Step Out in Obedience — Sermon by the Right Rev. Alex Farmer, Bishop

You may be

seated. I'm going to pray, but before I

do so, I just want to say how very

excited uh Jod and I are to be back with

you here at Christ Church Anglican. Uh

you are always a special place in our

heart. We enjoy being with you every

chance we get. Um, thank you again for

your hospitality to the clergy spouses

of our dasis, 45 of whom came to

Savannah and we're at the we're uh a

part of this community for a little

while and were blessed by that

experience. So, you're always so

gracious. Your hospitality uh is just uh

incredible. So, thank you. Got to

experience the dive. Got to see all

that. Uh Christie and her group, Christy

and her crew. I think there's probably

that kind of rolls off the tongue uh are

doing there and you should be very

excited to to see that uh that ministry

now is being shared throughout the dasis

and we're hoping that others will learn

and go and do likewise. So um I also

received a doctorate this weekend is

realized um it's in the it's in the uh

the bulletin that I am the right

reverend Dr. Alex Farmer. I I it would

be helpful if if you could contact

Trinity and let them know that. Um

because as far as they're concerned, I

still have not completed my thesis. But

but uh just just thank you, but just

don't want to be under false pretense. I

do not have a doctorate. So but uh not

yet at least. So it's good to be with

you. All right. Now, that does not count

as my sermon. That's just my salutations

to you. I bring you greetings from

church of the apostles on the eastern

shore of Mobile Bay at the far end the

other far end of our dasis. They bring

you greetings. They send their love and

they're praying for you this morning.

Will you receive their love and

blessings and and greetings?

Thank you. Thank you. And may I carry

your greetings to Apostles by the Sea at

Rosemary Beach on the coast of the

Florida panhandle. Can I carry your love

and blessings to them?

Wonderful. I'll do that. So now, will

you pray with

me? Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts

and minds of your faithful people. And

Lord, may the words of my mouth and the

meditations of our hearts be always

acceptable in your sight, oh Lord, our

rock and our redeemer. Amen.

Well, this morning we have before us

John chapter 14. It is a powerp packed

John 14 · chapter mention

chapter. Jesus is teaching his disciples

before his resurrection, before his

crucifixion and passion, before his

ascension. He is telling these disciples

of things that are to come. And

honestly, Jesus talks about so many

things. His ascension, his resurrection,

the second coming of our Lord at the end

of the ages. There are so many things

there. The the Trinity is present in

this passage. But this morning as we

gather, I wonder if we were to take a

poll of people around the city of

Savannah who care or love or know God or

claim to know God. If we were to ask

them, "What is it that you need this

week, this day from God?" I wonder if we

were to do that, would we not hear

something like this? Well, I I would

really love to know that um that the

peace of I have the peace of God, that

I'm in God's

will. Or they might say, I would love to

know that I have wisdom from God with

regard to the decisions that I need to

make for myself or my family. Above all,

I would imagine that they would probably

say they are longing for an abiding

peace that comes from the presence of

God.

Jesus will give us this vision of

eternity when when he will return. And

if we look at that revelation passage

you heard as our first lesson, there's

this this this declaration by St. John

that that in time we will dwell with

God. Listen to it

again. And he heard in a loud voice

saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of

God is with man, and he will dwell with

them, and they will be his people. And

God himself will be with them as their

God to be in the abiding presence of God

to know his perfect peace. We declare

this at a Christian funeral, don't we?

We talk about God dwelling perfectly

with his people as it will be. But what

about for today? What about until we

reach the the other

shore? Well, listen to John

14 18 to 19.

Jesus speaking not of the end of all

things, the summation of all things when

God will will u bring about the

culmination of his kingdom, but in the

present for us now and today. Here what

Jesus

says. I will not leave you as

orphans. I will come to

you. Yet in a little while the world

will see me no more because but you will

see

me because I

live you will

live. Aren't those comforting words in

this ta place and time? Jesus clearly

declaring his resurrection to us that

because he lives now remember he's not

yet died on the cross. He's not yet been

risen from the dead, but declaring that

when I rise, when because I live, you

too will live. He's thinking ahead. He's

telling them, and he will not leave us,

he will be with us. He'll be present to

us in this troubling and confusing

world.

