Father Riley's sermon from Oct 27, 2019 at Episcopal Church of the Redeemer in Ruston

20 PENTECOST, PROPER XXV - C - 19                 LUKE 18. 9-14

“Two men went up to the temple to pray…” Thus, Jesus begins yet another parable that is peculiar to Luke. It reverts to the theme of the Pharisee in relation to the outcasts. Their self-justifying dispisal of the outcast tax collectors is opposed to true faithfulness, such as the Son of Man hopes to find at his coming, which he alluded to, as you may recall at the conclusion of, last week’s gospel.

Did God hear both of these men’s prayers? That’s a good question. Were both of these men’s prayers acceptable to God? Another good question. We don’t always think about whether or not our prayers will be acceptable to God do we?

Many of our prayers are hurried, one sided, meaning that they are all about self and our needs without regard for others. When we hurry our prayers, we don’t stop to listen to God.  Moreover, if our prayers were written out they would look more like a shopping list rather than a prayer list. Right? God knows the difference.

“Two men went up to the Temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.” The Pharisee stood off by himself away from the other man. He began his prayer by thanking God that he was not like other men, including the one who is in the Temple with him.

Then he added a boast that he was doing more than was expected of him in terms of fasting and alms giving. The practices of the Pharisee are worthy examples to follow. However, without a humble and repentant heart, these outward practices are worthless and lead only to pride and judgment of others.

He prays by himself for God is absent where there is boasting. Instead of having faith in God, some like the Pharisee trust in themselves. Man, however, is justified by his trust in God, not by his own efforts. Justified means forgiven and set right with God.

On the other hand, the tax collector shows by his posture an awareness of the state of his soul. He stood far away from the altar of sacrifice with his eyes cast downward. Instead of boasting, he beats his breast as an outward sign of humility in admitting his sin, and asks for God’s mercy.

God receives those who in contrition implore his mercy rather than those who parade their supposed virtues. Inward humility is blessed while pride in outward deeds is condemned. Jesus’ point in telling the parable is clear - the sacrifice that is acceptable to God is broken and contrite heart.

The tax collector, Jesus said, was the one who went home justified rather the other. As St. Bernard wrote centuries ago, “from the contemplation of ourselves we gain holy fear and humility; but from the contemplation of God, Hope and Love.”

All will “stand” before God one day and all will be judged by our thoughts, words, and deeds. Yet many people come to believe that being a Christian means being against other people, or, to use the words of St. Luke in today’s gospel, trusting in our righteousness and despising others. Those who think that way believe that they are o.k. in the eyes of God.

In our world today, one does not need to be a Christian in order to despise anyone. Our society is heavily divided: Christian against Muslim, Muslim against Christian, non-religious against any religion, so on, and so forth. Politics and religion were the two topics I was told by my mother never to discuss.

However, both are in the forefront of today’s society and openly debated. It is hard to avoid being confronted by one or the other. On the contrary, we should recognize our solidarity in human sin rather than our self-imposed divisions. That should convince all of us of our common need for God’s forgiveness.

If we are honest with ourselves, we have to admit that there those times when we fall into the sin of self-righteousness. We react to something on the news, or someone we see and or hear about on social media that causes us to respond by saying or thinking, “I am glad I am not like that person.”

Yet what we are doing in essence is separating ourselves from one who differs from us in thought, word or deed. We are making a judgment call, Which is to say, makes us no different from the Pharisee in today’s parable whose prayer separated him from not only the tax collector, but from God.

When on the other hand, we should as St. Paul says in another place, confess that there “but by the grace of God go I.” We need to relinquish all thoughts of our somehow being better in the eyes of God than all others are. After all, it is what God sees in us that matters and not how we see ourselves. God does not look on the outward appearances but into our hearts.

The tax collector had nothing going for him except his faith in God’s mercy. And if we were at our truthful best, we would certainly all describe ourselves in the same way. For as Jeremiah says, “our iniquities testify against us…” The tax collector acknowledged his sinfulness and threw himself on the mercy of God.

