Three Homilies

Here are the outlines for three different homilies I've preached. Two were for the Wednesday morning Eucharist service at Prince of Peace church, and one was for Trinity School for Ministry in the school chapel the Thursday before the beginning of Finals week.

Delight in Doing God's Work

Homily on Psalm 37:1-18, given December 6, 2012 at the Trinity Chapel

Well, it's that time of year again. The “now and not yet” time of expectation, where we must continue pushing forward in the work given for us to do until that appointed time comes when all of our troubles will be over.

Finals week. And I should mention that I think it vastly appropriate that our December 21^st deadline happens to also be the 2012 doomsday prediction based on the Mayan conspiracy. So, kudos, Trinity Faculty and Staff. I see what you did there.

It's in this time of our school year when we begin to question our life choices. We seriously begin to ask ourselves whether we really made the right decision to come to seminary, or even to really dedicate ourselves to Jesus is such a radical way as we have. The Psalm today is very important for us to take to heart in our times of weakness and doubt concerning our call to ministry.

David starts out Psalm 37 warning the righteous to not “be envious of wrongdoers.” When we are watching things on TV, or even just looking out into the lives of our friends in the world, we can begin to wonder whether the work we are doing here is really worth giving up that life. This can take the form of being envious of the life of certain types of business people or lawyers who are making a lot of money in their profession, or it could be old college friends who are still living the party lifestyle we either once knew or never had.

But, we cannot fall to the envy of such things. If you open your pew Bibles to Psalm 37, we can work through this portion of the Psalm together to better understand how to overcome those tendencies and see where our true desires belong.

The first two verses of Psalm 37 are a call to the righteous to not be envious of the evildoers in the world. David then uses the next four verses, 3 through 6, to exhort the righteous to remember why they do what they do. He writes, “Trust in the Lord, and do good … [and] delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” David diagnoses the problem here very quickly. Being envious of the wicked is a symptom of lacking trust in God. If we trust God and view him as our delight, he will grant us our desires—because he is willing and able to give us all of himself, all of his love, and his glory both now and in the age to come.

If we delight in God, then of course we will be willing, as David calls us to do in verse 5, to “commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act.” Why should we envy the ways of the wicked when they lack the only thing that brings true joy and peace?

In his homily on Monday, Taylor mentioned the importance for us to both trust that God is there when we pray, and also that he is good. David makes the same call here. He affirms to us that God will act on behalf of those who trust in him, and “he will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday.” God is present and God is good. He gives good gifts to those who ask of him.

The next two verses; 7 and 8 now deal with the attitude of the righteous person. David writes, “be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him.” Part of trusting in the Lord is trusting in his timing. This doesn't mean we can't cry out to him in our times of distress. But patience in waiting on the Lord is where our trust in him is truly tested.

We also see here that David makes a point to re-emphasize the importance of not worrying about the ways of the wicked. We should not be angry at the prosperity of those who “carry out evil devices” and are in no place to judge them for it, anyway! God is the Judge of all people. By worrying about it we only risk ourselves falling into sin over our frustrations. How can we pray “Father forgive us” if we aren't also being forgiving toward others?

David follows this section with verses 9 through 15. Here, he reminds the righteous that “the evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land.” I like that he does not say that those who do good will inherit the land, but those who wait on the Lord. Our righteousness is credited to us through our trust in God, and not on the merits of anything we have done.

The wicked will perish, and they will be no more. What they have now is fleeting, and will fade away like the grass. In hording for themselves treasures here on earth, they are filling their bags with vapors. The Lord knows that their days will come to an end, and the days of their false prosperity will be less than a memory in the glory of the riches of Heaven that the Lord has stored for those who place their trust in him.

This portion of the Psalm ends with verses 16 through 18. Verse 16 says, “better is the little that the righteous has than the abundance of many wicked.” Jesus taught that our treasure is to be stored in heaven, and there our hearts will be also. Our treasure is that which we delight in. All else will fade away and in the new heaven and new earth, we will laugh in bewilderment that any of this we envy here on earth was ever a desire.

God's treasure is so much more than the treasures of the world. We will find on that last day, by delighting in the Lord and committing ourselves to his will, we will gain the everlasting inheritance of his kingdom. He knows us fully and knows our deepest needs and desires. And he is good to give to us the source of our delight.

