Monthly Archives: February 2018

Lent 2018: Fasting as a Lenten Discipline

Posted on by

The season of Lent with its emphasis on self-examination, penitence, self-denial, study, and preparation for Easter is quickly approaching. One of the Lenten disciplines I commend to you this year is fasting. But there is a lot of misunderstanding about fasting and so I offer you some great insights from Dr. Scot McKnight’s excellent book, Fasting: The Ancient Practices. Hear him now:

Fasting is a person’s whole-body, natural response to life’s sacred moments (p. xii).

St. Athanasius, one of the architects of Christian orthodoxy, knew the formative powers of the sacred rhythms of the church calendar. That calendar weaved in and out of mourning over sin (fasting) and celebrating the good grace of God (feasting). “Sometimes,” he says of the church calendar, “the call is made to fasting, and sometimes to a feast [like every Sunday when we celebrate our Lord’s resurrection].”

…St. Augustine took fasting into a another area of formation. One way for Christians to find victory over temptation, St. Augustine reminded his readers, was to fast. Why? Because it is sometimes necessary to check the delight of the flesh in respect to licit [not forbidden or lawful] pleasures in order to keep it from yielding to illicit pleasures.

These two themes—fasting as a sacred rhythm in the church calendar and fasting as a discipline against sinful desires—are perhaps the most important themes of fasting in the history of Christian thinking (p. xv).

Dr. McKnight offers his own excellent definition of fasting:

Fasting is the natural, inevitable response of a person to a grievous sacred moment in life (e.g., death, sin, fear, threats, needs, sickness). Does it bring results? Yes, but that’s not the point of fasting. Those who fasted in response to grievous sacred moments frequently—but not always!—received results, like answered prayer. But focusing on the results causes us to misunderstand fasting entirely.

Which leads us now to see fasting in an A —> B —> C framework. If one wants to see the full Christian understanding of fasting, one must begin with A, the grievous sacred moment (e.g., death, sin, fear, threats, needs, sickness). That sacred moment generates a response (B), in this case fasting. Only then, only when the sacred moment is given its full power, does the response of fasting generate the results (C)—and then not always, if truth be told. [So, e.g., in response to sin we fast and can receive forgiveness.]

What we are getting at here is very important: fasting isn’t a manipulative tool that guarantees results. The focus in our deepest Christian tradition is not moving from column B to column C but the A —> B movement. Fasting is a response to a sacred moment, not an instrument designed to get desired results. The focus in the Christian tradition is not “if you fast you will get,” but “when this happens, God’s people fast [emphasis added]” (pp. xviii-xix).

Dr. McKnight develops these ideas in the subsequent chapters of his book and I wholeheartedly commend it to you for your edification. As always, it is critically important for us as Christians to know why we do what we do. This pertains to worship and the various spiritual disciplines, fasting included. Therefore, this Lent I encourage you to fast regularly as a means to help you become a more Christ-oriented person and to live a cruciform (cross-shaped) life.

To purchase Dr. McKnight’s book on fasting, click this link.

February 12, 2018: Happy Birthday, Mr. President

Posted on by

Abraham Lincoln pictureToday is Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. He would be 209 years old! The president is one of my heroes, primarily because of the role he played in saving this country. Mr. Lincoln had a wonderful spirit about him and his humility, compassion, and willingness to forgive his enemies arguably saved this country from a terrible aftermath following our Civil War. Reconstruction was hard enough as it was, but at least we did not have guerrilla warfare to contend with, something that would have probably done us in as a country forever.

We healed as well as any country could following a civil war. If you don’t believe me, check out other countries who have suffered through a civil war. Most of the time it didn’t turn out well. The reason our country’s reconstruction went relatively well is because of President Lincoln. He set the tone for U.S. Grant and the other Union commanders by insisting that they treat the vanquished with dignity and respect. Lincoln insisted that the rebels would not be treated harshly or punitively and as a result, everyone else followed suit, including the Confederate commanders.

