Letter from Rector. Bless you, Ralene

CHRIST CHURCH QUAKER FARMS   OXFORD, CT.

The Rev. John Donnelly, Rector

August 4, 2015

Dear Family & Friends of CCQF,

It is with deep regret that I announce that our beloved Minister of Music, Ralene Goff, is resigning her position with us at CCQF.  Her last Sunday with us will be Sunday, August 23.  She has accepted a similar position at Zion Episcopal Church, North Branford, CT.  

 All of us will truly miss Ralene, and her husband Fred.   Ralene joined us two years ago, first as Director of Contemporary Music, and then as our Minister of Music in November of 2014.   Her professional skills, her loving heart, gracious smile, and joyful faith will be missed by us all.  Under her direction, our choir and music ministry has expanded in many ways.

In her letter of resignation to me, she said the following (shared with permission):

This has been a very difficult decision because I truly love serving CCQF and working with you. This new position will allow me to continue to use my gifts in music as I have a CCQF,  and it pays more than double what I am making now. …This whole process has happened very quickly… I appreciate your support, friendship, prayers, and laughter over the past two years. You have been such a blessing in our life, and we will miss you and CCQF as we move on to serve another part of the body. In Christ, Ralene

One of the challenges of our CCQF music ministry is that we all want excellent professional musicians,  but locally they are  in high demand,  mostly  receiving higher compensation than what we are able to pay at current budget levels.  It is our hope and prayer that as  our stewardship, numbers, and faithfulness grows, that we will continue to attract strong music professionals as we go forward.

CCQF will honor Ralene on her last Sunday, August 23, with a Festive Reception.  Although we will miss her, we give thanks to God for her life, ministry, and all the gifts that she has shared with us for the past two years. (If you would care to bring some finger food  for the reception that day, please call the Church Office at 203-888-4936).    Thankfully, Ralene and Fred will continue to be our  good friends and neighbors in the  Episcopal Church in CT.

Ralene was attracted to CCQF because she, like we, are committed to JOYFUL WORSHIP.  Over the past  4 years as your Rector, the Lord has provided us with wonderful  & faithful musicians.  I know that Jesus will continue to provide for our needs for strong music leadership as we continue to “Shine the Light of Christ’s  Love through our church, and into the world.”   Our Music Committee (Michael Bawlick, Chair) will meet later this month to begin the process for  securing new music leadership.

Meanwhile, I am very pleased to announce that during this time of transition, I have appointed Polina Mann as our Interim Minister of Music.  Polina joined us our music ministry this spring as our new Organist.  As you may know, Polina  will bring  excellent skills and training to her new ministry.  She has earned : a BA in Music:  a Masters of Music in Performance Practice & Music History;  and a Certificate in Music Education.  During the week , she is a music teacher & director at the St. Thomas Episcopal Day School, New Haven, CT.   Please welcome and encourage her when she comes back to be with us on Sunday, August 23.

So let us join together in thanking Ralene, and trusting and praying that the Lord will provide for our music leadership needs.

Faithfully yours in Christ Jesus,  Father John+

Do you know about the Shalom Machine???

THE SHALOM MACHINE

Understanding the Old Testament 2:  COVENANT

Did you know that the name of the scriptures of the Old Testament could be better translated as the scriptures of the Old Covenant and the New Covenant?   Testament is simply an old word for covenant.  Last Sunday we began our exploration of the Old Testament by looking at Abraham & Sarah, the couple God chose to start His spiritual family on earth.  God made a covenant or a promise with Abraham, that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the heavens, and that all people would be blessed by him.

God has chosen a very ancient & specific legal contract as the basis of his relationship with humanity; and that legal and binding contract is called a covenant.    Let’s look at what a definition here.  Please open your bulletins to page 2, looking at point one in the sermon notes.     A covenant is a mutual agreement between 2 parties. Unlike many legal contracts of today, God’s covenant is quite simple: God promised to rescue, forgive, and bless his people, and in return, we promise to worship, obey, & serve Him as our only God.

·       The oldest covenant in the Bible is the Covenant of marriage, as created by God in the beginning.   God consecrates the union of husband and wife, who agree to love and serve each other as long as they both shall live.  Note—that the purpose of this covenant, like all godly covenants, is to provide a framework and guidelines for LOVE.

