Sermon for Proper 17C RCL
To be preached at St John’s Lancaster, 1 September, 2013
Luke 14:12-14
Jesus tells three stories about dinners in Luke 14, and today I would like to focus on the second of those stories. The first story talks about how we should be humble. The third points out that many religious people will not find a seat at the heavenly banquet because they do not put God first in their lives. But the second examines our motives for doing good, and alone among the three makes each of us the thrower of the party, and not an invited guest. Jesus points out that often when we throw a party, we are prone to invite those people who are likely to return the favor. He calls us to branch out and invite people who don’t have the resources or the ability to return the favor, and then God will recompense us on their behalf.
I think in all likelihood our Lord is talking about our motives for doing the things we do. In short, why do we help a person of limited means or opportunities, or a person who is economically poor or marginalized, or a person who is pushed aside because of their looks, or their associations, or the choices they have made in life? I would suggest that the reasons people help others are many and complex. Some of them are good and some are not. Jesus calls us all to examine our own motives as we go about doing good, and where those motives need to be made more holy, to give them over to his redeeming grace. Walk with me today through some of the motives we sometimes share for doing good, and examine prayerfully your own motives, even as I examine mine.
Some people do good things because it makes them feel good about themselves. Now, all of us feel good when we help another person. That is in our nature, and there is nothing wrong with that at all. But if that is as far as it goes, it can lead to a very selfish way of living in the end. It could lead one to do only that good which they enjoy or in which they are interested, leaving those people or situations considered unpleasant to fend for themselves. So we might say that while it is perfectly fine to do good because it makes us feel good, questions arise when we do good primarily or exclusively because it makes us feel good.
Some people do good because it provides them with the opportunity to control other people. Such a temptation is particularly present in a democracy, where I can force my own values on others, or confiscate their wealth, or induce people to support my vision through patronage or cronyism merely by obtaining a vote of fifty percent plus one, or even through a minority plurality is some instances. This is not to say that democracy is a bad thing, or that our values should not have an impact on our politics, or that taxes are bad or unjustified, or that political patronage, or even rewarding supporters is always a bad thing. It is to say that pragmatic reasons for doing good are not enough. There must be, as Jesus implies in this passage, some true altruism, some real desire to do good merely because it is the right thing to do!
Perhaps that is why Jesus advises the party giver to invite those people who could never hope to return the favor: the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind. I am called to do good not because of what it can do for me, but simply because it is the right and good thing to do. Whether anyone else even knows that I have done good is not important. Whether it nets me a return invitation, or a vote, or influence, or access, or feelings of self-actualization or self-esteem, or any other thing real or imagined, is not important. As Christians, we are called to merely do what is right because it is right. We are called to so open our hearts and minds to the transforming redemption of Jesus, in the power of the Holy Ghost, that we start doing things for the same reason that Jesus did things when he walked this earth- for the same reason that he still does things. We are called to do things just because they are the right thing to do- because they are the true expression of our character. We are called to see all people as Jesus sees them, indeed as he sees us. We are called to do for others as Jesus does for them, indeed as he does for us. We are called to seek peace and plenty, and redemption for all people merely because God our Father has decreed them to be right, and we are to follow in the footsteps of Jesus, who lived on this earth to among other things give us an example of how we ought to treat each other.
And this leads us to one of the most disturbing considerations of all. Jesus says that if we do good for those who cannot recompense us, if we do good for its own sake, God himself will recompense us at the resurrection of the just. I would suggest that sometimes, in our religious zeal, we are prone to do good because of our belief that it will bring heavenly reward. Now, good motives which arise from hope of heaven are not all bad, but if they never mature beyond the hope of reward, they scarce exhibit the example of Jesus, and practiced for reward over many years, they tend to become a faith based in legalism or magic. That is, if I do good, then God must bless me. Or more piously put, if I do good, then God will certainly bless me. In the end those are very similar sentiments, and they both put the cart before the horse. I once found myself in the unenviable position of putting the cart before the horse. I was driving Squirt, our pony, and a piece of the harness, a side line, broke quite unexpectedly. She lunged to the side and then began to back up, but without the harness properly in place, the cart buckled and sustained rather severe damage. Fortunately, the horse was uninjured, but the cart was beyond repair. It does not do to get the cart before the horse. The proper order for our motives as Christians is to be redeemed through the Grace of God through the blood of the everlasting covenant. The transformation effected by this redemption purifies our hearts by the agency of the Holy Ghost and leads us to see others as God sees us all. We see in each other the potential of what God would have us to be, and are able to forgive and forget those things that we did of late to each other. In short, our relationships with each other are healed even as is our relationship with God. From such forgiveness and love flows a genuine desire to live and do as Jesus lived and did. The upshot is good deeds because of who we are, and because of our feelings of forgiveness and love to all people. Every day, as we walk with God in prayer and in the fellowship of his church, we grow to be more and more like Jesus. And then, when we die, God receives us as his own, which is the natural outcome of our being one with him.
