Occasionally, I love technology

Today was a banner day for me and the US mail. I received the latest edition of Alexander Warrack's "Concise Scots Dialect Dictionary," which means I can start on my resolution to read the complete poems of brother Robert Burns. I also received the latest National Geographic map of the United Kingdom and Ireland, which allows me to trace Drs. Johnson and Boswell on their "Journey through the Western Isles" of 1792 or so. Since I was ordering things on Amazon, I also received Morwood's "Dictionary of Latin Words and Phrases," which I have meant to buy for years, but just never got around to it. But the most wonderful thing that came in today's mail was a reloading die and package of sabots for the .30 caliber rifle from SabotReloadingPro.com in Provo, Utah.

Tristan and I have long lamented that the country around here is too flat to shoot our rifles of choice in cals. 30-06 and 30-30. There is just too much chance for richochet. This has effectively kept us from hunting the coyote, which is perhaps the greatest threat to game in our part of the world (that is with the exception of modern farming and development practices- which we can't do anything about, feral house cats- which we don't shoot because they might be someone's pets, and red-tail and cooper's hawks- which are protected.) That is about to change, thanks to today's technological innovation. The sabots will allow us to shoot .224 caliber bullets at a whopping 4200 feet per second (almost twice the regular .30 caliber speed) and to use smaller specialty bullets which are designed to explode rather than richochet when they meet with any resistance. While we will still pay close attention to field of fire and backdrop to our targets (because no shooting sport is entirely without risk of mis-use by thoughtless idiots.), we now have the opportunity to provide a valuable service of coyote removal and spend time together afield- all thanks to the marvels of technology.

Those of you who know me well have a general idea about how much it pains me to say anything good about things modern, but credit must be given where credit is due. Bravo to the boys in Provo for adapting a technology that has been around the military for some time to civilian use. Hopefully it will mean more birds and rabbits in our future here in Fairfield County Ohio!

Sermon for Christ the King Sunday: A Challenge to Read, Mark, and Inwardly Digest...

Rector’s Rambling- December 2011

Printed below in its entirety is my sermon from Christ the King Sunday. It admonishes us as a Church to participate in Scripture Union’s Essential One Hundred Bible reading plan between now and Easter. I hope you will consider prayerfully participating in this godly discipline. It will renew our lives and our parish. If you would like a set of the “E-100” materials, they are available at the Church office or from the ushers at our Sunday services.

Faithfully,
Bill+

With the celebration of Christ the King Sunday and the start of Advent, a new Christian Year is upon us. The cycle is simple, and yet instructive. We consider the significance of it all as Advent begins and we realize our own failures in light of the judgment that will one day come upon us . We hope for deliverance as we consider the prophesies of one who will come to save us from our sins, and from ourselves. On Christmas, the King of Glory deigns to come among us as one of us. Him who is the eternal agent of creation becomes a baby, born of a virgin in fulfillment of prophecy and grows to sinless manhood. In Him, the good news of God’s mercy and redemption goes forth to all nations at Epiphany. “So God loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoso believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” In Lent, we consider the real significance of it all as we consider his goodness, his love, his grace; and contrast it with our own sinfulness. And then comes the agony of Holy Week when we more fully understand and mourn the impact of our choices upon him who is the best and the truest of all. We receive his body and blood on Maundy Thursday in that most poignant and confusing of services, and mourn on what it seems so strange to call “Good Friday.” And then comes Easter, that glorious day when Our Saviour overcomes death and the grave and our sins to give us new life and the hope of heaven. Our outlook is changed forever and we are known as the children of God by grace through faith. And then we wait with the disciples in Jerusalem for the coming of the promise, fulfilled at Pentecost when the Blessed Holy Ghost gathers us together, purifies us anew, fills us with grace and anoints us with power that we might go forth to do the work of God in this world. And all the nations will be drawn to him, just as the Bible says: “Every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord!”

