Some facts about the Christian virtue of generosity

·      God is the source of all we have, and we are stewards of all He has given us.

·      We are accountable to God for how we respond to His generosity toward us.  

·      Faithful stewardship is a key to the abundant life that Christ came to give us. 

·      We are most like God when we are giving. 

·      The biblical tithe is where things get real.  

Conclusion  If you want a Godly foundation for living in this materialistic world, seek God’s perspective on your money and possessions, and seek to grow in the Christian virtue of Generosity.

 Matthew 6:32-33  “…indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God  and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”   

Sermon for the 23rd Sunday after Pentecost, 2021- "From Self to Self-Giving"

 Readings:
            Amos 5:6-15
            Psalm 90:1-12
            Hebrews 3:1-6
            Mark 10:17-21

Into            Throughout Scripture, the Lord is persistent in challenging our worldly tendency to place ourselves and our material possessions ahead of Him and ahead of the needs of others.  What we do with what the Lord has materially given us is a big deal with God.

Readings   This morning in our reading from the Prophet Amos, God rebukes the people of God for building houses of hewn stone and planting pleasant vineyards, He says, while at the same time trampling on the poor.   

In today’s Gospel, Jesus challenges the rich young man to sell all that he has, give it to the poor, and follow him.  Jesus is not so much focusing on the fact that the young man is wealthy, because God is the source of all things; rather, Jesus is challenging this young man on two things more specifically: first, on what he is doing with all that God has given him; and secondly, that he has placed the love of mammon ahead of his love of God, although, interestingly, he is a man who seeks to be devoted to God.  Jesus says in Luke 16:13 “No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he will hold to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” God says in Exodus 20:2 that we are to have no other gods before Him, which is the first of the 10 Commandments.  Anything we put ahead of God in our lives is, by definition, an idol.  Wealth and possessions can so easily become our idol.

The Rich Young Man          The young man apparently thinks that his abundant possessions can provide abundant life.  This is a malady common in our today’s materialistic society. To think that life in abundance can be found in material possessions is simply an impoverished view of life, at least life as God intends it.  Jesus says in John 10:10 that He came that they may have life and have it abundantly.  The abundant life Jesus is talking about is one of submission to God, perfected relationships, mutual love, sacrificial giving, radical generosity, having God’s transcendent purpose for living, and having a clear vision on where we are headed as children of God.  Jesus’ point to the rich young man today is that he will only find these things by following Him.

This rich young man is on the same journey that we are all on, and he sadly choses to take a different road.  Our Christian journey is to be from self-centered-ness to a Christ-centered-ness, from self-absorption to self-giving, from a life focused on the kingdom of this world to life that seeks the Kingdom of God. 

Our pilgrimage is, of course, a life-long journey and one we cannot make on our own.  The Holy Spirit empowers us for the journey and Jesus promises to walk the road with us.  The fact is that we are all a work in progress.  In Christ, we are ever moving heavenward, until at our last day Jesus takes me by the hand and presents us to the Father, unblemished, healed and perfected. We can all say amen to that.

Spokes of a wheel       A helpful visual for me has always been life as the spokes of a wheel.  Each spoke represents some facet of your lives… our family, career, relationships, hobbies, spirituality, our wealth, whatever.  But something needs to be at the center… the hub of our existence, so to speak.  Given our human nature, tainted by this world as it is, we place ourselves and our material needs at the center.  To the world that sounds right, and Jesus Himself said in Matthew 6 that God knows we need all these things, but the center of our lives needs to be God Himself.  God calls us to a much more transcendent and meaningful life than what the material world can provide, one in which all the various facets and spokes of our lives are submitted to Him.  That is the Christian call.

My on-going journey from self to self-giving       Let me tell you a bit about my journey as it relates to all this.  It was over a half-century ago that Nancy and I got married- (I love now being old enough to mark my journey in half-centuries.  It helps me realize how long and far Christ has taken us).  We married right out of college in 1970.  We soon discovered all the American middle-class struggles of mortgage, career, balancing finances, raising children and securing their future.  Family and career became the center of my existence.  God was there, but He was, in effect, somewhere on the fringe, just another one of those spokes in the wheel.  

