Perseverance

 

This Camellia blossomed in the midst of some of the coldest weather of the years, and it did it well.  We can learn something from the Camellia.

 

The Christian Journey from Self-Absorption to Sacrificial Self-Giving

 It is the Lord’s expectation (and of course mine as God’s priest in this place) that we are all making the age-old Christian pilgrimage from self-absorption to self-giving.  By the power of the Holy Spirit working in us, we are learning to sacrificially give ourselves for the sake of others.  Sacrificially giving of our time, talent and spiritual gifts for the sake of others is at the heart of what it means to be Kingdom People.  This means that we are all challenged to grow in our discipleship, understand our callings, and pick our ministries.  This journey toward self-giving is a journey toward Christ-likeness, because it is Jesus who is the ultimate giver and who sacrificially gave His life for the sake of all of us. This is our vision, because it is God’s vision.

In the Image of Christ

 

I attended a conference at Trinity Seminary, Ambridge PA this past week.  It is always good to spend time at Trinity, albeit short, immersed in learning something more about the Kingdom of God.  The fellowship and rhythm of seminary worship is also very spiritually refreshing.

 The topic this year was Christian Anthropology. Anthropology is the study of humankind, just as theology is the study of God.  Christian Anthropology is combining the two by studying the relationship of humankind to our Creator. One of my favorite psalms, Psalm 139, was in my mind as we explored this topic this week:

 ¹³For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb.

¹⁴ I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.
¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret,
    intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
¹⁶ Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written every one of them,
    the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.

¹⁷ How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!

 Much of our study centered on human dignity and the source of human dignity.  Secular culture and Christians alike champion this idea of human dignity, but we often end up in different places on how to live it out.  The reason is that Christians think more in terms of the sanctity of life, not just its dignity.  Life is sacred and it is God who decides how it is to be lived out.  It also means that it is God who assigns worth to all human life, and He does it equally, from the yet to be born, to the disabled, to the mentally challenged, to those experiencing the end of their earthly life.  We humans, therefore, do not get to decide who is less human or of less value.

  Christian Anthropology finds its roots in the fact that we are created in the image of God (Imago Dei). Gen 1:27-28 says, “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.   And God blessed them…”   That image, however, is distorted and tarnished by The Fall (Gen. 3).  Jesus, however, comes as the New Adam to restore the Imago Dei and invites us to take on His likeness.  We are given His Holy Spirit who empowers and guides our life in doing so.

                                                                                                                                                Father Rob

Rod Dreher, "Live Not by Lies"

Rod Dreher, the author of Live Not by Lies, draws on the wisdom of Christian survivors of Soviet persecution to warn American Christians of an approaching danger.

For years, immigrants from the former Soviet bloc have been telling Rod Dreher that they see telltale signs of "soft" totalitarianism cropping up in America, something not unlike Aldous Huxley's Brave New World.  Identity politics is beginning to encroach on every aspect of life. Civil liberties are increasingly seen as a threat to "safety". Progressives marginalize conservative, traditional Christians, and other dissenters. Technology and consumerism hasten the possibility of a corporate surveillance state. And the pandemic, having put millions out of work, leaving our country particularly vulnerable to demagogic manipulation.  In Live Not by Lies, Dreher repeats the alarm sounded by these brave men and women who fought totalitarianism. 

Dreher explains how the totalitarianism facing us today is based less on overt violence and more on psychological manipulation.  He retells the stories of modern-day dissidents, the clergy, laity, martyrs, and confessors from the Soviet Union and other captive nations of Europe, who offer practical advice for how to identify and resist totalitarianism in our time. 

Live Not by Lies offers to American Christians a method for resistance:
  •  SEE:         Acknowledge the reality of the situation.
  •  JUDGE:   Assess reality in the light of what we as Christians know to be true.
  •  ACT:        Take action to protect truth.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn famously said that one of the biggest mistakes people make is to assume totalitarianism can't happen in their country.  Many American Christians are making that mistake today, sleepwalking through the erosion of our freedoms. 

A Faith that Makes a Difference

A relationship with our Lord that is growing, transformative, and makes a difference in our lives and the lives of people around us, does not happen without an intentional, holistic, and balanced spiritual life; therefore, each of us needs to commit to at least these three things in our pilgrimage with Christ:

• We need to commit to being in the Body each Lord’s Day, seeking the face of God and being present to help others do the same.
• Commit to growing in our knowledge and love of the Lord by being a part of at least one of the several spiritual growth gatherings we have weekly.
• Commit to serving others both inside and outside the church family by finding our ministry. 

The idea of this sort of intentional and holistic churchmanship is not new to us or any fellowship that is growing, thriving and honoring God in their lives.

    Father Rob

Progressive Protestantism- Has God Changed His Mind?

In North American Progressive (Liberal) Protestantism, salient questions are being asked about (1) Holy Scripture and (2) the person (divine nature) and work of Christ Jesus.  These two questions are central to Apostolic Christianity and to the historic Faith.  Progressive Protestantism has come up with new answers:

1)       Is Holy Scripture God’s divine revelation about Himself, about us and about His good and perfect will for all creation? 

