Easter 2020 - Born Again to A Living Hope

Easter 2020
Fr Phil Eberhart

This is a one time experience today, Easter service via Zoom and Facebook live. We're happy to be together and to see so many faces, in our Hollywood Squares boxes. God bless you in your homes this morning.

Alleluia! Christ is Risen! The Lord is Risen Indeed! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!! We can't say it enough, can we?

In the midst of a great worldwide pandemic, in the face of death and fear, of uncertainty across the planet... we have a living hope... because we have a living savior!

We say it often...

CHRIST HAS DIED... CHRIST IS RISEN... CHRIST WILL COME AGAIN!

The mystery of our faith! A Savior who died and who has come back to life and who promises to come again to receive us to Himself!

The Death, Resurrection and Return of Jesus Christ the Messiah is the source and fountain of our life, our hope, our joy inexpressible and full of glory! Even in the midst of suffering... even in the presence of pandemic... nothing can dampen the reality of God's love and His resurrection power in our lives.

I got accused this week of being "psychologically unstable" - needy because I posted that our Easter will be unchanged, walls or no walls, and declaring my love for being "face to face!" Well... guilty as charged! I'm needy... I need Jesus and I need you all!

A wise old man, when faced with his grand son's challenge of "why go to church?" Simply brought him to the roaring fire in the den, sat down and reached in with the tongs and took an ember out, setting it in the bricks in front. Soon the ember was a cold black coal. Then he simply placed it back in the fire again and it soon glowed red with the flame.
If that's psychological neediness then I'm guilty.

In a day of separation and social distancing, of not looking at one another for fear of catching something, of isolation, separation and being together only on laptops and computers, I want to declare that I hate being a lone ranger! We're not made for this.

Peter tells it pretty straight in his first letter. As I sat with my father in his last week 5 years ago, this section of 1 Peter was our meditation. Beginning at vs 3...

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time."

1 Peter 1:3‭-‬5 ESV
https://bible.com/bible/59/1pe.1.3-5.ESV

The fact of the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead is the central fact of our faith... all of our faith! It stands like an anvil that has worn out many hammers!

https://www.yourdictionary.com/anvil

Paul says, without it we're most to be pitied! But with it we're able to go through any circumstance, any difficulty, any temptation or test of our faith, because the resurrection is an anvil! A LIVING HOPE through the RESURRECTION OF JESUS CHRIST FROM THE DEAD!

The Anvil of the Resurrection has tested the hammer of unbelief, the hammer of doubt has failed to scar it; the skeptics hammer, the so- called "liberal's" hammer can't stand up to the anvil!

Friends, the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the central fact of history. Everything flows to it from before Christ and everything flows from it now, after Christ!

Listen to what Peter says as he goes on...

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 1:6‭-‬7 ESV
https://bible.com/bible/59/1pe.1.6-7.ESV

The testing of our faith is part and parcel of the testing of the Anvil! The use for an Anvil and a hammer is the shaping of steel, white hot from the forge. There's a TV competition show called Forged in Fire. Watch an episode of that to understand what I'm taking about. We are being Forged In Fire! Even now, today, in how we're responding to all that's going on around us. God is looking for Tested Genuineness in our faith. Forged by Fire!

Paul said of all he went through that it was "light and momentary affliction" but that it gains for us "an eternal weight of glory! "

Peter goes on...

"... you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls."

1 Peter 1:8‭-‬9 ESV
https://bible.com/bible/59/1pe.1.8-9.ESV

This Easter will stand out in our memory, individually and in our corporate memory, and I hope that we will remember it fondly, as a time when we were tested and found faithful; as a time when we were shaped on the anvil into a "truer beauty and usefulness" to use a phrase from Bishop Terry Kelshaw's prayer; and as a time when we discover all that we mean to one another in the community of His New Life.

Peter concludes as I will with these words...

"Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. ...through him [you] are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God."

1 Peter 1:13‭, ‬21 ESV
https://bible.com/bible/59/1pe.1.13-21.ESV

Peter in later chapters of this same letter asks us to "always be ready to give an answer for the HOPE that is in us!"

Lord our God, we pray that you will show us the full glory of your power and might in the Resurrection of your Son, Jesus Christ, from the grave. He has trampled death and the grave, and given us a new birth into a living hope! Help us to continually live in that hope in relationship to you, Jesus Risen Lord and King. And finally, use us as we come out of this time of COVID-19 and help us Lord Jesus, to never go back to normal! In the Matchless Name of the Risen Jesus, for the fame of His Name and the glory of His Eternal Kingdom.

 Amen and amen!

Palm Sunday 2020 - Fr Phil Eberhart

Palm Sunday

April 5, 2020

Fr Phil Eberhart 

"TRULY THIS MAN WAS THE SON OF GOD! "

What could make a hardened soldier,  a centurion... the commander of a garrison of 100 Roman soldiers,  make such a statement? 