Well, how is it that Jesus gives us this

presence, his abiding peace with us in

the midst of this confusing world? Well,

he tells us what to do and how to live

into that in verses 21 to 29. That is

our gospel lesson today. And if you want

to take that pew Bible in front of you,

you can turn to John 14 and read along

with me or you can simply listen as I

remind you of what Jesus has said. The

first thing that he calls us to, and

it's unescapable, is that we are called

to

obedience. Isn't it amazing how many

times we try to divide knowing the will

of God from being obedient? I love what

Mark Twain once said, "It's not the

parts of the Bible I don't understand

that give me trouble. It's the parts I

do." Right? It's the things we know that

we are called to do and yet don't do.

and yet say, "Lord, what is your will

for me?" Well, my will is that you obey

my commandments. Jesus says, as a matter

of fact, Jesus makes it abundantly clear

that we are called to obey. He says, "If

you obey my

commandments, you keep my

commandments, you're demonstrating love

to me." Now Jesus in no way and we know

the the the entire entirety of the

scriptures gives evidence that we're not

called to obey God so that we will love

him like some hateful parent that makes

you perform in order to earn

love. While we were yet sinners, Paul

says Christ died for us. The free gift

of eternal life was given. The sacrifice

of Christ was done while we were doing

nothing but rebelling and turning away

from God. And yet as we respond to his

love, it is in

obedience. It's bending our will to his

will. Jesus will say, "Why do you call

me Lord, Lord, and not do the things

that I call you

to?" My Old Testament professor at

Trinity Seminary said, "This is the

summary of the Old Testament, that

obedience is the evidence of our faith."

In other words, as we obey the Lord, we

demonstrate our love for him. And Jesus

emphatically says this to us in this

passage. He reminds us that we are

called to obedience. In a little while,

these confirms, these to be received,

will step forward in obedience. And so,

they take the posture of obedience by

kneeling, not before me. I simply have

the privilege of sacramentally being in

the place to lay hands on them, but they

kneel their they bow their knee to the

Lord. Deacon Drew Ibach, it's still

taken some time to get used to that.

Deacon Drew did the same thing as he

knelt down and took oaths to be

obedient. actually laid prostrate in an

act of humility and a willingness to be

obedient to the call upon his life to be

a deacon in the church. So are we called

to

obey, called to move forward in

obedience. Thy will be

done, Jesus says in the model prayer.

And my friend David used to say, it's

it's the open palm to God. Lord, here's

my family. Here's my aspirations. Here's

my wealth. Here's my talent, my

abilities. Here's my plans. I I offer it

to

you. Do with it as you

will. It's the call to obedience. If we

would know the abiding peace of Christ

in our lives, if we would live in

that, we must be ready to walk the way

of

obedience. But we are not called to do

that in our own strength. Amen. We're

not called to do this work on our own.

Jesus continually calls his disciples to

remember that to not to call them but to

to emphatically make clear to them that

he will not leave them. Remember I will

not leave you as orphans.

If you love me, my father and I will

come to be with you, to show oursself to

you, to manifest ourselves to you, that

you would know our presence in the midst

of this trouble and confusing world.

And those of us that are believers in

Christ, we've experienced those moments

where sometimes gathered together or

sometimes in the quietness of our own

prayer life, we have felt the the heavy

presence of the Lord. Few weeks ago in

Jacksonville, I had the opportunity to

to bury my my recctor, the the man who

was recctor of the church in

Jacksonville where I first surrendered

to a call to ordain ministry. And he he

had served me as an example, a model in

ministry for many many years. But as we

celebrated his life, as we lifted up

prayers and thanksgiving and remembered

the hope that we have in the

resurrection, there was a holy heaviness

that fell over that place.

It was Jesus's answer to that prayer

that we would see his glory, that we

would have a manifest understanding,

that he would be present to us. Jesus

says, "I must return to the Father, and

you're sad, but but if you truly love

me, you would let me go that I may carry

your humanity back to the father and

send to you another comforter." Jesus is

saying that he the father and the holy

spirit will be with us will manifest

themselves to us and be present be

imminent to us in the midst of this

world. How important is that? Do you

notice that in the scriptures Jesus only

reveals himself as the resurrected Lord

to

believers. There's no more skeptics that

see him. He doesn't show up and tell

Pilate told you so. you know it doesn't

come up right it's only to the believers

that he manifests that he shows himself

the exception is those like St. Paul who

have a revelation of him, but it's

because they're eventually going to be

believers in him. Jesus reveals himself

to those who are his own. He he he makes

that claim here in chapter 14 and he

promises that he will not leave us that

he will not leave us as

orphans. Even this day around the world,

I've sat in a room with

Iranian men and women who've escaped

Iran living in Turkey who testify that

Issa, the Heb Arabic word for Jesus,

that they saw a vision or a dream about

Issa and Jesus came to them and said, "I

want you to go back and I want you to

talk to that Christian pastor, that

missionary that you met a few weeks ago,

and they're going to tell you more about

me. And I've sat in a room and heard the

testimony of these Iranian Muslim

background believers in Jesus testify to

a manifestation of the risen

Jesus. I can't guarantee you that you'll

see a vision, that you'll have a dream

of Jesus coming to you, but I can tell

you his word makes clear that he will

manifest himself to us.

One of the reasons why Jesus is calling

the disciples to be to be faithful to

love him and to let him go to the

father. We'll celebrate the ascension

this Thursday. Jesus ascends back to the

father. I'm sorry if I'm stepping on

toes of a sermon for in a couple of

days, but he goes back to the father in

order that he might send the Holy

Spirit, this other comforter, this

pariclete, this counselor to teach us,

to remind us of all that Jesus said.

