As I have confessed from the pulpit before, I am somewhat of a political news

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Pearl Garrett
5 years ago
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1 In the name of one God, Father, Son & Holy Spirit, Amen. Pentecost 3A Proper 4 Sermon Genesis 6: 9-22; 7:24; 8:14-19; Psalm 46 Romans 1: 16-17; 3:22b-28, (29-31) Matthew 7: As I have confessed from the pulpit before, I am somewhat of a political news junkie. If left to my own devices, I can spend inordinate amounts of time reading news stories about political races, editorial comments even poll number (believe it or not). With the 2008 Presidential primary season still not over, I have been keeping a close eye and ear on the TV/radio and internet recently. It seems that pastors and preachers have played a bigger part than usual in this season s political races. First, there was the story of Rev. Jeremiah Wright and how he outraged so many with the words we heard on his video clips. Now there are Pastors John Hagee and Rod Parsley and last week we added Fr. Phleger to the list. If you listen to interviews with the first three of these gentlemen, or listen to their preaching, beyond the endlessly looped clips that CNN seems to run non-stop, you will discover that Rev. Wright and Pastors Hagee and Parsley really are diametrically opposed in their theologies, as well as their politics; but they share one important trait frankly, one that is shared by many (if not most) preachers in the world and one I would like you to really consider today, in light of this morning s reading from Matthew s Gospel. Fr. John Bedingfield Page 1 of 6 1 June 2008

2 Jesus said. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven 1. Rev. Wright, Pastor Hagee, Pastor Parsley, these now famous or some might say, infamous, preachers have all been captured on tape saying Lord, Lord, quite regularly. When these preachers cry out for the Creator, they are not as Jesus did from the cross, when He called out in anguish, my God, my God, calling on God for help or deliverance. No, when these men, and thousands of other preachers as well, say, Lord, Lord, they are invoking the name of God. And there is a huge difference between the two. To call on God is to be very clear about our relationship with the Creator of the world; to know that we are part of God s great creation and, as the Psalmist puts it, God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble 2. God is the one we should call on in time of trouble and the one we should thank for all the blessings of this life. But to invoke the name of God is to state typically quite forcefully that you know the mind of God and your position is God s position on a given issue. Now it is a good thing to try to discern what God is saying to you in any given situation. It is not only a good thing, it is an important and necessary thing for all devoted children of God to try to listen for and discern God s voice in all that we do. But when one invokes God s name, it is beyond discerning what God is saying to us, it is 1 Matthew 7:21 (NRSV) 2 Psalm 46:1 (NRSV) Fr. John Bedingfield Page 2 of 6 1 June 2008

3 claiming to know what God says to everyone. And that, my brothers and sisters can be more than a little problematic. The Rev. Canon Mark Harris, in an article a couple of years ago said, Invocation of the name of the Lord is an attempt at the exercise of power. There is power there, no doubt. Mighty works done in the name of the Lord are real and sometimes beneficial. But they remain of the moment only. Such power is not the thing on which the house of faithfulness to God is built 3. What I believe Canon Harris was talking about is the real problem that I have with so many of the pastors and preachers we see on television today. For example, in a recent clip Pastor Hagee tell us in a very deep, resonant and authoritative voice, I want those of you who are in the State Department and government in Washington to hear this. If America does not stop pressuring Israel to give up land, I believe that God will bring this nation into judgment. Because I believe what this book (the Bible) says. And this nation will go through a bloodbath because of what you have permitted and what you have done 4. That is Pastor Hagee invoking God s judgment on a United States government and therefore upon its people because of foreign policy that he and supposedly God disagrees with. Pastor Parsley, repeatedly relying on his personal anointing by the Holy Spirit, has said in a videotaped sermon, I must state three important truths...no. 1, the God of Christianity and the God of Islam are two separate beings.... No. 2, Muhammad received revelations from demon spirits, not from the living God. No. 3, Islam is an anti-christ religion that intends, through violence, to conquer the world. 3 Harris, Mark The Sign-off to the Moral Nightly News, Witness Magazine, May 21, Hagee: God will unleash terrorists on US for Israel policy, YouTube, May 13, 2008 Fr. John Bedingfield Page 3 of 6 1 June 2008

