God created everything. He was – and is – and will be forever, light of light. He also created the force of radioactivity. It belongs to Him even though we did not even know it existed until modern human history. Our Lord’s resurrection, His being the true light of true light – well, you can complete the sentence.
Yet some will say, Even so, that’s just superstition. John Calvin, one of the most important of the Protestant Reformers, stood firmly over and against superstition. He rejected any form of relics, tokens or venerated objects as a kind of idolatry. As you know, Calvin’s teachings became the foundation of Presbyterianism and strongly influenced our Congregationalist / Puritan forebears.

Many of you will remember with great affection and equally great respect, the Rev. D. James Kennedy, the famous Presbyterian preacher who used to televise his services from the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Ft. Lauderdale, Fl – those broadcasts ending with his sudden death in 2007. Although a strict Calvinist, he became convinced of the shroud’s authenticity – not as an idolatrous relic subject to superstition but as a gift from God that we may see His Son face to face.
Kennedy declared his belief in a Christmas sermon delivered just a few years before he died. Just as so many of us send Christmas cards with photographs of our children, so God perhaps sent us that kind of a card – a Christmas card with a picture of His Son. An interesting perspective.
I am not 100% convinced – but 99% comes pretty close. If Dr. Kennedy and I are wrong, so be it. No harm done. But if we are right, well we have seen the face of God – for the face of God the Father, pure Spirit, is perfectly revealed in the face of God the Son.
Superstition? No. Revelation. Yes. Again let me say, if we are wrong, no harm done. But if we are right and some do not believe, such great joy missed.
And besides, what difference does it make? People can believe without the shroud. They have for centuries. So, who cares? The point is well taken. But what if, in this age of disbelief, God has once again revealed Himself to us? One thing that we can all agree upon; God wants us to know Him, and in knowing Him, love Him and in loving Him, serve Him.
Keep this in mind as we look more closely at the Scripture lessons assigned for today. For the past three Sundays, the lectionary has focused on some of the most important and most beautiful passages from all of Scripture; all of which come from St. John’s Gospel and all of them referring to the true nature of the Sacrament of Holy Communion.
In these passages, Jesus Himself tells us, I am the bread of life – the living bread that has come down from heaven like the miraculous manna given by God in the wilderness. He also said (paraphrase), he who eats this bread will never again hunger but will live forever. He also promises us who partake of His broken Body and of His shed Blood, I will raise him up on the last day.
God offers us life and eternal life. The Sacrament comes from Him for that purpose.
All of life comes from God. He gives it. He takes it. As the ancient funeral liturgy proclaims, in a quotation from the Book of Job, The Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
When Job spoke these words, he did not have the historical reality of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Hence, he did not know that, by faith in the crucified and risen Christ, that the gift of life in one’s soul is never taken away but rather transformed – and also, that the gift of life in one’s body is fully restored in our resurrections. Yet by faith, Job proclaimed the resurrection reality even in his time in history – he proclaimed it because God had reveled it to him. Job said, I know that my redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth; and though this body be destroyed, yet shall I see God; whom I shall see for myself and mine eyes behold and not another. Some translations say, and in my body I shall see God and my eyes behold him who is a friend and not a stranger. Even Job knew that God wants us to know Him and to see Him.
The power – the life giving and the life restoring power of the Word made flesh – the power of the sacrifice of that same flesh broken – for you and for me – that broken we may be made whole is a miracle. We will be raised up on the last day – resurrected just like Him – just like Jesus who laid aside His shroud and walked out of the tomb.
The prophet, Elijah also knew the life giving and the life restoring power of God. Having served his Lord courageously pronouncing judgment against the evil queen, Jezebel, and her equally wicked husband, King Ahab, the good prophet lost his courage. With Jezebel threatening his life, he fled in fear. Exhausted and afraid, He said, and I paraphrase, Lord, it’s all over. I can’t go on. I give up. Like the prophets that went before me, no one listens. I can’t take it anymore. Take my life and put an end to this.
But instead of taking his life, the Lord restored it. Ministering to Elijah through an angel, God miraculously provided a cake and some water for the failing and discouraged man. The angel said, Arise and Eat. He did – and he lived. And finally, Jezebel was destroyed and Elijah lived – forever.
St. Paul had seen the Lord face to face. As a zealous persecutor of Christens, the Lord appeared to him in a vision that blinded him. Jesus asked him, Why do you persecute me? In his blindness, Paul came to know God’s power. He believed, knowing that he had been called into the Lord’s service.
St. Paul spent the rest of his life proclaiming the Gospel to non-believers. He called countless souls into the faith. In his Epistle to the Ephesians, the apostle encouraged them in their service to the Lord. He told them to put away falsehood and speak only the truth, do not sin in anger and never let the sun go down on your anger – good advice. He called them to honest labor, upbuilding speech, the avoidance of any form of slander and to extend kindness, forgiveness and tenderhearted, just as God had done to us in Jesus Christ. Hence he wrote, be imitators of God.
As some of you know, I attended the services at The Church of the Redeemer while on vacation in Sarasota, Fl. last month. The mission statement of that church reads as follows, to build up the Body of Christ by Word and Sacrament that … Jesus Christ may be known, loved, worshipped and obeyed…. Is this not the purpose of each of our lives as well as for any particular congregation? It was St. Paul’s purpose. It can be ours.
Regardless of the shroud of Turin or of any other manifestation of God’s mercy and grace, we do know one thing for sure. God wants us to know Him -to love Him – to worship Him and yes, to obey Him. He wants us to see Him face to face – and we will when He raises us up from our graves – if not before.
And we also know that the whole thing is a miracle – from creation to resurrection – it’s all a great, magnificent miracle received by faith.

