(Because this is a homily manuscript, I need your participation.  I want you to “hear” these words from a Christ follower to Christ followers.  As you read, I invite you to “sit in” on this good news that we preach and eat at the Holy Eucharist of Trinity Church.  Fr. Jim)


Hearing Paul this morning is like looking at my ChristMass Tree. Far from being a Charlie Brown twig, my tree overflows with ribbons, candles, baubles, figures old and new! It produces a wondrous, warm, comforting, embracing Light connecting me to yesteryear, telling me everything's OK!
When we hear Paul, it's like pushing the plug into the elctricity---everything lights up, and the Spirit erupts within us: Paul's words: "to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ be glory forever!!!" Because everything is OK!
Let's focus on only one flash of light from Paul, one gleaming, one scintillation for us to focus on. Here is Paul's Christmas light: THE OBEDIENCE OF FAITH. That's his shining brightness.
BTW my treetop Angel's shining brightness is the Banner he holds: "GLORIA IN EXCELSIS DEO! (Glory to God in the Highest!) This banner is the praise of Gabriel and of the whole heavenly host and of things visible and invisible, of things above the earth,on the earth and under the earth, as we answer with joy to the news: GOD has brought us into the obedience of faith.
Let me untangle my Paul/Christmass Tree simile. I know it's like untangling last year's light strings. But let me try.
First, the obedience of faith! "The obedience of faith" sounds bad, just like the song:
    "You'd better watch out, you'd better not cry, you'd better not pout, I'm telling you why."GOD IS COMING BACK and like the bumper sticker says, "He's not happy!"
We so often do the "guilty gotta" with God. I "gotta" love God. I gotta go to church. I gotta keep my sexual fantasies under control. I gotta pray. I gotta love my neighbor, gotta pay attention to the liturgy, I gotta not cuss. I gotta do the 10 commandments. I gotta obey.
How come? Because it isn't Santa Claus who is coming to town. It's God Almighty so you'd best straighten up! That's why!
What we do with God and obedience is really sad. How many times do I have to say to myself, God is not my enemy, my ultimate Scare? But, if God is not my enemy, just who is God?
All my life, my parents, cops, teachers, bosses, spouses, and so forth and so on---they always tell me directly or by the tone of their voices---there's going to be real trouble if you don't obey! And when the church bell rings her bell against me, too, what's a guy to do!? Well, the best I can, even when I know it's not enough!
Take a look at society, any size social mix. Humans try to be obedient to law or we rebel against it: Two choices and two only. Societies rise and fall with obedience and disobedience. I do wonder, in the U.S.where we are in that cycle. And ditto the church.
Is God any different than anyone else who issues commands? If we see THE OBEDIENCE OF FAITH as "you'd better watch out or else," if we see God as the Chief Threat, it's no wonder we and so much humanity offer sacrifices to get out from under God.
"Oh, God I'll never do it again. Just get me out of this one more time, and I'll be ever so good!" "Oh God, I'll kill this chicken on your altar if you'll only stop the Aztecs, and the Muslim horde from running over us!
Oh GOD, Oh GOD, Oh GOD!
We do nutty things in our post modern world because we are caught as a species, as a race, as a nation, as individuals under the wrong, wrong notion that "God almighty's coming to town" and he's going to whack us for being disobedient.
It's no wonder there are atheists around. If that is who God is, I'd be an atheist, too. I'd rather die and go to nothing rather than face THE angry ULTIMATE!
Look for a minute at my cardoard Treetopper, the Archangel Gabriel. He has in his hands the banner that says, "Glory to God in the Highest!" That was his great Gospel to the shepherds and to us! Salvation from sins, salvation strength for today, salvation forever! A loving God who backs up the news!
A few months earlier, Gabriel came to our Blessed Mother Mary. His Gospel to her was the same great news. You will bear JESUS the name that means, THE LORD SAVES!
A few months earlier, Gabriel came to our Blessed Mother Mary. His Gospel to her was the same great news. You will bear JESUS the name that means,THE LORD SAVES!
THIS LORD, Adonai, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is coming through you with salvation life for the whole world!
By his awful execution on the tree of the cross, Jesus' sacrifice will be the one and only offering to bring the world back to God, to redeem the world from the Evil One forever.
This includes ALL sin, past, present and future. It includes being saved from the ongoing inability to be good and our rebellion from the Father that we still suffer.
This baby who was born has an unending kingdom, for with God "nothing is impossible!"
It is no wonder that our Mother Mary said, "let it be!"
Back to OBEDIENCE OF FAITH.
Mary did not say, "no thanks." Mary, who is blessed forever, said, "YES!" And she taught all her children, the whole church to say that as our very first word! YES!
In as straight forward a way as I can get it, here's the good news of "obedience of faith." God says, "Believe Jesus." And the Holy Spirit breathes the response inside us, while we are in the womb of Baptism, YES! "Gloria in excelsis Deo!"

