For the sake of my soul as a watchman of the flock of Christ, I hereby publically reaffirm my commitment to the ancient Christian teaching that intimate sexual relationships are not proper except between a man and a woman who are married to each other. On the authority of Scripture and Holy Tradition, I believe that the General Convention of the Episcopal Church, meeting in Indianapolis, has erred greviously by passing Resolution A049, which authorizes liturgical resources for blessing same-sex unions. May God have mercy on us all, and guide us to ammend our lives in accordance with the clear teachings of Scripture as received by our Holy Mother the Church from Apostles, Prophets, and our Lord.
Faithfully, and with a broken heart,
Bill+
Showing posts with label Catholic Orthodoxy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Catholic Orthodoxy. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Building Bridges Through Honest Scholarship, Well Reasoned Faith, and Love
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| The Rt. Rev'd Michael Nazir-Ali |
I was particularly moved by his admonition that we all be willing to move from our traditional methodologies of living the Christian Faith into a new era wherein we would allow the light of Christ to shine forth through our lives by knowing when to give thanks for light in the professions of others, even when that light is incomplete or misunderstood. He modeled for us a methodology of true dialogue. In an age in which dialogue is seen by so many as merely an exchange of ideas, he defined dialogue is its historic sense as careful scholarly debate designed to find truth- the truth of God for all people. He exhibited a rare ability to find the good and the true in others, and to call them to develop a deeper understanding of that truth in a way which would lead us all to God together.
Thank you Bishop, for helping me to see opportunities where so many see only difficulty and division. thank you for giving me a concrete model whereby people of good will might seek truth together. Thank you for acknowledging honestly the very real differences between the great belief systems of the world, and for preserving the unique proclamation of the Church that Jesus is indeed our Saviour and our Lord.
Saturday, June 2, 2012
Sermon for Trinity Sunday: "The Non-Negotables"
Reflection on Trinity Sunday
Preached at St. John’s Lancaster, 3 June 2012
Anglicans are Creedal Christians. I know that much ink has been spilled over the last few years in the American Church making the point that we are not “Confessional Christians,” but we do have a bare minimum that our Anglican Christian Faith calls us to believe. We believe the Creeds, and we say one or another of them at every worship service, at least here at St. John’s. For Baptisms and Offices we say the Apostles’ Creed, and for Eucharist we say the Nicene Creed. For the life of me, I can’t see much of a difference between being creedal and being confessional, unless it is that Creedal Christians vocalize their beliefs with regularity while Confessional Christians read theirs in a book on occasion. Both have something that you must believe if you are to be honestly counted among their number. It all seems pretty simple to me, but then I am not a very nuanced thinker.
Let me illustrate it this way. If I went on four legs, had a long neck, brown and orange spots, a short brushy tail, and little antennae looking things sticking out of my head, you would say that I was a giraffe. If I crawled on my belly, lived under a rock, and left a trail of slime wherever I went, you would say I was a slug. In the same way, if I believed that the Triune God created the world, and that the Father- the First Person of the Trinity, sent the Son, the Second Person of said Trinity to die and rise again for the redemption of all creation, and then sent the Third Person, the Spirit, to enable people to do wonderful things in said creation- If I confessed my sins, acknowledged Jesus as Lord and asked forgiveness, was baptized and said the creeds and received Communion, you would say I was a Christian. Now, if my attitudes and actions did not match the precepts of Jesus and the Bible, you might point out that I was not a very good Christian, but with that bare minimum of qualifications listed above, I would still qualify as a Christian.
We should note here that there are many animals which might be a bit like a giraffe, but are not giraffes. An elephant goes on four legs and has a short brushy tail, but it is not a giraffe. Without the neck it just can’t quite pass itself off as one. A snake lives under a rock and goes on its belly, but it is distinctly different from a slug. In the same way, there are many people who are devoutly religious, and who do many good things, and who help others, and who take their faith very seriously who are not Christians, because they do not believe in the Creeds. That is, they do not believe that God is Trinity in Unity, and that Jesus Christ is who the Bible says he is and did what the Bible says he did- and does. I’m not here to say they are not good people or great neighbors. I have lived by and worked with Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, and others who I would and have trusted with my life and the lives of those I love. They are good people, and many I count as my friends, but they are not Christians, because they do not believe those basic articles of the Creeds.
Like Kathy Heim’s former rector, now Bishop of Atlanta, is fond of saying, “There’s not a lot you have to believe, but some things are non-negotiable.”
Now for a word about believing, about having faith. I believe that the earth’s atmosphere at sea level and for several hundred feet above sea level, under normal conditions, is breathable and will keep me alive. I am not a biologist or a doctor and I have no idea how it works, but I believe it. In the same way, I believe that when a stewardess tells me to put on an oxygen mask, I had better do it, even though I have never been in a malfunctioning aircraft at a high level where anyone told me I needed to take that action. Experience and understanding might enhance my belief, but the are not necessary to its existence. In the same way, I can believe in God, and trust him implicitly for my salvation, even though I don’t have all of life’s answers, even though I don’t understand everything there is to know about God, and even though my experience of him might not be as profound or personalized as I hope it might be some day.
And so how does all of this apply to my life?
As a Christian, you can expect to have doubts, and questions that just don’t seem to get answered, and times when you feel very alone. Those things are normal. Some questions will never get answered in this life, and some doubts will persist, and sometimes feeling alone is something that we can’t escape. But all of those things are based on our own powers of feeling and perceiving and understanding, and our powers are very limited. So we are called by the Bible to push through our doubts and fears and feelings to embrace the facts of the Creeds- of who God is and what he has done for us in Jesus. You see, our faith is not based on feelings or limited human reason, as good and as helpful as those things might be. They are incapable of fully comprehending the greatness of God or his plan for our lives. And so we trust him, embracing “the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.”