Faith in the miracle – that’s what it’s all about. We cannot explain it. We can only proclaim it. That’s what I have attempted to do this morning.
So I will leave you with the words of someone who knew, loved, worshipped and obeyed God – Thomas Aquinas. Like St. Paul, he had been an evangelist proclaiming God’s miraculous revelation hundreds of year ago – long before photographs or radiographs or anything else of that nature.
Aquinas wrote, For those who believe, no explanation is necessary. But for those who do not believe, no explanation is possible.

So be it. Thanks be to God.

Multitudes and Miracles

Posted on August 11, 2012 by Howard Cepelak

The Reverend J. Howard Cepelak

Trinity Church

Waltham, Massachusetts
Pentecost IX – 29 July 2012

II Kings 4:42-44, Psalm 145:10-18, Ephesians 3:14-21, John 6:1-14

From the Second Book of Kings:
The prophet, Elisha commanded his servant saying,
Give [the bread] to the men, that they may eat…They shall eat and have some left.

From St. Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians:
The apostle wrote, For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named…that he may grant you to be strengthened with might through his Spirit in the inner man…and be filled with all the fullness of God.

From the Gospel According to St. John:
After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee…. And a multitude followed him, because they saw the signs which he did on those who were diseased.

Let us pray.
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in thy sight, O God, our Rock and our Redeemer, our Strength and our Salvation,
Amen.

Whenever I preach about the feeding of the five thousand, I feel compelled to say that this account is an account of an actual miracle, a miracle being defined as a supernatural intervention into a natural process. Ever since I can remember, people have interpreted this as less than that – as a story of sharing between all the people who had brought some amount of food with them and simply shared it with each other having been inspired to do so by the presence of – and teaching of – Jesus.

But the account tells us that this was, indeed, an actual miracle in the true sense of the word. The sharing interpretation just did not happen. It tells us that God took five loaves and two fishes – natural things and by His supernatural power, multiplied them in order to feed the five thousand.

Those who seek to explain this – and so many of the other true miracles born witness to in Scripture – are people who do not actually believe in God’s supernatural intervention in this natural world. They just don’t believe in miracles.

What they forget is that, when you really think about it, everything derives from the one great miracle of the creation of the world, the giving of life to material substance by supernatural will and of the reality that God did that. Skeptics will, of course, challenge that, saying that the creation is just a part of a natural process that occurred as a matter of happenstance, luck or coincidence.

Believing that, they have to explain away our Lord’s miracles as something natural. Again, that’s not what Scripture proclaims.

And after forty years of ministry, I know that in most cases, those who do not believe will not believe – even though they are the beneficiaries of the miracle of life. They may be among those of whom our Lord spoke who do not have ears to hear or eyes to see. So be it.

This unbelief is dangerous. If we are saved by grace operating through faith as the Scriptures proclaim – and we do not have faith – then God’s grace will not operate in, on, over, under, around and through us. If that’s the case, eternal life – another great miracle – will not deliver those souls from natural death that all mankind experiences to supernatural, eternal life.

If salvation can come to them, it’s only by virtue of the miracle of God’s mercy. But salvation of non-believers remains speculation rather than Biblical revelation – other than those whom our Lord has designated as His sheep in other folds. Again, I can only say, So be it. All of this remains in God’s hands. He saves according to His will – not ours.

Now when the multitudes went to Jesus, having seen or heard about the signs – miraculous signs of healings – that He had already done, they came seeking the same for themselves or for their loved ones. They came seeking the true miracle.

As I said in last Sunday’s sermon when I referenced the 1969 rock opera, Tommy, one of the most touching songs in that production is See Me, Feel Me, Touch Me, Heal Me – That’s what we – and the multitudes who went to Jesus some two thousand years ago – want from God – that He sees us and recognizes as ourselves and as His precious children – feels us by sharing in our human condition of suffering and pain – touches us so that we know for sure that He’s there and heals us. All of us want to be healed, free from illness and affliction – healthy, vigorous and vital.

Again, that’s what drew the multitudes of five thousand people to Jesus. Throughout His ministry, Jesus healed many. But in this case, He performed another miracle – He feed them with just five loaves of bread and two fishes. All of those present had enough to eat -in fact, more than enough because there were leftovers. The whole crowd benefited from that miracle and many others from a healing miracle as well.

It’s important to remember that not all were healed. As Theodore Ferris, Rector of Trinity Church, Copley Square and one of the most important preachers of the twentieth century said – and I paraphrase, God is more concerned that we be good rather than well, that we be holy rather than whole. Being well and whole remain important but it’s more important that we be good and holy.

