The following sermon was presented by the Reverend John W. Howe, Rector of Truro Episcopal Church in Fairfax, Virginia, on January 26, 1986. The title is, Multiply the Ministry, and the scripture reference is Luke chapter 4, verses 14 through 21. 

The Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Luke. I'm reading from the fourth chapter beginning at the 14th verse. And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee.

And a report concerning him went out through all the surrounding country. And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all. And he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up.

And he went to the synagogue as was his custom on the Sabbath day. And he stood up to read. And there was given to him the book of the prophet Isaiah.

He opened the book and found the place where it was written. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and the recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.

and he closed the book and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him and he began to say to them, Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. The gospel of the Lord. Over the last couple of months I believe that the Lord has been teaching us some marvelous and mighty new things about himself and about his ministry. He's been reminding us that it is his ministry. Beginning with the visit of David and Mary Pitches last November and then more recently with the John Wimber videotapes over the last few weeks, many more people than we initially thought might be involved have been coming for a number of teaching sessions.

We thought we might have a few dozen. In fact, there have been a few hundred who have been coming on Sunday evenings and Wednesday evenings and beginning to learn together a new way, a new model for praying effectively for the sick. And learning how to invoke the presence of the Holy Spirit and then allow Him to do what He wants to do, which isn't always what we want Him to do, or maybe not at the same speed or the same timetable.

We've been learning how to see what it is God is doing. Jesus said the Son can do nothing but what He sees the Father doing. Whatever He does, that the Son does likewise.

That's probably the key verse that John Wimber has used over and over in describing this ministry of prayer, is learning to see what it is the Father is doing. And we can agree with it and bless it and participate in it. We've been learning how to receive words of knowledge and words of wisdom from the Father and then share them with each other.

And I know that many of you have been part of that and you know exactly what I'm talking about. But many of you have not. And that's the reason for pausing at this point and just reflecting on it.

Some of that's been happening in our post-service ministry. here on Sunday mornings right at the rail. Some of it has been happening in a few cases at least in some of the shepherd groups.

Some of it's been happening at the men's prayer breakfast on Saturdays. But most of this new learning, this experimenting with God, has been taking place on Friday evenings at Prayer and Praise. There we've had the freedom and the flexibility and the informality to try, to take a risk, to make some mistakes, to fail, to discover, to learn what it is that God would show us about these new things.

So realizing that there are an awful lot of folks who come on Sunday morning, but who are not regularly a part of Friday evening prayer and praise, several people have urged me to try to recap just a little bit of what it is that God's been teaching us. And I can think of no better scripture passage from which to depart than the gospel assigned for this morning. And I can think of no better occasion on which to pause and consider this than on a day in which in just a few minutes we're going to be commissioning a new parish mission, the Church of the Epiphany, that is going to be meeting together starting a week from today.

Let's turn to Luke chapter 4. You might care to look at that again with me. And let me put it to you this way.

That long before Jesus grew up as a carpenter's apprentice in Nazareth, before He was born in a stable in Bethlehem, before indeed He was conceived in His mother's womb, before the foundation of the world. The Son of God was eternally present with the Father. You believe that?

He became a man, but long before that, He was with the Father. God of God, light of light, very God of very God. He was begotten of the Father.

And then at a particular point in human history, He became a man. John, in his Gospel, puts it this way, In the beginning, beginning of what? Beginning of everything that ever had a beginning.

Before the beginning was the Word. The self-expression of God. That's a metaphoric way of putting it.

God speaking. God expressing Himself. God was speaking before there was anybody else but God to listen.

God was eternally expressing who and what He is. And therefore, in the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God.

And the Word was God. That boggles our minds. That stretches our minds almost to the point of breaking.

At least it does mine. And yet, even in human terms, there's a certain analogy right now as I'm speaking to you. Here am I. And here are my words.