The Christian Year enshrines the historic events of the life of Jesus of Nazareth, our Christ and our King. The Bible bears witness to the truth of these events, and the Creeds of the Church condense the sublime truths we proclaim in our worship. And yet there are so many in our world, and even in the Church who do not accept the reality of these things we celebrate. A few years back, Bishop Frey caused a great stir in the church press when someone asked him what made Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry so special. He said “We don’t cross our fingers when we say the creed.” A few weeks back, Fr. Bill McCleery and I had the honour of sitting under Dr. Luke Timothy Johnson, the great New Testament Scholar. I asked him what was non-negotiable for us Christians. His reply was direct and simple: “Creed and the Canon of Scripture.” We as Christians are bound to believe, if we are to honestly call ourselves Christians. We may have our doubts. We will never fully appreciate the truths in the Creed and the Canon of Scripture this side of Heaven. There is much we will never fully understand. But as Christians we are called to acknowledge the truth that Jesus Christ, the second person of the Holy and Blessed Trinity came among us, lived as one of us, and after his cruel murder was resurrected and transformed into the first fruits of glory to show us what we shall be as we believe in and follow him. Flee those who would deny the historical nature of these truths as you would flee the plague or the destruction of war. Embrace the faith of our Holy Mother the Church, the faith of patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and martyrs. Face your honest doubts and cling to him who is the author and finisher of our faith, the Jesus of history.

I believe that many of the problems and weaknesses of the churches in America today stem directly from ignorance of the Scriptures. While some of this ignorance is willful, much more of it is simply because so many Christians have never taken the time to read the Bible. As a people, we are far too likely to take our views of the reality of Christ from a program on the History channel or the Easter issues of Time or Newsweek. Many priests and professors, and even some bishops, spend more time explaining why details of the Bible could not be authentic to Jesus than they do teaching and living the precepts of our Lord. Some have gone so far as to decry or deny the veracity of Creed and Canon of Scripture while still drawing a paycheck from the Church. I must agree with Bishop Fitz-Simmons Allison when he names such duplicity a most dishonorable act. But there are many faithful and deep thinking Christians in professional Christian service and among the laity who have in faith committed themselves to simply following the Jesus of history, the Jesus of the Bible, with intellectual honesty and persevering confidence in him who saved us.

On this Christ the King Sunday, when we acknowledge the glory of our heavenly King, I would like to issue a challenge to all of us at St. John’s. The Scripture Union, which had its start as a missionary society of the Church of England, our mother church, has prepared a program which leads readers through what they deem the one hundred most significant passages in the Bible. The ushers handed everyone a tally sheet and Bible marker when you came in today. Between now and Easter, I would ask all of us to read these one hundred passages from the Bible. It has been said that “knowledge is power.” We as Christians might well amend that statement to read “Knowledge of God’s Word will transform and empower our lives.” Let us read a passage a day between now and Easter. Ask God to illuminate the passage as you read. Commit yourself to apply it’s teachings to your everyday life. Believe that these passages are reliable eyewitness accounts of the acts of God in the world. Call me if you have questions. I believe that if we commit ourselves to reading the Bible, the Holy Spirit will do a work among us that will transform us to the glory of God the Father into the image of Jesus, our one true King! In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. AMEN.

Thinking About Faith

Events and discussions of the last few days have led me to consider again the true nature of creedal Christianity. What is it that our Holy Mother the Church calls us to believe? What is the irreducible minimum content of that faith once received from the Apostles? While there is certainly room for argument around the edges, if there is no core verity to our Faith, then I seriously doubt it is really worth believing. It ceases to become an understanding of reality based on verifiable experience which enables us to enter into a living relationship with the Triune God.