So last Sunday we said that God made a covenant or a promise with Abraham, that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the heavens, and that all people would be blessed by him as they lived in the Promised Land, which we know as Israel.  This covenant brought together Abraham’s descendants to love God for generations and generations to come.   However, about 100 years later, due to an extreme draught and famine, God’s family left the Promised Land of Israel temporarily, to migrate to Egypt, to find some relief. Egypt agreed to help them out. That worked well until the Egyptians imprisoned God’s people and made them into their slaves. During the 400 years of their slavery, God’s people undertook forced labor to build colossal buildings to glorify the Pharaohs; buildings and cities which became wonders & marvels of the ancient world. God’s family was given minimal food, and many of them died.  During that 400 years, they cried to God for deliverance.  Finally, God sent them the Patriarch Moses, who led God’s people to freedom through the Miracle of the crossing of the Red Sea in 1500 BC.

 Now, if you do not know this now, you need to keep this in mind:  The Exodus, God’s miracle of liberation, is the pivotal event for all Jewish believers, back then, and now.

·       This event is comparable to the Resurrection of Christ for Christians, and as the Declaration of Independence is to our nation.  All of these 3 events, in my opinion, were all initiated by God; and they have had the power to shape and mold people for generations and generations to come.   Likewise, all the scriptures of the Old Covenant all revolves around the Red Sea crossing and the covenant that God granted to Moses and our spiritual forebears.

·       All of God’s people were astounded and so grateful for their deliverance from Pharaoh.    In response, God’s people committed their lives to a 2^nd Covenant.  God initiated this “Mosaic Covenant” with His people and their descendants (including us here today), in order to establish a deeper and closer relationship because he loved them and us so dearly. One night, God spoke alone on Mt Sinai to Moses.  Let’s go back tour sermon notes, and read together point # 2: MOSAIC COVENANT: God called upon his people to worship God, alone, and to obey his laws; and in return, God promised to forgive and bless them. So, the stars in the sky IS the symbol of God’s covenant with Abraham and his descendants; and the symbol of the Mosaic covenant is the 10 commandments.

When many modern people think of the 10 commandments ought to be called the 10 suggestions. You know, they are optional.  For the past 50 years of so, our popular culture has had an anti-authority mindset, whereby people think they can pick and choose the civil and religious laws of their choice.  These folks think that they know better than the who formulated the laws; indeed, acting like they know more than God Himself. To some people, some laws just seem outdated and silly in the 21^st century.  

·       But that is not the way our Jewish forebears saw God’s law.   They saw God’s law as a gift which could guide them to live a life of Shalom…a life of shalom.

Well, our Jewish forebears and current Jews see God’s Law differently.  They loved God’s law because it marked the way for them to live a life of Shalom. Shalom is the Jewish word for peace, but it means much more than the absence of warfare.  It means well-being, living in inner harmony, prosperity, contentment, communion with God, wholeness, & fulfillment. In short, shalom is the way that you would want to live your life.   King David, who wrote the Psalms of the Old Testament, put it this way. Please repeat after me: “Great shalom have people// who follow your law. // I can hope for salvation //because I have fulfilled your law. // I have kept your decrees //and I love them deeply.”

Now to best understand God’s law, we need to look at Newtown’s 3^rd Law of physical motions, and it goes like this:  For every action, there is a reaction of equal force to the original action.  This is not only true in the laws of physics, but it is also true in the spiritual laws of the universe.   So, I am now going to demonstrate this with something I call my Shalom machine.

·       Here we have Shalom, which is the fullness of life.

·       Here we have this bucket, representing God’s law.

·       And here we have the expected response, obedience.

So—how do you achieve Shalom?  God commands that you do not steal.  If you do not obey that command (TOSS), then God’s presence will depart from you and you will not have shalom.  But if your response is to obey (TOSS), then you have peace or shalom with God.

God’s word says to honor your parents (TOSS).   If you do so (TOSS), God promises that you will live along life.

God’s word says to love God above any other thing, and to worship him on the Sabbath day (TOSS).  If you don’t, your life will be out of balance, and that will lead to other problems because you have abandoned God.  But when to you choose to love God and to worship him, ( TOSS), you then receive His love—which balances your life and enables you to receive the shalom or peace of God.

All of us know people who do not obey God’s laws (TOSS); and those decisions have bad consequences.   God wants us to have a balanced life in relationship with Him. (TOSS).

I know of a man who one time took his young child for a walk around his property.  That loving father pointed out the areas which posed some danger, like down by the river.  The father slipped on purpose and fell into the river, not to scare the boy but the help him to remember the proper boundaries, so that when he got older, he would not unnecessarily get hurt.  God is that Father, and we are the children.  This is the way God showed his love for us.