Throughout the history of God’s people, divine mercy was always reserved for those who were ready to admit their true situation in the sight of God. God always hears the prayers of those who are honest enough to acknowledge their unworthiness, their insignificance in the sight of God. It is called humility.

The heart of the Christian faith is that Jesus Christ humbled his divinity in order to share in our humanity. He lived and died as one of us in order to reconcile us to God. For God realized long ago the hopelessness of human sin, who can do no more than to cry out to God for mercy.

In His Love for us, God sent his only Son not to condemn the world, but to save it. Through the merits of His death and resurrection, Christ has shown us the heights and depth of the Love of God. Through Him we have been blessed with the gift of the Holy Spirit to lead and guide us into all truth, and to teach us to trust in God above all else.

Moreover, if that were not enough, God has given us the gift of Faith and the means of grace to live into the new life in which we have been called, following the examples of Christ in all humility; a life of Faith, Hope and Love, that is ours only because of the goodness, and mercy of God. AMEN+

CEC News & Homily by The Very Rev. John Payne read October 20, 2019

CEC News

… Father Riley will lead us in Holy Eucharist first 3 Sundays in November and we will celebrate All Saints Day November 3^rd.  Forms to list names of ones you wish remembered are available in the church.  You may also email your list of names to: Cecil at artzylady@aol.com

… Heads Up! Daylight Savings Time ends November 3^rd.  Turn your clocks back one hour, sleep late, or get to church too early.

… It  is time for our annual giving campaign.  Pledge letters and cards will be mailed out soon.  And, our Episcopal church’s national Annual Appeal has begun. Please check out their website at:

https://www.episcopalchurch.org/development/annual-appeal

… The Rt. Rev. Bishop Jacob “Jake” W.  Owensby will visit us on Sunday, December 8^th to celebrate with us.  A pot-luck luncheon is planned for all to attend.  More news later.

"Jesus commands us to love without limits."

by: The Very Rev. John D. Payne (published June 8, 2019, "Times Record News" --Wichita Falls, TX, and read at Christ Episcopal by Mrs. Jane Barnett October 27, 2019)

One of the first scientific procedures children learn in school is the litmus test. A small strip of paper is dipped in a solution and it turns red if the solution is acidic and blue if it's alkaline.  Litmus has also lent its name in a figurative sense to any type of test that uses a single indicator to prompt a decision. For example, high SAT scores are the litmus test to get into the Naval Academy.

What is the litmus test for a follower of Jesus Christ? The Gospel of John puts it this way: "By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 13:35). Jesus goes on to qualify the manner in which we should love — "as I have loved you" (John 13:34).

What is even more astounding is that Jesus commands us to love. But love is more than a command. It's a gift coming from the Father through the Son. Jesus is the source of love without limits or conditions.

The day after Pearl Harbor, the Japanese invaded Malaya and advanced down the peninsula. On February 15, 1942, Singapore surrendered, and Bishop John Leonard Wilson was among the civilians interned. He and sixty others were singled out for special treatment, for they were accused of organizing anti-Japanese activity in Malaya.

The sixty-one were brutally tortured by Japanese interrogators to make them confess and some of them died. Bishop Wilson said this about his eight months in Singapore's infamous Changi jail: "After my first beating, I was afraid to pray for courage, lest I should have another opportunity of exercising it. When I muttered, 'God forgive them', I wondered if I really meant it. Their facial expressions were hard and cruel, and some of them evidentially enjoyed flogging my worn and weary body."

In 1947, Bishop John Leonard Wilson returned to Singapore and presided over a Confirmation service in the Anglican cathedral. As the candidates came forward one by one to kneel before the bishop seated in the chancel, a wave of fear suddenly swept over Bishop Wilson. His eyes locked into the eyes of the most ruthless and sadistic of his former torturers five years earlier.

One of his Japanese torturers was actually kneeling in front of him to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit from hands that still bore the marks of torture that he had inflicted. The man knelt before the bishop for the laying on of hands and the ancient prayer of incorporation into the body of Christ.

