7th Sunday of Easter

7 th Sunday of Easter Sermon
Acts 16:16-34, Year C
8:00 a.m. Service
The Rev. Bob Flanagan
St. Matthew's Church,
Bedford , New York

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In this morning's reading from Acts, Paul says, “I order you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” The reading continues, “And it came out that very hour.”

Here in Bedford, as an ordained Episcopal priest, I too have the power to order things out. I order pizza and Chinese take out and they usually deliver it in less than an hour. But mostly I take orders, from my kids, my wife, my mother-in-law, Terry and the Vestry. Seldom do I have the power to give orders, nor do I have the boldness to go to the hospital and command a spirit to come out of a sick patient. If you are like me, then, you listen to these fantastic and amazing historical accounts of the early missionaries in the Acts of the Apostles and think, “Did this really happen?”

God interacts with humans in many ways. In the Bible, we see that God interacts with different people differently. He walks with Adam and Eve in the Garden, he appears to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, he wrestles with Jacob at Peniel, and later he meets Moses on top of Mount Sinai. Other times he speaks directly to people like Noah in building the ark and Samuel on a starry night in the Temple sanctuary. We see at times God interacting with people through dreams. God speaks via an angel to a dreaming Joseph twice, once to quell his heart about Mary's sudden pregnancy and then to warn him of Herod's destructive desire telling him to flee with his family to Egypt. Then God sends Jesus to pitch his tent with us and show us the way and then to save us. The Bible accounts for us the way God interacts with humans.

God doesn't stop interacting with humans after Jesus' death. In the Acts of the Apostles, God sends his Spirit upon the Apostles and then speaks to Paul on the Road to Damascus. In today's reading we see God freeing Paul and Silas from prison by an earthquake, which helps bring on the conversion to Christ the jailer and this entire household. God doesn't stop interacting with humans after the time of the early church. He interacts with us today. He interacts with us in many ways. He interacts with us as he sees fit.

So how do you know when God is interacting with you? How do you know when it's God's voice that is reaching out to you?

You have to learn to recognize God's voice. God is not passive. He is actively moving in your life, but you may not recognize it. Think about the call of Samuel in the Old Testament. Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was. Then the Lord called, “Samuel! Samuel!” And he said, “Here I am!” and ran to Eli. Eli said to him that he had not called him and told him to lie down again. Then the Lord called him again, “Samuel! Samuel!” He went again to Eli and Eli said that he hadn't called him. A third time the Lord called him and a third time Samuel went to Eli. This time Eli “perceived” that it was the Lord who was calling him and told Samuel to lie down and listen again. Eli said that if the Lord called to him again then ask the Lord to talk to him. Often for us to recognize a sound, let alone God's voice, we have to hear it two or more times.

So how do you recognize God's interactions with you? Be open to God. Those that recognize God in their life are those who open themselves to God. You got to want to hear God. We can't go and turn up the TV louder or pretend we are sleeping like I do when I don't want to get off the couch to do a chore. By no means! We have to turn down the volume and listen. Listening is being open to God.

Trust God. Those that recognize God in their life are those who trust in God. When I rowed on the crew team in prep school and college, I learned to trust the other rowers in my boat to pull their oars just as hard as I did. I learned to trust that we moved together in out individual seats on our own slide bringing our oars in and out of the water together at the same time moving the boat as fast as we could together. We had to trust each other. That is like the trust we have for God. We trust that he is working on our behalf just as hard as we are searching for God and trying to life a good life.

I admit to you that soon after I began to listen, to open myself to God, and trust him, I recognized God in my life. When I prayed with Scripture from the Bible, the verse would be the balm my soul cried out for. As I spent more time praying and imagining the verses I read, my soul was fed. I even admit to you that God's reassuring voice spoke directly to me which is the main reason I continued to pursue the priesthood.