He made covenants—in days of old, which we have inherited as the spiritual descendants of Abraham and Moses.  However, as Christians, God has given us an even more precious gift----the New Covenant of reconciliation and love.  In this new covenant, we are still to love God, but we are also commanded to love one another as Jesus loved us, who died on the cross and rose from the dead to forgive us our sins when we break God’s laws.  The symbols of the New covenant of love are the 2 great sacraments of the church: Holy Baptism and Communion , through which God’s love flows through us and through our descendants in our time and into the future.

Now as s sign of gratitude to the God of covenants, let us stand and reaffirm our faith, using the words of the baptismal covenant, found on page 292.              ---The Rev. John Donnelly                                                                                                                                  

Understanding the Old Testament: Abraham

Jesus was and is God’s greatest miracle.  All of history turns around the Jesus event, which is why we spend so much time learning about Him.  However, the miracle of Jesus can be better understood if we explore some of what God was up to in the 2000 years before Jesus was born.   The drama of the Old Testament, the Hebrew Scriptures, is glorious.   The Old Testament is not one book, but a library of 39 books or writings, containing legends, myths, history, sacred laws and rituals, songs and poetry, and much much more. Originally, most of these Books were orally transmitted from generation to generation, until the invention of human writing.   So, these scriptures were copied and handed down until the 3rd century before Christ, when two things happened:

1.    The 39 books were collected together to form the Hebrew Scriptures. The religious and political leadership chose the books which they determine be the Word of God.  No more would be added.

2.    After speaking to leaders and prophets for hundreds of years, God was silent for 400 years up until the birth of Christ.  There is no record of God directly speaking to his people.

Many of us have some familiarity with stories from the Bible----like that of Adam & Eve, Moses, & King David.  But since the Old Testament is a library, it can be hard to swallow.  I know people who decided to read the Old Testament beginning with the first book, the book of Genesis.  Most people who do that, often get lost in some of the liturgical and law books of Leviticus, and then stop because they become discouraged.

Within the 39 books of the Old Testament, there is a wonderful and heart breaking Love story, which is so beautiful.  It is this drama which inspired Jesus, and which can inspire us.  It’s a drama about God and humanity; of a God, inviting people into a relationship with Him; of people being both attracted and repelled by God.  This is a drama where God becomes broken hearted, because His beloved people reject Him; and a story of God pursuing His beloved children.  We will explore some of this drama; and I think you will find that God has been a consistent lover.  You may not agree and/or understand some of his actions.  But that we can discuss too.

So, there are two foundational truths which underlie these scriptures:

1.    There is one true God. Many pagan religions worshipped multiple Gods. These “gods” were either totally fabricated by people, or were evil spirits masquerading as gods.  Thus when God gave the 10 Commandments to Moses, God declared: ” I am the Lord your God. You shall not have no other gods but me. You shall not make for idols fir yourselves; you shall not bow down before them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God.” (Exodus 20: 2,4,5)

2.    So, there is one god. Secondly,   please repeat after me:

“God acts in history to save His people.”  This was best said in the Book of Job, where we hear, “After all, God is famous for great and unexpected acts; there’s no end to his surprises.  (Job 5:9)

Now we come to one great divide here, where we need to be open to something much of western culture world calls foolishness.  And that is this:  Is our physical world all there is, or is there a spiritual world which can influence and act in our physical world? 

·       If your mind is closed to the possibility of a supernatural influences and intervention in our world, then the Bible is simply a bunch of primitive writings by ignorant people, reflecting on their own experience.

·       If you believe that there is a spiritual realm, which influences and acts in our spiritual world, then the bible will have meaning for you.  So, do you believe in miracles?”   Can anyone guess what percentage of Americans believe in miracles?   PAUSE      National Public Radio reports that 80% of Americans believe in miracles.

·       The Gallup polling organization says that 9 out of ten Americans believe in God.  According to Gallup, quote, “This number is reduced among younger Americans, easterners, and intellectual liberals.”   J   Now, in addition to this, 72% of Americans do believe that God acts in history.  Isn’t that something?  More people believe that what one might imagine. So, believers are not in the minority at all.  But you would not know it from our pop culture.

God’s first great act in history was the creation of time. There was a point when there was the beginning of chronological time, and there will come a point in time in the future when chronological time will end.   Time is the playing field for God’s activity.