If it is Scripture, like God Himself, is timeless, immutable and authoritative.  If not, then Scripture can be trumped by modern reason, human desire, individual experience, and cultural mores. The latter is the answer that theologically progressive Protestantism offers to our society in the effort to be relevant to our post-Christian Western Civilization.  In this way, liberal Christianity can be the chaplain to a progressively secular culture and bless the shift toward neo-paganism which is what, more-and-more, defines our society today.  It is ironic that our post-Christian society generally does not seek a blessing from either God or the Church, and both are increasingly marginalized and considered obstacles to progressivism. 

2)       Is Jesus indeed God who has come down to dwell among us to fix what we are incapable of fixing ourselves, which is our corrupt and fallen human nature and our resulting estrangement (fall) away from God? 

This has been the Gospel claim of orthodox Christians from the Apostles on.  Jesus is not just one way to the Father, He is “The Way.”  Jesus the Messiah is God’s unique act of redemption in history on behalf of all humankind.  If this is not so, then the spiritual struggle of humanity to deal with sin will unsuccessfully continue, and falling short of the glory of God is the only result.  The Old Testament Scripture recounts the folly of seeking on our own strength our redemption and healing of our sinful nature. 

 Again, it is ironic that the modern, post-Christian culture generally is not asking for a savior or seeking reconciliation with God.  To seek union and conformity with something larger that oneself is to deny the autonomy of the individual and the ability for each of us to create our own heaven, hope and future.  

Has God changed His mind about His plan for our salvation, or is the Church in the process of changing her mind?  The stakes are high because our hope and eternal future rest in the balance.

Father Rob

Quote from John Stott on the Ideal Church

 marks of the ideal Church - love, suffering, holiness, sound doctrine, genuineness, evangelism and humility." -- John Stott

Racism

 

The 1960's were a watershed time for me, not to mention for this country.  It gave us a vision and a path forward for healing our systemic and personal racism that had afflicted us, and indeed all humankind.  Dr. King said, and I humbly quote this great man: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. I have a dream today!"  

We proceeded to live into this dream over this last half-century.  The 1960's led to the outlawing of systemic racism in businesses and education, and branded racism in all its forms as inappropriate to this country's founding ideals.  Although we can look into the human heart and see brokenness, corruption and evil of all kinds, and we always will until Christ comes again, nonetheless, racism became known as un-American, for which we can say, thanks be to God.  

Americans of all races sought to live this ideal.  The greatest and freest society this planet has ever seen welcomed millions of African Americans and other minorities into its burgeoning middle class, even to the extent that Whites are no longer the highest category of wage-earners, Asians are.  Working seamlessly in industry alongside all races was the norm.  Looking to the content of one’s character, not the color of one’s skin, was how we decided who would be our friend.  And, finally in 2009, we elected our first black president, something most could celebrate whether they agreed with Obama’s governing philosophy or not.   

But something else happened in the 1960’s, which was Lyndon Johnson’s “War of Poverty.”  Like the Civil Rights Movement of the same decade, it was an ideal worth striving for.  Like FDR’s “New Deal,” it set up safety-net programs that assure that the poorest in our country have necessities of food, clothing, shelter and medical care.  It has made a real and lasting difference, particularly for no-whites, but it failed to move the poverty line below the chronic 13% (or so) that it has historically been over the last half century.[1] We did not win the war on poverty, and while we were trying to create a classless society, we inadvertently created a new class- the entitlement class. It contributed to the destruction of the family unit with the government providing for families rather than fathers. 

 [1]        Census Bureau -   https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2020/09/poverty-rates-for-blacks-and-hispanics-reached-historic-lows-in-2019.html

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Emotions and Feelings as a Basis for Our Identity

Perhaps we all struggle with our self-identity, but some more so than others for sure. I am speaking of that identity internally held that forms the basis for understanding who we are, whose we are, and where we fit in.  How we understand ourselves has a bearing on how we relate to the people around us and to the God who created us.  

Our identity, therefore, needs to be based on something more concrete, factual, and trustworthy than our internal emotions.  Even though we are in the midst of a culture that tells us, "If it feels go do it," we need more than feelings and emotions to bring us to our full potential and God-given destiny?  

As a pastoral counselor, I have seen first-hand how feelings and emotions are too fickle for a person to use as the sole basis for understanding who they really are and what course of action they should take to move forward in life.  A person struggling with depression, for instance, may believe they are hopelessly unable to cope with the challenges of daily living when the truth is that they have the resources to do just that, even though chemical imbalances or circumstances have deceived them into thinking otherwise.  A person having experienced the trauma of rejection and broken relationships identifies himself or herself as one unworthy or incapable of any kind of healthy relationship when, of course, it is not true. 

Another example is the modern-day trend toward trans-genderism based solely on the feeling that one is of another sex.  Gender dysphoria is not new, of course, but many these days are further led to seek a trans-sexual identity by our gender-affirming culture and some well-meaning phycology practitioners, all because of what one is feeling.  What seems prudent before any sort of life-changing action, such as hormone treatment or gender reassignment surgery, is to seek other sources for decision-making than just one's feelings and emotions.  This is doubly true among children whose emotions, life experiences, and identity are just forming.  

