Why I Love Being A Priest

The Most Beautiful Bird In America?
 

That time of year is upon us again. Friday morning, Chuck and I embarked with Fat Leo the Labrador on our first shoot of the season at Federal Valley Pheasant Farm, outside Amesville, Ohio.  We went five for five, and unfortunately, there was no one there to witness the feat.  Since everyone would naturally assume that Chuck and I would lie for each other in all things sporting, the wonderful claim falls into the same category as a golfing hole in one scored when one is playing alone.  But it was a good day, and Leo settled in pretty fast and gave yoeman's service on the lanes.

Todd Frazier's Rally Starting Home Run

On Thursday, I traveled to the Queen City to see the Reds close their last home stand of the year against the Brewers.  With two down in the bottom of the ninth, the Reds rallied to tie and then win the game.  The game had all the excitement of one of those devotional movie closings when the good guys come from behind to win, and it was great to be there in the flesh with my friends from St. John's to experience the jubilatioin of seeing the team I followed in my youth carry the day.

But the weekend was not all play.  I married a young couple from our parish and felt the joy of their decision to begin their life with each other in Christ.  I gave last rites to a dear friend, really more a sister, who is a longtime member of our parish.  I was priviledged to baptize a little boy whose father has just returned from an active duty deployment with the Ohio Army National Guard.  I had the opportunity to preach twice on our responsibilities as a parish to the children and the new Christians in our midst, and to lead a discussion on the difficult passages of the Bible and how sometimes it is hard to understand how God's character and person is revealed in those passages.  Later in the afternoon I was priviledged to bless a basset, three westies, a springer, a yorkie, a rat terrier, and a beagle at our annual animal blessing.  Along the way I had the opportunity to help a couple of folks with very real physical needs and to lend a listening ear to a handful more.  Oh yes, I also renewed a couple of old friendships and welcomed two families who spend half of the year somewhere else back to St. John's for County Fair week. 

Our Little Girls

But of all the happy and inspiring times of the weekend, the one which perhaps moved me the most was being able to spend time with my grand-daughters.  We laughed and played and fed the chickens and read books and just loved each other.  It is good to have them back in Ohio again.

Surely, life is a mixture of the wonderful and the difficult, of the inspiring and the discouraging, but I am so very thankful that God has immersed me in it as a Priest of His Church.  Someone asked me recently what I would be doing if I was not the priest at St. John's.  I really couldn't give them an answer, because I couldn't imagine doing anything else.  God has blessed me so richly in this place, and for that I am grateful.

The Marks of True Christian Faith

The Rev'd John R.W. Stott, M.A., D.D.

Our Wednesday morning Bible study at St. John's is currently focusing on the Epistles of St. John.  Many volumes have been written on these well organized and practical books, but I am regularly drawn back to the writings of the late John Stott in the Tyndale New Testament Commentaries and in Men With A Message, his brief introduction to the New Testament.  I have always found his "tests of assurance" to be particularly helpful as I evaluate my own faithfulness to Christ.

1. First is the "christological test" - "This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every Spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. (I John 4:2)"
2. Second is the "moral test"  - "This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God. (I John 3:10)"
3. Third is the "spiritual test" - "We know that we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers. (I John 3:14)" "This is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us. (I John 3:24)"

By applying these tests to my life, I can pretty readily determine whether or not Christ is making a difference in my life.  And from the evidence, I can gain a rather high level of assurance of the reality of my walk with the Father through the Son and in the power of the Holy Spirit.

But the Rev'd. Mr. Stott also points out that St. John reversed these same affirmations to name and define the spiritual liars such as the Cerinthians who sought to lead the faithful and unsuspecting astray.

1. "Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. (I John 2:22)"
2. "If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie. (I John 1:6)"
3. "If anyone says, 'I love God,' yet hates his brother, he is a liar. (I John 4:20)"

"These are the three proofs of genuine Christianity. John brings them all together at the beginning of his fifth chapter: 'Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well.  this is how we know that we love the chldren of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands' (5:1f.).  Unless Christians are marked by right belief, godly obedience, and brotherly love, they are counterfeit. They cannot have been born again, for those who are 'born of God' are those who believe (5:1) and obey (3:9) and love (4:7)."

