Sermon for the 8 th Sunday after Trinity – July 13, 2008
“Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits . Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven.”
WHY does truth go begging in the street and no one listens or cares, while lies are sold as gold and precious stones, and so many clamor to hear and repeat them? How is it a church will grow to thousands that never declares the truth of God, but manufactures signs and wonders, entertainment for the easily impressed; the glamour, the noise, manipulated excitement while evidence is missing that God truly was ever there? Which church services make it to television? Where does all the money go?
You may not have heard of this, but a coarse, overweight young preacher with a goatee, facial piercings, tattoos up and down his arms, and a microphone is making church history in Pensacola, Florida. People fly there from Chico for the “ blessing ,” and hundreds of hours of videos go out featuring Pastor Todd ranting, stomping, shouting, bragging and blaspheming, with rock music behind him and a crowd of thousands jumping, dancing and twisting. “We've got 21 resurrections!” Todd shouts, as he shakes a hand full of papers in the air. “21!” Deafening screams and applause.
People are coming back from Pensacola, divided over whether the Lakeland miracle is a blessing from God or a fraud. It raises for us the issue of true or false prophets. We don't hear much of those terms in Anglican circles. Anglican priests don't get on television to claim the healings that have passed through their hands. Is our church so dead that we don't have any miracles to crow about?
I just got back, not from Pensacola, but from Mobile, Alabama, where the Chico Police Chaplains sent me to attend the annual training seminar of the International Convention of Police Chaplains. It's under an hour from Mobile to Pensacola, but I didn't make the drive. I've watched that on YouTube , thanks. I did, however, see miracles, and I did participate in God's ordained work. It was enough for me.
The banquet hall on Thursday night was filled with over 600 chaplains and family members, enjoying the food, the speakers and songs, but most of all, one another. I sat at a table where two chaplains, one with his wife, had come from Little Rock, Arkansas, and on my other hand an elderly chaplain from a county in Arkansas where he serves the police, the sheriff's department and the state troopers all as their only chaplain. Sharon, his wife of many years, disfigured with only one complete arm, was honored as the outgoing president of the chaplains' auxiliary. He was honored as a past recipient of the Jack Price Award, given to a chaplain whose department feels has done the most wonderful work among law enforcement officials and victims of crime, as a volunteer to a small department. This man had worked 47 years in full time ministry before he retired from it, and now still adds to his dozens of years of service for the law.
Did I mention race? Black faces, white, oriental, Hispanic—it didn't matter to anyone. We were brothers and sisters from many places, even overseas. My first night I met chaplains from Ireland and Bulgaria, and later I sat to dine with an Anglican priest from Burundi, in central Africa. God looked down on us and saw hearts given to a common cause: of keeping the men and women in law enforcement spiritually and physically alive. Maintain the thin blue line, and that blue line maintains our peace.
I rode six hours in a car with a fine officer of that thin blue line on Wednesday night. He has the southernmost beat in Mobile, surrounded by the Gulf waters, a mixture of dockside industries, palatial homes with ocean views, and Section-8 housing projects. We spent two hours convincing a terrified woman that she should leave the man who has beaten her for 7 years to save herself and her 3 year old son from further violence, and we checked in on every convenience store to assure the attendants they have an officer way out here who will respond if anything happens. What happens is armed robbery. Under-equipped, under-staffed, and carrying several extra guns, Officer Jordan is married with four kids, puts 260 miles on his aging patrol car every night, plays an I-pod with his selections of southern black gospel music and quietly sings along in worship as he drives and watches. I don't need Pensacola when I can have the company of a hero like that for a few hours.