From Father Jim, an explanation: 
The following is a homily (sermon) that I preached on the
3rd Sunday of Advent,
December 11. The text is marked with bold face type here and there. 
It is also marked with parentheses and other grammatical marks.  Those are for my own preaching
emphases, and not necessarily because I am an unlearned person; although that
may also be a reasonable assessment. 
The texts quoted are the scriptures read for the
day. JC
YOU WILL BE CALLED OAKS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, THE PLANTING
OF THE LORD, TO DISPLAY HIS GLORY. 
YOU SHALL BUILD UP THE ANCIENT RUINS, YOU SHALL RAISE UP THE FORMER
DEVASTATIONS.I WILL MAKE AN EVERLASTING COVENANT WITH YOU. 
Is. 61 
Years ago I made an Advent retreat at Gethsemane Abbey
in Kentucky. The first afternoon I was there an elderly monk passed away.  At Vespers, his body lay in church
wrapped in a winding sheet.  As the
monks passed by, each blessed the body with a sprinkling of baptismal
water.  The next day, they buried
the brother in his shroud. 
Interestingly enough, a winding sheet is also this: “…they
wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger.”   
St. Luke is ironic. The Savior of the world appears in a
shroud and dies for us, wrapped in a shroud. 
From the time I have arrived here as your Sunday priest, I’ve
noticed, to my dismay that many of you, perhaps most or all, think of this
  little congregation in funereal terms, dying and awaiting its
shroud. 
I know you keep doing good works here for which I commend you,
loving one another and providing for the poor. 
But I do not see you growing as an “oak
of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, to display his glory.”  Instead, you seem to have shrunk with
what Isaiah calls a “faint spirit,”
with ashesinstead of a garland, with mourning instead of
the oil of gladness. 
“Alas,” you seem to say to De Soto, “we are wrapping
  ourselves in a shroud.  Please do
not disturb us or change us.  We
are returning to the dust from which we came.” 
A few weeks ago his Grace, Bishop George looked in on
us, like Peter did at the tomb of Jesus. 
He said he was proud of us. 
He might have said, “You aren’t dead at all! 
Get up!  Start exercising
your limbs, you oaks of righteousness. 
Speak Gospel to me and speak gospel to the world!” 
John 1:6: 
“There was a congregation, sent from God, whose name was Trinity.  Trinity came as a witness to testify to
the light, so that all might believe through Trinity.” 
It’s not only Bishop George looking in amazement at a
  congregation he thought was under a shroud. The Lord Jesus is also looking. “I died for you so that you might
live! Get up and get
gospeling!” 
Isaiah 61:1: 
“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon us, Trinity, because the Lord has
anointed us, he has sent us to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the
brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the
prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor…to comfort all who mourn; to
give them a garland instead of ashes.” 
We must act like a congregation acts. 
We must remember that we are members of the Body of Christ Jesus.  We are not pieces of a puzzle that must
be put together or pitched.  We are
not stones that must build a sanctuary or tossed away. 
We are living members, ears, mouths, eyes, arms, and feet.  We
  have already been put together. 
We are the body of Christ, and as he acted so we also
act! 
I Thess. 5:21“...may your spirit, Trinity, and soul and
body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.  The one who calls you is faithful, and
he will do this.”  
I know you sit here as individuals in whatever shape
you are in as individuals; some young, some old; some healthy, others weak; some
taking in the gospel, others straining it through closed eyes or closed
minds.  One of us will die, and
another, but WE will not
die. 
We will live on as Trinity congregation. 
I wonder if that’s the reason so much of our stuff, windows, crosses,
fonts, books, has names inscribed, and why we remember the departed in prayer –
to remind us that we do not die, rather we live to greet the coming Lord.  “Advent! 
He is coming!” 
We live on, not simply as Trinity. 
We live on as the Body of Christ, either here with one foot in heaven, or
there, with both feet in God’s lap. 
But we must remember we are NOT individuals because we are baptized into
the one body of Christ! 
As the Body of Christ, or as Paul calls us in First
  Thessalonians, “children of the light
  and children of the day”
You and I shine together, reflecting Jesus Christ to everyone
around us. 
How do we shine? 
Paul says, “rejoice always, pray
without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God
in Christ Jesus for you.” 
I know the world.   So do you!  They
can’t get gospel, until we rejoice and shine the holy cross from our body of
Christ lives into their waiting lives. 
Think of the undeserved love we are wrapped in.  It’s not a shroud. 
It’s Jesus Christ!  In him
we receive the promise of life forever; in him we take his very life in bread
and wine; in him we gain the strength to proclaim, 
“Here comes Jesus for you world, and we are coming with
him.” 
Dare to believe this, Trinity! 
Breathe in the Spirit of God! 
Be Jesus right here and right now! 
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy
Spirit.


 

Seems that our season is here upon us and celebration of our Saviors birth is near! All will be gathered in homes and seeing Christmas trees and all the decorations, hope all of you had your Advent wreath out as well!

We are looking forward to reading the traditional part of the Book of Common Prayer. So many devotions are eloquently translated into our hearts! Come and celebrate with us this event!