After the service, Bishop Wilson and his one-time torturer, now a new Christian, strolled in the gardens. The newly confirmed Anglican said to the bishop: "Every time I tortured you, you prayed that I might be forgiven. At first this made me exceedingly angry, then it made me curious, and eventually it brought me to Jesus Christ."

John Leonard Wilson became the Bishop of Birmingham, England in 1953 and died in retirement in 1970. His career was most distinguished, but nothing could be more distinguishing than when he loved the unlovable the way Christ loved.

I should think that Bishop Wilson passed the litmus test of love — agape, the love without limits, the love without conditions, the love that seeks no reciprocity, the love that defies logic and stymies common sense.

(The Very Rev. John D. Payne is the Emeritus Rector of All Saints' Episcopal Church in Wichita Falls.)

Funeral services for Mrs. Ora Mae Pierce (Vicky's mother)

Funeral services for Mrs. Ora Mae Pierce will be held Monday, October 28, 2019 at 11:00 A.M. at the Newellton First Baptist Church in Newellton, Louisiana with Bro. Larry Foster officiating. Visitation will begin at 10:00 A.M. Burial will follow at Legion Memorial Cemetery. Mrs. Pierce passed away Thursday, October 24, 2019 at Franklin Medical Center in Winnsboro, Louisiana.

Mrs. Pierce was born February 9, 1926 in Ola, Arkansas. She was a lifelong resident of Tensas Parish and a member of Newellton First Baptist Church in Newellton, Louisiana.

Mrs. Pierce is survived by two daughters, Vicky Sanders and Helen Pendley, and husband, Patrick, one son, Jerry Oldham, and wife, Pearl, five grandchildren, eight great grandchildren, one great, great granddaughter, and numerous nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her husbands, Bert Edward Oldham and Charles “Dude” Pierce.

Pallbearers are Paul Pendley, Steven Griggs, Chad Griggs, Ralph Griggs, Randy Griggs, John Griggs, and Joseph Guiltner.

(Information from Glenwood Funeral Home, Tallulah website)

CEC News and Father Riley's homily from October 20, 2019

CEC News

…  Mrs. Jane Barnett will lead us in Morning Prayer October 27.

… Father Riley will return for the first 3 Sundays in November and we will celebrate All Saints Day November 3^rd.  Forms to list names of ones you wish remembered are available in the church and will be distributed again as needed Oct 27.   Please return the forms by Oct 27^th.  You may also email your list of names to:

Sam at corsonsam@gmail.com or Cecil at artzylady@aol.com

… Heads Up! Daylight Savings Time ends November 3^rd.  Turn your clocks back one hour, sleep late, or get to church too early.

… It’s is time for our annual giving campaign.  Pledge letters and cards will be mailed out soon.  And, our Episcopal church’s national Annual Appeal has begun. Please check out their website at:

https://www.episcopalchurch.org/development/annual-appeal

… The Rt. Rev. Bishop Jacob “Jake” W.  Owensby will visit us on Sunday, December 8^th to celebrate with us.  A pot-luck luncheon is planned for all to attend.  More news later.
19 PENTECOST, PROPER XXIV - C - 19                  LUKE 18.1-8

There are very few things that I care about watching on TV these days, and a lot more that I do not care about watching at all. One of those is Judge Judy. One time was enough for me. In her courtroom, there are no attorneys present, only the defendant and the plaintiff, and a TV audience.

The judge is sole ruler who finds in favor of either the defendant or the plaintiff at the end of hearing the case. Thus, it was in ancient Jewish law courts, all cases were brought before the judge.

If someone had stolen from you, you had to bring a charge against them; you could not go to the police to do it for you. If someone had murdered a relative of yours, the same would be true. Therefore, every legal case in Jesus’ day was a matter of a judge deciding to vindicate one party or the other. His decision was final.

In today’s gospel passage, Luke gives us yet another of Jesus’ parables this one has to do with faith, prayer, and the true nature of God. There was a widow; Jesus told them that had been wronged. She did what the law required. She took her case to the local judge. She wanted justice.

