The State of the Flock - Feb 7, 2021

The State of the Flock
Feb 7, 2021
Fr. Philip D. Eberhart, Rector 

As I look back over this past year, I don’t know whether to cry or to shout. We’ve seen wave after wave of trials, challenges, injury, surgery, life-threatening illness, accidents, and that is before you factor in the worldwide pandemic! And that is just my personal life and this single church’s circumstances in the past 14 months! 

So how do we characterize 2020 and look away from it to the future? The words UNPRECEDENTED and EXTRAORDINARY seem to have gotten a lot of air play in the past 10 months. We want nothing more than to look away from 2020 and glimpse a brighter, more ‘normal’ future, but we’re just not sure if or when that might appear. One thing is certain, a rehearsal of all the things that went wrong in 2020 is not the remedy for the malaise – so I want to take a few moments to expose some of the things that are praiseworthy in our life together and in the world we now “live and move and have our being” in. 

Another word that expresses the lived experience of our church, as well as our planet, is SHAKING. Since 2000 we have been listening to the scripture from Hebrews 12 that warns of things that will be shaken, so that what cannot be shaken may remain. I sincerely believe that we are in the midst of that promised “shaking.” Our part in the midst of the shaking is to hold fast to that which cannot be shaken, The Word of God, and what the writer calls the Unshakeable Kingdom, which we are receiving from “our God who is a consuming fire.” 

We must open our eyes – wake up – to see the world from the perspective of the One who created it all. We believe, or say we do, that God brought all that we see into being with the Word of his mouth. If we believe THAT, then much follows from that core belief. Nothing actually happens by “accident.” If God is sovereign – above all – then all flows from His Hand. We say as much every Sunday: “All things come of Thee, O Lord, and of Thine own have we given Thee.” 

We are God’s possession, His People who are called by His Name. He takes that very seriously. Has since forever!! The fact is that God deals with the whole world on the basis of His dealings with His own people! 2 Chronicles 7 is the proof. A very familiar passage to us for about the past three or four decades! You know… “IF MY PEOPLE… “ and all that? I talked about it last weekend. We’ve been talking about it for 30 or 40 years here in America, but now is different. It actually matters that we, God’s People, obey this injunction – the life of the world depends on it. 

I’ve talked this past year about what God is doing – a RESET and a REALIGNMENT of our hearts with His! Those realities are realized, as I said last week through Repentant Obedience. It’s not enough to just say we’re sorry – we’ve been doing that since mid-year. Repentance means to turn around and head a new direction. To actually make changes in the way we “live and move and have our being.” It means a change in our “ways and means.” It means a new way of being and a new way of doing. And these all must line up with the Word of Scripture in the Bible. Period. 

So how is your “WORD QUOTA”? How deeply are we “abiding” in the words of Jesus and how are they “finding their home” in us? Troubled times have a way of driving us to that which is steady and tried. Nothing stands with the Word of God in that department. It is an anchor for the storms in our life; the anvil on which God fashions us, through fire and forge, into a “truer beauty and usefulness” for His Kingdom. It is truly the thing that is UNSHAKEABLE and what gives us and all inthe Kingdom of God stability. I hope that you have found the utility of a regular time in which you apply the disciplines of the “HAND” that we use to illustrate a full engagement with Holy Scripture – Hearing, Reading, Marking, Learning and Inwardly Digesting it. If you haven’t noticed, that BOOK is the centerpiece of our life and our worship. It points us to the Savior and to the Father in no uncertain terms, and it is the very useful Sword of the Spirit, used by Him to encounter us as we read, to equip us as we study and learn and to engage us in a dynamic partnership with Him in the World. The Word of God graces our lives in four ways: It instructs us; it reproves us; it corrects us and it trains us in righteousness. It plumbs the depths of our souls, revealing our motives, our thoughts and intentions; driving deeper than bone marrow, to the very center of our being. 

This is the reason for the SHAKING. We must “come to ourselves” – wake up! – come to our senses, as God’s People. We have been wandering in a far country, too long feeding in the pig pen of the world’s ways and means. God is meaning to create some “face time” with Himself for us. He means to get our attention. And I’m convinced that He means to do it, for a reason. So what could possibly be the “reason for THIS season?” This has been a season of brokenness. Everything that could go wrong, seemingly, has! Things we never even though of have gone wrong! BUT GOD… 

You’re going to hear in a few minutes the numbers for this year. You’re going to hear that, we’ve had some close calls, but we are all still here. Fr. Stanley in Uganda is the first Covid death in our worldwide Church family. WE thank the Lord for His protection. We thank the Lord that through all the separation of this past year, through all the social distancing … we are still together. We have worked overtime to remain so. Connected to one another by any means possible, personally, on Zoom, Facebook. These are realities that will remain with us for some time, if not permanently. We’ve discovered a whole wide world – one that we kind of knew about through our mission outreaches and international relationships, but now we can join a world-wide prayer meeting that is actually going on 24/7/365 through all of 2021! Satan loses… We WIN! 

The day the world shut down, March 16th, was the launch of a new reality in the church. It is called THE 400 GATHERING. With a goal of 400 pastors and churches coming together in answer to Jesus’ prayer in John 17, this movement is beginning to now have effect. We pray for one another and lay down our lives for one another – supply one another’s needs and partner with one another for the advancement of the Kingdom of God! It’s not about one church, but about the Body of Christ and His Kingdom in this world. 

And that is the beginning of the answer to the “why” for this season. God’s purpose is to free us from our diversions, from our per-versions – to bring us through a con-version to His ways and will, to accomplish the vision of Jesus for the World, using us as His instruments. We continually look to Jesus, the Author and the Finisher, the Perfector of our faith. And He will set us in a place directly in the path of the greatest harvest of souls we can imagine – in fact beyond all that we can ask or imagine. That, I believe, is the big “why” here. 

 Rez is called into being “for such a time as this.” We have been placed on this Holy Hill for just this purpose; to shine as a ‘city on a hill’ with the light of Christ, our Messiah. We shine to those who are far away and to those who are near. We have been given a High Altar that holds a special place in God’s heart and His plan for us and for this city and region. We are an instrument of His Holy Spirit amongst those who are being called into His Kingdom. 

Even now, as this season comes to a close and we anticipate being able to come back together in more significant ways, we look forward to times of refreshing from the Lord and to a release of the Harvest into the Church. For years we’ve talked about being an ACTS 2 Church and about the promise of a “netbreaking, boat-sinking” load of fish. God has promised us “OIL” that will come from unexpected places to keep our lamps burning and bright. He has more and more anointing for us, as we move more and more with HIM, into His purposes and destiny for Resurrection Anglican Fellowship. 

I want to conclude with one of our prayers from the Ordination service: 

O God of unchangeable power and eternal light: Look favorably on your whole Church, that wonderful and sacred mystery; by the effectual working of your providence, carry out in tranquility the plan of salvation; let the whole world see and know that things which were cast down are being raised up, and things which had grown old are being made new, and that all things are being brought to their perfection by him through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Sincerely, 

 Fr. Phil+ 

The Venerable Rev. Philip D. Eberhart
Archdeacon and Rector
Resurrection Anglican Fellowship,
International Diocese of the Anglican Church in North America