In just a few moments, two of our siblings in Christ will be presented for Holy Baptism, and we will all be asked to stand and renew our own belief in the Faith we have received from Jesus Christ. As they begin this life of public following of God as Christians, I hope that all of us will be able to consider anew what it means to do the same, and commit ourselves to continue in the Faith of Christ Crucified. Come to this place, to this font, to this altar with all of your doubts and imperfect understanding, but come with your faith intact. God will meet you and give you the ability to believe. Realize that that belief does not depend on your ability to form it or embrace it. It is the gift of the Holy Ghost to all who come with yearning hearts. “Consider the mustard seed, which is the tiniest of all the seeds, and yet when it is sprouted it grows into a bush which is big enough for birds to nest in.” The act of faith- your act of faith, which among other things includes your desire to trust in a loving God, is like that grain of mustard seed. Come today with what you have, and don’t worry about what you don’t have. God’s gift will grow in your heart and mind as you follow him in obedience, and repentance, and humility.
In the Name of The Father, and of The Son, and of The Holy Ghost. AMEN.
Friday, March 9, 2012
To Believe The Bible Or Not?
Then the Lord sent poisonous serpants among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died. The people came to Moses and said, "We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord to take the serpents from us." So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, "Make a poisionous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live." So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it on a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live.
The usual discussion ensued about whether or not God sends judgement upon people. Recent tornadoes in our part of the world were discussed, along with health issues and a number of other possible candidates for divine judgement. Most everyone agreed that usually we bring judgement upon ourselves thus saving God the trouble, but there was still that nagging question about when God comes after us for our rebellion. I tend to be a bit more literal than many about such passages, but I am always very careful not to attribute every bad thing that happens to judgement. Such theology seems to be mean spirited and generally gets out of control pretty quickly.
But the thing about the discussion which troubled me at the time, and even more as the day wore on, was the statement from one present, and the agreement of several others with it that this account from Numbers was just a Jewish "fairy tale." I protested at the time, not because God needs my protection or defense, but because such an approach to the Bible is so common in Protestant Christianity. So many in the Mainline Protestant academic community seem to discount so many parts of the Bible that do not fit their experience, expectations, or concept of who God is (or ought to be.) Pity the parish whose priest or pastor does not believe the Bible to be an authentic eye-witness account of the works of God in history. Ultimately, such an outlook as the one expressed that day leads to denial of major doctrines of the faith, often even to the denial of articles of the Creeds. In short, if one denies the veracity of Scripture, departure from the faith received is often soon to follow. From classroom to pulpit to pew, good or bad theology so often flows with significant results for good or ill.
All of this leads me back to the concept of God's judgement on his people when they rebel against him. Could it be that the current malaise of mainline protestantism in the west is God's judgement because the denominations involved have failed to believe the Bible (or have re-interpreted it so significantly that its meaning is changed)? We have lost scores, even hundreds of thousands of members in the last forty or fifty years in the Episcopal Church alone. Many of our parishes and seminaries have closed or are threatened with closure. Our "market share" of the American and European population has contracted dramatically. Certainly parallel occurrance does not necessarily demonstrate causation or correlation, but I cannot help but wonder.
Saturday, February 11, 2012
What Do They Want?
Sixth Sunday After Epiphany, Year B
Preached at St. John’s Lancaster, 12 February, 2012
II Kings 5:1-19
Just what do they want from us? It is a fair question. Some would say that I must put aside the position held by our holy Mother the Church through the ages that no man comes to the Father save through Jesus Christ. They would say that to hold Christianity as uniquely true while saying that other religions when believed sincerely will not lead to God is a hateful and narrow minded doctrine. Others would say that whatever my own beliefs might be, I must be willing to put them aside for a higher good. That is essentially what the government has been telling our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters over the last two or three weeks. Still others would say that if I say that only the baptized should be permitted to receive Holy Communion, I am excluding people from the kingdom of God and proving myself to be mean spirited and into controlling others. Others would say that if I refuse to redefine that understanding of marriage which has been held by Christians and Jews- and Muslims and Zoroastrians and Hindus and even Pagans throughout human history- that I am judgmental and arcane, and even hateful. There are those in our own denomination who would ask those questions or make those statements. And yet as your priest, as a priest of Jesus Christ, I must answer with Article XX of the Articles of Religion that “it is not lawful for the Church to ordain any thing that is contrary to God’s Word written, neither may it so expound one place of Scripture, that it may be repugnant to another. Wherefore, although the Church be a witness and keeper of Holy Writ, yet,… it ought not to decree any thing against the same.” And with St Paul in his second Epistle to the Thessalonians I would say “stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught.” (II Thessalonians 2:15)
Today’s first lesson from Second Kings Five is most instructive regarding what others may want from us and what God wants from us. Naaman was a very successful Syrian general who was highly favored by his master, who like Naaman was a pagan, or one who worshipped the old nature gods. While the Scriptures are not explicit with details, some Jewish and early Christian scholars believed that God had employed Naaman’s military prowess to destroy the power of Ahab and Jezebel as a punishment for their ravages against the prophets of God. But while Naaman was blessed, he had a major problem. He had leprosy, that dreaded skin disease which in all of its forms rendered the sufferer unclean and eventually led to their rejection by human society in that era. His wife had a young Israelite slave girl who said to her mistress, “there is a prophet in my homeland who could heal your husband.” Now in those days, it was common for people, especially rich people to travel to foreign places to seek medical treatment. We have documents which show the precise nature of such travel and the diplomatic protocols which accompanied such trips. But when the King of Israel received the letter from the King of Syria paving the way for the trip, he was terrified because he thought the Syrians were just looking for some excuse to invade their Israelitish neighbors. When Elisha heard about the king’s dilemma, he sent a message to the king and said, “Let him come to me that he may know that there is a prophet in Israel.” Naaman arrived in all of the glory attendant upon his office, and came with faith that this Israelite prophet would pray for him or do some thing which would bring about his healing. He was furious when Elisha refused to receive him, and merely told him to go and wash seven times in the River Jordan. The General exploded! He was not accustomed to being treated in such a fashion. He named the rivers of his own homeland, all larger and clearer and more beautiful than the Jordan, and the Bible tells us that “He went away in rage.” But his staffers spoke to him and said, “My Lord, if the prophet had demanded of you some great quest, you would have complied, so why not do this simple thing?” And he did. “and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a young boy, and he was clean.”