I have long held Bishop FitzSimons Allison to be a man whose life is characterized by closeness to God, faithfulness to the Scriptures, and consistancy of character. He recently posted the following short essay on the website of the Diocese of South Carolina, and I pass it on in its entirity. I hope you will find it as thought provoking as I do. He cuts to the heart of one of the major issues facing the church today, the erosion and even the denial of doctrine. His essay, like so many of his writings over the years is provocative and takes sides, and therefore I think it is rather likely to be prophetic in nature. I offer it with a prayer for our beloved Episcopal Church, that we might see the beam in our own eye, and thereby be better enabled to see clearly the light of Christ.

Faithfully,
Bill+

Shrinking Jesus and Betraying the Faith
The following article was submitted by the Rt. Rev. C. FitzSimons Allison, XII Bishop of South Carolina, Retired

What caused the crisis now being faced not only by the Diocese of South Carolina but by the entire western Christian Church? It’s more than an issue of sexuality. It’s one of pandering to the secular culture, of shrinking Jesus and betraying the faith.
Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan are two remarkably popular theologians who teach a version of Christianity that reduces the Christian faith to contemporary secular assumptions. For Crossan, Jesus was an illiterate Jewish cynic. No Incarnation no Resurrection. The Easter story is “fictional mythology” (p. 161, Jesus a Revolutionary Biography). Borg claims that Jesus was only divine in the sense that Martin Luther King and Gandhi were divine. Borg dismisses the creeds (p.10, Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time) Jesus was a “spirit person,” “a mediator of the sacred,” “a shaman,” one of those persons like Abraham, Moses, Buddha, Mohammed, et al. (p. 32)
Recently Borg and Crossan have collaborated on a book, The Last Week: What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus’ Final Days in Jerusalem. Their Jesus is a semi-revolutionary leader of peasants and outcasts against the priestly elite and those who accommodate to the dominant system of Roman coercive authority. It was not our sinful condition that demanded his crucifixion but this elite. Borg and Crossan’s Jesus does not come from God to take away sin but arose from among the innocent to teach us how not to
be a part of the dominant systems. They fail to understand the depth of sin in all of us at all times, including peasants, as well as the elite. More importantly they lose the assurance of ultimate mercy and forgiveness.
Speaking of elites these two “scholarly authorities” purport to tell us, “What the Gospels Really Teach about Jesus.” They pander to an increasingly secular culture and to the human itch to find some undemanding simplicity that now finally explains everything. And they do this while
ignoring, and without reference to, the multitude of superior contemporary scholars such as Richard Bauckham, Raymond Brown, Luke Timothy Johnson, N. T. Wright, Richard Hays, Leander Keck, Christopher Bryan, and scores of others whose works reflect the faith of scripture and the creeds.
In addition to the academic arrogance of claiming that everyone has been wrong about Jesusuntil now, Marcus Borg, who is a member of the Episcopal Church, denies, in his writings, the creeds and doctrine he affirmed at his confirmation and in his present worship. It is the same
moral issue as that of Bishop Jack Spong who was asked by one of his clergy, “How can you, as a bishop, ask those you ordain to swear to doctrine that you expressly and personally deny?” Crossan, on the other hand, showed some moral integrity when he resigned his Roman Catholic orders. These are not times when people readily think in terms of doctrine or of honor.
Christian faith, but not secular faith, now effectively banned from schools, colleges, and universities, has been relegated to the private and subjective arena. The result is the growing popularity of any who eliminate from Christian faith all that secular trust finds incompatible: miracles, the radical nature of sin and the consequent radical nature of grace, transcendence, holiness, and our human desperate need for God’s initiative action in Jesus. The consequence of this secular replacement of Christianity over the years is that otherwise educated people can be bereft of any substantial grasp of scripture. One glaring example is Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori who tells us that Marcus Borg “opened the Bible to me.” (Acknowledgements A Wing and a Prayer). The Christian creed’s affirmation, to which she has repeatedly sworn, (but Borg negates) is that Jesus Christ is: “the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of his Father before all worlds, God of God, Light ofLight, very God of very God begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father; by whom all things were made . . .” Borg has not opened the scripture for Bishop Jefferts Schori but closed its revelation of Jesus’ divinity.