Furthermore, Healing miracles are not exclusive to Jesus. They occur here and there throughout the Scriptures. Even the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand has an Old Testament precedent. The prophet Elisha performed the same miracle on a much smaller scale, some eight hundred years before the coming of our Lord. We read about that this morning. In that case, not only were all fed, but they, too, had leftovers.

Furthermore, we should note that all of these miracles are signs – sings that identify those miracle workers as agents of God’s mercy, as instruments of His power and as a method to direct the recipients’ attention off of themselves and onto God. That’s most important. The more we concentrate on ourselves, the less we appreciate God. And without God, we – ourselves – are nothing.

Jesus said that whoever looses himself for my sake finds him. But if we’re always searching for ourselves, we miss God – even if God were to stand before us in the flesh as He did in Jesus Christ. Scripture testifies to the fact that consumed with our ours wants, needs and desires, we will fail to live in the fullness of life promised if we concern ourselves first and foremost with Him.

Also, these miraculous signs come as gifts – as manifestations of the divine mercy and grace – and NOT as entitlements. The entitlement mentality separates us from God. A grateful mind-set brings us closer to Him.

Those who believe themselves to be entitled before God- if they persist – will be angry with Him. They want Him to be an instrument of their wills rather than submit themselves to His will. An attitude of I want, what I want, when I want it – and you are supposed to do it for me! alienates us from God. It’s a terrible sin. They not only miss the point, they miss the Savior.

Another aspect to all of this is how we perceive and appreciate – as well as participate in – the Sacrament of Holy Communion. Jesus took the loaves and the fishes – common, ordinary and natural food – and supernaturally transformed them into enough food to feed the multitudes.

So it is when we properly understand the Sacrament – often called the Sacrament of Christian Nurture. God takes the common, ordinary and natural foods of bread and of wine and miraculously transforms them into His body and His blood.

Even as I speak these words, many of you will say, You sound like a Roman Catholic – that’s transubstantiation – we don’t believe in that. The bread is just bread and the wine is just wine. They don’t change – just look at it. It’s still bread and it’s still wine.

I am not about to proclaim the miracle of transubstantiation – but I will boldly proclaim a miracle. And the miracle is just this. That although the bread and the wine appear the same and unchanged, in the miracle of proper institution and reception, our Lord is truly and fully present to us in, on, over, under, around and through those natural elements. The supernatural resurrected Christ offers Himself to us as a sign for sure – a sign that identifies Him as our Savior and points us in His direction – and through the symbols of the elements – a symbol being something that sands in for something else not seen – but He also comes fully present to us and for us in those elements. The elements become icons as they participate in the reality for which they sand. Although we cannot see that miracle with natural eyes, we can receive it by virtue of His supernatural grace.

A personal witness. For most of my life, I understood the Sacrament in terms of sign and symbol. But years ago, when I was attending church at the Church of he Advent, I went through a particularly difficult time. Talking about this to the Rector of that parish, he said to me that I should take the whole of that bad situation and, when he placed the bread in my hand, to simply say a silent prayer to the effect, Lord take this burden from me. I cannot handle this myself.

Well, I did. After the service, he asked me if I had done that and how I felt. I said that I had but felt pretty much the same. The miracle happened later that week – that by Wednesday the bad situation has not only resolved itself, but also left me in a better position than before with reconciliation with the others involved. The better position and the reconciliation were the unexpected but most highly valued leftovers.

St. Paul said in his letter to the Ephesians, I bow my knees before the Father – let me interrupt the quotation – try kneeling prayer – it puts one’s natural body in a position to receive the supernatural grace – very important – that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with might through his Spirit in the inner man…and be filled with all the fullness of God.

That pretty much sums it up. God’s will is that we be filled with Him rather that all filled up with ourselves- our laments, complaints, our aches and pains, our sufferings and afflictions. He wants us so alive in Him that, dead to ourselves, we can live forever – and be so much more alive as ourselves in terms of His original intention for us.

Filled with His might and acknowledging His glory, we can taste of His holiness, receive the miracle of His grace, be set free through His mercy and finally, when we have run the race set before us and receive the crown of life perfected in eternal life.

One last thought.

That perfection of eternal life comes even to our natural bodies – for at the end of time (which might have already happened but we have to catch up to it trapped as we are in space and time), He will open up our graves and raise us up – that alive in Him we may live forever in the miracle- offered to the multitudes – of resurrected life.

Let us pray.
Heavenly Father, deliver us fro many claim to an entitlement and bless us with the grace to know and obey your holy will. Make us instruments of your grace, mercy and peace and finally, bring us, at last, onto eternal life.
We ask this in the name of your Son,
our only Savior,
Jesus Christ, the crucified and risen Lord.
Amen.

Human Demands – Divine Response

Posted on July 25, 2012 by Howard Cepelak

The Reverend J. Howard Cepelak

Trinity Church

Waltham, Massachusetts
Pentecost VIII – 22 July 2012

Jeremiah 23:1-6, Psalm 23, Ephesians 2:11-22, Mark6:30-34, 53-56

From the Book of the Prophet, Jeremiah:
Jesus said, Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! Says the Lord…. You have scattered my flock, and have driven them away….

