Selected Sermons
The Rt. Rev. J. Neil Alexander
- Sermon for Renewal of Ordination Vows - March 18, 2008, The Cathedral of St. Philip
Sermon for Christmas Eve 2006
The Rt. Rev. J. Neil Alexander
Bishop of Atlanta
Cathedral of Saint Philip, Atlanta, Ga.
Luke 2: 1- 20
Faithful of God, when was the last time you encountered an angel?
Just the other day I was out Christmas shopping and I stopped at a little cafe for lunch. My table was near the door and I could not help but notice when a man entered the café. He was disheveled and dirty.
It did not require much to jump to the conclusion that he was homeless. Immediately I looked to the restaurant owner. I was interested to see if he was going to seat the man or shoo him away.
I am pleased to say that the restaurant owner was very gracious and polite,
but he did indicate that he was a businessman and could not feed every hungry person who came in the door who was unable to pay.
About this time a woman got up from her table and asked the owner to give the man a meal and that she would be pleased to cover the tab.
So the homeless-looking man was seated.
He ate a relatively modest meal of soup and sandwich, and with thanks both to the owner and the woman he went on his way.
A few minutes later, as I was paying my check I met the kind woman at the cash register. I indicated to her that I thought she might be an angel sent from God because of the generous and respectful way she treated the homeless man.
"No," she smiled, "I don't think I am an angel. I bought the homeless man's lunch because I thought he might be an angel in disguise."
As I continued my holiday chores, I thought about the fact that the angels we encounter on the pages of Holy Scripture are thought of principally as messengers: God's own version of Western Union, a sort of celestial Internet.
My mind kept circling through the angel stories of the Bible looking for a clue. Angels appear to Hagar in the desert. Angels wrestle with Jacob through the long hours of the night until morning comes. Angels appear to Moses at the burning bush, and angels ask Lot for a place to stay.
Angels fed Jesus in the wilderness and minister to him when he is tempted by the devil. Angels broke the prison chains that bind Paul and Silas. And, of course, it is an angel, Gabriel by name, who tells Mary there was no point in her being afraid, even though she is about to be the human mother of God Incarnate!
As I continued my Christmas shopping, I had a difficult time getting that lunchtime encounter off my mind. If the kind and generous woman was indeed the angel, then perhaps the message was clear: Be kind, be generous, feed the hungry, offer random acts of kindness that respectthe dignity of every human being.
But, if as she said, she was not an angel but thought that the homeless man might be, what was the message there? What was the message delivered by way of the homeless man -- to me and anyone else who watched the encounter?
What are we prepared to hear, to see, to receive from him as an angel of the Lord? I am still not sure what if any message I received, but some words of Jesus have been hard to get off my mind: "Truly, I tell you, whatever you have done to the least of these, you have done it likewise unto me."
Perhaps what I encountered in that lunchtime café amidst the hustle and bustle of the holiday frenzy was a subtle reminder from a homeless friend of Jesus, an angel of sorts, not to forget the least, the last, and the lonely.
I hope you have detected a restless sense of uncertainty in what I have said thus far. A restless sense of uncertainty is appropriate when you are talking about angels, even amidst the gentle serenity of Christmas Eve.
I believe we discover on the pages of Holy Scripture that whenever an angel appears on the scene a certain insecurity is lurking in the background.
When God sends an angel something is about to happen that shifts our expectations; when we encounter an angel we can count on the fact that the what and the how and the why and the when of our lives as we had dared to design them was about to become something quite different
from anything we might have imagined.
The angels that hover over Christmas are proof enough. Remember old Zechariah? He was an old priest tending to his business in the temple. An angel shows up and tells Zechariah that his wife Elizabeth is going to have a baby.
That announcement was enough to cast a long shadow of uncertainty upon the lives of Zechariah and Elisabeth. Having a child at their advanced age
who was to become John, the forerunner of the Messiah, was certainly not the way they expected to spend their retirement!
And then comes Gabriel onto the scene, the angel with a name. And he tells Mary that she is going to have a baby. She and Joseph, her beloved,
were madly in love and totally devoted to each other.
This was going to mess up everything. And how in the world is Mary going to tell Joseph that she is pregnant? Joseph would know that the child is not his offspring.
In the flutter of an angel's wings, Mary's life becomes something quite different than anything she might have expected. And wouldn't you know it? An angel of the Lord comes to Joseph precisely at the moment he is about to break up with Mary so that at least her pregnancy doesn't embarrass his side of the family, and tells him to marry her anyway
because the child in her womb is not, in fact, his.
That must have been comforting! "The child in Mary's womb was conceived by the Holy Spirit." "Oh great!" Joseph must have thought.
"How will I ever explain that at the tavern back in Nazareth?!"
All of the plans for his life that had been so carefully crafted by culture and custom are now derailed by the antics of an angel. And there were shepherds out in the fields minding their own business, keeping watch over their flocks and hoping for themselves a bit of late-night sleep.
When what to their wandering eyes doth appear: yet another angel.
"Go," says the angel. "Go to Bethlehem and see what the God is doing!" But can't we wait until tomorrow? What are we going to do with all these sheep? We can't herd these animals through the streets of the city in the middle of the night!
And suddenly, a whole platoon of angels start to sing glory! Saint Luke tells us that the shepherds did as they were told, but he doesn't tell us what they thought about it. I've always rather expected that, as they huffed and puffed their way into town, under their breath they were saying, "Why us?" "Why me?" "This was not in my job description!"
You may have caught the fact that I have left out a critical element of each of these stories. For you see, when an angel of the Lord shows up, a central part of the message is always this: "Fear not! Do not be afraid!"
When we read the Christmas stories, there is a certain irony in those words. When an angel tells us not to be afraid there's probably every reason to do just that!
"Don't be afraid, Zechariah! At your age, you and Elizabeth are having a baby who is going to grow up and play a pivotal role in God's redeeming work, and that shouldn't phase you at all!"
"Don't be afraid, Mary! No point in being anxious. You're just going to be the mother of God."
"Don't be afraid, Joseph! Telling your buddies that your fiancée is pregnant and that you had nothing whatsoever to do with it, isn't going to be nearly as difficult as you imagine!"
"Don't be afraid, shepherds! Just because you chose to be a shepherd because it doesn't require a lot of public speaking is no reason for you not to tell the whole world what your eyes have seen in a feeding trough in Bethlehem!"
So, when someone says to you "Fear not!" you have every reason to be skeptical, especially if you suspect you're dealing with an angel.
But my dear sisters and brothers in Christ, there is marvelous good news here! At those times when an angel throws you off your stride, when the news you hear borders on the unbelievable, those are precisely the times
when God has you right where God wants you. Those are the times when God is poised to do something new in your life. Those are the times
when God is making the impossible possible. Those are the times, if you are prepared to let God be God, that your life will change unimaginably.
So, fear not! Do not be afraid. I'm no angel, but I am absolutely certain
that God means that! There's no reason to be afraid when you are being held in the hollow of God's hand. And when you hear those words from the mouth of an angel, relax.
All it means is that God is about to change your life, and you'll never again be the same!
To God be the glory!
The Right Reverend J. Neil Alexander
Bishop of Atlanta