One Sunday morning, while standing in the churchyard where we were attending, about to go into adult Sunday School, I was contemplating these things.  Nancy was off doing her ministries.  The kids were in Sunday School and nursery.  It was just God and me.  From what I knew about being a Christian, it was not rational to have God in some compartmentalized fringe of my life.  I thought of Jesus’ words in His Sermon on the Mount recorded in Matthew 6, “…²⁵ [be not anxious] about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? … ³³But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

That morning in the churchyard was a watershed moment in my life, a Nicodemus, John 3, born again moment. Perhaps you have had a similar encounter with God.  God invited me to receive him as the hub of my life.  I have been stiving to do that ever since.  

Because it is the topic of God’s message to us today, let me mention one thing Nancy and I did soon after, which was to move to the biblical tithe as a submission of our finances to the Lord.  Of all the facets and spokes of our lives, our pocketbook tends to be one of the last things we sanctify to the Lord.    

Closing      So, in closing, know that God has much to say about how we are to deal with wealth and material possessions with which He has graced us.  The rich young man was not ready to hear the words of our Lord; as for you and me, let us follow Jesus.

In Honor of Laura

 Sermon

Memorial Service for Laura Coppernoll, October 4, 2021

Anglican Church of the Holy Trinity, North Augusta

The Reverend Rob Hartley, Preacher 

I am honored to offer some words today as we celebrate Laura and honor God who has gathered Laura to Himself. 

To Phillip and the family, on behalf of all of us here at Holy Trinity, and everyone present, know that our love, prayer, and condolences go out to you.  Prayers from us have been unceasing all during Laura’s struggle with this terrible disease, and those prayers will continue. 

Laura has been a faithful and giving servant of our Lord over all the years I have known her.  I will always admire her zeal for the Lord, her devotion to her family, her ministries both among us here at Holy Trinty and out in the community, particularly her work with Life Choices Pregnancy Center in Aiken, and of course for her passion for caring for God’s creatures.  It is surely appropriate that today is the Feast Day of Saint Francis, the patron saint of animals.  I think that is a God thing!

Times like this can become an unreal blur.  Grief can do that to us.  But today we stop and celebrate the great reality of what has taken place, and that is Laura is now united in a perfected and healed way with the God who created her.  Laura was faithful to her promises to God, but God has also been faithful to his promises to Laura.  Hear one of God’s promises to Laura in Romans 6:5, “… if we have been united with Christ in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.”  

So, today is Laura’s resurrection party, her own Easter celebration, Easter being all about resurrection to new life with God.   The words and the tone of the service today reflect this… What we celebrate is that death does not have the final say in Laura’s life, God does.   Alleluia.

Our Romans 8 reading today says we who are in Christ are Children of God, and if children, then heirs; that is, heirs of the Kingdom of God.   To be heirs of the Kingdom of God means we have a place at God’s table forever.  Table fellowship is a powerful image used and ordained by Christ at the Last Supper and is an image of the fellowship we will all have with God for eternity.   

Laura has now taken her place at this great Banquet Table of our Lord.  In just a moment, we ourselves will participate in a foreshadowing of that great reality as we also commune at this Lord’s Table behind me.  All baptized members of God’s Holy Church, regardless of denomination, are invited to come forward with Phillip and the family and commune with God.  Even if you aren’t sure where you stand with the Lord and perhaps would rather not take Communion, please come forward with the family anyway- just cross your arms over your chest and you will receive words of blessing from Fr. Ross. 

As our liturgy today says, “All of us go down to the dust; yet even at the grave we make our song: Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.”   

May this wonderful family move forward from here in the blessing and power of God’s Holy Spirit…  in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Amen                           

The Rev. Rob Hartley, Oct. 4, 2021

A 4th of July Sermon

A very happy 4^th of July to you all.  On this day, we celebrate our country’s birthday. The famous words of our Declaration of Independence still echo down through the 245 years of our country’s history, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.  In this opening paragraph of the Declaration, God the Creator and giver of such inalienable as life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, is flagged as a chief actor in the birthing and future of this country

Most men and women of that era had a strong sense of God’s providential hand upon their lives and knew that the success of this great enterprise called the United States of America upon which they were embarking depended on this nation remaining under the umbrella of God’s providence and grace. 

Dante quote

Wayne Lowe recently told me and others here at Holy Trinity about a free on-line course on Dante’s Divine Comedy offered by Hilldale College.  It is a timeless classic written over three and a half centuries before our Declaration of Independence.  One phrase in this amazing poem stuck with me, “Peace is God’s will;” What Dante is meaning is that living according to God’s will is key to finding peace… real peace… in this life.  Similarly , for the 18^th Century founders of our country, living under the will of God was key to finding “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” 

 

 

Our Transgression

I totally agree with our Founder’s worldview, and I imagine you as Christians do also, but as a nation we now have a new worldview known as Secular Humanism.  We as a nation no longer know God; we no longer pursue God’s will, only our own.  That is simply a fact of modern America.