From the 23rd Psalm:
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want…and…I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

From St. Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians:
Concerning the reconciliation between Gentiles and Jews, the apostle wrote, So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone…

From the Gospel According to St. Mark:
…Immediately the people recognized him, and ran about the whole neighborhood and began to bring the sick people on their pallets to anywhere they heard he was

Let us pray.
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in thy sight, O God, our Rock and our Redeemer, our Strength and our Salvation,
Amen.

In 1969, the band known as The Who made rock and roll history when they released the first rock opera entitled, Tommy. The story for the opera centers on a deaf, dumb and blind boy named Tommy who is somewhat of a cult figure because, despite his afflictions, he becomes a pinball wizard. Although a pinball wizard, he remains afflicted and wants to be healed.

One of the most touching songs in the opera is entitled, See Me, Feel Me. In this song, the afflicted Tommy pleads in a kind of prayer, See me, feel me, touch me, heal me. Note that I said in a kind of prayer; sadly Tommy does not address this quasi-prayer to God, but rather offers it up to anyone or anything that just might be out there.

There’s an old joke about the Unitarians who worship an impersonal life force, or something similar. They address their prayers, To whom it may concern. All too many people in our generation offer up quasi -prayers to whoever or what ever just may be out there. I know one man who characterizes himself as an agnostic but who believes in prayer. When I questioned him about why he prays when he doesn’t really believe in God, he said, I pray just in case there’s something out there; kind of like a spiritual insurance policy.

Now, I am going to be bold enough to say that I believe that the One True God hears any and all prayers offered up from an honest and sincere heart. Yes, many non-believers do indeed have honest and sincere hearts even though their minds have not accepted the reality of God and they have not committed themselves to Him, Father, Son and Holy Ghost in heart, mind, body and soul. Yet I believe that God hears those honest prayers and often answers in the affirmative, granting the petition, intercession or supplication.

He does so because He loves His children and He wants His children to love Him – love Him freely, having chosen to love Him not because He brow beats them into submission – not because He gives them everything that they ask for as a kind of bribe, but because He wants them to know Him, to experience His goodness, His grace, His mercy and His peace – and in so doing, come to faith in Him.

God wants all of us to know Him – intimately. That’s why He, God the Father, condescended to take on human flesh and reveal Himself to us in God the Son, entered into human history as fully human and as fully divine in an incomprehensible, mysterious, divine miracle and then sacrificed Himself for His children for the sake of their salvation.

He came to us in Jesus Christ who spoke of Himself as the Good Shepherd who knows His sheep and whose sheep know Him. His sheep know His voice and hear His voice. And when they hear His voice, they follow. He will defend his sheep from the wolves – even to the point of laying down His life for His flock.

Yet, even the sheep who know Him will go astray – either by simply wandering away or by deliberately seeking what they believe to be greener pastures or a better shepherd. But we also know that the Good Shepherd will seek out the lost sheep and will bring them home. If they continue to wander, well, that’s a different story. Unlike real sheep, we, as sheep, have free will and can choose to finally separate ourselves from the Good Shepherd and from His flock – His flock being His true church. When that’s the case, the wolves move in and, literally, all hell can break loose.

Our Lord, the Good Shepherd, does have sheep in other folds. His sheep in those other folds are there for a purpose – a mystery to us but not to Him. He knows what’s He’s doing. They do know Him in a different way that do we who believe, but they live within the larger fold made up of all those who truly love Him.

Perhaps these sheep serve as His agents in flocks currently claimed as belonging to another shepherd – shepherds who are not the Good Shepherd but who may very well be wolves in shepherd’s clothing. These kinds of bad shepherds intentionally lead the sheep astray with false promises of the aforementioned greener pastures.

The apostle Paul knew that our Lord had sheep in other folds. That’s why he became the apostle to the Gentiles – to the Greek and Roman pagans who worshipped other gods and goddesses but who were really and truly – honestly and sincerely seeking the Lord but looking in the wrong places.

St. Paul enjoyed great success in his mission to those sheep. He brought thousands into the fold as he established churches all over the ancient world. He addressed them in his letter to the congregation at Ephesus saying, you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God built upon the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, Christ Jesus being the cornerstone in whom the whole structure is joined together…. St. Paul brought our Lord’s sheep from other folds into the fold of the True Good Shepherd.

One wonders why some responded – and continue to respond in our generation – to God’s call offered through St. Paul or offered through legitimate evangelists today – and others did not. One can only speculate that in they had and have ears to hear the Good Shepherd’s voice, recognized it and follow Him.

We also know that the bad shepherds continue to preach a false gospel, deliberately leading astray members of our Lord’s flock. They may be the one’s who promise health wealth and happiness as the benefit of claiming Christ – or the one’s who denounce Jesus Christ as the one and only exclusive Savior of all mankind – or the one’s who seek to gender bend our Lord, His Father and in so doing compromise the Holy Spirit – the Spirit of Truth into a Spirit of deception.

These bad shepherds have been preaching from the beginning of time seeking to damage both the flock and the Good Shepherd. Such was the case in Jeremiah’s generation – some 600 years before the coming of our Lord.
Thus the prophet proclaims, Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! Scripture is consistent that a harsh judgment falls upon those who deliberately attempt to lead others astray.

