Greenfield

Jesus teaches us: “Look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. (John 4:35)”

Last year, Bishop Doyle asked me to lead an exciting new venture, a “Greenfield Initiative,” by chairing a new Greenfield Commission. I have been leading this Greenfield Commission, a creative bunch that includes 8 clergy from all over our diocese. Yet our name - “greenfield” - brings about many questions as to the meaning of that word.

Evangelism in the greenfield means looking around you and seeing how the fields are ripe for harvesting. Greenfield evangelism does not mean knocking on unknown doors and passing out paper pamphlets about Jesus. Greenfield evangelism does not mean staying inside our churches and waiting for people to come to us, just because we have an attractive sign out front with our worship service times.

Greenfield evangelism means looking around at the places where you gather right now – and then seeing how the field is ripe for harvesting. Your greenfield might be a yoga class that you have attended for years. Your greenfield might be the group of guys that you go deer hunting with every fall. Your greenfield might be: a book club, the parents on your son’s football team, the college students on the floor of your dorm, the early risers with whom you power walk with every morning, the people who you meet for happy hour after work.

These are the greenfields that are ripe for the harvest. Then, in your greenfield, just open your mouth and share your story. And the harvest will come, in ways that we could never ask for or imagine.

Bishop Doyle is hosting a Conference on Evangelism at Camp Allen for the Episcopal Diocese of Texas. The conference will be Friday, November 11 – Saturday, November 12. Jimmy and I will be there; please come and join us. You can register at www.campallen.org. If you come, I believe that you will learn to look around you, to find the greenfields in your life. You will learn how to share your story more effectively, so that the harvest of Jesus’ message of love will come, in ways that we could never ask for or imagine.

A video will be shown at the conference, highlighting the exciting challenge of the Greenfield Initiative. Our St. Alban’s Bible Study at Barnett’s Pub (the study begins again on Tuesday, September 27!) will be featured, an example of harvesting outside of the church buildings and into the ripe fields.

Where is your greenfield? Just look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting.

Convinced

Sermon from July 24, 2011
(Pentecost 6 – Year A)
Romans 8: 26-39
St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, Waco, Texas

During this summer, I have had to become convinced of some things.
Over Memorial Day weekend, we had an air conditioner malfunction at our house that cost us $600 to repair.
Just two weeks later, another air conditioner repair set us back by another $500.
Therefore, last month, a salesperson from an air conditioning company sat down in our living room.
The salesperson presented stacks of evidence to convince me that we needed to replace our entire air conditioning unit, to the tune of thousands of dollars.

In order to convince Susan and me to make such a major purchase, the salesman made his pitch, presenting evidence that was designed to convince us.
First of all, he pointed out that our old a/c unit was the original unit to the house, which was built in 1987.
Next, we were shown charts and graphs of how a new, energy-efficient a/c unit would reduce our electricity bill, eventually justifying the cost of a new unit.
As a final part of his sales pitch, he promised to deduct the cost of our last repair from the total bill – which was the last piece of evidence that we needed.
We decided to bite the bullet and purchase a whole new air conditioner last month – because we were convinced.

Our God is in the business of unrelenting conviction.
Our God is in the business of persuasion.
Our God is constantly laying out evidence, stacks of evidence to convince us that nothing can separate us from God’s love.

Almost two thousand years ago, the Apostle Paul had come to the end of his life.
As an old man who had already seen many pieces of evidence, the Apostle Paul writes a beautiful letter to the community of Christians in the city of Rome.
In his letter to the Romans, the Apostle Paul lays out the evidence, proclaiming:

“Who will separate us from the love of Christ?
Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
No!
For I am convinced that
Neither death, nor life,
Nor angels, nor rulers,
Nor things present, nor things to come,
Nor powers, nor height, nor depth,
Nor anything else in all creation,
Will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

According to Paul, his own life is enough evidence to convince him that nothing, nothing can separate him from the love of God.
In his life, Paul had been shipwrecked in the Mediterranean Sea while spreading the Gospel.
Yet at the end of his life, Paul is convinced that nothing can separate him from love.
Paul had been put in prison for preaching Jesus Christ.
Yet Paul is still convinced that nothing can separate him from love.
Paul had endured hardships, riots, beatings, hunger and sleepless nights, yet Paul is all the more convinced.
For the God of persuasion stacks up the evidence for Paul:
That neither death, nor life,
Nor angels, nor rulers,
Nor things present, nor things to come,
Nor powers, nor height, nor depth,
Nor anything else in all creation,
Will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

In this last week, I have seen stacks and stacks of evidence to convince me that nothing can separate me from the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Susan and I spent this last week at Camp Allen, serving as the session directors for a week of camp for 3rd and 4th graders.