The obvious answer is therapeutic exploration of other factors than feelings in establishing a healthy identity.  Maybe such clinical exploration is taking place in most cases; one would hope so.  If the person were my child, relative, or friend, I would surely insist upon it.  

Homily- Funeral Service for Bob James, December 8, 2023

Needless to say, I am honored to preside at Bob’s memorial service today.  Bob was a pretty special guy.  He was a good and gentle man, a good friend to me, and I was privileged to be his pastor and priest for these recent years. 

 Sue, Terri, Mike, Kathy, all the family, my heart goes out to you.  I know your grief over your now being separated from Bob.  I will miss his him, as we all will, until we are all reunited around God’s throne in heaven. 

 Bob and Sue both have been my heroes in the growing old department. They have done it right.  I have fond memories of Bob that I will cherish.  One of my favorites is Wednesday fellowship suppers here at Holy Trinity.  Bob always enjoyed them.  He enjoyed the food and being with his friends.  Many of you will remember this… On Wednesday nights, before he did anything else, he would go to the dessert table and pick out desserts for Sue and himself.  Making a choice was not a problem for Bob; if more than one looked good, he would just take two.  He would then lead the way through the buffet line, which seemed right to us in that Bob and Sue were the eldest, the matriarch and patriarchs of the parish. 

 I admired Bob for his solid spirituality and a care for people.  Sitting with the family at Posey’s Funeral Home earlier this week, Kathy shared with me that her Dad regularly, almost nightly, called to ask she was and how her family were doing.  Mike as a trucker knew of his father’s concern for his safety and wellbeing.  The family has shared with me about their father’s devotion to his evening prayers in which he would pray for all these things. 

Bob was a man who lived well the life God gave him; so, in the midst of our sadness at his absence, we have much to celebrate: 

•         We celebrate Bob’s 93 years among us. 
•         We celebrate God who gave Bob to us for these 93 years.
•         And we celebrate the rest of Bob’s story, which is his inheritance as a child of God of eternal life with his Father in heaven.

To be in union with Him forever is the reason God created Bob in the first place. Bob was created out of love, to be the object of God’s love, with the divine ability to Love God in return.  As for loving God in return, Bob surely did that. 

 Bob was not perfect; none of us are?  But Bob was a person who called on God to help him push back the evils of this world.  For us all, sin, rebellion, neglecting of God- all these things get in the way of a redeeming and salvific relationship with our heavenly Father.  In our fallen human condition, we find that we are powerless to overcome our propensity for such things, but God in Christ He does for us that we cannot do for ourselves. This is what Jesus is all about.  Bob had this kind of saving relationship with Christ and is therefore tsken his place at the great banquet feast of the Lamb, to borrow from that powerful biblical imagery.

 A few minutes ago, during the family’s procession into the church, I recited pieces of Scripture, one was part of Jesus’ conversation with Martha, the sister of Jesus’ friend Lazarus. who had died, and Martha was in deep grief, and frankly, in deep puzzlement, about it all.  This story is recorded in the Gospel of John, chapter 11: Let me read it to you:    “23 Jesus said to Martha, ‘Your brother will rise again.’ 24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection; I am life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes [that, is trust] in me shall never die. Jesus goes on to ask Martha a question, “Do you believe this, Martha?”  She answers, “Yes, Lord, I believe.”  This was Bob’s answer to Jesus also.  I pray that this is the answer, or will be the answer, that all of us here today will give to God.

 This reveals a bedrock fact about our God: He did not create Bob to just live three-score and ten years, as Psalm 90 puts it, and then simply return to the dust from which he came, as Genesis 3 puts it.  It is likely that a number of us here today believe that because it is what our materialistic culture teaches us.  Bob answered Jesus’ question to Martha with his own yes, and therefore the curse of Genesis 3 for him is broken.  The curse of Genesis 3 is, of course, the death and eternal separation from God.  For Bob, death no longer has the last word in his life, Jesus does.  Bob’s life is characterized, at least in the time I have known him, by his pursuit of this salvific, curse-breaking, love-relationship with God.  In return, God has pursued him, forgiven him, redeemed him, and now, gathered Bob to Himself. 

 Finally let me say, Bob’s relationship with his Lord is reflected in his relationships with all of us.  I have seen it in his kindness, generosity, servanthood, hospitality, and sacrificial giving to his family and to all of us.  So, we have much to celebrate today. 