Aren't we thankful that the Holy Spirit

comes to us and enlightens our minds and

hearts? Even people as brilliant as this

guy sitting behind me, right? Uh the

scriptures are hard for all of

us. We need the Holy Spirit to enlighten

the word of God to us that we might

understand the things that we are being

told, the things that we need to be

reminded of that Jesus said, that we

might know his peace. That we might

understand the things that Jesus was

trying to teach us. He pours out that

spirit. As we pray over these

confirmands, we prayed over uh Drew on

Friday night. As we pray over those to

be received, we are praying that the

Holy Spirit would come in

power, that he would manifest God,

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to them,

and that he would empower them, he would

enlighten them, that he would teach

them, but not only

today, but for all the days of their

life. For that is the

promise. The Holy Spirit is such a

gift. But as Reverend Dr. Ji Packer,

Anglican, who helped us write our

catechism said, he's often the neglected

third member of the

Trinity. And to our own detriment, we

forget the powerful work of the Holy

Spirit among us. But Jesus says, "Do you

want to understand my abiding

peace? Get to know my

spirit." He's that pariclete, that

comforter that I will send to be with

you. I had this amazing manifestation of

that or recognition of that this week.

And I just have to share that with you

before I conclude this sermon. I Jod and

I travel, you know, all the time. You

just heard me say, "I brought you

blessings from Mobile Bay." That's about

10 hours from here. Okay. So, 5 hours

that way. Go do meetings, be with

clergy, be with lady, be with leaders,

meet confirms, have a wonderful time,

preach, teach, confirm, receive, pack it

up, and head back home. And then the

next week, they get in the car and we go

someplace else. And over and over again,

people say, "How do you guys do that?"

And our response is like, "What are you

talking about? It's we're having an

awesome time. This is wonderful. It this

is this is so life-giving. What you know

we it's no problem. God's called us to

the the lines have fallen for us in

pleasant places. Well, then last weekend

happened. We had a week off, which is

why I'm here this week because my dear

little niece graduated from a school in

Athens, Georgia. Uh a a high school in

Athens. And we went to be with her for

her graduation. same routine, pack up

the car, drive to Athens, spend time

with the family, which admittedly can be

exhausting, and planned some dinners and

had some time, but we slept in until

9:30. I had to get up at like 5:45 this

morning. Okay. Slept in till 9:30. We

got home and she and I both looked at

each other like, "Why are we so

exhausted?" I mean, we we did nothing. I

I didn't preach a sermon. I didn't

confirm anyone. I didn't have any long

conversations with anyone really. Wh why

are we so exhausted? And then it

occurred to

us when we come here doing this work,

we're moving in the power of the Holy

Spirit. It's the work of the spirit

manifest that allows us to come and

leave revived rather than drained and

exhausted. And don't worry, I will take

a nap at some point.

But I woke up this morning at 5:45

energized to come and share the word of

God with you, to come and share in these

services, to have that conversation we

had between the services. It's the work

of the power. But it's not just for a

bishop. It's for each of

us. So here before we do the

confirmation, here's my challenge. And I

know I never do this, but my challenge

is in the form of an

alliteration. I don't it just came, but

just maybe it'll help you remember. This

is what we do with this

sermon. First, we acknowledge the Holy

Spirit. Remember Jipacker's words. He's

the most neglected member of the

Trinity. Acknowledge the Holy Spirit.

Secondly,

ask ask the Holy Spirit to empower you,

to fill you. You're going to be

privileged. You're going to watch as the

Lord empowers these confirmands, these

to be received with the equips them to

go and do the work of ministry. But the

Lord can do that for each of us each

morning as we pray and we say, "Come,

Holy Spirit." Jesus was really plain. He

said in Luke chapter 13, "If you who are

Luke 13 · chapter mention

evil know how to give good gifts to your

father, to your children, how much more

does your father in heaven desire to

give you the gift of the Holy Spirit if

you

ask? Acknowledge the Holy Spirit. Ask

him to come in

power." Here's the key. Step out in

action. See, I told you alliteration,

right? I don't usually do that.

Step out in obedience, in

action. What do you know right now, this

morning that the Lord wants you to do?

What's the conversation you need to have

with Father Mark or Father Brian or

Deacon Drew, one of the other deacons,

priests in the

congregation? What's the ministry leader

you need to talk to about joining their

team?

Who's the person in

your neighborhood or your workplace that

you need to mention the name of Jesus

to? Open up that

conversation. Acknowledge spirit. Ask

him to fill

you. Step out in

action. And the peace of God which

passes all human understanding will

guard your hearts and minds. in the

knowledge and love of God and of his

son, our savior Jesus

Christ. Amen. Amen.