Welcome to AnchorCast, a weekly podcast of homilies and sermons from Christ our Anchor Anglican Mission in Nashville, Tennessee.

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer.

Amen.

I need a stool over here, I’m a lot shorter than Father Dan.

I’m going to stand over here, I can’t see it.

There we go.

So I love the passages in the New Testament that make people uncomfortable.

The passages where Jesus raises some dead, or Jesus does a miracle, changes water into wine.

Because everyone gets uncomfortable, these are the ones that everyone likes to skip, right?

These are the passages that academics and other smart folk will try to explain away, right?

You know, so Jesus rose a man from the dead, maybe he was just sleeping.

Maybe the man was just unconscious, and then Jesus came by and adjusted him awake.

You know, maybe someone had a drug to him, some potion that made him appear dead, you know, some sort of strong incentive.

Or maybe these people that we read about, that are being raised from the dead, other being healed from demons, you know, maybe they were just in on it, right?

Maybe they’re just a plant, right, hey, Jesus, look good.

Maybe, maybe, maybe, this seems to be what, you know, the academics and others want to do with the miracles of Jesus.

But what I think is that maybe, just maybe, folk should just push and listen.

Maybe, just maybe, we serve a living God, and maybe our God created heaven and earth, and maybe our God is the very breath of life.

Maybe our God can walk on water, maybe even turn water into wine, maybe he can make food fall from the sky or appear in baskets.

Maybe there’s a lot of those so-called smart people who don’t actually understand.

Maybe the world isn’t so predictable and plain as we often put it out to be.

Because you know, a God that can’t walk on water, a God that can’t raise a man from the dead, well, Lucifer said, cannot save my soul.

It’s going to take a lot more power than is found in a few parallels or sermons to fix what’s messed up inside of me.

So I want us to hear the good news today, that we serve a God of power.

We serve a God that can actually raise the dead, a God who can actually heal, a God that can actually repair the broken things within us and around us, a God who is bigger than we can imagine.

It is this very God that invites us into his arms.

This God comes to save.

Not only does he invite salvation, but he has the power to make it so.

He can raise what’s dead in our lives to new life in him.

He can add a screen to our step, not because of something new we know from a story, but because of what he’s done to our actual bodies and souls.

So I admonish everyone to believe and to step aside from all of your mates.

Let him do the work in you that only he may do.

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

Amen.

Amen.

as we live into what Jesus has called his church to be.

Everyone is welcome.

Amen.