However, at first the judge refused to hear her complaint. Never the less she persisted. She was relentless in her pursuit of justice. The judge got tired of her pestering him about her case, so he relented, and granted her justice simply in order to get rid of her.

The point in Jesus’ telling this parable is made perfectly clear. He contrasts the unjust judge who feared neither God nor man with the true justice of God. “…And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them.”

Christ concludes the parable by contrasting the persistence of the widow in her asking with that of our faith and asks whether he will find such faith when He comes again. That is a good question.

The idea of persistence runs through all three of today’s readings as well as the collect. In today’s first lesson, Jacob wrestled with God. He was persistent in his request for a blessing and was not willing to give up the match until his request was granted him.

The one he wrestled with blessed him and changed his name from Jacob to Israel for he prevailed in his persistence. In today’s Epistle Paul continues to encourage young Timothy who is just beginning his ministry and is facing opposition and the temptation to throw in the prayer shawl.

Don’t quit, Paul tells him, do not give up, rather “continue in what you have learned and firmly believed…be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable…endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, carry out your ministry fully.”

The question is can we hold out? We must be persistent in prayer, in making our requests known to God and in seeking His grace to endure the present time. Faith is the requisite for persistent prayer. We can liken the widow’s persistence in her asking of the judge to vindicate her to our prayer life, as Jesus did at the conclusion of the gospel reading this morning.

She did not despair. She kept on until her request was granted, as did Jacob in his wrestling with God. What does it mean that God is longsuffering? He watches triumphant evil and yet in the eyes of some, he does not act. However, scripture teaches us otherwise.

He waits, either until the occasion is ripe, or to give the offender time to repent. God’s ways are not our ways. He does not always respond on our timetable. Wrongs are not easily righted. How long, then, must we ask? How long did Jacob wrestle with God before he received God’s blessing?

The promise that God will act to vindicate the elect was understood by the early church to be fulfilled in the events at the conclusion of the gospel itself. Moreover, the response of God to the wrongs of the world, the injustices, the evil, and the inhumanity to man was given at the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus once and for all.

If it were not for our persisting in our faith and belief that Jesus died and rose again, we could easily look at the world around us and say, there is no justice, no real justice. If there were, God would act to rectify and vindicate all who are oppressed, all who are suffering, and all who are in need. Our faith is always on trial.

When I feel like God is not listening to my prayers or is not paying attention to what is going on in the world around us, I look to the cross, not the empty cross, but one which has the dying body of Jesus nailed to it. There is not a room in my house that does not contain a crucifix.

I need to remind myself that there is nothing in this life that I can or will go though that compares to what He went through so that I might have life and have it more abundantly. The crucifix reminds me of that.

We must not despair. We must remain persistent in our prayers for those in need, for the world in which we live, for steadfastness in our faith and belief that God will act. So that when Jesus comes again he will find in us that kind of Faith is he looking for.

We gather together each week at God’s altar to remember that God has acted in response to all of our human suffering and need. We hear His promise in the readings from Holy Scripture. We share in His promise of new life in the sacrament of Christ’ Body and Blood.

When I hold His Body in my hand and take the cup that contains His most precious Blood to my lips, I do so in Faith, in the knowledge and belief that God’s promise is real, even when it does not appear to be effective in the world today.

The blessing of God in the midst of our fear is the resurrection. One might say that is a bold statement to make, especially in the face of so much that is wrong with and in our world today.

However, the ground for our boldness is this: by the merits of Christ’ death and resurrection we have been given the means of grace to persevere in our faith and the hope of glory that when He shall come again, he may find in us a mansion prepared for Himself. AMEN+

CEC News Flash and Father Riley's homily for October 13, 2019

CEC News

…  Father Riley will lead us in Holy Eucharist October 20.  Vestry meeting October 20^th after fellowship.  Mrs. Jane Barnett will lead us in Morning Prayer October 27.

… We will celebrate All Saints Day November 3^rd.  Forms to list names of ones you wish remembered will be available October 20^th.  Please return the forms by Oct 27^th.

…Heads Up! Daylight Savings Time ends November 3^rd.  Turn your clocks back one hour, sleep late, or get to church too early.