Well said Brother Stott.  You leave little space or time for some of the stark denials of the faith received that are in the world today (No more than did St. John the Beloved for those same stark denials which abounded in Asia Minor in the first century.)  Might we all apply the truths revealed by God to Blessed John the Evangelist to our lives this day.  If we find in that application vindication and proof of our faith, might we give thanks with humility and purpose to continue in the faith received.  If we find ourselves wanting in the application, might we humbly submit to God's Word written and ammend our doctrine, and our behaviour, and our lack of love.

all quotations and paraphrases are drawn from Men With A Message by John Stott as revised by Stephen Motyer in 1994.  Published in the US by Eerdmans Publishing Co. in Grand Rapids 

Godspeed Captain Joe

For those of us who have served or who have waited, this picture needs no caption.  Matthew and Ashley took the girls to see Captain Joe off to sea, and possibly to war.  May God bless him, and bring him home safe and with the honour of having served faithfully.  There are some great pictures of the boys (and girls) putting to sea, but my old operational security briefings just won't let me post them.  Old soldiers never die.  Instead, I offer this prayer.

"O Eternal Lord God, who alone spreadest out the heavens, and rulest the raging of the sea; Vouchsafe to take into thy almighty and most gracious protection our country's Navy and Marine Corps, and all who serve therein.  Preserve them from the dangers of the sea, and from the violence of the enemy; that they may be a safeguard unto the United States of America, and a security for such as pass on the seas upon their lawful occasions; that the inhabitants of our land may in peace and quietness serve thee our God, to the glory of thy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen"


Classical Virtues and True Beauty

Rector's Rambling: October 2012


Phidias: The Cavalcade-Balance, Function, and True Beauty

Sitting here in my chapel/study, I am surrounded by memories.  Directly in front of me is a bronze statue of the Minuteman at Lexington (or was it Concord,) presented to me by the members of my regiment upon my retirement.  He stands defiant, rifle in hand, alongside a plow over which is draped a cloak.  The reference to Livy's account of Cincinnatus is inescapable.  On the shelf below the Minuteman are the chief's stripes from my Dad's dress blue Navy Uniform. In the far corner stands another bronze of St. George slaying the dragon, and beneath that stands a stuffed red fox in front of a Joseph Petro print of Bishop Moody blessing the Knox County Hunt (which still needs to be hung after these many weeks.)  Behind me is a plaster cast of a Celtic hound, his collar broken, the oppressor's sword clenched between his teeth, and a broken crown beneath his left front paw.  Dave Harmon gave it to me when we dedicated the chapel here at Briarwood.  Over the altar, in the Romanesque leaded window, stands the Celtic cross my fellow professors presented to me when I left the college to enter chaplaincy and parish work again.  Next to me on the wainscoting ledge sits a picture of Rebecca taken when we were in college, sitting on a wall built by her father.  There is an Icon of Christ, and another of the Romanov martyrs, and small figurines of Generals Lee and Jackson.

There are so many memories in this room, and yet as I think about them, I realize that they all represent a common heritage and a common philosophy.  Tristan expressed it well when he called home last night.  He was in the midst of processing a particularly virulent attack on about everything he believes, and needed a sounding board.  I was it.  The article was a generalized attack on traditional Graeco-Roman concepts of beauty.  It maintained that they were merely long established tyrannies of the historic male hegemony which oppressed women and those who did not meet the traditional sculptor's standard of beauty.  Tristan responded that in design, good form always follows function, and that certain physical attributes are historically valued because they enhanced performance in a particular realm.  Furthermore, to maintain and develop those attributes, certain desirable social qualities are essential, like self-discipline, restraint, hard work, enhanced levels of understanding, and dedication to reaching goals.  He added that the article seemed to be written by a person who was unwilling to practice those "virtues" necessary to exhibit that beauty of form which follows and enables human function in its highest expression.  In short, the writer was, in his opinion, lazy, undisciplined, unwilling to sacrifice, and far too willing to blame their own rejection on the attitudes of others rather than on their own unwillingness to cooperate with those laws of nature which are self evident;  those laws which in an earlier age brought death or slavery to those who ignored them.