One very effective method to lead others astray is to undermine the efficacy of prayer. They will claim that prayer is futile, that either there is no God who hears or if he / she / they / it hears, will not respond.

Surely some prayers are not heard – of if heard are not received. These are what one can call the human demand prayers – prayers offered up as a demand rather than a request – prayers that function consciously or unconsciously as an effort to make God into an instrument of the person’s will rather than in the spirit of submission to His will. That’s why our Lord’s words, offered in His prayer of supplication and petition at Gethsemane, Thy will, not mine, be done.

Such exploitive demand prayers meet rejection. God will never abandon His authority as the Shepherd and give it to any of His sheep. The demand prayers are either rejected or answered with a definitive and absolute No!

All of us share in Tommy’s affliction – we’re often deaf to God’s Word, dumb in our proclamation and blind to His vision. All of us can petition, See me, feel me, touch me, heal me. We can – and we should. Right from the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, people flocked to Him seeking healing. He could not escape the crowds.

Surely, the victims of the shooting in Aurora, Colorado last week have offered up that prayer. Such a horrible event causes even the doubters, the non-believers and those who sense that there just might be someone out there – to pray. But never should any of us seek to make Him the instrument of our wills. That’s when the supplication – the petition – becomes a demand.

For those who know that Jesus Christ is the Good Shepherd – the only Good shepherd – they also know that they shall not want of anything essential for salvation. They know that His pastures are the greenest and that the pastures that seem to be greener are Astroturf. Furthermore, they know, because the Good Shepherd has indeed laid down His life for His sheep, that they shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. And that’s the whole point.

Let us pray.

Heavenly Father, grant that we may be faithful sheep in your fold. Deliver us from the temptation to wander away or to run away from your rod and your staff. Comfort us, O Lord, and keep us safe from the wolves in shepherd’s clothing who seek to separate us from you. And make of us men and women who hear your voice, speak your Word and see the glory of your grace – and live our lives so as to bring honor and glory to your Son,
our only Savior
and the One True Good Shepherd
of all mankind,
in whose name we offer this
and all our prayers.
Amen.

More On Power

Posted on July 15, 2012 by Howard Cepelak

The Reverend J. Howard Cepelak

Trinity Church

Waltham, Massachusetts
Pentecost VII – 15 July 2012

Amos 7:7-15, Psalm 123, II Corinthians 12:2-10, Mark 6:1-13

From the Book of the Prophet, Amos:
Speaking to the prophet, the LORD said, Behold, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel…

From St. Paul’s Second Epistle to the Church at Corinth:
Regarding the thorn in his flesh, the apostle wrote, Three times I besought the Lord about this, that it should leave me; but he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.

And from the Gospel according to St. Mark:
Many of the people who had heard Jesus’ teaching in the synagogue in his home town and having heard of his great deeds in other places, they asked, Where did this man get all this? What is the wisdom given to him? What mighty works are wrought by his hands!

Let us pray.
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in thy sight, O God, our Rock and our Redeemer, our Strength and our Salvation.
Amen.

This morning’s sermon is somewhat of a continuation of my sermon of July 1st in which I spoke about the power of God moving in and through history. In that sermon, I specifically referenced the founding of the United States of America by men open and receptive to serve as instruments of the divine providence – a favorite expression among our Founding Fathers – as God worked in their historical time period to establish this nation.

God working out His will in human history has been true, of course, from the first moments of creation. From the Garden of Eden to the Garden of Gethsemane, He moved powerfully in this world in and through His chosen people. He judged men and nations. He established and brought down men and nations. And He called out and built up men and nations. He anointed kings and judged them. All by the power of His will working in human history.

For you and for me, living two thousand years after Gethsemane, we bear witness to His most powerful intervention in history – the crucifixion and resurrection of His Son, the world’s only Savior, Jesus Christ. On the cross and out of the tomb, we see God’s power most perfectly manifested.

His resurrection power – the only power that can bring life from death – the creative and re-creative power in which we literally live comes from God. But other powers remain present in this world – unholy powers that seek death and destruction.

The question for us is how do we tell the difference between the powers of goodness and life – Christ power, and the powers of death and destruction? Since the evil powers always decorate themselves as good powers, how do we know the difference?

Well, God has given us a plumb line – a plumb line being the line dropped by the stonemason or a builder to establish the straight line so that he can build the wall or the building straight and strong. The plumb line sets the standard.

The prophet Amos proclaimed this message to the people – that God has given a plumb line – a standard against which all things could be measured. For them, the plumb line was the divinely revealed law combined with the prophetic message that revealed all that’s good and right and true.

Amos lived at a time in history in which the Hebrew people enjoyed great prosperity and peace. Fat and happy, so to speak, they began to indulge themselves, believing that these great blessings were an entitlement and wanting – indeed, demanding – more and more of life’s greatest pleasures. The politically powerful used – rather abused – their power – always a divine trust and hence subject to the divine judgment – to further their own interests, increase their own wealth, insure ever increasing comforts and pleasures all at the expense of the common people.

And regarding the common people, well, many of them enjoyed a good life as well. Some poorer people were exploited for sure, but many common people lived well. Everyone wanted more.