Let’s pray:

 Almighty God, creator and sustainer of us all, our hearts of full of thankfulness for Bob but be close to us as we deal with our separation from him, albeit for only for a little while.  Continue to cover this family with the richness of your grace bestowing on them your joy and peace that surpasses understanding.  We pray this in the holy name of our Lord and redeemer, Jesus Christ. Amen

On the Wrong Side of History

I have dedicated this blog page over the years to my musings on topics of spiritual life and growth.  I think this posting fits into that criteria in that it is about the relentless march in this country from a predominately Christian Worldview, to a predominately secular worldview that is mildly tolerant or appreciative of the contribution the Christian Worldview, to a now a thoroughly pagan worldview(1) that sees and thus opposes Christianity as standing in the way of a "Progressive" future for this country.  Proof of this, in my mind, cannot be more clearly seen than the expression of the classic Christian virtues are noticeably more rare these days in American politics, and we now only nominate and elect pagans to the highest office in the land, the Presidency.  People ask, "How can you possibly vote for ... ?"  My answer is that I don't; I vote for the political philosophy and form of government that I believe will prosper this country and most benefit the middle and poverty-line class in this country.

I have tilted this posting "On the Wrong Side of History"(2) because the future belongs to the younger generation (younger than me anyway), and apparently most of the younger generation have become convinced that we need to shift left (toward socialism and away from capitalism- more this below).  The normative belief is that capitalism creates wealth disparity and is therefore evil, even in spite of the fact that the controlled capitalism of our  economic system has created the wealthiest country in the world.  Most in my generation understand that capitalism is not perfect but it works better that anything else.  The younger generation does not agree with this.  For the life of me, I do not know what they base that upon; nonetheless, it places us on the wrong side of history, because, if we don't fall off Progressive cliff this election, we probably will the next, barring any significant change in thinking of our young people.

America has always been on a continuum between liberal socialism and conservative free-market capitalism, between high taxes and low taxes, between wealth redistribution and wealth creation,  between big government that enforces wealth redistribution and small government that allows and incentivizes and provides people the opportunity to create their own wealth.  The liberal movements of the 20th century created much needed safety net program, but the Great Society movement of the 60's also created a permanent poverty class.  In theeh last half of the 20th Century, we threw trillions of dollars at poverty only to have poverty stay at or about 13%.  The 20th Century did not find the sweet spot between socialism and capitalism and, it seems to me, went too far to the left.  We act like we cannot learn from our past.    

With all that said, where does that leave me this election cycle.  Progressivism has the goal of fundamentally remaking America, when what I want is to find that sweet spot on the continuum, and it does not lie further to the left.  I want a government that gets out of the way and allows the economically deprived and the middle class grow and prosper, while watching out for those in need and those who cannot take care of themselves.  I think progressivism is more the problem than the solution.  The champion of progressivism is Kamala Harris: so, I don't think she is the answer.  The Democrats do not even talk about how to help the economy thrive; and I am not sure the new Democratic party can any longer help people prosper, given their platform priorities.  The Republicans have had some success with that in this recent administration, and I think the Republicans at least have a "get out of the way and let people prosper" attitude.  I think the Republicans have the best answer for the future of this country.   So, as far has Trump is concerned, my only choice is to do what I did during the last presidential election, which was to hold my nose and vote.  It is a decision on which "pagan" is best for the people of this county. 

 

(1) My thanks to Fr. Ross Guthrie who in a recent sermon helped me understand this transition from simply post-Christian to full-blown paganism and what that really means to us.  

(2) Barrack Obama was the first one I heard to who say that Conservatives were on the wrong side of history.  He also said that he was going to fundamentally change America.  I think that was his objective but was checked by the checks and balances of our system.   

Homily- Memorial Service for Pat Hartley, November 13, 2023

 Needless to say, I am honored to be the homilist today. Dan and Peyton, thank you for inviting me to do so, and thank you, Father Duvall, for your graciousness in allowing me this pulpit.   

 For Christ Church to have this memorial service here at St. Andrews, Mt. Pleasant is a special blessing for Dan, Alice, and me.  Four pews from the back on the Epistle side is where my siblings and I got our start on our Christian pilgrimages.  On Sundays we were sandwiched between our father on our right and our mother towering over us on the left.  What I remember most vividly about those early years was how effectively any excessive squirming or inappropriate noise was dealt with by our mother, and this is when I first received some idea of what the "fear of God" was all about. 

I spent much of this past week with my brother Dan and niece Peyton grieving, enjoying memories, sharing with friends and family, and hashing over the realities of life that come to the front of our thoughts at times like this. 

 Speaking of family, it is quite an experience to see all my family all lined up, packed in, sitting still, well-behaved… with little doors to keep them confined… A picture I’ll always remember.  That is not how I am used to experiencing my family.

 To all of you here today, you honor Pat with your presence, and you honor the family.  To Dan, Peyton, Carsten, Marylin, who feel Pat’s absence the most acutely, our hearts continue to break along with yours.  We all know, however, that our sadness is mixed with celebration, because we have much to celebrate: 

·        We celebrate Pat’s 77 years among us.  

·        We celebrate God who gave Pat to us for these 77 years.

·        And to celebrate the rest of Pat’s story, which is her inheritance as a child of God of eternal life with her Father in heaven.

To be in union with God forever is the reason God created Pat in the first place. This is God’s desire for Pat before the beginning of the ages. Pat was created out of love, to be the object of God’s love, with the divine ability to Love God in return desire even before the ages. 