My self-expression. My word, in a metaphoric sense, is not just the words that I'm speaking. It's my gestures.

my facial expression it's everything that I'm trying to communicate to you right? what do you know of me? you know my self-expression and that is me in a certain sense and yet it isn't it's with me do you follow what I'm saying?

there was God and God was expressing Himself and His self-expression was with Him and yet in a profound sense it was Him and it was there before anything else existed. Right? Somebody once asked St. Augustine, how long did that go on?

How long was God the Father speaking the Word of God before there was anything else? And by the way, what was it that God was doing all that time before He began to create? and St. Augustine said he was thinking about hell as a place for those who ask that kind of question those kinds of questions don't have any meaning to us you know what was God doing and how long did it take time itself is part of what God created it pertains to this universe how long doesn't mean anything when you step outside of this frame of reference.

But what we do know was that God was speaking, God was communicating Himself. God the Father and God the Son were there from the very beginning. But, at a definite moment, a dateable moment, approximately 2,000 years ago, a definite moment in our human history, The Son of God, the Word of God, the self-expression of God became something which He had never before been.

He became a human being. He became one of us. He took on flesh and dwelt among us.

John went on in that first chapter of his Gospel to say, The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten Son of the Father. See if you can follow this. Jesus was always the Son of God.

But the Son of God was not always Jesus. Do you follow that? The Son of God was there from the very beginning, from before the beginning.

but he became Jesus when he was conceived of the Holy Ghost born of the Virgin Mary when he became a human being he took on the name Jesus he became one of us Jesus was always the Son of God but the Son of God was not always Jesus now the point of all that for us is this that in becoming one of us The Son of God didn't merely dress up like a human being. He didn't masquerade. He didn't pretend to be one of us while really just being God in disguise.

He became one of us. He didn't pretend to be a man. He became a real man, subject to the same limitations that you and I are subject to.

Right? some of you are not sure in fact some of you I suspect are quite convinced that's dead wrong subject to the same limitations that you and I are subject to how absurd this man could walk on water this man could still the storm with a word this man could multiply loaves and fishes he could turn water into wine he knew what was in men's hearts and minds. He could seemingly read their thoughts.

He could predict the future. He could heal the sick. He could cast out demons.

He could raise the dead subject to the same limitations we are. Yes. Then how did he do all those things?

We come to this morning's scripture. This is Jesus' own explanation. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.

And He has anointed me to preach good news, bind up broken hearts, release captives, give sight to the blind, liberate the oppressed, proclaim the Lord's favor, and do all the rest of it thrown in for good measure. You got it? some of you do let me put it this way Jesus operated in the power of the Holy Spirit not in the power of his divinity amen somebody got it Jesus Christ was God but he laid aside his prerogatives as God when he became a man he didn't stop being God But he laid aside his prerogatives.

He gave up omniscience. He gave up omnipotence. He gave up the freedom to be everywhere at once.

Now he was confined to a body. He became a real human being. And he accepted the limitations that you and I have.

But he operated in power. He did miracles. Not because he was God, but because he was a man anointed by the Spirit of God.

And if you don't believe it, just think on this. From the moment of his conception, from before that, he was divine, and yet for the first 30 years of his life, he didn't preach a single sermon. He didn't heal a single invalid.

He didn't cast out a single demon. He didn't do one single miracle. He was the Son of God, but He did none of those things until He was anointed by the Holy Spirit.

And after that, He never went back to the carpenter's bench. Alright? Jesus operated out of an anointing from the Spirit of God.

That's the text to which He turned at the very outset of His ministry. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me and He has anointed me to do these things. And what's exciting about all that is that Jesus said that that same anointing, that same empowering, that same ministry, indeed those same miracles are available to us by the same Holy Spirit.

That's our birthright. You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And I tell you, you'll do the same things I do and even greater things than these.

I don't believe qualitatively greater, but more of them. Quantitatively greater. He said, more than these, because I go to the Father.