Most modern scholars see this passage of Scripture as part of a larger group of stories having to do with the power of God, and so it is, but the Fathers of the Early Church saw it as much more. Ephraim the Syrian, writing in the mid-fourth century, notes that Naaman’s pride filled him with a spirit of rebellion, which is a sin against God and the leprosy of the soul. Indeed, Naaman, like all of us needed to be healed and delivered from that disease by Christ’s power, and therefore he is sent to Jordan, which is a prophetic pre-figuring of the coming baptism into Jesus Christ which is to bring all nations to purification “through the bath of regeneration, whose beginning was in the river Jordan, the mother and originator of baptism." Naaman offered the prophet rich gifts, because in his pride, he could not imagine that deliverance was the free gift of a loving God. (ACCS V 167-68) Origin, writing in the early third century in Alexandria, points out that a man like Naaman does not, could not understand the great mystery of the Jordan, because true healing comes from the Lord Jesus alone, and Naaman persisted in the error of his pride. (Commentary on John in ACCS V 168) Bishop Caesarius of Arles, writing in the early sixth century, points out that Naaman is a representative of all of us gentiles, who presume “on our own free will and …merits; but without the grace of Christ” we cannot possess health. It is as we submit to the way of Christ in humility and are baptized that we listen to the advice of Elisha and are “freed from the leprosy of the original and actual sins… Gentiles, although old by reason of their former sins and covered with the many spots of iniquity as with leprosy, are renewed by the grace of baptism in such a way that no leprosy of either original or actual sin remains in them. Thus, following the example of Naaman, they are renewed like little children by salutary baptism, although they have always been bent down under the weight of sins.” (Sermon 129:4-5 in ACCS V 168-69)
And so you see, according to our holy Mother the Church, Naaman, and all of us have received the grace of God because some prophet of God stood firm against our demands that the Gospel message be changed to become more palatable to us who wandered about in our own pride and sin. But because there was a man, or we might say a people, who was faithful to the revealed Word of God, the leprosy of sin was done away and healing came to the nations. Whatever people may want us to say or do, our hearts and our minds, our beliefs and our actions and our words must be carefully conformed to the Word of God, which is the authentic eyewitness account of the acts of God in this world. It is there that we find the record of the Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, who is our salvation. My brothers and sisters, in this age there are many who would have us to change, or at least substantially modify, this Good News which has been entrusted to us. This we must never do. Might we, like those who have gone before proclaim the Faith we have received with love and respect for all people, knowing that true healing, real deliverance, and genuine salvation are found only in the Name of Jesus. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. AMEN.
Preached at St. John’s Lancaster, 12 February, 2012
II Kings 5:1-19
Just what do they want from us? It is a fair question. Some would say that I must put aside the position held by our holy Mother the Church through the ages that no man comes to the Father save through Jesus Christ. They would say that to hold Christianity as uniquely true while saying that other religions when believed sincerely will not lead to God is a hateful and narrow minded doctrine. Others would say that whatever my own beliefs might be, I must be willing to put them aside for a higher good. That is essentially what the government has been telling our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters over the last two or three weeks. Still others would say that if I say that only the baptized should be permitted to receive Holy Communion, I am excluding people from the kingdom of God and proving myself to be mean spirited and into controlling others. Others would say that if I refuse to redefine that understanding of marriage which has been held by Christians and Jews- and Muslims and Zoroastrians and Hindus and even Pagans throughout human history- that I am judgmental and arcane, and even hateful. There are those in our own denomination who would ask those questions or make those statements. And yet as your priest, as a priest of Jesus Christ, I must answer with Article XX of the Articles of Religion that “it is not lawful for the Church to ordain any thing that is contrary to God’s Word written, neither may it so expound one place of Scripture, that it may be repugnant to another. Wherefore, although the Church be a witness and keeper of Holy Writ, yet,… it ought not to decree any thing against the same.” And with St Paul in his second Epistle to the Thessalonians I would say “stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught.” (II Thessalonians 2:15)
Today’s first lesson from Second Kings Five is most instructive regarding what others may want from us and what God wants from us. Naaman was a very successful Syrian general who was highly favored by his master, who like Naaman was a pagan, or one who worshipped the old nature gods. While the Scriptures are not explicit with details, some Jewish and early Christian scholars believed that God had employed Naaman’s military prowess to destroy the power of Ahab and Jezebel as a punishment for their ravages against the prophets of God. But while Naaman was blessed, he had a major problem. He had leprosy, that dreaded skin disease which in all of its forms rendered the sufferer unclean and eventually led to their rejection by human society in that era. His wife had a young Israelite slave girl who said to her mistress, “there is a prophet in my homeland who could heal your husband.” Now in those days, it was common for people, especially rich people to travel to foreign places to seek medical treatment. We have documents which show the precise nature of such travel and the diplomatic protocols which accompanied such trips. But when the King of Israel received the letter from the King of Syria paving the way for the trip, he was terrified because he thought the Syrians were just looking for some excuse to invade their Israelitish neighbors. When Elisha heard about the king’s dilemma, he sent a message to the king and said, “Let him come to me that he may know that there is a prophet in Israel.” Naaman arrived in all of the glory attendant upon his office, and came with faith that this Israelite prophet would pray for him or do some thing which would bring about his healing. He was furious when Elisha refused to receive him, and merely told him to go and wash seven times in the River Jordan. The General exploded! He was not accustomed to being treated in such a fashion. He named the rivers of his own homeland, all larger and clearer and more beautiful than the Jordan, and the Bible tells us that “He went away in rage.” But his staffers spoke to him and said, “My Lord, if the prophet had demanded of you some great quest, you would have complied, so why not do this simple thing?” And he did. “and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a young boy, and he was clean.”