Next,  God continued by creating the natural order, as described in our Prayer Book:” the universe, planets in their courses, and this fragile earth, our island home.”  The Psalms describe it this way.  Pls repea.t after me   In his hand are the depths of the earth,// and the mountain peaks belong to him. // The sea is his, for he made it,// and his hands formed the dry land.

Once earth was made, then God came to his crowning achievement: He created humanity. PAUSE Perhaps no one other than William Shakespere could have described God’s feelings about humanity: quote 'What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty! In form and moving how express and admirable! In action how like an Angel!  Unquote. 

So, what was God’s purpose in creating humanity?  One line from our Eucharistic prayer sums this up by saying,” Holy and gracious father, in your infinite love, you made us from yourself.” (Prayer Book, p. 362)  So, what was the purpose in creating humanity?   To love us.

Why would God almighty need to love humanity?  Couldn’t God, Father, Son & Holy Spirit just go throughout eternity loving themselves?

Well, the bible tells us that “Love is not love unless is shared.”  Love is reciprocal-it is mutual, and if you don’t give it away, it will eventually grow stale and die.  So, God wanted children to love, because He is a God of Love.

Although God loved humanity from the beginning, God began to form his earthly family about 4000 years ago.  He started with a young couple named Abraham and Sarah.  Prior to Abraham being called by God, he and his wife were living with Abraham’s father in a city in modern day Iraq, God spoke to Abraham and said, “Go from your country and kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you, and I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. Through you, all the families of the earth will be blessed.”   So, Abraham did as God asked, and God led him to what would later be called the Promised Land, because this land was promised to Abraham and his descendants forever.  That land, as most of you know, is modern day Israel.

Abraham and Sarah were good, faithful, hardworking people.  For many years, Abraham and Sarah were childless, which deeply distressed them both.  One night as Abraham was praying about this, God promised that they would have a child.  Then God took Abraham to look at the stars in the sky, and God said to him, “Look to the heavens, and count the stars. So shall your descendants be.”  And the Bible goes on to say that Abraham believed the Lord’s promise, and god credited him with righteousness.”

Now the term “righteousness” is not just about moral conduct.   Rather righteousness is about having an intimate relationship with God, with no walls, no distance, no impediments.   This, my friends, was radical.  You see, going back then, God was understood to be pure—of such a purity that no sinful man or woman, which was everybody, could ever come close to God because all people are sinners.

Do you realize how fortunate we are? Up until the time of Abraham, and then in many years following, humanity was totally alienated from God by virtue of being infected with original sin.  Back at the beginning of time, the first people, called Adam and Eve, had turned away from God, thereby releasing this spiritual disease of sin into the world.

Consequently, for eons and eons, God and humanity were enemies, so to speak.  But here Abraham, called the pioneer of our faith, believed God’s promise, and He was made a friend of God. This promise, or covenant, was without conditions---it was not based on human behavior; it was just based on God’s unconditional love for all people.

This is why Abraham is the spiritual forefather of all who believe.  God started with him, and now the descendants of Abraham are as numerous as the stars in the heavens.   And this was the foundation upon which Jesus Christ came to reconcile all of humanity, by his death and resurrection for the forgiveness of sin. Now, all of us can have a right relationship, crossing the barrier between God and humanity.

 I believe that God has known each of us since before the beginning of time; and God looked forward to this time when we could truly be one family under the Headship of Jesus.    For whatever reason, it has taken 4000 years to get us this place.   So now, here, today,  at Christ Church Quaker Farms, through God’s Word & Sacrament, heaven comes to earth…comes to us, as we seek to live as members of God’s awesome family. 

The Rev. John Donnelly            7  26  15

Light must shine. Fire must burn. Love must act.

We Americans identify ourselves as the “United States”; and indeed, our states are united.  But as a people, we are so divided about so many things.

·       It is easy to see such divisions in politics, were Republicans and Democrats rarely agree on things.

·       And then there  all these factions & special interest groups with grievances demanding their rights---black rights, Latino rights, women’s rights, gay rights,  right to work,  gun owners’ rights, immigrant rights,  first amendment rights, and the rights of business to undertake commerce without undue government interference.

·       We are divided by family backgrounds, religions, economics, and by the different regional cultures in our land.

·       Just ask any teenager about the differences among the student population at school.

·       And sometimes these divisions are carried in to the home.

Not infrequently, these divisions can become destructive. Name calling, slander, rage, & condemnation can irrupt when our opinions become more important that civility & mutual respect.  I do ot know about you, but there are times when  I  personally get caught up in destructive divisions,  saying  things that I later regret.  Words can cause wounds.