What they did not want was the law of the One True God. That law, the plumb line for goodness, did not serve their purposes. The gods and goddesses of the pagans offered them what the wanted – license to indulge self-gratification as if it were a divine entitlement. So the went pagan.

The unrestrained fulfillment of self-gratification, which looks so attractive on the surface, leads to the downward spiral of the quality of life with ever increasing suffering and pain resulting in the aforementioned death and destruction. True then. True now.

Amos called for authentic justice in society as well as for personal honesty and integrity. The King would bear the greatest judgment because he had been given the greatest power. All those who abused that power would face condemnation if they failed to repent. But repentance would bring on a new age of goodness, righteousness, blessing and truth. God made the offer. He left the king and the people free to choose to either accept or reject that offer.

So, another question for us. Do we see God’s hand moving powerfully in our present history? Or, as so many today believe, has He abandoned us to our own devices? Has He withdrawn His righteous power from our power plays, from our politics? And, will we see no other manifestations of His power until he comes again to judge the world at the end of time – the ultimate judgment of all the power brokers since the Lord will return as the King of Kings?

In most cases, we do not even talk about the will of God regarding political issues or about the will of God regarding the politicians. We avoid this – at least most of the time -since devoted friends can become bitter enemies when it comes to discussions in this realm. Committed to his or her own choice of candidates, both might believe that God favors the one over the other – that God intends that one be elected and the other defeated and that God’s power will bless the politician’s power.

But more likely, people select their candidates without regard for God’s will. I fear that most people really believe that God plays no role in the process whatsoever. Believing this, they fail to turn to God for help when the bad choices bit back and they fail to give thanks when the good prevails.

Regardless of our positions on the issues and on the candidates, I believe that God may have sent one to reveal a greater goodness and a higher truth and the other to manifest the true nature of political and social corruption, deception, evil and sin. If we will but open our eyes – if we will simply measure against God’s plumb line, then we will be able to discern the good one from the bad one.

God still does move in our history. But no politician can be our savior. God has already sent the Savior – the one and only Savior of the whole world as well as the one and only Savior of each of us. No other saviors will be coming. But the one and only Savior will come again.

Yet those who do not truly believe in Jesus Christ as the only Savior of all mankind or who believe in Him conditionally – well they continue to seek a savior and of all people are the most to be pitied. For in every case they will have placed their faith and their hope in a deceiver and they will become bitter and hopeless.

Two last thoughts. St. Paul placed all of his faith and all of his hope in Jesus Christ. For this apostle, Jesus Christ, the plumb line, gave him the strength and the courage to confront some of the most powerful forces in the ancient world. And in that struggle, Paul knew his own weakness. He knew that he was not a savior but that Jesus was – and the power of the Christ was perfected in the weakness of Paul. In Paul’s weakness, God’s grace sufficed.

And the very last thought. When Jesus taught in His hometown, the people marveled at his wisdom and at His mighty works. And they asked, Where did he get this wisdom and this power? Is this man not Mary’s son, the carpenter? Did he not grow up in this town? We know the family, his brothers and sisters. He’s noting special- just a regular guy like you and me. But the wisdom and the mighty deeds – Where does His power come from?

We know – as did a few of them – that His power came from God. Yet most of the people could not get out of themselves and into what was actually happening right before their eyes. Blind by lack of faith, they set themselves outside the realm of His redemptive power. His wisdom and His mighty works did nothing for them except to confuse them.

The moral to this story is just this. God has set the plumb line – Jesus Christ. God’s hand still moves powerfully in human history. His hand is moving now. He has set before us the ways of life and death. He wants us to choose life. But he leaves us the choice. Yet He will judge, measuring us against THE plumb line.

And one man is better than the other. Judge by the plumb line, Jesus Christ.

Let us pray.
Heavenly Father, bless all of us with eyes to see your truth and ears to hear your saving word. Use us for your purposes in this world and grant to us the willingness to serve you exclusively, to boldly proclaim the saving power of your Son and find your strength in our weakness.
We ask this in the name of your Son, the only Savior of all mankind, Jesus Christ the King,
Amen.

Commissioned

Posted on July 15, 2012 by Howard Cepelak

Rev. Deacon Allen J. Batchelder
†
Trinity Church
Waltham, Massachusetts
July 08, 2012, Pentecost VI

Ezekiel 2:1-5; Psalm 123, II Corinthians 12:2-10; Mark 6:1-13

From the Prophet Ezekiel:
“Son of man, I send you to the people of Israel, to a nation of rebels, who have rebelled against me; they and their fathers have transgressed against me to this very day.”

From the Second Letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians:
I will all the more gladly boast of my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities; for when I am weak, then I am strong.

And from the Gospel of St. Mark:
And he called to him the twelve, and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits.

Let us pray:
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in thy sight, O God, our Rock and our Redeemer, our Strength and our Salvation.
Amen!