He had seen 100's ... no... probably 1000's of this kind of death in his career as a soldier...  but this one was different.   What did he see that made him even think in those terms?  What did he hear that set these thoughts loose in his mind?

He didn't know the scriptures that we read this morning, from the Jewish scriptures,  with their exacting descriptions of what was happening: Isaiah 53 and Psalm 22.  Even those who DID know them totally ignored them, save for one or two! 

He hadn't been following Jesus, listening to his every word, to his prophetic statements about suffering and dying on a Roman cross.  Those who did hear them didn't understand them-  it was unthinkable! Especially for those (all of them) who had great hopes that Jesus was "their guy" -- their hoped for Messiah!   Hoped for in the way they wanted a "messiah" to come. To the point that they argued about rank and position constantly. But this sure wasn't that!  Not even a little bit.  So they all ran away,  save one. 

What did he see ... what did he hear? 

Could it have been the stone cold silence of the Son of God... throughout the whole ordeal?  "Like a lamb before the Shearer's is silent,  so he opened not his mouth."  Silence in the face of great suffering speaks of great dignity, of great self control.  

Probably not just that,  though.  There's got to be more to it. 

Maybe,  the strange weather at the time got his attention... darkened mid day sun,  clouds and wind,  thunder...

And that earthquake.  That would get your attention,  wouldn't it.  But there's still more to it. 

How does one who goes through all of this,  speak words of forgiveness over those who are doing it to him? "Father,  forgive them..." That was different.  Unheard of ... ever!

How does that same man promise forgiveness of personal, individual sin (for which he was being executed justly)  and then nothing less than Paradise to a thief being crucified next to him? 

"Who can forgive sins except God?" the Pharisees had asked of Jesus once.  They knew the implications and the weight of that action by Jesus.  Did the centurion get it too? 

What awe struck him from what he saw and heard.  Something stuck -- all of it together had an impact on him. 

I wonder if he was watching when they pierced Jesus side?  Of course he was.  He saw what John saw... blood and water.  I wonder if he felt the spray of the wounded flow of "water" and blood in his face?  

"Let his blood be upon us and upon our children! "  They had no idea what they were saying.  No idea what they were doing!  Jesus said it:  "They know not what they do! "  But he knew - the centurion knew - it all added up to too much for the mind to take in.  Who was this man on the cross before him?   

TRULY!  

 THIS MAN WAS THE SON OF GOD! 

Let's pray...

Lord Jesus Christ,  you stretched forth your hands of love on the hard wood of the Cross,  that everyone... everyone... disciple,  pharisee,  thief,  centurion,...  might come within the reach of your saving embrace!

The evidence was clear and it's clear even today that you,  Lord Jesus Christ,  are truly the Son of God. So truly, THE WAY, THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE, that there is NO OTHER NAME given among men by which we can and must be saved!   There's no other name but yours.

So, clothe us with your Name and in your Spirit, that we may reach forth our hands in that same love and forgiveness,  to bring in our day, those who do not yet know You, -- our families, our co-workers, our neighbors, the stranger in Walmart --to the knowledge and love of You.  

Just like the Centurion, May we and all who truly see and hear you say,  "Surely this IS the Son of God! "

For the honor of Your Name.  

Amen. 

Fr Phil - Seeing what God is doing

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic we are all under orders to "shelter in" - stay home with family,  stay away from other people,  wash your hands,  disinfect surfaces.   We're trying to minimize the spread of the pandemic and the loss of life.  We have no idea the scope of the orders or the timeline.  So we are obedient.  We're all getting a bit stir crazy,  some are getting lonely,  many are fearful and none of us know all that's going on here.  

What I want to address this morning is how can we see what God is doing here?  I believe God uses circumstances such as these to work His work. And we're the People of God. That means that we're in a relationship with the living God... He's our God, we're His People!  That means something in these times ... all the time actually!

I was struck when I saw our reading from Ezekiel for today.  Those verses were the roadmap that God spoke to me at the very beginning of my journey together with this church,  back in the day... summer of 1996!  St George's was on its last leg.  Bishop sent me in as a shock to the system -- as a ventilator! He yelled Clear! And shoved me through the door!  And God did a miracle! 

Ezekiel 37 was my roadmap! 

The place was dry and dead,  dead and dry... very dry!  I was called to enter in to that reality, to "walk among the bones."  Then he ask me what I believed about this church... "Can these bones live? " it's an overwhelming question!  'LORD,  you alone know!" This thing was above my pay grade and I needed to get that straight!  Val's favorite question was "Whose deal it's this,  anyway? "

Then God said Speak the Word, ... Prophesy!  Whenever you speak do so from an open Bible! We handed out Bibles for free,  put them in our pews for the first time - paid for by my parents!  I had one elder lady there tell me, " I have a stack of these at home, but you're the first person who ever told me to read it! "  prophesy to the bones,  declare the Word to God's People!  That's my charge. 