I encourage you to finish out final last week of the semester with boldness, and trusting in the Lord. Commit yourselves to him and delight in him, and perhaps you will find your desires fulfilled in the very work you have been given to do here at Trinity.

“The Lord knows the days of the blameless, and their heritage will remain forever.”

Unity through the Father

Homily on Ephesians 4:1-14, given January 2, 2013 at Prince of Peace church

The new thing in Hollywood action films nowadays is to team up a group of heroes who have enough power or skill in their own right, but are now being faced with a new villain that is too much for any one of them to handle. In these films we always reach a pinnacle turning point where the heroes have all turned on one another and can't seem to get anything done because they can't figure out a way to work together. Eventually, something happens where they discover the needs that they have in one another and manage to work as a team to defeat whatever evil they have been brought together to face.

Of course, in-fighting within a group isn't anything new. How many of us have had disagreements with others we are supposed to be working with? But, in this letter to the Ephesians, Paul writes that us working together is actually “walking in a manner worthy of the calling to which we have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”

Paul makes it very clear here that unity in the Body of Christ is reflective of the unity of God. He writes, “There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”

This morning, I want to consider what it means to be in unity. Both the why and how of our unity, as well as the outcome of this. To do so, I want to focus in on one key phrase in this passage, which is focused on God. The God we serve is a God of unity, and verse six of our passage reads that we have “one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”

Let's take this verse and look at it piece by piece. This first part writes that he is “God and Father of all.” Here is the first point to be made: He is God. And the second is like it: He is Father. He is our focus of worship and our creator. If we worship him, it means we value him far greater than we value other things, even ourselves. If that is true than we must value the unity that is within him, within the Trinity of the Godhead. The relationship of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is one of complete and utter unity. It is such a unity that we consider it a mystery how three persons can still maintain such unity as to be called one God. If he is so united within himself, and we view him as the greatest of things to be worshiped, then we must consider that his unity is worthy of such great value as to imitate it ourselves. We were created in his image, and part of that image is unity.

Next, we see God called the “Father of all.” This means we came from him, and if he created us, then the purpose which he created us for is our greatest purpose. You can use a spoon for many things. You can scratch off bingo cards, you can use it as a decorative headpiece, and many other uses. But it was created to be used as an eating utensil. It is best served being used as an eating utensil and fills its greatest purpose by being used as one. It is not a question of whether is can be used in other ways, but what it is best meant to be used for. God created us for unity, and so our best use is brought out in being united.

The second half of this verse says that God is “over all, through all, and in all.” Now God is able to do things beyond our imagination, and I know that even if we are not unified, he can still be over all of us. But, because he has designated himself as “over all,” that means we are all under the same umbrella, which means that we are all together whether we like it or not. This ties in with God being “Father of all.” A brother and sister still living in their father's house can't just decide they have nothing to do with their sibling. By both living under their father's roof, they are necessarily united whether they like it or not, simply by virtue of their father being over the both of them.

The second part of this is that God is 'through all.”

This, I think, is the most explicit mark for the need of unity. To dig into it more, I'd like to host a little English lesson. Does everyone know what a preposition is? Prepositions are used to link two nouns together by showing how they interact. There are three prepositions here used about God. The first is the one we just looked at, “over.” The other two are this one, “through,” and the next, which is, “in.” In this case, the nouns are “God” and “all.” Of course, “all” in this passage means all of us who worship God.

Now that we understand that, we need to look at the words being used, “God,” “through,” and “all.” Well, what does it mean to go through something? If I go through a tunnel, it means that I am literally going from one side of the tunnel to the other side by going inside that tunnel, right? Well, what does it mean for God to go “through all?” It means God goes from one side of all to the other side, not by going around, but by passing within all.

We are all connected by God passing through each of us to one another. God connects us through himself. Every interaction we have is not only “under God” because God is “over all” but also God is moving “through us” and to one another. As fellow believers, we are communicating God to one another when we interact because God moves through us. That means God goes from one side of us, that is, from where we worship him, to the other side, which is where we speak, act, or in any way interact with others. And this goes beyond just with other Christians. As we live our daily lives, God goes through us. What we communicate to others, we are communicating on behalf of God because he is our God and Father.

The final part of this verse writes that God is “in all.”

Here, again, we see the point being made for unity. If God is one, and God is in each of us, then we are also made one by God's Spirit residing in us. This was the prayer of Jesus in John's gospel. He prays for all believers, “that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.”