I hope you will join me in examining your own motives as we approach the altar of God today. Might we honestly look within our hearts, and in this sacrament offer ourselves anew to God in lives of pure motives and good deeds towards all men. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Saturday, August 31, 2013
Saturday, August 24, 2013
Luke 13:10-17, Proper 16C RCL
Considerations arising from Luke 13:10-17, Proper 16C Revised Common Lectionary
With Deacon Eager preaching this Sunday, I have the liberty to take a bit more relaxed approach to the Gospel for today. The lesson concerns Jesus’ decision to heal a woman on the Sabbath, and the outrage which ensued. It is the last story in a didactic passage which deals with common misunderstandings about what the Good News of God’s dealings with us in law and grace really means; and it precedes Luke’s accounts of our Lord’s parables of the kingdom. And so it is reasonable to assume that the point of the account is to clarify how the law of Sabbath is supposed to demonstrate the love and mercy of God usward. St. Augustine says that the ruler of the synagogue demonstrates his misunderstanding of the Sabbath by failing to understand God’s spiritual mercy in his insistence on the letter of the law. Ambrose maintains that if the letter of the law could be relaxed to rescue an animal from bondage on the Sabbath, certainly it was permissible to rescue men and women from the bondage of sin and sickness! Cyril of Alexandria comments on how the motives of the ruler of the synagogue were consumed by jealousy towards Jesus, and his attitude caused him to completely misunderstand the nature of God’s mercy as it relates to the expectations of righteousness which are inherent in the law. His attitudes blinded him to the signs of the times, and to the proper understanding of Scripture. Haven’t we all experienced this to be true in our own lives at one time or another? (Patristic citations are taken from Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, New Testament, Volume III, p224 ff.) John Calvin, perhaps the greatest of the Protestant commentators, follows Cyril in saying that “the malignity” of the religious authorities blinded them to the true nature of God’s law and grace. (cf . Calvin. Commentary on a Harmony of the Evangelists… Vol.II pp. 154 ff.) There seems to be general agreement among Fathers and Reformers that it is the spirit of the Sabbath that is the important part of the observance, and that when the letter trumps in a judgmental and critical way, the attitude of the enforcer has often blinded him or her to the real meaning of God’s revelation.
We live in an age when Sabbath observance has largely ceased to exist, in either spirit or letter. The nature of modern commerce and shopping patterns prevents many Christians from weekly attendance upon the Sacrament of Christ’s body and blood, and upon the regular exposition of God’s word. The vast and rapid expansion of youth sport since the adoption of title IX in the early seventies has led to a chronic shortage of sports facilities in most American communities, and the resultant expansion of programs to Sunday puts many Christian parents in the unenviable position of choosing between adequate catechesis for their children and the opportunity to develop character and social skills through sport. And the question remains, “What is it lawful to do on the Sabbath?” “What does God expect of us if we are to keep the spirit of the day?” While reading this week, I came across a pair of royal proclamations issued in the seventeenth century by two successive English kings which are as current today as they were then. “The Book of Sports” was issued by King James I of England (and VI of Scotland) in 1618. It was an age in which most Christians of all parties were what we would today call sabbatarians, but on a royal trip through Lancashire in 1617, his Majesty had noted a particular dourness and surliness among his subjects on Sundays. He rightly noted that there were those in the kingdom, particularly Roman Catholics, who cited the joyless Sundays of the Protestants as evidence that there was a sinister negativity in the new faith of the English Royals. He also noted that the Puritans, members of his own state church at that time, used the Sabbath observances to control their neighbors, and giving control to someone who wanted it is seldom good policy if you wish to rule effectively. The upshot of it all was twofold. First, people who were unhappy with the excesses of repressive fundamentalism seldom practice the faith of the realm sincerely and willingly. Secondly, people who work hard all week, and are forced to either be in church or remain idle on their one day off, are likely to become sickly and physically weak due to inactivity, and are thereby unfit to fight the king’s wars when called upon to do so. Incidentally, says the king, people who are forced to inactivity when they would be active are prone to sit at home or in the pub and drink and gamble, neither of which are good for the kingdom as a whole. Therefore:
“Our pleasure likewise is, That after the end of Divine Service, Our good people be not disturbed, letted (hindered), or discouraged from any lawful recreation, Such as dancing, either men or women, Archery for men, leaping, vaulting, or any other such harmlesse Recreation, nor from having May-Games (a particular venue for sports in that time), Whitson Ales (traditional times for celebrations and games), and Morris-dances, and setting up of May-poles (the center for community sports) & other sports therewith used, so as the same be had in due & convenient time, without impediment or neglect of Divine Service….” the document goes on to forbid Bear and Bull baiting due to its extreme cruelty, theatricals, because of their generally licentious nature, and bowling, which was a major occasion for high stakes gambling. There is then a clarification to make it absolutely clear that everyone is expected to attend Divine Service before the games start. And oh by the way, don’t carry offensive weapons in church. “Given at our Mannour of Greenwich the foure and twentieth day of May, in the sixteenth yeere of Our Raigne of England, France and Ireland, and of Scotland the one and fiftieth.”