Most modern scholars see this passage of Scripture as part of a larger group of stories having to do with the power of God, and so it is, but the Fathers of the Early Church saw it as much more. Ephraim the Syrian, writing in the mid-fourth century, notes that Naaman’s pride filled him with a spirit of rebellion, which is a sin against God and the leprosy of the soul. Indeed, Naaman, like all of us needed to be healed and delivered from that disease by Christ’s power, and therefore he is sent to Jordan, which is a prophetic pre-figuring of the coming baptism into Jesus Christ which is to bring all nations to purification “through the bath of regeneration, whose beginning was in the river Jordan, the mother and originator of baptism." Naaman offered the prophet rich gifts, because in his pride, he could not imagine that deliverance was the free gift of a loving God. (ACCS V 167-68) Origin, writing in the early third century in Alexandria, points out that a man like Naaman does not, could not understand the great mystery of the Jordan, because true healing comes from the Lord Jesus alone, and Naaman persisted in the error of his pride. (Commentary on John in ACCS V 168) Bishop Caesarius of Arles, writing in the early sixth century, points out that Naaman is a representative of all of us gentiles, who presume “on our own free will and …merits; but without the grace of Christ” we cannot possess health. It is as we submit to the way of Christ in humility and are baptized that we listen to the advice of Elisha and are “freed from the leprosy of the original and actual sins… Gentiles, although old by reason of their former sins and covered with the many spots of iniquity as with leprosy, are renewed by the grace of baptism in such a way that no leprosy of either original or actual sin remains in them. Thus, following the example of Naaman, they are renewed like little children by salutary baptism, although they have always been bent down under the weight of sins.” (Sermon 129:4-5 in ACCS V 168-69)
And so you see, according to our holy Mother the Church, Naaman, and all of us have received the grace of God because some prophet of God stood firm against our demands that the Gospel message be changed to become more palatable to us who wandered about in our own pride and sin. But because there was a man, or we might say a people, who was faithful to the revealed Word of God, the leprosy of sin was done away and healing came to the nations. Whatever people may want us to say or do, our hearts and our minds, our beliefs and our actions and our words must be carefully conformed to the Word of God, which is the authentic eyewitness account of the acts of God in this world. It is there that we find the record of the Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, who is our salvation. My brothers and sisters, in this age there are many who would have us to change, or at least substantially modify, this Good News which has been entrusted to us. This we must never do. Might we, like those who have gone before proclaim the Faith we have received with love and respect for all people, knowing that true healing, real deliverance, and genuine salvation are found only in the Name of Jesus. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. AMEN.
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Mid-winter Musings
Fairfield County is now firmly in the grips of winter. The truck thermometer read 22 degrees Fahrenheit when I did my chores this morning at the barn. A light dusting of snow covers the ground, and the horses are very glad to be out of their stalls now that the ground is frozen (they tear up too much pasture when things are muddy and therefore have to stay in the barn until the ground is frozen.) Just last weekend, Tristan, Chuck, Leo the fat Labrador and I were shooting pheasants in fifty degree weather at Federal Valley. We bagged six birds, missed two embarrassingly easy shots, and watched one beautiful cock bird glide into the treeline when Leo got excited and galumphed out of range. It was a good day with lunch at the local ma and pop restaurant, Cardhu, and Dominicanas. The slower pace of mid-winter life in the countryside always calls me to consider those things that are truly important, and this year is no departure from that rule.
Monday night, Kathy Heim (our organist) conspired with me to offer evensong at the church. It is a fitting service for the countryside in mid-winter. After the sentences and confession, we proceeded directly to Phos hilaron by Robert Bridges and Louis Bourgeois, The lessons from the Feast of the Circumcision were answered by Crotch's Mag and Whitneys's paraphrase of the Nunc set to Orlando Gibbons' Song 1. There was enough plainsong, simplified Anglican chant, and incense for even me, but the most amazing thing about this lovely service was its spontaneity. I was in the throes of laryngitis, and so was unable to sing or read my accustomed parts. Kathy chanted, Ivan led the canticles, Frankie and Ann read the lessons, Ivan and Kathy offered thoughts on the lessons, Paul led the state and church prayers, Ivan offered those prayers requested by members of our congregation, and I merely received the gift of worship from my friends. I was helpless in a sense, but through my friends, I met God. The liturgy was truly the work of the people here at Saint John's, and the experience got me thinking about what might be.
Imagine a place where the Holy Communion was the basis of our life together. What would it be like for the ancient devotional societies of the church to cooperate in prayer with the more functional modern mission agencies which labour in our parish? Could it be possible that evangelical commitment to study God's Word might be blended with the devotional practices of the church catholic such as confession and stations? Could the personal devotional practices of the modern west be coupled with fasting and the disciplines of another age and another part of the world? And could God, would God, work through such a mix to send his people out in the power of the Holy Spirit to 'preach good tidings unto the meek, bind up the brokenhearted, proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.' (Isaiah lxi. I)?
These are the sorts of things I think about in mid-winter. Perhaps in the days to come, God will unite our hearts to see such a miraculous fulfillment of the prophesies of Isaiah.