My sermon title this morning is “Commissioned.” The word commission means: the act of granting authority to someone to carry out a certain job or duty. Like the Federal Trade Commission investigates false advertising. Since this is an election year with only five months remaining; do you think they will investigate any of the campaign ads for false advertising? Don’t we in effect commission our elected officials; do we not grant them authority to enact laws and regulations on our behalf? Our elected officials in turn elect judges, whose job is to interpret the law, and not legislate law. This is why it is so very important for us to be informed as to what our elected officials are doing. They need to realize that they work for us; they are commissioned by us, to do our will not theirs.

A few days ago, we celebrated the anniversary of our country’s independence. Our great country was founded by good faithful Christian men, with Judeo-Christian values and principles. God’s Holy Spirit commissioned and guided these brave men in forming our constitution and this nation. In recent years, however, God is being systematically removed from our society and unfortunately, we have let it happen. It didn’t happen overnight. It was gradual. We all need to repent and turn back to God, so that once again we can be that great nation that our founding fathers envisioned and God wants us to be.
It’s hard to believe that it has been almost four years since I was commissioned or ordained a Deacon. Called by God and this church to preach the Word of God and minister to His people. A calling that I am humbled and that I take very seriously.

But anyone who professes Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour, is also commissioned and ordained in Christ; to bring glory to God Almighty; that through Christ there is redemption, salvation and eternal life.

Our Old Testament reading this morning is about the prophet Ezekiel. Like Jeremiah, Zechariah, and John the Baptist, the Prophet Ezekiel, which means “God strengthens,” was called by God or commissioned from being a priest to serving as a prophet. As God’s spokesman to the Jewish exiles in the land of Babylon, he would rebuke them for their sins and expose their idolatry, but he would also reveal the glorious future the Lord had prepared for them. The Jewish people needed to face their sin and repent, but also realize that there is hope. Ezekiel was thirty years old at the time of being commissioned as a Prophet, the normal age for a priest to begin his ministry (Num. 4:1-3).

It would have been much easier for Ezekiel to remain a priest, for priests were highly esteemed by the Jews, and a priest could read the Law and learn everything he needed to know to do his work. Prophets were usually despised and persecuted. They received their messages and orders from the Lord as the occasion demanded and could never be sure what would happen next. It was dangerous to be a prophet. Most people resent being told about their sins and prefer to hear messages of cheer, not declarations of judgment.

Jeremiah had been ministering in Jerusalem for four years when Ezekiel was born in 622 B.C., but surely as he grew up, he paid attention to what Jeremiah was saying. It’s likely that Daniel and Ezekiel knew each other before the Captivity, though there’s no evidence they saw each other in Babylon. Ezekiel’s prophetic ministry was greatly needed in Babylon because false prophets abounded and were giving the Jewish people false hopes of a quick deliverance and a triumphant return to their land (Jer. 5:30-31; 27:1-11, 28:1-17). Jeremiah sent a letter to the Jews that they would be in Babylon for seventy years and therefore should settle down, raise families, and pray for their captors. But Jeremiah announced the ultimate fall of Babylon, a message the exiles were only too eager to hear.

The most difficult task of a prophet is to change people’s minds. This means pulling up the weeds of false theology and planting the good seed of the Word of God. It also means tearing down the flimsy thought structures that false prophets build and constructing in their place lasting buildings on solid foundations of truth (Ezek. 1:10).

Ezekiel was now to receive his official commission as a prophet of the Lord God, and the Lord told him he was facing a very difficult task. Whether it’s raising a family, teaching a Sunday school class, shepherding a church, or evangelizing in a distant nation, we have to accept people as they are before we can lead them to what God wants them to be.

As a result of beholding the vision, Ezekiel fell to the ground, completely overwhelmed by the glory of the Lord and the wonder of His providential working in the world.
Who but the sovereign Lord could have a throne like a chariot and move as quickly as He pleased? Who but the Lord could travel in the midst of a fiery whirlwind to accomplish His great purposes?

Ezekiel is called “son of man” in his book, a title that the Lord also gave to Daniel. “Son of man” is also a messianic title which the Lord Jesus applied to Himself when He was ministering on earth. But in the case of Daniel and Ezekiel, the title “son of man” emphasized their humanity and mortality. Ezekiel was face down in the dust when God spoke to him, reminding him and us of mankind’s humble beginning in the dust (Gen. 1:26; 3:19). “For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust” (Ps. 103:14). God remembers, but sometimes we forget.

There is a time to fall down in humble adoration, and there is a time to stand up and take orders (Josh. 7:6ff). The command of the Word and the power of the Spirit enabled Ezekiel to stand to his feet, and the Spirit entered him and strengthened him. On many occasions, the Spirit would lift him up and give him special power for his tasks. The important thing was that Ezekiel stand obediently before the Lord and listen to His Word.

Prophets weren’t people who majored only in foretelling the future, although that was part of their ministry. They were primarily forthtellers who declared God’s Word to the people. Sometimes they gave a message of judgment, but it was usually followed by a message of hope and forgiveness. The Jews needed to hear Ezekiel’s messages because they were rebellious, stiff-necked, and hard-hearted. They had revolted against the Lord and were obstinate in their refusal to submit to His will. Their refusal to obey the terms of the covenant had led to their defeat and capture by the Babylonian army. Even in their captivity, they were nursing false hopes that Egypt would come to their rescue or the Lord would do a great miracle.