By 1633, the forces of control had found ways to interpret and subvert King James’ edict in a way which shut down the games for all intents and purposes, and so the edict was reissued with an endorsement by King Charles I of blessed memory. “Wee farther Command Our Justices of the assize in there several Circuts, to see that no man doe trouble or molest any of Our loyall and duetifull people, in or for their lawful Recreations, having first done their duetie to God, and continuing in obedience to Us and Our Lawes. And of this Wee command…Given at Our Palace of Westminster the eighteenth day of October, in the ninth yeere of Our Reigne. God save the King.”
And so we might say that in the Anglican tradition, Sabbath observance is concerned with the spirit of the day. It is sometimes hard for us to think in such a way, because like the ruler of the synagogue in Jesus’ day, our own anger at being marginalized by culture at large tends to make us judgmental of a culture which no longer does things our way, or we simply say “times have changed” and adopt the ways of the world. Two of our “Defenders of the Faith” said it so well so many years ago, and we can scarce improve on their edicts. We ought to come to church on Sunday, and after that, there is no harm in a bit of clean fun or good exercise. The important thing is that we honour God by attending regularly upon word and sacrament, thereby expressing to our loving heavenly Father our appreciation for all he has done for us, and demonstrating that he is first in our lives. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. AMEN.
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| King James VI of Scotland and I of England Defender of the Faith |
We live in an age when Sabbath observance has largely ceased to exist, in either spirit or letter. The nature of modern commerce and shopping patterns prevents many Christians from weekly attendance upon the Sacrament of Christ’s body and blood, and upon the regular exposition of God’s word. The vast and rapid expansion of youth sport since the adoption of title IX in the early seventies has led to a chronic shortage of sports facilities in most American communities, and the resultant expansion of programs to Sunday puts many Christian parents in the unenviable position of choosing between adequate catechesis for their children and the opportunity to develop character and social skills through sport. And the question remains, “What is it lawful to do on the Sabbath?” “What does God expect of us if we are to keep the spirit of the day?” While reading this week, I came across a pair of royal proclamations issued in the seventeenth century by two successive English kings which are as current today as they were then. “The Book of Sports” was issued by King James I of England (and VI of Scotland) in 1618. It was an age in which most Christians of all parties were what we would today call sabbatarians, but on a royal trip through Lancashire in 1617, his Majesty had noted a particular dourness and surliness among his subjects on Sundays. He rightly noted that there were those in the kingdom, particularly Roman Catholics, who cited the joyless Sundays of the Protestants as evidence that there was a sinister negativity in the new faith of the English Royals. He also noted that the Puritans, members of his own state church at that time, used the Sabbath observances to control their neighbors, and giving control to someone who wanted it is seldom good policy if you wish to rule effectively. The upshot of it all was twofold. First, people who were unhappy with the excesses of repressive fundamentalism seldom practice the faith of the realm sincerely and willingly. Secondly, people who work hard all week, and are forced to either be in church or remain idle on their one day off, are likely to become sickly and physically weak due to inactivity, and are thereby unfit to fight the king’s wars when called upon to do so. Incidentally, says the king, people who are forced to inactivity when they would be active are prone to sit at home or in the pub and drink and gamble, neither of which are good for the kingdom as a whole. Therefore:
“Our pleasure likewise is, That after the end of Divine Service, Our good people be not disturbed, letted (hindered), or discouraged from any lawful recreation, Such as dancing, either men or women, Archery for men, leaping, vaulting, or any other such harmlesse Recreation, nor from having May-Games (a particular venue for sports in that time), Whitson Ales (traditional times for celebrations and games), and Morris-dances, and setting up of May-poles (the center for community sports) & other sports therewith used, so as the same be had in due & convenient time, without impediment or neglect of Divine Service….” the document goes on to forbid Bear and Bull baiting due to its extreme cruelty, theatricals, because of their generally licentious nature, and bowling, which was a major occasion for high stakes gambling. There is then a clarification to make it absolutely clear that everyone is expected to attend Divine Service before the games start. And oh by the way, don’t carry offensive weapons in church. “Given at our Mannour of Greenwich the foure and twentieth day of May, in the sixteenth yeere of Our Raigne of England, France and Ireland, and of Scotland the one and fiftieth.”