…It’s is time for our annual giving campaign.  Pledge letters and cards will be mailed out soon.

…The Rt. Rev. Bishop Jacob “Jake” W.  Owensby will visit us on Sunday, December 8^th to celebrate with us.  A pot-luck luncheon is planned for all to attend.  More news later.

18 PENTECOST, PROPER XXIII - C- 19              LUKE 17. 11-19

I venture to say that none of us here this morning have ever seen or been near a leper. It was a most dreaded disease in ancient times and still is in certain parts of the world today. Two to three million people worldwide suffer from the disease. India has the greatest number of cases reported.

Until 1999, when it closed its doors, the one and only in-patient hospital in the U.S for the treatment of leprosy, or Hansen’s disease was located in Carville, Louisiana, some sixteen miles south of Baton Rogue. At one time, some 400 patients were in residence.

Lepers in the time of Jesus were social outcasts. There were not allowed in the Holy City of Jerusalem. Instead they banded together in small villages and were accepted there as long as they kept there distance.

Upon meeting another person, they were required to cover their mouth with the back of their hand and at a safe distance shout “unclean” as a warning to those approaching that they were lepers.

In today’s gospel, Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem. He passes through a small village in the region between Samaria and Galilee. Ten lepers approach him and instead of making the required announcement they called out saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.”

Luke does not tell us how they were able to recognize Jesus just that they did. Perhaps they had seen him from a distance in another location and witnessed his power to heal. Jesus does not touch them. He simply directs them to go and show themselves to the priests in Jerusalem.

As they go, they discover that their leprosy is cured. One returns to Jesus praising God and falling at Jesus’ feet giving thanks. Jesus sends him on his way. His faith has made him well. He was a Samaritan.

What of the other nine? The nine were Jews and followed Jesus’ direction. The priests were the only ones according to the Mosaic Law that could pronounce one clean and thus re-admit that person back into society.

The Samaritan could not go to Jerusalem. He could not show himself to a priest. Instead, he returned to the one whom he knew had somehow healed him and made him whole again. He was not afraid to humble himself at the feet of Jesus and gave thanks to God.

The things that separate us in this life go by the boards when a crisis strikes that is common to all of us - a 9-11, a flood, a storm, a fire, a mass shooting. Ten lepers approached Jesus. They banded together regardless of their race, culture or religion. The things that would normally have kept them apart were no longer relevant as they shared their common condition.

One was a Samaritan whose religion alone would have prevented his associating with Jews and them with him. Jesus’ sending them to the priests was a kind of test. Jesus had spoken no word of healing. He had not laid his hands upon them. He had said nothing to them about faith. He simply told them to go, and they went.

Their going was a test of their faith, as were the words of the prophet Elisah to the Syrian leper, Naaman, in today’s first lesson. The nine Jews take it as a matter of course that they have to show themselves to the priests. They did not come back. After all, Jesus did not do anything so why should they return to give him thanks. They were cured. That was enough.

They showed themselves to the priests as the law required. They were pronounced clean and were accepted back into society. They went home to their families and friends and that was that.

They simply resumed the life they had lived before contracting the dreaded disease without giving their healing a second thought. Which is more surprising: the fact that one person came back, praised God, and fell at Jesus’ feet? Or the fact that nine did not?

There are times when we, as Christians are no better than the nine. We fail to thank God ‘always and for everything,’ as Paul puts it in Ephesians 5.20. Likewise, there are those times when God tells us what we need to do to be healed, restored and forgiven and yet like Naaman, we balk. We let our pride get in the way. We want to question God’s methods.

Christ came to heal all of fallen humanity, yet only a small portion receive him in faith and thanksgiving and give God the glory.

It is not that as Christians who have any faith at all, we fail to recognize that God is the giver of all things. Every mouthful of food we take, for example, every breath of air we inhale, every note of music we hear, every smile on the face of a child, friend, or stranger - all that, and a million things more, are gifts from God’s generosity.