Now, frequently  divisions can produce  winners and losers; and insiders and outsiders.  The insiders are the people who are on my side; the outsiders are on the opposing side. And those who try not to choose a side are left out, because the other 2 sides become suspicious of the outcasts.

And of course, when this gets played out among nations, the divisions can result in conflict and conflict can lead to war.

Jesus was a man who attracted conflict, because he refused to affiliate with any group. He wasn’t pro Sadducees, a religious sect, nor pro Pharisees or Zealots, two other sects.  And he certainly was not pro-Roman. He wasn’t pro any human divisions, because He was pro unconditional, universal Love as expressed by the Gospel.       And because He did not side with any of the various special interest groups,  all his opponents became enemies, who hated him.  But, as we hear in today’s Gospel,  the little people were, pro Jesus—the outcasts, the sick, the homeless, the sinners, and the lost;  and those who longed for a right relationship with God.  

You see, Jesus came to earth because all of God’s children were all divided into different conflicting nations, different languages, different races, different social classes, and different religions.  The root of all these destructive divisions was then, and is now, SIN. Sin—where we are out for ourselves and our side, striving to get what we want by pushing aside God and those different from us.   So Jesus, died on the cross & rose from the dead, breaking the strangle hold that sin had on the people. Now  sin is still around & still dangerous—but Jesus provided an escape route for all who choose to prayerfully invite Him into their hearts as your personal Lord and Savior.

Before Jesus’ death and resurrection, all people were infected and condemned by sin.   But by asking Jesus into your heart, you automatically receive the antidote for sin, which is His amazing grace. Now, you and I will continue to sin and tube hurt by the sin of others; but that is just temporary because you have become part of God’s family. 

St. Paul talks about God’s family in today’s first reading.  God’s family is unlike any other family, or group, or association.  In God’s people, all are welcome, irrespective of your ideology and/or your past sins. You see, what united God’s family across the earth is the saving love of Jesus Christ, which is so much more powerful than any human divisions.

So Paul says, “Now because of Christ shedding his blood, you who were once outsiders are now included in everything. “ Please repeat after me, “You are no longer strangers and outsiders, but members of the family of God.”

So, if you have not sked Jesus into your heart, we want to encourage you to do so. I will have more to say about that, later.  

What are the benefits of you accepting Jesus into your heart and being a member of His family?

·       You can discover God’s unique purpose for your life.

·       You can receive healing, forgiveness & comfort because Jesus’ mission to help us here and now.

·       You can receive hope, because no matter how bad life treats you, you have the hope of eternal life.

·       You can build new friendships with positive faithful people. This is especially true in our annual Small Group ministry, which we will soon announce.

·       And you can share in the important work of expanding God’s family to those who do not yet believe.

You see, Jesus cries for the people who do not know of His love.   You see, most people not attending church may have heard that Jesus loves them, but they really don’t experience in their hearts.  If you are one of those people, and you would like to change that, then I have some news for you that I will share at announcement time.it grows; and as it grows, there comes a point where we wish to share what we have received

So, once we have received the love of Christ into our heart,  it grows; and  it grows through the word, sacrament, and fellowship of God’s family.   Then, there comes a point where we wish to share what we have received, just as Jesus has commanded us to do:

Those outside God’s family do not know what they are missing, so  God’s Word, as we hear in our readings, challenges us to love them.  Here are ways that YOU can share God’s love with those outside God’s family:

1.    You can ask them about their church background, and talk about yours.

2.    You can do good deeds.

3.    You can empathetically listen to someone in need,

4.    You can invite someone  to come to church.

5.    You can invite them to come to a small group, which will begin again in September.

6.    You can join our new Mission & Outreach Commission, which is being head up by Amy Sarris.

7.    You can offer to pray when someone tells you of and illness or other problem.

Now, what is the benefit for you to reach out in love like this?   It is simple.  God’s love is free—but if you do not share it, then over time it will diminish.  How many former Christians have burnt out simply because they neglected to share that love which had been given to them?

This past week, I understood a silent retreat at an Episcopal monastery.  It was wonderful, but I was so impressed by their motto:

Please repeat after me:

Light must shine.   Fire must burn.    Love must act.

We are so fortunate.  Our God is really opening the door for us all too really shine the light of Christ’s love through this church and into the world.  And you know that when you share God’s love, He gives you more back in return. 

·       You will see more blessings.

·         You will feel like you have made a difference.

·        You will create new friendships. 

·       You will find clearer guidance in times of need.

·        You will feel greater communion with God.