I suppose the vast majority of my nick knacks and keepsakes are reminders of what Tristan called "Traditional Values."  They remind me of old comrades, of shared sacrifice and hard work, of heroism and the disciplines which preserved freedoms and built empires-spiritual as well as political or economic.  In a very real sense, they call me to examine my spiritual life, and to realize that my physical and intellectual lives are important expressions of that "spiritual life" which I value so much.  Certainly, my salvation is all of grace.  It is freely given by Jesus Christ through the blood of the everlasting covenant.  I neither deserve it, nor can I do anything to attain it.  But once it becomes the defining feature of my life, I am changed forever, and called to put aside those bad habits of laziness, and thoughtlessness, and selfish lusts of the flesh and mind.  I am called to so discipline myself in grateful humility that I do my best to follow the example of who Jesus is and what he does in history.  The virtues of temperance, self-control, hard work, personal discipline, dedication, and submission to the revealed will of God- along with so many others, enable me by God's grace to be more like Jesus, that his work might be done in this world. 

David Brainerd, the early Puritan missionary to the natives of New England, lamented that God had given him a message to proclaim and a horse from which to proclaim it.  By not taking care of his physical health, he said, "I have killed the horse, and now I have no way to deliver the message."  His words call us all to pay closer attention to the exercise of the traditional virtues in our lives.  God calls us to do our best to develop physical, emotional, educational, and spiritual health that we might be able to serve him more faithfully and fully.  It is true that not all of us start with the same raw materials in every area.  Some of us have found our abilities to develop in one area or another severely limited  by accidents of nature beyond our control or by bad decisions we made in the past.  But whatever our situation, we are called in the here and now to do the best we can with what we possess in the present.  To labour toward that end is to attain true beauty in both the Classical sense and in the Christian sense. 

Thank you Tristan, for reminding me why I kept all of this junk.  In the weeks to come, might we all commit ourselves to the practice of those virtues which will help us to build stronger bodies, stronger minds, stronger relationships with each other, and more intimate relationships with Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord, my Master.

Faithfully,
Bill+
  

An Example of True Faith

Sermon for the Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost Proper 18B
Preached at St. John’s Lancaster- 9 September, 2012

Jesus and the SyroPhenecian Woman

                                    Mark 7:24-30 / Matthew 15:21-28

“It was, indeed, a pitiful spectacle, a woman crying aloud in so great affliction, that woman a mother, entreating for a daughter, and for a daughter in such evil case.” So spake blessed John of the Golden Tongue (Homilies in Matthew lxx) of today’s Gospel lesson. Any of us who have stood by the hospital bed of our child, waiting for the doctor to arrive, can certainly begin to appreciate the pathos of the situation. It happens somewhere every day, and it is never less compelling, less heart rending, than the time before. Some things we just never quite get used to, and the suffering of a child, especially our own child, perhaps leads that list of things we can never quite bring ourselves to understand or accept.

But if we can empathize with this woman whose daughter suffered this unspeakable evil, most of us have a very difficult time understanding the initial response of our Lord to her calamity. Why would Jesus, the life giver, the health bringer, the Messiah, say something so seemingly heartless to this woman when she first approached him? “…she besought him, that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter. But Jesus said unto her, Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children’s bread, and cast it unto the dogs.” (Mark 7:26b-27) What an awful thing to say. Such a statement would surely garner low marks regarding bedside manner in Seminary or Medical School.

Allow me a digression here, because it is very important. Article XX of the Articles of Religion of the Church of England, found in the back of the Prayer Book on page 871, says clearly that the Church has no authority to “expound one place of Scripture, that it be repugnant to another.” This means that if I read a passage of the Bible, this one or any other, and it seems to say something about Jesus which would confound or deny what the rest of the Bible says about him, I must be misinterpreting the passage, and I need to give it another look. We know that God is love, and that Messiah is the perfect reflection of the Father, for He and the Father are One. We know that Jesus was sinless, and that he came to bring the offer of God’s mercy and forgiveness to everyone. Therefore, we know that he would never just dismiss a person for any reason. And so we look deeper into the passage to understand these seemingly harsh words of Jesus.