Monday night, Kathy Heim (our organist) conspired with me to offer evensong at the church. It is a fitting service for the countryside in mid-winter. After the sentences and confession, we proceeded directly to Phos hilaron by Robert Bridges and Louis Bourgeois, The lessons from the Feast of the Circumcision were answered by Crotch's Mag and Whitneys's paraphrase of the Nunc set to Orlando Gibbons' Song 1. There was enough plainsong, simplified Anglican chant, and incense for even me, but the most amazing thing about this lovely service was its spontaneity. I was in the throes of laryngitis, and so was unable to sing or read my accustomed parts. Kathy chanted, Ivan led the canticles, Frankie and Ann read the lessons, Ivan and Kathy offered thoughts on the lessons, Paul led the state and church prayers, Ivan offered those prayers requested by members of our congregation, and I merely received the gift of worship from my friends. I was helpless in a sense, but through my friends, I met God. The liturgy was truly the work of the people here at Saint John's, and the experience got me thinking about what might be.
Imagine a place where the Holy Communion was the basis of our life together. What would it be like for the ancient devotional societies of the church to cooperate in prayer with the more functional modern mission agencies which labour in our parish? Could it be possible that evangelical commitment to study God's Word might be blended with the devotional practices of the church catholic such as confession and stations? Could the personal devotional practices of the modern west be coupled with fasting and the disciplines of another age and another part of the world? And could God, would God, work through such a mix to send his people out in the power of the Holy Spirit to 'preach good tidings unto the meek, bind up the brokenhearted, proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.' (Isaiah lxi. I)?
These are the sorts of things I think about in mid-winter. Perhaps in the days to come, God will unite our hearts to see such a miraculous fulfillment of the prophesies of Isaiah.
Sunday, December 4, 2011
After the Order of Melchizedek
It has been a long journey and a lot of work, but we all rejoice that Son In Law Matthew (center- aka "the preaching bear" by children in Malawi) was ordained to the Sacred Order of Priests by Bishop Mathes of San Diego on behalf of Bishop Lawrence of South Carolina on December third. Matthew asked me to preach for his ordination, and here is my sermon, along with some pictures of the day.
Ordination Sermon- Matthew Canter
Preached at St Michael’s by the Sea, Carlsbad California
On the eve of the feast of Nicholas Ferrar
Exodus 3:1-6
Psalm 121
II Timothy 4:1-8
Saint John 10:1-18
May the words of my mouth, and the meditations of our hearts, be alway acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, our Strength and our Redeemer. Amen.
There are times in our lives when we, like Moses, stand in the very presence of God. It may be at a burning bush, or in the vicinity of a bolt of lightening, or when we hear a voice in the dark, but we know instinctively that we have been in the presence of the living God. His Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are indeed the children of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. In July of 2000, Matthew’s mother Kathy received a letter from Scotland which I have been given permission to share with you today. Her son wrote, “I feel and felt within me on the late night of first July that my life be used to spread and minister the Word of God. I believe that God tells all of us different matters in our lives. It just so happens I was listening when he told me I should be in the ministry.” What a blessed letter for any mother to receive. It is no wonder that it has been so lovingly preserved. I don’t know the exact details of what happened in Scotland in July of 2000, but it made a young man aware of God’s presence in his life, and he was listening, and here we are today. I presume, in fact I know that over the last decade or so, that young man had times when he doubted what he experienced on that first of July, but over the years an ever growing circle of friends and family, mentors, congregations, bishops, seminary faculty, and the members of the commission on ministry have come to the same conclusion that he reached that night, that his “life be used to spread and minister the Word of God.”
Matthew, thank God that by his grace, you were listening. Thank God that the good people of Fairview Church had lived before you the Word of God in such a way that you had some idea of how to recognize the voice of God in your life. Thank God that Mike Morgan sent you to us at St. John’s, and that you met a godly professor at Presbyterian, and that there were men in your unit in Korea and Iraq who served God faithfully- until the very end of their lives. Thank God that you met my Daughter and fell in love with an Anglo-Catholic pietist and went to Nashotah House and met Bishop Salmon and went to Malawi and came here. As I imagine you can attest, there are no accidents in our lives. God has prepared you for this day that he anticipated before the foundations of the earth were laid. He knew you in your mother’s womb, and knew that your “life would be used to spread and minister the Word of God.” He has positioned us all, the members of his one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church, along the way as witnesses to discern, and affirm, and acclaim the reality of your call. And now, under the leadership and direction of the bishops of his church, we gather today to affirm that you are called to be “alter Christus,” in the place of Christ, as a Presbyter of the church catholic. As president of the Eucharist, you will stand in the place of and along side of your bishop to model for your people the life and example of Jesus Christ. Like him, you will represent to the Father that holy sacrifice of ourselves in love and humility on behalf of the whole world and teach us that “no man hath greater love than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” By word and example, you will teach us to “love one another,” and to “prefer one another before ourselves.” You will make mistakes, and from time to time fall into sin, but you will return and repent, trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ to shower you with his grace and to give you strength; because you are “sealed by the Holy Spirit in baptism and marked as Christ’s own forever.” You will discipline your life according to the precepts of the Bible, because it is in your behaviour and character that men and women will know Jesus. But now I have gone to preaching at my son-in -law, something I’ve looked forward to for a long time, but enough is enough, so let me regroup and restrain myself.
Son in law, as you are commissioned and ordained this day to spread and minister the Word of God, you are ordained by Bishop Mathes on behalf of the Holy Church of God to stand in the very place of Christ. At the Altar, in your preaching, and by your example, you are set apart in a very special way to proclaim to everyone, because God loves everyone, that the way to enter the sheepfold of God’s mercy is through the wicket gate, the door of Jesus, who died for us and was resurrected to glory that we might live forever with peace, and purpose, and hope, and the knowledge that God loves us. Love all those made in God’s image, and honour their decisions and their outlooks, and their beliefs, but never under any circumstances waver from your commitment that Jesus is the door, and that he is the way to the Father’s forgiveness and love.