OT Israel’s (Judea’s) Transgression

In the millennium before Christ, the Israelites had also moved away from God…  Let me share a story about the time Nancy and I travelled to southern Israel to the ancient ruins of the city Be’er Sheva. This city dates to the time of the Israel’s Judges and even before.   It was quiet inspiring to see the city gate where the Judges of Israel would have presided.   One of the excavated rooms had two alcoves in the walls, which supposedly held symbols of their worship.  Archeologists believe that one was for the worship of Yahweh, the other for the worship of one of the Canaanite Gods, probably Baal.  Even at that early period of Israel’s history, syncretism and the lure of paganism was present.  How easy it is for us fallen human beings to be lured away from God!

 

Ezekiel

By the time the Prophet Ezekiel comes on the scene centuries later, Israel as a nation had largely abandoned God, even turned against Him.  Listen again to God’s words to Ezekiel in this morning Old Testament reading:

“… I send you to the people of Israel, to a nation of rebels, who have rebelled against me. They and their fathers have transgressed against me to this very day. ⁴Their descendants also are impudent and stubborn: …’  ⁵…whether they hear or refuse to hear (for they are a rebellious house) they will know that a prophet has been among them.  ⁶… Be not afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house.” (Ezekiel 2:3-6, ESV)

In this passage, God calls Israel impudent; that is, they are no longer acknowledging or respecting His role as their creator and provider.  He calls them a stubborn people, subservient only to their own wills and not His.  God calls them rebellious because they no longer acknowledged God’s authority over their lives.  And finally, God encourages Ezekiel not to be afraid of their words or dismayed at their critical looks, revealing that Israel at this point had not just abandoned God, they were disapproving and even hostile toward God.  Are these not equally good words for us today?  Do we not find ourselves in a society bent on subduing, marginalizing and even eliminating Christianity, the People of God, in our time? 

 

Conclusion

So, on this 4^th of July, God is speaking to you and me through Ezekiel as surely as He was speaking to the Israel some 2500 years ago.  How do we respond?   Thomas Jefferson said, and I paraphrase, Christianity is our government’s best friend because it is a religion that deals with the heart.  So, let us continue to speak to the heart of America, sharing unconditional love, hope, and divine purpose with those around us.   Let us do what Christians have always done, which is offer a way back to Father from whom we have all strayed.  That is the mission of the Church; this is our calling as God’s People in our time.  God admonishes us through the words of Ezekiel this morning, to “not be afraid of their words, nor dismayed at their looks.”  In other words, let us be bold in doing what our Lord has called us to do, which, as St. Paul says in 2 Cor.4, to proclaim the Gospel to those who are perishing.

 

Prayer

In closing, I invite you to join me in a prayer for our beloved country, kneeling as you are able: 

Almighty God, who hast given us this good land for our heritage: We humbly beseech thee that we may always prove ourselves a people mindful of thy favor and glad to do thy will.  Bless our land with honorable industry, sound learning, and pure conduct. Save us from violence, discord, and confusion, from pride and arrogance, and from every evil way.  Defend our liberties, and fashion into one united people the multitudes brought hither out of many kindreds and tongues.  Endue with the spirit of wisdom those to whom, in thy Name, we entrust the authority of government, that there may be justice and peace at home, and that, through obedience to thy law, we may show forth thy praise among the nations of the earth.  In the time of prosperity, fill our hearts with thankfulness, and in the day of trouble, suffer not our trust in thee to fail; all of which we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.  (Prayer 39, BCP-2019, p.657)

Rob Hartley, Sunday, July 4, 2021

What in the World is Critical Race Theory?

"Critical Race Theory" is apparently a facet of the governing philosophy of the Biden Administration; at least, it has been thus far.  Whether one agrees or not with the present trajectory of our country, it seems important that we understand this theory.  

The following is excerpted from that lecture delivered at Hillsdale College on March 30, 2021 by Christopher F. Rufo (1) and printed in Imprimis (a publication of Hillsdale College), March 2021, Vol. 50. 

