Aside from who he was personally and historically, I was most captured by the collect we prayed as we remembered him. I believe it has (and probably always has had) particular importance to people who ‘live and move and have their being’ in an environment where Christianity and discipleship to Jesus Christ is the exception and not the rule.  Here’s the text of the prayer.

O God of unsearchable wisdom and infinite mercy, who chose a captive warrior, David Oakerhater, to be your servant, and sent him to be a missionary to his own people and to exercise the office of a deacon among them: Liberate us, who commemorate him today, from bondage to self, and empower us for service to you and to the neighbors you have given us; through Jesus Christ, the captain of our salvation; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever.

There are two parts of this prayer that I believe are most applicable to God’s people (THE CHURCH) as we seek to be faithful to God’s Mission in the world here and now.

The first is this portion

O God of unsearchable wisdom and infinite mercy, who chose a captive warrior,

I want to claim that if we take our lives of discipleship with any seriousness at all we will find ourselves as ‘captive warriors’ for the Gospel we proclaim.  Jesus is all about captivating hearts and sending their owners out with the zeal of a ‘warrior’. The imagery of Paul’s ‘putting on the whole armor of God’ (Romans 13:12, Ephesians 6:11 and Ephesians 6:13) lets us know that doing what we are called to do is likely to be a struggle.

We like Paul and Oakerhater have captive hearts beating within us and it is the life of God in our hearts that inspires the courage to do the loving battle of witness and evangelism (dang, I sound downright Evangelical in that sentence).  Like Ignatius of Loyola and Francis of Assisi before him, warriors have a way of being converted into deep lovers of God and the peace that passes all understanding.

God is choosing us in this age to do what Oakerhater did, namely to

be a missionary to his own people.

We are smack dab in the middle of a mission field.  If you doubt that for a minute, just take a look at this webpage from the Pew Forum on Religion. Did you look? Yup that’s right the states of New England–Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Vermont occupy all but one of the bottom slots in the Poll (Alaska!).

If you feel like you’re fighting against the tide New Englanders it’s because you are! So then it seems to me that we don’t have much choice when it comes to being ‘On Mission’.  That’s where we is….

The second part of the prayer that ought to speak to us as well, as an express desire of our captive hearts, is this;

Liberate us, who commemorate him today, from bondage to self, and empower us for service to you and to the neighbors you have given us;

Apparently, according to this prayer, we are to view the neighbors around us, who don’t care much for religion, not as the enemy but as gifts.  More remarkably it says that we are to pray to be ‘empowered to serve’ them, not to beat them up or make them feel bad about their irrelgiosity.

This seems like tough work to me.

Dadgum!

Can’t we just choose something else to do?

It seems to me that the answer is a resounding and simple, NO. We cannot shrink from this task because it is too difficult for us. Because it is too difficult it would seem that the only choice available to us as ‘captive warriors’ is to join our efforts and hearts to the desires of God and the power of the Trinity to be faithful witnesses to God’s love and longing for each person in this disjointed and altogether too scary world.

At the end of the day, we have the ability and commission to say in the face of despair, disappointment and disillusionment that someone cares and that someone is Jesus. And that here, at this time, Jesus looks like this little community huddled around a nondescript table, sharing the simplest of meals in the unwavering hope that the Kingdom is among us and is dying to be born across the stage of the whole Creation (paraphrase Romans 8:19) by our simply being in this world.

May God make it so!

That being said, I cannot keep quiet on Fox News personality’s Glenn Beck’s comments that it is President Obama’s adherence to Liberation Theology that forms the basis of Beck’s mistrust and apparent hostility toward the President and his chosen courses of action to try and address the ills that afflict all Americans.

It seems to me that with the voice to make public comment regarding the state of affairs comes a responsibility to refrain from inflammatory and factually inaccurate rhetoric in order to make a point.  This responsibility applies to Keith Olbermann as well as Mr. Beck.  (Frankly I find Mr. Olbermann’s posture to be disturbing as well from time to time.)

Now that I’ve spent a few minutes on my soapbox, let me offer something that, in my view, paints a more nuanced and faithful picture to the Jesus and the Scripture upon which Liberation Theology is built.

The link here is to a piece called Glenn Beck vs. Christ the Liberator that appeared in the Huffington Post on Monday and is penned (can we really call it that in the digital age?) by Fr. James Martin, S.J.  Fr. Martin is a regular contributor to Huffington (I know, not the most balanced view of things and a bit ‘leftist’) and author of The Jesuits Guide to (Almost) Everything.

I urge you to read it, not necessarily to convince you that I’m right and Glenn Beck is wrong, (though that is what I believe) but chiefly to provide background to Mr. Beck’s claim that Liberation Theology is the basis for the fundamental difference of opinion and view of what’s wrong with our country and how to fix it.

Avoiding Missional Drift

Sermon Audio for August 29, 2010

Luke 14:1, 7-14

Proper 17
Year C
RCL

Sermon Audio: The Rev’d Warren Hicks

Jeremiah 2:4-13

Psalm 81:1, 10-16

Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16

Luke 14:1, 7-14

I have to confess that my initial thoughts were of Louis the XIV and XV, not exactly examples of humility and piety as I remember my European History.

As the story of Louis IX unfolded however I sensed that the timing was just right for us as a Church and indeed for American Christians to pay attention to the life and example of Louis.