It is that we forget to give thanks for we take God’s grace for granted. To remember to give thanks is a healthy thing to do, especially in a world where we too often assume that we have an absolute right to health, happiness, and every creature comfort.

The Samaritan returned to Jesus the source of his healing, as he could not go to Jerusalem. The story shows the nature of faith about which the disciples asked in last week’s gospel. The Samaritan’s response is the sort of thankful response to God’s grace, which makes us well and restores us to new life.

Today’s gospel reading is more than a story of healing; it is a story of resurrection. The one who returned to give thanks was as good as dead and now is alive again. Jesus brings new life, and calls out of us, as he did this one leper, faith we did not know that we had.

Faith and healing go hand in hand. Faith means not just any old belief, any general religious attitude to life, but the belief that the God of Love and Mercy, the Lord and the giver of Life is at work in and through His Son, Jesus Christ, here and now.

By his death and resurrection, Jesus has leveled the playing field. God’s love and mercy knows no bounds in relieving the common condition we all face, our sinfulness and lack of gratitude, which requires our continual turning to God in all humility and with genuine repentance.

The proper response, then, to the new life we now live is a rhythm of faith and gratitude. To live a life of faith and to give thanks to God for all things is what being a Christian is all about. AMEN+

CEC News and Father Riley's homily from Oct 6, 2019

CEC News

…  Father Riley will lead us in Holy Eucharist October 13; 20.  Mrs. Jane Barnett will lead us in Morning Prayer October 27.

… The Rev. Canon Dr. Stephanie Spellers presented “Episcopal Evangelism 101” at Camp Hardtner September 28^th.  “Will you proclaim the good news of God in Christ in word and deed?  I will, with God’s help.”  Go to: www.episcopalchurch.org/evangelism to learn more about how we can better fulfill our mission.  Here’s a photo from the session.  Canon Spellers opened the event with: “Love Shack” by the B-52s, and later played “Love Train” by the O’Jays and “The Power of Love” by Huey Lewis and the News.  It was fun, Episcopalian Evangelism!  And, you can do it too.

17 PENTECOST, PROPER XXII - C- 19                             LUKE 17. 5-10

One of my favorite movies from the late 80s was Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. It was one of those action adventure films directed by Steven Spielberg and co-written by executive producer George Lucas. It was third in a series of Indiana Jones movies that starred Harrison Ford.

In this particular, one Indiana is searching for the Holy Grail. He hooks up with his father, played by Sean Connery and together they discover the location of the grail. They enter an ancient temple which is booby-trapped to keep would be seekers at bay.

One by one they over come the various devices only to find themselves standing at the edge of a great abyss that separates them from continuing their quest. Indiana is ready to give up. The father, played by Connery, asks his son “have you no faith?”

With that, the father steps out and into what appears to the naked eye to be empty space that would lead directly to one’s fall into the abyss, but in reality is an invisible bridge that connects the two sides and enables the two seekers to continue their journey.

In today’s gospel, the disciples ask Jesus to increase their faith, as if it were as simple as that. Their request comes on the heels of Jesus’ teaching on forgiveness and how often we need to forgive each other. In addition, Christ has also given a warning to those who would knowingly lead another astray.

Maybe it was after hearing these conditions of discipleship and warnings that his followers felt the need to ask for an increase. Jesus’ response to their request would suggest that their faith at this juncture in their relationship to him was less than the size of a mustard seed. In other words, pretty small.

“If you had faith the size of a mustard seed,” he told them, “you could say to the mulberry tree, ‘be uprooted and planted in the sea, and it would obey you.”

What is faith, how do we define it? First, it is a gift from God. It is that which enables us to believe when our eyes and or our intellect tells us otherwise. Faith opens our eyes to see God in all that we do, in the world around us, in the face of friend and stranger.

Faith teaches us to trust in God, and enables us to do the work we have been given to do. Faith opens the door to receive other gifts from God. The Holy Spirit distributes those gifts according to one’s faith. 

As we read the gospel accounts, we see the disciples growing in their faith in proportion to their relationship to Christ. It was not faith, however, that initially drew them to want to follow him, but his personality and the way in which he talked about God and the kingdom.