Of course, this wasn’t all Lincoln’s doing, but as president he set the tone for others to follow as great leaders always do. It would have been just as easy to hang all the rebel commanders and make life miserable for the vanquished. But Lincoln knew better. He knew how that would turn out. It would have been interesting to see how much more quickly we would have healed as a nation had Lincoln lived to serve a full second term. Instead, the zealots and self-righteous decided to “fix” Lincoln’s initial proposals for reconstruction and nearly managed to destroy all that President Lincoln had sought to establish in the process.

I am convinced God put Abraham Lincoln in our history for a reason. His presidency is more evidence that God has blessed this country. Whether that blessing continues today is debatable.  But that’s a different story for a different day. Today, it is fitting that all Americans honor our 16th president and give thanks to God for placing the right man in the right situation at the right time. Happy birthday, Mr. President, and thank you for your service to our country.

The Senseless Death of Police Officers and the Christian Hope of Resurrection

Posted on by

For those of you who might not have heard, two Westerville police officers were shot and killed in the line of duty today. If memory serves me right, Officer Morelli was a presenter at an active shooter seminar that a friend of mine and I attended in Westerville a couple of years ago. He seemed like a terrific guy. I am sure Officer Joering was also a terrific man and I am heart-sick over this senseless tragedy. How anyone can apparently lie in wait to ambush another human being is beyond me.

Officer Morelli

Officer Joering

Living in a sin-sick world, events like this are as inevitable as they are heartbreaking and tragic. That is why the Christian hope of resurrection is so important, because only then will God’s perfect justice be finally fulfilled. I am not talking about justice for the murderer, although there will be that too barring sincere repentance on his part. I am talking about justice for the murdered officers. On the day of Christ’s return, they will be raised to new bodily life and real justice with all its attendant gladness and joy will be served because they will be fully and forever alive again, thanks be to God. This is all made possible because of what God did for us on the cross of Christ. Resurrection hope is a hope worth hanging onto. If you have it, grieve as one with real hope.

Rest eternal grant unto them, O Lord, and let light perpetual shine on them. May they rest in peace and RISE IN GLORY. AMEN. 

In the meantime may God have mercy on us and bring us real comfort in the midst of our grief.

2018: Happy Birthday, Dad

Posted on by

Today would have been my dad’s 95th birthday, something I really can’t wrap my mind around. He’s been dead for almost 14 years and I still miss him. Oh, don’t misunderstand. I know where he is and I am not unhappy for him because he is enjoying his well-deserved rest with the Lord as he awaits his new resurrection body. So no regrets there.

No, I just miss him. I miss being around him and enjoying his company. I miss his gentle humor and his great wisdom. I miss his big heart and him being the patriarch of our family.

God blessed me richly in giving me a father who loved me and served as a great role model for me and the community in which he lived. For that I am thankful and I try to conduct myself in ways that would make dad proud. Not real good in doing that lately, though.

Happy birthday, dad. I love you. Thank you for giving me the greatest gift a son could ever want—you.

The Enigma of Healing

Posted on by

Sermon delivered at the first quarterly healing service on the second Sunday before Lent B, February 4, 2018, at St. Augustine’s Anglican Church, Westerville, OH.

If you prefer to listen to the audio podcast of today’s sermon, usually somewhat different from the text below, click here.

Lectionary texts: Isaiah 40.21-31; Psalm 147.1-11, 20; 1 Corinthians 9.16-23; Mark 1.29-39.

In the name of God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Today we hold the first of our quarterly healing services. Why do we come (or not come) to them? What do we expect (or not expect) from these services? How we answer these questions will tell us a lot about how we perceive God and God’s interaction with us, and that’s always worthy of our time and consideration. This is therefore what I want us to look at this morning.