And then things began to happen.  The Vestry came to our house for 12 weeks of The Alpha Course.   Transformed them! Then they invited the church and led the groups!  We began to see the bones coming together - excitement,  noise,  messiness,  Holy Spirit was moving. 

And then God said Speak to the Spirit! 

Prophesy to the Spirit,  come!  Come,  breathe on these slain,  let them live again!  And the Wind blew!  Healings began happening,  people were filled with the Spirit,  God's Spirit was the gossip around the church!  Did you hear?  What happened to so and so? 

Those were fun times!  God,  please do it again!

RESURRECTION has its roots in that revival.  And God is using these days to do a wider work in the Church,  big C, and the culture.   How can we see what God is doing now. 

After St George's had gone from 30 to about 150 in services,  the culture around us in the larger church was becoming an issue.  We, in lent of '99, studied the letters to the 7 churches in Revelation.  "Let him with an ear, hear what the Spirit is saying to the Churches! "  I think we're there again! 

We were shown a vision of a wave crashing between the Twin Towers in New York City,  summer of 2K.  About 13 months before 9-11.  The wave is both "judgement and revival! "  for those not ready it's judgement,  for those ready it will be revival!"  

In that time we were also given to study in Hebrews 12, especially about the Lord's discipline of those He loves and the coming 'shaking' at the end.   Things are certainly being shaken today and it feels like a tsunami wave has hit our country!  Is this that?  

Let's "open our eyes,"  as we pray from time to time,  "to see God's hand at work in the world! "

God uses famine and pestilence when His People get forgetful!  Look at 2 Chronicles 7:13! Not an oft quoted verse!   "When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, ¹⁴ if my people..."  If My People will...

Humble themselves...

Today is a designated day to fast and pray in repentance for the sins of our nation.  Nehemiah 9 is the model.  National repentance... something we've never seen.  We've talked about it but never seen it.  Now it's the time! 

Pray...

There is a great prayer in that chapter by Ezra, the high priest under Nehemiah.  Take some time today to read it.  Take some time to pray it! 

Seek God's Face...

The Aaronic blessing of God's people asks that God lift His Face upon us.  Do a study of God's face in scripture and then our face!  What happens when the two meet?  2 Cor 3:17-18 says this...

"Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. ¹⁸ And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit."

James likens the Word to a mirror, reflecting who we really are back to us.  We are so forgetful though!   Refresh your time in God's Word during these days of "pause."  Prayer is pausing with purpose. 

And finally Turn, ... the purpose of the pause is to press a "reset" button in our lives.   Start anew.  Let Him Renew Your Mind,  washing it and us by the Water of the Word.   

I'll do everything I can "from a distance" to help that to happen in our life together.  Until we're able to gather again and beyond let us observe to do according to all that God has said, and God will give us "good success."  

Let's pray

O God,  you made the heavens and the earth, yet you are intricately involved with the details and affairs of our life today.  Move us to hear, read, mark, learn and inwardly digest your Word to us, that we may be freed from those things we cling to other than You.  Hear our prayer, O Lord, and change our hearts to be made in the image of your Son,  Jesus Christ our Lord,  in whose Name we pray.  Amen.

Connection During COVID-19

March 24, 2020

Dear Friends,

One of the big challenges, along side staying healthy in these days, is staying connected to one another, especially for our family at REZ.  I wanted to give you some pointers along the way in our new reality of video calls, streaming live feeds and the like for our meetings and services.  I hope you know that we are working harder now to stay connected than we ever have before!!  Perhaps that is what the "silver-lining" will be after this is all over.  God is always at work in and for His People, and now is no exception, - in fact it may be more evident to us in many ways, very soon!  So we pray!

MEETINGS & SERVICES

We, after a week of using these platforms, have opted for the ZOOM video platform to do the main body of our meetings and services.  On Wednesday evening and Friday evening at 7 PM we are hosting Bible Studies.  Wednesday we are studying the Book of Philippians, and on Friday we are studying the Tabernacle in light of our own Anglican Worship for two more weeks.

Each of those are on the ZOOM video meeting platform, you can access by phone or on your laptop or desktop computer.  We have a paid account that allows up to 100 to join us and the meeting can go for up to 24 hours!!  That will cover us for a while.  You may get ZOOM from your provider website (APPStore or Google Play).  Once you have it on your device all you need to do is click JOIN A MEETING and put in REZ's specific number:  437-034-3593.     Or you can come back here to join any REZ Zoom Meeting and simply click here: https://us04web.zoom.us/j/4370343593

On Sundays we will also run a live-stream on our Resurrection Anglican Fellowship FACEBOOK page, for those who want to join us, and it will be recorded there.  Readers will be able to join in and do their work, by joining us on the ZOOM platform.