 But as the human race, our sin, rebellion and neglect of God gets in the way of this love-relationship with our heavenly Father. We are powerless to overcome our fallen human nature, but God can do for us that we cannot do for ourselves. This is what Jesus the Messiah is all about.

 A few minutes ago in our processional anthem, Father Ted recited part of Jesus’ conversation with Martha, the sister of Jesus’ friend Lazarus who had died, and Martha is in deep grief, and frankly, puzzlement, about it all.  This story is recoded in the Gospel of John, chapter 11: Let me read it to you:    “23 Jesus said to Martha, ‘Your brother will rise again.’ 24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection; I am life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes [that is, trust] in me shall never die. Jesus goes on to ask Martha a question, “Do you believe this, Martha?”  She answers, “Yes, Lord, I believe.”  This has been Pat’s answer also.  I pray that this is the answer or will be the answer for all of us here to today.

So, here is a bedrock fact about our God: He did not create Pat to live 3 score and 10 years, as Psalm 90 puts it, and then simply return to the dust from which she came, as Genesis 3 puts it.  Pat answers Jesus’ question to Martha with a yes, and therefore the curse of Genesis 3 for Pat is broken.  The curse is death and eternal separation from God, but for Pat, death no longer has the last word in her life, God does.  

 In the 52 years I have known Pat, ever since Dan and Pat’s courtship and marriage those many years ago, she has pursued this of salvific love-relationship with God, and moreover, God has pursued her, forgiven her, redeemed her, and now, gathered her to himself.  We heard a few minutes ago Caroline read from 1 Corinthians 15 these Words, “O death, where is your victory; O death, where is your sting… thanks be to God who gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

 Finally let me say, Pat’s relationship with her Lord is reflected in her relationships with all of us.  I have seen it in her kindness, generosity, servanthood, hospitality, and sacrificial giving.  We have seen the light of Christ shining through her

 So, we have much to celebrate today.  Let’s pray:  Almighty God, creator and sustainer of us all, our hearts of full of thankfulness and joy for Pat but be close to us as we deal with our separation from her, albeit for only for a little while.  I pray this for us all, but in particular for my brother Dan.  Continue to cover Dan and all the family with the richness of your grace bestowing upon all of us your joy and peace.  We pray this in the holy name of our Lord and redeemer, Jesus Christ. Amen

A Christian Response to Homosexuality

 

We see people these days responding to homosexuality in a broad spectrum of ways from total and affirming acceptance to gay bashing and gay violence.  The former (far left of the spectrum) comes out of an “enlightened” modernistic creed of individualism and a lack of transcendent authority concerning human sexuality.  The latter stems from a fallen human instinct to abhor and reject what is different.  Neither response is Christian.

The Christian response is wisdom, grace, and unconditional love.  Paul writes in Colossians 4:6, "Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity.  Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned, as it were, with salt, so that you may know how you should respond "  In other words, the Christian response to homosexuality is to be God’s kind of love- the same Agape love Jesus showed toward the Samaritan woman at the well while she was still in her aberrant lifestyle, or toward Nicodemus still in his confusion about Kingdom truths, or Matthew while he was still deep in his greed and extortion as a tax collector.

The Church should allow the love of Christ to flow through us such that those caught up in homosexuality may turn to Christ and not away from Christ.  Speak Truth, of course, but allow the Holy Spirit to lead the person into a new life in Christ.  The Holy Spirit will do all the convicting that needs to be done to bring this about.  Our role is to be inviting, supportive, encouraging, and most of all, loving.

"Under God's Umbrella"- from Chapter 7, the Amazing Indian Land Years

We lived in Indian Land Community, Lancaster, SC and our beloved home there for most of the thirty-one years of my career Duke Power Company and Duke Energy, Charlotte, NC.  This was the home in which our sons, Rob and Jimmy, grew into adulthood.

In our early years in Indian Land, my focus was on my career and providing for our family.  It became a rather self-focused and myopic time for me. It was in 1980 that the Lord changed all that. 

We were attending Saint Paul’s Episcopal Church in Fort Mill, although we later attended Christ Church in Lancaster. One Fall Sunday morning I was in Saint Paul’s churchyard awaiting the start of the adult Sunday school.  It was a beautiful morning with the large oak trees of the churchyard full of color.  Nancy was off doing one of her ministries, and the boys were already in Sunday school. 

God and I had a talk about things that morning.  Our conversation (don’t worry—no audible voices) that morning was about the convenient form of deism that I had adopted which had kept God compartmentalized and uninvolved in most corners of my life.  As a lifelong Christian, I knew that was not what my faith was supposed to look like.  I knew His place was at the center of my life, and He was supposed to be Lord over all of my life.  That was where I had placed myself, and I figured it would get a bit crowded if God also moved in.  

In my arrogance, I made a deal with the Lord about a trial period to see how things went.  If one could make a deal with the devil, then I guess I thought I could make a deal with God. Looking back, I’m astounded at my condescension before God.  Perhaps the towering oak trees protected me from a much-deserved lightning strike at that time.  But it was, nonetheless, a surrender of sorts, and God used it.  From that point on, the Holy Spirit began to set my feet on a proper Christian path.  I would have never guessed what that was going to be like.