I don't fully understand that. But Jesus said, if I stay here among you, I'll be in one place at one time, and my ministry will be confined to what I'm personally doing. But I tell you, if I go to the Father, He will send the Holy Spirit.

the Spirit of God will come upon you in exactly the way He's come upon me. He will indwell you the way He indwells me. He will empower you the way He empowers me.

And wherever you go, however many there are of you, you're going to be doing the same things I'm doing. Hallelujah? And so we're learning.

We're just beginning to learn. We're making a lot of mistakes, and that's okay. Because we're also beginning to see some fruit.

We're beginning to see miracles. Now, it isn't as if we've never seen that before. God has done marvelous things down through the years.

And there have been many healings and many provisions and many expressions of God's grace to us. And yet, in a new way, all of that's being released. And we're seeing prayer for the sick lead to healings and mended bodies.

And we're seeing God able to move among us in new ways and increased ways. So, if you're not already part of all that, I want to urge you, it's not too late, come tonight, come Wednesday night to the Wimber videotapes, get involved in your shepherd group and begin to put that into practice, begin to experiment with that in small groups. Especially come on Friday evenings.

Come to prayer and praise. And let God continue to instruct us and to multiply His ministry among us. I believe you could say quite fairly that the whole point of Jesus' ministry was to multiply the anointing.

The whole point. Now in the process that involves forgiving of sin and making us right with the Father and bringing us into community, but the whole point was to multiply ministry, multiply anointing. The Son of God became a man so that men might become the sons of God.

This one who was baptized by the Holy Spirit at the outset of his ministry was proclaimed by John as the one who would baptize others with the Holy Spirit. Isn't it interesting? That's the only thing that John said about Jesus' ministry.

The only thing that he mentioned. Could have mentioned forgiving sins. Could have mentioned going to a cross on our behalf.

Could have mentioned being a great moral example to it. Didn't mention any of those things. He simply said, He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

this one who was thus empowered came to empower others to multiply the ministry that's what we're learning and I can't think of a more appropriate theme for this Sunday of commissioning the church of the epiphany epiphany means the manifestation or the showing forth of God's glory. And there's a goodly number of this congregation and this fellowship who believe that God has called them to go and be an epiphany, a showing forth, a manifestation of God's glory a few miles west of here. I have very mixed emotions about that, and I suspect you do too.

Somebody said parting is such sweet sorrow. It's both. It's sweet.

We're thrilled at this new birthing process, and yet there's a sorrow that we who have been intimately involved with each other's lives are not going to be doing everything together. There's a beginning of a separation. It's not going to be immediate.

It's a process. But as of next Sunday morning, there's a group of folks that are going to begin meeting separately. But you know, we're excited about that.

We're excited because we believe God is in it. God has called them and us to do this thing. And the bottom line is, we're not dividing.

We're multiplying. And we dare to believe that that same anointing which God has given to us, He's going to give to the church of the epiphany. It's going to have its own style.

It's going to be different than that of Truro. That's good. God doesn't make any two congregations alike any more than He makes any two individuals alike.

But He wants to anoint with power that new expression of His grace and let it be an epiphany, a showing forth of His glory. And I pray that that's the first of many, many new missions, not only from this parish, but throughout the whole of the diocese. And so, we ask the Lord to continue to teach us, to instruct us, to anoint us, to empower us to multiply His ministry here and wherever folks name the name of Jesus.

To the praise of the Father. Let's bow our heads together. Father God, for continually stretching us, leading us deeper and farther, we give You thanks.

We pray that we would be eager to receive from You all that You have for us, that You might multiply Your ministry in our midst, and then that we might be eager to give it away. We do pray for those that you are calling to become the nucleus of this new mission congregation. For Bill Reardon, called to be their vicar.

For Marilyn, his wife. For the members of the steering committee. And for all the men, women, and children that you're calling into this very exciting new beginning.

Empower, enable, and equip them. to the praise of Your name. For Jesus' sake.

Amen.