Israel was God’s chosen people, a special nation, and yet they were acting like the Gentiles who didn’t have all the blessings and privileges God had given the Jews. This wasn’t a very encouraging word for the young prophet, but he was told in advance that his work would be difficult. But whether the people listened and obeyed or turned a deaf ear, Ezekiel had to be faithful to his task (1 Cor. 4:2).

In our Epistle reading, Saul, later to be called Paul, had a very dramatic commissioning on the road to Damascus. In the ninth chapter of Acts we read: “Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Now as he journeyed he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed about him. And he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” And he said, “Who are you Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting; but rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.”

God honored Paul by giving him visions and revelations. Paul saw the glorified Christ on the very day he was converted or commissioned (Acts 9:3). He saw a vision of Ananias coming to minister to him and he also had a vision from God when he was called to minister to the Gentiles (Acts 22:17).

During his ministry, he had visions from God to guide him and encourage him. It was by a vision that he was called to Macedonia (Acts 16:9). When the ministry was difficult in Corinth, God encouraged Paul by a vision. After his arrest in Jerusalem, Paul was again encouraged by a vision from God (Acts 23:11). An angel appeared to him in the midst of the storm and assured him that he and the passengers would be saved (Acts 27:23).

Along with these special visions that related to his call and ministry, spiritual revelations of divine truth were also communicated to Paul. God gave him a profound understanding of the plan of God for this present age.

God also honored Paul by taking him to heaven, and then sending him back to the earth again. This marvelous experience had taken place fourteen years before the writing of this letter to the Corinthians, which would place the experience in about the year A.D. 43. This would be the period in Paul’s life between his departure for Tarsus (Acts 9:30) and his visit from Barnabas (Acts 11:25-26).

So wonderful was this experience that Paul was not quite sure whether God had taken him bodily to heaven, or whether his spirit had left his body. Obviously, God had the power to do either. Paul affirmed here in his letter the reality of heaven and the ability of God to take people there. The third heaven is the same as “paradise,” the heaven of heavens where God dwells in glory. Thanks to modern science, man is able to fly above the heavenly clouds in an airplane; climb aboard a space ship and fly amongst the planets and heavenly stars, but man cannot get to God’s heaven without God’s help.

God honored Paul by granting him visions and revelations, and by taking him to heaven; but He honored him further by permitting him to hear “unspeakable words” while he was in heaven. He overheard the divine secrets that are shared only in heaven. These things could be spoken by God and by beings in heaven, but they could not be spoken by men.

There is no doubt that this vision of God’s glory was one of the sustaining powers in Paul’s life and ministry. No matter where he was – in prison, the deep, in dangerous travels – he knew that God was with him and that all was well.

You and I are not going to heaven till we die or till our Lord returns. But we have a marvelous encouragement in the fact that we are today seated with Christ in the heavenly places (Eph. 2:6). We have a position of authority and victory “far above all” (Eph. 2:21-22). While we have not seen God’s glory as Paul did, we do share God’s glory now (John 17:22) and one day we shall enter into heaven and behold the glory of Christ (John 17:24).

In our Gospel reading this morning, we have Jesus calling His disciples together, and sent them out two by two, and He commissioned them; He gave them authority over the unclean spirits. When the Lord originally called the 12 Apostles, His purpose was to teach and train them so that they might assist Him and eventually be able to take His place when He returned to the Father (Mark 3:13-15). Before sending them out, He reaffirmed their authority to heal and cast out demons.

He told them to take what they already owned and not go out and buy special equipment for their itinerant travels. They were not to be loaded down with extra baggage. Jesus wanted them to be adequately supplied, but not to the point of ceasing to live by faith.

As they ministered from place to place, they would encounter both hospitality and hostility, both friends and enemies. He cautioned them to stay at one house in each community and not to “pick and choose” when it came to their food and accommodations. After all, they were to be fruitful servants, not pampered guests. If a house or a village did not receive them, they had His permission to declare God’s judgment on those people. It was customary for the Jews to shake the dust off their feet whenever they left Gentile territory, but it was something new to do this to a fellow Jew.

The word Apostle means “to send someone with a special commission to represent another and to accomplish his work.” Jesus gave these twelve men both the apostolic authority and the divine ability to do the job He sent them to do. They were not alone; they represented Him in all that they did and said.

The men went out and did what Jesus told them to do. It is remarkable that a band of ordinary men could go out in this way to represent Almighty God, and that they could demonstrate their authority by performing miracles. God’s commandments always include His enablements (2 Cor. 3:5-6). They proclaimed the Good News of the kingdom, called on sinners to repent, and healed many who were sick (Mark 6:12-13).

Each of us as ordinary people, have been commissioned and called by God to be Jesus’ disciples; to represent Almighty God. We may not be given the authority to perform miracles, but each of us has been given one or more gifts of the spirit, which enables us to proclaim the Good News of the kingdom: that Jesus Christ is the Messiah! That Jesus Christ is Lord! Hallelujah!

Let us pray:
Almighty God, you have built your church upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone: Commission us so to be joined together in unity of spirit by their teaching and witness, that we may be made a holy temple acceptable to you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.

AMEN †

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Commissioned