If anyone has challenges in hooking up or downloading these tools, PLEASE call Fr. Phil and he or another "techie" will guide you through to success!  This call is always better made the day or week before you try to get on a meeting!!  We can do some zoom calls as trials, we've already paid the fee!

INTENTIONAL CONNECTIONS 

We are working on other ways to connect with each other.   We are thinking of offering Daily Office times (Morning Prayer, Noonday and Evening Prayer, even Compline)  If you have an interest in helping or participating in such online events, please respond to this email and let us know in what capacity your interest lies.

We are hoping to create a "Buddy" system, especially for our elder singles.  We want to be checking in with one another daily, and be able to sound the alarm for one another if needed.  Also we are hoping to care for one another in real ways, with help picking up groceries or prescriptions if needed.  Again, we will rely on you to BUDDY UP in the next few days, and to advise us of your partners.  Please respond to this email with the name of the buddies who are going to commit to one another for this time.  If we don't hear from you we will be calling!!

God is using this crisis, as He does with all things, to work the work of His Kingdom!  There is an exponential increase in Prayer across the world, in unity among churches and pastors, in help being offered to one another and to our neighbors, and in the compassionate work of God's love, coming through his Church, now dispersed outside the walls of our buildings!  

A NOTE ON GIVING

Concerns have been voiced, that when we don't meet, we don't give!  I think we have ways to get around that, and I want to encourage you to continue to give faithfully, since the work of the church (and the bills of the church) will go on during this time!  There are several ways for you to give:

ONLINE:  We have DONATE buttons on our website (www.rezanglican.org), on my blogspot (rezpadre.blogspot.com) and there are fundraising pages on our FaceBook page during this time.  The FaceBook giving is free (no fee to us) and the regular online giving has a 3% fee that is attached.  We would appreciate it if you would add that 3% on your gifts if you use those portals.  I've included all the links here for you to give online.  

BY MAIL:  You may also want to use the mail service and mail checks to REZ, PO Box 2127, Centennial, CO 80161-2127.  If you want to drop envelopes at the church building, the mail box on the front of the church is locked as well and secure.

We thank you (Val and I and the Finance Team) for your faithful support during this extraordinary time.

HOW LONG, O LORD?

The big question on all our minds is How Long (I added the O LORD)?  That is an unknown quantity right now, because we are just now coming into an understanding of the severity of this pandemic.  The numbers are doubling about every three days and they expect it to peak in the next 3-4 weeks.  If you do the math, we are going to be "sheltering-in" for another month or so potentially.   We have planned to continue services for Holy Week:  I will have palms that people can get (outside the church on Saturday) and we will wave them to each other on Palm Sunday (10 AM),  we will continue with a teaching on Eucharist on Maundy Thursday (7 PM), a traditional Stations of the Cross on Good Friday evening (7 PM) and the regular service of Resurrection at 10 AM on Easter Morning.

We are trying to gear up for sustainability for the long haul, and hoping for a short race!!  But know this, when the quarantine is over we will all come together for a REAL Easter Service with the Bells, Whistles, Horns, Keys, and whatever else you can bring to make noise!!  I am anticipating a great RESURRECTION, on that day!

In the mean time, we pray that you are safe and sound; that you will continue to connect with us and with each other.  

Fr Phil+

Fr. Phil Eberhart, for the Staff and the Board of Resurrection Anglican Fellowship

Lent 1 - The Anatomy of Repentance

Lent 1

March 1, 2020

Fr Phil Eberhart 

The  Anatomy of Repentance

Ps 51 as a model prayer 

Did you ever wonder how, after all that King David did just in one instance with Bathsheba,... how God could still refer to him as "a man after My own heart!" ??  I've wondered that. 

How do you get that name in spite of all he did?  Granted, he was a great king,  a valiant warrior,  not a bad songwriter and musician,  but how do all those weigh in the balance against sexual intrigue and immorality,  then cover up and eventually murder,  of a man who was exactly the opposite of David,  brave, faithful and loyal to the very end!  ... to both his wife and his King! 

Turn to the song David wrote,  the incredible poem of repentance and let's examine it a bit more closely. 

Let's look more closely...

Vs. 1-4  David dives right in... there is no small talk here,  no if's, and's or but's in his approach to God. 

It's an appeal to God's grace and mercy.  David knows that on his own merits he doesn't have a prayer! But because of what he knows of God's love,  His lovingkindness - His unfailing love - he makes his appeal begin there.   He begins with God's nature of love, God's history of Grace and Mercy,  from beginning to end it's "according to your lovingkindness,  according to the greatness of your compassion...  you are justified when you speak and blameless when you judge."  David says YOU'RE RIGHT GOD! YOU'RE RIGHT! 