The woman in today’s lesson was a Greek, that is, a non-Jew. More specifically, she was a syrophenician- a dweller in that land which had been pronounced by prophets to be cursed by God in an earlier age for their rejection and persecution of the Jews, those people who had been specially selected by God to bear the Gospel of Salvation to all the nations of the world. Blessed Origen, writing in Alexandria early in the third century, posited that this woman was chosen for this great miracle of God because her nationality was a spiritual sign to all of us. “Think of it this way: Each of us when he sins is living on the borders of Tyre or Sidon or of Pharaoh and Egypt. They are on the borders of those who are outside the inheritance of God.” (Commentary on Matthew 11:16) He says in the same passage: “The Gentiles, those who dwell on the borders, can be saved if they believe…”

There were among the people of Jesus’ time those who saw a stark distinction between the Jews, who had inherited the promises and duties of God, and everyone else, who had not. Surely they must have believed their outlook vindicated when Jesus indicated to this outsider that it would be wrong to take the provisions of God’s elect and make them available to “the dogs”, sic, those outside the Kingdom of God. Indeed, there was plenty for the Messiah to do within Israel as he attempted to gather “the lost sheep of the house of Israel” back into the safety of the sheepfold. Jesus maintained an ongoing disputation with people who believed this way, and in fact he had condemned their actions and beliefs roundly just before this encounter with this woman of whom Calvin said “Ceste femme, profane de nation,” -”that woman, a heathen as to her nation.” (Commentary On A Harmony of the Evangelists. I:269)

You see, God the Father in his infinite providential wisdom brought this woman to Jesus this day so that she might become for all the ages an example of what enduring faith looks like. Her example not only shamed those who held themselves to be the true followers of God, but it taught Christ’s disciples, then and now, a deep truth about the nature of God’s love and what an appropriate response to that love ought to look like.

We should first notice that this woman was not a trained theologian who had the answers before she started. She was from a heathen and cursed land. That, together with the fact that she was a woman, would indicate that she was unlikely to understand Jewish theology in its fulness. She was no scholar of the law. But she did know something of Jesus. According to St. Matthew’s account of this event, she “cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David…” (Matthew 15:22) Even in those times when God’s special provision was given to make Israel a nation which would bear salvation to the world, He had not forgotten the rest of humanity. Even as the rain fell on the just and the unjust, and the benefits of creation and the earth’s beauty and bounty were there for all, so snippets of understanding, imperfect and partial as they may have been, were bestowed upon all people. It was for her much as it was for each of us. We came to Jesus not in our widsom, or knowledge, or intelligence, or ability. We came to him in our need, with some instinctive but incomplete understanding that He was the one who could help us. We did not know where it might lead, but we came in hope, drawn by the Holy Spirit before we knew who the Holy
Spirit was, into the arms of the Christ (who we did not understand or fully appreciate,) and we were reconciled to God, the Father of us all. We do not get ready to approach God by preparing ourselves via some program of study or behaviour. Rather we respond to his effusive grace because he draws us. We come as we are.

