Thursday, July 5, 2007

More Than We Can Ask Or Imagine







Dear St. Luke’s Community,

I was reviewing the parish website of a seminary classmate today and took the time to read a sermon that she preached this past Sunday. In it she took on the text from Luke not looking back and moving forward into the reality of God without reservation. From putting our hands to the plow, letting the dead bury the dead and dealing with Jesus news that “"Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." Let’s face it, taken literally Jesus is claiming to be homeless! Jesus is so completely at home in his own skin that he recognizes that his authenticity is a gift from God and that being in the right place at the right time is a matter of listening to the voice of God leading the way and not clinging to the trappings of security. That’s freedom that I can scarcely imagine. I guess the closest I’ve come is in trusting God to lead our family to Worcester, not even knowing what Worcester was like.

My friend is challenged by that text because, in her own words, “I’m such a homebody.” On some level we’re all like that. We like what’s comfortable. We’d rather stay around the ordinary than to make ourselves available to the extraordinary, spiritually speaking. Jesus uses this occasion in Luke’s Gospel to challenge us to trust God’s presence and passionate desire to bless us ‘more than we can ask or imagine’ (Ephesians 3:20).

I believe we make ourselves available to the best that God has to offer when we trust that no matter where we go, God is. On the fleeting occasions when we’re able to trust God in that way, we find ourselves called to places that we’d never imagine ourselves and being richly blessed to boot.

I believe God is calling the community of St. Luke's Church to some amazing places (that’s easy to say, because I believe God calls everyone and every community to amazing places!!!!!!). I want to challenge us all to allow God to do the unimagined and unbelievable in our midst. There’s only one way for that to happen, in my opinion. That is to pray daily for God to lead us into the realities he has prepared for us.

Will you make that sort of commitment? If so, here’s a prayer to use should you like to have one:

Almighty and eternal God, so draw our hearts to thee, so
guide our minds, so fill our imaginations, so control our
wills, that we may be wholly thine, utterly dedicated unto
thee; and then use us, we pray thee, as thou wilt, and always
to thy glory and the welfare of thy people; through our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. (
BCP p. 832 A Prayer of Self Dedication)

Peace and Good,

The Rev. Warren Earl Hicks, Rector
St. Luke's Episcopal Church
921 Pleasant St.
Worcester, MA 01602
508-756-1990 (Office)
508-756-8277 (Fax)

Blog Address www.frwarren.blogspot.com