Be faithful to your people, “wallow with them in the midst of their daily affairs”, and so order your life that they will see in you the Good Shepherd who giveth his life for the sheep. So order your life and your family that they will see in you the holiness and the humility of Jesus. When times are difficult and discouragement sets in, do not flee, thereby allowing the wolves of this world to scatter the flock of Christ, but stand firm in the Gospel you have received. Give your life for the people of God, that they may know firsthand the character and love of God in Jesus Christ the Good Shepherd, in whose place you stand.
As you strive to do this thing by his grace, remember your covenant with my daughter and grandchildren. It is so easy to become so busy in good works that we neglect those whom God has given us first. And yet it is in your marriage that you most perfectly model the image of God in the world. It is there that you show the respect and consideration that characterizes all true leadership and models the headship of Christ. It is there in your wife and children that people see the true role of the Church, submitting to godly headship not out of fear or mere duty, but because your character and fidelity to the Word of God produces for them an ark of safety and the knowledge that you would never demand or coerce anything that would be hurtful, or humiliating, or unloving. It is in your marriage, and in the begetting of children that God has allowed you to participate with him in the very act of creation. Cultivate and love your family with all humility and tenderness, that all people might see in your home the true nature of that love which exists betwixt Christ and his Church.
Matthew, would you please stand.
“I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.” In this his second letter to Timothy, from which our second lesson was drawn today, St. Paul proclaims those same characteristics of effective life and ministry that St. John gives us in his first Epistle General, namely that our lives should be characterized by love, sound doctrine, and personal holiness, which is obedience to the clear teachings of Holy Scripture. Matthew, love everyone. Love everyone. Love everyone. for God has sent you to represent him as a priest of his church. Believe and teach the Faith received from apostles and martyrs, and from Christ himself; grounded in the Bible, contained in the creeds, and proclaiming to all the beauty of the Holy and Blessed Trinity- one God, and of the unique, historic person and work of Christ. Conform your life to the clear teaching and example of the Word of God written, which is the authentic eye witness Holy Spirit inspired record of the Word which was made flesh and dwelt among us. And with St. Paul I say “Do thy diligence to come shortly unto me.” And I, along with Rebecca and your parents would add, bring the girls with you. Now, would you please face the people to whom God has called you.
Ashley, would you and the girls please come and stand beside Matthew.
Would the congregation please stand.
Behold one soon to be ordained a priest of the living Christ. Behold him whom you have acclaimed as one called and set apart to this holy office. Bear with him and remember that he is human. Love him and his family. In honesty and with kindness share with him in those tasks and sacrifices and risks to which God has called you. Share your burdens with him, and help him to bear his own. Remember that you are called together to be the people of God. None is above and none below, but all labour together in humility in the Name of him who called us all to believe in Jesus and to love one another. Remember that in God’s economy, the most experienced may learn much from the youngest and most naive, and the simplest man or woman might be the teacher of the most highly educated. Give thanks for each other, and go forth to show the people of this community that God loves them, and that he has a wonderful plan for each of their lives.
And now Father, continue with us in this place. Make this day to be not only a landmark for your servant Matthew, but for all the people of this parish and this church. Make it to be for us all a time of commitment and beginning as we do the work you have given us to do.. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. AMEN.
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| Concelebrating with Bishop Mathes |
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| Presenting Fr. Canter and His Family |
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| Putting up with Marines (little brother is on the right!) |
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| Greeting Friends at the Reception |
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| A Goodly Heritage |
Ordination Sermon- Matthew Canter
Preached at St Michael’s by the Sea, Carlsbad California
On the eve of the feast of Nicholas Ferrar
Exodus 3:1-6
Psalm 121
II Timothy 4:1-8
Saint John 10:1-18
May the words of my mouth, and the meditations of our hearts, be alway acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, our Strength and our Redeemer. Amen.
There are times in our lives when we, like Moses, stand in the very presence of God. It may be at a burning bush, or in the vicinity of a bolt of lightening, or when we hear a voice in the dark, but we know instinctively that we have been in the presence of the living God. His Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are indeed the children of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. In July of 2000, Matthew’s mother Kathy received a letter from Scotland which I have been given permission to share with you today. Her son wrote, “I feel and felt within me on the late night of first July that my life be used to spread and minister the Word of God. I believe that God tells all of us different matters in our lives. It just so happens I was listening when he told me I should be in the ministry.” What a blessed letter for any mother to receive. It is no wonder that it has been so lovingly preserved. I don’t know the exact details of what happened in Scotland in July of 2000, but it made a young man aware of God’s presence in his life, and he was listening, and here we are today. I presume, in fact I know that over the last decade or so, that young man had times when he doubted what he experienced on that first of July, but over the years an ever growing circle of friends and family, mentors, congregations, bishops, seminary faculty, and the members of the commission on ministry have come to the same conclusion that he reached that night, that his “life be used to spread and minister the Word of God.”
Matthew, thank God that by his grace, you were listening. Thank God that the good people of Fairview Church had lived before you the Word of God in such a way that you had some idea of how to recognize the voice of God in your life. Thank God that Mike Morgan sent you to us at St. John’s, and that you met a godly professor at Presbyterian, and that there were men in your unit in Korea and Iraq who served God faithfully- until the very end of their lives. Thank God that you met my Daughter and fell in love with an Anglo-Catholic pietist and went to Nashotah House and met Bishop Salmon and went to Malawi and came here. As I imagine you can attest, there are no accidents in our lives. God has prepared you for this day that he anticipated before the foundations of the earth were laid. He knew you in your mother’s womb, and knew that your “life would be used to spread and minister the Word of God.” He has positioned us all, the members of his one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church, along the way as witnesses to discern, and affirm, and acclaim the reality of your call. And now, under the leadership and direction of the bishops of his church, we gather today to affirm that you are called to be “alter Christus,” in the place of Christ, as a Presbyter of the church catholic. As president of the Eucharist, you will stand in the place of and along side of your bishop to model for your people the life and example of Jesus Christ. Like him, you will represent to the Father that holy sacrifice of ourselves in love and humility on behalf of the whole world and teach us that “no man hath greater love than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” By word and example, you will teach us to “love one another,” and to “prefer one another before ourselves.” You will make mistakes, and from time to time fall into sin, but you will return and repent, trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ to shower you with his grace and to give you strength; because you are “sealed by the Holy Spirit in baptism and marked as Christ’s own forever.” You will discipline your life according to the precepts of the Bible, because it is in your behaviour and character that men and women will know Jesus. But now I have gone to preaching at my son-in -law, something I’ve looked forward to for a long time, but enough is enough, so let me regroup and restrain myself.