By 1633, the forces of control had found ways to interpret and subvert King James’ edict in a way which shut down the games for all intents and purposes, and so the edict was reissued with an endorsement by King Charles I of blessed memory. “Wee farther Command Our Justices of the assize in there several Circuts, to see that no man doe trouble or molest any of Our loyall and duetifull people, in or for their lawful Recreations, having first done their duetie to God, and continuing in obedience to Us and Our Lawes. And of this Wee command…Given at Our Palace of Westminster the eighteenth day of October, in the ninth yeere of Our Reigne. God save the King.”
And so we might say that in the Anglican tradition, Sabbath observance is concerned with the spirit of the day. It is sometimes hard for us to think in such a way, because like the ruler of the synagogue in Jesus’ day, our own anger at being marginalized by culture at large tends to make us judgmental of a culture which no longer does things our way, or we simply say “times have changed” and adopt the ways of the world. Two of our “Defenders of the Faith” said it so well so many years ago, and we can scarce improve on their edicts. We ought to come to church on Sunday, and after that, there is no harm in a bit of clean fun or good exercise. The important thing is that we honour God by attending regularly upon word and sacrament, thereby expressing to our loving heavenly Father our appreciation for all he has done for us, and demonstrating that he is first in our lives. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. AMEN.
Friday, August 23, 2013
Early Fall in Rural Ohio
I love living in the country. This time of year is absolutely the best, and I share just a few of the wonderful things that are happening in our small and delightful world.
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| Grape harvest is in full swing with delicious jams and jellies to follow. |
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| Augustus, the Scottish Black Faced Ram has arrived at Dayspring Farm |
George is now eating at the table
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| Margaret started Kindergarten |
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| Oscar gets home on the 7th and his first puppy hunt is booked at Federal Valley for the 13th with four birds! |
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| The County Fair is just around the corner |
I hope your world is as blessed as ours, and that the peace of God reigns in your heart.
Saturday, August 17, 2013
Sermon for Proper 15C RCL: Luke 12:49-56 & Hebrews 11
Homily for Proper 15C Revised common Lectionary
Preached at St. John’s Lancaster on 18 August, 2013
Isaiah 5:1-7
Psalm 80
Hebrews 11:29-12:2
Luke 12:49-56
The argument can be easily made that one of the greatest illuminations of today’s Gospel lesson is that of St. Ambrose of Milan in his Exposition of the Gospel of St. Luke. He points out that Jesus often said things which at first seemed offensive or illogical to his hearers, but when we think about them, and understand them in their proper Biblical context, they are perfectly reasonable, and draw us to a deeper understanding of God‘s will for our lives. Such is today’s lesson. All of us remember the many admonitions of Jesus that we ought to love each other. We are admonished to honour our parents, and he pronounces plainly that he gives us his peace. So what is all of this talk about divisions within households and family members being at enmity with each other? After promising to bring peace and harmony, does Jesus instead bring us discord at the end? Does he, to employ his own words, promise us an egg and deliver a scorpion?
Ambrose tells us that the issue is really quite simple. “It is necessary that we esteem the human less than the divine. If honour is to be paid to parents, how much more to your parents’ Creator, to whom you owe gratitude for your parents! If they by no means recognize their Father, how do you recognize them? He does not say children should reject a father, but that God is to be set before all. Then you have in another book, He that loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. You are not forbidden to love your parents, but you are forbidden to prefer them to God. Natural children are true blessings from the Lord, and no one must love the blessing that he has received more than God by whom the blessing, once received, is preserved.”