So what should we as Christians who have just heard our lectionary readings for this morning think about healing? I suspect many of us, if pressed to answer truthfully, would respond by saying “not much.” I mean, look around you. Where are the rest of our family members today? To be sure, some of them may be sick (no pun intended) or on vacation or have some pressing obligation that keeps them away legitimately. But what about those who don’t? We have advertised this service in plenty of time so everyone knew it was coming. Or consider our intercessory list. It has grown so large that we can barely read the names on it as we project it on the wall. Assuming we can invite some, if not many, of the folks on this list, and assuming that many would actually be able to attend today, where are they? Have you invited those you ask to be put on our intercessory list? If you have, assuming they are able to attend, why haven’t they come? And if you haven’t invited those folks, why haven’t you? If we can believe St. Mark’s account in our gospel lesson this morning, once the word got out about Jesus’ mighty act of healing, he was mobbed by people wanting to get in on the action to the point where he was forced to retreat to solitary places just to pray. So where are the sick today? Why aren’t they packed in this building and waiting outside for the opportunity to be healed?

The fact is that they don’t even have to wait for quarterly healing services to take place because we have intercessors on call every Sunday during communion. But the vast majority of us never bother to go back for prayer and anointing. Why is that? Is it because we are all paradigms of health, folks who have no problems in our lives that weigh us down? Right. So why do we get so few takers of the healing opportunities we offer on a regular basis? Again, I suspect if we were hard pressed to answer these questions honestly most of us would offer one of these three broad answers. We either don’t believe the Lord has the willingness or ability to heal us, i.e., we lack the faith in God’s power to heal or have an inaccurate understanding of God’s character, or we miss God’s healing activity in our lives when it occurs because we pigeonhole God by expecting him to act in a certain way to heal us, or we don’t think we are worthy of God’s healing power in our lives (or various combinations of these three answers). Regardless of the reason, all three make the category mistake of making healing about us rather than God and we need to look at each one in turn. Before we do, however, I want to emphasize that I am not castigating or trying to shame anyone here. Only God knows what is truly in your heart about his willingness and ability to heal you, or your perceptions about what that looks like, or your perceived worthiness to receive God’s healing. I am simply pointing out that these things suggest most of us don’t really take this healing business all that seriously for whatever reason, which obviously is not good for us or our relationship with God.

We turn first to the business of whether God is willing and able to heal us, or more specifically to perform mighty acts of power in our lives. Many of us would say yes in the abstract but no when it comes to our own experience. For example, when Bishop Jackson talked about the mighty acts of power he has witnessed, some of you asked me afterwards if I really believed that. The blind regaining their eyesight? The lame being able to walk again? Really? Let’s be honest. Most of us haven’t experienced that and so we are skeptical. Our skepticism also tends to jade us when we hear stories like we heard in our gospel lesson. And we’re not the only ones who have doubts. So did God’s people Israel, and almost from the beginning. The prophet Isaiah, being given a future vision of God’s people’s exile so real that he spoke of it as if it had already happened, knew what a deal breaker their exile was going to be for his people’s faith and trust in God. If God were in charge, how could God let his people be captured and deported by a hostile alien power? So the prophet had to remind us about who God is by reminding us of past events, i.e., of what we already know. Don’t you know, asks Isaiah, that God is the Creator of all things? Look at the vast number of stars at night. Consider the awesome power and beauty of nature. God created it all. The creation is evidence of God’s mighty power. Then consider the mightiest nations and their rulers. They may be the world’s current superpower but they are nothing compared to God because they are mortal and will eventually go to their grave. That’s not going to happen with God. Given these realities, do you really think God does not know what’s going on in your life? Are you crazy? He created you and this world in which you live! He knows everything. We can’t begin to comprehend this or God’s mind, let alone all of creation, even as clever as we think we are! Yet despite our unknowing, God gives power to the faint and strengthens the powerless because God is a God of mercy, love, and justice, to which the psalmist adds that God delights in those who realize God is awesome and who put their trust in his steadfast love. In other words, God’s power to act is not contingent on our understanding of God and God’s ways. So please, kids, get over yourselves and learn some humility! God acts as God wills because God is sovereign over all.