Vs. 5-9  The reality of the issue

BEHOLD 

   1.  This is who I am!  My DNA is sinful!  From my mother's womb!  From the moment I was born I've been "in sin."

   2.   Yet you designed me to be different and require it even now! In my hidden parts, - what was knit together in my mother's womb (Ps139) -  in that hidden part You will make me know wisdom.  

David knows that the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord.   And so that's where he begins his appeal. 

Vs. 7 through 9 are the prescription,  the antidote!  These are the specifics of his request for God's intervention for David...

Purify me with hyssop - David hearkened back to the Passover and all the cleansing rites from the Torah. The use of hyssop is as old as the Jewish people.

I will be "whiter than snow!"  God's invitation to us through Isaiah later would be to come and reason with Him... though your sins are as scarlet, they will be be as white as snow."

Make me to hear joy and gladness.

This isn't a pleasant experience.  Probably why so few actually do it! 

Sometimes the discipline of the Lord feels like he's broken our bones.  David was a shepherd first.  And when a lamb would get wayward,  go astray habitually, the shepherd would break its front legs and carry it around his neck until they healed. 

https://images.app.goo.gl/nhJGy9BVRn7GJtop6

The picture of Jesus as the shepherd we're all familiar with,  had a lamb in such a position.  No one talks about the back story!  Here David refers to that practice. 

Heb 12:6. "The Lord disciplines all those He loves... v. 11... so that we can share in his holiness ... the peaceable fruit of righteousness. "

David cries out to God to Hide your face... blot out my sin and iniquity. 

And then the prayer becomes detailed and this is the heart of the request if God.   We sang these verses just a few moments ago...

1.  Create in me a clean heart.  David knew the problem and Jeremiah later tells us it's our heart... it's desperately wicked.  It's like stone according to Ezekiel.   It has to be made new.  Re-created!

².   Renew a right Spirit within me.  We must be renewed by The right Spirit!

3.  Do not cast me away from your presence.  David knows it's here that the answer is found.  It's in the temple, in the presence of God.  At the table!  Here. 

4.  Do not take your Holy Spirit from me!   A desperate cry.   Our cry!   God,  send your spirit to renew us. 

5.  Restore my joy.    The joy of my salvation.  There is no feeling that can compare with being forgiven! 

The weight of the world comes off your shoulders.  It's amazing...

Amazing grace!  My chains are gone!  I've been set free! 

6. Finally,  do this work day by day.. Lord,  uphold me with a willing spirit! 

Even my willingness has to come from God  ... maybe especially my willingness!

THEN...  what happens? 

3 thens... 

Then... Testimony... teaching of the Ways of God and subsequent salvation.  Every day God was adding to their number those who were being saved! 

Then... Praise!  Sounds of singing!  More songs from Poet David!  Don't you wonder how many of the Psalms came after this? 

Then...  Restoration.   The right order of righteousness and the sacrifices of God are restored.  The temple worship is renewed and in order.  All is as it was designed and created to be.  All is whole. 

Let me once again issue the invitation...

I invite you in the name of the church to the observance of a holy Lent...

We have some left over ashes if you were not able to be here on Wed evening. 

ACNA World Missions Sunday 2-16-20

The Season of Epiphany  is the yearly celebration of the coming of and the sending out of,  the Light of Christ.  Into the whole world as was God's will and plan all along.   This Sunday is World Mission Sunday across the Anglican church in North America.  

I think most everyone here is aware of our mission involvements around the world over the past two decades from our weekly prayers for our "partners in the gospel around the world."

A partner or sister church in NE Rwanda in Ngarama since 2002. Working on a building there that houses a congregation of 1500 and now is the hub of 6 or 7 other sub- parishes!  That partnership led us to the relationship with two young men who are now graduating and entering work with us we hope over the next few months with the Rwandan Hope Project.  A Medical worker and a business student,  named Olivier Welcome and Peter or Jean Pierre Nsingeminye.  Olivier graduated in November and will take his national board's next month and Peter who will graduate this coming November.   We also help one of our own sons of Rez,  Sam Katungwensi, the son of Fr Stanley & Anne Katungwensi.  Sam is a Masters student at Makerere University in Kampala,Uganda in

 Information Computer Technology. 

Along side these we pray for and support a pastor and family in Nazareth,  Israel...  Yakov (Jacob) & Ruth Dolinsky and Congregation Tsur Yeshuati in Upper Nazareth.   

We have supported Bible Translation in Russia and continue to pray for the work of the Institute for Bible Translation in Moscow.  Ask Al Throckmorton about the impact of that work on him and on Russia.

Thank you to Al and the men's group for great faithfulness over many years. 

Missionaries in N Africa, the Middle East,  and many other areas to numerous to mention recieved our prayers and donations over the years.   Your King Soopers and Amazon purchases are some of the fuel for these outreaches and initiatives.   And more is on the horizon,  both locally and globally. 

