Second
Epiphany
January 15, 2023
Fr. Phil Eberhart
Walking in the Light
This
morning we are graced with the Baptism of our dear precious, Lucy Adeline
Wallace. Once again I get to come full
circle, and one of the girls whose hands made this baptismal stole, is the mom
and presenter of her own child for baptism.
And I think that Grandma was the one who was responsible for the idea to
do the stole in the first place!! That
blame goes to Trish Brereton, proud grandma.
This morning
I want to continue with a series of sermons for Epiphany, with the title: Walking in the Light. I mentioned the practice last week, in the
East African Revival of the early 20th century, of “walking in the
light.” That practice was what fueled
the revival across all of the East African countries, from Rwanda, to Uganda,
to Kenya, and round to Tanzania and Burundi.
Like a wild fire, the Spirit of the Lord was poured out on the
countryside and it’s primary feature was indigenous worship, captured in the songs,
and especially the song Tukutendereza, and the practice of ‘walking in the
light.’
Walking in
the light refers to 1 John 1:7 where John says, “If we walk in the light, as
He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus
Christ cleanses us from all sin.”
I
mentioned this last week, in reference to the practice of reconciliation with
each other before the Holy Eucharist.
That is the purpose of the “Passing of the Peace.” It isn’t just half time, Virginia!
We share
the Peace of Christ, after Confession, to make sure that our relationships are
clear; our hearts are clean, before coming to the Lord’s Table! We reaffirm our love for and to one another
before coming to the Table together.
Have you
ever been at a holiday meal with tension in your family? Isn’t that the height
of fun?!! Eating with people you would
rather not be with. And with family that’s
especially fun!
But this
kind of thing is not to be so as we come in the Family of God to the Table of
the Lord! Why? Because it is here that we come with our
faces unveiled. It’s here that we come
to meet with God, face to Face! It’s
here that we apprehend and receive the GRACE of God and are transformed from
glory to glory, as we reflect the glory of God that is seen in the face of
Jesus Christ! Passing the peace with
each other is simply polishing our mirror!
As we look at Jesus, the HOST AT THIS TABLE, we reflect His glory and
are transformed into His image, from one degree of glory to the next.
But the
glory of the Lord isn’t just to be held among us, it’s to be shared out from
us! How does that happen?
Do you
have interactions with people during the week?
And what do people experience when they come in contact with you and
your life?
I’ll
never forget one of the children’s stories we did when we were first at St.
George’s, and I think Melissa and Natalie were in the group of kids that
morning. We took a pitcher of water, and
cup and a bowl and a dry sponge. Pouring
the water from the pitcher into the cup, we saw how God wants to pour his Life,
His Spirit, into our cup! But when the
cup was full the pitcher kept pouring! Oh OH!
So we put the cup inside the bowl. And it just sat there and overflowed.
Till the bowl was full too. Then we
dropped the dry sponge into the bowl and it floated. What did it need? To be baptized! Immersed, Sunk into the bowl. Why?
Because it needed to be filled up to be useful! Then what happened? It was full of water (the Spirit) and when it
got squeezed, everyone got wet! When we
get squeezed what comes out of us? Unless
we are filled with the Spirit, we are dry and crusty. Not really useful as a sponge, but what
happens when we are filled? We become
soft and pliable – “flexible” in the hand of God. Ready to be used by Him,
filled with the water of the Spirit – ready for what he intends for us.
Here ends
the Children’s Sermon!
What we
have here, friends, was never intended to stay here! This morning as you come to communion, dip
your finger in the Baptismal Water and think about the sponge! If you’ve been baptized, you’re a candidate
for filling … and filling … and filling again.
And you’re a candidate for going
and changing the world. A sponge is for
cleaning up messes!
Do you
believe that the world is in a mess? Duh! Who’s going to clean up? God is … using us! Are you ready? Sometimes its grimy and sometimes its sticky,
but water does wonders! Oh, and “elbow
grease!” Yeah. There’s some work involved.
Paul
talked about that when he said that we are God’s workmanship; that we are intended
to be deployed! Salt and light! When I clean up after dinner, sometime there’s
a burned on mess in the pan, (especially if I’ve been cooking), and Val tells
me to add salt and scrub harder! It
becomes a cleansing agent, not just a seasoning, or a preservative!
The point
here is that we are not to keep what we find here to ourselves. And that is the point of Bonhoeffer’s “Letter
to the American Church.” We cannot just
be spectators any more, watching the world go by us on the news channels. So many of us moan and complain about the
state of the world right now but do nothing to change even the smallest mess!
If we are
willing to engage in the clean up, the messes will present themselves! Right? Preparedness meets The Mess and a “suddenly”
happens: Suddenly you have an
opportunity to make a difference.
And small
differences add up.
When the
Church of Germany entered into the Nazi Regime, there were about 16,000 pastors
there. About 2,000 signed on with the
Nazi party’s platform at first; there
were about that same number who signed The Barmen Declaration, that rejected
the Nazi agenda, and many of those died in prison, like Bonhoeffer himself. But there were 12,000 who stayed quiet.
Have you
ever noticed that SILENCE HAS A COST? Metaxas
writes of the Spiral of Silence:
“When people fail to speak, the
price of speaking rises. As the
price to speak rises, fewer
still speak out, which further causes
the price to rise, so that fewer
people yet will speak out, until
a whole culture or nation is
silenced.”
Today we
call it The “Cancel Culture.” More and
more today are speaking out, but the silence is deafening! And the cost is real.
We are asked in the book, “Are we willing to pay the price of speaking and
acting.” It’s really not enough to
complain, to cry or even to pray, though that is a great starting point. We MUST move to action. If we don’t very soon we are going to find
that our freedoms to “live and move and have our being” as Christians in this
country are being curtailed. In point of
fact, they are already being diminished, bite by bite.
The
secret that our friends across the aisle have learned is the secret of eating
an elephant! One bite at a time. And it is the secret we need to learn as
well.
One of my
favorite quotes by a President came from Calvin Coolidge:
“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will
not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not;
unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not: the world is full of
educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”
What
would happen if we mounted a persistent campaign of witness in the world around
us?
What
would happen if we made ourselves available to the God who wants to clean up
messes and change lives? Could we change
life on this planet? Yep ! That is the whole Christian message and the
whole program that Jesus set out for us.
All it takes is our three little words:
Willingness
Availability
Obedience
And a bucket
of Persistence.
Let me
pray the collect of St. Andrew this morning over us:
Almighty
God, you gave such grace to your apostle Andrew that he readily obeyed the call
of your Son Jesus Christ, and brought his brother with him: Give us, who are
called by your holy Word, grace to follow him without delay, and to bring those
near to us into his gracious presence; who lives and reigns with you and the
Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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