Son in law, as you are commissioned and ordained this day to spread and minister the Word of God, you are ordained by Bishop Mathes on behalf of the Holy Church of God to stand in the very place of Christ. At the Altar, in your preaching, and by your example, you are set apart in a very special way to proclaim to everyone, because God loves everyone, that the way to enter the sheepfold of God’s mercy is through the wicket gate, the door of Jesus, who died for us and was resurrected to glory that we might live forever with peace, and purpose, and hope, and the knowledge that God loves us. Love all those made in God’s image, and honour their decisions and their outlooks, and their beliefs, but never under any circumstances waver from your commitment that Jesus is the door, and that he is the way to the Father’s forgiveness and love.
Be faithful to your people, “wallow with them in the midst of their daily affairs”, and so order your life that they will see in you the Good Shepherd who giveth his life for the sheep. So order your life and your family that they will see in you the holiness and the humility of Jesus. When times are difficult and discouragement sets in, do not flee, thereby allowing the wolves of this world to scatter the flock of Christ, but stand firm in the Gospel you have received. Give your life for the people of God, that they may know firsthand the character and love of God in Jesus Christ the Good Shepherd, in whose place you stand.
As you strive to do this thing by his grace, remember your covenant with my daughter and grandchildren. It is so easy to become so busy in good works that we neglect those whom God has given us first. And yet it is in your marriage that you most perfectly model the image of God in the world. It is there that you show the respect and consideration that characterizes all true leadership and models the headship of Christ. It is there in your wife and children that people see the true role of the Church, submitting to godly headship not out of fear or mere duty, but because your character and fidelity to the Word of God produces for them an ark of safety and the knowledge that you would never demand or coerce anything that would be hurtful, or humiliating, or unloving. It is in your marriage, and in the begetting of children that God has allowed you to participate with him in the very act of creation. Cultivate and love your family with all humility and tenderness, that all people might see in your home the true nature of that love which exists betwixt Christ and his Church.
Matthew, would you please stand.
“I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.” In this his second letter to Timothy, from which our second lesson was drawn today, St. Paul proclaims those same characteristics of effective life and ministry that St. John gives us in his first Epistle General, namely that our lives should be characterized by love, sound doctrine, and personal holiness, which is obedience to the clear teachings of Holy Scripture. Matthew, love everyone. Love everyone. Love everyone. for God has sent you to represent him as a priest of his church. Believe and teach the Faith received from apostles and martyrs, and from Christ himself; grounded in the Bible, contained in the creeds, and proclaiming to all the beauty of the Holy and Blessed Trinity- one God, and of the unique, historic person and work of Christ. Conform your life to the clear teaching and example of the Word of God written, which is the authentic eye witness Holy Spirit inspired record of the Word which was made flesh and dwelt among us. And with St. Paul I say “Do thy diligence to come shortly unto me.” And I, along with Rebecca and your parents would add, bring the girls with you. Now, would you please face the people to whom God has called you.
Ashley, would you and the girls please come and stand beside Matthew.
Would the congregation please stand.
Behold one soon to be ordained a priest of the living Christ. Behold him whom you have acclaimed as one called and set apart to this holy office. Bear with him and remember that he is human. Love him and his family. In honesty and with kindness share with him in those tasks and sacrifices and risks to which God has called you. Share your burdens with him, and help him to bear his own. Remember that you are called together to be the people of God. None is above and none below, but all labour together in humility in the Name of him who called us all to believe in Jesus and to love one another. Remember that in God’s economy, the most experienced may learn much from the youngest and most naive, and the simplest man or woman might be the teacher of the most highly educated. Give thanks for each other, and go forth to show the people of this community that God loves them, and that he has a wonderful plan for each of their lives.
And now Father, continue with us in this place. Make this day to be not only a landmark for your servant Matthew, but for all the people of this parish and this church. Make it to be for us all a time of commitment and beginning as we do the work you have given us to do.. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. AMEN.
Friday, November 18, 2011
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.
Sunday, November 13, 2011
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.
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.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Traditional Faith
Rector’s Rambling: August 2010
Over the past few days, I’ve been previewing the video tapes of the Anglican-Orthodox dialogue held last year at Nashotah House, one of our Episcopal Seminaries. From time to time, a singular sentiment is voiced by both the Anglican and the Orthodox speakers at the conference. They point out that we in the modern west are so focused on being either liberal or conservative, when the real question for us liturgical Christians ought to be whether or not we are traditional. Political questions and issues come and go. Interpretive nuances drop in and out of style with distressing frequency. But the traditional faith received and lived on a daily basis by Christians has remained pretty constant through the ages. Do I believe that in the time of my need, God loved me so much that He sent His only begotten Son Jesus Christ to be born of a virgin, and thereby broke into a fallen world that I (and we) might be reconciled to God Himself? Do I believe that in a great act of love, this same Jesus died to enable that reconciliation? Do I believe that after His death, he was resurrected and ascended into heaven thereby proclaiming the triumph of God’s plan of love on my behalf? Do I believe that He is currently seated at the right hand of the Father praying for me before I even know what to ask? Do I believe that God has sent the Holy Spirit, the blessed third person of the Holy Trinity, into our world and into my life that I might be able to live in obedience to His way, which I could never have done on my own? Is my community of faith constituted in such a way that our worship proclaims these truths to all the world, and inspires me to live for others even as Christ lived for me? Such a faith, and only such a faith, is properly deemed “Traditional.”
