The 128th
Synod of the Episcopal Diocese of Springfield
Sermon preached
by
The Venerable
Miguel Uchoa, Archdeacon of the South, Diocese of Recife, Brazil
Saturday,
October 29, 2005 in Mount Vernon, Illinois
Sent to Preach
the Truth in an Untruth Time
1Peter 3:14-18;
Matthew 10:16-22
My dear brothers and sisters,
good morning. It is a pleasure for me to address to you this
morning and it has also been a pleasure to exchange the Lord’s
fellowship with you since my arrival.
We can easily see that we much
in common in the way we understand faith and in the way we
understand the Word of God. I am please to see your love for the
Lord. My bishop, told me personally not to forget to say that it
was his deep desire to be here with you today. But the time in
which we are living and the high relevance of the Global South
Anglican Conference pushed him to be in Egypt at this very
moment. It is an honor for me to represent him here.
As I mentioned before, we are
living under a very special time. It is a time that neither you
nor I, and I believe no one would have imagined that our eyes
would see. The Church of God has been deeply attacked at
different flanks, but by one single enemy in its multiform
expression. As if it was not enough, the power of darkness of
this world with it’s rejection to the true God, is presenting a
large variety of gods. We are dealing with the enemy from
inside, from the pews, from the pulpits, from the offices…
Our great enemy today is here,
within the walls of the church and its most clear manifestation
is behind the single word “relativism.” The absolute and true
God has been put in doubt by the people who claim to be His
people… This is a wave that comes to shake the structures of the
holy and apostolic Church of God. But, we are here to stand and
to say loudly… it will not prevail. This story will have a happy
ending... I may not see this, you may not see this, but by faith
we can say… it will not prevail.
The lessons today are teaching us about
how to behave in a time of persecution. Nothing more
appropriated for us to learn from. Peter, who wrote this letter,
is the same man who was with Jesus when he said,
“the gates of hell won’t prevail…”
Mt 16:18. His letter comes from
a time when the enemies where not only outside the church, they
were very much inside… How would you call the Gnostic wave
today? Yes, Peter is writing for the people of God to be ready
to have the right answers to anyone who ask about the hope they
have…
At this time faith was under proof. If you
take a look in his teachings you will find advice like this: “…that
the trial of your faith, being much more precious than gold
that perishes, when it is tested by fire, may result in praise
and honor and glory when Jesus is revealed” (1Peter 1:7).
The trial of faith we are under now is
similar to that which our brothers and sisters had to deal
with... and it also came from the inside.
“But there were false prophets
also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers
among you who will introduce destructive heresies” (2Peter 2:1).
This is a time of untruth and
we have been sent to preach the truth at this time, for this
generation. You will agree with me that we need to be wise, we
need to wisely use our energy to keep preaching to this world.
Even though there is a need to defend the faith from inside the
walls we have to pay attention and not lose the focus.
Peter is saying that we need to be ready
to answer the questions of this world. We have been sent by God
to transform this world. The mission statement of our Church of
the Holy Spirit in Recife says, in the beginning “We are
committed to expand the Church of Jesus Christ..”. and ends
by saying that “we are agents of transformation in this
society.” We have placed a giant map on one of the walls of
our church; above it, we quoted John Wesley, “… the whole world
is my parish.” This map is our window to the reality of this
world… it is a way to keep the focus of our mission which is to
shake this world with the Word of the mighty God… We should
follow the example of Nehemiah… the bible says that his people
were wise… “Every one
with one of his hands work at construction,, and with the other
hand held a weapon” (Nehemiah 4:17b).
We need to repair the walls of
the church, but never stop to go and fulfill the mission we have
from the Lord that is to catch this world for him.
The Gospel today is also telling
us to take care, to have the right attitude concerning the many
situations we will encounter.
Jesus is saying
don’t worry…
Don’t worry, the
Holy Spirit will give you the right words
Don’t worry because
people will hate you
Don’t worry because
they will try to put you on trial
Don’t worry because
… I will be with you
You know my brothers and
sisters, I take this very seriously. I try to keep clearly in my
mind that I was sent into this world to bring what they need… if
Jesus says they need the truth, then they need it, and I will
bring it to them. I have to pass it on to them… this is my
mission. I used to say to my congregation in Recife
“never let the appearance of the people make you believe that
they are okay… they are not if they don’t have Jesus…Go and talk
to them about Jesus, share your life, share your God, we have
been sent to this world. I know that there are lots of lies
surrounding the people, there are lots of lies in every place,
in every home, on TV, radio, and in the newspapers. But
I have seen the power of God functioning over all those lies; I
have seen wonders, I have seen families restructured by the
power of God. I have seen kids, teenagers, young adults,
couples… all kinds of people – rich, poor, very poor - receiving
the good news of the gospel and transforming their lives.
The wolves are surrounding us… Jesus said,
“I am sending you out like sheep among wolves: so be wise as
serpents, and harmless as doves” (Matthew 10:16).
Let us be wise as serpents to the serpents
who are threatening the flock … but let us be harmless with the
big flock the Lord still wants to bring back home. We are the
ones who he has sent to bring this sheep back to the Good
pasture. Remember what Jesus said to the Pharisees,
“I tell you, if they were quiet
the stones would cry out” (Luke 19:40).
I don’t want to walk on the
streets and see the stones speaking about Jesus…
I won’t let them speak, this is
our mission
This is what he sent us for.
This is what we should live for.
May God bless us. Amen.
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