Christ Our Anchor is an Anglican mission in Nashville, Tennessee, focused on restoring relationships with God and neighbor through worship and work.

Join us Wednesday evenings in East Nashville at 530 for a time of fellowship, followed by evening prayer at 630.

Everyone is welcome.

You can learn more about providing paid work for the glory of God’s kingdom by visiting us at ChristOurAnchor.org.

A reading from the book of Romans, chapter 8, verses 12 through 17.

Brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, but to live after the flesh.

For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die.

But if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.

And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ.

If so be that we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified together.

Here endeth the reading.

A reading from the book of St.

Matthew, chapter 7, verses 15 through 21.

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.

Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles?

Even so, every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.

A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.

Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire.

Therefore, by their fruits ye shall know them.

Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father, which is in heaven.

Here endeth the reading.

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer.

Amen.

Good evening.

Last night, I was really struck by the gospel reading, and it really related to a book I’ve been reading recently called Sacred Fire, and the author at some point quotes another person.

I don’t remember whether it was a saint or another priest or someone in the religious life.

But anyways, this person they were quoting had the question of, if you were tried in a court of law for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?

And for me, that was a really interesting question.

So often, I think we see our Christianity more by what we think or what we believe, which is absolutely true.

When I’m done preaching this homily, we will all stand together and we will recite the Apostles' Creed, which is critical to being a Christian.

It’s the creed we recite at our baptism as we enter the church.

So what we believe really does have great weight.

But in a court of law, what we believe is seen by what we do.

This is the connection between belief and works, which is what we’re hearing about in St.

Matthew today, ye shall know them by their fruits.

This is specifically talking about prophets, but I think it’s true for all Christians.

How do you know someone’s a Christian?

Not because they post the correct creed on their blog, which is true.

That’s a good start.

If someone’s posting false creeds on their blog, well, then that’s a really easy thing to discern that that person might not be a Christian.

But it’s not just by what they’re saying in public.

It’s not just by what they think or by what books they read.

How you would be convicted of being a Christian in a court of law is by hard material evidence.

The prosecution would bring before the court that, ah, we’ve seen this person on Sundays regularly attending Christian worship services.

We’ve seen this person’s bank statement and we can see that 10% of all they make goes to the church.

We can see where this person spends their free time.

They spend it among the poor.

They spend it serving others.

We can see by how this person’s house looks that they have prioritized others.

You know, they have set up a space of hospitality and they have set up a space of giving.

They have relinquished some of the riches and comforts of this world for the sake of serving others and serving God’s kingdom.

This is how we would be condemned in a court of law for being a Christian.

And I think that’s hard.

I think these days in the church, people don’t necessarily know that, right?

It’s hard enough to get someone to believe the right things.

It’s hard enough to get someone to actually come to church on Sunday.

To do anything beyond that is so outside of the norm in our culture and our society that it just, people don’t even think about it.

So I think that’s something we can walk away with today.

This is a place where we are uniting belief with practice.

We stand here, we recite the creed, we pray together, we hear from Holy Scripture and we affirm that we believe it.

Not only do we affirm that we believe it, we then decide to go out and live it.

We live it here within our community at Christ Our Anchor, where we assist each other, teach each other and learn from each other.

And not only that, we go out together and we work.

We work together and we work for all sorts of different reasons.

We work because we love to serve.

We work because we want to see another brother and sister grow in the Lord and grow in their strength and grow in their knowledge and their abilities so that they can reach full-time employment, can be stable, and then can turn around and help someone else behind them in the church.

The Lord says at the end of our reading today, Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father, which is in heaven.

Brothers and sisters, the Lord has a special place in his heart for those in need.

He has a special place in his heart for those who have no family, for those who have no community, for those who need community and love and encouragement.

That is what we are building here.

And I am so thankful for everyone who is here living out their faith and working towards that goal, who not only says, Lord, Lord, with their lips, but who says, Lord, Lord, with their hands, with their feet, with their hearts, and with their presence.

May God bless you as you continue in this ministry.

May God bless those who have not yet come here.

May he soften their hearts that they might come to experience the treasure of joys that he has waiting for everyone who chooses to serve in his glorious kingdom.

In the name of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, amen.