I turned out of the parking lot at Lowe’s going east on Lowe’s Blvd. As usual, there were over half-a-dozen cars ahead of me waiting at the light on W. S. Young. The line of cars began to creep forward, and I hugged the bumper of the truck in front of me. Suddenly we stopped. I was three cars short of the light. Instantly I swung my eyes along W. S. Young to my left to see what driver had dilly-dallied, and had cost me getting through the light! I have to confess at that particular moment I was not of a very generous spirit.

Your dominion is that sphere of influence you have on yourself, other people and situations around you. Godly dominion is learning to exercise that power as God exercises power, in order to accomplish His ends. If God’s dominion is characterized by generosity of spirit then the exercise of our godly dominion will be that way as well.

God is so incredibly generous of spirit. Look at Abram in our first lesson today. He has a vision in which God tells him he will have a great heritage. “But God,” protests Abram, “heritage involves children, and I have no children.” “But Abram,” replies, God, “you will have children—so many they will be as the stars of heaven.” And Abram believes God. To believe is the most powerful thing a human being can do. Someone told me they couldn’t sing. I pointed out to them the quality of their voice, and suggested all they needed was some coaching. “No, in the 3rd grade my music teacher told me to stand at the back of the choir and mouth the words, and not to emit a sound.” In 30 years they still believed her! If that is what can happen with earthly authority figures, how much more with God who does not subject us to such lies? Abram believed God. He said, “OK, I can’t see it, but you said it and I’m going to live as if it was the inevitable future!” The act has the most powerful effect you can know—God reckoned it to him as righteousness. God does not judging Abram on his deeds good or ill, save this one: believing God! All the rest is overlooked! In Galatians Paul argues how Abraham is the father of all who come to God through faith rather than trying to obey the Law. We who believe God follow in Abram’s footsteps and are reckoned righteous as well. As Galatians says, any attempt to earn God’s grace is a return to slavery! So who is the generous one here? Is it not God, who, not counting our trespasses against us, has removed our iniquities as far away from us as east is from west, and given us a righteousness that is His, only because we believe Him? That’s generosity of spirit!

Abram is the showcase example of many others given in our second lesson from Hebrews 11. This chapter has been called the Faith Hall of Fame. Not every baseball player gets into the Baseball Hall of Fame, you have to do something that captures the spirit of baseball, that sets an example for others. Each person mentioned in this chapter did what Abram did. They believed God, and God who generously granted them that faith in the first place rewarded it with what they yearned for sight-unseen—a place where all is well.

And so Jesus says in the Gospel lesson, “It is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” Most of you know I am a falconer. Our son, Landon, left me his hawk chamber when he left for college and I have a mind to fly two hawks together, so I have returned Calrod to the wild—I am birdless. But that’s OK, soon enough I will head back to South Texas trapping. In preparation I am getting everything ready: I have fixed up the bird chambers, I have prepared dual transport boxes, and collected hoods. I am busy readying leathers and traps and plans. I’ve never trained two hawks together, but I figure I can do it. It’s gonna be good! In the same spirit Jesus ecstatically exclaims, “Fear not, little flock, for it is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom! Sell your possessions and give to the poor, provide for yourselves…treasure in heaven!” What would you do if you knew you had 48 hours to live? You’d give away what you didn’t need, you do what you always wanted to do, and you’d tell your loved ones you love them. Everything in your life would focus on a reality you have never experienced, yet, sight-unseen, you would treat it as if it were the present. Everything else you would joyfully dispose of! And what is that final reality? A great big celestial party, one at which God is so glad we’re there that He Himself, like His Son the night before He died, will set aside His splendor and take on the trappings of a slave, and serve us! Generosity of spirit welcomes the unseen and begins to joyfully live into it now.

What has God promised St. Christopher’s? He has promised growth and vitality and a powerful ministry in this area. When a falconer begins to train a new hawk there is something the falconer does and something the hawk has to do. The falconer works with the nature of the bird as best he understands it, but the hawk has to trust the human—he has to choose to come back. Over this the falconer really has no absolute control. His confidence is in his knowledge of the nature of the birds. In the same way, church growth requires something for the church to do and something for God to do. The church must learn to think and work in terms of the kind of church they believe God is calling them to be. Statistical studies show that our potential in this area is around 3000 people on a Sunday. A church of 3000 people can have a much greater impact on its community for Christ than a church of 200. We’re at about 7% of potential in numbers and impact. God always calls us to live into our potential. And all through this year we have been learning to work as a program- sized church, one that is adequately equipped to attend to the needs of well over our current 200, folks that we believe are already on their spiritual journey to St. Christopher’s even as we speak. But then God has to come through and move the hearts and minds of folks to come. That’s the magic over which we have no absolute control, but our confidence is in God’s promises and purposes. And so, we can be generous in spirit, knowing what is coming. Small thinking is out. Obstacles are but opportunities for grace. The target is so impossibly high that only by God’s grace will we achieve it, but I have total confidence in God’s grace!

What has God promised you? Who is it that God is calling you to be? You are one of God’s “little flock,” to you also, it is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. He just can’t wait to bless you with a dominion that joyfully and generously pours His life into you, and through you into this broken world we live in! All you have to do is believe Him!

Fr. Paul Moore+