But there are realities in this world that we would not choose. Every one of us is either of God or of the Devil. We have either received the Father’s grace through Jesus the Son in the power of the Holy Spirit, or we wander in darkness and sin, separated from God and seeking our own way with map and compass corrupted for our use by the father of lies. When such an awful thing happens in our homes, we must always remember the admonition that we must never prefer anyone or anything to God. And at that point comes the division of which Jesus speaks. It is never easy. In the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, we read that “By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward.” Like Abraham before him, he desired “a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.”
Indeed he has prepared for us a city, “not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” We pray from the bottom of our hearts that we and all those we love might dwell there forever, in that place where there are no more tears, and where disease and broken relationships will be put away for ever. But when we are forced by the evil choices that so often abound in this world to choose between God and another, we as Christians are called to walk in the way of God, even if it means upsetting those who are nearest and dearest to us. We continue to love them, and to pray for them (not at them), and to do all we can to live virtuous, kind, and loving lives in their presence. But we are now marked as Christ’s own, soldiers of the Cross, sworn to fight against the forces of the world, the flesh, and the devil now and until Jesus comes.
And so on this Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost, and Twelfth after Trinity, in the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand and Thirteen, I bid you love your family with all your heart and strength, but love God more. Realize that if you have family members who have not yet known the grace of God through the blood of Jesus, that they are still people for whom Christ died, and that you ought to love them and pray for them and when possible enjoy their presence whatever their life choices. But know that if Satan, the enemy of our souls, sets the stage for that division over matters of lifestyle and faith, that division which our Lord prophesied. If your Christian faith, attitudes, and practices, disrupt the non-Christian expectations of someone you love; remember that your first loyalty is to God. Be faithful to him with humility and obedience to his way of holiness and love. Do not seek to batter members of your family into submission by judgmental attitudes or argument. Rather convince them by the constancy of your love for them and by the peace that is in your heart, which is that peace of Christ which passes all understanding. Pray for them privately every day, trusting in God’s sweet Spirit to woo them into his blessedness.
I hope this has helped someone today to understand how we might live our faith within our broader families. Like Ambrose said, “The question really is quite simple.” We are called to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and our neighbors as ourselves. We are also called to realize that this is not a perfect world, and that divisions will occur within our families. Let our faith be so constant and loving that our motives and love can never be doubted for long. And let us persevere in faithfulness to God and love to those we call our family, even if they do not yet acknowledge his grace.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour. AMEN.
Preached at St. John’s Lancaster on 18 August, 2013
Isaiah 5:1-7
Psalm 80
Hebrews 11:29-12:2
Luke 12:49-56
The argument can be easily made that one of the greatest illuminations of today’s Gospel lesson is that of St. Ambrose of Milan in his Exposition of the Gospel of St. Luke. He points out that Jesus often said things which at first seemed offensive or illogical to his hearers, but when we think about them, and understand them in their proper Biblical context, they are perfectly reasonable, and draw us to a deeper understanding of God‘s will for our lives. Such is today’s lesson. All of us remember the many admonitions of Jesus that we ought to love each other. We are admonished to honour our parents, and he pronounces plainly that he gives us his peace. So what is all of this talk about divisions within households and family members being at enmity with each other? After promising to bring peace and harmony, does Jesus instead bring us discord at the end? Does he, to employ his own words, promise us an egg and deliver a scorpion?
Ambrose tells us that the issue is really quite simple. “It is necessary that we esteem the human less than the divine. If honour is to be paid to parents, how much more to your parents’ Creator, to whom you owe gratitude for your parents! If they by no means recognize their Father, how do you recognize them? He does not say children should reject a father, but that God is to be set before all. Then you have in another book, He that loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. You are not forbidden to love your parents, but you are forbidden to prefer them to God. Natural children are true blessings from the Lord, and no one must love the blessing that he has received more than God by whom the blessing, once received, is preserved.”
But there are realities in this world that we would not choose. Every one of us is either of God or of the Devil. We have either received the Father’s grace through Jesus the Son in the power of the Holy Spirit, or we wander in darkness and sin, separated from God and seeking our own way with map and compass corrupted for our use by the father of lies. When such an awful thing happens in our homes, we must always remember the admonition that we must never prefer anyone or anything to God. And at that point comes the division of which Jesus speaks. It is never easy. In the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, we read that “By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward.” Like Abraham before him, he desired “a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.”
Indeed he has prepared for us a city, “not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” We pray from the bottom of our hearts that we and all those we love might dwell there forever, in that place where there are no more tears, and where disease and broken relationships will be put away for ever. But when we are forced by the evil choices that so often abound in this world to choose between God and another, we as Christians are called to walk in the way of God, even if it means upsetting those who are nearest and dearest to us. We continue to love them, and to pray for them (not at them), and to do all we can to live virtuous, kind, and loving lives in their presence. But we are now marked as Christ’s own, soldiers of the Cross, sworn to fight against the forces of the world, the flesh, and the devil now and until Jesus comes.
