Life As God’s House

May the Lord God grant that my words are acceptable to Him, and useful to His people. Amen.

“O ineffable grace!” St. John Chrysostom exclaims in his first Christmas Day sermon, “The Only Begotten, who is before all ages, who cannot be touched or be perceived, who is simple, without body, has now put on my body, that is visible and liable to corruption. For what reason? That coming amongst us he may teach us, and teaching, lead us by the hand to the things that men cannot see. For since men believe that the eyes are more trustworthy than the ears, they doubt of that which they do not see, and so He has deigned to show Himself in bodily presence, that He may remove all doubt.

“The Ancient of Days has become an infant. He who sits upon the sublime and heavenly Throne, now lies in a manger. And He who cannot be touched now lies subject to the hands of men. He who has broken the bonds of sinners, is now bound by an infant’s bands. For this he assumed my body, that I may become capable of His word; taking our flesh, He gives us His spirit; and so, He bestowing and we receiving, He prepares us for the treasure of Life. He takes our flesh, to sanctify us; He gives us His spirit, that He may save us.

Because God is now on earth, and man in heaven, on every side all things commingle: this day the ancient slavery is ended, the devil confounded, the power of death is broken, paradise is unlocked, the curse is taken away, sin is removed from us, error driven out, truth has been brought back, the speech of kindliness spreads on every side, and a heavenly way of life has been implanted on the earth.”

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From the Huffington Post this morning, “Churches Adopt Technology to Reach out to Congregants”

There’s a great deal of good ministry to be done with technology, and the article addresses quite a bit of it: streaming services so shut-in parishioners can visit, making sermon notes available, and even tracking conversations with the pastor on Twitter. But I get a little worried when I read things like this:

“When Theryl Jones moved from Peoria, Ill., to Atlanta recently, leaving behind her home church, St. Paul Baptist Church, she said it was comforting to know that her pastor was just a few mouse-clicks away.”

Tony Jones posted a poll on his blog a couple of weeks ago. “Why do we pray?” it asked, and provided just two possible answers: “Because prayer changes God,” and “Because prayer changes me.”

Fred Clark took up the discussion in a couple of posts, and I’d like to add a little bit to it as well.

To answer the question, I find myself pulling Stanley Hauerwas and Will Willimon’s book on the Lord’s Prayer off my bookshelf. In the introuction, the authors have this comment:

“It is the Lord’s Prayer. We, who are accustomed to thinking of prayer as a good strategy for getting what we want and an appropriate opening for football games and important civic meetings, may be surprised that we must be taught to pray. This prayer is not for getting what we want but rather for bending our will toward what God wants… The Lord’s Prayer is a lifelong act of bending our will toward God in the way that God has offered- “thy will be done, thy kingdom come.” We have quite enough teaching in the various modes of achieving our will in this world.” (Lord, Teach Us: pg. 19 and 22)

With the rector out of town, the youth minister took over the pulpit this weekend! Four services and youth group in between them… I completely respect the priests at St. Michael’s and everyone else who has to preach weekly! Here’s the text I used; I’ll post the audio as soon as it’s up on the CSMSG website.

May the Lord grant that my words are acceptable to Him, and useful to His people. Amen.

Growing up, the day I looked forward to most during the year was my birthday. Each year I came up with elaborate plans for what I would do personally on that day, dropped a steady stream of hints about what gifts and new privileges would be appropriate for me to receive, and planned out my birthday party near-obsessively.

One year I pushed my luck. What I didn’t realize was that the birthday is only important to the birthday child, until a week before when shopping needs to be done and the house needs to be cleaned and all the “maybes” on the invitation list need to be followed up.

Strictly as a piece of useful information related to the sermon, my birthday is this coming Thursday, the 13th of November. When I was about to turn 11, I started planning the party around the 3rd of June. On the 8th of June, tired of every conversation around the dinner table coming back to the party, my parents banned me, under threat of grounding, from mentioning “my birthday,” “my birthday party” or “what you should get me for my birthday” (and even any words that could be made with those individual letters) until October.

“Lots of things can change between June and November,” they told me. “It’s no good planning the party now; you’ll just have to plan it over again later.”

I was crushed. While mom and dad might explain that they already knew what kind of party I would end up with, and didn’t want to hear the same questions a dozen times a day for five months, I believed they simply didn’t know how to look far enough ahead.

In today’s Gospel lesson my eleventh birthday has finally been vindicated. Continue reading →