St. Louis was King of France from 1226 until his death in 1270. His succesion to the throne was in the same year as the death of Francis of Assisi.  Louis was devout and sympathetic to the vision and mission of Francis in the world.  So much so that it is reported that Louis wore a simple hair shirt underneath his royal garb to remind himself of the call to serve the poor in spirit and in truth.  Louis’ humility, piety and devotion to the Franciscan way has made him the patron saint of the Third Order Franciscans, laypeople of many denominations that live a life devoted to Francis’ commitment to the poor and rebuilding the Church faithfully.

The Rev’d Sam Portaro, former Episcopal Chaplain to the University of Chicago and author of Brightest and Best: A Companion to the Lesser Feasts and Fasts writes this of the relationship between Francis and Louis in his reflection on Louis:

Both were born to wealth and position, both willingly deferred the prerogatives of privilege; the difference between the monarch and mendicant lies only in the manner of their witness and devotion. This is where the dissonance is pronounced, for while Francis embraced poverty, Louis wore the crown. Yet strange as it may seem, Louis may be for us the more applicable and the more admirable exemplar. (p. 146)

Portaro’s contention is a valid one based upon the claim that Louis path of being both blessed materially and generous spiritually is tough work.  Louis was not seduced by his privilege, but rather used it as a means to address the unjust structures and challenges faced by “the least of these” referred to by Jesus in Matthew 25:31-45.

We, like Louis, have much in the way of prestige, power and clout to address the unjust structures that keep the chasm between ‘least’ and ‘most’ a yawning one.  I join with Sam Portaro in calling us to face our responsibilities head on to do what we can as individuals and communities of faith to address the unjust structures of this world and the sin that creates and sustains them. We do well to remember the spirit of Luke 12:48 “from whom much is given, much will be asked.”

May we all be a visionary as Francis and as generous as Louis IX, King of France this day.

Sunday August 22nd Audio

Proper 16
Year C
RCL

Sunday August 22nd Sermon Audio-The Rev’d Warren Hicks

Jeremiah 1:4-10

Psalm 71:1-6

Hebrews 12:18-29

Luke 13:10-17

The Tenth Sunday after Pentecost

Proper 13
Year C
RCL

Sermon preached by the Rev’d Amy Groves Heller

Hosea 11:1-11

Psalm 107:1-9, 43

Colossians 3:1-11

Luke 12:13-21

This past Sunday The Rev’d Ed Greene, a former rector of St. Luke’s, delivered a brilliant sermon on the Mary and Martha story from Luke’s Gospel (Luke 10:38-42) this past weekend.  In that sermon he stated that Mary and Martha are examples of the contemplative and active life in Christ, respectively.  He went on to say that, largely based on Jesus’ response to the women in this story, that many have come to see the contemplative life as ‘better’ than the active life.  Let me remind you of the brilliant words of William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury during much of World War II, “at the root of all heresy lies the refusal to deal with paradox.”

We all have times when, like Martha, we feel like we’re doing all the work and life would be much better if God would inspire those around us to get with the program and lend us a hand.

At the end of the Eucharist we pray one of two prayers.  The second of these post communion prayers contains this text:

And now, Father, send us out to do the work you have given us to do, to love and serve you as faithful witnesses of Christ our Lord (BCP p. 366)

It seems to me that this prayer ought to remind us that in any given day or any given week we’re called to lives of both action AND contemplation based on the context we find ourselves.

Look back to the previous week’s tale of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). Contemplation and prayer alone was not going to help the man waylaid by robbers as much as the actions of the one who had been considered ‘apostate’ by the hearers of Jesus’ story in Jesus’ time.

The long and the short of it is that we need to be contemplative activists for the sake of the Gospel and in the name of Jesus and we need to thank God and one another for the Marys and Marthas in our midst and for the times we are called to fill those roles.

One of the charisms of St. Luke’s is a ministry to children and not just our own.  We have a goodly heritage of providing exposure to God and the life of the church for many in our neighborhood who are not ‘members’ of St. Luke’s.  Frankly, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Too often, it seems to me, we join together outreach and evangelism like conjoined twins and don’t recognize that each of them is a faithful and viable ministry in and of itself.  The purpose of Outreach is to demonstrate to the world that we love them with the love of Christ, just because Jesus said to ‘love your neighbors as yourselves’ (but only after you’ve had an experience of a loving God.).

Evangelism is simply carrying the Good News (the Gospel) around with us as part of who we are not like something that we wear to impress others.  Here’s where the obligatory nod to St. Francis mantra, “Go forth and preach the Gospel, and, if necessary, use words.” makes it’s predictable appearance.

Many times we only view our Evangelization as ‘successful’ if we get people to come to our church (usually meaning a building) or to be saved so that they get to experience heaven at some point in the future.  It seems to me, as I encounter Jesus in the Gospels, that to be one of the Evangel is simply to communicate the love of God in Christ through word and especially action.

This week because we take both Outreach and Evangelism seriously we are opening the doors of our building and the heart of the Church to the children of God of all sorts and conditions in the Tatnuck Square area.  We do it not because we think that it will add to the bottom line, but rather because it is part of the ‘top line’ understanding of who God calls us to be.  So that means that whatever the results sewing the seeds of faith might or might not be, what we do here is a success even if only 5 children show up.

Thanks be to God for Good News and a world to share it with!!!!!!