My Blog

Category: Church of the Good Shepherd

  • You are Christ’s Body

    Each Wednesday, we have a noon service of Holy Eucharist and Healing at Lexington's Church of the Good Shepherd.  A couple stopped me after one of those services at to share something that had happened that day.  Their experience illustrates how the Church manifests the Body of Christ, even in ordinary every day encounters.  I asked them to put their story in writing:

    For several years we have attended the Wednesday Healing Service.  We usually eat at a local restaurant either before or after.  A week ago, the proprietor astutely observed that we either come at 11:00 a.m. or 1:00 p.m., so she asked what we did from noon until 1:00 p.m..  We told her that we attend the Healing Service at Good Shepherd.  Today, as we were leaving about 11:30, she approached us with a slip of paper and asked us to pray for a 6 year old boy born with brain damage and cannot walk.  We invited her to join us, but said she could not leave the restaurant – just to add him to our prayer list.

    Upon arrival at the service, they requested prayers for the boy.  I am confident that there will be more to this story and that our prayers will play a central role.  The words of Teresa of Avila come to mind:

    Christ has no body but yours,
    No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
    Yours are the eyes with which he looks compassion on this world,
    Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
    Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.
    Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
    Yours are the eyes, you are his body.

    The ministry of Christians extends into the nooks and crannies of the city and beyond.  Grace-filled Christians are sent into the mission field at our doorstep to be a Sacrament to a world in need of Love Divine.  Daily, our people recognize and respond to opportunities to be the body, the hands, the feet, and the eyes of Christ.  Even the simplest gestures are multiplied and magnified by the Lover of Souls.

    St. Paul expressed it this way: “He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way for your great generosity, which will produce thanksgiving to God through us; for the rendering of this ministry not only supplies the needs of the saints but also overflows with many thanksgivings to God” II (Cor. 9:10-12).

    Ron

     

     

     

     

    P.S. Here's a musical setting of St. Teresa's words, sung by the Washington National Cathedral Choir.

  • Are you ready to give?

    A friend of mine, when he was a clergyman in a downtown church, was confronted one day by a street person who was seeking assistance.  My friend observed that the man was wearing only one shoe.  “I see that you’ve lost a shoe,” said my friend.  “No,” the man replied with a cheery, toothless smile, “I found one!”

    My friend said he learned a valuable lesson that day from an unexpected teacher.  Things are not always as they appear.  Sometimes we tend to notice what is not there instead of what is.  It’s a matter of perspective. Faithful stewardship requires a perspective that is focused on what is rather than what is not, on abundance rather than scarcity.  That is why St. Paul held up the generosity of the poor and persecuted Macedonians as an example to the more affluent Corinthians.  He counseled them, “…if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what one has not” (II Cor. 8:12).

    God doesn’t expect us to give out of what we don’t have, but from the resources God has provided.  God has certainly been generous with us.  Shouldn’t we in turn be generous with God?  Of course!  All we need now is the readiness to follow through on that belief.

    Many churches are asking members to make new stewardship commitments at this time of year.  Our church's Commitment Sunday is November 7.  Wherever you may be, I invite you to give prayerful consideration to the stewardship commitment you will make to God for the coming year.  Christian stewardship is not about the Church’s need to receive but about each Christian’s need to give.  When we are dealing with our need to give to God, we are probing one of the most sensitive areas of our spirituality.  Money comes between people and God more often than anything else.  That is why prayer has to precede decisions about giving.

    As you pray, first ask God to remind you how much you have received.  Next, ask God to grant you the readiness to give from that abundance.  Then, ask for a clear, honest assessment of your priorities.  After you have answers to these requests, you will find it easier to decide how much to give.

    None of us ever fulfilled our destiny or achieved anything great by focusing on what we can’t do.  Let the extent of our gifts reflect a perspective that sees an abundance of possibilities and resources. When the readiness is there, God can accomplish amazing things through us.

    Ron

  • Sermon at Church of the Good Shepherd ~ October 10, 2010

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    Listen to the Sermon for October 10, 2010 ~ Proper 23c

     

    Read the Sermon for October 10, 2010 ~ Proper 23c

     

  • An Epiphany From a Ginko Tree

    Ginko1The leaves on the Ginko Tree outside my study window are turning yellow.  This is not a rare or  disturbing phenomenon.  The tree is not dying.  What is happening is the predictable effect of photosynthesis, the process by which plants convert water and carbon dioxide into oxygen and sugar.  The word means “put together with light.”  Chlorophyll gives plants their green color and helps make photosynthesis happen.  As summer ends and autumn arrives, days become shorter and there is not enough light for photosynthesis.   So, during autumn and winter, the trees stop producing food.  They rest and live off the food they stored during the summer.  The green chlorophyll disappears from the leaves and other colors are visible.

    Soon, the leaves will fall to the ground and add nutrients to the soil that will benefit the tree when spring and a new era of growth arrives. This annual process of change is necessary in order for the tree to thrive.

    Human life also involves change.  But we do not have to regard ourselves as “victims” of change.  Unlike trees, which do not have the privilege of deciding how to manage change, humans have choices.  We have options!  The greatest options involve intangibles such as attitude, inspiration, perspective, and spirit.  After all, the inner life of a child of God is different from that of a tree.  The kind of light we “put together” with the elements of our lives is a different kind of light, one we can seek in any season.  Enlightenment is the human equivalent of photosynthesis.

    We regard our Creator as changeless.  Creation, on the other hand, is made alive by change.  Of all God’s creatures, humans have the most options for managing change in purposeful ways that impact the unfolding story of creation.  When we are able to work with changes that impact our lives, they are more likely to become springboards that propel us into the next stage of growth.  Learning to live creatively with change allows us not just to survive but to thrive.

    So, in the light God gives, let us relish opportunities to explore changes that are thrust upon us and to purposefully initiate changes that will promote life and growth.  In learning from change we expand our lives and become more fully human.  By exercising our faith in God to guide and protect us through transitions, “we who are wearied by the changes and chances of this life” will find rest and refreshment in God’s eternal changelessness.                               
    Ron                                
                                   

  • Sermon at Good Shepherd ~ October 3, 2010

    Download Sermon for October 3, 2010