This conversation with God was not happening in isolation. Nancy’s brother, Jim, and our dear friends and fellow parishioners Tom and Gail shepherded Nancy and me during this time. I would describe this as my born-again moment, as Jesus describes it to Nicodemus in John 3.

This is the time in my life when Christianity began to make sense of this nonsensical world in which I was living.  Christianity offered me the answers to the first-order questions of life such as:

·         Who am I?

·         Whose am I?

·         From what (or from whom) do I derive my identity?

·         For what purpose was I created?

·        What does real human prospering and thriving look like? ( i.e. What’s really important in life?)

·         What is my ultimate telos and destiny of my life?

I was coming to understand that Christianity is about turning this upside-down world right-side up, and this changed the trajectory of Nancy’s and my life:  My career was blessed by it; my marriage was blessed by it; my being a father to Rob and Jimmy was blessed by it.  I was brought joy, peace, and purpose in a newer and fuller way.  I began the long journey from self-absorption to self-giving, a journey I’m still on to this day.  

Let me add that Nancy and I made and are this journey together into a more mature Christian faith, but my sense is that she has always been out front and leading the way. I am hugely grateful to her for that.

The 1980s were, therefore, a time of remarkable growth in my knowledge, love, and service to God. Tithing became an honor as I began to learn how to give back to God. Cursillo (a three-day weekend retreat) taught me about being intentional and disciplined in my pursuit of God and about the indispensable aspects of Christian community in that endeavor.  My Cursillo small group, a small clutch of men at Christ Church, Lancaster, were center stage to this spiritual growth.   This small group, of which I was a part of for twelve years, taught me the value of mutual support and accountability with my fellow pilgrims.

This Cursillo men’s group eventually became involved in Kairos Prison Ministry in the South Carolina state prison system from which I learned an enormous amount about working in the power of the Holy Spirit and that The Holy Spirit was the key to making a difference in people’s lives.

After a few years I was asked to be the lay rector of a Kairos weekend at Manning Correctional Institution.  There were thirty inmates and fourteen volunteers as part of that weekend, and I found it to be one of the most challenging yet rewarding undertakings of my life. That weekend taught me immeasurably about trusting God by simply stepping out and doing what He was calling me to do.

In the early 1990s, a soon-to-be close friend, Doyle, was released from state prison, and he returned to Lancaster County where he had grown up.  Doyle had a rocky upbringing which led to his being incarcerated in the South Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) in Columbia and again later as an adult in the South Carolina Department of Corrections.  Doyle had attended Kairos in the Department of Corrections and through one of our Cursillo group members at Christ Church he was invited to be part of our men’s group.  

Doyle wanted things to be different in his life, and God helped him do just that.  He became a solid and mature Christian in those years, eventually becoming part of the core leadership at Christ Church.  He sought ways to give back to his community, to his new church family, and, most of all, to the incarcerated youth in the Department of Juvenile Justice where he had once been a resident.

Doyle, along with a few others in the state, had a vision of starting a ministry in DJJ modeled on the Kairo ministry in the adult prisons.  It was called "Epiphany." On the first Epiphany weekend in the DJJ, Doyle was the lay rector, and I was his coordinator (the person who took care of logistics and other details).  I was the lay rector of the next Epiphany weekend a few months later.

What was extraordinarily special about that second Epiphany Weekend was that my sons, Rob and Jimmy, and a group of their friends from across our diocese, all college age or above at that time, joined us to minister to these incarcerated and street-hardened boys of DJJ.  

The effectiveness of my sons’ and their friends was enhanced by their being only a few years older than these incarcerated teenagers.  The greatest gift they conveyed to the residents of DJJ was hope—that is, the reality their lives were not over but just beginning.  Their lives could be different from what they had experienced in their young lives through a relationship with the God who created them.  It was an amazing thing to watch. ...

Jesus as the Way, the Truth, and the Life

Jesus says in John 14:6, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."  To believe such a thing in this age of intolerance, shaming and name-calling is a risky thing.  But I do believe it.  Let me list the reasons.

First of all, I understand all too well my fallen human nature.  I know the futility of any of us finding our way back to God on our own efforts and through our own resources.  Jesus is God doing for us that which we cannot do for ourselves.

Secondly, I know the only thing I can do is respond to His grace with trust and belief, for as it says in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." Even then, my faith requires God's grace working in me. 

Finally, it is Jesus alone, through His death, resurrection and imputed righteousness onto my life, who re-unites sinful me with my perfect Father.  Christ does this even while I'm still embroiled in my sinfulness, for as St. Paul writes in Romans 5:8, "God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." What's more, Jesus has sent His Holy Spirit to reveal, convict, and guide me into a more perfect way, to become what I already am in God's eyes.  

Yes, I know Jesus as the Way, the Truth and the Life.  How about you?