I encourage everyone at St. John’s to consider this call to traditional faith. At the heart of this challenge is the decision to take control of our own destiny by framing our own questions and blazing our own paths. The world seems to always attempt to set our agendas and define the nature of our faith journey. But what would happen if we, the people of God, simply walked away from the world’s categories and priorities and determined to live the traditional Christian faith? What would the result be if we determined to simply believe that God came to save us from ourselves because He loves us so very, very much, and then nurtured ourselves through worship as we reached out to a desperate world in acts of kindness, mercy, and predictable constancy? What would happen if the love of God flowed through us to all creation even as it flowed through Jesus when He was incarnate in this world?
Several basic steps come to mind to enable our pursuit of such a reality at St. John’s:
1. Let us commit to attend upon the word and sacrament with weekly regularity, either here or wherever we may be traveling. As we receive the bread and the wine, God gives us a direct infusion of His enabling grace for the week to come, and He draws us closer to himself and to each other.
2. Let us consider well and seriously the liturgy. Do I truly believe the attributes of God that I sing in hymns and Psalms? Do I believe that the Scripture readings and the Sermon (which ought to explain and apply those scriptures to my life) are God’s authentic Word to me, and to all of us? Do I believe the articles of the Creed to have really happened? Do I honestly believe that I need to confess my sins to God and receive His forgiveness? Do I believe that a loving God really does hear my prayers and answer them in ways that are best for me and for those I love? Is the passing of the peace just a formality, or do I see it as an opportunity to be reconciled to some member of our parish from whom I have been estranged? Do I believe that by receiving the Holy Communion, I am participating in the great foretaste of the marriage feast of the Lamb, stepping into the heavenly court, and proclaiming my unity with God’s people in every age and every land?
3. Let us examine our lives to insure that our actions and attitudes match what we profess in worship. Do we go forth from the Eucharist to remember the poor, to pray for the sick, and to be kind to one another?
I am sure there is more, but this is enough for now. Let us all commit to at least consider the keeping of that faith we have received, that Traditional Faith to which we are called. I do believe that as we do this thing, God will be pleased, and the kingdom of heaven will break forth among us in ways we could never imagine.
Faithfully,
Bill+
Over the past few days, I’ve been previewing the video tapes of the Anglican-Orthodox dialogue held last year at Nashotah House, one of our Episcopal Seminaries. From time to time, a singular sentiment is voiced by both the Anglican and the Orthodox speakers at the conference. They point out that we in the modern west are so focused on being either liberal or conservative, when the real question for us liturgical Christians ought to be whether or not we are traditional. Political questions and issues come and go. Interpretive nuances drop in and out of style with distressing frequency. But the traditional faith received and lived on a daily basis by Christians has remained pretty constant through the ages. Do I believe that in the time of my need, God loved me so much that He sent His only begotten Son Jesus Christ to be born of a virgin, and thereby broke into a fallen world that I (and we) might be reconciled to God Himself? Do I believe that in a great act of love, this same Jesus died to enable that reconciliation? Do I believe that after His death, he was resurrected and ascended into heaven thereby proclaiming the triumph of God’s plan of love on my behalf? Do I believe that He is currently seated at the right hand of the Father praying for me before I even know what to ask? Do I believe that God has sent the Holy Spirit, the blessed third person of the Holy Trinity, into our world and into my life that I might be able to live in obedience to His way, which I could never have done on my own? Is my community of faith constituted in such a way that our worship proclaims these truths to all the world, and inspires me to live for others even as Christ lived for me? Such a faith, and only such a faith, is properly deemed “Traditional.”
I encourage everyone at St. John’s to consider this call to traditional faith. At the heart of this challenge is the decision to take control of our own destiny by framing our own questions and blazing our own paths. The world seems to always attempt to set our agendas and define the nature of our faith journey. But what would happen if we, the people of God, simply walked away from the world’s categories and priorities and determined to live the traditional Christian faith? What would the result be if we determined to simply believe that God came to save us from ourselves because He loves us so very, very much, and then nurtured ourselves through worship as we reached out to a desperate world in acts of kindness, mercy, and predictable constancy? What would happen if the love of God flowed through us to all creation even as it flowed through Jesus when He was incarnate in this world?
Several basic steps come to mind to enable our pursuit of such a reality at St. John’s:
1. Let us commit to attend upon the word and sacrament with weekly regularity, either here or wherever we may be traveling. As we receive the bread and the wine, God gives us a direct infusion of His enabling grace for the week to come, and He draws us closer to himself and to each other.
2. Let us consider well and seriously the liturgy. Do I truly believe the attributes of God that I sing in hymns and Psalms? Do I believe that the Scripture readings and the Sermon (which ought to explain and apply those scriptures to my life) are God’s authentic Word to me, and to all of us? Do I believe the articles of the Creed to have really happened? Do I honestly believe that I need to confess my sins to God and receive His forgiveness? Do I believe that a loving God really does hear my prayers and answer them in ways that are best for me and for those I love? Is the passing of the peace just a formality, or do I see it as an opportunity to be reconciled to some member of our parish from whom I have been estranged? Do I believe that by receiving the Holy Communion, I am participating in the great foretaste of the marriage feast of the Lamb, stepping into the heavenly court, and proclaiming my unity with God’s people in every age and every land?
3. Let us examine our lives to insure that our actions and attitudes match what we profess in worship. Do we go forth from the Eucharist to remember the poor, to pray for the sick, and to be kind to one another?
I am sure there is more, but this is enough for now. Let us all commit to at least consider the keeping of that faith we have received, that Traditional Faith to which we are called. I do believe that as we do this thing, God will be pleased, and the kingdom of heaven will break forth among us in ways we could never imagine.
Faithfully,
Bill+
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