Prophets : do we know anything about them? Are there prophets today? What would they do, if they were here, and how would we distinguish a true prophet from a false one? The prophet Jeremiah, speaking for God—which is the true role of the prophet—complained: “I have heard what the prophets have said, that prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed. How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies, even the prophets of the deceit of their own heart? that think to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams which they tell every man to his neighbor, as their fathers forgat my name… The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully… Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, saith Jehovah, that use their tongues, and say, He saith. Behold, I am against them that… cause my people to err by their lies, and by their vain boasting: yet I sent them not, nor commanded them; neither do they profit this people at all, saith Jehovah.” Jer 23:1-40 Likewise, Ezekiel wrote, God speaking: “My hand shall be against the prophets that see false visions, and that divine lies: they shall not be in the council of my people, neither shall they be written in the writing of the house of Israel, neither shall they enter into the land of Israel; and ye shall know that I am the Lord Jehovah.” Ezek 13:9
When Jesus spoke on earth, He was the greatest prophet the world ever knew, for He was indeed God speaking. He commended the true prophets of old, and told of John the Baptist, as one among the great. But He warned his followers of false prophets and false Christs to come, that they not be deceived. At the end of time, said Jesus, “many false prophets shall arise, and shall lead many astray. And because iniquity shall be multiplied, the love of the many shall wax cold.” Matt 24:11-12 “and except those days had been shortened, no flesh would have been saved. Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is the Christ, or, Here; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. Behold, I have told you beforehand. If therefore they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the wilderness; go not forth: Behold, he is in the inner chambers; believe it not.” v 22-26
Are there false prophets in these latter days? I could name names. I could show the evidence. It might not find me to be a man of discretion, or professional courtesy. I don't rail very often, and I will not now, but there is a worm among Christians, an itch for many, to see wonders and feel the electricity flow as hundreds of thundering fellow humans turn into an ecstatic mob lusting for miraculous signs. “Certain of the scribes and Pharisees asked Jesus, saying, Teacher, we would see a sign from thee. But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given it.” Matt 12:38-39 An evil and adulterous generation ours is . While true wonders abound, for those with the courage to find them— in Africa, in the Middle East, right here in love between the races, in common causes, in the rescue of evacuees from the face of fire, in the very act of worship, in God's salvation, in the power of His word, in the bread and the wine, at the touch of fingertips —such wonders and signs of God on earth at work in every life, at the same time that carefully quaffed and rehearsed preachers in white linen Nehru suits holding mics, shout glories to a God unknown and push people onto their backs, happy to be feeling something , even disorientation and paralysis, if it might mean they have had a spiritual experience . Just send in money.
St. Peter wrote: “Among you also there shall be false teachers, who shall privily bring in destructive heresies, denying even the Master that bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their lascivious doings; by reason of whom the way of the truth shall be evil spoken of. And in covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose sentence now from of old lingereth not, and their destruction slumbereth not.” 2 Peter 2:1-11
St. Paul warned, “In later times some shall fall away from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons, through the hypocrisy of men that speak lies, branded in their own conscience as with a hot iron.” 1 Tim 4:1-2 “In the last days grievous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of self… lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God; holding a form of godliness, but having denied the power therefore. From these also turn away. For of these are they that creep into houses, and take captive silly women laden with sins, led away by divers lusts, ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth…” 2 Tim 3:1-7 Finally St. John warned, “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but prove the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: and every spirit that confesseth not Jesus is not of God: and this is the spirit of the antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it cometh; and now it is in the world already.” John 4:1-3
It is my job to alert you to deceptions that abound. They are louder, well funded, high tech, and better attended than anywhere the truth is to be found. But it was ever so. Don't go there. Look, discern, expose, if you will. Use the true Holy Spirit's gift of knowledge. You have it. If you want the truth, you will know the falsehoods.
Rather, look deeper into the mystery and miracles of faith, of love, of quiet worship, of the sacramental life, of devotion, of God's Word, of a lifelong commitment between a woman and a man, of the nurture of children, and the answer to long sought prayers, with even a divine healing or two along the way. Signs and wonders do abound. They are the real thing. But so often like nourishing fruit or natural food, they go uneaten, while the candy and Red Bull are consumed by truckloads. Real life is lived outdoors while the population wastes its souls on a giant HD plasma home theatre system and its empty content—and the ads.
Be perceptive, church. Test the spirits, whether they are of God. Beware false prophets, who come as church leaders, but inwardly they are ravening wolves who devour the flock.
And rejoice that our God has made this hour of worship for you and me, to come before His very Throne to have communion with His Son.
PFH+