We see these truths about God played out in human history and the context of our lives. Who among us would have called a wandering pagan nomad out of what is modern-day Iraq to bring God’s blessings to heal God’s sin-sick world? Or who among us without the advantage of 20-20 hindsight would have looked at the awful spectacle of our Lord’s crucifixion and known it was the turning point in human history for the salvation of our race? Who would ever expect that God would allow himself to become human to be crucified in utter humiliation by his own creatures to destroy the power of Sin over us and reconcile us to himself? These events are not the product of human thinking. They are the product of the mind of the One who loves us, who created us for life and health, and who acted decisively on our behalf to rescue us from the power of Sin and Death so that we could enjoy God forever in the manner God always intended.

Or think about the times in your life when God acted on your behalf. You met or saw the person you absolutely needed to see or experiencing a turn of events in your life that produced unexpected turmoil and then blessing. This isn’t chance happening. There is no such thing as chance or coincidence in this world. To think otherwise is to deny the goodness, love, and power of our ever-present, all-powerful, and loving God revealed to us supremely in Christ and his faithful people. The latter would be you and me, my beloved, in all our warped and damaged glory. From all this we can only conclude that God is both willing and able to heal us and our infirmities. Whenever you doubt otherwise (and we all doubt from time to time), do as Isaiah and the psalmist tell us to do. Remember the mighty acts of God in the lives of his people (Psalm 77). As Christians, we would start by remembering the death and resurrection of Jesus our Lord.

These things are also helpful to us in considering our other concerns about God in relation to healing. We have just seen that God is both willing and able to heal us, but we also know that God does not always choose to answer our prayers for healing, at least in the manner for which we ask. It is at this point that many of us simply check out in one way or another. In fine human fashion the creatures have the audacity to challenge the love and goodness of their Creator. We forget that we are mortal and have limited perspective as opposed to God. We’d much prefer to take matters into our own hands because we are too often consumed by the cares and concerns in our lives and this makes us jaded, in part because we don’t spend enough time in God’s Word in Scripture so that we really don’t know the great story of God’s rescue plan for us and some of the wonderful sub-stories within that greater story. Take Abraham’s nephew, Lot, for example. Although he chose to accompany his uncle to the land to which God called Abraham, Lot typically acted in his own self-interest. When Abraham gave Lot his choice of land, he picked what he thought was the best land, land that included the towns of Sodom and Gomorrah. There he was contaminated by the worldly lifestyle of those two cities, just like we are today by our own culture. Lot offered his daughters to be raped by a mob to protect himself and God’s messengers. How does that show a trust in God’s protection? He argued with God’s angels about where he should settle after they graciously acted to save him from Sodom and Gomorrah’s destruction and afterwards succumbed to his daughters scheme to get him drunk and have sex with him so that they could perpetuate their family line. Does this sound like one who put his hope and trust in God? No, it sounds pretty much like us. Yet St. Peter called Lot a righteous man (2 Peter 2.6-9), one God counted worthy of salvation.

What’s my point? Well, among other things, stories like Lot’s (and they are legion in Scripture), as well as stories of our own chaotic lives, show us God’s character and heart for us. Despite our stubborn refusal to love and trust God, despite our persistent rebellion against God which produces all kinds of chaos and sickness in our live, God acts for our good, even when it is not obvious to us because of our limited understanding. Or as St. Paul puts it, even while we were still God’s enemies, God sent his Son to die for us to reconcile us to himself and free us from our slavery to Sin and Death (Romans 5.6-11). I’m pretty sure that none of Jesus’ disciples were doing the happy dance and praising God for acting decisively in human history to save us as he hung naked on a cross. They were too busy hiding in fear! No, it takes faith—faith based on an intimate knowledge of the stories contained in Scripture that point us to God’s character and power—to have the audacity to believe God could heal us when we ask him. These stories also remind us that no one, not even you and me with our baggage and pile of sins that reach to heaven, is unworthy in God’s eyes to be healed. Whenever we start to think that, we had better head to the foot of the cross (or the table of the Lord, or both) to be reminded otherwise.