·        You will feel connected to God’s purpose in the world.

·       You will feel more confident in your walk with God.

So, Jesus Christ is God’s answer to all the destructive divisions and anguish of the world. And together, with us, we can overcome all estrangement & enmity—because His love conquered death and the grave.

The Rev. John Donnelly    7 19 15

The New Episcopal Presiding Bishop's Inaugural Sermon--The Most Rev. Michael Curry

GO! We are the Jesus Movement
The 78th General Convention of the Episcopal Church
The Rt. Rev. Michael B. Curry
Friday, July 3, 2015

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20)

Before I say anything, I must again say thank you to you, Almighty God, for the privilege and the possibility of serving as Presiding Bishop-Elect. I love this Church, I love our Lord, and God is not finished with us yet.

To our Presiding Bishop, who has been an incredible leader—

We go back 15 years. We were ordained bishops in the same year, and this is a woman of God. She has led the people of God with courage, passion—

Now her passion is a little different than mine. I told the bishops, I want to get a little bit of cool from her.

She has been an incredible God-sent and God-inspired leader.

And I so look forward to working together with President Jennings. We’ve known each other off and on over the years and—

I’m older than she is, I’ll say it that way.

I’m probably not.

I really do look forward to working together with her. Leadership is not easy, and she has exercised it here at this convention with grace and clarity. I look forward to working with you, my sister.

And then lastly—I know they didn’t move the service up to 8:30 so I had more time to preach—but I must offer a word of disclaimer before getting into the sermon. I didn’t know what the text was going to be for today; I had no idea that it would be the Great Commission: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.” And when I saw what the text was, all I could do was say, “There’s a sweet, sweet spirit in this place.”

Matthew ends his Gospel telling the story and compiling the teachings of Jesus with Jesus sending his disciples out into the world with these words: “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have taught you.” And remember, I am with you in the first century and in the 21st. “I am with you always, even unto the end of the age.”

I am more and more convinced that God came among us in the Person of Jesus of Nazareth to show us the way to be reconciled with the God who deeply and passionately loves each and every one of us, to be reconciled and right with that God and to be reconciled and right with each other as the children of that one God who created us all. He came to show us how to get right and how to get reconciled. He came to show us therefore how to become more than simply the human race – that’s not good enough – came to show us how to be more than a collection of individualized self-interests, came to show us how to become more than a human race.

He came to show us how to become the human family of God. And in that, my friends, is our hope and our salvation, now and unto the day of eternity.
Or to say it another way.

Max Lucado who’s a Christian writer says “God loves you just the way you are, but he [doesn’t intend] to leave you that way.”

Jesus came to change the world and to change us from the nightmare that life can often be to the dream that God has intended from before the earth and world was ever made.

Julia Ward Howe said it this way, during America’s Civil War, an apocalyptic moment in the history of this nation if ever there was one:

In the beauty of the lilies
Christ was born across the sea.
With a glory in his bosom
That transfigured you and me.
As he died to make [folk] holy
Let us live to set them free
While God is marching on.
Glory, glory hallelujah
God’s truth is marching on.

Now I’ve got one word for you. If you don’t remember anything else I say this morning, it’s the first word in the Great Commission: GO!

Don’t do it yet, but go!

And the reason I lift up that word “go” is because we are the Jesus Movement.

Go!

Let me tell you, I began to realize something—I stumbled into it a few months ago— while I was getting ready for Advent and I was reading the Gospel Advent messages for the three-year cycle.

I noticed something I hadn’t seen before.

I noticed that all four of the Gospels preface the ministry of Jesus not only by invoking John the Baptist, but they preface the ministry of Jesus by quoting Isaiah chapter 40: “Prepare the way of the Lord, / make straight [ ] a highway for our God”

And if you look back, go back to Isaiah 40, Isaiah says:

Prepare the way of the Lord,
…
For every valley shall be exalted,
Every mountain and hill made low,
The crooked straight and the rough places a plain,
And in this the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
And all flesh shall see it together.

The Bible’s trying to tell us something about Jesus. This brother didn’t come into the world to leave it the way he found it. He came to change it until valleys are lifted up and mountains are brought down, until the world is righted the way god dreamed it. The landscape of our reality and lives is changing.

The story behind Isaiah 40—and I won’t get into all the details—is that the people of God found themselves free one day and in slavery the next. This time it was not a slavery of Pharaoh’s Egypt; this time it was the slavery of exile in Babylon.