We've been focused on getting into and paying for this land and building for the past two years or so,  but the day is coming quickly where we will once again lift our eyes to the call that God has on us to engage with his world,  both near and far.

One of my favorite old hymns is entitled The Love of God!

The Love Of God

The love of God is greater far

Than tongue or pen can ever tell

It goes beyond the highest star

And reaches to the lowest hell

The guilty pair bowed down with care

God gave His Son to win

His erring child He reconciled

And pardoned from his sin

O love of God how rich and pure

How measureless and strong

It shall forevermore endure

The saints and angels song

When years of time shall pass away

And earthly thrones and kingdoms fall

When men who here refuse to pray

On rocks and hills and mountains call

God's love so sure shall still endure

All measureless and strong

Redeeming grace to Adam's race

The saints and angels song

Could we with ink the ocean fill

And were the skies of parchment made

Were every stalk on earth a quill

And every man a scribe by trade

To write the love of God above

Would drain the ocean dry

Nor could the scroll contain the whole

Though stretched from sky to sky

Frederick Martin Lehman | Meir Ben Isaac Nehorai

__________________

This is the WHY of missions!  It never changes!  METHODS CHANGE,  MESSAGE DOESN'T. 

We all know the verse by heart.  There are signs at NFL games and on NFL players faces!  It's the most searched for verse on Google ever!  WHY?  CAUSE IT'S SUCH GREAT NEWS! 

John 3:16 ...

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son,  that whosoever believes in him shall not perish,  but have everlasting life.  

 And who knows verse 17?

"For God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world,  but that the world,  through him,  might be saved! "

Turn with me for a moment to 2 Corinthians 5.  Bibles are under the chair in front of you.  2 Corinthians, chapter 5, beginning at verse 14

I'm going to read from The Passion Translation: 

For it is Christ’s love that fuels our passion and motivates us, because we are absolutely convinced that he has given his life for all of us.

Skip down a few verses to 16a...

From now on,  therefore,  we regard no one according to the flesh...

Once again from TPT...

So then, from now on, we have a new perspective that refuses to evaluate people merely by their outward appearances. For that’s how we once viewed the Anointed One, but no longer do we see him [OR OTHERS] with limited human insight.

And now 17 -21

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he  is  a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to  be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

AND AGAIN FROM THE TPT...

And God has made all things new, and reconciled us to himself, and given us the ministry of reconciling others to God. In other words, it was through the Anointed One that God was shepherding the world, not even keeping records of their transgressions, and he has entrusted to us the ministry of opening the door of reconciliation to God. We are ambassadors of the Anointed One who carry the message of Christ to the world, as though God were tenderly pleading with them [BECAUSE HE IS]  directly through our lips. So we tenderly plead with you on Christ’s behalf, “Turn back to God and be reconciled to him.”

[AND HERE IS THE MESSAGE WE CONTINUALLY SHARE !]

 For God made the only one who did not know sin to become sin for us, so that we who did not know righteousness might become the righteousness of God through our union with him.

2 Corinthians 5:18‭-‬21 

We talk a lot here about our Willingness  our Availability and our Obedience.  This is what THAT whole formulation is all about,  friends.   It's all about our going day by day into our every day lives with this motivation, this conviction and the overwhelming love of God in our hearts for others.  Just show that love to others and there's no head banging that is required!   

Just open your mouth and let them hear and see the Love of God in you!

Could we with ink the ocean fill

And were the skies of parchment made

Were every stalk on earth a quill

And every man a scribe by trade

To write the love of God above

Would drain the ocean dry

Nor could the scroll contain the whole

Though stretched from sky to sky

Amen.

2020 State of the Flock - Fr Phil Eberhart

State of the Flock Address

February 2, 2020

Fr. Phil Eberhart

As I write, I am attending to my mother in ICU and have seen, over the past 12 hours a miraculous recovery of capacity to breathe, awareness and some light at the end of the tunnel, for this crisis in her recovery from the fall she had in late December.

I want to thank you all for your prayers for her and for me and our family.  

I think that is where I want to start this year’s State of the Flock address!  Our church is an amazing place – can I say that? God is here and God works among and through us.  That’s not to say that we don’t have our challenges and heart-breaks, but God is with us and works through each one here in specific ways as we yield ourselves to Him and to His purposes.  That is really what this church is all about! That is really what CHURCH should be all about!

For years I’ve talked about how our church is living out the pattern from Acts 2:42-47 and that God will move through us if we are Willing, Available, and Obedient!  Those two things are the heart of our life together here at REZ. So I want to remind you briefly of those things again, with references to how we are doing those things in our life, both inwardly and outwardly in our community.