One must ask how such apostasy has come about in the Episcopal Church. One answer is given by the new bishop of Connecticut, Ian Douglas. He accurately claims,” The Episcopal Church does not readily think in terms of doctrine.” As one thinks carefully about this statement the spiritual pathology of TEC becomes apparent. Doctrine is “that which is taught, what is held, put forth as true” (Webster). Doctrine is a synonym for teaching. When we “do not readily think in terms of doctrine” we are unaware and
ignorant of Christian teaching. This is true of both “liberals” and “conservatives.” We were warned in scripture about losing our grasp on doctrine and the danger of false doctrine; (“. . . so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of
doctrine by cunning men, by their craftiness in deceitful wiles.” Eph. 4:14 (see also Titus 2:;7, I Tim. 1:3, and 4:16, II John 10, II Tim. 3:16, 4:2)
Bishop Douglas’s statement, however, is only true of Christian doctrine. The Episcopal Church does indeed think in terms of doctrine: doctrines of litigation, abortion, divorce, sexual behavior outside of marriage and all kinds of current politically correct doctrines, as well as teachings that Jesus is reduced from the Son of God to a “subversive sage.” (p. 119, Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time ) The Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church personifies this sad reduction, this shrunken Jesus, this betrayal of Christian faith. Her claim that “salvation is attained by many ways –Jesus Christ is a way, and God has many other ways as well. . .”(italics provided) (Interview, Time Magazine, July 10, 2006) is a violation of her ordination and consecration vows regarding the church’s creed (p. 519, Book of Common Prayer, , 1979). It is also sadly bereft of the Good News that salvation is never attained but freely given to those who believe. As to her belief in eternal life, she is unsure it exists and she contends that Jesus was more concerned with heavenly existence in this life. (Arkansas Democratic Gazette, Jan. 7, 2007) This sad result reduces Christian faith to the secular assumptions of this age while this age is in
desperate need of the very faith that has made it great. Dean William Inge’s famous warning has never been more apt than today: “The Church that marries the spirit of the age will find herself a widow in the next.” We thank God that the leadership of this diocese not only thinks in terms of Christian doctrine but is courageously committed to the sworn faith of scripture and creeds.
When Episcopalians do not think in terms of Christian doctrine they consciously and unconsciously conform to speculations of the current age. When the creedal and biblical affirmations of Jesus’ full humanity and divinity are given up we lose the promised assurance of God’s mercy. The sad secular substitute for divine mercy is a culture destroying permissiveness, lowered standards of morality in society, and diminishing honor in human character. Permissiveness is no substitute for mercy.
Let’s be clear – the doctrine of Borg, Crossan, and Jefferts Schori makes nonsense of the Eucharist: Holy and gracious Father: In your infinite love you made us for yourself; and, when we had fallen into sin and become subject to evil and death, you, in your mercy, sent Jesus Christ, your
only and eternal Son, to share our human nature, to live and die as one of us, to reconcile us to you, the God and Father of all. He stretched out his arms upon the cross, and offered himself, in obedience to your will, a perfect sacrifice for the whole world. (p.362 Book of Common Prayer 1979)
The doctrine of “mere man” (like Martin Luther King and Gandhi) is indeed a widespread heresy in modern times but finds no reflection in any of the major heresies. It was so rare that only a specialist is apt to know its name: psilantropism. One of the outstanding contemporary scholars, Timothy George, has this to say about heresy: Heresy is a deliberate perversion, a choice (hairesis in Greek), to break with the primary pattern
of Christian truth and to promulgate a doctrine that undermines the gospel and destroys the unity of the Christian Church. A Church that cannot distinguish heresy from truth, or, even worse, a Church that no longer thinks this is worth doing, is a Church which has lost its right to bear witness to the transforming Gospel of Jesus Christ who declared himself to be not only the Way and the Life, but also the Truth. Rest assured the Bishop and Diocese of South Carolina, in the face of heretical assault on the Church will be faithful to the “one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of all.” The challenge for us at this time is the opportunity to recover the neglected duty of “thinking in terms of doctrine” and to show the cruelty of heresy and declare the Gospel good news of Jesus Christ, Lord and Savior.