4 The fact is that America was founded, in part, with the intention of seeing this false religion destroyed, and I believe September 11, 2001, was a generational call to arms that we can no longer ignore 5. So despite the fact that Islam claims Noah, Moses, Abraham and Jesus as great prophets of God, according to Pastor Parsley (and therefore according to God), Islam is an inherently evil religion one with which we (American Christians) should be at war. When I was ordained to the Episcopal priesthood, I stood before the Bishop as he addressed me with the following words: As a priest, it will be your task to proclaim by word and deed the Gospel of Jesus Christ. You are to love and serve the people among whom you work, caring alike for young and old, strong and weak, rich and poor. You are to preach, to declare God s forgiveness to penitent sinners, (and) to pronounce God s blessing 6. Nowhere in that list, does it say that I am ever to invoke God s name and I am thankful that that is not in the list. I am awestruck enough by the fact that I can pronounce God s blessing and declare God s forgiveness but to believe that I could invoke God or know the mind of God sufficiently to call God to do my bidding, is in my mind, the height of arrogance and seems dangerous both to interpersonal and human/god relationships. I believe that the words from today s Gospel come as a warning to everyone who would ever seek to wield God s power over another human being. I believe that to be so, because do you know where this stern warning comes in the Bible? It s right at the end of the Jesus Sermon on the Mount. Today s passage comes from verses 21-29, but this 5 McCain s Pastor Problem, 6 Book of Common Prayer, p531 Fr. John Bedingfield Page 4 of 6 1 June 2008

5 chapter begins with that famous line, Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. Jesus then goes on to tell the crowd that if they try to remove a speck from their neighbor s eye, they had better first look at the log that is in their own eye. Today s TV preachers like to invoke the power of God to judge other people people who are not like them, people who think, look, act and perhaps pray differently than they do. That seems to me to be pretty dangerous stuff. Instead of trying to combat those things that we think we know to be against the mind of God, perhaps we would be better off trying to be the Kingdom of God through proclaiming by word and deed the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Rather than listening to the exhortations of those who would try to whip us into a frenzy of hatred toward some other group of people, we should try to embody what Jesus taught us non-judgmental love. I ve heard it said many times in recent years that what is wrong with the Church and the world is that we ve watered down the Gospel. The implication being that we are not paying enough attention to the hard words of the Gospel to God s judgment on sinners and evil-doers. I couldn t possibly agree more with the notion that we ve watered down the Gospel. Jesus said we should love our neighbor as ourselves. When pressed about who the neighbor might be, Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan. I ll admit that I m not the greatest Biblical scholar in the world, but frankly, I haven t been able to find one time when Jesus told anyone to go to war with anyone else. Nowhere do I find reference to a bloodbath in the name of God. Fr. John Bedingfield Page 5 of 6 1 June 2008

6 Not once do I find Jesus calling us to arms against any religion even the pagan ones that surrounded Him. What I DO find in an un-watered down Gospel, is a call to tend the sick, feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, clothe the naked and comfort the afflicted. If we could just do those things just be as closely as we can be the embodiment of Christ in the world, there will be no need for bloodbaths or wars against Islam, or gays, or abortionists, or African-Americans who worship differently than we do. If we can begin, one person at a time, to truly love our neighbors, we ll begin to do so well together that no one will listen to Pastor Parsley or Pastor Hagee anymore and maybe we can even avoid being damned by God, as Rev. Wright said we were. Amen. Fr. John Bedingfield Page 6 of 6 1 June 2008

WEEK 1: MARCH 6 12, 2019

WEEK 1: MARCH 6 12, 2019 JOEL 2:12-18 PSALM 51 2COR 5:20-6:2 MT 6:1-6, 16-18 Return to me with your whole heart. (JOEL 2:12) It might seem a little strange to think about the beginning of Lent the same