"By the mid-1960s, Marxist intellectuals in the West had begun to acknowledge the failures of Marxism.  They recoiled at revelations of Soviet atrocities and came to realize that workers’ revolutions would never occur in Western Europe or the United States... [But] Marxist scholars in the West simply adapted their revolutionary theory to the social and racial unrest of the 1960s.  Abandoning Marx’s economic dialectic of capitalists and workers, they substituted race for class and sought to create a revolutionary coalition of the dispossessed based on racial and ethnic categories.  

Fortunately, the early proponents of this revolutionary coalition in the U.S. lost out in the 1960s to the civil rights movement, which sought instead the fulfillment of the American promise of freedom and equality under the law. Americans preferred the idea of improving their country to that of overthrowing it.  The vision of Martin Luther King, Jr., President Johnson’s pursuit of the Great Society, and the restoration of law and order promised by President Nixon in his 1968 campaign defined the post-1960s American political consensus. But the radical Left has proved resilient and enduring—which is where critical race theory comes in. 

WHAT IT IS: Critical race theory is an academic discipline, formulated in the 1990s, built on the intellectual framework of identity-based Marxism...  There are a series of euphemisms deployed by its supporters to describe critical race theory, including “equity,” “social justice,” “diversity and inclusion,” and “culturally responsive teaching.” Critical race theorists, masters of language construction, realize that “neo-Marxism” would be a hard sell.  Equity, on the other hand, sounds non-threatening and is easily confused with the American principle of equality. But the distinction is vast and important. Indeed, equality—the principle proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence, defended in the Civil War, and codified into law with the 14th and 15th Amendments, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965—is explicitly rejected by critical race theorists. To them, equality represents “mere nondiscrimination” and provides “camouflage” for white supremacy, patriarchy, and oppression... 

In contrast to equality, equity as defined and promoted by critical race theorists is little more than reformulated Marxism... An equity-based form of government would mean the end not only of private property, but also of individual rights, equality under the law, federalism, and freedom of speech. These would be replaced by race-based redistribution of wealth, group-based rights, active discrimination, and omnipotent bureaucratic authority. Historically, the accusation of “anti-Americanism” has been overused. But in this case, it’s not a matter of interpretation—critical race theory prescribes a revolutionary program that would overturn the principles of the Declaration and destroy the remaining structure of the Constitution." [what Obama called the remaking of America] 

(1) Christopher F. Rufo is founder and director of Battlefront, a public policy research center. He is a graduate of Georgetown University and a former Lincoln Fellow at the Claremont Institute for the Study of Statesmanship and Political Philosophy. As executive director at the Documentary Foundation, he has directed four films for PBS, including most recently America Lost, which explores life in Youngstown, Ohio, Memphis, Tennessee, and Stockton, California. He is also a contributing editor of City Journal, where he covers topics including critical race theory, homelessness, addiction, and crime.

You will find a much-expanded printing in the publication referenced above.  As a Christian and a disciple of Martin Luther King Jr., what I might add is that the identity-based politics of our current day is an anathema.  My identity is in Christ, not my race.  As St. Paul writes in Galatian 3:28,  "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus."

Article XVII, "Of Predestination and Election,"

All us acorns are predestined to be oaks

 Except from CATHOLICISM, CALVINISM AND THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES

by Fr. Victor E. Novak    Special to virtueonline, www.virtueonline.org, August 10, 2012

Fr. Victor E. Novak is a priest of the Diocese of Mid-America, and the Rector of Holy Cross Anglican Church in Omaha, Nebraska. 

… Article XVII, "Of Predestination and Election," does not say a word about the Calvinist doctrine of double predestination, and ends by saying: "Furthermore, we must receive God's promises in such wise, as they be generally [meaning universally] set forth to us in Holy Scripture: and, in our doings, that Will of God is to be followed, which we have expressly declared unto us in the Word of God." God's promises are general, or universal, not particular and limited to the elect. Anglicanism does not believe that God predestines some men to salvation and others to eternal damnation.

What is the Anglican understanding of Predestination and Election? Anglican theologian Vernon Staley explains it this way: "Predestination does not mean that some souls are fore-ordained to eternal life, and others to eternal death, for there is no purpose of God to bring any man to eternal death. God 'will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.'

