Sermon on May 16, 2010
Sermon for the Episcopal Church of St John the Baptist, Capitola,
given by Rev. Steve Ellis
The Episcopal Church of Saint John the Baptist welcomes all to worship God and to share Christ's love in the world. We are a parish family committed to provide liturgy, Bible study, music, counseling, and Christian education for children, youth, and adults, and to equip all our members for life and for service to others.
O God, the King of glory, you have exalted your only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven: Do not leave us comfortless, but send us your Holy Spirit to strengthen us, and exalt us to that place where our Savior Christ has gone before; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.
New Testament Lesson
With Paul and Silas, we came to Philippi in Macedonia, a Roman colony, and, as we were going to the place of prayer, we met a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners a great deal of money by fortune-telling. While she followed Paul and us, she would cry out, "These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation." She kept doing this for many days. But Paul, very much annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, "I order you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her." And it came out that very hour.
But when her owners saw that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the authorities. When they had brought them before the magistrates, they said, "These men are disturbing our city; they are Jews and are advocating customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to adopt or observe." The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates had them stripped of their clothing and ordered them to be beaten with rods. After they had given them a severe flogging, they threw them into prison and ordered the jailer to keep them securely. Following these instructions, he put them in the innermost cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.
About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was an earthquake, so violent that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's chains were unfastened. When the jailer woke up and saw the prison doors wide open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, since he supposed that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted in a loud voice, "Do not harm yourself, for we are all here." The jailer called for lights, and rushing in, he fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them outside and said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" They answered, "Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household." They spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. At the same hour of the night he took them and washed their wounds; then he and his entire family were baptized without delay. He brought them up into the house and set food before them; and he and his entire household rejoiced that he had become a believer in God.
Acts 16:16-34
Psalm
Psalm 97 Page 726, BCP
Gospel
At the end of the visions I, John, heard these words:
"See, I am coming soon; my reward is with me, to repay according to everyone's work. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end."
Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they will have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by the gates.
"It is I, Jesus, who sent my angel to you with this testimony for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star."
The Spirit and the bride say, "Come."
And let everyone who hears say, "Come."
And let everyone who is thirsty come.
Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift.
The one who testifies to these things says, "Surely I am coming soon."
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!
The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints. Amen.
John 17:20-26 - Jesus prayed for his disciples, and then he said. "I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
"Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them." Amen.Philippians 3:4b-14
Gospel
Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus' feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, "Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?" (He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) Jesus said, "Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me."
Revelation 22:12-14,16-17,20-21
Sermon: We're Already Free!
Paul and Silas arrived in Philippi, a small city in ancient northern Greece. If you drew a line west from Istanbul and a line north from Athens, they would intersect just about where the Roman garrison, mines and city of Philippi were.
Paul and Silas healed a slave woman who was being used by her masters as a fortune-teller. They were then jailed and beaten by the authorities for the crime of interfering with commerce - the woman’s former condition was marketable for her masters. But Paul and Silas, praying in the jail and singing songs of faith, were miraculously set free. And if what you heard in that story was a miraculous jailbreak, and that’s all you heard, you missed the real story.
Paul and Silas may have been released by an angel, but they stay right where they are, for the jailer’s sake. They say, I think, “We’re already free.” Everybody knows how understanding the Romans were with jailers whose prisoners get away. The jailer is going to take his own life before the authorities find out and torture him. But Paul and Silas say, “This man is in despair, but we’re already free.” And they stay right where they are, for his sake and to give him the freedom they already have.
That is what we can be, if we let God work freely in us. Paul and Silas had a new love of life, a new walk with God, a new hope in Jesus. They are not afraid of Rome, the jailer is caught up in the domination system, and he is afraid of Rome. They are already free.
The love of Jesus has infused their souls with joy. The domination system of fear that crushes the dreams of so many – it doesn’t crush them. They are already free. The economic temptation that rules the hearts and minds of so many - it doesn’t rule them, they are already free. The relentless exercise of arbitrary power that whittles away at the the will and perseverance of so many, no longer interests Paul and Silas. They are already free.
When the Holy Spirit is at work in our lives, then the love of Jesus has a way to bring about our growth, our freedom, bit by bit, showing us God’s love, showing us what, in our character, in our fears, in our past, that is in the way of that love being expressed and infused into us.
That is why, today, we ask for the gift of the Holy Spirit. “. . . Send us your Holy Spirit to strengthen us and lead us to that place where our savior Christ has gone before. . .” Because if we ask, God will give. If we allow, God will work in us.
Now this is a special day to ask for the Holy Spirit, and I don’t want us to miss it. The Holy Spirit isn’t some esoteric gift that some Christians have and some can do without, but we often don’t ask and don’t receive as much as God wants to give us of the grace and transformation of our character. But we could. We are entitled to all the riches of Christ.
We pray for this all the time in the Lord’s prayer. All the time. We call God, “Father”. Abba, loving parent, “Dada” really. Then we ask for the really important things for which we depend on God, day to day:
God’s name to be honored – that is, for people to remember themselves, uphold their own dignity and that of others.
God’s kingdom to come – that is, for all our actions to be carried out consciously, as being done in front of God, and with God’s blessing.
God’s will to be done as in God’s own presence – you see, these three: Name, Kingdom, Will, are really one request.
Give us today the bread we need for the morrow: that is, let us depend on God, day to day, because, even if we have bread for many days to come, we are held in existence, this whole cosmos, by the love of the one who created us, in whom we live and move and have our being. Micah called it, “Walk humbly with your God.”
Forgive us our sins – because the receiving of grace and the flow of it through us to others is the lifeblood of healthy community, and God’s gift is Jesus.
Save us from the time of trial, that is, from the temptation that would destroy us, crush our faith, reduce us to despair, so instead, Lord, when the evil that assaults us is greater than we are, deliver us, by the power of the Cross of Christ.
The entire prayer is an attempt to focus on the reign of God, to invite the Holy Spirit to guide our lives, to become those who travel light in this world. What we need to stay in grace is to watch for the kingdom and honor the name,
to depend on God for the needs of the day,
we need mercy for ourselves and others,
and the Spirit to sustain us through trials and deliver us from the darkest nights.
With these few things, we can complete the journey, negotiate our lives with hope and courage, no matter what we go through. We can travel light, because we are already free.
Earthquakes and floods, and man-made environmental disasters can get us down, but they can’t make us give up, because we are already free.
We may be in economic straits, like so many these days, but we don’t lose hope, because we are already free.
We may be stunned sometimes by grief, but we don’t quit putting one foot in front of the other to share Jesus’ work, because we are already free.
We may be knocked down by illness, but we don’t lose our courage, because, like Paul and Silas singing hymns in the jail, we are already free.
I want that freedom for each of you, as I want it for myself. I remember Bishop Bob Mize, once the Episcopal Bishop of Namibia, who used to so relish the prayer for the sevenfold gifts of the Holy Spirit, as they are in the prayer for baptism. When I knew him he was in his late eighties, and his inflection was so fervent, his intention so focused, his hope for the transformation of the candidate so deep, that it didn’t seem melodramatic when he prayed,
Sustain them, O Lord, in your Holy Spirit. Give them
an inquiring and discerning heart, the courage to will and to
persevere, a spirit to know and to love you, and the gift of joy
and wonder in all your works.
This is my prayer for you, as we prepare for Pentecost, and that our lives may be godly. I don’t want the world – not the best it has and not the worst it can do – to distract you from the riches God wants to give to us and through us. And there’s nothing that has the power to stop that, because when we’re in Christ, we’re already free.