So, what should we do with this insight from Paul in Ephesians 4:6? We should keep unity together, but not unity based on our own merits, or even our own talent. Our unity is based on what we worship. We worship the God of unity, and love one another because God dwells in each of us by his Spirit. We love others because Christ's purpose in this world is to bring others to him and use us as a means for that purpose. How can we love God if we cannot even love one another? How can we claim to value God when we do not love those whom he, himself died for?

If we shift our focus onto the love of God, we will see that it is a love that knows no bounds. It is a love that extends over, through and within all of us who believe as a means of drawing others into that love. He is our God and he has made us in his image for the purpose of sharing himself with all. How can we follow the greatest commandment to love God without also following the second, which is to love our neighbors as ourselves? Our unity is a sign of the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth. We proclaim love by showing love in both word and deed. And we proclaim God by reflecting his unity in the unity we have with one another.

Jesus, the Good Camp Counselor

Homily on John 1:1-18, given March 20, 2013 at Prince of Peace church

When I was still in middle school, I attended a camp over the summer. At the camp, we were all separated into cabins. Now each of these cabins had a camp counselor assigned to it, and we weren't supposed to go into the cabins without that counselor with us. One day, a group of the boys in my cabin were waiting outside for the counselor so we could get in. I really wanted to get something out of my bag, and was getting tired of waiting. One of my friends egged me on, telling me that the door was unlocked, and that I could go in and get back out before the counselor ever got back. He would never know.

By my friend's encouragement, I ran in to grab it. But the boys behind me, being middle school boys, immediately slammed the door shut as soon as I went in. I tried to open the door, but they were pulling it shut from the other side. I was scared. I thought I'd get in a whole mess of trouble if I was locked in the cabin without our counselor there. I ran up to the window of the cabin and as I pushed it open, it hit hard against the edge of the wall. The window shattered, and shards of glass fell all over the floor. Of course, as soon as this happened, all the other boys outside scattered. And of course, I got in trouble with our counselor.

Now, I don't know what it was I thought I needed out of the cabin. But what I can tell you is that whatever it was could have waited until the counselor got there. He was in charge of the door. He knew when it was right for us to go in and to come out. The other boys and I couldn't assume to know. But because I knew what I wanted, and was enticed by another to take what I wanted, I ended up doing what was wrong for me to do.

You see, it wasn't a matter of me knowing what was right or wrong at the time, but it was the problem wanting something enough to fool myself into confusing the two. Confusing what I wanted with what was right for me to do. This other boy at the camp was not our counselor. But he knew what I wanted and encouraged me to take it, without considering the consequences. He did not have the authority to say what was right, but believing him is what got me into trouble.

This is like what Jesus teaches in our passage. He is our... Good Camp Counselor, to go with my story. We need to trust in Jesus and follow him where he leads us. He cares enough about us to lay down his life for us. Too often, we let what we want determine where we are going. And a lot of the time, what we want is not what is right. We need to learn to want Jesus above all other things. And by wanting him, and seeking after him,

we learn to want what is right.

Jesus is the Good Shepherd, and Jesus is the gateway into the pasture of God. We must go through Jesus because he is the only way, the truth, and the life. The Devil will tempt you to think that you know what's best for you. He will try to convince you that you have the right to whatever it is you want, no matter how good or bad it might really be for you. Because you are the ruler of your life. But we need to recognize that maybe,

just maybe, like I did back at that summer camp, we all run the risk of being blinded to what is good by what we want when the temptation is right in front of us.

So, wait for the Lord. Listen for his Word. Consider his teachings, passed down to us by the saints in the words of Holy Scripture. And follow him. Do not follow the devil. Do not follow temptation. Follow the Good Shepherd, who will lead us to green pastures and by still waters. He will restore our souls. He loves us, even enough to lay his life down for us.

At that summer camp, I listened to temptation. I didn't wait for the appropriate time when it was right to go into the cabin. Those other boys who were the ones who encouraged me all along, scattered at the first sign of trouble. So will the Devil. So will those who tempt you to do evil. They will not stand by you in times of trouble-- even if they are the reason for the trouble you are in.

But the Good Shepherd will stay by you. The Good Shepherd will lead you away from evil, so you don't have to fear it. The Good Shepherd knows his own, each of you, by name. And he gives himself up for you. He lays his life down for you. Because his love for you is immense.