For indeed in the year 586 BCE, the armies of Babylon began a prodigious March of conquest throughout the Middle East. Eventually they came to Palestine. They razed the countryside, moved toward and fought their way to Jerusalem, breached the walls of the Holy City, entered the city and burned much of it, and killed people. They entered the Sacred Temple that Solomon had built and desecrated it. And then they took many of the leading citizens and they carted them off to Babylon where they made virtual slaves of them.

It was a nightmare.

In Babylon they sang, as old slaves used to sing, “Sometimes I feel like a motherless child, a long, long way from home.”

In Babylon one of their poets wrote:

By the waters of Babylon,
we sat down and wept,
When we remembered thee, O Zion.

When we remembered what it was like to be home.

How shall we sing the Lord’s song
In a strange land?

And then it happened, almost as swiftly as they had been enslaved by the nightmare of the world, they were set free by the treaty of God.

See the Babylonians who had conquered were conquered themselves. Have you ever played that game King of the Mountain? Somebody’s gonna knock you off.

Or as that great philosopher Frank Sinatra said, “You can be riding high in April and shot down in May.”

And so an emperor named Cyrus came to the throne in Persia. He conquered the Babylonians and as a kind of “in your face” to the Babylonians, everyone the Babylonians had enslaved, Cyrus set free. He issued an edict of religious toleration. We thought pluralism and multiculturalism was new. Cyrus did that a long time ago.

He issued an edict of religious toleration, the Jewish people were set free, they went home, and as they were on their way going home, one of their poets said: Prepare the way of the Lord, for everybody shall be exalted, every mountain made low, the crooked straight.

And we’re going home!

The nightmare has ended, and God has changed the landscape of reality, His dream has broken out!

My friends, all four Gospels preface the story of Jesus by pointing us back to that story in Isaiah. Jesus came to show us the way, to change the landscape of reality, from the nightmare it often is into the dream that God intends and we, my friends, are part of the Jesus movement.

So go!

Now if you still don’t believe me, go see the movie.

Now I’m not commending the movie I’m about to mention because I actually haven’t seen the movie itself, but it’s the movie Son of God. It came out about a year ago if I remember correctly, and it kind of got eclipsed because Noah with Russell Crowe came out at the same time.

Everybody knows that would certainly have told the story accurately.

Anyway, the movie Son of God—again I’m not commending it because I haven’t seen it.

But the trailer is really good.

And in the trailer there’s this one scene, where Hollywood conflated several biblical versions, of the story of Jesus calling Simon Peter.

And Peter is fishing in the Sea of Galilee and Jesus comes along. Peter’s not catching any fish—and you can see he’s frustrated—and Jesus comes along and says something like, “What’re you doing, brother?”

Sometimes when you read the Bible, you gotta read between the lines and imagine what the expressions were like.

When Jesus says, “Well, what are you doing?,” Simon Peter says, “I’m obviously fishing.” And then Jesus says, “Well why don’t you put your net on the other side of the boat?” And you know Peter’s been there all day, and you can assume he probably did know something about Jesus, and knew the brother was a carpenter, not a fisherman.

And therefore, he was probably thinking, you don’t know a thing about this, but what I’ve been doing all day isn’t working—
Which is a parable for the church today, but I’ll leave that alone.

Jesus said if it’s not working for you, put the net on the other side and go where the fish are, don’t wait for them to come to you—

That’s another message for the church.

So anyway, Peter takes the net and casts it on the other side of the boat and then the next scene—now this is in the trailer, I haven’t seen the movie—the next scene is under the water and the camera is looking up.

Now this is clearly Hollywood, and you can see Jesus’ image kind of refracted through the water. You can tell it’s Jesus because he has a beard.

And then he takes his finger, and he touches the water, and the water starts to quiver and shake like the old song, “Wade in the Water.”

“God’s gonna trouble the water.”

That’s Hollywood. That wasn’t in the Bible, but neither was Cecil B. DeMille, and I actually like his version of The Ten Commandments.

So anyway, the water is quivering. And then the next scene goes up on top, and you see Peter, and probably Andrew and John, they’re hauling all of the fish. They’ve got so many, the net is breaking.

Notice they listened to Jesus, and caught more fish than they did when they were doing it on their own.

That’s another lesson, but we’ll talk about that later.

Anyway they’re trying to pull up all these fish, and then Jesus comes along and says, “Peter, now come and follow me.”

Now again, imagine what was going through Peter’s mind: I’m finally catching some fish, and you want me to follow you?

And Jesus says, “Come on and follow me,” and Peter says “Where are we going ?!”