"There is a purpose in everything, both in the order of nature and in that of grace. In the order of grace, Predestination corresponds to some extent with Providence in the order of nature. An acorn is naturally predestined to produce an oak, but it may fail to realize that purpose: all acorns do not produce oaks. If it does fail it misses its predestined end. So the soul is predestined to a life of grace and obedience here, leading to a life of glory hereafter; but it may fail, and miss the mark. If the laws which determine the germination and growth of an acorn are observed, the oak will be produced from it. In a like manner if the soul obeys God, and corresponds [cooperates] with his grace, it will come to eternal life. God who calls and elects, also bids us 'to make our calling and election sure'... Everyone is called to, and is capable of salvation, but God alone knows who will 'make their calling and election sure'" (The Catholic Religion, A Manual of Instruction for Members of the Anglican Communion; Vernon Staley, 1893, pp. 317-319).

Calvinists are monergists while Anglicans, like all Catholic Christians, are synergists. Calvinism teaches that grace ravishes the soul and is irresistible, while Anglicanism teaches that grace woos the soul and that man must cooperate freely with God's grace. God always acts first through prevenient grace, but man must cooperate with that grace. We are predestined, yet free.

Living life at a "Power Factor" of 1

I spent 31 years as an electrical engineer, specifically in the design and construction of power generation and transmission systems. With only a few exceptions, bulk power systems are “AC,” which stands for “alternating current.”  The 120/240 Volt system in your home is no exception.  AC means that electrical current flowing in a system reverses direction a number of times a second.  In North America, it does this 60 times a second (known as 60 Hertz power).  

One thing about AC power systems is that the electrical current is not always (and usually isn’t) aligned with the electrical voltage that is driving it; that is, the electrical current and electrical voltage reverse at different times.  The physics of this is such that only the portion of the current that is aligned with the voltage driving it is useful for doing work, such as providing torque in a motor or moving something electro-magnetically. The rest looks like it can deliver power, but in it cannot; in fact, engineers call this imaginary power.  The extent to which a system's electrical current is aligned with the voltage driving it is known as the system "power factor,"

Our lives are like this: It is only that portion of our lives aligned with God that are useful and can do the work of the Kingdom.  Since the Holy Spirit is the power of God at work our lives, it is only that portion of our lives that are aligned with the Holy Spirit that can produce real power for living.  The rest is an illusion, powerless, and in the end, amounts to nothing.  When current and voltage are perfectly aligned in a system, it is called a power factor of “1;” therefore, we can draw the interesting analogy that living life to the full is like living at a power factor of 1.

Fr. Rob

The Turning Point of History- The Paschal Mystery of Good Friday and Easter Sunday

Christians understand that human history has a beginning and an end.  Christianity also understands another clear reality, which is that human history has a turning point, a pivot, a mid-course correction that opens new and grand vistas for all who will turn with it.  This cosmic hinge of history is known as the Paschal Mystery, which is the Death and Resurrections of Jesus the Messiah.  This grand and cosmic event restores God's intended destiny for His beloved humanity, which is life free of the corruption, the consequences of sin, and estrangement from God. 

 

Judging Others

David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons in their book Unchurched offer us a definition: Judgmentalism is when we point out something wrong in someone else’s life in such a way that it results in condemnation rather than transformation.  Condemnation has a finality to it that closes the door on relationships, leaving no room for God to work through us in other people’s lives.  Judging others is abandoning a person when what they really need is for us to embrace them. 

Judging and condemning others is therefore the last thing we Christians should want to do, and judgment is not to be our reaction to sin in someone else’s life.  As followers of Christ, we are to love unconditionally knowing that God’s love is unconditional, and like God, we are to want the best for others and be willing to act to bring it about.  God, while we were yet sinners, acted on our behalf, humbling Himself on a cross for our sake.  It is therefore amazing that we could have the spiritual arrogance to set ourselves up as judge over others.  Judgment is God’s prerogative, not ours.

What can we do to avoid this all-too-human trap of judging others?  Here are some suggestions:

• See people as God sees them and treat people the way Jesus treated them.  (think… The woman at the well, the Syro-Phoenician woman; the blind man at Bethsaida; the woman caught in adultery; Zacchaeus; the restoration of Peter; Jesus and the criminal on the cross; the father in Jesus’ Parable of the Lost Son… the list could go on.) 
• Express a biblical perspective that emphasizes God’s compassion, mercy, and unbounded love.
• Act out of grace, not law.
• Remember that we are all a “work in progress.”

 Matthew 7:1-4    “Judge not, that you be not judged. ²   For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.  ³ Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?  ⁴ Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye?”

                                                      Father Rob