I endured 7 sleepless nights in a bunk bed on a paper-thin mattress,
Yet I awoke each morning to the evidence of a line of campers who were using a marks-a-lot to write down their morning prayers on a piece of poster board.
I saw campers with sore throats and mosquito bites and twinges of homesickness,
Yet I celebrated Communion around the lake with over 350 young people at the all-camp Eucharist, youth who lifted their voices to Jesus in the sweetest music you have ever heard.
I dragged my sore feet each night into 7 different cabins for bedtime prayers,
Yet by the illumination of a single candle, each night I received the deepest of theological questions, from 61 children who are hungry and thirsty for the love of Jesus Christ.

From my week at camp,
I am more convinced than ever that
Neither death, nor life,
Nor angels, nor rulers,
Nor things present, nor things to come,
Nor powers, nor height, nor depth,
Nor anything else in all creation,
Will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The God of persuasion, the God of conviction, will also stack up evidence for the 8 youth and 3 adults from St. Alban’s who depart today on their mission trip to Gulf Coast Mississippi.
The God of conviction will convince our missionaries from St. Alban’s that we can never be separated from the love of God.
The youth of St. Alban’s will endure a long car ride down Interstate 10.
They will get on each other’s nerves.
They will see first-hand the suffering and homelessness that the world has long ago forgotten in the wake of hurricanes.

And the God of persuasion will lay out the evidence.
The God of conviction will stack up the evidence for our youth and adults as they encounter poor people who still have hope,
As they see the face of Christ in the faces of the suffering,
As they become a body of Christ, a community who will proclaim to us:
I am convinced that nothing, nothing, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

However, there are other voices of persuasion and conviction in this world.
There are salespeople who persuade us that we are only loved if we have the latest iPhone or the newest shoes or the most powerful tools from Home Depot.
There are salespeople who persuade us that we are only loved by having a perfect body, a body that is only achieved by steroids and botox, by nip and tuck.
There are even very crafty salespeople who persuade us that the central message of Christianity is a life of happiness and prosperity,
When the real message of Christianity is a cross, a cross that is evidence that nothing, nothing can separate us from the love of God.

For if you read the holy scriptures of God,
If you pray every day,
If you regularly eat of the bread of heaven,
If you hang out with God’s poor and suffering people,
Then the God of persuasion will lay out stacks and stacks of evidence in front of you.
The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ will convince you that nothing, nothing can separate you from the love of God.

My friends, our God is an unrelenting and persuasive salesperson - who sits in your living room to convince you of the best news in the world.
God is a persuasive salesperson - who convinces me through the voices of 8-year old campers raised in songs of worship to the Lord Jesus.
God is a persuasive salesperson who stacks up evidence through toothless, homeless, penniless hurricane victims, people who display the glory of God, the glory of a human being fully alive.
God is a persuasive salesperson - whose most convincing evidence of love is an olive-skinned carpenter from Nazareth, nailed to a piece of wood.

For neither death, nor life,
Nor angels, nor rulers,
Nor things present, nor things to come,
Nor powers, nor height, nor depth,
Nor anything else in all creation,
Will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I am convinced.

AMEN.

We are Bold to Say

Sermon from July 25, 2010
(Pentecost 9 – Year C)
Luke 11: 1-13
St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, Waco, Texas

In my office here at the church, my bookshelves are filled with books.
As you might expect from knowing my penchant for organization, each shelf in my office is devoted to various topics of religious life.
I have one bookshelf devoted to church history, one to the Old Testament.
And one whole bookshelf is devoted to the subject of prayer.

On that bookshelf that is devoted to prayer, I have a whole assortment of prayer books, some of which derive from the Anglican Book of Common Prayer.
I have books that are collections of the prayers of famous people.
I have books that are even about how to pray:
Some books are about how to pray in groups and about how to pray with rosaries about how to pray using hypnotic music.

You would think that with all of those books about prayer in my office that I would be pretty good at praying to my God by now.
You would think that with all of my seminary training and workshops I have attended about prayer that my prayer life would be robust and bold.
Yet it took 64 8 and 9 year old summer campers for me to realize how I am really to pray.

Last Sunday, Susan and I went down to Camp Allen, the Episcopal Camp for the Diocese of Texas near Navasota.
Every summer for the last 6 years, I have been the Session Director for a week long session of summer camp.
The age group that we like, believe it or not, is 8 and 9 year olds, kids who are going into the 3rd and 4th grade.

Every night at bed time, the other camp director and I go into each and every cabin to say bedtime prayers.
In each cabin, there are 9 kids and 2 teenaged counselors.
For 6 nights, I went into 7 cabins each night carrying a lit lantern.
I sat down on the floor among the smelly socks and the wet bathing suits and I asked the kids this one question:
“What should we pray for tonight?”

And with boldness, these children and teenagers knew exactly how to pray.
With boldness, one boy immediately called out from his top bunk bed:
“Let’s pray for my dad because he needs a job.”
One girl boldly replied:
“We should pray for my aunt, because she has breast cancer.”