Honouring Those Who Serve and Doing What We Must

Rebecca and I just returned from Diocesan Convention in Dayton. It was like most other Diocesan Conventions, which means that I would have preferred to be somewhere else, but it is a part of my job, and as I keep reminding myself- the worst day at Convention is better than the best day finishing moulds in the foundary! There were some notable things that happened. The Convention was held at the Hope hotel at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, named for Bob Hope, the great entertainer who entertained American troops around the world for over fifty years. May God bless his memory. The meetings were held in the Holbrook Conference Center, named for US Secretary of State Richard Holbrook, who brokered the Dayton Peace Accords in the same facility where we met. There is something very satisfying about meeting in a place where so much good occurred and so many lives were saved in some of the worst of times. It gives one pause to consider the hard work involved in peacemaking. Bishop Breidenthal went out of his way to honour US veterans on this November 11th, Veteran's Day here and Remembrance Day for so many of our allies. Kudos to our bishop for remembering our troops and all they do to maintain peace and stability throughout the world. Thank you Bishop.

On Friday night, the St. John's delegation slipped away into Dayton's Oregon district and found a great little art deco bar and eatery specializing in mediteranean cuisine. The food was beautiful as well as delicious, and the conversation flowed as freely as the wine. For lunch on Saturday, we drove into Fairborne to follow up a tip about a great little Italian place. It was everything we had been led to believe. The Calizone was to die for and the price was right.

Apart from the food and the fellowship, it was good to see some friends and make a few new acquaintances. Yes, it was better than working at the foundary, or the auto plant for that matter. But we are very glad to be home, surrounded by dogs and the things we love. It is quiet here, and soon I will walk up to the barn to put the horses and the chickens to bed. While conventioneering is far from my favorite thing about being a priest, I am home now and contented with my lot. For that I give thanks.

"Pastor, what do you think about Occupy Wall Street?"

Several people have asked me over the last few days what I think about the “Occupy” movement. I’ve given it some thought, and while I would never claim the authority of the Holy Spirit on such issues, I think my thoughts are relatively clear and somewhat balanced. I offer them as my own, and not those of St. John's or the Episcopal Church. I would gladly welcome discussion on them (preferably face to face over coffee- I'll buy.) I could after all be wrong, and the discussion would probably help both of us to apply our faith more authentically to the great issues of life.
1. I think that for the Church, her officers, and her official bodies to make strong political statements or to take strong political positions is extremely divisive and usually does more to drive well meaning people out of the church than it does to serve any prophetic ministry of the Church.
2. I think that the “Occupy” movement, like the “Corporate World” it seeks to address, is probably filled with a lot of very capable and well intentioned people with some very legitimate concerns. It also (like the “Corporate World”) has some very real troublemakers, ne’er do wells, and dangerous and unprincipled people in its ranks.
3. I think that any society which is characterized by a sense of division, and where enough people feel marginalized and disenfranchised to cause such civil unrest probably needs to do some serious self-evaluation:
a. Shapers of opinion need to acknowledge their role in turning people against each other and stop doing it, whatever their motives.
b. Holders of power and resources need to acknowledge their responsibility to the broader community and develop self-enforced ethical guidelines for living into that responsibility.
c. Those who lack larger scale power or resources need to acknowledge their responsibility to work within a flawed system and not seek to destroy the system (at least in a constitutional republic such as ours.)
d. Everyone needs to see everyone else as individuals created in God’s image rather than as members of groups destined to unending conflict and worthy of unending scorn.
e. Everyone needs to ignore and isolate demagogues as unworthy of consideration in civil society.
4. I think it is dangerous and often illegal to damage public or private property, to participate in large and potentially disruptive assemblies without a permit and a plan for maintaining order, or to impede anyone on the way to conduct lawful commerce or personal business.
In short, I think there are probably legitimate concerns and legitimate people in the “Occupy” movement and in the “Corporate World.” I am concerned that demagogues on the one hand and hard heads (or hard hearts) on the other get far too much consideration and control in modern society. I fear that if real revolution ever comes (from any source or point of view,) most of what we hold dear will be destroyed. And Finally, I think the Christian Community needs to work a lot harder at demonstrating those attitudes and ethics which will usher in the New Jerusalem.