Acts 2:42 forms the crosshairs of our rifle scope – of our targeting system.  The four things are found in our Anglican Baptismal Covenant and come out of Acts 2:42:

Devoted attention to four areas:

1. The Apostles’ Teaching / The Word of God / Scripture

2. The Fellowship / Community life / Life Together

3. The Breaking of Bread / Communion and Meals together, our Eucharistic Hospitality

4. The Prayers 

These are the Marks of THE Church, of OUR Church:  Devotion to Scripture as the Word of God; Devotion to One Another;  Devotion to Worship and outflowing Hospitality; and Devotion to Prayers.

As we focus on these four areas, things have begun to happen and have come to a mature expression in our life together over the past almost 20 years.

1. A “Real Presence” of God and The Fear of the Lord

2. Signs and Wonders / Miracles of extraordinary power 

3. A Radical Generosity and Common Life

4. Daily Prayer and Worship Together

5. Common Meals

6. Community Favor, Outreach & evangelistic growth

We all know that we have come through an extraordinary time of change, from being a mobile “church in a box” to now owning a church building.  The timing, the finances, the favor, the almost daily miracles we’ve experienced in this past 27 months are a sign of what God intends to accomplish in us and through us on this holy hill.  As we put the finishing touches on the property and building this next spring and summer, we must also begin to focus on the why of God’s purpose and the what and how of His call to us as a congregation in this place.

God is sending new faces already and now the changes and renovation are beginning on the inside.  No, I’m not talking about paint and carpet, about candles and drapes or even stained-glass windows, but of the renovation of our own hearts and spirits, of our own lives, as we now must press into “the upward call of God in Christ Jesus, the Messiah.”  Now, in the words of Paul, we “must take hold of that for which we have been taken hold of by God!”

THE FUTURE HOPE IS HERE

We began this process all the way back in 2004 and 2005 as we started a small “building fund” called The Future and Hope Fund.  Later in 2009 we put money in a “Loaves and Fishes” fund, again in hope of a future property. All of that money and more has now been applied – the Future Hope is here, and like the school boy who gave his lunch to Jesus, our eyes are expectant of the unexpected!  No one knew, except Jesus, what the result of that day was going to be. And in the year and more to come, I believe that we are going to see the TWELVE BASKETS FULL come home to REZ.

We have experienced the feeling of inadequacy that the disciples experienced that day – but Lord, what does “You give them something to eat” mean?  It would take us a year’s budget to just give each person one morsel! We are inadequate to the task! We have known that all along, as we looked at the 1.1 Million needed to do proof of funds, two Christmas’s ago – our first hurdle met and we prayed:  Then on Thursday morning, before Christmas 2017, the text came: 1.3 Million… CASH!

Almost 10 years before we had placed a stake of dedication under a tree at the entrance to the King Soopers store across the street, at the invitation of the then manager of the store.  It said: “I HAVE FOOD YOU KNOW NOT OF – MY FOOD IS TO DO THE WILL OF HIM WHO SENT ME, AND TO FINISH HIS WORK!” (Jn 4:32-34) Now in 2020, we are bearing the fruit of that dedication and living out its last phrase.  In this place, we are to “do the will of Him who sent us, and to finish His work!”

Over and over and over again, for two plus years, we have seen the hand of God provide our needs on almost a daily basis – certainly a weekly basis!  And now we are turning our hearts to be obedient to the Lord, as we pass out fish and bread – like the disciples of old in that desert place. The watched in amazement as the baskets kept filling up with pieces of fish and loaves of bread!  And joy began to well up in them – indescribable joy, at seeing the Hand of God at work. This is our joy today.

The miracle of REZ Anglican is not yet fully completed.  We’re still passing out the fish and the bread.

And we will continue in this work, until we see that, like the school boy, we’re going to end up with 12 baskets of fish and bread left over!  O God, give us some left overs!! Holy Left Overs!!

THE CALL IS NOW

We are in a season of fulfillment.  God is fulfilling His purpose for us and for His whole Church.  It is a time of Kingdom fulfillment and advance. We are being called to PRESS IN to all that God has called us to be and to do – notice the order there:  TO BE and TO DO. We’ve learned that our ways are not God’s ways. And so often, our speed is not God’s Speed. This year we reviewed the lessons we learned last year in GODSPEED.  God is calling us to BE SOMETHING before He is calling us to DO SOMETHING! This is where we start.  

Our BEING depends on Him first, and us second.  In David’s prayer of repentance, he prayed “create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me… uphold me with a willing spirit.”  Our prayer is first of all that God cleanse us of sin and uphold us with “willingness.”  It has to all start with God – if we start with us, we will be lost! All the grace is His and it is IN HIM that we “live and move and have our being.”  He is the one who gives us a willing spirit, a willing heart, to follow hard after Him and to press into all He has for us.