From Chapter 2 of My Autobiography- Under God's Umbrella

From Under God's Umbrella: A Journey through Life, ISBN: 979-8-8229-0047-9 

An institution that was formative in my growing up years was Kanuga, a church conference center in the mountains of North Carolina near Hendersonville. Our family regularly rented a cabin for a week in the mountains at this beautiful place which Nancy’s and my children and grandchildren all know well. At an exceedingly early age, I remember cane pole fishing with my older brother and father in Kanuga Lake just below Kanuga Lodge. We used poles given to my brother and me by my Aunt Alice (Alice Randolf Hartley Pane, one of my father’s sisters). This was in the early 1950s, and I’m amazed how vivid this memory is to me to this day.

I attended other camps and conferences over the years, but Kanuga was the closest to my heart. I attended the Young People’s Conference for a series of years and eventually worked as a kitchen helper at Kanuga in the summer between my junior and senior years in high school. Interestingly, our son Jimmy also worked in the kitchen at Kanuga between his junior and senior years in high school.

The tradition continued with Nancy and me taking our boys to Kanuga summer after summer. Jimmy and his wife, Caroline, are continuing the tradition to this day, and we have been renting a cabin at Kanuga with them in recent summers. That makes four generations of Hartley's who love Kanuga. Great memories there for us all!

Kanuga became for me what the ancient Celtic church called a “thin place,” which is where the fabric between heaven and earth is drawn so thinly that one can almost reach through and touch the face of God. 

For years, I have used Kanuga as a spiritual retreat. On the far side of the lake sits a bench on the edge of the trail behind the large, iconic Kanuga cross (visible in the picture below). The bench is peacefully and beautifully shrouded in a tunnel of mountain laurel, and it became a special place for me to commune with God and offer up both my joys and struggles.  I have come to call it the "God Bench."

Today, my favorite thing to do at Kanuga is to rise at dawn, walk to the God Bench and visit with the Lord, inviting one of grandsons to come with me; hopefully, I can do the same with Sinclair, my granddaughter, when she is older). Amazingly, my grandsons almost always would say yes to my invitation. My discussions with them in that place have always been deep, insightful, enjoyable, heartwarming, and mostly about God. There is another bench we come to before reaching the God Bench that the grandsons now call the Devil Bench. They throw sticks at it as they run past it to get to the God Bench. There is something delightfully metaphorical about this.  Kanuga will always have a special place in heart because of these times.

Jordan Peterson Podcast with Eric Metaxas- Wakeup Call to the American Church

I recently listened to this podcast.  Doing so led me to reevaluate how I am living the Faith and how the Church should be interacting with our contemporary secular culture.

I often tell myself, "I can't expect non-Christians to act like Christians."  This has allowed me to respect people where they are and seek to serve and love them just as they are.  This has rarely involved challenging their behavior and beliefs.  Many Christians are where I am because it avoids conflict, and we all (well, almost all) of us want that.

Metaxas challenges this way of being a Christian in his book, A Letter to the American Church.  I think he is right.  His book brings to mind one of my favorite Bible stories, the Samaritan woman at the well in John's Gospel.  I love its gentleness, but at the same time, Jesus is unequivocal in challenging the Samaritan woman's lifestyle.  I seldom do such things.

In today's climate, it is more than just avoiding conflict; it is trying not to get cancelled, censored, or censured.  Metaxas' thesis is, however, if we have faith, we will do the right thing, stake our lives on the Truth, live with the courage to stand against what we know is evil, and trust God to deal with the consequences (shades of Dietrich Bonhoeffer).  As Christians, our silence in the face of evil can and will be a catastrophe.  The Church is in a battle we all need to fight.  We are called to speak up for those caught up in the extremes of our contemporary pagan culture.  

Eric draws the parallel between our silence and the silence of the Church in Nazi Germany in the 1930's, a very uncomfortable parallel indeed.

Earth Day-2023

Being good stewards of Creation is a noble goal indeed.  My problem with what I am hearing on this day are the radical, myopic, and falsely urgent solutions that are being made for doing this.  I also question today's appeal for getting the minorities and those economically marginalized to get on board by using statements that they are the ones most impacted by climate change.  I observe and conclude that the contrary is true, and the last two years have proven this out, at least in this country.  The poorest among us have been most negatively impacted by Biden's policies prioritizing a radical climate agenda at the expense of the prosperity of the country. This is true because the poorest among have less cushion to weather higher prices brought on by excessive climate spending and inflation.  I also fear long term that the reduced prosperity in the West by misguided attempts to save the plant will stall the amazing decades-long reduction in poverty that has taken place in developing countries.  

The answer is simple- allow time (and we have the time) for solutions on the supply side of energy production to mature and for us to stop broadcasting an inappropriate and unsubstantiated climate urgency that is wrecking people's lives.  

We need to start talking more wholistically and realistically about the current climate agenda.  "Wholistically" would mean: consideration of the greening trend for the planet and probable greater food production that comes from higher CO2 in the atmosphere; negative impacts on development in the global south because of the reduced prosperity in the developing countries brought about by current climate policies; etc.   (Presently, 3rd world leaders are simply salivating over the prospect of wealth re-distribution in the name climate reparations).