Jesus says, “To Change the world.”

God came among us in the person of Jesus of Nazareth to change the world, to change it from the nightmare it often can be into the dream that God intends. He came to change the world, and we have been baptized into the Triune God and summoned to be disciples and followers of this Jesus and to participate in God’s work, God’s mission of changing and transforming this world. We are the Jesus Movement now.

And his way can change the world. The Diocese of Ohio has popularized a way of capturing Jesus’ summary of the law: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. On these two hang all the law and the prophets.

It’s all about that love.

Duke Ellington said, “It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing.”

It’s all about that love!

The Diocese of Ohio says it this way:  “Love God, love your neighbor and change the world.”

With this I’ll sit down.

I will.

In May of 1961, now-Congressman John Lewis, one of the Freedom Riders, was a young man. He together with other young men and women, black and white, were Freedom Riders who dared to trust the recent Supreme Court decision with regard to interstate transportation, seeking to end and eradicate Jim Crow in our land. They were on a Greyhound bus, 13 of them, headed from Washington through Virginia and North Carolina, through South Carolina and heading onto New Orleans, Louisiana. When they stopped in Rock Hill, South Carolina, just to fill up the tank, go to the bathroom, get something to eat, they were met there by hooded night riders. They were met there by those who would burn a cross for hatred instead of the reason behind the cross: love.

And they were beaten, many of them nearly beaten to death.

John Lewis was beaten not only there but also on that Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma. He bears on his body the marks of Jesus, and so do so many others.

Now fast forward, 48 years later. John Lewis is a Congressman from Georgia. One of his aides tells him there’s a man named Edwin Wilson, who wants to meet him.

Mr. Wilson came in, he met John Lewis, and he said “I’m one of the men who beat you and the other Freedom Riders in Rock Hill in 1961, and I’ve come to apologize and to ask you to forgive me.” Lewis forgave him. He said in the book where he told the story, “I accepted the apology of this man, who physically and verbally assaulted, but this is the testimony of the power of love, the power that can overcome hatred.”

This is what Jesus taught us to do.

God came among us in the person of Jesus to reconcile us with each other and in so doing to change the world. We’ve got a day of crisis before us in this country.

We’ve got a day of crisis before us in this global community.

We have enormous challenges before us as Church and followers of Jesus.

But as St. Paul said in Romans, “With God before us, who can be against us?”

Or as Bishop Barbara Harris said—

How do you like that, Paul and Barbara Harris?

As Bishop Barbara Harris said, “The God who is behind us is greater than any problem that is ahead of us.”

We are part of the Jesus Movement, and that movement cannot be stopped because we follow a Lord who defeated death and follow a Lord who lives.

We are part of the Jesus Movement, and he has summoned us to make disciples and followers of all nations and transform this world by the power of the Good News, the gospel of Jesus.

And look at us: We’re incredible!

Have you seen all the babies crawling around this convention? They’re all over the place!

Some of us are babies!

Some of us are children. The children are right here. You can’t see them—

Hey, guys! Hey!—They’re waving—How are you?

Some of us are children!

Some of us are young people. They’ve been here.

Some of us are young adults, and they’ve been here, and they’re gonna change the world!

Some of us have got AARP cards.

I do!

And some of us—help me, Jesus—some of us are Republicans. And some of us are Democrats.

But if you’ve been baptized into the Triune God, you are a disciple of Jesus, and we are all in the Jesus Movement.

What God has brought together, let no one tear asunder.

Some of us are labelled traditionalists—Help me, Jesus!

Ready? And some of us are labelled progressive.

I don’t care whether your label is traditionalist or progressive, if you’ve been baptized into the Triune God, you’re in the Jesus Movement.

See, we are all different. Some of us are black and some of us are white, some of us are brown.

But I like that old song that said:

Jesus loves the little children,
All the children of the world.
Red and yellow black and white,
They are precious in his sight.
Jesus love the little children of the world.

I don’t care who you are, how the Lord has made you, what the world has to say about you, if you’ve been baptized into Jesus you’re in the Jesus Movement and your God’s.

Therein may be the Gospel message of hope for the world. There’s plenty of good room.

Plenty good room.

Plenty good room for all God’s children.

For in the beauty of the lilies—Christ was the one who taught us this.

With a glory in his bosom
That transfigured you and me.
As he died to make [folk] holy
Let us live to set them free
While God is marching on.

Glory.

Glory, hallelujah.

God’s truth is marching on.

Now go.