We move with Him as we move from Willingness.  But the greatest obstacle to our BEING IN HIM is our distraction and busy-ness.  We are simply too busy for God! Our schedules get in the way of prayer and devotion – we try, but our days start at 4 am – and the pressure of living in today’s culture is mounting almost daily.  One of the Word’s we got as a parish this past year said to us simply, “Many of you are weary! I AM NOT!” God is not weary as He moves forward with His plan for salvation in the world. God is not weary of our building process!  God is not weary of the world. He still loves it and still seeks those who are lost in it. Our willingness and our availability – making room for God to work in and through us – are the keys to what God is intending to accomplish through this church.

As we attend to our willingness and to our availability then The Spirit of God takes us, like an offering of bread and wine, and gives us to others that He is inviting into His family.  Like the loaves and fishes, like the bread and wine of Eucharist, we are blessed, we are broken, and we are given, as a people to the world. As we experience this in our daily lives it looks just like the disciples being sent out ahead of Jesus!   We are blessed to be a blessing – so we bless with His Peace those we are sent to. If we are available to Him, we are available to those He sends us to. Availability isn’t just spiritual its physical – its real time actual physical presence with those that God sends you to.  It may be hanging out with them, buying a meal or a coat, it may be emotional support, it may be just friendship and hospitality.

Whatever it is its availability!  If we’re available we are going to see needs.  If you see a need, you’re in the game! Because the next step is meeting that need.  As we are able and as we rely on God’s ability (the ability part of avail-ability), we are called to meet needs – real needs for real people.  Its there that we encounter our need to obey. The disciples needed to obey Jesus when He said, “You go feed the people.” They didn’t have resources to match the needs.  They didn’t have means or methods figured out. They only presented to Jesus what was at hand. “Five loaves and two fish! But what is that against such a need as this?” We are always going to be in NEED of God’s intervention, if we are doing the stuff God wants us to do!  He won’t do anything that requires us to have LESS FAITH!

God is calling us to BIG THINGS.  How do I know that? Because GOD IS BIG and HIS PEOPLE are called to do BIG THINGS – things beyond ourselves – things that only God can do!  Things that according to Paul are “beyond all that we can ask or even imagine, in our wildest dreams.” This is why we say, at the end of the day, “The Kingdom of Heaven has come near you.”  Our Big Thing is the furthering of the Kingdom of God among us and through us into the city, the State and the Nation. “His Kingdom come, His will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven!”  

TWELVE BASKETS FULL

Great things have been prophesied about this Church, not the building, but you the people and the work that God is going to bring forth in and from this place.  They include words like 

OIL -  There is OIL (Anointing and Supply) that you do not know about coming your way.  The week after we heard that word, we received $10,000 in our PayPal account! It is both “fiscal oil in our lamp” and “oil of anointing in ministry” – coming to us as we bring vessels to let it fill!

PRESENCE -  God’s Presence is here in this place, on this Holy Hill.  He has set it apart for His dwelling place and people are being drawn to it like moths to a flame.  We are carriers of His Presence, not only here but everywhere we go, in the community and in the world.

EAGLES -  There are going to be ministers and ministries released from this hill into the city and into the world.  Those who will learn to wait on the Lord in order to rise up. And the eagles will be both young and old, male and female, as God pours out His Spirit on them.

HEALING -  A hallmark of the early church and of the church throughout the ages, where the Spirit of God as active and moving, was healing.  So it is today, and we have been prophesied a movement of healing like those of old. Days long healing services are coming – they are in God’s heart.  Can we avail ourselves to His ability in this?

The IN-BETWEENers  - God has said that He is sending those who are to fill in the gaps in this church body.  We are going to see those coming who are to fill in the gaps – to make the Body whole and able.  We will be blessed with new people, some who are coming back to the Lord and some who have never been His before.

The JOHN MARK’s -  God has called me to restore those who have been hurt by ministry, who have been set aside, as John Mark, Peter’s young cousin, was by Paul.  I am to be a Barnabas to those who God presents to me, an encourager, a healer and one who sets them back in ministry. [In fact it was John Mark who became Peter’s “scribe” in the years after he was “thrown away” by Paul and that narrative formed the core of our Synoptic Gospels, the Book of Mark.]

You may be weary, God says.  I AM NOT!

Friends, the State of the Flock does not depend on us; not on me, or you or the staff or the board, or the finance committee or the construction workers.  It depends on God. The State of this Flock depends on God and His Power. Like the school boy who gave up his lunch, we are simply watching as Jesus blesses, breaks, and gives the offerings we bring.  It all depends on Him and His ability. Our part is to ask for a willing heart, to make ourselves available – to avail ourselves to His ability, and then to be obedient to His direction, step by step.

We are living out the vision of Jesus for His Church – a group of friends, committed to His Word, devoted to one another, worshiping together, extending hands of hospitality, healing and hope to our neighbors, all undergirded by prayer of every kind.  That is the State of our Flock.  

In Jesus Name and by His power and grace.

Fr. Philip D. Eberhart +

Fr. Phil Eberhart +

Rector