More Wisdom from Margaret

Three year old Margaret's catechesis at the hands of her mother is coming along very well. Like her Mother and Uncle Tristan, she is growing up with the solemn understanding that the great men and women of the past were near associates of her family. My children really did believe for a time that Scipio Africanus, Cincinnatus, Horatius, Our Lady, and St. Paul were not that far removed from their grandparents in time and space, and that most of them had probably helped Little Grandpa and Uncle Jake defeat the combined armies and navies of Imperial Japan. And so it is really no surprize that with her mother's help, she is developing a view of the immanence of our Lord's humanity which is most refreshing. Here are her recent comments on what Christmas will be like in "The California."

"...and then we will have a party and have cake and ice cream and we will go to the playground and Jesus will go down the slide with me at the playground and we will have decorations and go to church and have a party and it will be fun and we will have presents for Jesus for his birthday and it will be in December and Mama and Papa will be there and I will play with Jesus on the playground..."

As daughter Ashley wrote, "A clearer version of heaven I have never heard."

Wisdom from Margaret

When I logged on this morning, I found the most wonderful message from daughter Ashley. The subject line read simply "Wisdom from Margaret" (our beautiful three year old grand-daughter in "the California.") The message read, "I love Jesus because Jesus loves me." What a wonderful way it was to start the day. Life gets so very complicated some days, and as the Scriptures say, "Out of the mouths of babes thou has perfected praise!"

Good news came to us yesterday afternoon. Bishop Salmon, retired of South Carolina and currently Dean of the Seminary at Nashotah House, will be able to attend son-in-law Matthew's ordination in Advent in "the California." He is a godly man, filled with the wisdom and good humor or our Lord, and has had such an important role in the formation of Matthew for holy orders.

Tuesday afternoon, I had occasion to stop by Ohio Christian University in search of an organist for our parish. Things there went quicker than I had anticipated, and on my way to Columbus to the University Medical Center, I determined that it would be a shame to complete such a beautiful day without some small sporting diversion. So I swung by the boat ramps at A.W. Marion State Park and cast a leadwing coachman into the edge of a weedbed bordering a hole where I had done pretty well in years past. While I was working on my roll cast, I noticed a hiker coming down the trail. He looked familiar, and as he came closer, I realized it was Sergeant Major Osbourne, with whom i had served some years back. We laughed and talked about the old days, our kids, and life out of uniform. He was in the woods plotting hardwood locations for a study about the impact of exurbanization on reforestation patterns. It seems that the breakup of the large farms into smaller holdings over the past forty or fifty years has led to substantially fewer field and woodlot fires, with the unintended consequence that softwoods are replacing hardwoods in many parts of the region- something to do with faster regeneration rates among the lesser desirable woods and insufficient light for the early hardwood growth (I think.) It is much more complex than that, but I suppose that is a layman's misunderstood generalization of the type that makes up most political ads. In any event, I think I learned something, and it was great to catch up with an old friend who did much throughout his career in the Army and in the Fire Service to care for his soldiers and firefighters and their families. May God bless the SGM for his godliness, his decency, his concern for the environment, and his love of the people among whom he has worked.