They were drawn not only by his words but also his actions. He had the power to give sight to the blind, heal the lepers, the lame, and to raise the dead. Their faith grew gradually with each moment, hour and day they spent in his presence. Nevertheless, even after three years of following him, their faith failed them in the dark of the night when Jesus was arrested in the garden and taken away from them.

Fear overcame them. Fear is the opposite of faith. Their fear caused them to abandon him. Like fear, doubt likewise is an enemy of faith. Doubt can drain our faith. On more than one occasion, doubt clouded their belief in him even when they heard the first report of his resurrection. True faith has no room for doubt only belief.

Faith that is not tested, on the other hand, is no faith at all. Sometimes our faith is tested to the breaking point as was theirs. As long as we are in this life, there is no escape, no way to avoid it. How much faith does it take to be a Christian?

More than most of us think that we have. With each test, our faith is tempered like that of steal. Have you ever watched a blacksmith work?

The metal is heated to red-hot and then cooled and hammered.

Then heated and cooled and hammered again and again until finally the desired shape is accomplished. Our faith goes through the same process. With each test, it is hammered and by God’s grace becomes stronger.

Nevertheless, the day comes for each of us as it did for the disciples, when our faith, or lack of it, will fail us. That is when we have to be humble enough to come to Jesus, as the father did at the foot of the Mount of Transfiguration confessing our unbelief and asking for God’s help.

What is important is not the quantity but the quality of our faith. What the disciples had to discern, and what we have to discover is the quality of our faith, whether it be the size of a mustard seed or that of an oak tree.

Nowhere in the teachings of Jesus does he ever give us a simple definition of faith. However, the totality of Jesus’ teachings makes it clear to us that faith is our unconditional acceptance of Him.

It is our “yes” to follow Jesus, who died and rose again, whose death and resurrection has opened to us the way to eternal life, that gives us the courage to step out when it appears we cannot go any further and enables us to continue the journey.

St. Paul speaks to this in his letter to young Timothy reminding him “to rekindle the gift of God that is within you…for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but a spirit of power, love, and self-discipline.” Paul is likewise reminding him that the rich deposit of faith found within him is to be lived and shared with others.

Paul’s words are given to us, then, in the same spirit as they were given to Timothy, in the same spirit as they have been given to others that we have known in our witness to Christ. As Christians, we must be concerned with the quality of how we live our lives and not the quantity the modern world wants us to consider.

Faith begins and ends with Hope - hope of eternal life, the promise of Jesus to all who believe in Him. In the final analysis what will be eternally important to each of us is God’s view of the life we lived and not the worlds, a life lived in Faith, Hope, and Love in service and witness to others in the name of Christ and for the sake of the gospel. AMEN+

CEC Breaking News and Father Riley's homily from September 29, 2019

CEC News

…  Father Riley will lead us in Holy Eucharist October 6, 13; 20.  Mrs. Jane Barnett will lead us in Morning Prayer October 27.

… The Rev. Canon Dr. Stephanie Spellers presented “Episcopal Evangelism 101” at Camp Hardtner September 28^th.  “Will you proclaim the good news of God in Christ in word and deed?  I will, with God’s help.”  Go to: www.episcopalchurch.org/evangelism to learn more about how we can better fulfill our mission.

16 PENTECOST, PROPER XXI - C - 19                             LUKE 16. 19-31

Today’s gospel is a continuation of Jesus’ teaching his disciples about the coming kingdom when it will be on earth as it already is in heaven. It is a parable about two men and two worlds. In the second their fortunes are totally reversed.

The point of the parable is not to reveal to us the moral grounds on which the two men described were treated as they were, but to terrify those who lived as the rich man lived without regard to those who lived around him, especially those in need.

Again the parable is aimed at the Pharisees. They were the keepers and interpreters of the Law. Yet they were behaving towards the people Jesus was welcoming exactly like the rich man was behaving towards Lazarus.

And just as the steward in last week’s gospel was to be put out of his position, and was commended for taking action in the nick of time to prevent total disaster, so the Pharisees, and anyone else tempted to take a similar line, are now urged to change their ways while there is still time.