Secondly, we should note the yearning persistence of this woman, a persistence born of love. Even though she was not a Jewess, she was a human being, made in the image of God. In that image, she loved deeply. She loved her daughter who suffered so greatly from the demonic forces of hell itself. With people made in God’s image through the ages, she longed for that day “when justice would roll forth like a mighty river,” and plenty and blessing would cover the earth “as waters cover the sea.” God is the God of History, and he has chosen to work within it. He took about 1400 years to prepare Israel for that “fullness of time” that St. Paul speaks of in Galatians. But throughout human history, he led people to see through a glass darkly via those yearnings which are common to us all. It should come as no surprise to us that Aztec warriors heard the prophesies of one who would come to bring salvation, or that even the cruel Vikings were not surprised to hear of a god who died for the people. I remember when I worked in the prison seeing the hardest inmates, who seemingly had no respect for God or men, brought to tears at the mention of a mother or grandmother who was kind to them. Love, you see, is a universal human language, given us as a part of God’s image at creation. As this poor woman illustrates for us today, love enables us to be persistent in persuit of good for those we love. It enables us to wait through the years, to never give up on those we love, and to believe that “all things work together for good to those who love the Lord and are called according to his purpose,” even when our prayers seem to go unanswered and our situations seem unchanged. Even when she received the apparent rebuff of being compared to a dog, she did not walk away in anger or disgust or dejection, but persevered.  In the face of this characterization of the special place of the Jews in relation to humanity at large, she patiently and humbly acknowledged that even though Israel held a special place in salvation history, she knew that God’s love went forth to all people. Surely, the persistence born of love displayed by this woman put to shame those Pharisees and scribes with whom Jesus had tangled earlier in the seventh chapter of St. Mark’s Gospel. And I must admit that sometimes her persistence to see deliverance come to one she loved puts my own faith and prayer life to shame as well. Is it any wonder that Jesus said to her in St. Matthew chapter fifteen, “O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt.”

Finally, we should note that when Jesus applauds this woman’s faith, faith which grew from just a spark of understanding and belief, faith that refused to be turned away by disappointment, faith that was the outgrowth of love for her daughter, he also condemns the lack of faith, or the aberration of faith which was displayed by so many of the learned doctors of Israel. Unlike them, she continued to hope for that salvation promised in Messiah, even when his immediate answer to her entreaty seemed to be a resounding “No.” The Reformer John Calvin speaks well when he says, “…faith will obtain anything from the Lord: for so highly does he value it, that he is always prepared to comply with our wishes, so far as it may be for our advantage.” (Commentary of a Harmony of the Evangelists I:269)

How stands your faith today? Is it more like that of those Pharisees and scribes with whom Jesus clashed, or is it more like that of this woman who came to Jesus to beg for the healing of her daughter?  Is it more about being right or about being in love? Does it demand that God do your will now and as you imagine would be best, or is it willing to play a part in his larger providential plan for all people? Does it walk with excessive confidence in your own opinions, and pride, or does it keep company with humility, and expectation, and hope in the promises of God? True faith, which issues in real godly persistence, is a gift born of love, a gift which flourishes when accompanied by that prayer of our Lord “Not my will but thine.” True faith is a gift which flows from the experience of knowing the love of God, and believing that his wish is deliverance, and healing, and salvation for all people. It is a gift born of love, issuing in love, and living in love. Might we all come to this holy altar today seeking more of this sacred gift, illuminated by this woman who came to Jesus in faith. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. AMEN.

Memories of My Dad

Federal's traditional purple 16 gague shot shell

Dad died a few years ago, and occasionally something reminds me of how much I miss him.  Today it was taking to the field with some friends for the first day of dove season.  I shot pretty well, always keeping in mind the truism from "Downton Abbey" that a shooter always wonders which is worse, "the sorrow at killing the bird, or the humiliation when you miss."  I had my fair share of both today, but the real story of the day was about remembering Dad.  He always shot 16 gauge.  In the old black powder days it was the perfect round ballistically.  When silver powder came along with its multitude of load possibilities, the "16" waned in popularity here in the US, although I'm told it remains very popular in Europe.  But I've always stuck with it because that's what Dad used. 

Last week, in preparation for the hunt, I stopped by Gander Mountain and picked up a few boxes of Federal shot shells in #8, the correct size for the small and elusive rockets that are called doves.  When I got to the peg today and opened the box to chamber my first two shots, I realized that the hulls on Federal 16's were still purple plastic.  My mind raced immediately back to the purple shells that were always stacked neatly in the bottom of the gun closet in Parker where I grew up.  It was almost like Dad was there with me.

My Dad: May he rest in peace

It's funny, the things that can trigger a memory.   For me is is usually something small and unexpected, like a purple hulled shotgun shell.  I'm glad it works like that.  I find great comfort in remembering what has gone before me, and in looking forward to what is to come.