One boy prayed that we would have good food the next day.
Another girl prayed that the girls in her cabin would get along with each other and not leave anyone out of any activities.
Another boy prayed for his grandpa, who had died the month before.

For 6 nights in a row, I went into 7 different cabins to pray.
For 6 nights, I sat down on those sandy cabin floors and I asked just one question:
“What should we pray for tonight?”
And for 6 nights, I was instructed in how to pray, more than any seminary textbook or fancy workshop could ever teach me.

Those children and teenagers taught me - that prayer is simply saying what is most on your heart.
Prayer is simply expressing exactly what you need, with boldness.

In the Gospel of Luke, we hear this morning about Jesus teaching his followers how to pray.
The followers of Jesus are watching Jesus praying.
Then, they make a request of Jesus:
“Hey, Jesus, teach us how to pray like that.”

So, Jesus replies:
“When you pray, pray boldly, like this:
Father, holy is your name.
Bring your kingdom to this earth.
Give us food each day.
Forgive our sins, just like we forgive.
Save us from times of trial.”

Amen. The end. Period.
No textbook on prayer needed.
No long paragraphs or deep theological doctrines to be constructed.
No fancy words or flowery phrases required.

Instead, Jesus says, when you pray - just simply say what is most on your heart.
For prayer is simply expressing exactly what you need, with boldness.

While I was at summer camp last week, the children taught me another lesson about how to be bold in worship and prayer.

Last Friday night, all of the campers and the counselors and the staff gathered together in the dining hall for our closing worship service.
We pushed the tables in the dining hall against the side of the room.
We pulled benches into the center of the hall into long rows like pews.

We began the service of Holy Eucharist, with candles on a makeshift altar and the light down low in the dining hall.
The guitars sound forth and the beautiful voices of 64 children boldly belted out in songs and hymns of praise to God.

As the bread was broken in the Eucharistic Prayer, I said the usual invitation.
“The Gifts of God, for the People of God,
Take them in remembrance that Christ died for you and feed on him in your heart by faith with thanksgiving.”

Now, in a usual Sunday worship service, this sentence is the cue for the congregation to sit down and to patiently wait their turn to be directed up to the altar rail to receive the bread and wine.
However, in the Eucharist service last Friday night at camp, right after the invitation to communion was spoken, the kids boldly rushed up to the altar rail with their hands outstretched to receive the Body of Christ.
These children of our heavenly Father were literally running up to the altar to eagerly approach the Table, the approach the throne of grace.

In the New Testament, the author of the Letter to the Hebrews, instructs us to live this simple and bold life of prayer, as he writes this to us:

“Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (4:16)

It is no wonder then that in the Episcopal liturgy, after the prayer of blessing over the bread and wine, I invite us to approach the throne of grace with boldness, in the simple and direct words of prayer that Jesus taught us.
It is no wonder that I invite us to pray the Lord’s Prayer by saying these words:
“And now as our Savior Christ has taught us, we are bold to say:
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.”

The invitation to prayer does not come from a detailed textbook,
But the invitation to prayer comes from a sandy cabin floor:
What should we pray for tonight?

Prayer is not some lofty and heady exposition on complex theology,
But prayer is simple words of need, communicated to our Father:

Give us good food tomorrow.
Heal my sister.
Forgive me for interrupting you.
Save me from this nasty divorce.

Prayer is not politely waiting our turn to meekly approach the communion rail.
But prayer is asking, seeking, knocking, banging, pounding on the door of grace –
With boldness.

AMEN.

Camp Allen - My Place

Tomorrow, I am going to Camp Allen for meetings on Wednesday and Thursday. On Wednesday, the Diocesan Finance Committee is meeting. On Thursday, the Bishop is meeting with all of us who will be supervising curates (recent seminary graduates/newly-ordained folks).

I first went to Camp Allen in 1975, as a camper. During that summer camp session, each cabin went into the woods to find "our place," which we marked off with string tied around trees. Then, within "our space," each camper found a small square of ground that was "my space." We would go to "our space/my space" every day during camp to pray and watch the trees sway in the breeze by the lake.

To this day, Camp Allen is still "my place." At Camp Allen, in 1980, I had a spiritual experience at the old white cross (that is no longer there), when I somehow knew that my grandfather had died. At Camp Allen, I met my wife in 1987. Both of our sons have been campers at Camp Allen; Scott has been a counselor, as well. In 1999, by the lake, I believe that God called me to the priesthood. Now, I love to direct camp sessions for a new generation of campers, as each kid finds their place at Camp Allen.

Tomorrow, after my meeting, I will hike out to the lake, to pray and find a place, a place that is "my place" for that one afternoon, a place where I can listen for God's still, small voice.

I hope that you, too, will seek and find a place to listen for that Voice, a place that is "my place" for you.