And so on this Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost, and Twelfth after Trinity, in the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand and Thirteen, I bid you love your family with all your heart and strength, but love God more. Realize that if you have family members who have not yet known the grace of God through the blood of Jesus, that they are still people for whom Christ died, and that you ought to love them and pray for them and when possible enjoy their presence whatever their life choices. But know that if Satan, the enemy of our souls, sets the stage for that division over matters of lifestyle and faith, that division which our Lord prophesied. If your Christian faith, attitudes, and practices, disrupt the non-Christian expectations of someone you love; remember that your first loyalty is to God. Be faithful to him with humility and obedience to his way of holiness and love. Do not seek to batter members of your family into submission by judgmental attitudes or argument. Rather convince them by the constancy of your love for them and by the peace that is in your heart, which is that peace of Christ which passes all understanding. Pray for them privately every day, trusting in God’s sweet Spirit to woo them into his blessedness.
I hope this has helped someone today to understand how we might live our faith within our broader families. Like Ambrose said, “The question really is quite simple.” We are called to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and our neighbors as ourselves. We are also called to realize that this is not a perfect world, and that divisions will occur within our families. Let our faith be so constant and loving that our motives and love can never be doubted for long. And let us persevere in faithfulness to God and love to those we call our family, even if they do not yet acknowledge his grace.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour. AMEN.
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
The Caroline Divines: Rector's Rambling Reccomendation for September Reading
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| King Charles I; Henrietta Maria; and their two eldest children, King Charles II and Mary, Princess of Orange by Sir Anthony Van Dyck. |
I've always been attracted to those writers known as the "Caroline Divines." They were for the most part men of good will who sought to follow God faithfully during the reigns of King Charles I, the Protectorship of Oliver Cromwell, and the reign of King Charles II. Their writings reflect the realities of the age in which they lived, were firmly rooted in the classical Christian past, and hoped for a better day when the Kingdom of God might be expressed in a more ecumenical and ordered form. They are a very foundation stone of Anglican thought and ethos, and God uses them to feed my soul. I recently purchased a new book edited by Benjamin Guyer: The Beauty of Holiness: The Caroline Divines and Their Writings. It was published in 2012 by Canterbury Press in Norwich as a volume in The Canterbury Studies in Spiritual Theology. http://www.amazon.com/Beauty-Holiness-Caroline-Canterbury-Spiritual/dp/1848250983.
Theirs was a difficult age filled with religious conflict and dynastic struggles, with regicide and social uncertainty, with civil war and divided families. But through it all they managed to focus on developing relationships with God which valued the past, acknowledged the present realities, and never lost hope. As one literary historian of the period has said, "they did the best of things in the worst of times." Theirs was a vision of an earthly kingdom where Christ's Church was united even as the prophets had predicted it would be after the great in gathering of God's people from every nation. They envisioned a world where the powers of men acknowledged the authority of God and ruled justly and righteously in his name. It was a world where imperfection lived alongside holiness while men and women signed as Christ's own sought to overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil (as they lived together in God's earthly kingdom!) Today, many would call their vision idealized and naive, but it was born of painful human reality as people of different parties sought to live together, affirming revealed faith and discovered knowledge as their twin guides. They sought to chart a course which avoided the pitfalls of radical religion on the one hand and of easy believism (or denial of real differences) on the other. In so doing they set a tone for Anglicanism, an ethos if you will, which affirmed the faith received while avoiding the harsh doctrinal pronouncements and actions of many of the reformers in both the protestant and catholic camps, as well as the rejection of Biblical teaching and tradition which characterized some more pragmatic churchmen. They did not leave their faith undefined, as so many do in such an age. They rather stated their faith simply and clearly while seeking to live it without rancor or hardness or hatred for those with whom they disagreed.
You can learn more about them at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caroline_Divines. They provide wonderful examples for people like us in an age like ours. Their spirit and approach to difficult times provides an example which compels me to continue to embrace the Anglican Way, even in our current difficulties. Here I have found a peace, and a way of maintaining that peace which feeds my soul and overcomes him who would destroy me. For your reading profit and pleasure, might I suggest the following list of free online books, available at http://anglicanhistory.org/caroline/. More great Anglican titles are available free online at http://www.anglicanlibrary.org/.
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