Sermon for the Second Sunday of Easter-2023

 Being an Easter People?

John 20:19-31

As you know, our Sunday morning Lectionary is designed to take us through the Bible in three years, but on certain Sundays, because of the significance of the readings, we will read the same gospel passage in all three years.  This is one of those Sundays.   See if we can grab ahold of what the church considers so significant about this Sunday that we would halt our scripture rotations to emphasize this Gospel passage.

The setting for today’s Gospel story is in the Upper Room on the evening of the Lord’s Resurrection, Easter Sunday.  Jesus had been crucified that previous Friday and placed in a tomb provided by Joseph of Arimathea.   In his Gospel account, St. John writes about Jesus having risen from the dead on that morning and appearing to Peter, Mary Magdeline and to himself, John.  Nonetheless, we find the disciples confused and afraid, huddled in the Upper Room “for fear of the Jews,” as John puts it.  They are afraid they too will be arrested and crucified.   

But then… everything changes.  Jesus comes and stands among them and says, “Peace be with you.”  All fear, confusion and doubt melt away.  He’s alive, just as Mary Magdalene, Peter and John said. 

Jesus then breathes on them the “Ruach of God,” the Breath of God.  Rauch is an ancient Hebrew word that can be translated breath, spirit, or wind.  We know the Rauch of God as the Blessed Holy Spirit.  With the Holy Spirit, Jesus empowers his disciples to live a new life in the reality of what they had just witnessed, which was the Resurrection of our Lord from the dead, and Christ commissions them to share this “Good News” with the world.  In this moment they become an Easter People.  As the hymn we just sung says, “Breathe on me, Breath of God, fill me with life anew, that I may love what thou dost love, and do what thou wouldst do.”  Being and Easter People, therefore, is not lived by our might or power, but by the Spirit, the Ruach of God.

Another key component to our becoming an Easter People is our Faith and Trust in the promises that God presents us at Easter.  It is no accident that St. John goes on to tell us the story of one of Jesus’ disciples, St. Thomas, on that evening, as well as Thomas’ experience the evening a week later.  This story highlights faith in what God has done at Easter as what opens the way for us all to become Easter People.  In other words, the great promises of God are actualized in our lives when we surrender in faith in what God has done for us on the Cross and at the Resurrection.   This is what allows us to live in this life as God’s Easter People.

Although we read from John 20 every year on this 2^nd Sunday of Easter, our Old and New Testament readings that support the Good News that John 20 proclaims do change.  There are many such readings for the lectionary writers to have chosen from.  One such reading is the passage today from 1 Peter 1.  Take up your bulletin, if you will, and follow along with me:

·    In verse 3 Peter writes, “… [Jesus] has caused us to be born again to a living hope.”  

·  Not only that, but in verse 4, Peter writes that this promise from God is imperishable, pure, and everlasting.

·  verse 5 tells us that, even though we are an Easter People with a great inheritance, we are still grieved by various trials in this life, which, Peter says, are a test of the genuineness of our faith.  We see once again the importance that our faith and trust in God plays in our salvation. 

·    Because, as Peter writes in verses 9, in it all, “we obtain the outcome of our faith, which is the salvation of our souls.”

So then, what does it look like for you and me to be an Easter People?  Let me conclude with these observations to this question:

1. First, to be an Easter People is to live a life that is as radical as the Resurrection itself, radical at least when compared to the standards and norms of this world.  To be an Easter People is a spiritual adventure in which we dare to live into something much bigger than ourselves with a faith that opens new vistas, new ways of seeing things, new ways of living, and a new understanding of who we are and whose we are. That is Resurrection Living. That is being an Easter People. 

2. Being an Easter People means offering up and shedding the debilitating effects of sin and guilt in our lives, laying them at the foot of the Cross.  

3. It is allowing the Holy Spirit to equip us supernaturally to transcend life’s burdens, challenges, and disappointments, and to do so with peace and joy.  

4. Being and Easter People is to have a greatly expanded worldview in which God is at the center, seeing everything as God sees it, and seeing others as God sees them.  This worldview makes our materialistic worldview seem very small and our secular concepts of living life to the fullest very limited.  

5.   Being an Easter People is a pilgrimage from self-absorption to self-giving.  It is to take on a sacrificial love akin to God’s own kind of love, Agape Love, to use the word that the Greek-writing authors of the New Testament uses to describe it.

6.   
And finally, being an Easter People is life that is open-ended for us just as God originally intended… not limited by time and space, not limited by death, but eternal with death no longer leaving our stories incomplete.  Jesus has conquered that barrier.  We are free to become the people that God intended us to be… healthy and whole in body, mind and spirit, perfected, completed, and everlasting.

Last week, Father Ross mentioned that Jesus’ Resurrection is so central to the Christian life that we Christians have taken Sundays as our Sabbath; in other words, every Sunday for us is a “Little Easter.”  Just as creation began on the first day of the week, we became a new creation on the first day of the week, the Day of the Lord’s Resurrection.  We became an Easter People.