St. Mark tells us essentially the same thing in our gospel lesson. The healings he reports don’t seem to be contingent on the faith of the beneficiaries. Peter’s mother-in-law didn’t ask to be healed. Jesus just healed her. In fact, St. Mark apparently wants us to see that the healings are tied to the greater purpose of our Lord’s ministry. The crowds saw Jesus merely as a miracle worker who could heal them. The demons, however, saw Jesus as God’s Holy One who was exercising God’s power over them by driving them out of their victims, thus all the shrieking. And when the disciples came to get Jesus, he told them he had to move on so that he could preach the in-breaking power of the Kingdom of God in the power and person of himself. In other words, the healings that St. Mark reports are more about the healer than the healed. When we lose sight of this, we lose faith and hope because we instinctively know how broken we are and our inability to heal ourselves.

All this can help us understand, albeit imperfectly and enigmatically, why healing doesn’t always occur when and how we ask for it. It occurs according to God’s good will and purposes for bringing his kingdom to bear on earth as in heaven and those purposes are much greater than our physical/emotional/mental healing. Why? Because we are mortal and any healing, even the most spectacular kind, is temporary. For example, Lazarus, whom Jesus raised from the dead, eventually died again. So will anyone who Jesus heals today. No, there is a greater healing at stake here, my beloved. It is the final healing that will occur at the resurrection of our mortal bodies when our Lord returns. Then our bodies will be reconstituted and transformed, healed forever, never again to succumb to death or sickness or disorder of any kind. That’s the healing for which we all should long as Christians. In the meantime, let us seek the lesser, more temporary varieties of healing, and let us do so eagerly and expectantly because we know God’s love for us and his power to heal. We aren’t called to have perfect faith in God to bring about our healing because as we have seen, it is about the healer, not the healed. Healed as we desire or not, we are called to wait patiently on the Lord to act on us in his good time and good way (or refrain from acting on us), trusting in God’s goodness, God’s justice, God’s love, God’s mercy, and God’s overarching plan for all creation, not just us. If we are not healed, let us never doubt that it is because God does not love us or doesn’t have the power to heal or that we are somehow unworthy. In the final analysis, no one is worthy of God’s healing because we all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3.23). Any healing that occurs is an act of sheer grace and mercy on God’s part. It has nothing to do with the myth of our worthiness.

So come forward today and every Sunday and expect God to do great things in you because the God you love and believe in is a great God who loves you and wants the best for you. Believe it by remembering (or learning) the story of God’s salvation when you falter. Show your faith by inviting your sick friends to come and experience the healing love of God and his people here at St. Augustine’s. Talk to them truthfully and then back up your talk with your behavior. Don’t be afraid to invite folks to experience God’s healing because you are afraid God won’t deliver. That’s not our call to make. Instead, remember God’s love for you, a love that accompanies God’s ability to heal you. He’s going to raise you from the dead one day and make you live forever. Is anything too hard for God? No, invite your friends and trust God to act according to his loving purposes for them, despite what may or may not happen when God’s holy people lay hands on them and anoint them with oil, and prepare to let God blow your mind as God shows you his power and great love for them and you, often in unexpected and surprising ways. God’s power to heal is part of the Good News that brings us hope, joy, and health. Our challenge is to let God be God and not reduce God to our puny and incomplete expectations. Jesus showed us the way and gave us a glimpse of what God can and will do for all of us ultimately, thanks be to God! To him be honor, praise, and glory, now and for all eternity!

In the name of God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.