With that said, let us take a closer look at the parable. “There was a rich man…” Jesus said. Although he is not named, history has given him one. The Latin word for rich is “Dives.” So we have the story of Dives and Lazarus. In the world above both of these men pass their lives daily within sight and sound of each other.

Dives lived his life without regard for anyone else not even the poor man he had to walk past each time he went in and out of his gate. Eventually they both died. The rich man was buried and found himself in Hades, the Old Testament, Sheol. The poor man, Lazarus, had no one to bury him so the angels carried him away to the bosom of Abraham.

They were both in the next world. Jesus appears to acknowledge the belief of the Jews of his day that there were bodes of joy and misery for souls beyond death in the telling of the parable. Some would say the scene is one after the final judgment.

Others would say both men were in the intermediate state prior to the final judgment. Either way Dives and Lazarus are still within sight and sound of each other. In addition a great chasm separates the two.

In life Dives would not cross over to help Lazarus. Now Lazarus cannot cross over to him. In his torment the rich man realizing the permanence of his state of being intercedes on behalf of his brothers still living, presumably living a similar lifestyle to the one he had lived.

He desires that Abraham send Lazarus to warn his brothers to change their ways before it is too late. Abraham‘s response to the rich man’s plea is a poignant one. “They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.” The Old Testament speaks to an urgent and sufficient call to repentance.

But the rich man insists that someone from the dead should go and tell them, then they will repent; a hint of the consequences of the resurrection of Jesus himself.

Here is a state of affairs the commonness of which blinds us to its absurdity; two men living close together, but with a great gulf between them, and never a human word passing from one side to the other. Small barriers easily surmounted at first, strengthens as time goes on. Vague dislikes become antipathies, antipathies harden into hatred.

We see this happening everyday. A bully beats up on a smaller kid at school while other students stand around and do nothing save video it on their cell phones so that they can post it on social media. In larger cities hundreds of homeless sleep over grates on the sidewalks of main streets to keep warm during the winter months while hundreds of passer bys walk around them totally ignoring their plight as they go about their daily lives.

And there are many other contemporary examples we could use that correspond with Jesus’ parable of the rich man and Lazarus in the world above. In telling the story Jesus has no quarrels with the accidents of a person’s birth. Today’s parable does not ask ‘how much do you have? But how much do you care?’

Rather the sayings of Jesus and the parables St. Luke recounts in his gospel act as battering rams against the “fortresses of complacency.”

Jesus cast his lot with those society and the religious leaders of his day deemed as outcasts, the powerless and the oppressed, the ones who lived Good Friday everyday because for them Easter had not yet come. Dives should have known better and lived his life differently.

Moses and the prophets bide him care for ‘the stranger within his gates‘; not to turn away from him. Likewise they demand food and hospitality for the poor. God would not continuously throw us together unless he meant for us to make overtures to one another. It would appear that the story ends on a negative note.

But Jesus never leaves us with a warning without opening a window of hope somewhere in the story. The name Lazarus (Eleazar) means the same thing as Jesus; it may be translated ‘God has delivered.’ Dives and his brothers stand for the Jewish nation who has Moses and the prophets. Jesus is the one who stands in the gate, in their very midst without being recognized.

He knows that he will soon die; the holy angels are waiting to take him home, but what of the people he has come to save? All that Jesus is asking them to do, all Jesus is asking us to do is what Moses and the prophets would have said. Anyone who understands the scriptures must see that Jesus is bringing them to completion.

If they do not, not even someone rising from the dead will bring them to their senses. The gospels bear this out. Jesus died on the cross, an instrument of cruel death, yet the cross has become the hope for the future for all who put their trust in Him.

When Christ comes again opening the door to God’s new age all wrongs will be put right, fortunes will be reversed. The last will be first and the first last.

The cross has meaning for all, for there is no part of the universe cut off from the Saving grace of Him who died and rose again, who, as St. John writes in his revelation, has the keys ‘of death and Hades.’ AMEN+